Wizard Magazine: Pay No Attention To The Industry Behind The Curtain

[odditycollector]

 
I mostly avoid Wizard Comics Magazine, that classy publication known for such hard hitting journalism as "Match the Butt to the Bitch!" and "A tribute to Frank Cho's neighbour, now dead:
He died with The Mighty Avengers still unread.
He'll never now get to see Cho's latest tits,
and we hope that we'll never smell *his* rotted bits!"

However, I was told that there was a mention of DC's new Big Barda Bust in the latest issue of Wizard. Since I posted a while ago about how utterly disgusting that statue is, I felt I should see what they said. Out of duty. And, okay, a fair chunk of train wreck syndrome. I could just *imagine* what they'd think of it.

As it turns out, no. I couldn't.

One thing I will say about Wizard - they never, ever fail to surprise me at just how low they'll go.

I've included the page below the cut. The whole thing is appalling, although Barda, I think, gets the worst of it. The other women are drooled over as "static" and "sexy". As well as that, Barda is directly insulted.



 
If you'd rather not look at the image, I can't say I blame you. Here's what you're missing:

They introduce the character as a "buxom broad." But it's okay! BIG Barda is "way hotter than her name makes her sound." She's no *fat* broad, fanboy! HO HO HO!

 
I suppose I should here include a rant on how the world would be improved if Wizard Entertainment was struck from it by rogue meteorite. But I think we can just take that for granted. Frankly, the staff at Wizard aren't the only examples of human slime with access to printing presses, and I'd have little trouble simply ignoring the whole production as akin to a group of thirteen year old boys circle jerking around an older brother's Wonder Woman figure and posting the pictures online.

Except for one question.

 
Why are you okay with this, DC Comics? And Marvel. And Dark Horse. And every other comics publisher who actively cooperates with Wizard.

Why do you continue to associate with this publication? Why do you still grant them interviews and exclusive news?

They obviously have no respect for your characters, no respect for your audience, no respect for women, and no sense of basic human propriety. They are vulgar and offensive, and in playing along, you are equally vulgar and offensive.

When Wizard poked crass fun at a dead man in Marvel's name, why the hell didn't Marvel respond with: "Apologize, in print, and grow the fuck up. And maybe, MAYBE, we'll start returning your calls again." Instead, I'm left with the impression that the folks in the comics industry are laughing right along. AHAHA! If the book stinks, it's 'cause we accidentally got DEAD GUY IN! Brilliant!

If the female audience is important to you, DC, as you claim, why do you filter your news through a magazine with such vile, misogynic attitudes? If the male audience is important to you, why aren't you bothered that Wizard treats them as socially inept, barely literate pedophiles?

 
Wizard is far more puerile than most porn magazines, and Wizard is the public face of the comics industry. And the reason it is the public face of the comic industry is that the publishers of comics encourage and support it.

And as long as that's the case, I call bullshit on anyone claiming that it's the stories, or the characters, or the readers that matter.

Comments

[a-nation-of-one.livejournal.com]

The thing about Wizard is that, at least in my case, it _has_ affected comic sales.

During high school, all the nearby comic shops closed and I stopped reading. Once I graduated, I subscribed to Wizard for the first time in about three years, just to see what was going on in the industry I had at one time adored.

The very first issue I received contained their first bit of coverage of a little something of which you may have heard: Identity Crisis. I had returned home.

Since that single issue of Wizard shocked my long dormant fanboy in to coherency, DC Comics has probably received at least five thousand dollars from my pocket.

Now, I am in no way defending Wizard. I, too, remember the days when it was a good, solid source of reporting on the industry. It's always had its puerile bits (the first issue I ever bought, back in the eighth grade, contained a five page "Sexiest Women in Comics" cover feature, complete with fold-out cover containing the likes of Rogue, Wanda Maximoff, and Sue Richards in come-hither poses), but never to the misogynistic levels of the past few years. (And on another topic, it didn't run five page features on crap pop culture like "Lost.")

But the possibility remains that its "reporting" may actually influence sales, and that may be why the big companies continue to tolerate the rag. Maybe sales are not affected to a grand extent, but I'm sure DC likes having my $5000 regardless. And I must admit, I do still read Wizard, because it still does provide a useful function - giving me an idea of what is coming out of the industry in coming months, and keeping me up to date with things like Civil War, in which I have no interest in reading but which I would still like to be aware. I no longer pay for it, however.

-m@