TRAGIC COMICS
IT'S A HARD KNOCK LIFE FOR THE FEMALE SUPERHERO
by Jason Zasky

If you think Aquaman, Batman and Spiderman lead a dangerous existence consider the fate of their female counterparts: Aquagirl (dead), Batgirl (paralyzed), Batwoman (dead) and Spiderwoman (dead for a while, de-powered). While “bad” things happen to male superheroes they tend to survive the unpleasantness—at the very least, the males die noble and heroic deaths while fighting the forces of evil. On the other hand, comic book heroines tend to suffer through tragic lives, and, more frequently than not, die gruesome or untimely deaths.

Painkiller Jane

Upon coming to this realization, comic book writer Gail Simone began pondering the meaning of such divergent treatment. On her Web site, “Women in Refrigerators” (the site’s title is derived from Green Lantern, in which the hero finds his girlfriend chopped up and stuffed in the fridge), she not only asks “why?” but provides a laundry list of unbecoming conditions that have befallen comic book heroines.

“It’s amazing and horrific,” says Trina Robbins, a writer and comic book herstorian, who also notes that the collective physique of female characters has become increasingly distorted (even by comic book standards) since the early 1990’s. “They are being drawn with enormously exaggerated breasts and tiny waists,” reminds Robbins, perhaps adding insult to injury.

“It leaves you wondering about any current superheroine you may be reading about,” says Sara Beeves, writer and board member of Friends of Lulu, a non-profit organization founded to encourage more women to read and/or create comics. “What’s going to happen to them?”

Following are selections from Simone’s list, found at http://www.the-pantheon.net/wir/women.html.

Aurora: multiple personality disorder, de-powered
Betty Banner: abused, changed into a Harpy, multiple miscarriages, dead
Black Canary I: dead
Black Canary II: tortured, made infertile, de-powered
Buf from X-Men: crippled
Captain Marvel II/Photon: de-powered, ceded code name to a male hero
Celsius: insane, dead, called a delusional liar
Christine Helvin of Troublemakers: victim of date rape, discovered she could never have children because she was no longer human
Dawnstar: wings cut off, possessed by another persona
Diamond Lil: kidnapped, experimented on by own government, developed benign breast tumor
Domino: kidnapped, tortured
Elasti-Girl: only original Doom Patroller to stay dead
Firestar: powers were sterilizing her
Fury II: child kidnapped, husband killed (twice), insane
Hawkwoman: de-powered
Illyana Rasputin: kidnapped and raised by demons, aged, de-aged, dead
Invisible Woman: miscarriage of second child
Jet of New Guardians: died in battle after contracting HIV
Karen Page: addicted to drugs, made porn films, infected with HIV, dead
Kinetix: de-powered (twice), catatonic
Lady Flash: evil, dead
Laurel Kent: revealed to be an evil robot, dead
Mantis: child taken away, dead
Mirage of Team Titans: impregnated by rape
Mockingbird: abducted and mind-manipulated into a relationship, dead
Ms. Marvel I/Warbird: mind-controlled, impregnated by rape, powers and memories stolen, cosmic-powered then de-powered, alcoholic
Negative Woman: de-powered
Power Girl: de-powered, magically impregnated, made vulnerable to unprocessed natural materials (like sharp sticks)
Psylocke: eyes removed, eviscerated, de-powered, mind-swapped
Rachel Summers/Phoenix II: lobotomized
Red Guardian II: kidnapped and brainwashed into the love-slave of a supervillian Scarlet Witch: children die/vanish/are lost because they are figments of her imagination
Snowbird: child and husband murdered, insane, dead
Starfire: raped, tortured, enslaved, forced into marriage (twice)
Triplicate Girl: one body killed, one presumed dead but revealed to be Glorith’s pawn
Wolfsbane: locked in werewolf form for a while, needs major therapy
Wonder Woman: killed, revived, but lost goddess powers

LINKS
http://www.the-pantheon.net/wir (Women in Refrigerators Web site)