lost in transition

'Demon Knights', Shining Knight, And the Power of Clarity
'Demon Knights', Shining Knight, And the Power of Clarity
'Demon Knights', Shining Knight, And the Power of Clarity
A few weeks back, my colleague Elle Collins wrote about Wonder Woman, specifically an interview Greg Rucka gave about her sexuality. The article was about how having an explicit statement of sexuality in an interview, and an implicit statement in the comic, were two ends of a rope that are infuriatingly close to meeting, but remain unspliced. Gender identity and sexuality aren’t the same thing, but they’re often treated the same along one critical vector: treating one mode of gender or sexuality as the default, and others as exceptions to that rule. So I couldn’t help but think of it as I reflected on the character of Sir Ystin, from 2011’s Demon Knights.
Lost in Transition: 'DC Comics Bombshells' Rewrites History
Lost in Transition: 'DC Comics Bombshells' Rewrites History
Lost in Transition: 'DC Comics Bombshells' Rewrites History
“It’s like this now.” Those four words are about as DC a phrase as one gets in comics, more than any quote from any comic, because they summarize DC’s approach to all of its worlds and all of its continuities: we want it to be like this, so It’s like this now. It’s why there’s been anywhere from two to five reboots of the universe during the time I’ve been reading comics. It’s why there’s a multiverse, and why any attempt to bury the multiverse never lasts. And that multiverse is how we’ve wound up with Bombshells, the digital-first series based off a collection of statues issued by DC Direct, written by Marguerite Bennett and illustrated by a team that includes Marguerite Sauvage, Wendy Broome, Laura Braga, Stephen Mooney, Ming Doyle, Ant Lucia, and Bilquis Evely.
Lost in Transition: 'Cucumber Quest' and Transgender Villains
Lost in Transition: 'Cucumber Quest' and Transgender Villains
Lost in Transition: 'Cucumber Quest' and Transgender Villains
But sometimes a comic conquers these obstacles, finds an audience, excels at its craft on every level, has wonderful characters, and in the process showcases how to navigate that sticky quandary of how to write a marginalized character as a villain. The webcomic Cucumber Quest by Gigi D.G. is just such a series. There will be spoilers for the third chapter and third interlude, if you haven’t read them.
Lost in Transition: 'Jem &  the Holograms,' Blaze & the Misfits
Lost in Transition: 'Jem & the Holograms,' Blaze & the Misfits
Lost in Transition: 'Jem & the Holograms,' Blaze & the Misfits
Jem and the Holograms is about an all-woman glitter rock band and their quest to rise from the ranks of the Sufficiently Outrageous to become Truly Outrageous. The group has run into a problem: the lead singer, Jerrica, is terrified of singing in public. Thanks to Jerrica’s deceased father, though, they also have a solution: a holographic supercomputer that helps Jerrica create a stage persona that lets her get over her phobia. There would be a lot of resonant storytelling with me if it just stopped there, since I know a thing or two about how a persona you can put on and take off can make things easier –- and harder. Like Jerrica, I also have a secret identity. However, sometimes solutions just free you up to tackle new problems, and the new problem that plagues Jem and the Holograms is their rival band, the Misfits, who claim that their songs are better and that they are going to get her.
Lost in Transition: Angela & How Bad PR Obscures Representation
Lost in Transition: Angela & How Bad PR Obscures Representation
Lost in Transition: Angela & How Bad PR Obscures Representation
Angela has a, shall we say, somewhat interesting path into the Marvel Universe, beginning life as an angelic hunter in the long-running Todd McFarlane superhero horror comic Spawn. However, you don’t need to know a thing about what happened in Spawn to read this series, since the only common thread is the name and the costume (and even then, the costume doesn’t last long). In this series, Angela is revealed to be Thor and Loki’s sister, raised by angels and beholden to their way of thinking, which is purely transactional --- nothing is done without a price, and selflessness is considered weak. This makes her a difficult character to like, but fortunately, the book surrounds her with more sympathetic characters, one of which is the subject of this column.
Lost in Transition: Grace is in the Details in 'Wandering Son'
Lost in Transition: Grace is in the Details in 'Wandering Son'
Lost in Transition: Grace is in the Details in 'Wandering Son'
Wandering Son is one of the best comics about being transgender that I’ve ever read. Okay, so I do have a few nits to pick, and I should probably call it a manga instead of a comic, and I should probably make this column as long as it usually is instead of just telling everyone to go buy it, but essentially, I stand by that opening sentence. It’s a rare and great day when I read something that gets as much right about the place I’ve found myself in as Wandering Son does.
Lost in Transition: 2015's 'Prez' And A Robot Named Tina
Lost in Transition: 2015's 'Prez' And A Robot Named Tina
Lost in Transition: 2015's 'Prez' And A Robot Named Tina
Prez is an ongoing political satire set in a world so bonkers it could only be an outgrowth of our own. Satire has to sweat to keep up with a 2015 where a reality TV star who looks like he angered his barber has a chance at being elected President of the United States, and the creators of Prez decided the best way forward was to look back to the 1970s, to the Prez series by Joe Simon and Jerry Grandenetti. The eclectic cast of the new series includes Tina, the President's Christian transgender robotic bodyguard. Is this a well-intentioned attempt at diversity and crafting an interesting supporting character, as with the original series' Eagle Free, FBI director? Or does it miss the mark, as with the original's Eagle Free, FBI director?
Lost in Transition: LSH and the Uneven Footsteps of Progress
Lost in Transition: LSH and the Uneven Footsteps of Progress
Lost in Transition: LSH and the Uneven Footsteps of Progress
At a time when most of comics was tiptoeing around the notion of gay, bi and lesbian people existing – much less being portrayed well – The Legion of Super-Heroes was making text out of subtext with characters such as Shrinking Violet and Lightning Lass, and doing it during one of the series' most creatively daring periods. Yet as the fate of the character Shvaughn Erin illustrates, a step forward for some can often leave others behind.
Lost in Transition: Meet the Transgender Princess of 'Oz'
Lost in Transition: Meet the Transgender Princess of 'Oz'
Lost in Transition: Meet the Transgender Princess of 'Oz'
I saw The Wizard of Oz for the first time last year. That's a pretty good movie! You all should watch this obscure, little-seen, never-discussed motion picture right away. Like everything else I do in my life, I took the most roundabout way possible towards L Frank Baum's magical Land of Oz, shown in that movie in glorious Technicolor and featuring the singing talents of Julie Garland. I'm mildly allergic to musicals, and since I used to be young and boring, any movie older than I was got written off sight unseen. But then, I learnt about the character of Princess Ozma, and not long after that, I realized I was transgender --- so the path I took into Oz started with her.
Lost in Transition: On 'Ranma 1/2' and Owning Your Identity
Lost in Transition: On 'Ranma 1/2' and Owning Your Identity
Lost in Transition: On 'Ranma 1/2' and Owning Your Identity
Hi, I’m Charlotte Finn. I’m a lifelong comics fan and last year, I admitted to myself that I'm transgender. In this occasional series, I’m going to reassess comics that feature people like me, or close to being like me, and look them over with a fresh set of eyes. Are they good? Are they bad? Are they somehow both, at the same time? Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi is a good manga and deserves its status as a landmark of the medium. It's also not really a transgender manga.

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