Flip open any comic book and you'll find a story of overcoming the odds. Whether it's a web-slinger seeking to make his way in the world, a caped crusader intent on making his city a better place, or a mutant who has to deal with human hate — comic books have always been a beacon of hope for the underdogs of this world.
But perhaps the greatest comic book story ever told is that of the books themselves.
Funded by children's sticky nickels and leftover allowances, comic books were initially started as a way to keep presses running. A man named Will Eisner had the radical idea that these books were as important and as artistic as music, or paintings, or books — and he changed them, made them the place where super men and women, marvels, detectives, and the fantastic live.
Their existence — like many of the stories they told — wasn't without threats. Censorship, sexism, and racism have worked like vehement supervillains, determined to derail the strides of progress being made. And each time they've been tested, the books have come back faster, stronger, better than before.
Today, comic books command a seat at pop culture's table. They rule the box office and television screens. But most of all, from Superman to Sex Criminals, they're still places where the greatest stories are being told. Here are 50 comic books that explain the vast history, how certain books shaped the medium, and current state of comics today:
The Superhero
Joe Shuster (DC)
Action Comics No. 1 (1938): The first superhero
This is where the superhero begins.
Here's Superman lifting a truck over his head with his bare hands. Imagine being a kid and seeing this concept — and this character — for the first time. It must have been amazing. Action Comics No. 1 is the reason we have Batman, Green Lantern, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and every other superhero. It's also the reason that when we dream of being super, we dream of having fantastic powers.
"That was the dawn of superpowers," DC Comics publisher Jim Lee told me. "There were pulp characters before that, but no one could lift a car, be bulletproof, and leap over buildings in a single bound. And I think that was the start of superhero-dom and the idea that people could have crazy strange powers that made them gods among men."
Jack Kirby (Marvel)
Captain America Comics No. 1 (1941): The beginning of Jack Kirby's legend
Jack Kirby is a comic book deity. Born Jacob Kurtzberg in 1917, Kirby grew up in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Art was his way of dreaming up better places (the LES of 1917 was a lot grittier than it is now), and his comics did the same for readers.
In Captain America Comics No. 1, one of his earliest works, you can see the force in the way Kirby draws and adds curve to Cap's legs — this would become a Kirby signature. The faces he drew were expressive, too — you can often tell a Kirby face by the character's mouth and nose. And as Kirby began producing more work, he began showing off an innate talent for putting his limitless imagination (think supervillains in intricate, intergalactic headgear) onto paper.
Kirby brought a crackling, kinetic force to his art, along with a searing thoughtfulness when it came to structure, composition, depth, and perspective. Kirby made comic books, and the people who create them, better.
Frank Miller/Lynn Varley (DC)
The Dark Knight Returns No. 1 (1986): The antihero becomes a legend
The Dark Knight Returns isn't Batman's first appearance, but it's the most epochal. Today, in large part due to Christopher Nolan's cinematic interpretation of the hero in films like The Dark Knight, Batman is seen as a dark, brooding antihero. Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns was the comic book that crystallized that image back in the '80s. Set in a dystopian future, The Dark Knight Returns imagines a world where Superman is an agent of the government and crime is rampant. The series explores the idea of a hero going as dark as any villain. Fear, it argues, can be as inspiring as hope.
"I don't remember any covers with a zillion characters fighting with flame and smoke," Batman artist Greg Capullo told me. "They're beautiful pieces of art. But they're there, and they're gone. They didn't live with me. The Dark Knight Returns is iconic. It sticks in my head because of its simplicity."
Gil Kane/Dave Cockrum (Marvel)
Giant Size X-Men No. 1 (1975): The comic that saved the X-Men
When they were first introduced, the X-Men were not very popular. In fact, in 1969 the X-Men were the worst-selling title at the company.
That title was eventually halted, and brought back to life with Giant Size X-Men No. 1 in 1975. The roster was expanded to include characters like Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, and Colossus — heroes with different skin colors, traits, and accents than readers were used to seeing. Writer Len Wein (and eventually Chris Claremont) and artist Dave Cockrum carved out personas, voices, and catchphrases for each of these characters, and their stories became immensely popular. Many of these characters have become among the most well-known and well-loved in comic book history.
Jack Kirby (Marvel)
Fantastic Four No. 1 (1961): How Marvel lost its first family
Marvel's movie rights have become their own story within the comics industry. There's no better example of how the fight over those rights have affected the publishing side of the business than the Fantastic Four.
