Positive Female Characters In Comics

Oracle was top of the list, no question.

But wait, THEY RETCONNED HER OUT OF EXISTENCE. Which is why I no longer buy comics.

Hmmm... do we have to talk about hero comics from the Big Two? Or can we look at comics about other stuff, or by other writers? Because I'd like to point to large swathes of say, Ross Campbell's stuff. His characters are flawed, diverse and human, and there's enough variation in their behaviour, personalities, body types etc etc that I could name many of them as positive, even if those same characters have some negative traits.

His current online work, Shadow Eyes, has the following, positive, female characters so far:

Scout. Cisgendered, female person of colour. Also shape-shifter superhero. Into veganism, animal rights and protecting the innocent. Sometimes makes mistakes and takes it too far, can be a bit of a flake.

Kyisha Lynn. Intersex, identifying as female, best friend of Scout. Into activism and charity work, race theory, queer theory and sexism studies.

Sparkle Pink. Very feminine, cisgendered person of colour. Probably the most "girly" character so far. Very strong-willed - she's gone through a lot in the short time the comic's been running, but she doesn't seem to have let any of it dent her naturally optimistic, cheerful nature.

Max. Scout's mum, a single teen mother who has incredibly different interests to her daughter, supports Scout in everything and just a really nice person.

Alessandra Kelley said:

Agatha Heterodyne, from "Girl Genius," by Phil and Kaja Foglio. There is no doubt that Phil Foglio is a very cartoony artist, and his women are all pretty pneumatic. But his stories are respectful and interesting and funny and his women characters are fully developed. Agatha is smart and thoughtful and capable and compassionate. Her relationship with her evil mother is well done, and the one with her mentor, Zeetha the Warrior Princess from Lost Skifander, is hilarious and plausible.

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This x 1000. I love Agatha, and really all of the Girl Genius characters (even the ones I hate, I enjoy hating them). It's especially wonderful to see her develop from the shy, clumsy, self-doubting lab assistant at the beginning of the series to Lady Heterodyne as she is now. For those who haven't read it, being a Heterodyne entails being more than slightly crazy, but Agatha handles the crazy part with a fair amount of grace and poise. Unlike most of her primarily male forebears!

Anyway, I generally don't read American comics, I tend to read Japanese Manga mostly. Is it ok to open the discussion to that?

Pretty much every character in Misty (IPC) was well-rounded and believable as individuals, and even though it fizzled out at the end (there are a few all-too predictable stories at the end of the run) it stands out, particularly for the The Sentinels strip, though some of the animal-themed one-off stories were quite good as well.

The Maxx had a great run, and Julie isn't another of the identikit characters who populated Image at that time.

Halo Jones, especially in the last storyline with a military setting, manages to rise above the usual SF cliches magnificently, and shows a real woman surrounded by things which are absurd. There are points in the story which are still unmatched.

And Love And Rockets, naturally.

Digger (I believe it was Digger-of-convoluted-tunnels in full) from the Digger comic by Ursula Vernon.

Maybe not entirely applicable since Digger is a wombat, not a human. But Digger is smart, loyal, brave, has a good sense of humour and can handle herself in quite a number of tough situations.

My daughter was very fond of this DC title when she was 12 or so years old. I remember reading a few issues at the time and thinking they provided a pretty strong female role model for young readers.

I really like Tarot and Raven Hex from Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose.

They're drawn idealistically but their personalities are strong and competent and fun. They make mistakes, of course, but they try to fix what they can and are very realistic in the way they deal with various situations.

silverahra said:

I really like Tarot and Raven Hex from Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose.

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Tarot? Srsly? The only comic in living memory which features a haunted vagina? That's precisely the kind of title I have been avoiding...

What? Nobody mentioned Strangers in Paradise yet? Or, for that matter, anything by Terry Moore? (But, really, SIP is the place to go for fully developed, smart, funny, flawed, dysfunctional, emotionally rich female characters. And that's just the two leads.)

Personally, I think we're better off in comics than in most other media. When I was a kid, in the seventies, about the only decent female TV character I knew was Emma Peel. In comics, I had Wonder Woman ('cause she was not at all girlish, more like one of the guys), Magica de Spell (no really, just get past the villainy thing and see how she's rooted in her contradictions, living between tradition and modernity and all) and Peppermint Patty (still my favorite Peanut. I didn't even get all the vulnerability back then, i just thought she was cool). Also (but I didn't know that then) Adèle Blanc-Sec, Modesty Blaise and, most of all, Laureline from the Valerian comics - designed in the Sixties to be the better-at-everything counterpart to big-shot space hero Valerian.

Nowadays, in the wake of Buffy, TV is finally catching up while comics... well, good thing there's more than just mainstream.

Ted Naifeh's Courtney Crumrin is a good one to begin with - at first, she's just a girl who likes magic, but there's a darkness and seriousness to her that really sells the character. A bit like Anie in Gunnerkrigg Court, now I think of it, but Annie has freinds who keep her ... accessable.

