Rescuing Oneself from the Refrigerator (Valkyrie #1)

In 1994, the Green Lantern found his dead girlfriend stuffed in a refrigerator.

(Kitchen appliance reference: Women in Refrigerators.  If you need this frozen phenomenon explained, go read the original)

Countless D-list (and sometimes alphabetically stronger) female characters have been unceremoniously offed in order to make a male hero angry, give him something to fight against, frame his life around the tragedy of the loss of his frozen girlfriend/sister/neighbor/maid/acquaintance and grow as a man and hero.  Even on the pages of a modern comic book, it still happens.  A recent example that comes to mind is the death of Mattie Franklin in The Amazing Spider-Man's "Grim Hunt" storyline.  (Though her death was anything but unceremonious.  There was ceremony.  One might say it was downright ritualistic!)  Her death was ugly and violent.  The probability of her resurrection is small since we still have a few Spider-Women to spare.  Most importantly though, it inspired Spider-Man to go do hero stuff.

This week in one of Marvel's "Women of Marvel" one-shots, a hotel employee named Valerie goes out a window and falls to her death.  A super-powered villain and attempted sexual assault are to blame.  Here's where it gets different, though.  While a paramedic does try some heroics, the death woman wakes up and remembers that she's Valkyrie.  The bad guy summarily takes a beating and she goes on to become a hero once again.  It has all of the classic signs of the "women in refrigerators" syndrome, except that it's the woman waking up and doing the hero things instead of a male hero.  Huh.

Bravo, Marvel, for giving us a fun twist on a tired trope.

So I ask, does it still count as getting stuffed in a refrigerator if a character is killed as an impetus to her own personal growth and development?  And can she tell us once and for all whether or not the light stayed on while she was in there? 

Stay tuned.  Inquiring minds want to know.

Issue Review: X-Women (one-shot)

Chris Claremont is a writer I often have mixed opinions on. Reading various works from his decades-long career has elicited many different reactions from me, ranging from, "This man is a genius!" to, "What is this guy smoking?" Nevertheless, he is a man I also ought to thank. He can be credited with the creation of a host of strong mutant heroines, including two of my favorites: Rogue and Emma Frost. If any long-time writer is truly a supporter of the female super hero, it is Claremont.

That said, X-Women may not have been his strongest work, but I still found it to be a fairly decent read. It relies on the many-times-done plot device of our mutant heroes suddenly losing their powers due to some external influence. It does have bits of "typical Claremont" all over it. It stars an all-female cast of entirely his creations (Rogue, Kitty Pryde, Rachel Grey, Emma Frost, Psylocke), with Storm as the only exception. However, unlike some of Claremont's other more recent work, it did pass the "can I understand this without a Wikipedia backup?" test. That is always a plus. And, while I may be a continuity nerd, I think I can forgive the fact that placing this story within continuity will be a nearly impossible task.

There is always a fine line in deliberately female-centric super hero team tales between "a team that happens to be all female" and just a gimmick. The most enjoyable aspect of this story is that it solidly achieves the former. The grouping of X-Women with nary an X-Man in sight felt natural. This is a team of ladies and friends who can work skillfully and efficiently together and the story makes it feel like this is a normal rather than an exceptional thing. This is something the X-Men franchise has always done well in comparison to some other team-centric books.

It is the art that will undoubtedly generate the debate over whether X-Women is a feminist or misogynist work. Milo Manara is, without a doubt, a master of his craft. His art is beautiful, but it is also known for its eroticism. Admittedly, I don't think I can approach this with my usual points of critique. Yes, nearly every panel is drawn in a way I can only call "sexily". However, the panels are also detailed and more importantly... highly realistic. The characters may be unfailingly sexy, sultry and gorgeous, but they also are proportioned like real women. One doesn't hire Manara to illustrate a comic book without expecting women and sex. It is very easy to argue that his depictions of the X-Ladies is very objectifying. However, if one steps back and simply looks at this as a piece of art... it is quite stunning.

I often comment on how our favorite heroines end up dressed when they aren't in costume. Unlike their masculine counterparts, it is a rare thing that they wear anything that would be worn by a real woman on any occasion that doesn't involve photoshoots and catwalks. This issue is guilty if the same... that is unless these "real women" are unapologetic hookers. Again, this may be typical of Manara, but habit demanded that it be said. As a final positive though, despite the overall tone of Manara's artwork, some of the clothing choices are the only things I found to be specifically exploitative.

Overall, I found this to be an enjoyable read and a beautiful piece of art.

Crimes Against Fashion #1

This week, we bid farewell to Brian M. Bendis's current run on New Avengers.  For years and years, I was exclusively a follower of merry mutants in the X-Men.  However, Marvel's marketing machine worked.  House of M made me notice these other strange heroes, none of whom had an X-gene.  I was hooked.  I became an Avengers fan too.

I have all sorts of positive things to say about this special finale issue.  It wrapped up nearly every lose end, hit all the right notes, had great art and was just plain fun to read.  It was also especially gratifying to see my favorite Avenger, Ms. Marvel, take down Count Nefaria almost single-handedly and finally earn some spotlight time as a certified heavy-hitter.  However, what I really want to bring some attention to is Stuart Immonen's final two-page spread:

It was a breath of fresh air to see all of our favorite heroes taking a moment to enjoy their lives and go play in a park without having to deal with all of the stress and strife of the superlife.  What I truly appreciated, however, was the wardrobe choices.  Comics have a long history of putting many of their female heroes in positively atrocious civilian clothes.  The two most common sins are either outfits that are so revealing to the point of being trashy, or outfits that look like they've come off of a runway show that no real woman would actually ever wear.  And yet in this spread, all four of the Avengers ladies look casual, yet fashionable... and devastatingly normal.

In fact, the outfits that Immonen selected for Mockingbird (skinny jeans and ballet flats) and Jessica Jones (boot-cut with sandals) look remarkably like my own day-to-day wardrobe.  And that long-sleeved top with the extraneous drawstrings that Mockingbird is wearing?  I own that in purple.

I do have to pick on Ms. Marvel and Spider-Woman a bit, though.  A cute top and skirt is very normal for casual fashion nowadays.  I have tops like Carol is wearing in several colors and Jessica Drew's button-down will never go out of style.  There is still a rub (probably literally), though:

Who wears high heels for a walk in the park?!

They are very nice heels.  They're basic, practical and contemporary.  But seriously, there is not a pair of heels in existence that is ideal for a long walk. This did make me think a bit, however.  I've always imagined that there's all kinds of little side-effects to having super powers that most don't think about.  Carol Danvers is largely invulnerable.  This means that there probably isn't a shoe in the world that will give her blisters.  No little straps will cut her feet.  A rolled ankle won't do a bit of damage.  She can survive the experience of Count Nefaria AND any pair of cute, but normally torturous Jimmy Choos that you might throw at her.  Lucky girl.

Jessica Drew, what's YOUR excuse?