I look for honor and intelligence and complexity of character... be it male or female. I want a costume that has color and style and is functional and not stupid or frivolous. the nekkid belly button look with miniskirt is designed to do nothing but get juvenile rocks off...cuz it sure isn't serious superhero garb... and any person wearing it is NOT gonna be taken seriously... so the only ones wearing such a ridiculous costume are, of course, girls.... and women who should have enought taste to know better... but boys draw and write these things. Notice I said BOYS...not men. Men know better than to talk down to female readers... cuz we control the purse strings, baby! and the female market could put the comics publishing back on the map if the damn boys club would realize it.
OK... they don't want to realize it...
Strong female superdoops should stop acting like bimboes or sluts or demented, incompetant tootsies. What was done with the Scarlet witch is horrific and stupid to boot. They will rue that storyline one of these days if they don't already. The other side of the coin is the dominating bitch... so a female character at major companies these days are almost always brainless, clueless tootsies or dominant bitches with a burr up their ass.
Damn little in between. I won't say none... cuz there are still some writers out there who DO like strong, intelligent female superdoops...but damn few.
Male superheroes should be strong, intelligent and heroic. Villains should be self centered and ego centric...as they are in real life. Then you have the most interesting group... the complex, enigmatic adversaries who have a valid point... like Magneto...or even Juggie... who have been developed beyond the cookie cutter version of eeeeeevil villain. these are the most interesting characters of all.
Icons, like Captain America, SpiderMan, Supes or Bats have to be icons... standing for truth, justice and bugs for dinner... They can be a bit stuffy and anal... like Scott... but they should never be petty or egocentric. they should be counted on to do what is RIGHT... simply because it IS right.
Complex characters, be they male or female, can be more ambiguous... more nebulous... like real life. Real life is not black or white, but varying shades of gray. We like our heroes or villains to be white or black cuz we have to deal with the shades of gray all the time... but these same shades of gray are the most interesting. great power combined with very human frailties and vunerabilities can make for a wonderful spectrum of story possibiities with a talented and astute writer. Unfortunately there is a derth of those, lately.
I want diversity in personalities. Not evry character is a wise cracking clown or a berserker nutball. I want to see females acting like females would really act... not like some pud puller WANTS them to act. I want to see consistancy in characterization...a character's development proceeding logically and intelligently given the traumas he or she is exposed to and the way they choose to deal with them without violating the core characterization that identifies them as an individual. Scott, for example, is NOT a drunken, whining irresponsible adulterer. No. NOT!
Magneto is a basically good man whom circumstance of his early years and an overflowand backup of his power drives nutsy fagan every once in a while...but he's working on it...LOL
But, in spite of everything they try to tell me, Emma Frost is still the bitch white queen of the hellfire club. Why? She dresses and acts like the slut she is and she obviously still acts in a self centered selfishness that is only barely hidden... so what she does speaks so loudly I cannot hear what she or her writers say! If they think that real super heroines act and look this way, they have another think coming to their puerile minds.
Above all, I demand intelligence and deductive ability in a hero or heroine.They are presented daily with earth shattering problems and they have to think and deal with them to save all of humanity. They are larger than life and as such, are icons and must act their parts faithfully... stiff upper lip and all that. Villains are rarely moustache twirling crazies...well...except for the Joker, of course...and even HE doesn't have a moustache... but rather sneaky and
underhanded opposition to the heroes. They, too, are icons in a different way...icons of what NOT to be in life.
And, of course, I want stylish, colorful costumes...not prurient interst and T and A...just to give the junenile boys a thrill.
and that's not just because I am an old fartess...I have always had a strong sense of heroism. In both the male AND the female. And I am a very opinionated old biddy...
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAA
Paty