Over at The Source, Alex Segura breaks some exciting news about the upcoming Batwoman series. Enjoy the alternate cover image drawn by Amy Reeder Hadley (whose last project was Madame Xanadu) to November’s Batwoman #0 and read the rest of the news here.
By Ronald Byrd
Renata da Lima (Nata) is a young Brazilian mutant whose parents force her to leave home out of fear that she will be killed by anti-mutant bigots if she remains. Finding a job as a bouncer at a Rio de Janeiro nightclub, Nata befriends a girl named Jisa, who has been thrown out by her parents because of her involvement with gang member Laolo. When Jisa becomes pregnant, Laolo assumes that she will get an abortion; unwilling to do so, Jisa leaves him. Nata takes Jisa under her wing and supports her during her pregnancy, and it is implied that the two girls become lovers. When last seen, Nata was single-handedly fighting Laolo and his gang on her way home from work, and it may be presumed that she triumphed and returned to Jisa.
Nata has super-dense skin and bones as hard as steel, granting her enhanced strength, stamina, and resistance to injury. She is also a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant. Jisa has no superhuman powers.
Nata and Jisa appeared in Muties #4 (2002).
© and ® Marvel Comics. All rights reserved.
By Ronald Byrd
Art by Leonard Kirk
Closet Space is (real name Dominique Melancon) one of the Space Girls, a French band who use their music to promote female empowerment, what they call their “Chick-a-Boom” philosophy. As part of their stage personas, each member exemplifies a different trait; Deep Space is “smart,” Empty Space is “airheaded,” Open Space is “amorous,” and the leather-clad Closet Space is “tough.”
During an American tour, shortly after the unseen Dead Space quits, the Space Girls perform outside the town of Leesburg, where they persuade local hero Supergirl to join them. The concert is interrupted when the Female Furies of Apokolips arrive, searching for the refugee Twilight, and the Space Girls become involved when Twilight recognizes Deep Space as the reincarnation of her sister. In the aftermath, Twilight escapes with Deep Space, leaving the Space Girls to recover from the encounter.
Closet Space mentions that she has a girlfriend named Jane, indicating that she is a lesbian, which puts her name and persona into a somewhat stereotypical perspective.
Closet Space first appears in Supergirl #27 (the volume by Peter David) and is confirmed lesbian in #28.
© and ® DC Comics.All rights reserved.
Art by Mark Laming
Meg Pitt is a minor character seen in the “White Lightning” story arc in issues #10 – 13 of American Century which is set in and around the town of Newton in Chester County, North Carolina. The main plot of the arc deals with Wallace Pitt forcinghis fellow moonshine making friends into joining his own organization, making him the sole (illegal) distributor in half the state.
Meg Pitt is Wallace’s salty-mouthed, blonde sister and they have a strained relationship because she’s a lesbian. Meg gets by just fine without her brother’s approval as the owner of Pitt Filling Station and Garage. She’s also one half of a race car team, acting as mechanic while her niece Lorelei drives. Meg’s so sure of herself that she bets the title to their race car when another driver named Trent comes around the track just to annoy them. Presumably the women win.
Meg is in love with a dark-haired woman named Trica. They live together in quarters attached to the filling station. What Tricia does for employment isn’t mentioned. It’s never made clear if the women are subject to rumor among the townspeople.
Wallace learns that his son has been killed in the Korean War and is devastated. News travels fast in small towns and Meg soon learns of her nephew’s death. Wallace makes up with Meg off panel and consequently has a change of attitude toward her brother, siding with him in an argument between father and daughter. She still has car racing in her blood and with Wallace at her side she cheers Lorelei on. Something fails with the car’s engine and Lorelei is tragically killed. Meg is last seen without Tricia giving some men hell at her niece’s funeral.
© and ® Howard Chaykin Inc and DC Comics. All rights reserved.
Tove Jansson
$19.95 or $13.57 at Amazon
Drawn & Quarterly
Tove Jannson might be a relatively obscure name for most Americans. Such is not the case in her native Finland where she is widely popular for her Moomin comic strip and novels or the 34 countries where her work has been translated. Her name first came to my attention nine years ago when a Finnish member of the GLA Yahoo list posted a notice of her death, and while her name and work were mentioned on the rare occasion, I felt no compulsion to look for her work, not even after boutique comics publisher Drawn & Quarterly announced it would print volumes. This changed on a recent trip to my library when either Moomin or Jansson popped into my head, and I searched the catalog. Lo and behold! All five volumes were on the shelf. Flipping through the first volume inquisitively revealed quirky and charming drawings, reason enough to give it a chance.