And now I'm lost in webcomics land and cutting this short. So much to read...

Also, JoNightshade, I know Oracle was awesome and it's a shame they retconned her, but the new Batgirl is really good.

I guess I'm missing the point here, but Wonder Woman has been around since the beginning.

The seventies Wonder Woman comics (sans powers, and more action orientated) were markedly different from the bondage-heavy early comics. The change in direction was the biggest DC has ever made to one of the Big Three, and stuck for longer than expected.

NSFW!

BigWords said:

Tarot? Srsly? The only comic in living memory which features a haunted vagina? That's precisely the kind of title I have been avoiding...

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Oh man, the haunted vagina one!

Heh. I think Tarot characters are a little beyond merely "idealised", too.



*edit*

AHAHA Okay, I know it's off topic but googling Tarot comics is a goldmine of bad porn art comedy. I swear the more recent covers are even worse.

Yes, Tarot actually has funny things like a haunted vagina and yes the Tarot and Raven Hex are drawn with large chests. However, if you actually read the comic book, you will find plenty of good things there.

First of all, what's wrong with making jokes like that? What does taking things seriously have to do with being a woman? There are plenty of things about my body and my life that I can only deal with through humor.

Second of all, rather than having an idealized life due to her form, the character shown on that cover, Raven Hex, was mocked in high school for developing so early and had some major body issues she had to overcome...sound familiar to any of you women out there?

In addition, Tarot and Raven Hex's mother is drawn in a matronly style (read as carrying extra weight) and yet is proud of her body and feels confident about her looks despite not having the young firm body her daughters have...again, does that problem sound familiar out there to anybody? How many other comics out there deal with body image issues regularly even in 'beautiful people'? He, also, regularly celebrates the beauty of women with 'less than perfect bodies'. In each comic book is a picture of a fan who got chosen to be that month's Broadsword Babe and I'll tell you right now...they are NOT professional models. Jim Balent celebrates women in all forms.

His men are incredible too. Skeleton Man is the only comic book hero I can think of off the top of my head that doesn't treat his superheroine girlfriend as weaker, sillier or a sidekick. Their relationship is really giving and loving and very equal and a great example of a healthy relationship.

His stories, also, hit on some very serious points. His issue "The Last Mermaid" which dealt with the effect of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on sea life and (in his book) mer-people brought me to tears, it was so well written and drawn.

So, I'm sticking with my original comment.

Tarot has strong female characters and a wonderful message for women because it's one of the only comic books that doesn't make me roll my eyes at the scantily clad overly idealised women but makes me happy I'm a woman and think it's a fun thing and that I can laugh along with the humor of being human. You just have to approach it without assumptions based on the art.

I do appreciate a challenge. So, I'm going to read what issues of Tarot I can get ahold of and write a series of feminist critiques on my tumblr.

Oh gods what have I gotten myself into...

Got started. I'll tag my reviews with Tarot Witch of the Black Rose so they're easy to follow.

Michonne from Walking Dead count? Or are we talking distinction between comics and graphic novels? Sorry to be ig'nant, but I've only ever read the Walking Dead and the early horror comics. Oh, and Judge Dread. SO not an expert!

Hmmm... I don't know if my image was hotlinking or not, so I've altered it.

zahra said:

Oh, and Judge Dread. SO not an expert!

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Judge Anderson is an amazing example (and, in a way McGruder also, but she's more difficult to explain), as she is one of the few Judges to manage a personal life as well as being a Judge. She's also shown a willingness to take responsibility for things when they go badly wrong, unlike a large number of male Judges in the series - Dredd included.

DarthPanda said:

Power Girl is totally the most positive female comic character. Her name is even "Girl Power" spelled backwards.

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No. Firstly, her name spelled backwards would be Lrig Rewop, not Girl Power. Secondly, she has been (since at least the late 80s) the subject of a running joke about her breasts both in-universe and in commentary about the character. The mess of her back-story (Atlantean/Kryptonian/who cares these days) is matched only by the gratuitously revealing costume - as the too-large images you provide as examples show.

There is a tonal and contextual difference between the portrayal of Power Girl and, say for example, Tank Girl, who is aware of her sexuality, but does not let that define her. Even some of Milo Manara's characters would be more appropriate than Power Girl in the context of this discussion.

Ah, I got the impression DarthPanda was using humour...

Now, if I was going to go for a positive female character who is also stacked, Big Barda would be my choice. At least up until her off-panel fridging, *unintelligible mumbled swearing*

I can't believe that anybody took my post as even being remotely serious.

This thread is one of several (including ones in Gaming and Movies), which people are taking seriously - I know it is sometimes difficult for people to place comics on the same level as other media, but reducing the conversation to mockery does a disservice to comics as a whole.

I suggest that before more comments are added, people read through some of the other threads which have covered much the same ground.

DarthPanda said:

I can't believe that anybody took my post as even being remotely serious.

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I can't believe that you thought your post was even remotely funny.