I really love villain characters. Give me a good dose of the Joker, Luthor or Sinestro (and so on) and I'm one content chick. I love irredeemable evil. I love 'evil' that is motivated by a logic that you can actually understand--sympathizing with a villain isn't as awesome as almost agreeing with one is. I love completely random violence, so long as a girlfriend isn't being shoved into a refrigerator.
I find, however, that my love for villains and my love for equality in comics isn't exactly meshing well. I find interesting anti-hero women who I mostly like and have really great potential, but no true female super-villains.
It's . . . really frustrating. Even when women are bad, or 'go bad', it's thanks to the manipulations of a male character. See Ravager, Mary Marvel. And when females start out bad, I find the opposite to be true and they become good or 'better' through the lurve of a male character. See Catwoman or Talia or . . . crap, lots of people.
It's . . . really frustrating. I'd like some straight-up, no foam, no soy milk villainesses. . .eseses, please.
I don't believe it's an unreasonable request. I don't believe it's an unfeminist request (I do believe, though, that I'm making up words) or that it's a stupid one. Women can be superheroes so the opposite must be true.
Equality, please. And while I do want a super-villainess, I don't want her shoving her DDD's into the panel, hip-switching around on four inch heels and sleazily coming on to every male hero during every encounter in an outfit that every female knows would never, ever stay on without copious amounts of super-glue. Hey, am I taking all the fun out of comics yet? (sarcasm)
I don't want her shoving her sex in my face, because Luthor doesn't do that to Superman (only in slashfic). Villainesseseseses don't actually need to slap men in the face with their breasts--they don't need to slap them at all, I'm a personal fan of the sucker punch or a bomb. Or a good nut-punch (sorry guys). Of course some people might be offended by an Evil Woman. But other people, myself included, are already offended at the superhero females that are being passed off, so we might as well broaden the horizon, right? I understand that villainy in women might be a rare trait to find, so I'm not asking for an influx, I'm just asking for one believable, consistently naughty, regular guest star in the main monthly's to have a vagina. Thoughts? Am I missing a glaringly obvious super-villainessssss that competes on the same level as our favorite villains in the DCU? (please note the specific DCU reference, as I am just now inviting myself into Marvel and am therefore knowingly ignorant as to the Ways Of Magic Did It)
Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding
6 days ago
3 comments:
I encourage you to read the 90's Starman comics. There is a villainess named The Mist (daughter of the original Mist) who was decent. Hell, she took out at least 3 members of the JLI team in one issue alone in very intelligent ways. If you can look past the off panel rape she did to Jack Knight to conceive a child, she was a good read. And Harris most certainly did not draw her with breasts that could only exist with surgery and copious amounts of silicone.
I love this post. I completely fucking agree. Unfortunately my knowledge of limited female villaineseses doesn't extend to comics (although it will someday, as you know <3), there's a lack of great female villains pretty much every media. And by "great", I mean believable. Without the oversexed costumes and massive breasts--not that I don't enjoy that, you know, on the right occasions...
I would love to rant about this coherently, and maybe someday I will, but for now I'll settle for an almighty AMEN and bow gracefully away.
Veronica Cale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronica_Cale
Current leader of the mad scientists of Oolong island, gave a great performance in 52 and in the recent "Four Horsemen of Apokilips" series.
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