Quirkiness and charm do indeed abound in Moomin. Among the biographical notes on Wikipedia it’s mentioned that Jansson started to draw her strip during World War II because she was depressed and wanted something naive and innocent. Naive and innocent is the perfect description for Jansson’s stories, especially when she introduces her gentle main character Moomin with a full moon shot as he’s hiding out from a house full of guests and relations. Moomin’s good friend Sniff is introduced in the third panel and from there we’re taken on a willy nilly series of adventures from a jail break to get rich quick schemes ranging from selling a youthful elixir, a sea monster, posing as a fortune teller, and a cubist artist. It’s a playful and non-sensical version of the hero’s quest. And yes, Moomin does rescue the girl, specifically one named Snorkmaiden, not once but twice. who becomes the love of his life, and is rewarded with a new house.
The three remaining chapters are titled Moomin and Family Life (in which Moomin and his long lost parents are reunited), Moomin on The Riveria, and Moomin’s Desert Island. They’re all very enjoyable stories with wonderfully inventive ideas such as finding a nailed up box, only to discover it’s full tiny critters representing swear words. Their solution is to pack it up and send it off to eccentric Aunt Jane. When an exasperated Aunt Janes confronts them, Moomin explains it with: “You see, Aunt Jane, one must have a fling sometime in one’s life…We only sent you the swear words for fun. We really are very fond of you.” More silliness ensues when the Moomin family and Snorkmaiden take a vacation on the Riviera. Jansson has a wonderful time putting these characters into absurd situations and interacting with oddball characters like the Marquis Mongaga and a Lothario named Clark who takes an interest in Snorkmaiden after she wins big at the hotel casino.
D & Q’s hardback books are always well made. The oversized volume has a colorful illustration of the characters printed across the front and back covers with a bright read band of bookcloth down the spine. End papers are a cherry orange with playful poses of Moomin printed in white in horizontal rows. Interior art is black and white with shades of gray as Jansson drew them, crisply printed on cream paper that’s very nice on the eyes. An often overlooked sign of quality (or lack of) is a book’s binding. In Moomin’s case, the pages are sewn binding, ensuring that the book will last for a significant period of time. The book will also lay flat on a table when opened, making for easy reading.
Perhaps the closest American things I can compare Moomin to is to ask you to picture what a mashup between Peanuts and the original Adams Family cartoons would be like, and even that is off the mark. It’s zany dialog and plots filled with loveable anthropormorphic characters. Reading the first volume was sheer enjoyment and my only regret is in not reading it sooner. Consider Mooming if you’re looking for a book for young family member or for your inner child. We should all have such amazing responses to tragedies whether great or personal in life!
Buy Moomin from Amazon
To learn more about Jansson, there is the requisite Wikipedia entry and another bio here.
For the curious, a comprehensive list of Moomin work is at Moomin Trove.
By Candise Branum
In Love & Rockets, Jaime Hernandez chronicles the lives of Margarita Luisa “Maggie” Chascarillo and Esperanza Leticia “Hopey” Glass from their years as underage punks living in Hoppers, a fictional primarily Latino barrio in California, through their early 40s. The Locas stories (which focused on Maggie, Hopey and their friends) had running storylines, most notably “The Death of Speedy Ortiz” and “Maggie,” but also contained some single page, “slice-of-life” stories. Though mostly realistic, early stories (especially the Mechanics storyline) contained science fiction elements such as dinosaurs and hovercrafts, while other periods focused on the often comical Mexican Wrestling circuit.
When we first meet Maggie she is crushed out on Race Rand, a mechanic that she occasionally works with, and her relationship with Hopey is undefined, and remains so throughout the entire series. The two have sex and live together, but Maggie constantly pursues relationships with men, while Hopey is always hooking up with women, often living with them but never settling down. In later years, Hopey lives with a steady girlfriend, but her infidelity and her inability to take life seriously causes her relationship to fall apart. The end of “The Education of Hopey Glass” shows a post-breakup Hopey beginning to finally mature by taking her work as a teacher’s assistant more seriously.
