4173 said:
[You make some good points. However, I think if we were able to survey the entire genre, abused men are much more likely to get a chance to fight back. A tortured Superman will eventually be able to fight back much more effectively than Lois Lane.
Most of that could probably be chalked up to their being more male superheroes and therefor more non-powered female significant others. (And that's fine with me, I'm not saying it needs to be equal. I'm not saying there is a sinister motive). From a pure numbers perspective though, I doubt women as a group get as much revenge as men.
Not really, remember Lois Lane is not a super hero. She's a dependant. Now granted she has blurred the distinction at times when she has had super abillities for a time, or had her own comic series which kind of played out like a sleuth/mystery story type thing, but in general her entire reason to exist is to provide a sense of jeopardy for Superman, whose name is on the cover. He fights back in the end, because he's Superman and it's his comic book. There are female heroes who have dependants who are in the same position.
Argueing that Lois Lane, or Aunt May, have bad things happen to them but don't get to fight back and save the day is kind of silly. Besides, it's kind of co-ed especially in Superman. Lois Lane is one of the more common characters to put in jeopardy given that she's his love interest, but let's not just forget that Jimmy Olson winds up in the same situations, oftentimes right next to Lois Lane. Honestly I think Lois has probably had more moments of cool than Jimmy had over the years... though both have saved Superman more than once.
Now, a better arguement, but one that also doesn't qork, would be in looking at sidekicks. Sidekicks being other heroes who exist to play off the protaganist, being captured and rescued, but also doing some cool things and fighting alongside them as well.
One of the big arguements oftentimes made is about how characters like "Black Canary" like "Zatanna" have spent a goodly amount of time in bondage with gags in their mouth. The thing to consider though is that when that mostly happened she was effectively acting as a sidekick to other characters like "Green Arrow" as opposed to an actual partner. Due to her popularity the scope of the character was increased, she became an actual partner, and started getting equal billing on super teams, although she hasn't ever really been able to hold down a title of her own for long. The transition actually does matter, and a lot of criticisms of characters like this being defeated are kind of silly when you consider that other sidekicks who are guys deal with the same problem all the time. Indeed Robin has been captured and tied up so many times that it feeds into all the jokes about the "reality" of his relationship with Batman.
Irregardless of gender, it's important to carefully consider what role a character is actually playing in a story. When dealing with long running characters who began as bit parts or sidekicks and then were developed into full fledged heroes the situation can be complicated. Given that a lot of long running female heroes have relatively humble
origins there can be some confusion on the issue. While bad things still happen, there is a definate differance between how the Black Canary of today fits into stories and the role she plays than what she did when she was first introduced. She was very much a "robin" type.
Of course then again, whose name is on the cover of a comic book also says a lot. Even a character who is usually a sidekick is going to be far more effective if he has his own spin off. For example if your reading a "Robin" comic book, chances are he isn't going to wind up spending the whole thing tied up in a closet waiting to be rescued. Even with dependants, like say Lois Lane, or even Comissioner Gordon, if the comic series bears their name as the title then they aren't going to be the victim, and the opposition is likely to be scaled to them. Comissioner Gordon being an example of a dependant character that doesn't fit the usual mould, since he provides a useful service to the hero without fighting alongside them, he however spends most of his time getting outgunned and needing to be rescued, or protected from the criminals he fights. Gordon might conceptually be a tough (if aging) cop, but he's not an action hero (except rarely when he's had his own title), typically the most useful thing he can do is turn on the Bat Signal... that's kind of his job as far as the stories go.
