Woo!

[telophase]

So a week or two back I made a post (LJ, DW) asking for recs of non-Marvel/DC comics that portrayed women well. octopedingenue asked if she could rec Marvel/DC books she found non-skeevy, so I figured I'd throw it open to you guys as a whole: how about mainstream comics, superhero or not, that you find the portrayals of women non-problematic?

Comments

[ebony14.livejournal.com]

DC's reboot of "Blue Beetle" seems to be in fine form, with the female characters that seem, at first appearance, to be realistic and engaging. Of course, a lot of this was set up by the original run of the comic, which DC thoughtlessly killed about 18 months ago for no apparent reason. So, they may be going over old ground to re-establish it.

EDIT: "Blue Beetle" isn't about a heroine, but has a lot of featured female characters. The character's family featured strongly in the original run, including both his parents (a hero with a fully formed family - GASP!) and his grandmother (who was a little bit of the stereotypical Hispanic abuelita, but stereotypes have their place.) And one of the recurrent characters was La Dama, the local "crime lord," who they did a good job of fleshing out beyond the standard Cruella DeVil/Hottie of Darkness template.

On the other side of the Big Two, I'm liking what I see with the new Spider-Girl (who's not a new character, but she was known by another name previously). Hard to say, though, because I haven't seen too much of her, just some crossover in other stories. But she seems to be pretty well portrayed, and the costume (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/39/2010/11/spidergirl_leadimage_11-9.jpg) works.

[ebony14.livejournal.com]

Briefly going back to the brouhaha that started this whole thing, I have to say two things about the comics mentioned in that blog. If Catwoman had been wearing a sports bra, instead of a lacy red thing, I think the scene would have been permissible. But apparently, the DC Universe women have firmer tissues than we poor mortals in the Really Real World do, and can perform complicated acrobatics and flat-out sprints without hurting themselves.

As for Starfire, I think the only thing that can save that portrayal is if, in the next issue, they write her as having some emotional trauma that's causing her to wall off everyone from her and use sex as a distraction.

[longshot14.livejournal.com]

I take it Strangers in Paradise doesn't count?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

If it's already been recced, there's probably no point in re-recing it. :)

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I fell in love with comics with two titles: Dazzler, and The New Teen Titans. (http://www.amazon.com/New-Teen-Titans-Marv-Wolfman/dp/1401233228/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317335237&sr=1-12) Titans still pretty much holds up, IMO.

Young Avengers (http://www.amazon.com/Young-Avengers-Allan-Heinberg/dp/0785149074/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317335334&sr=1-1) was created by Allan Heinberg, who has gone and made lots of money on TV projects including Grey's Anatomy. The female characters feel necessary to the team, there's a (happy!) canon gay couple, and it's overall dramatic and fun.

I know people have mixed feelings on Gail Simone, but I caught Rise of the Olympian (http://www.amazon.com/Wonder-Woman-Rise-Olympian-HC/dp/1401225403/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1317335489&sr=8-6) at a used bookstore and found it really solid and interesting.

[chibipoe.livejournal.com]

Posting this here, too. It isn't really a comic, but for the most part, if I want to read about Catwoman, this is where I go.

http://catwoman-cattales.com/