There is no “coming out” moment for Hernandez’s Locas girls; when we meet Hopey, she is already established as only dating women, while Maggie is assumed straight except for her relationship with Hopey. In later years though, Maggie pursues a relationship with a voluptuous female stripper named Vivian, showing that her desire for women is not just limited to Hopey. A large majority of Hopey and Maggie’s friends are lesbians or bisexual women, and even though both girls seem to shun labels, Hopey does not shy away from the fact that she only sleeps with women (one exception notwithstanding). The “gay community” that they encounter is very middle-class and white-centric, which Maggie feels very uncomfortable with. After overhearing two “art fags” making fun of her for being Mexican, Maggie becomes angry at Hopey for trivializing the event, saying “Shit, just ‘cause you can turn off your “ethnic” half whenever it’s goddamn convenient!” Maggie leaves Hopey and the white, queer world to return to her Latino community, where she does not feel threatened by racism but where her sexual identity is once again undefined. Even though Maggie, who feels the pressures from her family and community to live a traditional married life, shuns both her love of being a mechanic (a traditionally male occupation) and a queer label, she also does not want to be an invisible housewife and struggles to hold on to her punk identity. Many of their female friends from Hoppers also sleep with women, but the idea of a queer identity is seemingly a white, middle-class aesthetic that Maggie cannot truly inhabit.
Though they have been on-and-off lovers for over 20 years, Maggie and Hopey’s relationship remains undefined. They both continue to date other people, while sleeping with and attempting to remain best friends with one another; even during her brief marriage, Maggie continues to have a sexual relationship with Hopey. In the “Maggie” story-arc, Maggie believes she heard Hopey tell her over the phone (which was supposed to be broken at the time) that she loved her, something that had been unsaid throughout all of their years together. This causes tension, as Maggie really does want Hopey to declare it but is not sure if she just imagined it. When Hopey says it again, Maggie is relieved and tells Hopey that she also loves her.
© and ® Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez. Used without permission.
Kay has been life-long best friend and confidante to Frankie, the titular character of this Vertigo mini-series. As Frankie’s best friend, Kay has indulged Frankie’s comments about her having a personal god named Jeriven though she doesn’t share her friend’s belief. That changes one day as the pair visit East Coast University and run into Dean Baxter, a mutual childhood friend.
Jeriven saved Frankie and Kay from a drowning accident, but he wasn’t able to rescue Dean. Out of guilt and despair, Frankie insisted Jeriven bring they boy back from the dead. He did, but the strange circumstances forced the three of them apart, till this one fateful day.
Frankie is the attractive extrovert who’s discovered guys though she’s not at all experiencing good luck with them, thanks to a secretively jealous Jeriven. Kay is steadfast, supportive, and the quiet, much more bookish introvert of the pair. She seemingly has no interest in guys, and feels left out when Frankie and Dean hit it off.
Unknown to either of them, Dean is secretly a pawn of a demon god with a vendetta against Jeriven. Dean charms Frankie with his personality and uses his good looks to seduce Frankie, all in a scheme calculated to make Frankie doubt and lose her belief in Jeriven.
Dean is able to trick Jeriven into manifesting into a human male form, trapping him as Dean persuades Frankie to disavow her faith. Kay happens upon the scene as Dean gloats over the now human Jeriven, and decides to help him.
Confused by new feelings, Jeriven kisses Kay, and immediately expresses regret by saying, “Kay, that was my first kiss, and I’ll never forget it, but Frankie is the only girl for me.” Kay simply replies, “Yeah. For me, too.”
Jeriven falls into the clutches of the demon god, and Kay and Frankie team up to rescue him. In one scene, Dean taunts Kay about being a lesbian, but Kay surprises him with her determination to protect Frankie, and takes him down. Jeriven destroys the demon god by trickery. As the trio walks away, Kay confesses that she and Jeriven are in love with Frankie, admitting that she’ll never make a pass at her friend. Frankie shocks Kay by kissing her and suggesting that the three of them start a relationship. The story closes by showing them happily settled into their new lives in California.
Kay first appears in My Faith in Frankie #1 and her crush on Frankie is revealed in #3.
© Mike Carey and Sonny Liew. Published by Vertigo. Used without permission.
Contributed by Ronald Byrd
Years ago at a demonstration of radiation manipulation at Techtonics Research Laboratories, scientist Christina Carr suffered severe disfigurement in the same explosion that transformed her co-worker Dr. Otto Octavius into the super-powered Doctor Octopus (and which, according to the continuity of Spider-Man: Chapter One, was also a factor in Peter Parker’s transformation into Spider-Man). Carr blamed Octavius for the accident and attempted to sue, but once he became a super-villain this was a futile effort. Driven mad by the radiation that mutated her, Carr eventually learned that it had also given her the power to transform herself into a being of great power, a being which was, incidentally, male; the implications of this gender change as a part of Carr’s transformation are unclear.
