Comments on: Danielle Leigh’s Reading Diary — X-Men: Misfits vol 1

By: Michelle Smith

Michelle Smith — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:02:55 +0000

I read Kitty’s ear/tail as feline. Especially that the tail looks calicoesque.

Also, I like this a lot: “The politics of mutant kind organizing, educating, and training is blatantly overlooked for a too simplistic narrative of how Kitty learns that some boys, er…most boys are big jerks. Also when your boyfriend has powers and is a big jerk this is going to be much bigger mess than if your date gets drunk at the prom. Just sayin’.”

I’m kind of insulted that this is what someone thinks shojo must be like. Guh.

By: What Did They Do To The X-Men? « Some Sort of Loli Battle Machine

What Did They Do To The X-Men? « Some Sort of Loli Battle Machine — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 08:50:41 +0000

[...] from the cover, I can surmise that the comic is filled with generic bishounen crap, and guess what, I am right. Some select [...]

By: Danielle Leigh

Danielle Leigh — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:13:06 +0000

hi Margaret, actually it is common for shojo girls to appear to with dog ears and tail when they have behaving sheepish, shy, bashful, i.e. traits we associate with dogs more than cats (see Hachi in NANA) but I’ll concede they *could* be read as feline. I just really don’t think that they are.

Good point, though, about that particular shojo convention detracting from the mutant setting.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:08:27 +0000

I think Kitty’s rather randomly-occurring ears and tail are supposed to be feline. Aside from the heavy-handedness of the visual pun, my main problem with this is that in a series like X-Men, where a number of the mutant characters actually do have animal-like physical characteristics, anyone who isn’t already familiar with Kitty Pryde might get the impression that she literally does intermittently sprout cat ears and a tail as a kind of secondary mutation, like the feline-powered magical-girl heroine of the anime/manga “Tokyo Mew Mew.” Since, if I remember correctly, Kitty barely appears in any of the big-screen X-Men movies, this mistake would be pretty easy to make for anyone who comes to this series having read a lot more shoujo manga than X-Men comics.

By: Danielle Leigh

Danielle Leigh — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 23:51:42 +0000

I think the problem is that it is more cliche than the cliche. Or is trying to outdo the cliche. Or something.

By: wwk5d

wwk5d — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 13:05:47 +0000

Sounds like it doesn’t stray too far from the cliches.

By: Reading Over Shoulders

Reading Over Shoulders — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:15:08 +0000

[...] Should be Good finds one that isn’t, X-Men Misfits. This post includes really good commentary on shojo manga in [...]

By: Vampires and siblings and hadrons, oh my! | Anime Blog Online

Vampires and siblings and hadrons, oh my! | Anime Blog Online — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:48:29 +0000

[...] Manga) Edward Zacharias on vol. 1 of Wolverine: Prodigal Son (Animanga Nation) Danielle Leigh on vol. 1 of X-Men: Misfits (Comics Should Be Good!) Nick Popio on vol. 1 of X-Men: Misfits (Girlamatic) Nick Smith on vol. 1 [...]

By: Vampires and siblings and hadrons, oh my! « MangaBlog

Vampires and siblings and hadrons, oh my! « MangaBlog — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:17:59 +0000

By: Danielle Leigh

Danielle Leigh — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:55:02 +0000

Birmy — I really love Telgemeier’s art, I wish she had drawn the book!

Nitz — Ha! Okay, that’s a good line…hee!

By: Nitz the Bloody

Nitz the Bloody — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:38:24 +0000

Well, at least it’s someone doing something with the fact that the book’s title is X-MEN….

By: Birmy

Birmy — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:18:21 +0000

I’ll be reading at least this first volume regardless because, well, I pre-ordered it from my store, but I’m hearing a lot of mixed things about this one; I would have expected more from the generally reliable Telgemeier/Roman.

And in my experience, most boys ARE big jerks.

By: Danielle Leigh

Danielle Leigh — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:30:19 +0000

Thanks! I let the snark out for this one…just a little.

By: MarkAndrew

MarkAndrew — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:22:42 +0000

However, the art is where reliance shojo genre is abused the most. It’s like every shojo artistic convention was mixed in a blender and spit out indiscriminately on the page.

That… THAT was nice. (At least I laughted.)