Fantastic Fangirls: Comics and Culture

It’s time again for our very own Fantastic Comic Book Awards! To announce this year’s nominations please join me in welcoming the youngest member of the First Family of Marvel, Miss Valeria Richards!

Hello. I want to thank SHIELD for this honor — hm? Oh. — I want to thank the Fantastic Fangirls … is that really their name? Do we get a cut? Oh. Well, imitation, sincerity, and all that. What do you mean I sound like Tony Stark? Shut up, Franklin, I gotta do this thing.

Excuse me. We have five awards for four individuals and a team. Winners will be announced at the Got Milk Theatre on Tuesday February 28. You have a month to vote, rules follow the program.

In the category Best Character in a Supporting Role, Male the nominees are:

Benjamin Russell in X-Factor
Benjamin Russell in X-Factor
Ben —

Wait, something’s wrong with the teleprompter. Well it only has one name. But that doesn’t — you are making me look BAD on national internet!! Fine.

Excuse me.

Benjamin Russell aka ‘Shatterstar’ of X-Factor is the only supporting male to reach the threshold of votes during the nominating process*. Therefore he is the only official nominee. However you may submit an alternative in lieu of your vote for Supporting Male.

Okaaaaaay, that’s weird but whatever.

In the category Best Character in a Supporting Role, Female the nominees are:

In the category Best Character in a Supporting Role, Female the nominees are:

Doreen Green in New Avengers
Jubilee in X-23
Pepper Potts in Invincible Iron Man
Natalia Romanova in Marvel Titles
Maggie Sawyer in Batwoman

O-M-G Squirrel Girl, that has to be a surprise. Secretly awesome. But probably you should vote for Natasha or she will cut you. A lot. … What? Oh. Neither I nor the Fantastic Fourgirls — Fangirls — endorse any of these women, they are all super worthy. … And also Natasha doesn’t cut people. Unless they are bad guys. Or ask nicely. … FRANKLIN STOP HIJACKING THE TELEPROMPTER.

Excuse me.

In the category Best Character in a Leading Role, Male the nominees are:

Dick Grayson in Detective Comics
Jamie Madrox in X-Factor
Miles Morales in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
Matt Murdock in Daredevil
Tony Stark in Invincible Iron Man

Apparently I am contractually obligated not to say that a vote for Uncle Tony is a vote for robots and robots are AWESOME. Not that I signed a contract so blame Franklin. I always do.

In the category Best Character in a Leading Role, Female the nominees are:

Stephanie Brown in Batgirl
Barbara Gordon in Batgirl
Kate Kane in Batwoman
Dinah Lance in Birds of Prey
Rogue in X-Men: Legacy

Ooooh three Bats, a Bird and Miss Mississippi. That’s sorta nifty…I wanna be Batgirl.

In the category Best Ensemble the nominees are:

Avengers Academy
Fantastic Four
Thunderbolts
Tiny Titans
X-Factor

Aws, yay us! Wicked. Okay, Fantastic Fourgirls… Sorry! Fangirls — over to you.

For this entirely made up Award, over one hundred individuals and teams were nominated by a committee consisting of the four Fantastic Fangirls and guests. Everyone is invited to vote for the final winners. To vote send an email to anika@fantasticfangirls.org with the Subject Line Comic Book Award Ballot. Vote for ONE individual character or team in each category. You may vote in any combination of categories but only one ballot per person will be counted so please do not email until you are ready and please send only one email. You will receive a confirmation email when your vote is counted. Please be patient and give me 2 days before emailing that you have not received the confirmation. Votes will be accepted through Sunday February 26. We will tweet reminders!

Anyone and everyone is encouraged to vote; invite your friends and readers and feel free to campaign on your own blog (remember to link back) and Twitter. Do not feel you have to have read all these comics in order to participate, though we encourage everyone to pick up the books. This is a popularity contest, a fun way to honor some of our favorite characters. Please remember it is all for fun and save the drama for the movies! Comment or email with any questions. Thank you!

*Shatterstar is the only supporting male nominee (of 23) to receive more than one mention. He received five.

In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

If you could give one character a comic book series with the longevity of Superman or Batman, who would you choose?

Anika

I would choose not to.