As Captain Power, Carr insanely sought “vengeance” against those who had survived the accident, killing several of them under mysterious circumstances, eventually targeting Doctor Octopus himself. Held prisoner, Octopus leads Power to attack former Techtonics supervisor Dr. Ted Twaki, now head of the Tricorp Foundation (temporary workplace of Peter Parker).
Spider-Man arrives at the scene and manages to immobilize Power with an electrical shock which shorts out “his” mutagenic shape-changing power, reverting “him” to the disfigured form of Christina Carr. Taken into custody, Carr no doubt has plans to seek revenge on both Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus, but she has not been seen since.
The same radiation which is slowly killing her gave Christina Carr the ability to transform into Captain Power, in which form she possesses super-powers that she evidently cannot use in her normal form. Captain Power has super-strength, a limited level of invulnerability, the ability to shoot intense flame from “his” eyes, and the power of flight.
Dr. Carr’s first appearance is in Spider-Man: Chapter One #1; as Power in Amazing Spider-Man #9, vol 2. Her character is confirmed lesbian in Amazing Spider-Man #10, vol 2.
© and ® Marvel Comics. Used without permission.
Contributed by Sidney Osinga
Art by Greg LaRocque
Mary Loo was the producer for the talk show “Flagg Waving”. It’s host, Johnny Flagg, was secretly the hero Fighting American, and also Johnny’s brother Nelson’s brain in Johnny’s body. Johnny/ Nelson was attracted to Mary, but something always interrupted when she tried to explain why she couldn’t return his feelings. She was outed in issue #4 when it showed her joining her girlfriend, Denise, in bed.
Mary helped Fighting American and his unnamed sidekick against the Free Association and their minions, the Media Circus, Gross National Product and his sidekick Def Izzit, and Phoroptor. She also discovered that Congressman Dorkin, the man in charge of the Fighting American project, was in league with the Free Association. They tracked Dorkin to Ireland where they found that an unnamed alien was in charge of the Free Association.
It captured them, and what followed is one of the funniest exchanges in comics that I ever read:
Fighting American: Mary, I’m sorry I dragged you into this. If things had gone differently, we might have been married… Lived in a house with a white picket fence…
Mary Loo: Johnny, can’t you get it through your sweet, thick head? I’m gay!
F.A. : That’s what I love about you, Mary! Even at a time like this, you’re so upbeat, so happy…
M.L. : Not Happy… Gay! GAY! I’m oriented toward my own sex!
F.A. : … oh. F.A.: Sheesh! Why didn’t she say so in the first place?
They were freed with the inadvertent help of a family named the Nielsens. Fighting American forced the alien to flee and congressman Dorkin was captured, although the Free Association remained active.
This was a really good series that sadly lasted only six issues. It’s too bad that this series wasn’t continued, since it was, in my humble opinion, a lot better than Rob Liefeld’s version of “Fighting American.
Mary Loo’s first appearance is in Fighting American #2 and her sexuality is confirmed in #4. Fighting American was based on concepts created and © by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
© and ® DC Comics. Used without permission.
Art by Michael Ryan and Mike Norton
Contributed by Hope
Xavin is a Skrull in the Marvel universe, an extraterrestrial species with the ability to change form as they choose. As such though Xavin’s natural gender began as male, it remains fluid, much to the frustration of some of his teammates on the Runaways. Xavin first came to earth in order to marry Karolina Dean, a fellow alien on the Runaways team. When Karolina insisted she couldn’t marry Xavin because she was a lesbian, Xavin quickly changed genders to a female, and explained that it wasn’t an important issue for him. While in the Runaways Xavin usually appeared as a black female, but changed into a male occasionally when needed. Karolina eventually grew to resent this, and felt that she didn’t know whether she was dating a male or female. When Xavin revealed that under times of stress she automatically reverts to female form, the Runaways and Karolina took this to mean that Xavin was now fully female-identified.
Xavin is often argumentative and questions Nico’s, the Runaways leader, decisions. She has a tendency to rush into situations without thinking them fully out and reverts to Skrull customs when at times, it is inappropriate. Despite this, she shows a strong loyalty to the other Runaways, due to her being an orphan herself, and takes their side even over her own species.
During an invasion by Karolina’s species, Xavin shapeshifted into Karolina and took her place in order to take Karolina’s punishment on her home world.
Xavin was previously seen in The Runaways and is currently not in any active series. Xavin first appeared in Runaways # 7, volume 2.
Read Karolina’s profile.
© and ® Marvel Comics. Used without permission.