Jan. 4, 1991
It’s been a truism in the comics that a female lead cannot sell a comic book.
Now, of course, X-Men, in its free-flowing membership, has boasted lineups that were sometimes more than 50 percent female, but the title has Men right there, so it was OK to buy it. For that matter, although there was demand for years for Marvel to publish an ongoing comic book featuring Wolverine, when fans discuss series for the female characters it’s always, “When will Rogue (or whoever) get her own limited series?” Is there any demand for an ongoing series with an X-Woman? Probably not, because, if there were, Marvel would publish it.
What other females are currently carrying their own titles? She-Hulk, but that boasted John Byrne, who was doing some really good work. If it had been launched with less popular creators, it probably would have fared as well as the original Savage She-Hulk. No others at Marvel, methinks. Over at DC, we’ve got the perennial Wonder Woman. Any female leads in their own title? Uh– have they canceled Huntress yet?
Ah, but the independents! The new wave of comics! Certainly they boast lots of– Uh– hmm. Nope. And no, Ms. Mystic, the world’s only biannual monthly, doesn’t count. And, I’m sorry, but Flare shouldn’t count.
Now, oddly, this column is not actually about the dearth of women leads. It’s about why the audience doesn’t support titles that do feature women.
You could argue that, most times, the titles have sucked. Well, that’s true to a degree. But there have been many titles that have been slow starters or even gotten off to downright poor starts. Sometimes the comics get themselves together, sometimes they don’t. But if it’s a female lead, chances are the comic book wont make it past six issues unless it hits the ground running and never stops.
Now, years ago, when the vast majority of comics readers were under 10, the answer was very simple. The readership thought, “Girls are dumb,” and that was that. But nowadays the readership tilts heavily towards the high school and college crowd who, I hope, don’t feel that way.
But it doesn’t matter. There is a perception throughout society at this point that women cannot carry a lead. That their contributions to a title, be it comic book, movie, or TV show, are minimal at best.
On the flip side, male contributions to the same properties are disproportionately rated. Patrick Swayze was offered millions if he would do a sequel to Dirty Dancing. But what about the star of Dirty Dancing, Jennifer Grey? A couple hundred thousand. Granted, a couple hundred thousand is nothing to sneeze at, but we’re talking equity here.
Or take the following item that appeared in the December 9th Newsday: “Ten-year-old Macaulay Culkin, while not breaking the bank, will take a large chunk of it with his next film. Culkin, the star of Fox’s hit comedy Home Alone, will receive a reported $1 million for his next picture–
“The film will also star Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis. While Culkin’s salary may be record-setting (for a child actor), the other salaries on the film are not. Word has it that Aykroyd will receive around $2 million for the film, while Curtis will receive only $800,000–
“It’s safe to say that his fee has increased tenfold,” Feldsher (his agent) says. “These are not outrageous fees for an actor in a very successful film.”
Yeah, Feldsher, but for his next film? Only if it’s an actor and not an actress. Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Cher: None of them became overnight sensations, and most of them– especially Streep– have been very vocal about payment inequities in Hollywood.
What takes this particular item about outrageous salaries and puts it right over the top? Why, the name of the film young Culkin is starring in: I Am Woman.
Part of the problem is that the contents of successful comics can easily be paralleled in the contents of successful movies. The only actors who can get films “green-lighted” (i.e., their involvement in the film guarantees a studio will want to make it) are guys like Sly and Bruce and Arnold. Action film guys. No female stars have that kind of bankability.
That’s because a film heavy with females is almost invariably a relationship film. Tempers explode. But in a film with Bruce Willis, airplanes explode. Studio executives don’t like emotional damage: they like property damage. It looks flashier on Entertainment Tonight. Look at Postcards from the Edge. A female relationship picture, but what scene did you always see a clip from? The one really big fight between Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine, on the stairs. Unfortunately, no punches were thrown.
Therefore, if movies with females are to be made that execs will like, it means action pictures. But then you have a problem. Who are the females going to fight in the action films? Well, by and large, you’re limited to two genders– male and female.
Now you’re stuck.
If your heroine beats up on a bad man, the males in the audience feel threatened and are not going to like her. If your heroine beats up on a bad woman, then the perception is that the villain couldn’t have been that much of a threat, because, after all, it was a girl, and any healthy guy can beat up any dumb girl, right?
It’s significant that the only action/ adventure film with a female lead that was successful, in my recent memory, was Aliens. Why significant? Because the female lead beat up on alien beings who were non-gender-threatening (merely life-threatening).
Same thing with comics. Comics are, by and large, locked into the action/adventure format. That’s what sells. That’s what’s successful on a large scale. Love & Rockets does fine for Fantagraphics, but I can’t see Marvel putting it out and expecting it to keep pace with, say, Iron Man.
