But one woman character in comics has been breaking the sexist molds of comic creators for years, and in late 2006, she gave readers one of the most feminist, empowered-woman moments in the history of comics. The Invisible Woman is invisible no longer!

The Invisible Woman did not start out with “woman” as part of her name. From the inception of super heroism in the 1930s, with the notable exception of Wonder Woman and a few others, most characters were labelled as “girls” – Supergirl and Batgirl – or as “lasses” – Light Lass and Shadow Lass. So it was not surprising that when new Marvel Comics creators Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created the Fantastic Four in 1961, they christened the group’s only female character as a “girl.” The Invisible Girl would remain a “girl” even after she married the team’s leader and gave birth to a child in what would become the new company’s First Family of superheroes.

Like most women in comics, the Invisible Girl’s powers were non-threatening and mainly meant for defense. If in a tight spot, she could hide by “disappearing,” turning invisible until the danger passed. Susan Storm (later Susan Richards) represented what society thought about women of the time: they were “girls” who needed to hide when it came time to fight the giant green monsters busting out of subterranean caverns.

Her force fields were an afterthought. (After all, she was called “Invisible Girl” not “Invisible Force Field Girl.”) She could shape giant shields or bubbles to protect herself and the members of her superhero family. Using her force fields wasn’t easy and caused her constant pain and anguish, much the same facially in the illustrations of the 1960s and 1970s as the depictions of her giving birth. Unlike the men in the group whose powers did not cause them pain to maintain against the onslaught of their foes, The Invisible Girl would often show her “natural feminine” weakness by straining painfully to maintain the shield. When she couldn’t handle the stress of maintaining the force field, her male companions would need to save the day. For most of the first 100 issues of The Fantastic Four, The Invisible Girl would need more protecting from the threats that would endanger her and her superhero family than she did protecting of the men in the group.

Things have changed in 45 years of Fantastic Four comics. In the 1980s, John Byrne transformed the Invisible Girl into the Invisible Woman. As both writer and artist, he soon showed the comics world that Sue Storm-Richards was the most powerful member of the Fantastic Family. She could do a lot more than cower underneath her force fields. She could use them as transport devices, riding on ramps of force; she could expand them inside something else, exploding an object from within among many, many other lethal and devastatingly destructive uses. She could block nasal passages; she could stop a heart. What was originally an afterthought became arguably the greatest super power on her team and in the entire Marvel universe.

25 years after her transformation from girl to woman, the new creative team of J. Michael Straczyinski and Mike McKone have advanced the Invisible Woman yet again with a story moment that can be viewed as one of the few feminist outcries in comics, a wake-up call to fan boys everywhere that women in comics can take care of themselves.

In issue 540 of Fantastic Four, the first couple of comics, Sue Richards and her husband Reed are arguing over dubious choices he’s making in the ongoing Civil War saga in the Marvel Comic universe. To defend his actions in supporting a law that requires superheroes to register with the government or face capture and imprisonment (think Homeland Security meets Nazi Germany with super-powered soldiers), Reed claims he’s protecting his wife. In response, the Invisible Woman blasts a tube of solid and invisible force through the 50-some floors of the team’s Baxter Building headquarters. Once her husband has seen the extent of this destructive act, she says: “Do I look like I need protecting, Reed? Do I?”

Though making neat holes in each floor of their HQ may seem decidedly male with its penetration imagery, it’s a point that the supposedly super-genius Mister Fantastic, and maybe all men in comics as well as those who read them, need to understand: women superheroes have come a long way from the days in which they needed men to protect and rescue them. Not only can they protect themselves, but from the way this conflict looks like it will play out in the Fantastic Four, they will be the ones who will rescue the men.

Facing her fears seems to be kind of a theme with Danielle. She faced and fought the demon bear that had devoured her parents - even if she lost that particular battle. (Thankfully, her friends were there to win the war.) She fears death, too - even moreso after she gains the Valkyrie ability to sense impending death. Yet she faces and fights Death personified in order to protect Pat Roberts. Ultimately this is a battle that she chooses to concede, but again, it only serves to illustrate how amazingly brave and courageous of a young woman she is.

I think the moment that I fell in love with Dani was at the end of Marvel Graphic Novel #4, which introduced the New Mutants. Professor Xavier chastised Dani for modifying her New Mutants uniform. She insisted on wearing her own turquoise belt and deerskin boots, instead of the standard X-belt and yellow boots that the other students wore. Dani’s response was simple and to the point: “I am Cheyenne. Nothing - No one - will ever make me forget or abandon my heritage… You say we must wear these clothes– I will do as you ask, but in my own manner. If that bothers you, I can leave.” And then - amazingly - Professor Xavier apologized and backed down. He even thought to himself, Once, I would have forced her to conform. And would have been wrong to do so. Way to go, Dani! It takes real guts to disagree with someone like Professor Xavier, especially considering the position that Dani was in at the moment (that is, pretty much dependant on Xavier’s help for her survival). And on top of that, Dani was able to express her disagreement in a mature and adult-like way.