In 1961, when Marvel was on the precipice of failure, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four — a team of space adventurers who each obtain different powers after a mysterious voyage — to tap into the popularity of the Justice League. The team was massively popular not only because of its adventures, but also because of the book's quieter stories about personality and family dynamics. The book's sales saved Marvel, paving the way for heroes like the Avengers, Spider-Man, and the X-Men.
Yet despite the Fantastic Four's importance to Marvel as a whole, the movie rights of this first family belong to Fox. (Marvel is owned by Disney.) And in recent years, the Four haven't been big players in the Marvel universe, leading to speculation that the company was freezing out the characters to spite Fox. In 2014, Marvel announced it would be canceling the title. A new Fantastic Four movie is due in August 2015 — produced by Fox.
Todd McFarlane (Image)
Spawn No. 1 (1992): The good guys aren't always good
In the 1980s and early part of the '90s, comic book fans were divided into two camps: DC or Marvel. Superman or Wolverine? Joker or Magneto? Wonder Woman or Storm? These battles would divide friendships and split households.
Then Todd McFarlane's Spawn entered the fray. McFarlane, a former Marvel artist, broke off from the company to create Image. Spawn and Image's other titles had rebellion and mud running in their veins. Spawn was ultra-violent, darker and blunter than the heroes at Marvel and DC were. After all, this was a character who made a deal with Satan and killed child murderers and pedophiles. The first issue sold an astronomic 1.7 million copies, proving there was a thirst for something darker and different than DC and Marvel had tapped.
Harry G. Peter (DC)
Sensation Comics No. 1 (1941): The first lady of DC Comics is born
Wonder Woman, a.k.a. Diana Prince, made her first cover appearance in Sensation Comics No. 1, published in 1942. Her creator was an eccentric man named William Moulton Marston, a psychologist who invented the polygraph. Marston's vision for Wonder Woman was to present an alternative hero who didn't have to triumph with brute strength and violence.
"It seemed to me, from a psychological angle, that the comics' worst offense was their blood-curdling masculinity," Marston wrote in an essay for The American Scholar. "It's smart to be strong. It's big to be generous, but it's sissified according to exclusively male rules to be tender, loving, affectionate. … Not even girls want to be girls as long as their feminine stereotype lacks force."
Wonder Woman was also an anomaly in that many of Marston's stories had her on Paradise Island, where men were not allowed. This was in contrast to popular romance comics and characters like Betty and Veronica, whose sole purpose was to seemingly fight over a boyfriend.
While Wonder Woman is more of a brawler today, it's important to remember Marston's vision of an unconventional hero who didn't need a man to determine her worth and was free to be herself.
Frank Miller (Marvel)
Daredevil No. 168 (1981): Frank Miller takes us to the dark side
In the comic book world, Daredevil was always a bit of a designer impostor Spider-Man. No matter who was writing the blind hero with super-senses, Daredevil occupied the same city and same space as the web-slinger did. He even borrowed many of the same tricks. And, well, no one really cared.
Enter the aggressively talented Frank Miller (who would go on to create The Dark Knight Returns). He officially took over the book in 1981 and made his debut with No. 168. Miller had already been creating the art, and he was given a shot after writer Roger McKenzie disagreed with Marvel editor Denny O'Neill on the character's editorial direction.
Miller took Daredevil back to the grit and violence of the pre–Comics Code 1950s, a world most comics had left behind. He made the city of New York fearsome, and he grounded the comic in a dark expressionism that would inspire writers and artists in comics industry for years to come. Miller's influence lives with the character to this day.
Steve Ditko (Marvel)
Strange Tales No. 146 (1966): Steve Ditko's strange legacy
Steve Ditko is best known for, along with Stan Lee, creating Spider-Man. But his work in bringing Dr. Strange to life is just as iconic. While Lee and Jack Kirby created characters who dug deep into the more human side of superheroes, Ditko focused even more intimately on the individual.
In Dr. Strange he was given free rein to explore the character, Dr. Stephen Strange, who was, by all means, kind of a jerk. The world Ditko created for Dr. Strange, was trippy, inter-dimensional, laced with an acid-kick. It was loopy in the way the Winchester mansion and Escher drawings are. Nothing made sense, and everything doubled back on itself.
Ditko left the comic and Marvel after No. 146 (he would return in 1979), but not before creating one last iconic cover for the hero.
