It was school final assembly day today! I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to three year old Jem being at school in an assembly with me NOT having a toddler younger sibling to juggle madly in order to hear an hour or so of children singing and playing xylophones in Santa hats. I brought three kinds of snacks, people! And it wasn’t ENOUGH.

But never mind that, on with the links.

One of the last reviews (I presume) on the ASif site is Tehani talking about her thoughts on Chicks Unravel Time. Spoilers, she loved it! I am so looking forward to introducing her to black and white Who now that talk of Jamie and his kilt has lured her in.

Our friend (and fellow Who blogger) David McDonald has written his own piece of pop culture commentary: a great post about Worzel Gummidge over at Cult Britannia, a site I had never known existed but will be spending a lot of time at in the near future. Worzel Gummidge, people! Remember him?

The big news of the week was Gail Simone’s unceremonious (and unwarranted) firing off the successful Batgirl title. Much anger and upset about this online but the basics are covered by this article on the Mary Sue.

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Superheroes are hot right now. So hot, in fact, that some of the merch (occasionally) gets targeted at girls.

When sparkly pink and black retro Batgirl, Supergirl and Wonder Woman t-shirts first turned up in the girls section of Target a couple of years ago, I bought them for my daughter Raeli because I thought they were awesome. Luckily, she agreed with me, and they came at the beginning of a long and fun (and occasionally frustrating) journey of discovering comic book heroes together.

For the next year, though, the only superhero t-shirts I found were “for boys” and though I grabbed a couple I thought she would like, she immediately recognised the dark blue and black code as not being “for her” and rejected them. (she has since got over this and I suspect still regrets the loss of the awesome plain black Batsymbol t-shirt that her younger sister wore as a dress for 3 years because it was enormous on her)

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This article looks at where Babylon 5 stands in the history of modern genre television with particular focus on its central role in developing an internet fandom.

Remember what it was like to watch TV without the internet? In Australia, episodes of Bab5 screened late at night on Nine, randomly up to two hours after their scheduled time because of sports shows. Getting to watch an episode was a special kind of treasure hunt, and if you missed half an episode, it was GONE FOREVER (until the VHS release).

Meanwhile, iView has taught my daughter to believe all good TV shows are constantly and permanently available at the flick of a button. She regards our actual television with deep suspicion and resentment because SOMETIMES PLAYSCHOOL IS NOT ON, THAT’S SO WRONG.

The Mary Sue reveals a special bit of programming which means that if you ask Siri to describe the plot of particular movies, she has a certain computercentric view on the storylines. My favourite bit is how Star Trek is about a spaceship and it’s assistant, named Computer.

Tor.com on Mini Free Libraries. I want one. I want six!

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Batgirl is one of my absolute favourites, in all her variations. As with many other legacy characters, emotions often run high between fans as to which Batgirl is the best, but I think it’s important to celebrate all of them, and the legacy that each character has brought to the name.

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HAPPY BATWEEK!

Batman is one of the most popular and iconic superheroes of all time, and while the version of the character we see today is usually portrayed as a gravelly-voiced loner, he’s a loner with a whole bunch of people in his life. Gotham City and Batman’s personal community have spawned a huge number of characters who are vivid and interesting, and have taken on lives of their own beyond the Batman titles. Not only do his sidekicks have a habit of growing up and developing their superhero identities as they age, but so do the villains, cops and random strangers who cross his path.

It’s like he’s walking around in one big dark violent dimly lit soap opera.

One of the side benefit of the rich and detailed Batverse is that a large number of interesting female characters have arisen in Gotham City. Like Wonder Woman herself, these women are not always written awesomely, and are not always drawn awesomely, and sometimes they’re not even allowed to be fully dressed in public, and yet somehow they ALL manage to be awesome.

Even the ones created purely for the animated series.

There are indeed so many that I could write about nothing but women of Gotham City for a month or more. Which I won’t do. At least, not this month. But because of all the mask and name swapping that goes on in this city, and the way that so many of their stories and identities are intrinsically wrapped up in each other, I wanted to tackle a particular group all at once, in one glorious Batweek. So this week I’ll be looking at Batwoman, Catwoman, Robin, Huntress and Batgirl. Which actually adds up to about 75 separate people, so it’s enough to be going on with.

Here we go!

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A little one this week cos so much reading to come with the Snapshot upon us!

I loved this surreal Questionable Content page, which I think probably sums up many bewildered people’s thoughts on steampunk!

This one was sent Galactic Suburbia’s way – about why so many film critics may well have not noticed the important role & contribution of Black Widow to the Avenger’s film.  She’s the gorilla in the room!

An interview with Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray about their new project (WITH Amanda Conner) a series of online-only comics based on a bunch of anime statues of DC super heroines. I’m so excited to read their Wonder Woman.

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Man, I love this show.

Twelfth Planet Press is now 5 years old, and wow how far she’s come!

Alisa muses on the last five years here, and also talks about how she can find positive female role models in trashy reality TV shows.

Speaking of role models, I wrote a Friday Hoyden post for Hoyden About Town, about: who else? Joanna Russ!

Kirstyn McDermott talks about the false equivalence of male and female representation on book covers, as beautifully illustrated by Jim C Hines.

Ben Peek heralds the new Ditmar ballot as ammunition in his ongoing secret rivalry against Bill Wright. Best Ditmar response so far!

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