February 21, 2014

Way to Go, Marvel!

I love superheroes as much as the next girl. Possibly even more. But I must say, it gets a bit annoying when you have to slog through pictures like



or even

Ms. Marvel

to find just a single decent, modestly dressed, somewhat realistic rendering of your favorite characters. I'd love to be able to find a good role model in the Marvel universe, but its tremendously hard to do when the majority of the female characters are under dressed Mary-Sues. I mean, so far we've had two main personality types. I mean, we've got two main personality types among the Marvel women.

Hot headed, independent, with a single soft spot for this one guy and a fair bit of cleavage, like the Black Widow

Black Widow Marvel | Cosplay Edit: How to Put Together a Marvel Black Widow Costume in 24 ...


or even worse, wimpy and overall annoying. Like Mary Jane Watson.

Marvel's Mary Jane

Of course, she can have a fair bit of cleavage too.

Marvel has no shortage of realistic characters, but unfortunately the majority of them are men.

That's why I was so happy when I found out about the 'Characters and Creators' program, though Pintrest. Marvel is aiming to create more representation for their female characters, including a focus on the female X-Men, plus solo comic books for She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and more. Sweet!

The new Ms. Marvel, to be frank, seems utterly amazing. A sensibly dressed, Muslim heroine will throw a wrench in the traditional rut and bring a whole lot more diversity into the universe.

"Marvel Comics’ new focus on women ‘characters and creators’ aims to defy the ‘scantily clad' cliche" -This is awesome!

Now, to clear things up a bit. I've got no problem with a few exposed midriffs, or even the occasional Emma Frost type. But when I'm looking at, say, Storm, in a similar outfit, it gets annoying. I understand if the costume fits the character, but if it doesn't, I don't.

With the changes Marvel is going to make, I'll hopefully be able to empathize with a few more characters, and have more fun enjoying plain old superhero awesomeness at the same time. So thank you, Marvel.


February 9, 2014

Photography

One of our beautiful chickens, Skywalker. 

A picture of the leaves on our banana tree. I like the textures in this one.

Some of the books on my bookshelf.

Another chicken pic, still Skywalker...

And another! This one is Spirit. It turned out quite a bit blurrier than I would have liked.

A lemon on our lemon tree.

A wood heart... I really like the color in this one.

A windchime hanging on our lemon tree.

Looking out of a hole in our fence... it looks a bit like fairyland, so I made the colors a bit more vibrant.

A parasol hanging on my bedroom ceiling. I like how the angles and shadows.