Voodoo #1

I'm conflicted a bit on this one. As you read through this book your impression of it changes slowly but surely from, "This is sleezy and shallow" to "Wow! Real characters!" And had that been the entire story... well it would get a 5 star rating. There is one nagging point about this book that bothers me and it is that the writer/artist took way too much stock in the tropes and Freudian sexualization which persists throughout the book along with the stereotype that is the secondary female lead. I would be willing to ignore it, but it just hooked into my psyche somewhere and refuses to let go even with all it's other parts that I'll surely remember this part is memorable enough to be a big flaw.

Beyond that one flaw, this book is stellar. Beyond this point this will be more about this books "age rating" and this verse a lot of other females shown in DCnU.

First off, in my opinion the age rating is a little silly and i'd be more than willing to give this book to a child. I don't find nudity or sexuality to be an "adult" topic. Further, even if it were there is no more flesh in this book than what you'd see at the beach save for the women are in provocative poses (which makes sense since they're in a strip joint). I do however find that pictures of the inside of a strip joint is ok for a 13 year old to see, but going into a strip joint is not.

So, my recommendation is that this book is perfectly ok for kids to have and might even be good for them to read as it does show people they'd normally fantasize about more as real people which could lead to a better attitude towards women in general. On the other hand if you are more of the puritanical type, and there are a bunch of you, you'll likely want to keep this book out of your kids' hands. I think you're over protective of your kids if that is general attitude towards this stuff, but if that's what you want to do you probably have already stopped listening to me, but I still am giving you the recommendation to keep it out of your kids hands given how you want to raise them.

Secondly, there has been a lot huffing and puffing about Starfire, Catwoman, and a number of others. I want to take this moment to point out that even though these characters are all half naked and sexualized these characters are better, by light years, than those characters because they show empowered women. They're strong. They're overcoming odds. This is the perfect counter point to all those other comics that are giving us shallow, sex doll, weak women, Some might argue that the whole stripper thing is demeaning and objectifying, but I'd strongly recommend that you rethink your position. You are projecting your beliefs on how they should live, objectifiying them. They are doing what they want, taking control of their lives, and are using what they can to get by. As one of the characters states stripping pays her more than waiting on tables and another says as long as they pay who cares. Both lines indicate a objectification of men and a choice to do it, while still yet another point brings up that some of the women are single mothers or paying their way through college. Seems they are taking their lives into their own hands rather than living off a man or the state. Contrasting this against Starfire who is just a bimbo who is being used as a sex doll by Jason and Roy.