Comics don’t always “get” women. Not as readers and even less often as characters. Many of the women characters in comics suffer brutal torture and death at the hands of editors who are as misogynistic as the villains running amok on their four-color pages. Many women comic characters wear costumes that look more like they are getting ready for their hourly dance at the exotic all-nude club than for their nightly patrol as superheroes.
But one woman character in comics has been breaking the sexist molds of comic creators for years, and in late 2006, she gave readers one of the most feminist, empowered-woman moments in the history of comics. The Invisible Woman is invisible no longer!
The Invisible Woman did not start out with “woman” as part of her name. From the inception of super heroism in the 1930s, with the notable exceptiob of Wonder Woman and a few others, most characters were labelled as “girls” – Supergirl and Batgirl – or as “lasses” – Light Lass and Shadow Lass. So it was not surprising that when new Marvel Comics creators Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created the Fantastic Four in 1961, they christened the group’s only female character as a “girl.” The Invisible Girl would remain a “girl” even after she married the team’s leader and gave birth to a child in what would become the new company’s First Family of superheroes.
Like most women in comics, the Invisible Girl’s powers were non-threatening and mainly meant for defense. If in a tight spot, she could hide by “disappearing,” turning invisible until the danger passed. Susan Storm (later Susan Richards) represented what society thought about women of the time: they were “girls” who needed to hide when it came time to fight the giant green monsters busting out of subterranean caverns.
Her force fields were an afterthought. (After all, she was called “Invisible Girl” not “Invisible Force Field Girl.”) She could shape giant shields or bubbles to protect herself and the members of her superhero family. Using her force fields wasn’t easy and caused her constant pain and anguish, much the same facially in the illustrations of the 1960s and 1970s as the depcitions of her giving birth. Unlike the men in the group whose powers did not cause them pain to maintain against the onslaught of their foes, The Invisible Girl would often show her “natural feminine” weakness by straining painfully to maintain the shield. When she couldn’t handle the stress of maintaining the force field, her male companions would need to save the day. For most of the first 100 issues of The Fantastic Four, The Invisible Girl would need more protecting from the threats that would endanger her and her superhero family than she did protecting of the men in the group.
Things have changed in 45 years of Fantastic Four comics. In the 1980s, John Byrne transformed the Invisible Girl into the Invisible Woman. As both writer and artist, he soon showed the comics world that Sue Storm-Richards was the most powerful member of the Fantastic Family. She could do a lot more than cower underneath her force fields. She could use them as transport devices, riding on ramps of force; she could expand them inside something else, exploding an object from within among many, many other lethal and devastatingly destructive uses. She could block nasal passages; she could stop a heart. What was originally an afterthought became arguably the greatest super power on her team and in the entire Marvel universe.25 years after her transformation from girl to woman, the new creative team of J. Michael Straczyinski and Mike McKone have advanced the Invisble Woman yet again with a story moment that can be viewed as one of the few feminist outcries in comics, a wake-up call to fan boys everywhere that women in comics can take care of themselves.
In issue 540 of Fantastic Four, the first couple of comics, Sue Richards and her husband Reed are arguing over dubious choices he’s making in the ongoing Civil War saga in the Marvel Comic universe. To defend his actions in supporting a law that requires superheroes to register with the government or face capture and
imprisonment (think Homeland Security meets Nazi Germany with super-powered soldiers), Reed claims he’s protecting his wife. In response, the Invisible Woman blasts a tube of solid and invisible force through the 50-some floors of the team’s Baxter Building headquarters. Once her husband has seen the extent of this destructive act, she says: “Do I look like I need protecting, Reed? Do I?”Though making neat holes in each floor of their HQ may seem decidedly male with its penetration imagery, it’s a point that the supposedly super-genius Mister Fantastic, and maybe all men in comics as well as those who read them, need to understand: women superheroes have come a long way from the days in which they needed men to protect and rescue them. Not only can they protect themselves, but from the way this conflict looks like it will play out in the Fantastic Four, they will be the ones who will rescue the men.
