CyberNev confides about comics in her weekly column…thing.

Hello, all. My name is CyberNev. I was hired for to be a correspondent for this site a few months ago, and since then, I have reviewed a few comics, done a rant on female heroes and scored an interview with Fabian Nicieza where I relentlessly interrogated him. It’s been fun.

Our overlord, Swank-mo-tron, has asked me if I would like to do a weekly column illustrating, I quote, “what an underage fan grrrl thinks”.

I agreed, and I think I am a few weeks belated on jumping to it, but here it is.

To introduce myself, I am a (robotic) seventeen year old girl, who has been reading comics since the tender age of thirteen. I got into comics through the Teen Titans animated series. Consequently, I am more of a DC girl than a Marvel girl, though I follow Runaways, NYX, Spider Girl and Spiderman Loves Mary Jane. Note that two of these titles have been canned, and the first one is currently dissapointing me. This is typical of my luck with comics. I have also read other Marvel titles in miniseries form, and keep up with the news.

I also have read all of Sandman, follow Fables and more for non-superhero comics.

Then there’s DC. Following DC is an exercise in masochism most of the time sometimes, but I’m hooked. It doesn’t help that I tend to go for smaller titles. I don’t regularly buy Superman or Batman (though I’ve had to buy Supes recently to follow the New Krypton crossover) though I keep up with them. I do buy Supergirl, Robin and Birds of Prey. With the spate of cancellations recently, with Robin, BoP and Blue Beetle gone bye bye, a good chunk of my pull list was gone. Their evil plan might have worked, though, since to desperately fill the void in my soul I’m probably getting Battle for the Cowl and all the tie ins except the Azreal mini.

Sometimes you wonder why you do it. My favorite character is all of comicdom is a C lister who was dead until recently, and usually functions in a supporting role (hint: check the icon. Swank gave it to me!). Most of my other favorites have similar limitations. It really doesn’t seem worth it at times, especially since, as a feminist, I’m going to be rolling my eyes at something or another. Characters are killed, badly written, tortured and bad stories are told without a second thought. Sometimes it’s like being constantly jerked around. She’s dead! Wait no! He’s evil! She’s slutty! You’ll just have to suffer through bad writing, or ignore it until it eventually goes away! It might be twenty years, but hey, we know you’ll keep coming back while our next big crossover changes everything!

But then I think, comics probably have the biggest and most diverse selection of characters anywhere. Not to mention a humongous selection of cool female characters, though often they aren’t used properly. But when they are, it’s great.  And I just love art and words combining to tell a story. I love the idea of a fantasy/sci fi-scape where people in silly costumes fight evil and kick ass. I also love the good writers, the more personal stories, the warm fuzzy ones like the recent DC Holiday Special which with it’s character centered stories and beautiful art, reminded me why I liked DC Comics in the first place.

Sometimes you just have to admit this fictional landscape has become a part of you, as pathetic as that is, and just pull your emotions back a little and enjoy your hobby. Things will get better, and thinks will get worse. Meanwhile, you’ve got a billion stories to read and look back on from the long, and fascinating history of the Superhero Comic universe. And a lot of them are bound to be pretty darn good.

This column will be every Sunday, but probably not next week because I’ll be with my family. Happy holidays, everyone!