When I was but a wee Lizzie, embroiled in that awkward, ugly and intense period of life known as puberty, I fell in love with comic books.
This was a very stupid, stupid thing for me to do.
My ill-advised love blossomed after reading Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. I discovered that comics had all the ingredients I liked: fantasy, science fiction, bizarre adventures, crazy costumes, and super powers.
Except one thing was wrong, one thing was out of place:
The women.
What the hell was up with the women?
Angela, Lady Death, Vampirella and Marvel Swimsuit Edition? Really? But I could overlook these, as long as there was a cool character out there for me.
Sure, I discovered some great superhero teams (my love for the X-Men ran deep, and great was my glee when I discovered the delicious magical crack of Claremont’s “Excalibur”) but I wanted a solo lady whom I could hero-worship.
One of the books I remember picking up was “Silver Sable.” There’s a solo lady! She’s a mercenary, too; badass! A few pages into the comic she’s naked and having sex with some guy. Throughout the book she’s shown posing in lingerie for no reason. It’s like if a boy went looking for Batman, opened a comic, and there’s Bruce posing kittenishly in a thong. Why? Just, why?
Feeling embarrassed and kinda cheated, I put the book back. A lot of different comics with “lady heroes” were put back that day. Superhero teams seemed to work better for me. I followed “Generation X” with gusto until the art started to royally suck and the entire Marvel universe got retconned. (Bite my jiggly ass, “Generation NeXt.”)
After a while, I gave up my search.
Ten comic-less years later I’m all grown up and stuff. A Comics Renaissance happens after someone lends me Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. Maybe not all comics will break my heart?
One summer, while walking down a sunlit block of shops, I notice a store with a shelf of used books in front. A big graphic novel stands out from the rest. I pick it up, begin to read, and there she is. My hero. The gal of my dreams; the one I’d been looking so hard for all those years ago and never found.
Halo Jones.
The Ballad of Halo Jones is a science fiction epic. The story is quality, and the main character just happens to be a lady. She has no special powers and doesn’t constantly thrust out her hips and chest. Alan Moore wanted a normal-looking character “as you might find standing in front of you while queuing for the check-out at Tesco’s.” I was a little surprised that Moore had created my hero, as I usually don’t think much of his women characters.
But then, here’s Halo. She lives on the Hoop, the outer rim of scum and villainy floating around future Manhattan. When her loved ones are killed, Halo leaves Earth to work as a hostess on a luxury spaceship, becomes unwittingly involved in shady political doings, and eventually ends up a soldier in a brutal interplanetary war.
An important part of this story is how Halo finds her freedom by walking away from the romantic interest. Countless women are defined by their relationships with men, in comics and all other media. The woman sacrifices everything for her man because life is worthless without Mr. True Love Dude. (Not naming any specific sparkling Byronesque guys here.) Many little girls grow up thinking that "true love" will the most important part of their lives, so hold on to that man, even if it's miserable, even if he leaves bruises every so often. We need more gals like Halo who are not afraid to walk away from romance to preserve personal integrity.
The Ballad of Halo Jones isn’t perfect, to be fair. It plunges the reader into a strange world without context, so you have to be a bit patient with the characters and their future-slang until further along when some world details are explained. The art looks a bit dated now, very late-80’s-early-90’s, but this actually appeals to me.
On the back of the graphic novel there’s a quote that describes Halo Jones as “Possibly the first feminist heroine in comics.” I think what it means to say is, “Here is an epic story with a woman protagonist in comics, at last. Sorry it took so long!”
So who's your hero, comic book or otherwise? How did you finder her, or him?
And on a sillier note, how awesome is Kate Beaton's "Sexy Batman?"
