1 | Fred

September 24th, 2009 at 10:59 am

This excerpt stood out to me:

[A few weeks earlier, at a brunch in New York, an intellectual-activist Muslim colleague gave me the same look for the same reason. We talked about AIR, and he asked whether I’d gotten any push-back from conservatives. This is our polite way of saying threats from fundamentalists. I told him I’d heard a little grumbling, primarily about Blythe’s skirt. Her premarital relationship too, but mostly the skirt. It came as a surprise to me—here I thought I was starting a conversation about whether or not it’s acceptable to use pagan symbols to make a point about monotheism. Was anybody concerned by the giant winged serpent that shows up in almost every issue? Nope, just the skirt.]

When the JLA/99 comic was announced, one of my first questions was “Will Wonder Woman wear a less revealing costume?”

This isn’t a crazy question. Back in the 1980s, Fantastic Four #308 had then member Ms. Marvel (aka She-Thing) walking around in a burka so as to not offend the Muslim country, the fictional Aqiria,she was visiting. Via thought balloons, Ms. Marvel can’t resist commenting on the obvious double standard as the Thing is walking around in trunks.

Thus, the Muslim intellectual’s question is a valid one. We will see how DC handles the Wonder Woman issue when she meets the 99.

2 | Rich Watson

September 24th, 2009 at 5:03 pm

I’d imagine Black Canary’s fishnets might be a problem too.