contemplating the inner mysteries of life
Holy shit, I’m actually posting something important. Everyone run for the hills. But wait! Explanation!
I frequent Overthinking It, a psychological/philosophical pop culture website that takes all the little things running about the media these days and “overthinks” (ha) them until you’re left overthinking shit yourself. The dudes who post/write the place are very vocal about our favorite little batfreak (check out their tag) and I find that I love whatever they have to say (half that shit is hilarious anyway.) They manage to stray to more important topics, particularly Why Strong Female Characters are Bad for Women. Here the author, mlawski, manages to take an absurd quote from Megan Fox on Transformers the Movie’s women (REALLY MEGAN FOX? REALLY?) and run with it. She even manages to explain how Rachel Dawes was NOT a Mary Sue, which I severely appreciate. But that made me think of the other women in our actual canon Batman Universe and whether or not they sync up with her (and my) classification of a Strong Female Character.
I (might) cover: Oracle (Barbara Gordon,) Black Canary (only for her relations with Oracle in the Bird of Prey series,) Huntress, Catwoman, Batgirl (Cassandra Cain,) Frank Miller’s Robin (Carrie Kelley,) Posion Ivy, Talia and Bruce Wayne’s many girlfriends. I say ‘might’ because I ramble and who knows where this might end up. I will not be covering, notably, Stephanie Brown (except in brief passing, which is beneath the cut,) and Harley Quinn because Stephanie Brown is an entirely different case and huge pet peeve of mine (love the character, hate what DC’s done to her) and Harley’s…Harley.
[Firstly, I want to point out something that made me consider another pet peeve I’ve had with comics for a good while. The entire ‘kung fu she learned at her self defense class’ line sort of set the wheels a-rollin’, because if this isn’t a widely overused plot hole in comic book history (especially within the Batman’s universe and pretty much half of his sidekicks’ back stories), then I’m freaking Adam West.
Because hell, let’s admit it, the very idea that someone can learn even the tiniest of basics of kung-fu in a self defense class is pretty implausible, but this has been done a lot. Particularly with Barbara Gordon (see Scott and Chuck’s Batgirl: Year One) I’ve checked that book out numerous times from my library (shut up shut up, I’M POOR) and each time I’m left with a huge WTF? I’m more inclined to believe Dick Grayson is a super awesome martial artist from his circus background than I’m to believe that Barbara Gordon had training experience because she took self defense classes.
I’m not, however, belittling the useful lessons learned in self defense classes, because obviously they’re doing something for the thousands of women that take them each year. Obviously they’re learning something to use, maybe a defense mechanism that originates from the many types of kung-fu and martial arts out there. That’s pretty realistic, okay, and I buy it. But in Year One, Barbara is seriously leaping from high places, riding motorcycles, facing madmen and Batman’s training system with punches and kicks of her own, and trust me, if the lack of actual professional martial arts training didn’t defeat her, the fact that she went up against someone like Mark Desmond should have. There’s a key scene featuring herself, Robin, and a speeding, runaway train in which she’s able to climb out the window WHILE THE TRAIN IS STILL MOVING, maneuver herself to where Mark is hanging WHILE THE TRAIN IS STILL MOVING, and spray half a bottle of Chanel (Chanel? Oh, wait, because she doesn’t have mace-I GET IT DC, really smart) into his face. While the train is still moving. And how are we supposed to believe that she is physically capable of doing this? Why, she takes self defense classes.
I’ll point out the fact that I’m a little iffy on the exact nature of her classes (she mentions lies of late-hour dojos to her father Jim on her way out to crime fight, and dojo sometimes equals martial arts, which means she could’ve been taking martial art classes as well) but even if she had been taking martial arts classes, even as long as the graphic novel alluded her to taking them, my point still stands. The same goes for Stephanie Brown, whose only pre training background was a long history of gymnastics. But suddenly, she can leap from building to buildings! She can totally handle her own! She’s fearless! Gymnastics =/= superhero, DC, get with it.]
Okay, on with it. I don’t dislike Barbara Gordon-in fact, I think she’s the very essence of a Strong Female Character. With the article in itself, I found that I pretty much agreed with everything mlawski had to say, right down to the punctuation. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some DC, but when it comes to Strong Female Characters, they are pretty much the worst offenders. (They’re lucky I don’t base the entirety of my entertainment on whether or not my female heroines aren’t Mary Sues, or I would’ve moved over to Marvel years ago.) I have had my beefs with DC over many things both pertaining to and not to women (Power Girl’s costume, Batman’s personality, Elongated Man) but their Strong Female Characters (SFCs), for me, have always been personality sisters with Hollywood’s portrayal of SFCs: snarky, sarcastic, and hot.
There’s nothing wrong with those characteristics, you should know. I am two out of three of those things (guess what’s missing,) and I find them to be just a basic form of who I am. That’s how I deal with shit: I get rude, I crack rude jokes, I laugh it off. It’s passive aggressive as hell, but it works for me. But those are more of my flaws than anything else, and show how I wouldn’t be capable of handling a high pressure situation. They’re crippling more than anything else, and they should be on the very super heroines who display them (some of the offenders I’ve seen: Huntress, Catwoman, Grace of the Outsiders.) Maybe they can handle high pressure situations, but it should be considered somewhat of a flaw but, instead, it’s what makes them the perfect SFC: the fact that they can retaliate with a scalding comeback in less than five seconds (the standard comeback time frame.)