I prefer a rotating spotlight. Everybody gets a moment and then they move to supporting status as someone else steps up. It's probably why I like team books best. So I choose more limited series, that are designed and announced as limited not turned into limited when they're cancelled 5 issues in. And as long as we are talking about my ideal I'd have all the action and plot take place in the team and event books and have these rotating limited series be about what they do when they are not fighting (or committing) crimes.

Caroline

I interpret this question as, “Who is a character that should always have a book, no matter what, and will be able to sustain relevance even as the world changes?” I have to go with Natasha Romanova, Marvel’s Black Widow. Natasha is a skilled spy, whose abilities are as adaptable as her loyalties. She has also (last time I checked?) been given the Nick Fury anti-aging treatment so that she both has an excuse for staying young and spry for the foreseeable future, and has a potential for flashback stories set in any era that rivals Wolverine’s or Winter Soldier’s.

In reality, Natasha has mostly been used as a supporting character, doesn’t have that many ‘iconic’ storylines (and those are mostly interactions in other characters’ books), and doesn’t even have a particularly well-developed personality. (Based on a Google image search, her best-known trait seems to be ‘doesn’t zip her top up all the way.’)

It would be great if we could have a Black Widow book that would stick around.

Jennifer

My interpretation of this question is a little different from Caroline’s. For me, “longevity” means that the character would have had a book from the 1930s consistently to the present day, and be at something like issue 900 at this point in time. The reason Superman and Batman are such huge cultural icons is that they’ve been around for so long, their adventures consistently on the shelves and replicated in other media. So if I could wave a magic wand and give someone else that status (or, at the very least, the status of a Silver Age-created solo hero like Spider-Man), who would I choose?

For me, the answer would have to be a character who would break the mold of the white men who (with very few exceptions) dominated the earliest ages of comics and crafted the restrictive cultural image of what a “superhero” should be. While my personal, fannish instinct points me toward She-Hulk as the breaker of this mold, I think a more significant choice would be Storm. She’s never had that many solo adventures, but her character is full of fascinating back story and intriguing narrative possibilities (particularly in terms of an expanded supporting cast), and I, personally, would love to live in a world where she found a natural place beside Superman and Batman, blew people away with countless tornadoes and lightning bolts, and served over the decades to change the hearts and minds of comic book readers.

If this is impossible, though, I’d settle for a more consistent and popular publication of Wonder Woman over the decades. It doesn’t hurt to dream.

Sigrid

Using Caroline’s definition, the character I want to always have a long-running title is Jessica Jones. Jess is currently on New Avengers, and I don’t know what’s going to happen to her in the year’s coming Avengers-related shake-ups. I don’t know whether she’ll be written by someone other than Brian Bendis. But I can think of a wide range of titles featuring Jessica Jones that I would find acceptable.

Jessica Jones as a private detective, continuing her investigative career
Jessica Jones as a bodyguard
Jessica Jones as a mother and partner, dealing with the craziness the superhero life brings
Jessica Jones as mentor and counselor to the next generation of heroes

Soap opera, slice-of-life, crime, superhero, or any blend of these things all sound good to me.

So what about you? If you could give one character a comic book series with the longevity of Superman or Batman, who would you choose?

Though regular Fantastic Fangirls readers may not be aware, I (Jennifer) am currently a member of the Board of Directors of Gworg, the governing body of the feminist comic book website collective Girl-Wonder.org. Though the other three Fantastic Fangirls aren’t associated with the site, I wanted to take the time to personally spread the word about our current elections:

Girl-Wonder.org is pleased to announce that it is holding elections for the Board of Directors for its governing body, Gworg.

Gworg is an incorporated non-profit feminist organization dedicated to fostering an attentive, empowered comics fan community, to encouraging respect and high-quality character depiction, and to assisting the professional development of women working in the field of comics. Anyone who supports these aims is eligible to become a member, and all members are able to vote, stand for office, and nominate others to the Board.

Becoming a Director is an excellent opportunity to support and direct the progress of Girl-Wonder.org! Moreover, since Gworg is a registered non-profit organization, this also makes a great entry of volunteer work on your resume.

