Girl Power – Women as Action Stars, by Christopher Derrick – Sympathy for the Devil #42 | @MDWorld

January 21, 2014 Chris Derrick 1 Comment

One of the places where comics KICK movies & TV’s ass is the freedom in which its creators can focus stories on strong female characters, characters who can inhabit a male-dominated world of action and adventure… and not be a financial risk; in fact, thrive.

A few months back, I lamented about the subpar female-driven action films in the last decade (remember Aeon Flux? No, not the cartoon on MTV’s Liquid Television, but the movie starring Charlize Theron… Now that could have been/should have been cool as shit and had all the mythology of a robust franchise baked in). Yet, I feel that we’re seeing new groundwork being established for the female action star with Katnis Everdeen in THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy, and perhaps Wonder Woman’s appearance in BATMAN v. SUPERMAN will warrant more financial risk on action/thriller movies with females at the helm.

In 2013, Jennifer Lawrence broke a 40 year streak of a woman starring in a film that dominated the box office race. Granted THE HUNGER GAMES has a rabid fan base from the books, which makes it an outlier in comparison to the male driven action heroes that get spawned from writer’s imaginations… but there are several female heroes from the last 50 years of fiction that could make their mark in the cinema. But you can just imagine that the flops are drudged up super-quick when the notion is proffered in development meetings.

As I said, TV has no bones embracing take-charge females — The CW’s Nikita immediately comes to mind, so does the now-canceled Cinemax show Hunted (you can catch it on CinemaxGo… and you should), but there’s also the fucking excellent Orphan Black on BBC America, and Covert Affairs.

Female action heroes in the comics make for great reading, because they seem emotionally more open than their male counterparts. I recently read ex-CIA case officer Valerie Plame’s first fiction book – “Blowback” – and was impressed by her interior struggle as well as her exterior struggle, which isn’t always the case with the male action hero. The writing was tense, terse and effective… I’m waiting for the next Vanessa Pierson novel (probably need two or three books out before Hollywood taps that character on the shoulder).

Kelly Thompson’s SHE HAS NO HEAD recently documents some of her favorite female heroines of 2013, and this got me thinking. What are the most compelling and consistently well-written female action heroes in the past year?

CATWOMAN — Selina Kyle is such a fascinating character (don’t know WHY she didn’t get more screen time in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES ‘cause she was the best part of the movie, and Anne Hathaway played her with charm, sass and power — everything you want in your Catwoman.

Even though Frank Miller has a misogyny cloud hanging over him, the way he interpreted Selina in his seminal BATMAN: YEAR ONE was a legitimate modern take on what drives Selina to be so good at being bad. A lot of people relish the fact that Catwoman is the only serious sexual attraction that Batman has. It adds to the fun; she’s like a drug that he fights to deny.

Miller might not be everyone’s cup of tea (especially in light of his radical conservative rants over the last couple of years), but he has a way of writing tragic women (see Martha Washington and the women of SIN CITY). So it he is too un-PC for you, don’t slip on reading the Ed Brubaker/Darwyn Cooke run with Catwoman; it’s from a while back, but it’s obviously worth reading.

FOREVER CARLYLE — the star in Greg Rucka and Michael Lark’s After-The-Fall comic LAZARUS is quickly rising in my favorite characters list (not just female characters). Forever or “Ever” as she’s known to her overlord family is attractive — as a character — because while she’s extremely powerful, she’s a pawn and is being emotionally manipulated, and you kinda want to see how she figures out what’s what and then what she’s going to do about it.

What would be interesting would for Rucka to write this book entirely from her POV, so we don’t learn anything unless she learns something. This is sort of tricky to do in a comic book, because of the nature of the medium, but I bet it would be possible (maybe I’ll try it myself in a story arc in our upcoming series DUSTED).

Also, she’s supposedly the “dumb brute” of the Carlyle family, and that is decidedly not the case… as clearly demonstrated in issue #5 when she’s sucker-shot in the back by a rival family’s minion, and the way she handles it tells you that there’s so much more beneath the surface. The first trade for LAZARUS is out now, so you can catch- up on what’s going on.

ALANA — the potty-mouthed star-crossed lover in Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples’ SAGA is a pure delight to read (and must be super-fun to write). There’s a casual sexiness to the way this character is written with her stubbornness, resourcefulness and seat-of-your-pants child-rearing attitude that overrides the seriousness of the plight Marko and she are in.

What makes her interesting is her role in the lovers-on-the-run dynamic; she’s the warrior-hothead! She’s the one with raging sexuality. She’s the one who acts with her “dick”. It’s a smart gender-reversal on Vaughn’s part, and it makes for better, if not delcious, reading. And since she is a soldier, it’s all acceptable… (even the yearning for pacifism) and being a soldier, she’s completely taken off-guard by the whole “mother” stuff… which again, is what you’d expect from the male in the relationship.