I like Huntress, I like Catwoman (Grace is an entirely different story.) Whether or not I think they’re a nice portrayal of SFCs is an entirely different story. And granted, they are plenty of other DC heroines that display these very traits whose names have escaped me, but I’ll use them as quick examples.
Huntress: those who frequent the comics know her. She, somewhat amusingly, suffered the same fate as Bruce Wayne, and was witness to the gruesome murders of most of her blood family at age eight. Her family, one of Gotham’s Famous Four, were one those notorious Mob Families everyone’s always going on about, but instead of making sure no one would suffer her fate a ‘la Bruce Wayne, she returns to her family’s home world to train for a few years, returns to Gotham, and dons her own suit and cowl for revenge. Unlike Batman, she kills, and also unlike Batman, she’s not a total dick to people when she saves them. Whether or not she’s killing or saving you is completely her choice, though, so it makes her unpredictable and very dangerous, which okay, I can appreciate. Finally there’s a woman who kills in Batman’s world and isn’t ashamed or afraid to say it. You shoot at her, she shoots at you-if you happen to die, well.
(I’m going to be an asshole for a moment, and point out that I seriously want to discuss her current outfit for a moment, even though it doesn’t cement her as a SCF or repel her as one, but I won’t. But yeah, it peeves me.)
Her personality besides the cape is a schoolteacher. When she’s Huntress, she’s kicking ass and taking names, sometimes working for Oracle (see the Birds of Prey series,) sometimes on her own. She’s not really the standard heroine: sure, she’s hot, and there are allusions of her sleeping with men (more notably Dick Grayson/Nightwing) and saves stuff. Outside of that, she kills and is snarky. And while I appreciate some of her finer points, I have the ever growing suspicion that this is exactly all Huntress is supposed to be: the unpredictable hotass who will pull a line just before she shoots you in the face.
Okay, DC, what’s up with that?
At the moment, Huntress stars in her own series, which I have never read. Her only main portrayal takes place when she is “guest starring” in other series, such as the Outsiders and the Bird of Prey, where she takes on roles with the former or Black Canary and Oracle of the latter. I’ve read a few graphic novels from BOP (the more enjoyable being Of Like Minds), which I’m basing most of my input from. The other half comes from Batman: No Man’s Land: The Novel Experience, where she takes up the role of Batgirl (hereafter earning even more of Barbara Gordon’s-the first Batgirl and now Oracle-scorn. The other half she’d probably earned from being outright crazy/dangerous and sleeping with the said Dick Grayson, Barbara’s love interest. Might I mention that this has no significant use whatsoever and that I just wanted to mention it?)
Starting off: Huntress is hot. There’s no doubt it. Aside from the fact that this is DC, and therefore everyone is hot, Huntress is also a ‘super kawaii!’ superhero, so of course, she’s tall, small waist, big chest, full lips, ripped as hell. She fights crimes, dudes. And as a frequent and forever appreciator of the female body, I am not complaining. However, we have already covered half of Huntress’ personality and significance in the DC Universe. Half of it, and we’ve just retained the facts as we know them.
The other half? Is her reputation. Despite the fact that she continuously happens to mix it up with the Batman Family, Huntress doesn’t get lost amidst the hotness and the greatness and the morals, because she kills, whereas the Bat Family does not. Oracle views her as a threat and was quite reluctant to use her services from the beginning (see Batman: No Man’s Land and Birds of Prey #56) and she has displayed this vocally. Robin, also in Batman: No Man’s Land, still considers her somewhat dangerous, even though he does like her (as seen from his inner monologue while spying her on Batman’s orders.) Nightwing, aside from his already uncomfortable intimate encounter with her, heeds both Oracle and Batman’s words on her, even though he has some platonic (even friendly) feelings for her (again, see Batman: No Man’s Land.) Basically, she could easily be a supervillian in their eyes as she could a superhero. She doesn’t kill on a wide scale, but she does, and even one life in that universe is somewhat like a million. Basically? No killing. The fact that she does with so little remorse easily puts her on the other side.
(I could go further here and mention that Oracle isn’t only Batman’s accomplice and is able to project her help on a large scale (try the entire world, for instance.) For me, I feel that most of Huntress’ reputation might’ve been skewered by Barbara’s dislike of her, which I both appreciate and don’t appreciate. On the one hand, it ups her ante and makes her seem more dangerous and, in turn, more badass; on the other hand, people seem not to trust her as much, seeing as they’ve already gotten that tip. It’s a hands up for me.)
Okay, so she’s attractive and she has a wicked reputation. Are we done? Yeah, we’re done. It’s all she does. Basically, when she’s not starring in her own series, she’s making appearances, maybe helping out, maybe killing a few guys, drops a few snarky lines and doesn’t get along with whoever’s in charge. She’s had a good run of being…good, but that’s often stops when she makes a decision in places where other people surrounding her vastly disapproves. She often sticks to her decision, and maybe DC thinks that, along with the hotness and the rebellion and such, makes a SFC, but DC? It doesn’t. It absolutely doesn’t.
