Open Mike Night – Babes in Comicland Part 2

By blackmore and Havok3595

Last week’s column received a lot of good responses, so we decided to hit that same theme again. Why argue with success! While last time, we focused on what leads to the negative stereotype of women in comics, this time we’re going to take a look at some examples of positive examples of women in comics.

You've Come a Long Way, Baby

We talked last week about the secretarial duties of Wonder Woman and the comparison between Wasp and Rick Jones. As we indicated then, these two (and several others) have changed quite a bit over the last forty or fifty years, mostly for the better (we’ll ignore insect Wasp for the betterment of all. In fact, ignoring The Crossing should be any comic fan’s goal).

Jan Van Dyne, as many know, divorced Henry Pym after being abused. Most of the reason Jan was in the Avengers in the first place was due to her relationship with Pym, so it struck many as odd that she continued with a group consisting almost exclusively of friends of her abusive ex-husband (and, at times, said ex himself) after the divorce. This was Jan proving that she had definition beyond being a sidekick to Gi/Ant Man/Yellowjacket/Goliath and she rose to be one of the better leaders Earth’s Mightiest Heroes had ever seen.

Later, after it was revealed that Pym had been mentally manipulated by a variety of villains at the time of the abuse, it seemed that the flames of old love would reunite. Henry Pym certainly hoped so, but Wasp definitively told him that she had no interest in getting back together to that level. She enjoyed her freedom, and wouldn’t remarry him (although she would date him). This leads to an interesting reversal of the “Mystery Date”: Pym got to a point where he was mostly defined in terms of his relationship to Wasp while Jan was much more detailed.

Wonder Woman, likewise, has begun to show herself as far more than cheesecake in a swimsuit. Instead of being tied up and helpless, she’s intentionally blinded herself to fight a mythical beast who turns those who gaze upon it to stone. And we’re not just talking a blindfold…she literally plucked her own eyes out when push came to shove. Few male heroes have even gotten that hardcore, and Diana didn’t skip a beat. In DC’s current event, Wonder Woman kills a man despite the protests of Batman and Superman. She’s done with the days of taking names, she’s all about kicking asses these days.

The Invisible Woman is another heroine who has grown from her fashion model Reed Richards arm candy days. Recently, Doctor Doom has described her as the most powerful and dangerous member of the Fantastic Four. She’s also knocked out the Hulk, something even the ever loving blue eyed Thing can’t lay claim to. And don’t you dare call her the Invisible Girl anymore.

Speaking of former “girls”, the former Batgirl has gone from being a cute helper in Batman’s war against crime to marshalling her own forces as Oracle despite a crippling injury at the hands of the Joker. And she’s arguably better at it than her mentor…more than once, he’s gone to her to get information he was unable to find himself.

Leader of the Pack

But, women aren’t just becoming more independent characters. They are also taking strong leadership roles in comics. Look at Storm! She’s been a leader of the X-Men for about 20 years now! When her leadership was challenged by Cyclops, she was able to take him out without her powers. When you have independent guys like Wolverine taking orders from her, you know Storm is one strong leader. Not to mention, she is also one of the most powerful members of the team. Which is why you should vote for D-Generation X in the Eisner Cup. This cheap plug is sponsored by D-Generation X’s leadership.

As mentioned earlier, Wasp has also evolved into a strong leader of the Avengers. During Avengers Forever, even Captain America fell into line behind her when all reality was at stake. That is why you should vote for the Charlatans in the Eisner Cup. It is also why you should stop reading this column immediately and go read Avengers Forever. We’ll wait here for you.

Welcome back!

Some other examples of female team leaders:

- Invisible Woman has led the Fantastic Four on several occasions.

- Zatanna led the Justice League for a short time before Crisis.

- Wonder Girl was the leader of Young Justice. Saturn Girl has been the leader of Legion. It should be noted that in both of these situations the fans voted that these characters were the ones who should lead the team.

- Jenny Sparks was a terrific leader for the Authority. Jack Hawksmoor is one of my favorite characters, but he sucks as leader in comparison.

- Skyrocket was the field leader for Power Company before its way too soon cancellation.

- Fairchild was the leader of Gen 13.

- Both Young Avengers and Runaways feature female characters who are a lot more competent leaders than the males of the group.

- Songbird has lead the New Thunderbolts recently…mostly.

- Monica Rambeau (as Captain Marvel) led the Avengers for some time.

- Rogue’s going to be leading a team of X-Men soon.

- Several X-enemies have been led by women, from Marrow leading Gene Nation to Mystique leading the Brotherhood to Deathbird marshalling the forces of the Brood.

