The Ladies of Marvel Comics

A lot of (deserving) noise has been made about the comics industry’s mishandling of female characters. Ladies have been portrayed as any or all of the following unflattering archetypes: damsels in distress, seductresses, eye-candy, or sexually available sidekicks. The industry blames the audience (largely 20-something-yo white guys) for wanting their female characters to be stereotypical. The audience blames the industry for failing to promote quality books with realistic women and for failing to hire or promote women creators and editors. Even given these facts, at times, the comics industry has gotten a lot right with great female characters: Gail Simone’s Birds of Prey, Jenny Sparks in the Authority, Mockingbird in West Coast Avengers, & the 1980’s X-Men all portrayed women as superheroes that stood up to the big pecs crowd and held their own. The audience and the industry are, albeit slowly, evolving.

My current top 10 comics feature four books with female leads (although I’ll admit that I think Thor is still a Thor book, others have made the argument I should include it, so I will): Velvet & Lazarus from Image, Thor, and Mind MGMT from Dark Horse. Of course, three of the four mentioned are indie books, not quite superhero titles and not from the Big Two that dominate comics. What have the major publishers done to promote titles led by women and to promote women in the industry?

The last set of Marvel Now! additions were notably heavy on female leads: a re-launch of Captain Marvel, the new Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Black Widow, and Elektra joined the Brian Wood X-Men title featuring an all-lady version of the mighty mutant super-team. Recently, Jason Aaron’s Thor was re-launched (new #1) with a depowered (for a god) Odinson and a mysterious woman wielding the uru-laden Mjolnir. I’d like to spend some time taking a look at each of these titles and discussing their quality and their futures.

I’ll start with Black Widow because she’s the oldest of the characters, first appearing in 1964. She’s also probably received the least attention of any of these characters, including the new Ms. Marvel. If it were not for the Avengers movies, she’d still be a relatively unknown commodity. I was immediately drawn to this book by artist Phil Noto. His art is exceptional, blending traditional penciling with painted backgrounds to great effect. His line work is thin and detailed, not overly inked and blocky like the more cartoony 90’s art. He’s seen a recent resurgence doing some work with Rick Remender on his stellar Uncanny X-Force run, penciling a few lesser Dark Horse offerings, including a re-launch of the popular Ghost, and a largely forgettable run on Thunderbolts with Daniel Way. One of the best things about Noto, in my opinion, is that he draws incredibly detailed and realistic figures. This leads me to why he’s such a good fit for Widow: he doesn’t draw her like she’s boobs with feet. We all know the stereotype of a female superhero is basically a huge chest, tiny everything else, and long flowing hair. Widow is drawn in profile infrequently, her face is the focus of most panels, her body dimensions are appropriate, and her hair is typically pulled back or cut short, probably a good idea if you’re trying to do some hardcore spy work. I love the way that Natasha is visually portrayed in this book.

The writing is excellent. Natasha is on a mission to clean up her messes. As you know, she is not a nice lady. She’s been an assassin, worked for the KGB and as a mercenary, and she’s done some bad news bears in her lifetime. Now that she’s rolling with the Avengers on the reg, she feels remorse for her old life and wants to make it right. And she has a lot of making it right to do. It’s a solid vehicle for putting her basically around the world and in touch with a variety of thugs, villains, and shady characters, as well as the Marvel U.’s spy community, in a way that doesn’t feel forced for movement. Nathan Edmondson is a relative newcomer, but he’s plotting this book well. I’ll also give him a solid mark for dialogue. The book isn’t heavy on word balloons, but that’s a good thing. Widow is a loner, she shouldn’t just be wandering around chatting people up, and when she does talk, it should be with a clear goal in mind. Too many comic writers force dialogue on their characters. Edmondson feels content letting Noto’s art do the talking where it should and that’s a pretty mature move to make as a writer. Overall, I’d say this book is close to the top of my list of Marvel Now! female leads, second only to Thor.

Next I’ll discuss the second oldest of the character here, premiering in 1977: the Carol Danvers Captain Marvel book. I’ll be honest from the outset: I’m not currently reading this book. I read the beginnings of each Deconnick run on the book and set it aside. I’ve done the same thing with each Deconnick book I’ve read. I think that the plots are missing something for me, a certain, say, big picture. Conceptually, I just don’t understand where these books are going. I know why Marvel wants there to be a Carol Danvers book. I know why fans like Carol Danvers. I just don’t understand what the point of this book is. It feels like a Captain Marvel meets the supervillain of the week title and that just doesn’t cut it for me. My intrinsic interest in the character is pretty low and her rogues’ gallery isn’t exactly drawing me in. That said, I like Kelly Sue Deconnick just fine. I think she wrote a solid run on Avengers Assemble. Her writing here displays a certain skill, page-wise. I think the bigger pulse of the book needs a lot of work.