I like Huntress. She sticks to her guns, and she’s obviously not running the same game Batman is. In fact, that’s part of the reason DC wants me to like her (to which I say, screw you, DC, I like who I like for my own reasons!) But I would like to like her not because she’s rebellious, because that’s such a clichéd role. A woman is rebellious! That means she’s strong! When in actuality, in comics, that’s more likely to mean she’s going to be a hardass and not fit in with much of anyone, which Huntress is already displaying.
So, SFC? Not really. I’d love to see her not centering her entire MO on not being Batman and not submitting to Batman and not not killing like Batman. I’d like DC to stop writing her as someone who gains all of her power and likeability because she doesn’t fit in. Naturally, not fitting is perfectly fine, and makes us who we are in some part-but I would never want to be completely liked because I’m not part of the crowd, but because I am myself. Makes no sense, but yes, in your subconscious, you get me.
Catwoman: Dude. You know her. And by the way, I will not cover Halle Berry’s portrayal of her in the 2004 dud. I would have to choke people, and okay, that may be fun, but I’m not going to get much satisfaction.
(…okay, so you might not know her. I’m basing Catwoman on Frank Miller’s, because it’s more known and is a lot more current. This Catwoman is Selina Kyle, a former prostitute who, ironically, takes up her own when she sees Batman in action. Do I like that Frank Miller decided to base the entire existence of her alter ego on the same man that she pretty much ends up with from time to time? Of course not. In fact, it somewhat belittles her as the now reformed superhero-but not the thief. The thief I can believe was created for her own benefits, obviously, but the superhero? I appreciate, yes, but is it wrong for me to speculate that she might be doing it in some misguided way to relate/become closer to Batman? Maybe not.)
Frank Miller also deals with a lot of her origins and even writes young Selina Kyle as a victim of her mother’s suicide and her father’s death (resulting of her mother’s suicide.) Young Selina Kyle has a sister and is good with her hands and ends up in a lot of houses and homes (and a few government boarding schools) in which she spends most of her nights out on Gotham’s streets thanks to her cat-like (ha!) escaping skills. This is, apparently, supposed to support the fact that Selina’s always been this tough, quirky woman who takes care of herself and is super tough and strong and stuff. I can sort of buy it. Gotham isn’t really a place for kids, especially young women to be out, so I am the tiniest bit impressed with a nine year old skulking around a building.
Of course, I lose a bit of this impression when young Selina Kyle turns into Selina the Prostitute, who is still tough and quirky and her own woman, but is somehow being beaten every night by her pimp, Stan (and once to near death.) How Frank Miller manages to represent her as a strong female and a helpless one at the same time will always be beyond me. Something should be a huge contradiction is looked over, because obviously, people bought it. I’m not sure if I buy it.
This all pales in comparison, though, because Selina the Prostitute turns into Catwoman, the Princess of Crime (blame that line on the 60-80’s, not me), a woman who is obviously out for her own good. For one, she steals (jewelry, expensive things, clothing, money) stuff that DC believes a woman would steal, and things that are obviously of wealth. Is this because of her previously life (and her obvious need and want to never experience it again) or just because she wants to taunt the Batman and his Robin? Who really cares, anyway, you just get that vibe that she’s a woman of her own, stealing for her own, and of course, the fact that she manages to both allude and attract Batman is another feat I’m not even sure I buy. On the one, she does manage to be caught by him, sometimes. In the same, he’s attracted to her. Which is another huge fat WTF? from me, because I’ve always had the striking feeling that somehow gave her power she shouldn’t even need to have.
Let’s not belittle the fact that Batman is a very mysterious dude. He comes off as impassive, stone, scary as fuck, along with attractive. As Bruce Wayne, he’s had his deal of women (Sliver St. Cloud, Vicki Vale, Vesper Fairchild) and as Batman, he’s had an entirely different breed (Talia, more notably, and of course, Catwoman.) For a guy who thwacks heads together or a nightly basis and is so emotionally unavailable, Selina should probably take it as a compliment that he’s interested, right, DC? Right?
Yeah, I don’t think so. In fact, to even hint that she’s a SFC for attracting the Batman makes me want to punch whoever started their relationship (better his enemy than his flunky) and possibly Batman for settling her role once again (as he’s done somewhat with Huntress.) In short: Batman =/= SFC, let’s move on.
Okay, so getting to make out with Batman doesn’t really make her a SFC. What does?
We’ll split her in half for starters. Outside of the mask, Selina is incognito. At least, there’s never much of another side to her, which I find very interesting. There have been a few instances where she’s been featured as the same sort of socialite as Bruce Wayne, and even runs into him a couple of times during parties (again with the centering, DC?) although this is way before Bruce reveals his identity to her (see the Hush graphic novels.)