John Romita (Marvel)
Amazing Spider-Man No. 40 (1966): Spider-Man becomes a mainstream hero
"Amazing Spider-Man number 40: Spidey Saves the Day — it's the first comic I ever bought," Dan Didio, publisher of DC Comics told me when asked to pick one cover that stuck with him throughout his many years as a fan.
"[It's] John Romita art. And I was a comic book fan ever since," he said. Romita's son now works at DC Comics.
Romita was as crucial to Spider-Man as Spider-Man was to his career. With a background in romance comics, Romita was asked to draw Spider-Man after legendary artist and Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko left the title. Romita's style was starkly different from Ditko's work, which was known for its moodiness and relatively grounded realism.
Romita made Peter Parker look more like Hollywood actor, giving him mainstream appeal. This helped increase the book's sales, Sean Howe, author of Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, explained. One of Romita's most significant moves was giving life to Mary Jane Watson and adding some glamour to Gwen Stacy — two women who would go on to leave their mark on Spider-Man's legacy.
Humberto Ramos (Marvel)
Amazing Spider-Man No. 1 (2014): Peter Parker is eternal
Thanks to Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan, the X-Men franchise, and segments of Iron Man and Captain America, the superhero world often seems to belong to grim, ultra-serious heroes. Marvel's flagship superhero, Spider-Man, doesn't fit into that super-dark role. Perhaps that's one of the reasons Sony's Amazing Spider-Man 2 disappointed.
But in the comics, it's a different story. Marvel "killed" Peter Parker in 2012, swapping his brain with that of the villainous Doctor Octopus (anything can happen in comic books). The result was a bad guy in Spider-Man's body and a darker, more sinister hero called "Superior Spider-Man" — it left fans anxiously waiting for Peter Parker's return.
Marvel resurrected Peter Parker in Amazing Spider-Man No. 1 in 2014. The issue went on to become the top-selling comic of 2014, a testament to the power of Peter Parker and the idea that he will never get old.
Sara Pichelli (Marvel)
Ms. Marvel No. 1 (2014): This generation's Peter Parker
When a Marvel character has Marvel in his or her name, it's a massive deal. Thus, it was big news when in 2013 Marvel announced that Kamala Khan, a Muslim, Pakistani-American teenage girl with brown skin, was going to take up the title of Ms. Marvel. There have been Muslim superheroes before, and there have been superheroes who are teenage girls. But there's never been anyone quite like Kamala. She's awkward, hopeful, conflicted, altruistic, and she is redefining what heroism means and what a hero looks like.
Plus Ms. Marvel is one of Marvel's top-selling titles. Kamala is very well a new hero for a different generation of readers, much like Peter Parker was.
No one is safe: the deaths that shaped comic books
John Romita (Marvel)
Amazing Spider-Man No. 121(1973): The Night Gwen Stacy Died
Though Peter Parker and Bruce Wayne had similar tragedies affect their lives, their mentalities are different. Wayne's ideology is rooted in the idea that what happened to him shouldn't happen to anyone else. Parker's is deeply personal. It's something he could have stopped.
Gwen Stacy's death in this issue hit Parker, and readers, like a semi. She died while he was trying to save her, shocking readers who thought deaths were only part of origin stories. People, especially Parker's true love, didn't die under a superhero's watch. Her death plunged Parker into a dark hole of grief, leading him to seek revenge.
The absence of Gwen Stacy changed Spider-Man's trajectory and universe, bringing characters like Mary Jane Watson to the forefront and elevating the Green Goblin to legendary status. It also, according to some critics, set a trend of superhero wives and girlfriends being turned into disposable victims of violence because of their relationships to heroes.
John Romita Jr. (Marvel)
Uncanny X-Men No. 211 (1986): The crossover that started it all
The Marvel universe is built on crossovers. It's fun seeing the Avengers, X-Men, and everybody else team up to take on some big bad. But more pertinent to Marvel is that crossovers like Avengers vs. X-Men, Axis, and Civil War make money.
The grandparent to Marvel's crossovers is what's called the Mutant Massacre, an arc by Chris Claremont, Louise "Weezy" Simonson, and Walter Simonson, with pencils by John Romita Jr. and Sal Buscema. Though the murder of mutants called Morlocks is the foundation of the arc, we see appearances from Reed Richards (of Fantastic Four fame), Thor, the X-Men, and Dr. Doom in this story. The story took place over three months, 12 issues, and six different comics.
