Do white male heterosexual characters receive a disproportionate amount of abuse in comic books? If they are not dying only to be brought back heroically or being mutilated so they can have cyborg arms they are being raped by sexually aggressive women or having their girlfriends and moms die.
Why can't we have happy comics? Why?
Partial "Men in Refrigerators List" (feel free to add)
Atom: Wife divorces him, writes tell-all book on his life. Disappears, missing.
Banshee: Dead.
Batman: Parents murdered in front of him as a boy. Back broken by Bane. Killed and brought back to life in the Lazarus pit. Mindwiped by his JLA collegues. Frequently bound in straitjackets and hung from his toes while Scarecrow's spiders crawl all over him in a Freudian frenzy. Apparent sexual issues.
Blue Beetle Ted Kord: Suffers heart-attack. Shot in head by Max Lord.
Captain America: Becomes fugitive from government. Killed by his girlfriend.
Captain Marvel: Dies of cancer.
Commissioner Gordon: Captured and stripped naked by Joker, forced to pretend he is circus pony.
Daredevil: Blind.
Element Lad: Nutter.
Flash II: Dies horribly during "Crisis."
Flash IV: Stomped to death by second-rate supervillains.
Firestorm I: Dead.
Green Arrow: Died. Brought back to life. Raped. Dies again on honeymoon, killed by wife with one of his own arrows.
Green Lantern Hal Jordan: Goes crazy, destroys planet, dies.
Green Lantern Kyle Rayner: Goes crazy, becomes evil. Girlfriend found dead in his refrigerator. Mom dies.
Hank Pym: A bit of a nut job.
Hawk: Becomes evil.
Hawkeye: Dies. Comes back as lame-ass character who we all know is really Hawkeye.
Hulk: Bruce Banner abused by his dad. Banner also victim of attempted rape at YMCA. Hulk betrayed by his friends and enslaved on another planet.
Human Torch: Betrayed by his wife who was really a Skrull. Was rape involved???
Iron Man: Alcoholic. Beaten and/or tortured by the Hulk, Thor, Spider Man, and probably some others.
Jack of Hearts: Explodes.
Jason Todd: Killed. Brought back as vapid nothing character.
Jimmy Olsen: Must die.
Justice: Abused by his dad. Goes to jail. Has wedding ruined by girlfriend who decides "I need to find myself."
Monkey Joe: While not human, if he was would likely be white heterosexual male. Dead.
Mr. Miracle: Frequently depicted in bondage.
Nightwing: Raped.
Optimus Prime: Dead.
Penance: Nut job. Cutter. Masochist. Emo.
Red Arrow: Smack addict. Falls in love with villainess. Single dad. Ollie always loved Connor more.
Sentry: Wife murdered. Nut job.
Slobo: Goes blind.
Spider-Man: Apparently dies a few times. Gets eye poked out. Emo.
Starman: Raped!
Superman: Killed by Doomsday. Possible split personality issues. Scientifically proven that he can't have intercourse with Lois without accidently sending her bowels up into her chest cavity.
Swordsman: Dies. Turns into a frickin' tree.
Thing: Implied in second "Fantastic Four" movie that he and his girlfriend possibly use mutual masturbation and other improvisations rather than real sex due to fact that he has sex organs made of jagged rock.
Superboy: Goes insane, becomes villain.
Wolverine: All kinds of messed up.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
"Men In Refrigerators"
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Lets not forget the plight of poor comic CREATORS, too, forced to listen to the complaints of women & minorities, who the comics aren't even MEANT for!
"Lets not forget the plight of poor comic CREATORS, too, forced to listen to the complaints of women & minorities, who the comics aren't even MEANT for!"
I've actually heard one or two variations of the above statement actually cited in response to complaints about diversity & content...I ain't sayin' where, and I ain't sayin' who, and I ain't...
Black Goliath!!!!!!!
Speedball!!!!!!!!!!!
Actually, Optimus Prime isn't dead anymore. He was brought back in the last episode of season 3.
He died again in the anime series that followed after the American series was cancelled, but that was rendered non-canon by Beast Wars (which also featured an Optimus that died and came back, but it wasn't Prime.)
Not sure about his comic book incarnation, though. I think he's died and come back more than a few times in that. It's easier when you're a robot.