Note that during the Hush series, Batman and Catwoman share a romantic but brief relationship (Batman breaks it off because he’s a paranoid idiot.) So there’s Batman, there’s money, there’s possible crimefighting, there’s romance-it’s as if Catwoman has the more exciting life when compared to Selina Kyle’s, which defines the mask more and the actual person, Selina, less. You rarely see her without the mask. I actually applaud DC on this one, because Selina has mostly been behind the mask since her debut in the olden times, and during most of her encounters with Batman. The notable exception to this is her series Catwoman, which we get a peek into her life a bit, but it’s still while she’s Catwoman and to me (and possibly others) Selina still wasn’t all that exciting. It’d be a tough job to make Selina more interesting and downplay Catwoman at this point.
For the most part, Selina seems very comfortable being Catwoman, which I also like. No turmoils, no angst (I’M LOOKING AT YOU, BRUCE)-she’s cool with the stealing and the sometimes superheroing and those random epiphanies where she realizes that maybe stealing isn’t everything (oh, DC) and how she should totally listen to Batman while he drones and on about how she’s better than this. Did I mention the sometimes superheroing?
At first, I thought that Catwoman occasionally taking up the superhero mantle (admittedly for her own gain, sometimes. There are some moments where she outright pulls a Batman.) meant that she was versatile as a person and a character. With comics, and especially Batman, everyone’s so set in a role there (Batman: The Troubled Antihero Driven By His Need; Robin: The Kid Genius; Nightwing: The Attractive Not-So-Serious-But-Sometimes Hero; Oracle: The Still Competent Information Powerhouse) and Catwoman was not either The Princess of Crime or That Chick Who’d Pull You Out of that Line of Bullets. Versatile! Somewhat! But at least it showed that she was unpredictable in Huntress terms, but instead of killing you, she might just save you. It wasn’t often and didn’t take away from her being Catwoman, but it made me like her just a bit more.
Then DC spat out Zatanna and “mindwipe” and this intricate little backstory which some how explained that she being good wasn’t actually her. It actually belonged to the hands (and mouth) of Zatanna, who mindwiped Selina in a previous arc and it somehow inexplicably led her to doing good. Does this take away from her good deeds? A bit. I mean, what’s it like to find out that your decision to save that little girl wouldn’t be a decision you would even consider if it hadn’t been for some magician? And what about DC; did they feel uncomfortable with an always standard Catwoman suddenly being awesome and decided to explain it? Was it fan pressure? Why did you even have to explain it, DC, and take away from the good she’d already done?
How does Selina react, you ask? She throws Zatanna out of a window. It pretty much illustrates how she’s not even sure. For me, I felt cheated. I liked Selina doing good, other people liked Selina doing good, why change that? Why bring the angst, DC?
DC answers that question with more angst. Maybe to show Selina’s “true side,” maybe to “put things back in order,” some douche ends up writing Selina into shooting the villainous Black Mask in the head, while he (and everyone else) still believes she is under her previous no-killing act. This sends a message to her readers and everyone else in Gotham who might’ve heard: Catwoman’s back and she’s dangerous again! She might steal again! She just might kill you!
Granted, Black Mask has had some dealings with Selina before (the notable being his torturing of her sister Maggie and the murder of Maggie’s husband.) That shit’s horrible, and I wouldn’t blame her for shooting him. But I feel that if DC was going to do this, they shouldn’t have flaunted her “GOOD AND NOT KILLING” role the way that they had, either.
Personality wise, Selina stays the same the entire way. During her good spree, she’d managed to adhere herself somewhat to Batman without letting him define her anymore, which I found really impressive. She’d even managed to secure East Gotham (where she lived) and headed most of the crimes there, occasionally coming to face with Batman, but him pretty much avoiding her turf altogether. It’s so incredibly ambiguous that it makes you want to slap someone, I know, but it’s still plausible, so I have nothing against it.
I have never once found Selina to be overly strong. Witty, yes. Sarcastic, yes. But unlike Huntress, I find this to be more of her personality instead of a character’s…characteristic. Were Helena real, I feel she’d have a little more profanity in her speech, and would maybe fight off a bunch of men in front of more men, her body glistening all the while. Selina? Would take a punch in the face, maybe a few broken ribs, and would get up, spit out a tooth and ask for more. It is cliché, and it is lame, and that alone doesn’t make her a SFC. What does is that whether she’s taking a punch because she has jewels in her hand and the guards/Batman caught her or there’s a little nine year old girl crying her eyes out in fear behind her, she’s taking that punch because whatever the hell she’s protecting is right in her eyes. With that intact, she can be snarky all she wants.
Verdict: Selina, for me, is a Strong Female Character. Originally, not so much, but now? Hell yes.
(For those who are way into the comics, maybe more than me: yes, I didn’t mention Selina: One Year Later and her daughter, Helena. While DC portraying her as a mother is very sweet, I am completely and utterly squicked out by the fact that she manages to become pregnant (and that we don’t even know who the father is) and still finds herself somewhat centered on Batman again. I get it, love interests! Except no.)
(I totally realize I didn’t even cover half of the women I targeted before. Maybe a two parter?)