Other things that are good about this Captain Marvel book: the new look for Captain Marvel. I think the reimagining of this character is solid. Red over blue is a good color choice, displaying power rather than raw emotion, an approach color over an avoid color. The hairstyle is good, shorter, tighter hair showing that she’s all about business. This is a lifetime military woman; she’d be no-frills and no-nonsense. I feel like things are moving in the right direction for Captain Marvel, although not quite right enough for me to lay down by $4 a month to read about it. I wouldn’t mock anyone for reading this book. It’s not Deadpool.

She-Hulk is next in line, appearing in 1980. Of all of the characters we’ve discussed, She-Hulk is the worst. Sorry, Shulk fans, it’s just true. It’s late Stan Lee (his last Marvel creation), which is awful in its own right, but it’s also a derivative Bride of Frankenstein type character. It’s actually one of the worst ways to make a female lead – turn a traditionally male character into a female character and just see what happens (oops, Thor), as if there’s nothing special to women that hasn’t already been done by a man or that women can only be interesting when acting like men. This bad mojo makes me unsurprised that She-Hulk has been a generally irrelevant Marvel character, resigned to also-ran teams and cross-overs. It’s more shocking when there’s a good She-Hulk than a bad one. Fast forward to 2005: Dan Slott (now of Superior and Amazing Spider-Man) writes a truly great She-Hulk series. It’s greeted with…quick cancellation. Fast forward to 2013: Charles Soule writes another great She-Hulk series. It will soon meet the same fate.

I really, really enjoy this book. People that know me have heard me gush about Brian Pulido, probably in reference to his masterful Hawkeye annual last year. I think he’s doing some really innovative page work these days. It takes me about twice as long to read an issue of She-Hulk because I don’t want to miss anything in the details of Pulido’s work. His line work on this book has displayed an even greater range of emotion and energy than he’s used in the past. I will say that I’m not entirely sure that he and Soule are on the same page and that’s in spite of liking both of them a bunch. It happens. But, regardless, this book should absolutely not be getting canned. It’s not like the Captain Britain and MI:13 crisis of 2010, but it’s not that far off really. This is a top 10 Marvel book in terms of quality and yet it’s meeting the corporate shredder. If this was a DC book, it would get 30 more issues. Of course, if this was a DC book, it would be their second best book, not lower in the top 10.

Like, She-Hulk, Elektra first appears in the early 1980’s and is next in line for a review. This book is pretty bad. W. Haden Blackman isn’t a name that jumps out to most comics fans. He’s best known for writing in the Star Wars universe (maybe not coincidental that Marvel got interested in him right as Disney bought Star Wars from Lucasfilms), but also worked with J.H. Williams III on Batwoman and left, along with Williams, when DC began to compromise that character in the New 52. I was skeptical, naturally, of this cat I didn’t know working on a character I have some strong ties to (Daredevil was an early favorite book of mine). I was, however, excited to see Mike Del Mundo’s interiors. He’s been doing covers and variants for Marvel for a few years now, notably on X-Men: Legacy (a truly awful comic) and GotG. His painted, experimental style really drew me in. Check out his page at DeviantArt http://deadlymike.deviantart.com/.

I gave this book a full arc. I regretted it. It even had Taskmaster in it and I still regretted it. Let me tell you something about Taskmaster: he’s awesome. Anyway, this book is better to look at than it is to read. The plot is bad. The villain is bad. Elektra is more of a boundary condition than a character in the book. She fades into the background of the super evil villain she’s facing. It’s just not a well thought-out book and doesn’t have anything that feels especially Elektra about it. Del Mundo’s art is fascinating and beautiful. I think this man has a solid future in comics. I’m unconvinced by Blackman. His work felt pretty hackish. I would flip through these at the store to see the Del Mundo art, but save your sheckles for a real book. Read Daredevil or something.

Next up is Brian Wood’s X-Men. I want to like Brian Wood. I have nothing against Brian Wood. I’m starting to feel like Brian Wood is not much of a comic book writer though. This is his biggest stage yet: he’s writing the world’s most popular super-team, it’s a big launch because of the all-lady cast, and it’s a basically stand-alone Marvel Now! release and Marvel Now! is pretty hot. What does he do? Put Jubilee front and center. Ok, well, I think we all know how that works. Jubilee sucks. She is a jacket, basically. No, the jacket is cooler than she is. It feels like this had to be a dare. Like, “I dare you to take your biggest money-making opp and focus it on Jubilee.” To which, any normal person would reply, “Shut up.” If you’re unfamiliar with Jubilee, let me give you some quick background: she lived in a mall, she could make sparkles, sort of like Dazzler but less powerful, she had a yellow jacket and followed Wolverine around, sort of like a low-rent Kitty, and now she’s a vampire. Sounds stupid? It is stupid. So, she’s a critical focus of this book. That’s not good.