And then of course they put him in that Michael Bay movie, which is a fate worse than death.
Daredevil: Is also all kinds of messed up - blind. gets sight back. goes bling again. girlfriend sell him out. gets utilities shut off. gets disbarred. gets apartment blown up. lots of his girlfriends die. demasked. thrown in jail.
He is up there with Wolverine in the 'all sorts of messed up' ranking!
Was it...The president of a major film company?!?!?!
Also, I'm going to say DD outranks ole Wolverine on the "all kinds of messed up" scale. Wolverine has at least decent excuses (living super long, getting kidnapped, being a giant pin cushion & member of Marvel's built-in minority) whereas...Daredevil is just a mess. Poor bastard.
Now, now, to be fare to Superman, it's been revealed he has full control over his super strength, so he can indeed have sex with Lois.
You forgot that Justice went to jail 'because' he accidentally killed his abusive father. Plus Jim Gordon's wife and daughter have been shot by the Joker, on paralyzed, the other dead.
Boy, comics are depressing, aren't they.
Have a good day.
John Cage
Why can't comics be 'happy?'
I'd say its a product of a culture that often confuses "Having issues" with "Being interesting."
Not to mention the inability of writers to differentiate between drama and tragedy. Although, lets face it, the trauma has made for the best Daredevil stories ever, so maybe 'they' have a point?
This is what I think of sometimes when people complain about certain groups of people always ending up poorly in storylines (I think I objected a while back to the Buffy TVS gays are unhappy meme, since everyone has an absolutely miserable relationship by the end). Almost all comic characters have been "killed" at least once, most heroes of both genders have been tortured repatedly after capture, and few relationships end in any way but death by the unfortunate non-title character, or one person turning evil.
Of course, the male straight characters being the biggest historically provides a bit of protection for them, since no company wants a flagship character raped (killed for sales purposes, yes, raped no). If the industry could figure out how to properly write/draw/market more female characters so they reached this level, they would gain this protection as well.
And comics can be happy, just not as long as they continue to focus on the same audience as it ages. New readers want happy conclusions more often than the pyhrric victory every year or so characters might get now. But older readers don't want to read the monthly "hero finds problem, struggles with problem, overcomes problem, wins!" stories that made up virtually all of the comics in previous decades long past (hulk, spiderman, punisher, superman...they all generally followed this format, and villains were usually unambiguously defeated).
Come on ... this list is incomplete :D
Firestorm I: Stabbed in chest by a sword and exploded. Something we didn't even know could happen (or was pretty unlikely to happen)
Kyle Rayner: Add that girlfriend gave away her borrowed power and died in the cold of space, which didn't make any sense at all.
Hawk: Becomes evil, rapes his previous wife, has child which is the reincarnation of the Hawkman's child.
Optimus Prime: Dies. Resurrected as the same model when everyone else is cooler. Is reincarnated as an ape. Has flames painted on him (possibly in ape form I've kind of blocked it out).
Sentry: Paranoid delusional for most of his life. Possibly believes all of his powers are imaginary. Forced to always mop up the Hulk after people blast him into space.
Black Goliath: Blasted by the cyborg god of thunder.
Superboy: Conner Kent, killed by being thrown into a wall (rolls eyes)
And the winner by far for the recent years of suckiness:
Tim Drake:
Girlfriend Stephanie Brown killed
Father killed
Best Friend Conner killed
Next best friend Bart killed
Scorned by amazon-wannabe
On to the questions:
Swordsmen: When did he get turned into a tree?
Banshee: Dead? What the hell?
""Lets not forget the plight of poor comic CREATORS, too, forced to listen to the complaints of women & minorities, who the comics aren't even MEANT for!"
I've actually heard one or two variations of the above statement actually cited in response to complaints about diversity & content...I ain't sayin' where, and I ain't sayin' who, and I ain't..."
I read an article last week that I thought had a salient point. Sites like When Fangirls Attack are so harsh and shrill in how they complain that the message gets lots in the complaint. Sites like yours and Sequential Tart are, I think, a healthy way of complaining.
Thing: Implied in second "Fantastic Four" movie that he and his girlfriend possibly use mutual masturbation and other improvisations rather than real sex due to fact that he has sex organs made of jagged rock.