Now, readers can deal with a female who beats up on villains, if the female has lots of help surrounding her. I mean, I personally would be willing to take on Juggernaut if I knew that I had Wolverine covering my back.
Men generally see disputes in matters of black and white, to be solved quickly with as much maintaining of machismo as possible. This attitude is reflected in the world of super-hero comics as well as in the Middle East, where America is currently trying to show that we are the real-life Justice League of the World.
Women, however– and I’m going to make sweeping generalizations about gender here, admittedly, but I have been until now, so why change?– women don’t share this attitude. And yes, I know there are women armed forces in the Middle East, but I would tend to think that, if women were running the show, we wouldn’t have armed forces in the first place. Women see things in shades of gray and will usually want to talk things out rather than punch things out. That’s why women watch Oprah and men watch Monday Night Football.
But when you have women super-heroes, they acquire the mental attitudes of their male counterparts. They have male thinking layered on them, which is kind of like frosting a cake with cement. The result is that, while male super-heroes embody idealized machismo, female super-heroes also embody idealized machismo. As a result, they are subtly unrealistic, and the fans perceive them as such and don’t accept them as genuine characters. They’ll suspend disbelief for the purpose of costumes and powers, but not for the difference in man /woman emotional makeup.
What’s the answer? A mainstream comic about a non-super-powered female? A single mother, perhaps? How would that sell to the mutant fans? Probably about as well as a mainstream comic book about a non-super-powered male. Fans have a tendency to vote with closed wallets in cases like this.
And yes, I know there are some females in comics who act like real females, aside from those in Love & Rockets. There are exceptions. There are always exceptions. It would just be nice if there were enough exceptions to prove the rule. But more realistic females in comics would doubtlessly lead to fewer fight scenes, which would mean lower sales, which would mean the end of the world as we know it.
Or, to quote Steven Wright: “Women. Can’t live with ’em. Can’t kill ’em.”
(Peter David, writer of stuff, has a screenplay about a female baseball player he wrote several years ago that he’s still trying to get made. Any takers?)
• 
Yes, but… what about Kitty Pryde?
For almost an entire generation of
comic fans, she was the most popular female character, bar none.
And she didn’t spend most of her
time jaw-cracking and skull-smashing. Mind you, there was that little bit where Claremont had her possessed by a demon ninja and had her be one of the few people to actually defeat Wolverine. (one of the reasons why I will always think the KP&Wolverine LS is superior to
the Frank Miller effort).
But mind you, the powers she gained
were those of a Ninja; the ability
to ambush and infiltrate. Ninjas
were spies and assassians, not soldiers. That’s Kitty Pryde in a
nutshell.
Not to mention that with Claremont’s X-Men, you had more shades of grey than an Istari clothing shop.
Speaking of which, I read in an
interview by Claremont a while ago
that he was going to attempt to
get Kitty Pryde her own book before
adding her to X-Treme X-Men. Anyone heard any more on this?
‘I read in an
interview by Claremont a while ago
that he was going to attempt to
get Kitty Pryde her own book before
adding her to X-Treme X-Men. Anyone heard any more on this?’
– Hi Chris. Kitty’s got that book already. It’s called ‘Mekanix’ and it’s on issue 2. I’m thoroughly enjoying it… If you’re a Kitty fan, I wholeheartedlky recommend you pick it up!
Again, something I love about CrossGen- they have comics with female leads, and the women are women.
Hmm, well, how have we done almost twelve years after this article was written? I think somewhat better. Batgirl, Birds of Prey and Catwoman all successfully kick posterior and take nomenclature over at DC, and Tomb Raider isn’t exactly doing too badly for itself. I’d mention Witchblade, except, well, I don’t want to.
None of them are particularly ‘male’ women (to use the expression) – after all, so many people thought Chuck Dixon was really a woman because he wrote them so well!
Shame about Stars and STRIPE, though. Now, that was real potential.
It is an interesting fact that women in positions of power and authority tend to take on the atributes of men. I base my opinion on such female world leaders as Margret Thatcher and Indira Ghandi, women who often seemed harsher than men who filled the same positions. Perhaps this is due to overcompensation. Men are, as you pointed out, always slightly suspicious of powerful women, and I think perhaps women attempt to act in a “masculine” manner to shush the critics.
As an aside, I remember watching the old Batman TV series on television (the Family Channel, I am not that old) and resenting Batgirl. Not that she was a bad superhero, but I thought she was stealing Batman’s thunder. My thinking was “If she wants to fight crime, let her get her own show.” My, the sins of youth.
Ben Hunt
(who no longer thinks girls are yucky)
Let’s not forget Buffy (both tv series and comic). Funny thing, I was just talking with my brother this morning about “My Girl” (a/k/a “I Am Woman”). It seems Anna Chlumsky is a food critic now.
