Tag: female superhero teams

Kelly Explores: Weaknesses of Female Superhero Teams

Oct. 05 Comics, News no comments

(This is part three of a three-part series of articles regarding current runs of all-female superhero teams.)

I’ve legitimately been working on this article or thinking about this article for weeks. How do I write an article on the weaknesses of the all-female teams out there? And how do I do it in a way that allows me to stay true to my own theory and ideology? I finally have an answer:

I don’t.

I could rant for pages about how Birds of Prey has turned into a giant cat-fight over a big, strong man. I could focus on how X-Men is so boring, I might actually drop it from my pull. I might discuss the strange implications of gender structure that I see in Fearless Defenders. But at the end of the day, one article isn’t enough to list all the negatives or the weaknesses that I see. So instead, I’m making a wish list. Comic writers and artists, take note, and let me know if you have any questions.

  1. Stop with the inappropriately-clad crime fighters. Spandex is fine. Capes are awesome. Stilettos are ridiculous. Super-cleavage is impractical. I could literally live the rest of my life without seeing a female hero wearing a damned tiara. Stop it.
  2. Women’s lives revolve around a LOT of things, alright? We’ve got a lot going on. Men are in the periphery. They always have been and they always will be. We’ve got more important things to do than go super-villain over how Mister Dudebro broke our hearts. Seriously. I promise. So maybe make the main plot be about the women actually fighting crime instead of fighting each other about the nearest penis in the vicinity.
  3. It’s not just men who are clever and witty. Women are, too. We can have witty dialogue, too. We can even joke around about sexual things. Crazy idea, I know, but it’s true.
  4. It’s okay to show a woman having some sort of inner conflict. She doesn’t always have to be confident, just like she doesn’t always have to be weak. In fact, we experience a whole range of emotions. So if a woman shows a moment of weakness, that’s okay. Men do, too.

When it comes right down to it, my problem with all-female teams is that the women seem to become caricatures. They aren’t real and they can’t be real because they don’t have a male in the area to show them how to be. Think about that for a moment. And I mean really think about it.

What’s lacking in these three runs isn’t just one thing or another, it’s a whole litany of things. And much as I enjoyed Fearless Defenders (so much so that I added it to my pull), even it isn’t exactly what I was looking for.

On the other hand, have you picked up Rat Queens? If not, DO IT. I command you. I promise you it’s well worth your while, and you won’t see me screaming at it in sheer feminist rage.

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Kelly Explores: Strengths of Current Female Superhero Teams

Sep. 23 Comics, News no comments

(This is part two of a three-part series of articles regarding current runs of all-female superhero teams.)

I promised you a more in-depth look at some all-female teams. Let’s start positively with their strengths.

X-Men

  • All of the women have a strong sense of independence and are able to care for themselves without requiring some sort of “knight in shining armor.”
  • There’s no specific attention drawn to the fact that the team is comprised entirely of women.
  • Outside of their hero personas, we see women in positions of authority (headmistress, teacher, businesswoman) and we see them excelling in those positions.

Birds of Prey

  • Every single woman on this team is one hell of a fighter, physically fit, intelligent, and quick-thinking.
  • None of the costumes are particularly unrealistic or sexualized, which is refreshing.
  • The team is comprised of detectives, and we get to see them work through some pretty complex mysteries.

Fearless Defenders

  • Along with these women being teammates, there’s a strong sense of family and camaraderie.
  • The writing for this series is amazing and has some of the wittiest dialogue I’ve seen to date.
  • The plot is engaging and makes me want to keep reading. After reading just the latest two issues, I immediately wanted to not only purchase the previous 6 issues, but I wanted to add the series to my pull.

In all three of these series, the art is fantastic. They’re beautifully drawn and colored and they definitely catch the eye. I also like the fact that, no matter what happens in these stories, we have three all-female teams going right now, and they’re coming from major publishing houses. This doesn’t mean that I’m necessarily happy about where the stories are going or how the plots are developing, but the fact that all-female teams are selling is a step in the right direction, anyway.

I don’t mean to suggest that women should compromise on what we want to see from comics. We make up a large enough part of the reader demographic now and, even if we didn’t, publishers have a responsibility to fight the exploitation of female bodies in the pursuit of male pleasure. And we have the right to demand a better representation of women in comics, including all-female teams. I’ll address this more in my article about the negatives of the three stories, but it’s something very important to consider: If we don’t demand better work, we’re not going to get better work. So don’t let the positives make you complacent.

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Kelly Explores: The Focus of Female Superhero Teams

Sep. 20 Comics no comments

(This is part one of a three-part series of articles regarding current runs of all-female superhero teams.)

When I started reading Marvel’s all-female X-Men team, I was completely unaware that DC had been doing this with Birds of Prey for at least a dozen issues. Part of that is due to my own bias (I’m a Marvel girl and I’m not afraid to admit that), and part of it is due to my still-present comic industry naivete. But I was also entirely clueless when Marvel put out Fearless Defenders, another all-female team, so I don’t feel too guilty about my brand preference.

But I digress.

Larry suggested I read a couple issues of Birds of Prey and Fearless Defenders, and then compare them to X-Men with the end goal of declaring a winning all-female team. Of these three teams, which one is the best? For me, of course, this question actually means, “Which one of these teams do you find least annoying, and which one do you think actually does a good job in presenting an all-female team without a massive boatload of stereotypes?”

Let’s start with the current focus of the storylines, shall we? X-Men‘s main plot is revolving around how two of the women are completely unable to concentrate on the problems at hand because they’re too busy trying to claim the role of alpha female while Jubilee’s adopted baby keeps being a cute baby. Birds of Prey is about two blonde women, one “good” and one “evil,” fighting over an attractive, sensitive man while a male villain in charge of a bunch of female villains is subtly threatening rape and murder of the “good” blonde. Fearless Defenders is about a mysterious, evil group that’s trying to genetically engineer creepy alien beings in order to presumably take over Earth and kill the superheroes.

So in these three series’, what we have is the focus on a baby, the focus on a man/romantic interlude, and the focus on an actual plot that superheroes should maybe be focused on because they’re superheroes and superheroes focus on issues that threaten THEIR PLANET AND THEN FIGHT THAT EVIL AND EVENTUALLY WIN BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT SUPERHEROES DO, DAMN IT. Thank you, Fearless Defenders, for ACTUALLY BEING SUPERHEROES.

I have no problem with stories involving a love triangle or a baby or catty insults and fights. These things happen. It’s fine. But why is it the main focus? And how come when I read Battle of the Atom or Lazarus or even Red Sonja, the main focus is actually on something … I don’t know … important? Even in Love Stories to Die For, which is ABOUT LOVE STORIES, the focus isn’t on the romance, but on much larger issues (like how the people who think are good can actually be very, very bad).

I’m taking a very deep breath right now.

In the next two parts of this series, I’ll go more in-depth about the strengths of all three series’ and then the weaknesses of them. But I thought it was important to give you a glimpse of how I’ve read these stories and my initial thoughts coming out of them. And if you think this article was rage-filled, just wait until I actually start to pick things apart.

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