ETA: THE FONT IS WEIRD. I KNOW. I CAN'T FIX IT.
I frequent Overthinking It, a psychological/philosophical pop culture website that takes all the little things running about the media these days and “overthinks” (ha) them until you’re left overthinking shit yourself. The dudes who post/write the place are very vocal about our favorite little batfreak (check out their tag) and I find that I love whatever they have to say (half that shit is hilarious anyway.) They manage to stray to more important topics, particularly Why Strong Female Characters are Bad for Women. Here the author, mlawski, manages to take an absurd quote from Megan Fox on Transformers the Movie’s women (REALLY MEGAN FOX? REALLY?) and run with it. She even manages to explain how Rachel Dawes was NOT a Mary Sue, which I severely appreciate. But that made me think of the other women in our actual canon Batman Universe and whether or not they sync up with her (and my) classification of a Strong Female Character.
I (might) cover: Oracle (Barbara Gordon,) Black Canary (only for her relations with Oracle in the Bird of Prey series,) Huntress, Catwoman, Batgirl (Cassandra Cain,) Frank Miller’s Robin (Carrie Kelley,) Posion Ivy, Talia and Bruce Wayne’s many girlfriends. I say ‘might’ because I ramble and who knows where this might end up. I will not be covering, notably, Stephanie Brown (except in brief passing, which is beneath the cut,) and Harley Quinn because Stephanie Brown is an entirely different case and huge pet peeve of mine (love the character, hate what DC’s done to her) and Harley’s…Harley.
[Firstly, I want to point out something that made me consider another pet peeve I’ve had with comics for a good while. The entire ‘kung fu she learned at her self defense class’ line sort of set the wheels a-rollin’, because if this isn’t a widely overused plot hole in comic book history (especially within the Batman’s universe and pretty much half of his sidekicks’ back stories), then I’m freaking Adam West.
Because hell, let’s admit it, the very idea that someone can learn even the tiniest of basics of kung-fu in a self defense class is pretty implausible, but this has been done a lot. Particularly with Barbara Gordon (see Scott and Chuck’s Batgirl: Year One) I’ve checked that book out numerous times from my library (shut up shut up, I’M POOR) and each time I’m left with a huge WTF? I’m more inclined to believe Dick Grayson is a super awesome martial artist from his circus background than I’m to believe that Barbara Gordon had training experience because she took self defense classes.
I’m not, however, belittling the useful lessons learned in self defense classes, because obviously they’re doing something for the thousands of women that take them each year. Obviously they’re learning something to use, maybe a defense mechanism that originates from the many types of kung-fu and martial arts out there. That’s pretty realistic, okay, and I buy it. But in Year One, Barbara is seriously leaping from high places, riding motorcycles, facing madmen and Batman’s training system with punches and kicks of her own, and trust me, if the lack of actual professional martial arts training didn’t defeat her, the fact that she went up against someone like Mark Desmond should have. There’s a key scene featuring herself, Robin, and a speeding, runaway train in which she’s able to climb out the window WHILE THE TRAIN IS STILL MOVING, maneuver herself to where Mark is hanging WHILE THE TRAIN IS STILL MOVING, and spray half a bottle of Chanel (Chanel? Oh, wait, because she doesn’t have mace-I GET IT DC, really smart) into his face. While the train is still moving. And how are we supposed to believe that she is physically capable of doing this? Why, she takes self defense classes.
I’ll point out the fact that I’m a little iffy on the exact nature of her classes (she mentions lies of late-hour dojos to her father Jim on her way out to crime fight, and dojo sometimes equals martial arts, which means she could’ve been taking martial art classes as well) but even if she had been taking martial arts classes, even as long as the graphic novel alluded her to taking them, my point still stands. The same goes for Stephanie Brown, whose only pre training background was a long history of gymnastics. But suddenly, she can leap from building to buildings! She can totally handle her own! She’s fearless! Gymnastics =/= superhero, DC, get with it.]
Okay, on with it. I don’t dislike Barbara Gordon-in fact, I think she’s the very essence of a Strong Female Character. With the article in itself, I found that I pretty much agreed with everything mlawski had to say, right down to the punctuation. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some DC, but when it comes to Strong Female Characters, they are pretty much the worst offenders. (They’re lucky I don’t base the entirety of my entertainment on whether or not my female heroines aren’t Mary Sues, or I would’ve moved over to Marvel years ago.) I have had my beefs with DC over many things both pertaining to and not to women (Power Girl’s costume, Batman’s personality, Elongated Man) but their Strong Female Characters (SFCs), for me, have always been personality sisters with Hollywood’s portrayal of SFCs: snarky, sarcastic, and hot.
There’s nothing wrong with those characteristics, you should know. I am two out of three of those things (guess what’s missing,) and I find them to be just a basic form of who I am. That’s how I deal with shit: I get rude, I crack rude jokes, I laugh it off. It’s passive aggressive as hell, but it works for me. But those are more of my flaws than anything else, and show how I wouldn’t be capable of handling a high pressure situation. They’re crippling more than anything else, and they should be on the very super heroines who display them (some of the offenders I’ve seen: Huntress, Catwoman, Grace of the Outsiders.) Maybe they can handle high pressure situations, but it should be considered somewhat of a flaw but, instead, it’s what makes them the perfect SFC: the fact that they can retaliate with a scalding comeback in less than five seconds (the standard comeback time frame.)