John Byrne (Marvel)
Uncanny X-Men No. 135 (1980): The Phoenix is born
Comics haven't always been kind to women. Women were often used solely as love interests (see: Captain Marvel), or they were victims because they had superhero boyfriends and husbands (see: Gwen Stacy). They were grievously injured (see: Batgirl), or they were characters who used manipulation or subterfuge to get ahead and were summarily punished for it (see: Black Widow).
This loaded history is what makes Chris Claremont's partnership with artist/writer John Byrne so special. The two fleshed out various X-Women, giving them dynamic storylines and upgrading their powers. One of these women was Jean Grey, who became the host to — and was eventually overwhelmed by — one of the most powerful cosmic entities in the Marvel Universe: the Phoenix.
Grey went from meek and mild Marvel Girl to the genocidal Phoenix, in a comic wrapped around the idea of awakenings, identity, and empowerment. The story has gone on to change the future of the comic, and turned Grey into a searing figure who defines the X-Men.
George Perez (DC)
Crisis on Infinite Earths No. 7 (1985): The last time superhero deaths mattered
Purists consider this comic to be the last time character deaths mattered. In the Crisis arc, we see the deaths of two beloved heroes: Barry Allen (the Flash) and, in this issue, Supergirl.
"The idea that such a popular and beautiful, all-American character could die off from comic books was ground-shaking," Jono Jarrett, a board member of Geeks OUT, a gay geek organization, told me. "This was before it became a cliché that beloved characters would seemingly perish in spectacular, sales-boosting events that undid themselves in time for the next movie."
The art — Superman clutching a battered Supergirl — by George Perez drives that home. Perez's art is an homage or riff on Uncanny X-Men No. 136 by John Byrne. The difference is that it's Superman, not Cyclops, holding a dead Supergirl rather than Jean Grey.
Brian Bolland (DC)
The Killing Joke (1988): God loves, and Batman kills
There might not be a more "WTF" moment in comic books than the end of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's one-shot comic The Killing Joke. In the comic's final panels, readers see Batman come face to face with a cackling Joker. Up until this final scene, the Joker has terrorized Batman — torturing Commissioner Gordon and shooting and sexually assaulting Gordon's daughter, Barbara. With all that pent-up frustration and anger building, Batman, now laughing as well, takes his nemesis by the throat, just as a car pulls up. Two panels later, the laughing and the comic end, as the headlights go out.
Did Batman go against his own beliefs and kill someone? Did he go insane? Are both characters insane? What is Moore trying to say?
The ending has been debated, tossed, turned, lathered, rinsed, and repeated countless times. Moore has said he believes Batman and Joker are "mirror images of each other," lending even more ambiguity to his story. Therein lies the lasting power of Moore's book — the ending is aggressively ambiguous, forcing readers to decide how it ends, and Moore understands that there's beauty in putting absolute control in readers' hands and then forcing them to make a decision.
Dan Jergens/Brett Breeding (DC)
Superman No. 75 (1992): Even Superman can die
The most business the comic industry ever did on one day was on November 18, 1992 — the day DC published The Death of Superman.
An estimated $30 million of business was done that day. The story was nothing to write home about — Superman fights an unstoppable villain named Doomsday and seemingly dies (he was brought back less than a year later) — but the event reflected the growing intersection of pop culture and comic books. In a more cynical view, The Death of Superman's sales and marketing opportunities are also the reason many believe that, story-wise, character deaths are more about a company wanting to make money than about delivering a fantastic story.
John Byrne (Marvel)
Uncanny X-Men No. 141 (1981): Days of Future Past
This cover by artist John Byrne, with Wolverine and a brunette woman spotlit and standing in front of a checklist of slain and fallen X-Men, imprinted itself upon fans' brains. Just seeing it makes many comic book readers' hands tremble in anticipation. It's jarring and disorienting, an image artists have paid homage to over and over. The story, by the well-known Chris Claremont and Byrne, is one of the most influential tales ever written, primarily for its lack of justice and goodness.
Claremont and Byrne imagined a futuristic, bleak world where mutants were hunted down amid a landscape of grim grays and broken rubble. To "fix" this, the remaining X-Men bend time and send Kitty Pryde back, while Claremont and Byrne weave a tale that's purposely confusing. The tale's open ending ("Does that mean we changed the future?" Angel asks in the next issue) provides no clue, compass, or hope to readers.
Pat Kennedy (Archie Comics)
Life With Archie No. 36 (2014): How will we remember Archie?
