Then I found out that the new Batwoman was a lesbian and I realized that the answer to these questions is a resounding “YES.”

A bit of background: DC Comics is making a concerted effort to diversify their characters and appeal to a wider demographic.  Their strategy is to take some lesser-known (but already established) superheroes and then shake up their backgrounds.  For example, the new Atom will be Asian; the new Blue Beetle is hispanic--and Batwoman, a character who dates all the way back to the ‘50s, is being reintroduced as a gay woman.  (The New York Times ran an article on the subject.)

Personally I think it’s nice that comics are making an effort to be more inclusive.  You might say it’s just politically correct bean counting, but listen--have you ever actually heard of the original Blue Beetle?  Of course not, because he’s just another white, straight superhero.  Boring.  Doing different kinds of characters will have the effect of not only broadening the audience, but also enabling different kinds of stories.

Second, a gay Batwoman is a huge improvement over the ‘50s version.  Back then, Batwoman was a straight female with a crush on Bruce Wayne and she fought crime with--I am not making this up--a “utility purse” with items such as charm-bracelet handcuffs, sneezing powder, and an expanding hairnet.  Now that’s feminism!

Third, it amounts to huge cost savings for me personally.  In the past, I’ve had to pay hundreds of dollars in order to experience the exploits of a hot chick wearing spandex and boots who likes women but beats up men.  The comic book is bound to only be a couple bucks, tops.

The problem is that racial and sexual considerations aside, the new Batwoman still falls into the cliche as every other superheroine--she’s smokin’ hot.

All characters in comic books, male or female, are perfectly sculpted athletes with, uh, often unrealistic proportions.  And it’s not just comics. Buffy the Vampire Slayer a feminist icon?  C’mon--she’s so thin that she probably needs to wear snowshoes in the shower in order to avoid slipping down the drain. 

If comics and these other media fantasies really want to represent the real world, they need to stop forcing unrealistic body images upon their protagonists.  And doing so would open us up to many interesting new characters. Here’s a few ideas:

Jellyroll Girl. By day she’s a normal townie who wears a too-short shirt that allows rolls of flab to collect around her belly.  But little do people know that those rolls of flab contain gamma powered energy ready to strike down evildoers and protect the innocent.

Captain Crowsfeet.  Oh sure, he looks like a wrinkled onion because he never wore sunblock as a kid.  But when he smiles, those crowfeet suddenly release the power of the sun itself and wage war on crime.

Not Especially Well Endowed Man (and his crime-fighting partner, Flat as an Ironboard Woman).  Okay, so the names aren’t as catchy as, say, Superman. But whereas fans of Supes have been known to jump off roofs in an attempt to imitate their hero, you probably wouldn’t have kids running around saying “I want to be just like Not Especially Well Endowed Man when I grow up.” And if they do?  Well, they’ll know that they can still be a force for justice--even if they’re not, y’know, necessarily a force anywhere else.