Seriously? Now I'm actually regretting my decision not to see this one, even though Ben Grimm deserves to enjoy more than just handjobs from the Hawt Foxxy Love version of Alicia Masters from the movies.
Then again, considering the size of his fingers, she must be a rather happy woman indeed.
Aquaman--infant son MURDERED, wife then goes insane!
also, pretty much every x-person has a backstory of pure tragedy.
Frank Fuckin' Castle, y'all. COME ON!!!
Optimus Prime: Dies. Resurrected as the same model when everyone else is cooler. Is reincarnated as an ape. Has flames painted on him (possibly in ape form I've kind of blocked it out).
The ape was Optimus Primal, not Optimus Prime. Primal was named after Prime and had a similar head design but he was never intended to be the same character. Then again, Primal did carry Prime's spark for a little while (although Prime was never aware of this, being unconscious at the time) but beyond that they don't really have much to do with each other.
Then again, Primal didn't exactly have it easy, either. He was stranded on a primitive world with a group of Predacon criminals, tortured by aliens, blown up, resurrected (although he did get an upgraded body in the process, complete with flying surfboard) infected with a virus, reformatted into a far lamer form, killed again, brought back again, then died one last time fighting Megatron.
Of course, a lot of that was from Beast Machines, which most Transformers fans consider non-canon.
I think we could find tragedy in virtually all comic characters' lives, but that doesn't mean we don't also have happy comics. Sometimes they are comedy and sometimes they are tragedy. Sometimes the story is Gwen being thrown off a bridge; sometimes the story is Peter hitting the jackpot. Sometimes it's Barry dying in Crisis; sometimes it's Wally living up to Barry's legacy. Personally, I don't want all my comics to be happy and I don't want all of them to be sad.
"I read an article last week that I thought had a salient point. Sites like When Fangirls Attack are so harsh and shrill in how they complain that the message gets lots in the complaint."
When Fangirls Attack merely collects the various postings on the web. They do not actually espouse any opinions. It's strictly a (semi)daily link blog. And they Link to Valerie quite a bit, among other. Now, some of the people LINKED on WFA might very well be shrill...but some of those shrill people are denouncing the people lodging complaint and they link to plenty of people who are complaining in the "healthy fashion."
This article does illustrate a point I've been making all along; 'Women in Refrigerators' isn't a phenomenon, it's a function of a larger phenomenon called 'Not Enough Female Protagonists'. Protagonists get put through the wringer (as this list shows), but they generally survive. Permanent death is reserved for their supporting cast. And since protagonists are generally male, their love interests tend to be female, meaning the deaths tend to be concentrated among women. If there were more females headlining their own series, you'd see more deaths like the Vision, Terry Owens, and that guy from 'Ms. Marvel' volume one who was her psychiatrist and got shot dead just for thinking about asking her out. :)
Oh, and Hawk didn't rape his former wife, he raped his former partner. They weren't even dating.
I recently did a similar list. It was in reaction to the Gay list. There is some overlap but also some new ones.
Superman: Murdered by Doomsday
Batman: Parents Killed, Back Broken by Bane.
Robin (Jason Todd): Murdered.
Flash (Barry Allen): Murdered.
Flash (Wally West): Wife Murdered
Green Lantern (Hal Jordan): Went insane; became a mass murderer; killed.
Metamorpho: Died in an Explosion; came back then died when falling to Earth from outer space.
Elongated Man: wife raped and murdered; suffered a breakdown; dead
Aquaman: son killed; marriage wrecked; hand eaten off by piranha.
Blue Beetle: Murdered
Captain America: Murdered.
Spider-Man: Buried Alive for two weeks by Kraven the Hunter.
Thor: Cursed with Brittle Bones, but was unable to die; had to live in agonizing pain. Tortured by Pluto.
Wolverine: Had the metal in his bones ripped out, turned into a half animal form.
Captain Marvel: Murdered.
Savage Dragon: Impaled on a large spike. Had many limbs amputated.
Vision: Disassembled and reassembled without his emotions.
Wonder-Man: Murdered, repeatedly.
Angel: Had wings removed against his will, briefly turned into a villain named Archangel.
Daredevil: Two Girlfriend murdered.
X-Static Team: Murdered on first issue (this included some gay & female characters).
