The Changing Roles of Women in Comic Books

In this article, I am going to specifically be talking about Marvel comics as I know these books the best with a dash of Dark Horse. If anyone wants to put in their two cents from the DC or Indie books, just leave a comment. So, I am going to be looking at the evolution of the role of women in comics in particular the character Sue Storms (now known as Sue Richards). Sue was probably one of the most innovative female characters created by Stan Lee in 1961 when she appeared in ‘The Fantastic Four’ Issue One. For the first time (at least in my knowledge), Sue Storm’s role was not just to be the damsel in the distress. She was actually a member of the team and an integral one at that. However, still in 1961, Sue Storm was often portrayed as the character that the rest of the Four had to save. Furthermore, although innovative at the time, the original Fantastic Four books seem quite dated with their opinions and the like. This is interesting as just a year later, Lee’s writing was more with today’s views with ‘The Incredible Hulk’. Sue Storm as a character has evolved to a greater extent in the recent films that were made recently. Jessica Alba was chosen to play Storm and was automatically the most well known actor to play any of the Four or Door. Alba’s Storm is portrayed as a woman that is strong minded as well as being able to cope easily in social situations unlike the socially inept Reed Richards. Furthermore, in both films, Alba was centre of the publicity campaign as well as being integral to helping the Silver Surfer in the sequel. Alba being centre could be argued because of her sex appeal however this is still a huge step forward as the film depicts her as the central reason to go watch the film. Do we see Mary Jane central in the Spiderman film posters? Is Jean Grey the character you remember or Wolverine in the X-Men films? So, I would argue that the character of Sue Storm has yet again evolved and being more innovative. Lee’s revolution of creating women that were as integral to the plot as the male character continued with ‘The Incredible Hulk’. Betty Ross is Bruce Banner(the antagonist)’s girl friend. However, yet again, Betty is not the pretty girl that needs saving who listens to her man’s every thought. No, Betty is very much the equal and if anything the stronger of the two as she has to survive through Bruce’s transformation into the Hulk. In my opinion, Betty Ross was the first in many of Lee’s female creations who was the stronger out of the two mentally. Yes she may not have any super powers, but without Betty Ross, Bruce would be a bigger wreck than he already is. Lee continued to revolutionize with possibly his most successful character Spiderman. All of the women in Peter Parker’s life are strong minded, capable women from Betty Brant to Aunt May. Firstly I am going to focus on the two main women in Peter’s life for the majority of the Spiderman series: Aunt May and Mary Jane. Both characters are further examples of the main character being physically strong but relying upon the mental strength of the women around him. Aunt May, although frail and ill has always been the rock that Peter could rely upon. It is arguable whether Peter could cope with loosing May especially as he has lost his parents and Uncle Ben in tragic ways. Moreover, the recent Back in Black story proved that Peter could not cope with the loss of May especially if he feared that he was the reason that she was put into danger. In Back In Black, after revealing his identity in the civil war, someone shoots Aunt May causing her to go to hospital in a critical state. Peter cannot cope and goes into a rage doing everything he can to find the gunmen. He eventually finds Kingpin and attacks him in a way that we would not expect of Spidey. Peter even makes the supreme sacrifice by giving up Mary Jane in One More Day in order to be sure that Aunt May was safe. Therefore, May is an example where the superhero is so dependant on this character that he would give up everything else in his life as long as he did not loose her. Next I will discuss Mary Jane. From before we even saw Mary Jane, we were aware that she was going to be a special character. She got an introduction greater than most heroes or villains do. Lee and Romita went months, teasing the reader by showing something covering MJ’s face or Pete being in the wrong place at the wrong time and therefore never getting to go on the blind date that their aunts had arranged. It was not till Amazing Spiderman Number 42 in 1966 that we first saw her as she uttered the iconic phrase ‘face it tiger, you’ve just hit the jackpot’. This phrase utterly told us everything about MJ that we wanted to know. This phrase is almost as iconic in the Spiderman mythos as ‘with great power come great responsibility’. Mary Jane was like no other character we had ever met in Peter’s universe and we all like him fell head over heels in love with her. She was feisty, outgoing, exciting. She spoke differently to anyone else. She was the woman that all the men wanted to be with and all the women wanted to be. She was confident and assure of herself. She was intelligent and could easily hold her own with Peter. In fact, she did not wait for Peter as she had the choice of the men. Later, she became a character that like Aunt May was a rock for Peter that he desperately needed. The Mary Jane character was a product of the time as she was created in the midst of the women’s movement and was exactly in my opinion the kind of thing that the movement was trying to do. Gwen Stacey was another strong female character that was introduced into Spidey’s life who like Mary jane was a strong and had her own mind. Liz Allan is a further example of this as Spidey does not feel that he would have been able to cope with the knowledge that his brother was Molten Man the way Liz does. Spiderman The Black Cat was introduced in 1979 and like other Spidey women was strong, confident and sexy. Even more so than other characters, Black Cat could not just go toe to toe with Spidey mentally but also physically as she started as a villain. Spidergirl is an alternative universe where Peter and Mary Jane’s daughter May Day Parker has become Spidergirl. This book has broken many boundaries for surviving. It is the longest running female centric superhero book and although Marvel have tried to cancel it, the fans just keep wanting more and more. Again, May Day is strong willed, confident and knows who she is. she portrays all of her parents best qualities, notably MJ’s mental prowess and Peter’s spider powers. Now, I am going to discuss Frank Miller’s contribution to women in comic books: he has had both a positive and negative effect. With his ground breaking work on Daredevil and Batman, Miller created some very strong willed women such as Elektra and Commissioner Ellen Yindel. Elektra, like the Black Cat in Spiderman is the equal of Matt Murdock in every way from intelligence, to her skill as a fighter. Commissioner Yindel shows her dominance by not following Gordon’s take on Batman. She believes that the Bat needs to be stopped and will not listen to what he has to say. So, Yindel and Elektra both are characters who are strong minded and are not the yes sir no sir women. Furthermore, neither of these women are damsels in distress. Now Miller’s negative contribution: Sin City. I enjoy Sin City, however every single woman in the book is portrayed as a prostitute, lap dancer and the like. Now some of these women are strong willed but again these jobs that they are assigned to, smells of going backwards not forwards. So, as a whole, I would argue that comic books have moved forward in the right direction with the evolution of the female characters.