We will be accepting new members and Board nominations from Monday, January 9th through Monday, January 30th. Elections will be announced on Monday, February 6th. Members will then have until Monday, February 13th to vote for this year’s Gworg Board of Directors.

If you’re interested, head over here for more information, particularly regarding the types of open positions, or go straight to here to throw in $5 (or volunteer time!) and become a member. It’s a great activist organization that is really looking for new blood to shake things up and make a splash in 2012, so if you’re at all interested, I’d highly encourage you to become a member, run for office, and/or nominate others who fit the bill. We’d love to have you!

Our next edition of the Fantastic Fangirls (Comic) Book Club will be happening in February, featuring the graphic novel adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written by Eric Shanower and drawn by Skottie Young.

The premiere American fantasy adventure gets the Merry Marvel treatment! Eisner Award-winning writer/artist Eric Shanower (Age of Bronze) teams up with fan-favorite artist Skottie Young (New X-Men) to bring L. Frank Baum’s beloved classic to life! When Kansas farm girl Dorothy flies away to the magical Land of Oz, she fatally flattens a Wicked Witch, liberates a living Scarecrow and is hailed by the Munchkin people as a great sorceress…but all she really wants to know is: how does she get home?

You can get the book here at Amazon, here at Barnes & Noble (where it’s also available on the Nook), or wherever you regularly buy comics and graphic novels.

We’ll be having our usual round-table discussion for the book starting on Monday, February 13th, and we hope you’ll play along in the comments!

In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

If you were a supervillain, how would you take over the world?

Anika

Well as previous established my superpower is rooted in chaos, therefore my supervillainhood should also be rooted in chaos. So I imagine something like Fight Club. Project Mayhem (Mayhem, btw, is a pretty great supervillainess moniker). I’d be Tyler Durden, obviously.

But I’d dress like Marla Singer. Obviously.

Caroline

One of my favorite Cold War movies is The Manchurian Candidate, in which supervillain Angela Lansbury plots to help the Chinese take over America by hypnotizing her son with a giant deck of cards.

Or something like that. It’s been a while since I saw it.

The point is, I saw this movie back when every Microsoft software package came with two games, one of which was solitaire. And I said, “If you really could control people’s minds via a game of solitaire, Bill Gates would be doing pretty well.”

So, basically, my supervillain plan would involve world domination through mind control contributed by a highly popular game/app distributed for free on the Internet.

Not that I’m calling Bill Gates a supervillain. Not any worse of one than Angela Lansbury, anyway.

Jennifer

I’m not a natural leader. I don’t ooze with charisma. I’m not a scientist or an engineer or a skilled practitioner of anything useful for world domination. And I’m really far too polite and people-pleasing to engage in the necessary nastiness.

But what I do have is abundant loyalty and an uncanny ability to associate myself with wonderful, brilliant people (see: the other respondents to this post). So, really, if I wanted to take over the world, my plan would involve not supervillainy but miniondom. I would be an excellent toady. So the real question is, which of you ladies would like to have me as your villainous sidekick? I’ll make you tea!

Sigrid

At various points in my life I’ve devised different plans to turn evil and take over the world. I’ve contemplated the science route — going into physics or biology and developing a superweapon. I’ve briefly flirted with talking people into doing what I want. But these days I have a nearly foolproof plan for taking over the world.

I’m going to back my children in their mad bid for world domination.

So what about you? If you were a supervillain, how would you take over the world?

In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

Who is your favorite non-canon couple in comics?

Anika

I thought Carol Danvers (Ms. Marvel) and Peter Parker (Spider-Man) going on a date was downright silly when it was first previewed. But they are legitimately my One True Pairing in all of comics.

So much so that I could provide an annotated gallery of panels that clearly show their relationship actually is canon. In which case my answer is Batman/Superman.

Caroline

Rikki Barnes (Nomad) and Anya Sofia Corazon (currently Spider-Girl).

When I read them together in the short-lived, much-lamented Young Allies series, and then heard that Anya was getting her own solo series, I was convinced they would end up as a couple. The friendship and affection between these two teenage heroes seemed natural as the basis for a budding same-sex relationship.