Archie, like a lot of comic book characters, met his own death in 2014 in Life With Archie No. 36. It was strange, in that the tone of the comic book felt grounded in real-life conversations and topics — Archie was shot and killed at a restaurant while trying to defend his gay friend Kevin Keller — but Archie comics are better known for telling escapist, nostalgic feel-good stories, rather than trying to reflect real life back at the reader.
Here Archie was, making a statement on gun violence and gay rights. To some fans, the death reeked of a publicity stunt. After all, Archie lived on in other titles.
But the event does bring up a more valid point about Archie and his place in comics. For years, Archie banked on nostalgia, while newer, innovative, and darker comics became the hot titles. So how can a title like Archie stay relevant? Introducing stories about current events readers are dealing with in their own lives is a tried-and-true tactic.
Perhaps Archie's death, no matter how inelegant, is a way of bringing the Riverdale gang back to relevancy. Two months after Archie's death, Fox announced it would be producing a show based on the comics.
Diversity
Johnny Craig (EC Comics)
Crime Suspenstories No. 16 (1953): A story behind the cover
We're often told not to judge books by their covers. Yet if you think about it, judging a book by its cover is exactly what comic books ask you to do. They want to hook you with that searing cover image. And in order to do that, you need colors that not only make sense with the story but also pop.
Hooking people in was Marie Severin's job. Severin was a colorist at EC Comics, and was tasked with, according to Severin herself, "upgrading the look of the books. He [editor Harvey Kurtzman] wanted them to look more like Prince Valiant in the newspaper."
Severin brought EC's covers and art to vibrant life. She was great for business, vaulting EC to success. Though readers loved her smoldering colors, Severin seemed to always direct credit to the writers and artists.
Severin would eventually showcase her skills as an artist and also work at Marvel, where she got the praise from likes of legends such as Jack Kirby. Severin was the first woman inducted into the Eisner Comics Hall of Fame in 2001.
J. Scott Campbell (WildStorm/Image)
Gen13 No. 1 (1994): How women became super sex objects
Gen13 is a relic of an industry mired in a pattern of creating female characters who existed only to be objectified. The story, created in 1994 at Image Comics and eventually sold to DC, revolved around a young woman named Caitlin Fairchild who had super-strength.
The comic was compelling, riffing on ideas from X-Men, as we followed around "gen-active" teens with superpowers. But the female characters were often shown with their clothes ripping strategically, being subdued, or contorting themselves into seductive "fighting" poses. Yet Gen13 was also pretty successful in the '90s — perhaps because of this overtly sexualized material.
Dexter Soy(Marvel)
Captain Marvel No. 1 (2012): Carol Danvers goes higher, faster, farther
Many characters in the Marvel Universe have been named Captain Marvel. In 2012, Carol Danvers, the former Ms. Marvel, assumed the title under writer Kelly Sue DeConnick and artist Dexter Soy. DeConnick and Soy fleshed out the character's past experience as an officer in the Air Force and space explorer.
In doing so, they gave Marvel Comics a flawed, imperfect, admirable, forthrightly feminist hero, who became a beacon of inspiration for female readers. Danvers's readers and admirers came to call themselves the Carol Corps., and became a vocal feminist movement in the comics community. Danvers's rich story and her fans' devotion came to fruition in 2014, when Marvel announced that Danvers will get her own movie in 2018.
Dustin Weaver/Rachel Rosenberg(Marvel)
Astonishing X-Men No. 51 (2012): The gay wedding of a lifetime
Since their inception, the X-Men have been progressive avatars for minorities and the struggles they face. The X-World has seen horrors like the Legacy Virus (a parallel to AIDS) and the Purifiers (a group of mutant-hating religious zealots), as well as small triumphs like mutant acceptance. In 2012, Marvel celebrated the Supreme Court's decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act by having hero Northstar marry his boyfriend, Kyle Jinadu, in Astonishing X-Men No. 51. The cover doesn't hide that fact, either, forthrightly depicting the wedding.
David Marquez (Marvel)
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man No. 6 (2014): A hero who looks like America
The creation of Miles Morales was both a sad triumph and a barometer of how far comics have to go. Superhero comic books represent the best of humankind, but they had never represented all of humankind. Most heroes were, like their creators, straight white men.
In 2011, the world met a Spider-Man named Miles Morales. Morales, a teen who is black and Hispanic, lives in Marvel's Ultimate universe — a parallel universe that has similar heroes to Marvel's regular world but very different storylines. Plenty of fans welcomed the announcement, but there were readers who cried foul that a beloved character like Spider-Man could be black.
