It's true that I referenced a ridiculously badass yet physically impossible and sexualized comics cover in my last post as a hook of sorts for this entry, but I didn't mean it as a weird judgment of the work. It's just that everything in that drawing highlights what I want to talk about in Birds of Prey: Of Like Minds -- specifically that sexual and badass fantasies are fulfilled in this work WHILE writer Gail Simone continually humanizes her characters AND turns the tables on a weird captivity fantasy by allowing her heroines to hold most of the cards.
But who is this mash-up meant for?
Is it meant for men who look to their comics not only for oggle fests but also a black and white definition of the male as protector and women as physically pleasing and available once protected? Or is it meant for the women who love comic book adventures but hate the festishization of violence against females, a la "Women In Refrigerators?" (For more information on that concept, check out this website, actually created by Gail Simone herself: http://www.unheardtaunts.com/wir/)
Simone and her artist Ed Benes stick a neat balance somewhere between these two tastes. Benes does it by creating the type of ridiculously cartoon exaggerations that won his visceral work acclaim and lots of male fans, I'm sure. Check out this cover and get an eyeful of breasts and muscles (Black Canary's abs are amazing, and Barbara Gordon's boobs are barely covered!):
Or take a gander at the provocative positioning of Oracle on this cover, who's just fallen out of her wheelchair into the most cheesecake position possible (but is still slinging batarangs, God bless her):
Meanwhile, Simone errs on the side of the ladies' fan base by showcasing an understandably terrifying situation and still allowing women to act as a strong force in the middle of a kidnapping shitstorm. The rescuer of our captive, after all, is not male:
Simone tells us everything we need to know about Huntress in this one page. She'll crush your windpipe if you cross her, but she'll still take the time to check in on her girlfriend first. I can't remember the last time I saw Batman checking in on someone while kicking butt in a comic book. Besides, being a loner is a decidedly male attribute in comics, one that Huntress shares before joining the Birds of Prey superhero team. But it's the kindness and togetherness expressed by and between the female characters in this book that makes Of Like Minds feel fresh and distinctly aimed at women, even moreso than its emphasis on Black Canary's ability to withstand mental torture and turn it around on the blackmailers who've captured her.
Sure, strength is the hook. But the development of a female support system and solid female characters is what keeps people reading. Both men and women. Because the contrast between what's known as decidedly fantastic masculine ass-kickery and the assumed and dreamed sexiness exploited by Benes' artwork (so many thigh and ass shots here, it gets a little grating) isn't enough to captivate -- a lot of writers and artists can do that.
If those aims aren't nestled right up against the reality of characters reacting to danger in the moment and making the stakes in relationships with friends and family apparent, then there's no reason to keep reading. Otherwise, you'd have a violent cheesecake book. Here, Simone presents us with women who have wide-ranging personalities -- Oracle, formerly Batgirl and confined to a wheelchair but okay with that, to the point that she's becoming a bit of a information vulture, aka worse than Big Brother; Black Canary, vulnerable when around her gadabout boyfriend Green Arrow and his liberal propaganda, but well-equipped to withstand torture after being dragged through the mud by author Mike Grell on that count once before; and Huntress, an insecure loner who can't fit into any group -- somehow these women manage to work together and function as a family, despite their various weaknesses, interests and blind spots. And that's what makes the adventure penned by Simone remarkable, because she explores their various traits and connections, gives their conversations a history and their trials a reality that continues past the adventures themselves, making them true women and not playthings or masculinized females.
It's not for nothing that when we first meet Huntress, her vigilante actions are tempered by her appreciation for the baby she's just saved ("I wish you could smell how good this baby smells," she says). Nor is it surprising when Barbara spends a two-issue arc hashing out her PTSD after Black Canary's rescue. Simone treats these woman as real women dealing with situations that would have long-lasting effects on any real woman. She shows us their worries and human frailty, and thus takes a potentially exploitative situation (kidnapping and torture funneled through hyper-masculine attacks and muscles), and tempers it with a female perspective. So every reader gets the best of both worlds, and in the end I think Simone's world wins over Benes' comic fantasy.
If only because Simone allows this panel to conflate the appearance of ra-ra hyper-masculine folk with questions about sexual identity:
It always helps to shade your feminist/woman's perspective agenda in humor!
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