Alas, it was not to be, with Rikki being — dissolved into an energy mass who possibly never existed, during the Onslaught Unleashed miniseries. I don’t expect Rikki to stay dead (or gone, or dissolved, or whatever) so I do have hopes that she will return. Maybe one day, we’ll have a “Nomad and Spider-Girl Prom Issue.” Until then, I’ll just have to keep that one up in my imagination.

Jennifer

I’ve always had a soft spot for She-Hulk and Hawkeye. They’ve been flirting since the day they met (when Hawkeye was bitter that a girl who could beat him up was going to be on the Avengers instead of him), but despite a kiss or two and an admission of feelings during Dan Slott’s She-Hulk run, they’ve never actually dated. Don’t get me wrong – I love Hawkeye with Mockingbird, and She-Hulk has had a lot of great love interests over the years. But I’ve always wanted to see what would happen if Clint and Jen could give it a shot. It would be full of bickering and light violence, but it could be a ton of fun.

Sigrid

I am taking non-canon to mean the relationship that I perceive to be a romantic couple, despite no confirmation of this fact by the authorized writers of the comic. I have two; Barbara Gordon and Dinah Laurel Lance, and Kitty Pryde and Rachel Summers.

Babs and Dinah:

Kitty and Rachel:

Neither of these couples have dated. Barbara and Dinah have had their heterosexuality reinforced many times in canon. Kitty is only canonically bisexual when Claremont is writing her, and Rachel is straight, for a value of straight which seems to include not really liking the men she sleeps with very much. There is no textual validation for my reading of these relationships as queer.

But, oh, Gentle Reader, look at those images.

So what about you? Who is your favorite non-canon couple in comics?

The greatest difficulty I have with end-of-year lists is that I don’t remember what things came out in the past year. Without further caveat, then, here are a portion of the best comics of 2011. Please add the ones we’ve missed in the comments!

***

Finder: Voice by Carla Speed McNeil.

Finder is one of the best science fiction comics around. It’s my favorite. McNeil’s storytelling is transcendent. You can read the story in one go, then spend hours going back over each panel, reading the footnotes, studying the interactions between text and art. This most recent volume not only gives depth and detail to the world of Anvard, not only does it refer to the other volumes, it also tells the story of a selfish young woman growing up. Unlike most coming-of-age tales, though, our protagonist doesn’t become a sweet, generous, well-behaved person. Nor does she become wiser. In Voice, growing up is a process of many steps. You can’t see where you’re going and you don’t know what you’re doing, and you have to make decisions anyway.

***

Osborn by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios

This limited series is not merely a meditation of the different types of power, a look at different types of evil, it is also vibrantly boundary pushing in its art. DeConnick’s story, set firmly within the mainstream Marvel Universe, raises the question, when is power evil simply because it is power? In a world of superheroes, this is the constant source of tension underneath the skin of the premise. Rios’s art is jagged and finely-tuned in turns. Her action sequences are unlike any I have seen — the closest comparison, in terms of audacity of layout and presentation, would be J.H. Williams III’s work on Batwoman: Elegy. Rios pushes the eye and mind in a way that recalls Cubism. Yet her scenes of dialog, or quiet reflection, are clear and evocative of human-scale emotion.

Osborn is a notice, that Rios and DeConnick are going to be names all over the comics world in the next few years. But it is also a notice that women do not feel constrained to stay in some sort of girl-ghetto, writing about women or nice things. This is a story about degrees of sociopathy, and the panels do not flinch away from blood.

***

X-23 by Marjorie Liu

I frequently have a great deal of pity for writers handed canon characters. Pity because the canonical backstories are frequently nonsensical. It’s the mark of a good writer to come on board, take what you’re given, and make it better than it was. This is what Liu has done. in her tenure on X-23 she has set the character of Laura Kinney for writers to come. She did this not by ignoring details but by exploring them. Liu added depth and richness to the Marvel U while writing stories of superheroic wacky hijinks. Vampires, pirates, genetically engineered immortal body jumpers, dimensional portals, and babysitting all feature in the title’s too-short run. At no point is the writing mawkish or self-indulgent. This is, flat-out, one of the best books of 2011. I’d be sorrier to see it go if it weren’t for the fact that Liu is moving on to write Astonishing X-Men.