Black Knight: Tortured, turned into stone.
Sub-Mariner: Two Wives Murdered.
Night Trasher: Murdered.
Microbe: Murdered.
Giant Man (Bill Foster): Murdered.
Guardian: Murdered.
Snowbird: Murdered.
Hercules: Beaten so badly he went into a coma.
Hawkeye: Murdered.
Dr. Druid: Seduced, turned against his teammates, murdered.
Counting a guy having his wife or girlfriend fridged as a fridging itself seems like cheating to me.
bellagtrys writes: "Counting a guy having his wife or girlfriend fridged as a fridging itself seems like cheating to me."
And I would agree, which is why I found it odd that the WiR list included the deaths of husbands as attacks on female characters. But as far as I know, I'm the only feminist who has brought that up. Weird.
hey, HEY! no one be dissin' my Optimus-Bay. He kicked ass in the movie! He skewered Bonecrusher WITHOUT MERCY, c'mon! And totally rammed the Sector Seven vans.
Of course, this does miss the point of the WiR phenomenon to some extent. When male characters get hurt, it's so they can come back stronger. When female characters get hurt, it's so a male character can come back stronger.
In other words, female characters get messed with solely as an adjunct to male characters' stories. They're victims, hostages, much-mourned saints, but they don't get their own story.
By that criterion, most of the stuff on this list fails to make the cut. Some of it certainly does; minor characters getting killed off just so the major characters can angst about it. Still, I think you see my larger point.
Actually, if you wanna get technical:
Spider-Man:
Parents murderend and framed as traitors
Being responsible for uncle/adoptive father killed
Girlfriend murdered
Finds out that said girlfriend cheated on him with his worst enemy
Best friend turns evil and tries to kill him repeatedly, eventually ending up killing himself
Aunt/adoptive mother dies, later turns out to be fake. Later the real one is shot (currently in coma).
Ex-girlfriend conspires against him with professional assassin.
Left by wife (they later reunite).
And let's not forget:
Harry Osborn
Loses mother (well, there are few Spidey characters who didn't lose at least one parent)
Abused by father.
Father apparently killed by his best friend.
Goes insane, becomes unsuccessful supervillain, ultimately ends up killing himself.
Flash Thompson:
Abused by father.
PTSD after service in Vietnam
Turns bad, cheats on his life-partner in adulterous affair with Betty Brant Leeds
Turned into vegetable and left comatose for ages, still suffering from partial amnesia.
Not to mention
Ned Leeds
Turns bad
Wife cheats on him with both Peter Parker (late 1970s) and Flash Thompson.
Turns worse.
Is murdered, then it's revealed he was the Hobgoblin, only a few years later it turns out he wasn't.
John Jameson
Half-orphan.
Turned into werewolf.
Professor X
Loses father.
Gets beaten up by stepbrother.
Loses mother and stepfather.
Is dumped by his fiancee in favour of an abusive jerk.
Crippled.
Killed. Then it's revealed he wasn't.
Body taken over by Brood queen, has to be destroyed. Gets a shiny new clone body, then just after he has learned walking is crippled a second time.
Learns he has a son who unfortunately became insane. Later that son is killed.
Cyclops:
Apparently orphaned, raised and abused in orphanage.
Later, after the damage is done, learns that his father actually is still alive, as are his grandparents...
Loses his lover.
Abandons his wife and son when lover returns from the dead.
Wife turns to demonic supervillain and kills herself.
Son infected with techno-organic virus that can only be cured by sending him into the future yadda yadda yadda
Gets taken over by badass supervillain.
Cheats on lover-turned-2nd wife who then ends up killed again
Angel
Parents killed.
Girlfriend/life-partner killed
Crippled, loses wings, loses fortune, turned into supervillain (weeelll, he got better)
Forgot a not unimportant thing re. Spider-Man
Lost his baby daughter.
But then Marvel immediately switched to pretending that had never happened (vide Peter and Mary Jane's reactions to Jessica Jones having a baby - you'd never think they had been expectant parents themselves).
And of course baby May grew up to become Spider-Girl in what I am inreasingly becoming inclined as the real main Marvel timeline. In which of course we would have to add for Peter:
Lost half a leg and had to give up being a superhero.
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