I like Huntress, I like Catwoman (Grace is an entirely different story.) Whether or not I think they’re a nice portrayal of SFCs is an entirely different story. And granted, they are plenty of other DC heroines that display these very traits whose names have escaped me, but I’ll use them as quick examples.
Huntress: those who frequent the comics know her. She, somewhat amusingly, suffered the same fate as Bruce Wayne, and was witness to the gruesome murders of most of her blood family at age eight. Her family, one of Gotham’s Famous Four, were one those notorious Mob Families everyone’s always going on about, but instead of making sure no one would suffer her fate a ‘la Bruce Wayne, she returns to her family’s home world to train for a few years, returns to Gotham, and dons her own suit and cowl for revenge. Unlike Batman, she kills, and also unlike Batman, she’s not a total dick to people when she saves them. Whether or not she’s killing or saving you is completely her choice, though, so it makes her unpredictable and very dangerous, which okay, I can appreciate. Finally there’s a woman who kills in Batman’s world and isn’t ashamed or afraid to say it. You shoot at her, she shoots at you-if you happen to die, well.
(I’m going to be an asshole for a moment, and point out that I seriously want to discuss her current outfit for a moment, even though it doesn’t cement her as a SCF or repel her as one, but I won’t. But yeah, it peeves me.)
Her personality besides the cape is a schoolteacher. When she’s Huntress, she’s kicking ass and taking names, sometimes working for Oracle (see the Birds of Prey series,) sometimes on her own. She’s not really the standard heroine: sure, she’s hot, and there are allusions of her sleeping with men (more notably Dick Grayson/Nightwing) and saves stuff. Outside of that, she kills and is snarky. And while I appreciate some of her finer points, I have the ever growing suspicion that this is exactly all Huntress is supposed to be: the unpredictable hotass who will pull a line just before she shoots you in the face.
Okay, DC, what’s up with that?
At the moment, Huntress stars in her own series, which I have never read. Her only main portrayal takes place when she is “guest starring” in other series, such as the Outsiders and the Bird of Prey, where she takes on roles with the former or Black Canary and Oracle of the latter. I’ve read a few graphic novels from BOP (the more enjoyable being Of Like Minds), which I’m basing most of my input from. The other half comes from Batman: No Man’s Land: The Novel Experience, where she takes up the role of Batgirl (hereafter earning even more of Barbara Gordon’s-the first Batgirl and now Oracle-scorn. The other half she’d probably earned from being outright crazy/dangerous and sleeping with the said Dick Grayson, Barbara’s love interest. Might I mention that this has no significant use whatsoever and that I just wanted to mention it?)
Starting off: Huntress is hot. There’s no doubt it. Aside from the fact that this is DC, and therefore everyone is hot, Huntress is also a ‘super kawaii!’ superhero, so of course, she’s tall, small waist, big chest, full lips, ripped as hell. She fights crimes, dudes. And as a frequent and forever appreciator of the female body, I am not complaining. However, we have already covered half of Huntress’ personality and significance in the DC Universe. Half of it, and we’ve just retained the facts as we know them.
The other half? Is her reputation. Despite the fact that she continuously happens to mix it up with the Batman Family, Huntress doesn’t get lost amidst the hotness and the greatness and the morals, because she kills, whereas the Bat Family does not. Oracle views her as a threat and was quite reluctant to use her services from the beginning (see Batman: No Man’s Land and Birds of Prey #56) and she has displayed this vocally. Robin, also in Batman: No Man’s Land, still considers her somewhat dangerous, even though he does like her (as seen from his inner monologue while spying her on Batman’s orders.) Nightwing, aside from his already uncomfortable intimate encounter with her, heeds both Oracle and Batman’s words on her, even though he has some platonic (even friendly) feelings for her (again, see Batman: No Man’s Land.) Basically, she could easily be a supervillian in their eyes as she could a superhero. She doesn’t kill on a wide scale, but she does, and even one life in that universe is somewhat like a million. Basically? No killing. The fact that she does with so little remorse easily puts her on the other side.
(I could go further here and mention that Oracle isn’t only Batman’s accomplice and is able to project her help on a large scale (try the entire world, for instance.) For me, I feel that most of Huntress’ reputation might’ve been skewered by Barbara’s dislike of her, which I both appreciate and don’t appreciate. On the one hand, it ups her ante and makes her seem more dangerous and, in turn, more badass; on the other hand, people seem not to trust her as much, seeing as they’ve already gotten that tip. It’s a hands up for me.)
Okay, so she’s attractive and she has a wicked reputation. Are we done? Yeah, we’re done. It’s all she does. Basically, when she’s not starring in her own series, she’s making appearances, maybe helping out, maybe killing a few guys, drops a few snarky lines and doesn’t get along with whoever’s in charge. She’s had a good run of being…good, but that’s often stops when she makes a decision in places where other people surrounding her vastly disapproves. She often sticks to her decision, and maybe DC thinks that, along with the hotness and the rebellion and such, makes a SFC, but DC? It doesn’t. It absolutely doesn’t.
