Women’s History Month: 31 Days of Power Volume 6

The heroes in our comics should reflect the world around us—and that means they should be diverse in their backgrounds, ethnicities, preferences, and genders.

In that spirit, we’ll be celebrating Women’s History Month by honoring female characters in comics history for the month of March.


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Barbara Gordon
First appearance: Detective Comics #359 (DC, 1967)
Created by: William Dozier, Julius Schwartz, Carmine Infantino
Alter ego: Batgirl, Oracle

In 1988, writer Alan Moore did the unthinkable. In The Killing Joke, the storyline involved the Joker showing up at Barbara Gordon’s front door and shooting her in the spine with a pistol, rendering her paralyzed from the waist down.

While debate rages on as to whether there’s a sexist bent to Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke—Barbara was posed naked by the Joker and photographed in order to psychologically torment her father, Commissioner Jim Gordon—the fact remains that it was a defining moment for the character. Barbara remained in a wheelchair for over 20 years of comics, working as Oracle to employ her computer hacking skills to help Batman in his war on crime.

As part of DC’s 2011 New 52 relaunch, Gail Simone—who listed Barbara as one of many female comics characters who’ve been “killed, mutilated, and depowered”—returned her to the role of Batgirl in a new solo series that saw Barbara undergoing experimental surgery and treatment for PTSD in order to restore the use of her legs. It was a controversial move for the character, who had since become a champion of the physically disabled as one of the most visible major comic book characters to use a wheelchair.

Where Barbara’s physical disability defined the way she continued to fight crime, the most important thing about Barbara is that she never gives up. Central to her character is an indomitable spirit and an undying need to do the right thing. It’s what separates her from the rest of the Bat-family. The Robins—Dick, Tim, Damien, and Carrie—are defined by their subservience to Batman and a need for approval. As Batgirl, however, Barbara often runs contrary to Batman’s wishes.

Because of this, she stands on her own as a character with her own identity rather than being “the girl one”—she may have been inspired by Batman to fight crime, but her motivations are far different. Batman fights crime as a reaction to something that was taken from him. It’s a selfish motivation to do something that benefits others. Barbara fights crime simply because she’s got the tools, she’s got the talent—the woman has a PHD in Library Science, is an expert gymnast, master of hand-to-hand combat, and is a computer genius—and because it’s just the right thing to do.

You can find Barbara currently in the stellar series Batgirl, written by Cameron Stewart and drawn by Babs Tarr.


Jean Grey

Jean Grey
First appearance: X-Men #1 (Marvel, 1963)
Created by: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby
Alter ego: n/a

It is frustratingly impossible to make a list of powerful, influential women in comics without mentioning Jean Grey. She’s the central character in one of the most successful comic book properties in history and the events of her life have echoed through generations of X-Men comics. But the truth about Jean is that she’s more interesting when she’s dead.

If you look at Jean’s history, there should be something there to grab onto, something that makes her exceptional as a character. Her mutant powers of telekinesis appear around the time of puberty, Professor X comes along and uses mental blocks to rein them in until she’s strong enough to control them on her own. She parades around with the X-Men as their token female until she was possessed by the Phoenix Force—the cosmic culmination of the universe’s life force—and realized her full potential as a telepath and telekinetic. The Phoenix Force proves to be far too strong for her, she consumes a star, causing a supernova that inadvertently causing the deaths of billions of extraterrestrial beings. Overtaken by guilt, she—in a nutshell—eventually commits suicide in order to save all of existence from falling to the anger of the Phoenix Force.

And that’s only the first time she died.

On the other hand, Jean is victim to a massive jumble of played out tropes plaguing female characters. She’s the driving force of a love triangle involving Wolverine and Cyclops. She’s constantly being manipulated into losing control of her powers. With all of her inherent power, she’s still more damsel in distress than she ever is knight in shining armor. At the same time, she’s also hailed as this ‘chosen one’ who is supposed to be one of the most potentially powerful beings in the galaxy.

Jean Grey—in continuity—has now been dead (for the the 3rd or 4th time now) since writer Grant Morrison killed her in 2003, and honestly, she’s better that way because it opened a massive door for future writers. In 2012, when Brian Michael Bendis brought the teenaged 1960’s-era X-Men from the past into the present he created a situation where he put a young Jean Grey in a position where she had to deal with the repercussions of over 40 years of comic book continuity. The result was—finally—a Jean Grey that fulfilled her character potential rather than her superhero potential.

Jean Grey is dead. Long live Jean Grey.


April

April O’Neil
First appearance: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2 (Mirage, 1984)
Created by: Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird
Alter ego: n/a

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles debuted independently in 1984 as the brainchild of creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The comic was a parodic send up of two very popular Marvel series at the time—Daredevil and Uncanny X-Men—featuring four mutated turtles who learned kung-fu and loved pizza. It was just ridiculous enough that it become one of the most popular properties in history, spawning multiple toy lines, cartoon series, comic book series, live action films, and yes, even a live musical tour.

The human character through which we experience the turtles is one April O’Neil—a problematic character because April has been reinvented so many times depending on the media she’s portrayed in that it’s difficult to pin down a defining character trait.

Despite her original roots in the comics as a computer scientist under Dr. Baxter Stockman—who would eventually become one of the Turtles’ worst enemies—April’s most recognizable portrayal was as an intrepid television reporter in 1987’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, which put her right in the living rooms of homes around the country.

And this April was fantastic. She was a television news anchor who, much like Lois Lane, was willing to put herself in extreme danger to get the story, as evidenced by her first appearance in the cartoon, where she’s being chased through the sewers by a bunch of ninjas called The Foot. She chose to immerse herself in the Turtles’ world, initially because it meant getting a good scoop, but later because they had uncovered a huge criminal organization and she knew that she was in a position to help stop it.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong and everything great about that version of April but even better was her portrayal by Judith Hoag in 1990’s feature film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 1990’s April was fearless when she faced off against a group of the Foot in an NYC subway tunnel, and numerous other times throughout the film. April’s an incredibly well-written character in that film—she’s a career woman in the a male-dominated industry in the 90’s fighting for respect, living on her own in New York City, falls in with the Turtles after being rescued by them, and then uses her platform to help them dismantle and expose the Foot. It’s excellent character work, and she never falls victim to the ‘damsel in distress’ trope.

Enter Michael Bay. Bay’s wholly terrible and unnecessary Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film in 2014 had Megan Fox as a completely ineffectual April O’Neil who exists solely to be rescued by male characters at every turn—effectively taking a wrecking ball to 30 years of character growth and putting it on big screens across the world. It’s a terribly reductive and irresponsible portrayal of a female character in a property that’s aimed directly at children.

Well, at least we still have the comics. IDW’s most recent TMNT comic series, which began in 2011, heavily references the original source material, presenting us with a capable, tough, street smart, empathetic, courageous April. It’s one of the better examples of a three dimensional character in comic books who has her own life in addition to the insanity that is the Turtles’ world, and it’s absolutely worth the read.

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