***

Fear Itself by Matt Fraction
Fear Itself: Homefront by Christos Gage and others

This turned out to be one of the best crossover events I’ve read. Both cosmic and very, very human, Fear Itself did that thing that makes stories work — it showed how big and small people can be. How powerful and helpless. The story showed the nature of humanity at its best and worst. This is why we tell stories, this is what story is for — a guide and a warning for our own nature.

Christos Gage’s work in Fear Itself: Homefront deserves a particular mention. His story is one of forgiveness and redemption, and the difference between those two things. It also contains the moment guaranteed to make me cry, the moment where the ordinary people — bystanders in this stupid god-war — give each other the strength and bravery to carry on.

***

Batwoman by J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman

Not only is this comic groundbreaking, it’s just damn good. The art is astonishing and the storytelling is superb. We have heroes making dumb, human-sized errors, we have villains being sneaky and powerful, we have supporting characters with their own plots and mysteries. Batwoman is crime fiction in a superhero world. It’s the story of One Good Woman trying to save everything while pretending her past doesn’t haunt her. It’s a truth of this type of story that things have to get very, very bad for our hero before they get better. I look forward to the ride.

***

The Punisher by Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto

This is a story about communities. About how people interact with each other whether they mean to or not. It’s a story about they way people’s lives break apart in a moment, inexplicably leaving a person alive to go on afterwards. This is one of the story types of my heart, it’s true. But Rucka does it so well, you have to read it to believe it. When we looks back on great comic runs, this is going to be one for posterity.

***

Journey Into Mystery by Kieron Gillen

Kid Loki. This image is one of a cosplayer as Kid Loki, throttling the writer Kieron Gillen. Gillen is doing amazingly deft thing in Journey Into Mystery. He is taking chances, spanning mythology and legend while warping and personalizing it all. Kid Loki is a trickster, as we haven’t seen in a while. He is a step ahead of the game. But since this is from his point of view, we as readers are privy to how fragile that lead is. We root for Loki while waiting confidently to see him fall. The joy of trickster characters, though, is their irrepressibility. They always, always, come back, another scheme in mind.

***

Ultimate Comics: Spiderman by Brian Michael Bendis

I came to Ultimate Spider-Man very late in the game and only because Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are so darn pretty. I wanted to be “informed” when the film comes out next year; after all Spider-Man 2 remains my favorite comic book flick of all. Plus, they were threatening to kill off Peter which is this thing Marvel does (kill off my favorite characters as soon as it’s clear they are my favorite characters) so my (to be clear, entirely tongue in cheek) persecution complex drove me to read Ult Spidey starting with The Death of Spider-Man. And I read it on my iPhone, which is both super cool and somewhat absurd.

Then came Miles Morales for whom I signed up for an account at USA Today just to counter people’s ridiculously over the top and unbelievable prejudice (in every definition of the word). I wanted very much to love Miles because of that reaction and also because my Peter deserves a legacy worthy of my love. And finally because I want legacy to work. I want mantles passed, I want comics to change, I want characters to grow. I want Miles to work. I am happy to say Ultimate Spider-Man isn’t just important — it’s also really good.

***

Gingerbread Girl by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover

This surreal, downright experimental little story raises more questions than it gives answers. It is a tale of relationships, personal identity, and either magic, mental illness, or both. It is transgressive, in the sense that the narrative of mental illness in America is frequently one of woe, contrition, and a search for health. If Annah is, in fact, mentally atypical in some pathological way, she’s not sorry, she’s not looking for “health,” and she’s not sorry for the things she’s done. If she’s not ill, then she’s still behaving rather badly. How refreshing is that! The supporting characters are surprising and well-conceived, even when the narrator is a pigeon. A huge amount of this is to Colleen Coover’s credit. Her art is a blast of clean, fresh air, truly some of the best art of 2011.

Email: sigrid @ fantasticfangirls.org
Twitter: sigridellis

In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

Who is a favorite character created after 2000?

Anika

I have so many answers to this question. There’s Anya Corazon and Kate Spencer and Juston Seyfert and Becky Ryan and Mindy McCready and Dani Cage. Yes, Dani Cage the baby — that baby girl’s gonna be somebody someday and she already has crazy amounts of character for being an inarticulate infant who’s been about 6 months old for the past 5 years. And that’s just off the top of my head and without mentioning anybody my cohorts do. So that thing about new characters not being as compelling or cared for as the ones who have been around for 50 years just isn’t applicable to me.

