We Love the City

The monologue is my preferred method of discourse.

How Not to Respond to Criticism


So Newsarama previews an issue of Daredevil. There’s a semi-naked woman, and a big guy terrorizing her.

I’m not going to make any real commentary on the content. I gave up on Daredevil 3/4 through Bendis’ run (I’ll probably finish it off one day, after I’ve bought the other 150 books on my wishlist). Brubaker’s a pretty decent writer, but his work doesn’t do anything for me.

However, there are those who comment and discuss the issue of whether it’s appropriate for a big guy with buzz saws on his wrists to be beating up a semi-naked blind woman. (It’s Newsarama, after all; I must say, though, that the debate is reasonably fair-minded for that site.)

Then Ed Brubaker shows up:

Why not wait to, you know, actually READ the comic before jumping to any conclusions? Or is that too logical for the internets?

As I said, I think Brubraker’s a decent writer, and he usually seems like a pretty smart guy. As such, it’s kind of bizarre that he so completely misses the point.

It’s a preview. Marvel sent it out to get people excited about the book. They want people talking about the book. Which is perfectly sensible, but they don’t get to decide what people say about it.

I’d kind of like to see this argument come up some time:

Internet Fan: This book looks awesome! Writer X rules!
Writer X: Why don’t you just shut up and read the book before leaping to conclusions?

Marvel released a five-page preview. Three of those pages show a supervillain menacing a scantily-clad woman, and the solicitation text calls up Daredevil’s history of dead girlfriends. And you’re somehow surprised that people leap to conclusions?

I’m not the sort to get offended by stuff Marvel puts in a superhero comic, but the reactions just end up making them look like either jerks or clueless nitwits. “Your opininon is wrong” and “We don’t know what you’re talking about” just aren’t very good PR.

Brubraker also says this:

Also, when I wrote the script, she was in a nightgown. But Michael thought, and rightly so, that being in her underwear was both more vulnerable, and reminisent of the scene where she first met Bullseye.

Ed, you do remember that she’s blind, right? And doesn’t have any sort of superpowers or special skills? So really, I think that covers off the “vulnerable” angle pretty well. But if that’s really the idea, then why not just go whole hog and make her naked?

Oh, right…