The Girls Got It Going On…

I had a whole idea for today's article, where I was going to discuss the thrill of encountering new heroes (or, at least, protagonists), like, totally new characters in totally new books, often from creators that are totally new to you, all while that song that says "We don't need another hero…" rattled in my brain.

It was going to work, I think, and I might still write it again, but I realized that all of the characters that I was going to talk about, all the characters that have been really engaging me as of late, all have been…well, like…women. And, like…that's okay, right?  I mean, I still dig BatMAN and Spider-MAN and SuperMAN and FLA, er, Flash, but recently, it's been stories featuring female leads that have been the ones that I have been enjoying the most.

We'll get to the specific characters below, but I wonder… why is that? To my female readers–do you find some kind of "insight" when you read a book with a male protagonist?  Because even if I am not really getting a female perspective (most, if not all, of the writers behind the books I will be discussing are male), I still feel something refreshing about the main characters go about the situations, you know?  I wonder if male writers relish the challenge of writing a female lead, and, honestly, how many of them completely blow it and end up writing some story based on some guy's fantasy about how life is for women.  I dunno. It's a meaty topic, probably better suited for a graduate paper than my lowly Tuesday column, but it's something we can at least enjoy talking about.

The first book that I followed with any kind of regularity that had a female protagonist was Alias, by Brian Michael Bendis. If you have read it, you know it to be awesome. If you have not, it is, go read it–it be awesome.  I really enjoyed the story, and I loved the character of Jessica Jones, so much so that I am pretty much always stoked to see her pop up in an Avengers book.  Her perspective on solving crimes and dealing with her personal life was just…well, it was a bit like seeing "the other side," in a way, which is probably drastically over simplifying everything, but at that point, I had no other reference, you know? Later, with Brian Wood's Local, I really got much closer to the character of Megan (even though she drove me nuts a bit–I think she drove herself nuts a bit, actually), and it was just really interesting to think about how I would deal with the situations she was in…in the end, I found myself, not for the first time, getting some sense of how women do deal with emotions and relationships differently than men…it's just that different perspective that was so compelling, you know?

Which makes a few of the characters I have been enjoying recently even cooler, because some of them are actually superheroes, you know? Take my first example, Power Girl.  Not only does she have to deal with running a big business, in many cases, proving to others (and herself, of course) that she can do it, but she also has to jump into the fray of being a superhero, with legitimately amazing super powers, another world usually dominated by men.  Like, yes, we have seen similar stories with guys, but how many of those stories have scenes where the characters then discuss how best to deal with their cat?  Or go shopping to help their friend get their mind off the fact that she has cancer?  I know,  I know: on the face of it, just reading that sentence, it sounds like these are just stereotypes, but look, I have been with Whitney for a very long time (something like 14 years or something) and from what I have seen, a great many moods have been improved by going shopping and get a pedicure with her friends. Indeed, the very concept of friendship is something that writers tend to enjoy with female characters, if only to really flex their dialogue muscles (yes, that may be a stereotype, but the fact of the matter is that when women are with other women they talk way more than when guys are with other guys, so it's one that works, I think)!

I guess I like those touches.  Again, it's kind of nice to see a different side of things. Like, yes, we see Peter Parker at school and doing his job and stressing about relationships, but, honestly, I already went through all that, you know? I much prefer watching Mary Jane go through those same scenes–I do! I just do. It's just more fun and…I don't know–I just like it.

We have been very lucky to have quite a few compelling female characters come our way in the past few months.  The most recent one, of course, is Scarlet, in Bendis and Maleev's new book of the same name. This is a compelling character. Yes, we have only seen the "cold open," and yes, we have a bit of a gimmick with the breaking of the fourth wall, but I defy anyone to pick up the first issue and not want to read the second one. Yes, it's the same old superhero story–hero suffers a loss, vows to make things right, but just given the character's attitude and the book's tone, this feels like a real different take on it. Scarlet reminds me a bit of Local's Megan, but that's great, that's totally fine with me.  And yes– I admit it, maybe I am buying into the fantasy of the starkly independent, attractive alt-hipster who kicks ass and looks good doing it–but aren't I doing the same thing when reading Batman? These are all fantasies, right?  

A main character is someone that solves problems in a way that keeps the audience coming back for more. The problems that guys deal with have been told for thousands of years.  I, for one, am very happy to see what the concept of responsibility through the lens of a female character. I want to see what power means, what strength means, what defeat means, what joy means to a female protagonist–what loss means. When I saw (500) Days of Summer, it was really interesting to see what it's like when a girl realizes that the guy isn't "the one" and decides to end the relationship, and I have to think it was illuminating for Whitney to see how the guy deals with being dumped after being so convinced that things were perfect.  High Fidelity, same thing–I wonder if the girls in the audience knew that guys absolutely throw themselves through the freakin' ringer when a relationship falls apart (just like girls, who go through the same kind ringer but deal with it very different ways).

Other female leads I am enjoying include American Vampire's Pearl, who finds her calling in life as she deals with the reality that trying to be an actor in LA really isn't an option for her anymore.  I like Gwen in iZombie and her particular challenges of trying to keep up a steady diet of flesh and brains while she deals with relationships and gathering clues about a possible murder.  And I love this Carin Taylor, aka, Velocity, who, in between adventures, escapes to watch a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston to relax. (And, of course, who can forget the Barbara in I Kill Giants?)

Yes, I am aware that not all girls are like this, just like not all guys are like Matt Murdock. I am also desperately aware, as I said above, that the guys who are writing these characters may very well be living out their own fantasies of what an ideal "comic book chick" would be like, but I tend to doubt that, at least in the books I am talking about.  There are tons of cheesecake-y books that objectify women; these books feature lots of showers and trying-on of underwear–these books..well, I don't know what to say about those books other than to ask you to imagine me doing a slightly embarrassed shrug.

I guess the natural question is whether or not these female characters do anything to bring in female readers, but I will resist because, honestly, I don't think the creators are bringing these characters to life to try to bring in a specific segment of the market.  It wouldn't work. Women, like men, are drawn great stories with memorable characters and compelling stakes.  Does it help if the lead is a woman like them?  I don't know–gentle ladies in the audience..does it?

Finally, it may be that as a kid, I am more drawn to male superheroes because they represent an ideal that, as a young boy, I am genetically designed to pursue.  As a powerless kid, I am drawn to the strong man who can fly away and who doesn't have parents telling him what do. As a high school student, I identify with the shy nerd by day who is secretly a wiseacre superhero by night. As I get older…well, I am what I am, and my life is…my life. I am not going to be a reporter. Or a lawyer. Or a cop. Maybe now I am less interested in the ideals of being a super man as I struggle to be just a good one.  Maybe now, I am a lot more interested in how a girl deals with these issues, just because it would be nice to get that different perspective, to see a different kind of humor, a different sense of adventure.  Life changes, and the stories you are drawn to change as well.

So, that's my big admission–I dig girls in comics.  How about you? Does this resonate with you at all or am I just going through some kind of Femme Crisis?
 

Mike Romo is an actor in LA who is suddenly thinking a lot about the film Tootsie.  He can be emailed or you can follow his antics on twitter.

P.S. On the way back from Wondercon, I flew back with a gentleman named Doug Kline, who is a writer, a comic book fan and the man behind the website popculturegeek.com.  Well, he's written a book called The Unauthorized San Diego Comic-Con Survival Guide, and the pocket-sizde book looks to be pretty handy, with tips on how to meet folks, where to get cheap eats, how to get cool swag, etc–check it out here.  SDCC gets crazier and crazier every year, so you're gonna need all the help you can get!