Comics critic Greg Burgas writes about a new Native superhero in
What I bought--15 December 2010:
On the first page, a woman named Anne Knight tries to stop an illegal drilling operation in the frozen north of Canada. The bad guys turn guns on her, and she tells them it’s a bad idea. She chants in a strange language, calls down a snow tornado, and transforms into an Indian superhero. Anne Knight wears a parka and long pants, as it’s freakin’ winter in northern British Columbia. Nanook Iluak, the native spirit of the polar bear and Big Woman of the North, wears … a fur bikini. Bwah-ha-ha-ha! Seriously--she wears a big cloak, fur on her forearms (but no gloves), a fur brassiere laced up the front, a fur thong, and fur knee-high mukluks. It’s awesome. She looks like Raquel Welch. At least her feet are warm!
I’m not too bent out of shape by it, because it’s just a goofy costume, and Nanook is some kind of spirit, so she probably doesn’t feel the cold. It just cracked me up.Comment: Given her name, Nanook Iluak is probably Inuit, not Indian. They're not the same thing.
Her appearance is pure Hollywood starlet--a body type almost unknown among the Inuit. In other words, she's your typical
Native sex object. She comes from a long line of Native sex objects beginning with Malinche and
Pocahontas. As well as a long line of Inuit women who supposedly gave themselves freely to men.
Compare her to Snowbird, a similar superhero who's a spirit woman of the north. No big breasts or exposed skin, yet still an effective character. If she weren't half Caucasian, she probably wouldn't be so statuesque, either.
2 comments:
Oh, dear God, a fur bikini. God, I hate Frank Frazetta sometimes, though I am aware that without Frazetta, comic book art would be stuck in the Silver Age.
And what is wrong with that?
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