Dearth of Female Creators in the DCnU: I feel a little better

Yesterday I noted that the creative line-up for the 52 DCnU titles included exactly two women — Gail Simone, on Firestorm and Batgirl #1, and Amy Reeder, who has been attached to Batwoman as an artist since the project was announced over a year ago. This is slightly better than the number of female creators on the Flashpoint event, which consists only of cover inker Sandra Hope.

But still the fact that there are 100 plus male creators in the DCnU and only two women is disconcerting. We know that currently more men read superhero comics than women. What the percentage is right this moment I don’t know, but numbers I have seen show total female readership is around 10-12 %. You could try make an argument connecting the low number of female creators to the low number of female readers but still 2% is not 10%. Two out of hundred is just not a good percentage.

I don’t want to make this into a discussion of a good writer is a good writer whether they are a man or a woman. Why? Because I agree. I’d read anything, ANYTHING that Greg Rucka writes (Hell, I’m going to be reading Punisher because he’s writing it) and there are some female writers who have a project I’ll skip because it doesn’t interest me. But, that doesn’t mean that having female creators doesn’t make a difference. I mentioned yesterday the interview I did with Barabara Randall Kesel where she spoke about how creators tend to write what they know and from their perspective. Having female writers brings an important perspective and thought process to the table and does tend to make for better female characters. Does having female creators make a difference with art too? I think it does, although there are certainly some female artists who can draw highly sexualized characters to equal some male artists.

Given this low number of female creators,  I was happy to hear Kelly Sue DeConnick and Majorie Liu both step forward to say that DC had approached them to pitch for the DCnU 52. On her blog DeConnick said she was approached about an ongoing, but was it was tough timing and she was just too busy. She did pitch a mini-series but her pitch wasn’t accepted.

Liu also said that she was unable to participate because the timing was not optimum.

It’s too bad neither is on-board. Anyone who has read DeConnick’s work (I highly recommend Osborn) knows she would had been a great addition. And Liu has done terrific work on Black Widow and X-23 so I have no doubts she would have enhanced anyone of the 52 titles.

But while I am glad to hear that these two woman were approached as writers, I was very sad that Nicola Scott was not involved in any of the books. Is there any question that Nicola’s pencils would have enhanced any of the 52 books? This is an artist that managed to make Wonder Woman look dignified in the Star Sapphire costume. But I guess not. Maybe if Nicola had drawn a few thigh pouches on Wonder Woman or Wonder Girl …

Finally, It is curious that both Liu and DeConnick have come out of Marvel. They are joined there by Kathryn Immonen who just finished up one of the best mini-series of the year with Wolverine and Jubilee. Why is Marvel able to find and nurture strong female writers while DC’s stable consists of Gail Simone with the occasional able assist from Jen Van Meter (who also writes for Marvel)  and G. Willow Wilson? Any thoughts there?

What do you think? Does DC need to do more to attract female creators? Do female creators make a difference to you as a female reader? Let me know. And please if you are a troll who is going to add no value, don’t bother. You know who you are.