Grrls in the Comics

A Look at Women Comic Superheroes

It's a toss-up as to which is the most off-putting at first glance, depictions of women on the covers of comic books or the stores you have to go into to buy them. A Roberta Gregory strip, Haven't a Clue (Robbins), shows two young women in a comic book shop: "Look at the way these guys draw women...you'd think they'd never seen a real one with her clothes off." And that is the problem. Comics books are mostly drawn, written, and marketed by men. However, within this state of affairs, many characters are being created that have appeal and relevance even from a feminist viewpoint. Also the current phenomenon of women superheroes/villains in the comics makes a bit of cultural analysis hard to resist:
 
 

•What does it mean that the male imagination now finds strong, competant women worthy of hero status? •What does it mean that the 12 year old male audience to whom comic books are marketed are buying women heroes? •What does it mean that the most popular superheroes now operate in teams, teams of men and women?
 
 

One of the most ludicrous conventions of comic book art is the way breasts are drawn. They have a certain inflatable quality, are often barely covered or sometimes glazed by a spray on body suit. To get past the soft porn quality of this, consider the way male superheroes are drawn: impossible abdominals, amazing quads, metallic jaws. The whole point of fantasy heroes is that they are not limited by reality, and that features are wildly exaggerated to suggest super powers. It would seem that to the mostly male artists of the superhero genre, breasts are a power feature. That super bodies reflect super powers is supported by the fact that there is no sex in superhero comic books. Attractions between protagonists are sometimes introduced into the story line, but only to add emotional dimension or vulnerability to a character; the superhero comic is about action and response to challenge. There's no sex, but there is bodily sexiness insofar as that is perceived by the artist as a source of power. So superhero comics are clean, but lurid.

The more recent the origin of the character, the more likely she is to have muscle definition. Barb Wire, Razor, Shotgun Mary and other recent characters have serious muscles. Compare the 80's version of Wonder Woman with the leaner, meaner Wonder Woman of 1995.
 
 

Every work of fiction creates its own world which the reader enters as a tourist, relishing its exotic trappings, accepting its assumed pantheon of powers. If there is a rule for creating worlds in the superhero genre, it might be resonance without coherence or eclectic mythology combinations.

Resonance: use names that have powerful but vague associations, but don't actually allude to historical events or literary works. Remember, the average comic book reader is 12 years old. Cybernary, for example, takes place on the Pacific island of Gamorra, a name which sounds like a biblical evil place. In Warrior Nun, Areala, the character of that name descends from Valhalla in the year 1066 to start an order of sword-wielding nuns ("repentence and revenge"). Avengelyne, in league with a priest, battles demons and saves a church; she is a daughter of god and her blood has magic powers. Lady Death battles Lucifer and is saved by her mother's angelic powers.

Some stories, like Martha Washington, take place in a dystopian future in space; others like Siren and Barb Wire are set in a high tech earth environment. Several new series play on the variations of mutant powers, especially the character's process of learning to handle being different. Shi adds samurai lore to an American comic.

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