And you know what? Dani’s moment of standing up to Professor X, while awesome, pales in comparison to her understated and stunningly courageous stand against the Beyonder. That moment - Dani’s speech before her inevitable death - was the only part of the Secret Wars series that I actually enjoyed. Because it was Dani doing what she does best - standing up for herself and facing her greatest fear head on. She also stands up to Magneto, (a speech which ends with him hanging his head and muttering “I’m a failure”) as well as standing up to Pete Wisdom, and many others. Danielle can always be counted on to stand up for her own beliefs and convictions, no matter who or what she is facing. And she will do so in a dignified and non-violent way.

Returning to the Xavier confrontation for a moment, that brings me to one aspect of Dani’s character that sometimes is handled well, and sometimes not: her Native American heritage. At first, Dani did seem to suffer from the same curse that afflicted so many of the other minority characters in the Marvel Universe: Her character WAS “The Cheyenne Girl,” and that was pretty much it. Every aspect of Dani’s character was carefully crafted to scream at the reader CHEYENNE!!!!!. And indeed, Dani did seem to live up to every single stereotype and cliche about Native Americans in existence. She loves nature! She can communicate with animals! She wears deerskin clothes and turquoise jewelry! She hunts demon bears while wearing warpaint! Okay. We get it. In addition, many aspects of Dani’s supposedly Cheyenne heritage, as portrayed in the comic book, were poorly researched. It was as if, when writing and drawing Dani, her creators simply drew upon popular stereotypes of Native Americans, rather than doing actual research into Cheyenne culture. Not until the recent second New Mutants series did Dani start to look and act like someone who was more than just CHEYENNE!!!!!. So Dani’s heritage is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s great to see a Native American character in a mainstream comic, especially a character who is a strong role model and a believable human being, like Danielle. On the other hand… Do all of her costumes have to feature fringed deerskin and feathers?!

Although both Dani and Sam Guthrie were co-leaders of the New Mutants, it was always my impression that Dani did the real leading. Dani was always the responsible one, the decision-maker, the true leader. She was the one that the other New Mutants turned to when they needed advice or help. Perhaps this set-up does play to sexist stereotypes: the girl being mature and responsible, whereas the boy is bumbling and goofy. (And I will restrain myself from commenting on the “redneck” stereotypes that infected Sam’s character, I swear. As much as I deeply love Sam.) But still, when I read these comics as a kid, it was awesome for me to see a young woman in such a position of power and authority. And again, Dani wasn’t a perfect leader. She was just as prone to wrong decisions and foul-ups as, say, Cyclops or Xavier. But still, she was a leader, and she was awesome in that role. And nobody ever gave her flack or refused to listen to her just because she was a girl. Later she even became a teacher at Xavier’s school. Although initially unwilling to accept this position, Dani once again proved that she was able to fill the role of an important authority figure, despite her own self-doubts.

And that’s why Danielle Moonstar rocks. Because she’s a leader, she can stand up for herself, and she can face her own fears. She is not a perfect character, but her many flaws make her a believable character. Despite the fact that she was de-powered after M-Day, I really do hope that Danielle continues to be a presence in the X-books for years to come.

It was some of the best money I’ve ever spent.

Flicking through it in the store I got the gist of the plot: girl builds robot, robot comes to life, hijinks ensue. Here I was assuming it was a $15 plot, when I should have been reading the $90 part.

Jo, a female mechanic, feels cut off from the world - unwelcome in the garage because of her gender, unwelcome with other women for her occupation. Her father is the worst kind of authority figure (a verbally abusive drunk and a police officer to boot) and her mother is little more than a ghost floating uselessly in the background, serving only to take physical abuse from her husband. Jo has dreams of something more – she is an amateur astronomer, for one – but is surrounded by people that constantly tell her that she will never amount to anything better. One day Jo, frustrated by her life and her dreams of something more, builds a metal man from junk lying around the garage. And the metal man comes to life.

This is the only magical event of the story. Everything else follows from this one fantastic element to create a wonderful “fairytale” -albeit one set in a city rather than mystical forest. The events that follow – comic and tragic – are believable and given a sweet quality by the simple, almost cartoon-like art.

Please note that this is not “The Iron Giant”, though (another robot story I love). Characters drink too much, swear, have bad sex and do terrible things to each other. In many ways, it’s a more “real” world. More importantly, where Hogarth is a young boy who knows nothing much about the world, Jo is a 20-year-old woman who has been trained to see it in a certain way, and that gives her story much more resonance and depth than simply “a boy and his robot”.

As such this is a fairytale that zigs as often as it zags. In naming her metal companion “Galahad”, you would be forgiven for assuming that this metal man was going to be a heroic saviour – in fact, he is merely a catalyst for Jo. In teaching Galahad about the world Jo begins to question her place in it; and as he becomes able to express his views she learns to see herself in a new way. Whilst Galahad does, in the course of the story, come to her rescue, she defends and protects him in turn and – in the epilogue – ultimately saves herself.