I like Huntress. She sticks to her guns, and she’s obviously not running the same game Batman is. In fact, that’s part of the reason DC wants me to like her (to which I say, screw you, DC, I like who I like for my own reasons!) But I would like to like her not because she’s rebellious, because that’s such a clichéd role. A woman is rebellious! That means she’s strong! When in actuality, in comics, that’s more likely to mean she’s going to be a hardass and not fit in with much of anyone, which Huntress is already displaying.
So, SFC? Not really. I’d love to see her not centering her entire MO on not being Batman and not submitting to Batman and not not killing like Batman. I’d like DC to stop writing her as someone who gains all of her power and likeability because she doesn’t fit in. Naturally, not fitting is perfectly fine, and makes us who we are in some part-but I would never want to be completely liked because I’m not part of the crowd, but because I am myself. Makes no sense, but yes, in your subconscious, you get me.
Catwoman: Dude. You know her. And by the way, I will not cover Halle Berry’s portrayal of her in the 2004 dud. I would have to choke people, and okay, that may be fun, but I’m not going to get much satisfaction.
(…okay, so you might not know her. I’m basing Catwoman on Frank Miller’s, because it’s more known and is a lot more current. This Catwoman is Selina Kyle, a former prostitute who, ironically, takes up her own when she sees Batman in action. Do I like that Frank Miller decided to base the entire existence of her alter ego on the same man that she pretty much ends up with from time to time? Of course not. In fact, it somewhat belittles her as the now reformed superhero-but not the thief. The thief I can believe was created for her own benefits, obviously, but the superhero? I appreciate, yes, but is it wrong for me to speculate that she might be doing it in some misguided way to relate/become closer to Batman? Maybe not.)
Frank Miller also deals with a lot of her origins and even writes young Selina Kyle as a victim of her mother’s suicide and her father’s death (resulting of her mother’s suicide.) Young Selina Kyle has a sister and is good with her hands and ends up in a lot of houses and homes (and a few government boarding schools) in which she spends most of her nights out on Gotham’s streets thanks to her cat-like (ha!) escaping skills. This is, apparently, supposed to support the fact that Selina’s always been this tough, quirky woman who takes care of herself and is super tough and strong and stuff. I can sort of buy it. Gotham isn’t really a place for kids, especially young women to be out, so I am the tiniest bit impressed with a nine year old skulking around a building.
Of course, I lose a bit of this impression when young Selina Kyle turns into Selina the Prostitute, who is still tough and quirky and her own woman, but is somehow being beaten every night by her pimp, Stan (and once to near death.) How Frank Miller manages to represent her as a strong female and a helpless one at the same time will always be beyond me. Something should be a huge contradiction is looked over, because obviously, people bought it. I’m not sure if I buy it.
This all pales in comparison, though, because Selina the Prostitute turns into Catwoman, the Princess of Crime (blame that line on the 60-80’s, not me), a woman who is obviously out for her own good. For one, she steals (jewelry, expensive things, clothing, money) stuff that DC believes a woman would steal, and things that are obviously of wealth. Is this because of her previously life (and her obvious need and want to never experience it again) or just because she wants to taunt the Batman and his Robin? Who really cares, anyway, you just get that vibe that she’s a woman of her own, stealing for her own, and of course, the fact that she manages to both allude and attract Batman is another feat I’m not even sure I buy. On the one, she does manage to be caught by him, sometimes. In the same, he’s attracted to her. Which is another huge fat WTF? from me, because I’ve always had the striking feeling that somehow gave her power she shouldn’t even need to have.
Let’s not belittle the fact that Batman is a very mysterious dude. He comes off as impassive, stone, scary as fuck, along with attractive. As Bruce Wayne, he’s had his deal of women (Sliver St. Cloud, Vicki Vale, Vesper Fairchild) and as Batman, he’s had an entirely different breed (Talia, more notably, and of course, Catwoman.) For a guy who thwacks heads together or a nightly basis and is so emotionally unavailable, Selina should probably take it as a compliment that he’s interested, right, DC? Right?
Yeah, I don’t think so. In fact, to even hint that she’s a SFC for attracting the Batman makes me want to punch whoever started their relationship (better his enemy than his flunky) and possibly Batman for settling her role once again (as he’s done somewhat with Huntress.) In short: Batman =/= SFC, let’s move on.
Okay, so getting to make out with Batman doesn’t really make her a SFC. What does?
We’ll split her in half for starters. Outside of the mask, Selina is incognito. At least, there’s never much of another side to her, which I find very interesting. There have been a few instances where she’s been featured as the same sort of socialite as Bruce Wayne, and even runs into him a couple of times during parties (again with the centering, DC?) although this is way before Bruce reveals his identity to her (see the Hush graphic novels.)