What is good about this X-Men team? Psylocke, fresh off of the mind-twisting results of Remender’s run on Uncanny X-Force, is complicated and tough. Storm trying to distinguish herself from the disaster that is the main X-Men teams is both rational and bold. Thankfully Wood has distanced himself from the mistake that was her short-term tryst with Uncanny X-Men leader Cyclops. This was such a bad idea for so many reasons. Even Rachel Summers is moderately interesting in this book, and that’s a character that’s had a pretty weak history, especially lately. Here’s the problem: the sum is less than the individual parts. Wood can do some solid individual scenes, but seems to struggle at plotting arcs tightly. I’d be fine with this if the book wasn’t still in the arc format. It is. And the arcs are too long, they ramble, and they fail to deliver at key points. I held this book for twenty issues, much the same as I did with his Star Wars series. I don’t think I’ll make the same mistake again. This is not a very good book, but it’s not the worst thing in the world either. I assume it’s close to being canceled or re-launched.

Unlike the other titles here, Ms. Marvel is a wholly new creation, penned by a new-to-Marvel woman, G. Willow Wilson. The book has received a ton of press because the lead character, Kamala Khan, is both a teen girl and a Muslim, a Pakistani American. I’m going to do my best to talk about this series without using any spoilers because the plot devices used to explain her powers here are pretty cool and should be a surprise for the reader. This book is good. Wilson writes great dialogue and internal monologue. She has a feel for the character. The book feels like early Spider-Man (or recently Ultimate Spider-Man). That’s a really good thing. The family drama, the friend/love interest confusion, the uncertainty about her powers and how to be a hero, it all feels familiar and comfortable. Adrian Alphona makes Ms. Marvel look great. The art has an energy that’s fitting for both her powers and her personality. It feels youthful without being explicitly cartoony. I like the focus on detailed penciling.

The plot is excellent. Who does Kamala look up to? Carol Danvers, of course, not Captain America, not Iron Man, not Wolverine. She becomes Ms. Marvel sort of by accident because she makes herself look like Captain Marvel. It’s a cool explanation for her familiar look. Her mad scientist antagonist is both cool and mysterious, and maybe not an antagonist at all, it turns out. She’s had run ins with some of the main Marvel U., including a depowered Wolverine before his recent demise, the actual Carol Danvers, Spider-Man, and some others who are tied to her unfolding origin story. I look forward to this book each month. The number of new Marvel creations in recent years has slowed, with most creators choosing to do their new development at the indies, knowing that they’ll have both more control and more financial reward for doing so. Ms. Marvel bucks the trend. The book is doing well and I expect it to continue to grow and evolve. It looks promising for sure.

This leaves us to Thor, the newest of the female leads. The book is only two issues in, so I won’t be able to go into too much detail, but I can tell you some things about the creators and ask some questions about its future. Jason Aaron is at the top of the comics industry at the moment. He’s writing the best superhero comic. He’s about to write Star Wars with the fan favorite John Cassady, sure to be an enormous book. He’s done a major Marvel crossover, Original Sin, and done it well. He’s an indie darling with hits like Scalped, Men of Wrath, and Southern Bastards. His pairing here with Russell Dauterman probably raised some eyebrows. Thor was penciled by Ron Garney, Esad Ribic, and Simone Bianchi, three huge names. Dauterman, by contrast, is a relatively unknown commodity. I’ll say this: his art stands up and holds its own, even with these greats. This is (still) a great book.

Who is holding Mjolnir? What happened to Thor? Well, Thor was deemed unworthy, assumedly for being some sort of a dick. Thor is a great hero, but he’s also a Marvel hero and is prone to being, well, a meathead. He’s drunk a lot. He’s a god in the traditional sense, so he often thinks he’s better than everyone and is prone to god-like hubris. You can’t wield Mjolnir if you aren’t worthy, so Thor’s hammer was left unclaimed at the end of Original Sin. I honestly don’t know who is holding the hammer. Frigga is the easy answer. Too easy, probably. The lead-in to the first issue certainly pushes the reader to this conclusion. The blonde hair may lead some to believe it’s the Enchantress, Lorelei. But, why would she be acting like a hero? Brunnhilde? Perhaps. Marvel has tried, unsuccessfully, to push this character several times in recent years. I’d say that she has a better chance than the previous two. Sif? Almost assuredly not, but I wish. Sif rocks. I’d say 50% chance it’s an unknown, 25% Brunnhilde, and 20% any of the other three mentioned, with 5% left for some other Marvel character we haven’t discussed.

That’s a wrap for now. The Marvel Now! books with female leads are overall pretty good, but sadly She-Hulk, one of the best, is going away soon, and Elektra and Captain Marvel absolutely don’t make the cut. X-Men, while ok, is nothing special by X-book standards. Thor is an industry standard and Black Widow is a rising star. Ms. Marvel represents hope for the future: new, woman-penned female characters leading titles. Hopefully some commercial success for these books will inspire Marvel to do more with its line of female characters and to promote more female creators. DC could use to take some advice from their competitors and promote their characters that are women. There was a time in the mid-2000’s that they were on the right track; today, they’ve fallen behind, very far behind, Marvel’s line-up.