Coming back to X-factor
Gotta say I’m really happy I got back into reading X-Factor comics (NO not based on that stupid ass TV show but a group of Marvel mutants that have been around since at least the 90s, I think they debuted in the 80s. I forget :P)
The art for the series so far (I’m up to issue #28 of the third volume. Continuity is fun!) waffles around. Sometimes its good, sometimes it can go eat a bag of dicks for all I care, BUT having said that there is one thing about the art I’ll always be grateful for. So for issue #25-27 it crossed over with the X-men, New X-men and a few other X-men related comics in this big ol’jumble called Messiah Complex and I’ve got to say… THANK YOU whoever was responsible for the X-factor comics. Jesus fucking christ on a pogo-stick. Reading the X-men comics made me realize just how much respect the artists had for the X-factor women and how absolutely no respect the artists had for the X-men women.
I can’t think of a single panel in the X-factor books that was degrading, insulting, dehumanizing and sexualizing. Literally not a single damn one. The X-men however? Ooooooo boy. Ok. I get it. Emma Frost (the White Queen) likes to dress up like a BDSM lingerie bride. -HOWEVER- this does not mean you get to pose her like a sex kitten in every single panel. In some instances her pose made absolute no sense other then to sex her up. It didn’t matter what she was doing she had to shove her butt out and twist her body around in the most sexy way possible. Even the most sexually out there woman doesn’t do that unless she’s in the middle of an erotica photo shoot. She’s already dressed up like someone’s wet dream, what do you gain by making her look like she’s posing for erotic photos?
The worst thing was even the young females in the New X-men (most of which are teenagers) didn’t escape from stupid ass costumes and sexualized poses. They weren’t -as- bad but they were still pretty silly and illogical.
It really depended on the lead artist of the books though. In one artists hands Emma Frost is this sexist, offensive, insulting caricature and in another she’s a fully realized character that I’m actually interested in reading about.
In the end what it really made me want to do was never. Ever. EVER buy an X-men comic. At no point so far in the 27 issues I’ve read have any of the X-factor women been handled disrespectfully, even when they’re poorly drawn because the artist sucks ass they’re still not being insulted.
Also I thought it was hilarious that in one panel Scott’s waist was 2x’s larger then Emma’s, more like 2.5x wider. Last I checked his mutation didn’t turn him into a deformed freak just gave him eyeblasty powers :P
I’ll upload some choice pictures when I get the chance. Need to plug in my scanner and break the spines of the books to do it ><