Plus I think Winter Soldier should count. Change is good, y’all. Change is GREAT.

Caroline

Before Matt Fraction began his current, definitive run of Invincible Iron Man, he wrote about Tony Stark as a supporting character in the short-lived but brilliant series The Order. Aside from Tony and Pepper Potts, the cast of the comic was made up of newly-invented characters. The conceit of The Order is that California’s local superhero team is made up of people who were given synthetic powers, but who had already distinguished themselves as heroes in real life. From the Angelina-esque actress and foster mother extraordinaire Veda, to Calamity, a double amputee who became a track star with the aid of prosthetic legs he invented, the members of the Order showed a side of heroism that comics often don’t explore.

The entire cast is fantastic, but I have a soft spot for Anthem, aka Henry Hellrung, the leader of that team. Henry is a ‘one-time actor’ who lost his career to alcohol abuse, then found a new calling in the addiction recovery movement. He also happens to have made his name playing Iron Man on TV, and to be Tony Stark’s sponsor in Alcoholics Anonymous.

I have to admit, this clever idea was what got me to check out The Order in the first place (Fraction gave an interview suggesting that The Order would consist of ‘Tony Stark’s party pals,’ which to this day I insist is the title of a series I would read.) I thought I was buying into an amusing joke in which Tony hired a virtual clone of himself to lead a superhero team. What The Order actually offers is much richer than that, though. The earnest, well-meaning Henry could hardly be more different than the human steamroller known as Tony Stark. That’s why it’s incredibly satisfying to witness the Order’s small victories, such as the time Henry talks Namor out of attacking San Francisco.

The Order doesn’t exactly end well for Henry — from the beginning, it’s hard to imagine how it can. But the character showed up, post The Order’s cancellation, in Invincible Iron Man. When we first see him, he’s in an AA meeting, praying, and that seems to fit. Here is a character who will always be looking for a way to do good, searching for yet another next right thing.

Jennifer

I’m stumbling into this post after finishing grad school seminar paper #2 and before finishing grad school seminar paper #3, so forgive the brevity. But Brian K. Vaughan’s Runaways, created in 2003, are the best new superhero team in recent memory. And while I love all the characters on the team, it’s Gertrude Yorkes, the snarky, slightly chubby, anti-establishment feminist teen with purple hair and a pet dinosaur who takes the prize as one of the most realistic and different female superheroes of all time.

Gert is awesome, guys. And I’m still not quite over her death — or, for that matter, the death of Runaways as a book.

Sigrid

Oh, that’s dead easy. Jessica Jones.

Alias #1 came out in 2001. In that comic Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos introduced me to the profane, depressed, entirely adult life of Jessica Jones. I was instantly in love with this character.

Jess is a lot of things I love. She’s her own person, entirely human, not any sort of traditional image of femininity. She’s a parent, with a parent’s concerns in the insane world of the Avengers. She’s married, and the depiction of that marriage is as realistic as any I’ve seen in comics. There’s conflict and negotiation and a genuine respect between partners.

Jessica Jones is a redemption-arc character. She knows her breaking points, she knows how badly she can screw up. She walks a line each day of trying to get through without screwing things up even worse. Yet she’s still trying to make the world better. She’s making another try at this whole superhero-thing, and she’s trying to raise a kid.

Jess is not a bad mirror of who I would be, were I a superhero in the Marvel universe. Not one of the best, not really that good at anything in particular, but muddling along trying to be a decent human being anyway.

Also, she swears a lot. I love that about her.

So what about you? Who is a favorite character created after 2000?

In Batwoman #4, by J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman, Kate Kane and Maggie Sawyer have sex. On-panel.

Very, very on-panel.

In Avengers Academy #23, by Christos Gage, Tom Raney, and Scott Hanna, two characters have a long conversation about sexual identity, sexual abuse, and coming out. It is a thoughtful conversation, age-appropriate for the characters, and does a lot for the plot and the book as a whole.

