I find it a bit weird that most of the controversy about the New 52 and the fact that DC has apparently learned not a single thing from being regularly chewed out about this by the Internet for, like, a decade, centers around Starfire, of all characters.
Not that it’s a good thing that Kori has become a cold, emotionless [BLEEP], or that DC decided she mostly needed to stand around in a skimpy bikini when she wasn’t wearing a costume somehow skimpier than her old one, but we weren’t exactly proceeding from a bastion of feminism here. Starfire on a good day was like those wincing moments reading Chris Claremont’s X-Men where Storm gets nekkid and runs among the plants, because that’s what they do in Africa, don’tchaknow. It’s bad DC made her worse, but I feel like if there weren’t a Teen Titans cartoon, nobody would care.
Still, this series of comments from a seven-year-old is fairly insightful as to why the character revamp sucks. DC’s reply, via Twitter?
We’ve heard what’s being said about Starfire today and we appreciate the dialogue on this topic. We encourage people to pay attention to the ratings when picking out any books to read themselves or for their children.
…Uh, guys? Not really the problem.
[ via the heroes named after spices at io9 ]