Are Women Being Mistreated in Comics?

*Originally published on 9/14/09


A few years back, Gail Simone, a longtime comic book writer and current writer of Wonder Woman, launched a Web site that detailed the poor treatment of women in comic books. It was spurred by the death of Alex DeWitt, love interest of then newly appointed Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, who was murdered after only a few issues by a supervillain and stuffed into the refrigerator (hence the term "fridged").

Ever since then, anytime something happens to a female character, people cry out fridged. If Lois Lane got a paper cut, there would be an uproar on the Internet about how the writers are continuing the trend.

At first, I agreed with it, but the more I think about it the less I buy it. Look, comics have certainly gone the way of "grim and gritty" in recent years, and there is something to be said about the fact that comics think that excessive gore and violence equals maturity.

I would even say that there are some examples that hit the nail on the head, Tigra's assault several months back by The Hood was needlessly sadistic and downright disgusting. Sue Dibny also met a bad end. Karen Page, good lord, there's a prime example. They really put her through the wringer.

However, if you look at the list, a lot of the instances are pretty flimsy.

For crying out loud, Zatanna is listed as having her powers be severely limited...What comic is she reading? Zatanna's one of the most powerful mystics in the DCU. She can do whatever she wants, simply by saying it backwards. It's true, they tried to make her more of an elemental mystic at one point, but that was because people thought she was TOO powerful and it was hard to write stories about her. That didn't last long and Z's back to her good ol' backwards speaking ways.

One "example" that surprised me was Gwen Stacy, really? Granted, I haven't read the issue, but isn't that one of the classic Spider-Man stories. I always figured that was one of the few times a character death was handled right.

Another one was Raven, the Teen Titans member. It lists her as sometimes evil and sometimes dead. OK, this is true, but you could make that argument for Jean Grey as well, and she's nowhere to be seen on the list. Also of note, is that Raven's sometimes evil status is due to her father, who is a demon.

There are some pretty gruesome instances of violence against women. Early in Dini's run on Detective Comics, Zatanna had her throat slashed by Joker and a psychopathic killer actually stole Catwoman's heart. Now, this sounds bad, however I would argue that attacking Zatanna in that fashion is really the only way to keep Joker a legitimate threat. He has no qualms about hurting anyone so he would feel no remorse. As for Catwoman, it wasn't overtly shown. All we see is her on a hospital bed hooked up to a dialysis machine.

Another argument I have is that men get treated just as badly. Yeah I said it. Did people get this upset when Jason Todd was brutally beaten to death by a crowbar? What about when Talia (daughter of super-villain Ra's al Ghul) essentially date raped Bruce Wayne to create Damian, that little hellspawn. Green Arrow was also raped. Nightwing (former Robin Dick Grayson) was pumped full of lead shortly before the revamp. Superman was pummeled to death back in the 90's by a monster called Doomsday. One of the few instances of a male character's death causing an outcry is Hal Jordan, who went nuts and became a super villain before dying.

With a serial medium like comics, characters are going to die or get hurt. It creates drama and with superhero stories, it's only natural.

I'm sure if I went and looked, I could find just as many instances of men getting screwed up in comics.

Some of these deaths were just for shock value and didn't add much to the story. I don't think that writers should feel that they have to torture characters to get readers' attention. Having characters' lives be put in danger is part of the story when it comes to superheroes. We shouldn't freak out just because a character was held hostage or even depowered. Depowering means little in the grand scheme of things. It's just a way to mix things up, ultimately the status quo will be restored.

It's important that writers know that readers are getting sick of the whole "grim and gritty" style in comics. We want, mature stories, yes, but that's not how you go about making one. More often than not, they go over the edge and it results in Tigras or Karen Pages. This isn't limited to female characters though and there is some wiggle room involved.

Characters will die in fiction, it's just the way of things. Some will be male and some will be female. The reaction should be the same for both. If it is overly sadistic and cruel, then by all means speak out, but don't go into a nerd rage just because a character is put in a life threatening situation.