Titles to read for strong women
Okay, over at halfamoon there's a post rec'ing SFF books to read for the strong female characters. They've invited people to rec things in other mediums where strong women can be found, and I wanted to post about comics. Under the cut are those titles I could think of off the top of my head (I may add to it later) that I read and love at least partially for the strong female characters.
Please, chime in in the comments either here or over at halfamoon if you can think of more!
This list is organized by publisher, which I've found is most useful for comics.
DC
Birds of Prey -- a comic that explicitly features mostly female characters. While this could be considered a detriment because the women have been explicitly separated from the men, in my opinion this does not detract from the fact that every page of the 114-and-running issues of Birds of Prey takes pride in the skills of its female characters.
Gotham Central -- The ups and downs of a cop’s experience in the city where clowns are never funny. Rene Montoya and a slew of other women, including a clerk and Rene’s own boss, round out a gritty, fascinating and well-written cast of people who work day-in and day-out trying to do good, even if they’re not sure what that is or how to do it.
JLA: Year One -- Yes, Black Canary does kick ass and is the founding female of the Justice League of America, DC’s premiere supergroup.
Young Justice -- featuring the Gen. 4 heroes, the sidekicks and the young, Young Justice is a team where ghost-girl Secret makes friends and threatens earth, Wonder Girl is a wonderful dork, Empress takes a stereotype and sets it on its head, and one heroine ducks out of the business early on because of her own moral issues, and she (and her Mom!) remain recurring, strong women in the title. Discontinued, somewhat hard to find, and much-missed.
WILDSTORM
Astro City -- In superhero comics you can do no better, and their treatment of women is right up there. Featuring not only strong superhero women such as Winged Victory, Cleopatra, Astra, Beautie, the Flying Fox and Quarrel, Astro City’s other women are equally diverse and compelling. The graphic novels are Life in the Big City, Confession, Family Album, Tarnished Angel, and Local Heroes. The current title is Astro City: Dark Ages, and the new Special (out soon!) features Honor Guard member Beautie. Feel free to read them in any order, because while there are story arcs, they are contained within the graphic novels and don’t require backstory knowledge.
MARVEL
Ultimate Spider-Man -- Aunt May, Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson and Kitty Pryde are featured among the many reasons I love this title for the women in Peter’s life
Essential X-Men #3 -- this b&w TPB collects issues of Uncanny X-Men from the early 80s, to date my favorite X-Men era. Storm leads a fantastic team/family that also includes a very young Kitty Pryde, Kitty’s teacher Stevie, Moira MacTaggert, Colleen Wing, Lee Forrester, and must deal with the indomitable Emma Frost, Rogue, Mystique, Lilandra and many others good, bad, neutral and alien.
Sensational She-Hulk -- a humor title headlining the She-Hulk herself, lawyer Jennifer Walters, and written by John Bryne, a remnant from the 80s that has me rolling on the floor laughing.
OTHER
Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things -- a must-read. Courtney is a smart aleck with the most brainless parents imaginable, who move in with their wealthy uncle to mooch off his supposed ‘society’ contacts. Courtney is a brat, smart, determined, clever, imaginative, precocious and a wonderful character to read. The plots are fast, well-written and well-illustrated urban fantasy, and in short this series (of which Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things is the first) is a definite must-read.