Women of the Atom

Some people say that Chris Claremont maybe likes the ladies a bit too well, but it wasn’t him that created Storm, easily the most powerful of the relaunch X-Men. He did up Jean Grey to the Phoenix levels and made her a cosmic threat. Again, we get a reversal of the mystery date: in the Dark Phoenix era, Cyclops is frequently defined as he relates to Jean. But previous to the relaunch, even back to the very first issue, we have all the males drooling over Jean who declares herself an independent woman by using telekinesis to get her own chair instead of taking the one Beast pulls out for her. Polaris also rebuked Iceman for declaring her “his girl” by saying “I’m nobody’s ‘girl’ except my own!” in the Silver Age run. Both of these instances were pretty progressive in an era where women in several other titles were taking notes and sewing uniforms, no matter how powerful they were.

Upping the ante, Lilandra usurps the throne of a large intergalactic empire from her crazy brother…and the person to challenge her (and frequent thorn in the X-side) is her sister Deathbird. Deathbird is a particularly interesting case as she lost her place in the order of succession to Lilandra because she carries the obvious traits of the Shi’ar’s avian ancestors, which are looked down upon for being antiquated. Sort of a microcosm of the human/mutant struggle on Earth, and interesting because the X-Men side against equality on it. But I guess I wouldn’t want an interstellar race headed by someone named Deathbird either, to be fair.

Mystique assembles and competently leads a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants during the epic story Days of Future Past. They would have succeeded too if it wasn’t for a time-traveling Kitty Pryde, who was sent back in large part by Rachel Summers. A story full of girl power on every side.

Despite devolving into a little more than a Gambit fashion accessory, Rogue was definitely one of the most powerful X-Men of the late 80’s and early 90’s. Between her power to basically add on the powers of friends and foes in times of crisis, she also had the strength and durability and flight of Ms. Marvel…which is about three times the strength and durability of her more rugged male teammates, in addition to adding flight to the mix.

Even more recently, Marrow and Dr. Reyes were far from your typical comic females. Marrow took some steps backwards in later years, but when she started out, she was pretty hardcore and a very capable leader. Dr. Reyes was a strong and independent woman that didn’t fall easily into any stereotypes.

Outside the Mainstream

Just wanted to throw in some lesser known examples from the world of comics:

- Crossgen was full of examples of strong female characters, like Sephie in Meridian, the characters in Mystic who showed that being sexy does not have to equal useless, and El Cazador is about a strong, intelligent pirate captain…who happens to be a woman.

- Polly and the Pirates over at Oni features a young girl who is forced into the life of being a pirate.

- Lullaby has some cool updates of characters like Alice in Wonderland and Little Red Riding Hood.

- Sam Kieth tends to write terrific female characters. Read Zero Girl, Maxx, or Ojo for some good examples.

- Fallen Angel started out at DC, but never received much attention until it jumped to IDW.

- I was told by an irate poster to mention Friends of Lulu, but I’ve never read the book, so I have no idea what it’s about. So if is sucks, log onto GameFAQs and blame BB mofo.

- Oni Press’ Courtney Crumrin is a pretty solid female lead that bucks expectations…a teenage witch who falls under the tutelage of her spooky uncle. She forsakes a love enchantment at one point after realizing that dating hot guys is not a priority in life. This alone shows how different she is from the standard old school teenage girl. It’s a dark and quirky book that lies somewhere between Lemony Snicket and Harry Potter. And a strong female lead!

All right, this is about it on our end. Please e-mail me any questions, comments, or whatevers to jackknight@gmail.com. I do read all my e-mails, and I’ll post them with my column. Also, remember to swing by GameFAQs and check out Eisner Cup season 3!

Now, go out and read some comics, you slacker!

2 Comments:

Blogger Steven said...

I find your lack of Witchblade disturbing. She's come a long way since Marz took over and brought the title back from the T&A riddled cheese fest it had degenerated into. She's come a long way, and shows the hardside of doing double-duty in a world not meant for her kind -- superheroines.

Daughters of the Dragon also looks like a step in the right direction as far as parity and respect goes.

No mention of Black Widow? Speaking as a fan, I'm a bit saddened by that. She was among the original women in comics to support and break down the stereotypes during her tenure. (Though the whole Russian spy bit was an overused cliche stereotype that she is just barely getting over.... DAMN THE COLD WAR!!!)

Independent, self-supporting, flesh/blood humans with more than 2 dimensions beyond the B-W-H -- yeah, they've come a long way but it's still a work in progress.

5:38 PM  
Blogger ULI/KFP said...

Or Elektra or Typhoid Mary for that matter . . . but yeah, I know you can't reference every female character.

Despite the cheesecake, the current Red Sonja series has been very enjoyable. Nothing says "strong woman" like a sword-wielding heroine!

7:27 PM  

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