I loved both of these issues this month. I love both of these titles. I thank the creators for these scenes. I read these issues with a sense of triumph and glee, a sort-of fist-pump of joy.

Immediately followed by rage.

I spend a lot of time thinking about talking about the things I love in comics. And, I do love comics. Nothing I didn’t love could hurt quite the way comics hurts. I’ve been reading comics for twenty-five years. The character of Northstar came out around twenty years ago. And I cannot recall a scene in which two female characters have sex because they are gay and they want to in mainstream Marvel and DC titles.

Note that caveat. I’ve seen female characters make out because they were mind-controlled, I’ve seen them slink all over each other in fantasy scenes, I’ve seen heterosexual couples have sex this graphically on-panel, I’ve seen post-coital men in bed with each other, I’ve seen women as slaves and objects do all manner of sexualized things in the edges of the panels.

I am very glad to have these two issues of these books out this month. I think Gage’s Avengers Academy is one of the most thoughtfully-written titles out there. I think Batwoman is startling in its plots, its violence, and its themes and I am very glad of it. I am also resentful and angry to be so grateful.

Sometimes, getting what I want simply reminds me how long the wait has been. And how little I have.

Thank you, Marvel and DC, for … Batwoman. And Avengers Academy.

by Sigrid

Email: sigrid @ fantasticfangirls.org
Twitter: sigridellis

In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

What manga character would you like to see in the Marvel or DC Universe?

Anika

I would like Tony Stark to find Gally, the young cyborg of Battle Angel Alita, and raise her as a daughter.

Franklin and Valeria Richards are assigned to teach her how to act human and Noh Varr is her tutor/bodyguard.

Caroline

Nana Osaki, from Ai Yazawa’s Nana:

She should have a band with Dazzler and Lila Cheney of the Marvel Universe, of course. Though I only say this because Archie Universe wasn’t an option. If it was, I’d vote for her to join Josie and the Pussycats.

Jennifer

The only manga I’ve read in its entirety is Fullmetal Alchemist, so I’m inherently limited to that canon as a source for this crossover adventure. But that steampunky fantasy/sci-fi series is one that would mesh well with the Marvel Universe, and I can think of plenty of awesome opportunities for character interaction. What would it be like, for instance, if the cocky, vain, fire-wielding Roy Mustang met Johnny Storm or Pyro? His ego might never recover.

But the one character I’d really love to transport to the Marvel U is Alphonse Elric, younger brother of the titular Fullmetal Alchemist. Al is a sweet teenage boy who, because of a terrible decision he made when he was 10 years old, is trapped, incorporeal, within a suit of armor. Al can think, speak, move, and hear, but he can’t eat, sleep, or feel, and he’s not sure he’ll ever get his real body back. He’s not sure if he counts as human anymore, or if he’s even real, and it causes him all sorts of anguish. But perhaps the worst part of all is that the only people he meets who share his experience, who have any idea what he feels like… are a couple of condemned serial killers.

The Marvel Universe, however, is full of people who have had their bodies stolen from them because of one bad decision or circumstance. That transformation narrative (a narrative I love, and the thing that initially attracted me to Al as a character) pops up again and again in Marvel comics, and the various characters affected by it tend to be kind, loving souls. What I want, for Al, is to give him the opportunity to talk to Hank McCoy, or Ben Grimm, or any of the other sweet, lovable characters who have similarly become hulking, inhuman brutes and would be happy to give comfort and affection to a little boy who had experienced the same kind of thing. Maybe Al could even hang out with some of the characters around his own age who have gone through the same thing, like Mettle from Avengers Academy. Whoever he talked to, Al would be able to find much more in common with the denizens of the Marvel Universe than those of the Fullmetal Alchemist universe, and hopefully he’d feel a little less isolated.

Sigrid

I want Rei Ayanami, Cass Cain (Batgirl), and Laura Kinney (X-23) to team up and travel the world righting wrongs.

I think those three would be good for each other. They all have the most incredibly terrible origin stories, for one thing. And none of them are that great with talking and words. I envisions them, after taking down some child-slavery ring, heading back to a hotel room and playing Halo 3 while eating take-out. A nice, comfortable evening with friends.

So what about you? What manga character would you like to see in the Marvel or DC Universe?