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Perhaps it's strange to respond to my own blog, but here's the version of the Invisible Woman article that I plan to send to BITCH Magazine.
The Invisible Woman is invisible no longer!
If someone’s going to erect a shaft, it’s going to be a man. Men love anything phallic – tubes, rods, pipes – and they like them even more if they’re destructive.
So, okay, when the Invisible Woman used her invisible force field power in Fantastic Four #540 to blast through fifty-some floors of the team’s Baxter Building headquarters, it wasn’t exactly a feminine image. It reeked of other masculinized forms of women wielding power, like Lt. Jordan O'Neil’s “suck my dick!” in G.I. Jane. But Susan Storm-Richards – the Invisible Woman – really needed to leave a penetrating reminder for her genius – but dense and misguided husband – Dr. Reed Richards, Mister Fantastic, and several hundred feet of matching holes made her point better than pretty much anything else she could have done.
Though it may be a little phallocentric, writer J. Michael Straczyinski and artist Mike McKone created one of the most feminist moments in all of comics for Susan Storm-Richards, the Invisible Woman. The destruction may have been made by a big, manly shaft, but what she left behind were neat, clean-edged holes, and the haunting refrain of her post-shafting shout: “Do I look like I need protecting, Reed? Do I?”
After more than 40 years of being protected or just hiding invisibly when danger struck, what the Invisible Woman did in that moment re-inforced why for years she has been one of the most empowered and empowering women in comics. She’s one of the few female characters who has always worn a costume that does not expose her breasts or her bare legs. She’s also one of the few characters who is a wife, a mother, and a team leader. Though she started out as “Invisible Girl,” she is the only character with “girl” in her name whose name was inevitably changed to “woman.”
In all of comics, the Invisible Woman has shown the most growth, the most strength of conviction, the most insightful leadership. Arguably, neither Wonder Woman, nor the Black Widow, nor any of the many, many others match up. The argument with her husband illustrates how she has grown into the paragon of feminist empowerment during her 46 year history.
Mister (in this case) not-so-Fantastic tried to defend his actions in supporting a law that requires superheroes to register with the government or face capture and imprisonment. (Marvel’s Civil War saga: think the Patriot Act and Homeland Security meets Nazi Germany with super-powered soldiers.) His justification? He’s protecting his wife. But the Invisible Woman is not buying his faux-altruistic rationalization for his own cowardice.
Susan Storm-Richard’s stand against the Superhero Registration Act and her husband’s culpability in its injustice proves the point that and maybe all male characters in comics as well as the men who read comics need to understand: Women superheroes have come a long way from the days in which they needed men to protect and rescue them. Not only can they rescue themselves, but from the way this conflict looks like it will play out in the Fantastic Four, the women will be the ones rescuing the men.
I rather enjoy your usage of "a penetrating reminder" and such. Nice touch.
But I'm not convinced that something can be both feminist and phallocentric. The terms are inherently contradictory and thus exclusive. Any such "feminist moments" within phallocentricism seem to be more of a mere token than a genuine, revolutionary event. Their presence is merely to appease feminists' cries for justice and equality: "Why are you still complaining when you have all of this?"
And even though we don't see The Invisible Woman's bare breasts/legs, her skin-tight outfit leaves little room for imagination, or diginity for that matter. Hardly empowering. Arguably, neither is having to be the woman who is expected to do it all and be everything to everyone (wife, mother, superhero)---all while being invisible. Really, who is she outside of her relationship to others which all reflect the caregiver role? We may have access to better jobs and a more meaningful existence outside of the home, but essentially we're still expected to fulfill "our" duties as women. The insistance upon maintaining beauty ideals, and norms regarding motherhood and marriage reflects this.
The Invisible Woman seems to better exemplify the following response to feminist demands: "Sure, you can have your cake, but you better bake the damn thing, too."
It seems to me that while the Invisible Woman enjoys a more respectable persona than other female superheros, women are still getting the proverbial shaft.
People should read this.
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