dcwomenkickingass:

One of my favorite comic bloggers is Michael May of Robot 6. He writes a lot about women in comics. For his guest post he is taking a look at Voodoo, one of the new, original 52 books that has now been cancelled. I was excited for the book when it was first announced as it was only the second DC Comic to have a women of color as the lead. Unfortunately the first issue turned me off and while I did give another go, it wasn’t for me. Michael has taken a look at the run and he makes some interesting observations about the book and how it reflects the new 52. I hope you enjoy it. His thoughts follow.

Over at Robot 6 I’ve been conducting an experiment I call “Women of Action.” The idea is to look at comic books named after their female, lead characters. I’m trying to be as critically objective as possible, focusing on storytelling ability over hype and controversy. I don’t know if I’m always successful, but that’s the intention anyway.

It was tough to keep an open mind going into Voodoo though. I tend to like Ron Marz (who wrote the first four installments), but early buzz on the series wasn’t very good. Even before the first issue hit shelves, the character had a PR problem to overcome. When she was introduced in Jim Lee’s WildC.A.T.S. in the ‘90s, she was mostly known for being the stripper character with powers so specific that she was more or less useless against everyone but the team’s particular archenemies. She got new powers over time, but she was still generally recognized as nothing more than the hot stripper.

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