I actually think Alana is under-scripted (so far), because the series has focused on Marko and his family… so I’m going to put money down that we get to see more of Alana’s family/social baggage in the next story arc. I think at two trades are available for SAGA.

MAGIK — Illyana Rasputin makes the list, because I haven’t read an X-Men comic in over a decade (how can any read that dizzying Moebius Strip of a comic with continuity and character flips that is deliberately done is BEYOND me). However, I was tempted to pick up the “Battle for the Atom” cross-over the Brian Michael Bendis guided. And while the crossover was same-old/same-old (although Bendis’ skill is making not a chore to read must be commended), the only character that renewed a spark in what I did love in the X-Universe from the 70s and 80s, was Magik.

The early 80s miniseries that really explored her powers and the demon Belasco that she is/was connected to sealed the deal for me in thinking she was a hypercool character. I don’t even know if that mini has been re-printed as a trade, I’m sure it has and if so, it’s well worth picking up. It was one of writer Chris Claremont’s most interesting offshoots from the general X-men continuity.

Magik never got a lot of “panel time”, because she’s sort of beyond the struggles of the mutants in the X-Universe having the demon world of Limbo to lord over, but she’s been brought back some time recently (as I said I haven’t read an X-book in a decade), and that’s a good thing.

MARY in Brian Woods’ THE MASSIVE; another tough as nails/I-don’t-take-shit-I-give-shit character, but there’s something about this elusive eco-gangster that actually keeps the book’s underlying premise (which is a little soft) mysterious and intriguing. We never know how Mary is going to behave or react — and outside of the dramatic tension that always brings — she seems to have some extra-normal powers.

And Mary is such an enigma; this allows Woods to have a lot of fun with her. Nearly two years in on the book, and we know very little (if that is to believed) of his backstory, how she hooked up with Israel or what her passions, dogma and beliefs are. I think I read somewhere that Woods was only going up to issue 30 with this book, so we’ll probably not learn enough about Mary before the story ends…

SUZIE in Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky’s SEX CRIMINALS; this book is some cool shit — in concept and execution — as it claims to be a “crime” comic (it can’t be that obvious), but it’s more about sexual exploration of a young woman and a young man who share the power to stop time when they have an orgasm! If the lettercol is ANY indication of the idiosyncrasies that we all have when it comes to sex and what interests Fraction, this will be a got-you-in-a-headlock series.

I’ve only read two of the four published issues, but there’s something extra genuine, yet impish about Suzie that makes delving into her world fun and introspective. She’s telling the story of her sexual awakenings and early experimentations and how they actually led to her learning how to control her time-stopping power. It’s a trip, because this is a way for us to have this story told and not have it be maudlin or something in the Judy Bloom realm.

HAWKEYE — the girl, Kate Bishop — the young, spunky, garrulous does a bang-up job as the “new” Hawkeye, but I think that has a lot to do with how Matt Fraction (that guy again) scripts those books and David Aja draws the panels. She’s more than a sketch, she’s a full-blown character with all the complexities that you want from a character, particularly a female character in the comics.

How she interacts with Clint Barton is plausibly authentic for that “elder guy trying to TEACH the younger girl” dynamic (even though she ends up teaching him more about life)… there is a sexual tension component to their relationship, but it’s not pronounced (in fact all the female characters in Clint Barton’s life are exceptionally executed). There are already two Hawkeye trades (vol.1 & vol. 2) that you can read to get your healthy dose of the snappy girl.

LEE WARD – last on the list (but this list is in no particular order; can’t categorized women, they all have their own pluses and minuses) from Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy’s THE WAKE. The first 5 issues, part one of this 12-issue saga, just wrapped and I believe the next issue doesn’t kick in until February.

Lee is a dynamic character with a shrouded past that I don’t even think she’s fully comes to grip with. A marine biologist with a concentration in whales (just trying to be concise) by trade who has sacrificed a lot (namely a marriage and full relationship with her son, Parker, which she’s trying to keep strong) before she’s called away for a top secret government mission. She’s smart… no, astute is a better choice of words, and she drives the action and understands the forces the scientist A-Team is up against.

All these female action stars wouldn’t get a chance when it comes to the movies (and I wager that also has a lot to do with action films, with their big budgets, are slaves to the diktats of the international marketplace, where women are still, predominantly, held in less regard), but they’re commanding a lot of attention in the comics world.

To a certain extent most of these female characters “act like men”, but I think that’s the point — they face the problems the men has predominantly faced in comics and literature, and they get to be the “hero” most of the time. Yet, they’re still uniquely women, and well-characterized women at that.

It makes for richer storytelling, don’t you think?