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| The Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four. Art by Stuart Immonen |
For example, in a 2007
issue of Ultimate Fantastic Four, Reed Richards has been abusively addressed by
his father and refuses to discuss it with Sue Storm. As he walks away, Sue forms
a force field and slams Reed into it face first. Hardy har har.
Reverse the situation. If
Sue had asked for privacy and Reed had instead slammed her into a force field
wall, the readers would be livid. As well they should be. Writer Mike Carey
appears to have confused empowering women with turning them into bullies.
Yes, Sue was a something
of a shrinking violet when the Fantastic Four began in 1961, but
overcompensation is not the answer.
And yet the attitudes of
all the superhero comics in 1961 were not as retrograde as people think. Check
out the Julius Schwartz titles at DC — Flash, Green Lantern, the Atom and
Hawkman. Iris West, Carol Ferris and Jean Loring were all independent career
woman focused on the own accomplishments, not on their boyfriends and certainly
not on the weird costumed heroes who operated at the margins of their lives.
Hawkgirl and Hawkman were married, and full partners in crimefighting.
And not one of them needed
to slam her man’s face into a wall to make a point. The real point that should
be kept in mind, I think, is mutual respect.
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