>>Hmm, well, how have we done almost twelve years after this article was written? I think somewhat better. Batgirl, Birds of Prey and Catwoman all successfully kick posterior and take nomenclature over at DC, and Tomb Raider isn’t exactly doing too badly for itself. I’d mention Witchblade, except, well, I don’t want to.<<
Good points, Ratbat, but I can’t help thinking DC’s got at least one more comic with a female lead. Starts with an S… Man, wish I could think of it…
Interesting (and comforting) as it is to hear these sentiments voiced by a successful adult male, I notice that your novels (I’ll admit to never having read any of your comics) do not exactly break this mold, nor combat it in any way.
On the other hand, neither have any of the stories I myself have written…. it’s an interesting quandary, isn’t it?
In regard to “taking on male attributes” when in charge or as a protector — let me just say that aggressiveness and take-charge-ness and take-names and kick-ášš-ness can be gender neutral leadership attributes.
As far as female lead in indies in the last 12 years — Shi and Witchblade indicate (as do some action females in lead roles in movies) that if the woman looks sexy enough, the marjority of men don’t pay enough attention to the story to complain that she’s aggressive… and a nice percentage of the men, just don’t mind that she’s agressive and decisive.
If you think of the show “Charmed” — ((its one of my current favorites)) I didn’t watch it for years because I thought the characters would be too sleezy and light- weight (based on the commercials), but after it went into syndication, I tried it a few times. Some eps are light weight, but the characters have depth.
The modern feminist has to compromise at times by wearing making up dressing cute (or sexy depending on the situation), but at least most of the time she gets to say and do things that matter.
((So what if you have to take break to wash off all that make up and then put more on or get a skin rash. — how annoying, I hate that part.))
The other option Peter mentioned, and the same is true for KITTY PRIDE, is to have the “leading female” be part of an esemble.
This is a compromise too, but if she has to wear less langerie in public it works for me … unless its really hot out and then she’s ventilating, yeah, that it.
“Men are, as you pointed out, always slightly suspicious of powerful women, and I think perhaps women attempt to act in a ‘masculine’ manner to shush the critics.”
Which I’ve always found silly, because it means the rules of the game are still set by men. I think what needs to happen is for women to just stop caring about male approval. To create our own games on our own terms, and invite guys to play if they want, the female game being one of inclusion rather than exclusion. The problem with this, of course, is the same problem that’s always been around when one side holds societal power and the other doesn’t. It usually has to do with superior firepower. And when the weapons by and large belong to those with the testosterone AND the societal power, you can make all the personal and political resolutions you want to about playing your own game rather than Theirs and it’s all going to come to naught. So I guess at this point I’m just waiting for all our environmental pollution to catch up to our systems and increase the estrogen ratio in males. 🙂
How interesting it is to read these columns from nearly 12 years ago. Back then there was no model for female characters who could kick butt without emasculating the men around them (or the males in the viewing/reading audience), and still sell books/score high ratings.
Now it’s become almost a cliche, from Buffy to Alias to Lara Croft to The Powerpuff Girls to the remake of Charlies’ Angels to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. And yes, Supergirl.
In fact, I’ll bet money that a young Joss Whedon read this very article when he was creating the original concept for Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the movie)…
i’m well i’m honestly surprised that no one has mentioned SUPERGIRL.
but what do i know…
Of course there are plenty of women who could or do read X-Men, albeit with the way it’s going down the drain now, who knows if they still are? My sister for one would not lay a finger on Grant Morrison’s monstrosity, and for the record, Rogue’s had a miniseries lately that was truly disappointing.
When it comes to women in comics whom I always loved, there’s been the following:
Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Invisible Woman, Sabra,
Supergirl, Shadowcat, Jean Grey, Psylocke, Storm, Scarlet Witch, Wasp, Photon, Monet St. Croix, Penance, Wonder Girl, Giselle Villard, Power Girl, Meggan, Mockingbird, Warbird, Silverclaw, Catwoman, the Black Cat, Elektra, Firebird, Rogue, Batgirl, Oracle and Jessie Quick. whom I’d sure like to see headlining her own series, ongoing or even just mini.
Oh, and I’m sure looking forward to Kitty Pryde’s mini that’s been published recently!
One more note: Supergirl is decidedly a book that’s great for the gals, but tragically, it’s lost now. But not to worry, there is Birds of Prey, and the great news now is that Gial Simone is going to be coming on board in several months! 🙂
It’s funny how you mention Oracle…I’m in a college english class and my prof. mentioned that there was this great meeting between Oracle and umm…the black cannary?(or someone). She showed us the picture of the two meeting for the first time and it was after a battle(I think) and the were deffinately happy to see eachother, but they were positioned like lesbian lovers. They weren’t sweaty or tore up.