As a heroine Jo is a wonderful character – flawed, pursuing dreams that she feels she should rather than for herself and human. She does make some mistakes; but overall she finds strength within to (literally and figuratively) fight her demons and make a stand. Her growth and development is the core of the story and her character development is compelling and believable

Galahad, too, is a wonderfully expressive, noble and innocent foil for Jo. Who would have thought a guy with a bucket for a head could be so expressive? His supernatural abilities never overpower the story (primarily, I think, due to the black-and-white palette) and after a while he is as much a part of the reality of the story to the reader as he is to Jo. In many ways, he provides the “heart” of the story (albeit a flower inside a car chassis).

The supporting characters at times draw near clichés, but no more so than the figures in any fairytale the hero (or heroine) must overcome on their quest. The father shows glimpses of what made him who he is; Prince Charming is never both and when Jo comes close to connecting with one of the girls that has ostracized her, her reasons for pulling away are all too believable. While they are predominantly there in service to Jo’s story, they are still given nuance and hints of deeper characterisation.

Sparks is ideally suited to its medium. While the story itself is lovely, the images convey much more than a written novel could. Similarly, the art immediately imbues the characters with a fairytale quality (the sequence where Jo dresses as a Princess for a fancy-dress party is a nice nod, even as the following “Prince Charming” sequence undercuts the genre) and the visual style imbues the more painful or horrible moments with an almost sweet pathos.

I won’t go on waxing lyrical or spoiling the plot – things happen, both good and bad; and the heroine is changed by the events that occur. Suffice to say, I found it lovely and highly recommend Sparks as a wonderful modern fairytale. If you see it for $15, buy it. If it’s only on sale for $90 – I’d say buy it then as well.

Wild Girl #1 - Incidentally, that third panel is the cutest thing ever.

Wild Girl is all about mythology, reading like an urban folktale. Not an old fairy tale trussed up in modern clothing, but drawing on the aesthetics and structure of folktales and adapting them to an urban context. There are the familiar archetypes and elements - a child with a single parent, tests and quests, the dangerous stranger villain, helper animals - mixed in with the larger examination of how animals have played a role in human mythology. A nice structural bit is seeing a different culture’s myth told from the animal’s perspective in every issue as an enlightening experience for the heroine. Some of those featured are the Greek story of Odysseus’ faithful dog Argos; the Abrahamic story of Noah sending out a raven (which did not return) and a dove (which did); and the origin myth of the Hindu god Ganesh.

WG #1

In a nutshell, the mini-series was the story of Rosa, a young girl, who ran away from home after a bird crashing into a window causes her to see frightening visions and knocks her out. After another vision, she meets a seemingly kindly old man who also seems to know what’s going on with her “dreams.” However, he turns out to be far more sinister than he first appears and Rosa manages to escape his grasp, only after hopping a barbed wire fence and being knocked out upon hitting the ground. When she wakes up, she finds she can talk to the animals, and that she’s their “Chosen One”…

WG #3

As she grows with each test accomplished and new knowledge gained, she becomes more driven in her ultimate quest, moreso when she finds out the Sinister Man has kidnapped her baby brother. If you doubt how badass Rosa is, check out the sequence where she fights a freakin’ crocodile.

WG #5

This (and the Noah tale where another of Noah’s dove is killed by a lizard on an island) should also assure that Moore and Reppion’s nature isn’t warm and fuzzy and sanitized, but still red in tooth and claw. She’d get along well with another badass, awesome wild girl. Moore and Reppion do a lot of great things in this series. They make Rosa, I think, into a really great character that could’ve been fun to follow in a continuing series, as she develops further into her destiny. In the tradition of folktales, Rosa sets out on her own and goes through tests and quests that will help her grow and be strong enough for the final confrontation. And Rosa, herself, is very self-reliant, independent, and active. She’s been established as already dealing with a lot of responsibilities for her age, with a single working mother in a middle/lower-middle class neighborhood. In a really nicely done sequence, she’s able to support herself fine when she runs away for a long stretch of time.

WG #1

They translated the formula of folktales fits perfectly into the urban landscape (an especially clever and nice combination of the Egyptian crocodile god Sobek and the urban legend of crocs/gators in the sewers), and it’s a particularly skillful touch that, as Rosa grows, the normal, bustling human world starts to fade into the background. It’s especially nice for a maturity tale like this where Rosa eventually must break away from her family and embrace the lonely hero life. It’s interesting to note that the mother is the only parent that’s trying to love and support the children, and it’s the father that’s absent. There was a recent discussion on absent mothers in Disney films and the folktales they were based on (and in general), and Moore and Reppion flip it. Something I thought was a clever bit was a twist on the whole superhero costume thing. Usually costumes are made to be a huge deal, trying to be fashionable and show-offy more than realistic or practical. How much does spandex with unstable molecules cost? Where do heroes on a budget go? I kinda always had a hard time believing Peter Parker all alone could afford the right materials and could fix up a costume that doesn’t look amateurish. She’s a kid on her own with no money, what does Rosa do? She just raids the clothing donation box for anything.

 WG #4

Practical!