Marvel stuck to its guns, and Miles paved the way for characters like the Muslim, Pakistani-American Kamala Khan and the gay X-Man Benjamin Deeds. And if Marvel's 2015 Secret Wars event does combine elements of the Ultimate universe with Marvel's normal universe, as rumored, it isn't too far out there to think Morales will be a big part of the story.
Milo Manara (Marvel)
Spider-Woman No. 1 variant (2014): Proof that we still have a long way to go
The way women are depicted in comic books has evolved in recent years, but it doesn't mean the industry has done away with the sexism and overt sexualization of female characters than ran rampant in the 1980s and '90s. As a case in point consider Milo Manara's 2014 variant cover for Spider-Woman's solo book.
Known for his erotic comics, Manara bent Spider-Woman, a.k.a. Jessica Drew, into a knees-down, butt-up pose, similar to ones women in his comics are often seen in. It wasn't a good look for Marvel, which has been positioning itself as a publisher that celebrates female and minority empowerment in recent years.
This is not to say that Manara's erotic work shouldn't exist. But the cover raised valid questions as to why Marvel thought it was a good idea to commission a cover from Manara in a book that's supposed to solidify Drew's place as a legitimate hero.
Marvel's editor-in-chief apologized for the cover in August 2014.
Stephanie Hans (Marvel)
Storm No. 7 (2015): A superhero trapped in a world that doesn't trust her
In 2014, Storm (Ororo Munroe) was given her own comic book, written by Greg Pak. Pak has an innate, thoughtful sense of the character, but he is equally graceful in crafting a storyline that resonates with the shootings of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio. In the book, Storm is held unlawfully for allegedly trying to crash a plane — it was her word versus a white senator's — and her supporters, most of whom are nonwhite, are nonviolently protesting. Storm breaks free from the building and runs into the crowd, as police wonder whether to shoot.
Al Barrionuevo and Stephanie Hans's (cover) art is intense and arresting — almost surreal. And Pak conveys the tragedy of real-life events and the idea of prejudice in an elevated, respectful way. That they're working with one of the most game-changing characters the comic industry has ever seen, in terms of race, gender, and sexuality, makes it even more effective.
Walter Geovani (Dynamite)
Red Sonja No. 7 (2014): Pleasant-smelling women rarely make history
What does progress for women in comic books look like? Maybe it looks like a beautiful, angry warrior named Sonja, who smells so bad that it actively impedes her attempts to get laid. That's the wickedly funny premise of Gail Simone's Red Sonja.
As silly as that might sound, having a stinky, randy warrior woman express sexual frustration is something worth celebrating. Comics have a long history of portraying women solely as sexual objects. But there's been a dearth of comic book women who are in charge of their own sexuality and are drawn that way.
Simone is a veteran of comic books, known for her dazzling run on Birds of Prey as well as for calling out the "women in refrigerators" trope. She's seen a lot of clumsy sexism, railed against it, and inspired other female writers and artists. Her Red Sonja reveals how when women write women in comics, they come up with the sorts of stories men would rarely know how to tell, or even want to tell. And that diversity of perspective is valuable to anyone who loves great storytelling.
Valentine DeLandro (Image)
Bitch Planet No. 2: A love letter for noncompliant women
Kelly Sue DeConnick is a brilliant writer. But her work on Captain Marvel is often accused of pushing an agenda. It's not unlike the way race is brought up with nonwhite writers or queer theory with gay writers. Never mind the many straight white men who write straight white characters but are never accused of having an agenda.
"There’s a certain part of me that’s just like, 'If I’m going to take the heat for it, well … let’s do it then. Let’s steer into the curve,'" DeConnick told the Los Angeles Times in 2014.
That curve is Bitch Planet. It's a classy kiss-off to her critics. DeConnick's "agenda" is out in the open here. It imagines a patriarchal society gone wild. "Noncompliant" women who don't fit society's standards on body type, sexuality, or behavior are sent to a jail in space. On any scale, the comic is as fantastic as it is funny.
"Bitch Planet is as much Val's baby as it is mine," DeConnick told me, referring to her artist Valentine De Landro.
"There's a double-page spread in issue two. And one of the characters — I kept staring at her body type. It's something I don't see in comics," she added. "When we have a scene of them and they're all nude and it's nothing salacious or provocative about it. They're just so human. He just gets across the vulnerability."
<div da