BtVS S8 #19

[catalyst2]

Both covers for this issue are posted at Comics Continuum in the October solicitations for October



Chen cover: Dark!Willow is back? She's the big bad? Regardless of what this implies for the story, the artwork is just gorgeous yet again. At the end of S8, I would love a book of Chen covers (perhaps with all the variants too, perhaps not .....). I also notice that half her face is D!W and the other looks "normal", which is an interesting parallel with the half-and-half look of Jeanty's cover below.


Jeanty variant: I love the side by side contrast, not just of Mel and Buffy but also of the skylines behind them.

Comments

[innerbrat]

I'm the one that complains all the time about outfits and protrayal of women, etc. I just never thought I'd do it about Mel.

[catalyst2.livejournal.com]

A most appropriate icon for the discussion!

Given Joss' comments about how Mel was to be drawn, I didn't think it would be Mel either. I try to stay aware of these things but, as I say, I am a hopelessly clumsy observer, not just for this kind of portrayal but for most things, sadly! Too much abstract maths and phenomenology studied at uni, I think!

Having read some of your posts though, I have started to notice a bit more of this. Some manga puts the absolute shits up me, with short skirts flared out just enough to show crotches and boobs so big that I wonder how the poor girl (and I use that word deliberately since this particular cover was certainly about girls in school uniform - and yes, they were "real" school students!) could even stand up without a back brace! And yet the guys are buttoned up tight and all manly without the slightest inch of flesh flashed. Not just sexualisation (which I think can be justified in limited contexts), but powerless and unbalanced sexualisation.