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Look! It Moves! by Adi Tantimedh #15 – And This Makes You WET?

Published Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:30:55 -0500

Last updated Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:25:07 -0500

When Rich asked me to write this column, I told him (with the greatest of affection, of course) that we should leave the crazy, tattooed girls to Warren since they're more his area of expertise than mine, but this week there's a meme that's caught my attention.

WET is a new video game where you play Ruby Malone, a tattooed mercenary with a katana in one hand and gun in the other who gets hired to kill, well, everybody. She can back-flip, somersault, slide and kill at the same time. Repeatedly.

Eliza Dushku, who voices the character, describes her as a "working class Lara Croft", which means she's not posh, doesn't have to climb interminable cliffs or solve tedious puzzles, and just gets on with killing lots and lots of people.

So far so good.

But something occurred to me when I saw the demo. Back in 2002, a video game called BLOODRAYNE was launched, featuring a red-headed vampire heroine who was visually a dead ringer for the 2000AD vampire heroine DURHAM RED. Something similar is happening with WET, since Ruby Malone is a dead ringer for a character created by none other than… Warren Ellis (see, I had a reason for bringing him up at the beginning of this column) for Wildstorm's STORMWATCH back in the mid-90s: Rose Tattoo. She too had guns and killed lots of people. 2002 also saw the launch of Japanese comic book series BLACK LAGOON, which featured a tattooed Chinese-American mercenary named Revy, who, guess what, was also heavily armed and enjoyed killing people on the job.

Now, I'm not suggesting anyone should start suing, since I don't know what comics the makers of WET read, and there's something deeper than whether or not plagiarism occurred here. First, let's get the similarities and differences out of the way. Rose Tattoo didn't speak, and was an avatar for the Spirit of Murder, and liked S&M sex that put men in mental asylums. Ruby Malone is pretty much human, despite being able to jump and flip acrobatically that people in real life could only achieve with the aid of wire-fu. Ruby Malone doesn't have sex – WET is not that kind of action game, and why does she need to have sex when she can kill lots of people instead? Revy is wise-cracking, chain-smoking and names her twin 9mm Berettas as she releases a barrage of gunfire. Ruby and Rose Tattoo look the same. Ruby and Revvy are feisty, boozy and working class. Now, if you squint, you'd swear they were all the same woman, the same archetype. It's not lawsuits but this archetype that's got me curious.

These characters – or is it this one character reconfigured by different creators? – are geek-bait. If she were a Top Cow character, her breasts would be bigger. If she were an anime character, they would be bigger than her head. What's interesting is the way she's a combination of the Goddess of Death archetype, the tattoos and weapons and murderous intent are inversions of traditional notions of femininity, designed to appeal to certain men. She is the embodiment of Eros and Thanatos. Sex and Death with a fabulous, cellulite-free bum.

Is she really a chick or a boy with boobies? Are tough, violent females a way for male fans to get in touch with their feminine sides without feeling embarrassed? Playing a female character in a game feels different from playing a steroidal slab of beef like Marcus Fenix or his soldiers in the GEARS OF WAR games. Is it more comfortable for a guy to explore being a gal if he can still acrobatically and violently kill many men with guns while he's at it? Well, it's certainly a lot better than being submissive and passive, and he doesn't have to moon over the TWILIGHT vampire novels.

Why now, though? Before 1990, women with tattoos were considered underground, not-mainstream, and in Asia and Latino culture, they tended to be gang members. Changing gender roles for men and women, dark times, war, chaos, economic uncertainty can add new ingredients to the nutrient mix of Pop Culture. Sometimes when something hits critical mass in the zeitgeist, different people will start getting the same idea even independently. Back in the late 1800s, it was Steam Engine Time. So now, I guess it's Crazy Homicidal Tattooed Chick Time.

Watching for tattoos at lookitmoves@gmail.com

WET is released on September 15.

(Edit- here is the character of Chase Variant I created for Liam Sharp's Event Horizon with Saverio Tenuta and Bagwell. Hmm. – Rich)