I wasn’t going to bother with Donald Trump’s trading cards.

But when the Washington Post “senior” art and architecture critic Philip kennicott bothered, saying the ex-president’s NFTs are not art “unless you consider grifting an art form,” I dropped my snootiness. After all, I’m a longtime superhero comic book fan, especially Wonder Woman. So let it be written.

Played out

It’s best to get that admission out of the way because it plays a big part in my reaction to Trump’s trading cards. See, superheroes are my antidote to reality when it bites. They’re honest, unselfish and brave.

They stand up for what’s right. They used their abilities to do good. Trump spoils the picture with his thuggish pumped-up imagery.

It was never Wonder Woman’s strength that had my attention. It has always been those steel arm bracelets that deflect bullets. (Ping, ping). Imagine repelling problems with the mere flick of an elbow.

My appreciation of Wonder Woman grew in the 1990s when the cartoonist Trina Robbins became the first woman to both draw and write the script for the Amazon princess. In her 1996 bio “Trina Robbins, The Great Women Superheroes,” she pointed out that a male cartoonist was given to sexist drawings that make Diana “a bad girl...barely clothed hypersexualized pinup.”

Female complaint

Another story in the news this week unwittingly ties to Robbins’ views on sexism in comic books.

Michel Draguet, director of the Brussels’ Royal Museum of Fine Arts, has been accused by 31 members of his staff of sexist, inappropriate behavior.

As one staffer told the Brussels Times: "We are faced with someone who is stuck in the past century. He does not hesitate to make remarks that are completely inappropriate, sexist or racist, even in meetings.

This is a public institution, financed by Belgian taxpayers. We are so fed up!"

According to the report, staffers who are “a little too feminist” are "regularly humiliated". An irony in all this is that a poster supporting the women of Iran is mounted outside the front of the museum. Meanwhile, inside “inappropriate behavior” on the part of the director includes “flirty” comments that cause “uncomfortable feelings.”

But making such complaints public worries the staff, the Brussel Times reported.

“Many feared reprisals.” The work environment is also toxic because all curatorial decisions are made “unilaterally” by the director with zero opportunity for discussion.

An example of the director’s exercise of control over the thinking of his staff occurred in preparations for the museum’s recent Picasso show. Even though the painter’s sorry relationships with women are legion, staffers were “unable to address these aspects in the exhibit itself.”

One of the complaints had the director insult staff input. "He described a former communication manager saying that she had the intelligence of a vagina."

Shades of a Trump remark to TV host Billy Bush recorded on the Hollywood Access tape.