DC Reboot: Keeping Score, Where Are The Female Creatives?

With the September solicits for DC up (and reviewed!), we finally get the full scope of DC’s new line up of books and the characters they will feature. Not surprisingly, the male to female ratio is off. It is expected, for whatever reason, that there will be more male-lead solo titles (23) than female (5), and that there will be more male characters than female in team titles like the Justice League (though 6 to 1 is pretty atrocious). And while none of us would be surprised to hear that there are more men who work in the industry than women, the numbers for September should still surprise you.

Drum roll, please!

In September, DC will see a downsizing in female creators by 50% and increasing in male creators by over 40%. Pretty drastic stuff, but that’s still not the scariest part. This actually makes it look like DC has a sizable female demographic already. In actuality, it means, for the month of September, DC has a whopping two women on the payroll for their flagship line. Yes, that’s right. Before the reboot there was a grand total of 4 women on the creative staff. Now, there is a lonely two. So, of the 52 new titles coming out for September, a grand total of 3 have women working on them.

As comic readers, we’re all about the visual aspect of storytelling, so here are a couple of pie charts courtesy of Gwen Frankenstien to show you what is going on:

(pre-reboot)

(post-reboot)

Of those remaining one is, of course, Gail Simone who could write as many titles as she has time for and I’d read them all, two will just have to make do. For now. The other is cover artist Jenny Frison, who is working on the new I, Vampire series. Hopefully Frison’s work will continue to the point of doing a full issue.

This means talented artists like Nicola Scott and Amanda Connor are nowhere to be found, but Rob Liefeld is allowed to get paid for his “work” on Hawk and Dove. Now, that’s just terrible.

A lack of female consciousness in the art department, may very well be the reason behind why Supergirl losing the skirt isn’t a good thing or perhaps why Harley looks more like a carnival-loving crack whore rather than the Cupid of Crime (introducing the corset to Harley Quinn is one thing I will never forgive Batman: Arkham Asylum for) .

So, while Batwoman gets her long awaited day in the sun, the creative side of DC still has a way to go before it can claim to be “diverse and modern”.