I remember being 5 years old and sitting, doe-eyed, at my grandparents house every Saturday morning. I wasn't there for breakfast. I'm sure in my parents mind I was there to visit and have family time. I knew, even at five years old, that I was there for the X-men.
Marvel's bunch of mutants from the Xavier school had recently enthralled me. I loved the smooth talking Cajun Gambit. The punchy, take-no-prisoners attitude of Wolverine appealed to me even then. I loved the near naked, strangely sexualized Jean Grey and Rogue.
And I think that's where the problem starts for most young comic book fans.
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Seriously, how do those proportions even work?
Source: http://bit.ly/1en5ESX |
When I was a kid, what I wanted out of my comic books could be boiled down to two things; boobs and battles. I wanted to see my
male favorites kicking the teeth out of bad guys like Venom, Carnage, Magneto, and Juggernaut. I wanted my
female favorites to stand there looking pretty in outfits that I could have no conception of just how impractical they were to female warriors. Admittedly, I was a kid, and, as all kids do, I eventually grew up. For me, the days of boobs and battles, whether we're talking in comics, classical literature, films, music, or otherwise, are long over.
I took a 12 year break from comic books. I just didn't have the money when I was fourteen, and my dad had grown out of the hobby; no more freebies. In August 2013, I made my way back to the books that had defined my conceptions of heroes as a child. Spider-man, the X-men, Batman, and more began filling up boxes that had only been collecting dust for a decade.
Yet, as I spent and read, I found that things haven't changed all that much. Female characters, for the most part, are still relegated to the role of love interests, catalysts through death, and eye-candy. Progressive, popular females like Batwoman and Captain Marvel have their books rebooted and their creative teams gouged. In the case of Batwoman, her being a strong, lesbian female who wanted to get married was too much for the comic world, inciting her AAA writer to leave the book when DC refused to let her commit to the woman she loved.
I admit, there was a time when I let myself shrug these problems off with a "that's just comics" attitude. Then I started doing some research.
It only makes sense in any business to play to what your customers want. With comic books, it seems only natural to assume, then, that big businesses DC and Marvel should be writing stories about buxom bimbos without brains; right? As it turns out, the majority of comic book readers are not teenage boys. In fact, most comic book readers are mid-twenties to their mid-to-late 40's. Yes, we are still mostly male, but recent statistics show that women represent as much as 25% of comic book readership.
With that being the case, why is it so damn hard to get an interesting female character? Why is it so tricky to write a woman that can be pretty or not, can be smart or not, yet compelling enough to get people to pick up her book week after week? Ostensibly, it's all about the cycle.
As I was told recently at my local comic shop, women simply don't make for interesting storytelling. As if looking into a darkened reflection, someone my age, someone who grew up reading comics for the same reason I did was telling me that women do not make interesting, compelling characters, and that, my friends, points to the issue.
The big two, Marvel and DC, continue to push out AAA titles that feature lame-brained, eye-candy that gives rise to this backward idea. A lot of men grow up and realize that poorly written female characters are simply that; a product of poor writing. However, too many more think it is symptomatic of the gender. The big two, just like any other form of role model--make no mistake; their characters are role models--has a responsibility to craft an open worldview for young men, old men, and women to draw from. We rag on Miley Cyrus for acting like trash yet its okay for one of the most popular mediums in modern entertainment to train readers to think that's how women
act, should act-as a rule?
It's especially frustrating to me in the case of Marvel. The X-men were originally conceived as social commentary against bigotry and oppression. That team, black, white, blue, male, female, were all in it together. Spider-man was written to be this every-man; anyone who ever felt the sting of poverty and the pain of lost love, male or female, could connect with the Web-slinger. Unfortunately, Marvel has since betrayed the essence of those characters, both in their writing and in the company's inability or lack of interest in encompassing real characters of both genders.
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Image's Rocket Girl features a female lead that A)looks like a real person and B)is a bad ass time-cop
Source:http://bit.ly/1ebv3yW |
Look, I'm not going to make the change by myself. Me dropping a chunk of my weekly contribution is not going to topple Marvel or DC. Having said that, I hope taking my money to companies like Image, Dark Horse, and IDW at least helps keep their female lead books afloat.
Are you a comics fan? What do you think about the state of female characters in the big two's books?
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