The nOir NYC Women of DC Comics Jewelry Collection: Shiny but Disappointing

Lemme preface this blog with this: I like seeing female comic characters get mainstream attention. I think it’s awesome to celebrate the kick ass ladies of comics and I hope against hope that it will serve to convince more women to read/write/draw comics. Yeah, comics can seem like an intimidating boys club, character, reader and creator-wise, but the best way to end that is to get more women involved and not be silenced.

So when I saw that nOir NYC had done a line of jewelry inspired by the women of DC Comics, I was, for a moment, excited.

But only for a moment.

Upon seeing the collection I was, to put it lightly, underwhelmed. While there were a few pieces I liked:

Pretty much everything else left me going “eh” or “Um, what?”

These are just some samples, you can browse the rest of the collection here.

Maybe it’s just that this is very much not my style of jewelry. But I cannot get into this collection at all.

Actually, lemme ammend that. It’s not JUST that it’s not my style of jewelry, it’s that I’m a comics geek. And when I want jewelry that features the characters I follow and love, I want it to embody their spirit and their personality, not just feature their logo. The only person I felt got that in this collection was Catwoman, and that was just generally making it shiny and sexy and a little dangerous…so, yeah, not that much of a stretch for high-end jewelry like this.

The thing is, like I said, I love seeing homage paid to the superheroines and villains I love, but I want to see it done RIGHT. I don’t just want to see a feminized Superman “S” on some jewlery, I want something that embodies WHY WE SHOULD GIVE A DAMN about Supergirl or why she’s relatable other than she’s a girl and she’s super. I touched on this in an article for DOOM!:

Don’t get me wrong, I see a lot of Wonder Woman merchandise, especially for teenage and pre-teen girls. I also see a lot of what is apparently meant to be Supergirl, but generally doesn’t feature the character instead focusing on a bright pink “S” logo. But slapping a character’s face on something and keeping them in the public view doesn’t necessarily mean the ideas behind the character are there.

In the end, whatever, it’s jewelry I’m not going to buy both because I’m not wild about it and I can’t afford it. And yeah, I’m sure I’m taking it too seriously as a comic nerd, and I need to back off. But I’m gonna stick with at least one opinion here: this collection is not super in any way, shape or form.