Note that during the Hush series, Batman and Catwoman share a romantic but brief relationship (Batman breaks it off because he’s a paranoid idiot.) So there’s Batman, there’s money, there’s possible crimefighting, there’s romance-it’s as if Catwoman has the more exciting life when compared to Selina Kyle’s, which defines the mask more and the actual person, Selina, less. You rarely see her without the mask. I actually applaud DC on this one, because Selina has mostly been behind the mask since her debut in the olden times, and during most of her encounters with Batman. The notable exception to this is her series Catwoman, which we get a peek into her life a bit, but it’s still while she’s Catwoman and to me (and possibly others) Selina still wasn’t all that exciting. It’d be a tough job to make Selina more interesting and downplay Catwoman at this point.
For the most part, Selina seems very comfortable being Catwoman, which I also like. No turmoils, no angst (I’M LOOKING AT YOU, BRUCE)-she’s cool with the stealing and the sometimes superheroing and those random epiphanies where she realizes that maybe stealing isn’t everything (oh, DC) and how she should totally listen to Batman while he drones and on about how she’s better than this. Did I mention the sometimes superheroing?
At first, I thought that Catwoman occasionally taking up the superhero mantle (admittedly for her own gain, sometimes. There are some moments where she outright pulls a Batman.) meant that she was versatile as a person and a character. With comics, and especially Batman, everyone’s so set in a role there (Batman: The Troubled Antihero Driven By His Need; Robin: The Kid Genius; Nightwing: The Attractive Not-So-Serious-But-Sometimes Hero; Oracle: The Still Competent Information Powerhouse) and Catwoman was not either The Princess of Crime or That Chick Who’d Pull You Out of that Line of Bullets. Versatile! Somewhat! But at least it showed that she was unpredictable in Huntress terms, but instead of killing you, she might just save you. It wasn’t often and didn’t take away from her being Catwoman, but it made me like her just a bit more.
Then DC spat out Zatanna and “mindwipe” and this intricate little backstory which some how explained that she being good wasn’t actually her. It actually belonged to the hands (and mouth) of Zatanna, who mindwiped Selina in a previous arc and it somehow inexplicably led her to doing good. Does this take away from her good deeds? A bit. I mean, what’s it like to find out that your decision to save that little girl wouldn’t be a decision you would even consider if it hadn’t been for some magician? And what about DC; did they feel uncomfortable with an always standard Catwoman suddenly being awesome and decided to explain it? Was it fan pressure? Why did you even have to explain it, DC, and take away from the good she’d already done?
How does Selina react, you ask? She throws Zatanna out of a window. It pretty much illustrates how she’s not even sure. For me, I felt cheated. I liked Selina doing good, other people liked Selina doing good, why change that? Why bring the angst, DC?
DC answers that question with more angst. Maybe to show Selina’s “true side,” maybe to “put things back in order,” some douche ends up writing Selina into shooting the villainous Black Mask in the head, while he (and everyone else) still believes she is under her previous no-killing act. This sends a message to her readers and everyone else in Gotham who might’ve heard: Catwoman’s back and she’s dangerous again! She might steal again! She just might kill you!
Granted, Black Mask has had some dealings with Selina before (the notable being his torturing of her sister Maggie and the murder of Maggie’s husband.) That shit’s horrible, and I wouldn’t blame her for shooting him. But I feel that if DC was going to do this, they shouldn’t have flaunted her “GOOD AND NOT KILLING” role the way that they had, either.
Personality wise, Selina stays the same the entire way. During her good spree, she’d managed to adhere herself somewhat to Batman without letting him define her anymore, which I found really impressive. She’d even managed to secure East Gotham (where she lived) and headed most of the crimes there, occasionally coming to face with Batman, but him pretty much avoiding her turf altogether. It’s so incredibly ambiguous that it makes you want to slap someone, I know, but it’s still plausible, so I have nothing against it.
I have never once found Selina to be overly strong. Witty, yes. Sarcastic, yes. But unlike Huntress, I find this to be more of her personality instead of a character’s…characteristic. Were Helena real, I feel she’d have a little more profanity in her speech, and would maybe fight off a bunch of men in front of more men, her body glistening all the while. Selina? Would take a punch in the face, maybe a few broken ribs, and would get up, spit out a tooth and ask for more. It is cliché, and it is lame, and that alone doesn’t make her a SFC. What does is that whether she’s taking a punch because she has jewels in her hand and the guards/Batman caught her or there’s a little nine year old girl crying her eyes out in fear behind her, she’s taking that punch because whatever the hell she’s protecting is right in her eyes. With that intact, she can be snarky all she wants.
Verdict: Selina, for me, is a Strong Female Character. Originally, not so much, but now? Hell yes.
(For those who are way into the comics, maybe more than me: yes, I didn’t mention Selina: One Year Later and her daughter, Helena. While DC portraying her as a mother is very sweet, I am completely and utterly squicked out by the fact that she manages to become pregnant (and that we don’t even know who the father is) and still finds herself somewhat centered on Batman again. I get it, love interests! Except no.)
(I totally realize I didn’t even cover half of the women I targeted before. Maybe a two parter?)
ETA: THE FONT IS WEIRD. I KNOW. I CAN'T FIX IT.