In reference to the currently going thread about Superhero movies not starring female characters, I did a search among recommended lists for graphic novels to see which female superhero had the best stories…just to discover that the answer seems to be none.
I saw Greg Rucka’s Batwoman listed. I’ve read it and the art was pretty, but it was impressively short and I’m a bit loath to call something great which barely has enough time just to introduce its characters (see also Mad Love).
Too few! There are some Wonder Woman collections. There are quite a few Red Sonja collections (not superpowers, but swords.)
(I was very fond of Christy Marx’s “Sisterhood of Steel” way back in the day; also not supers but swords, but very pleasantly feminist. Feminism that wasn’t hostile to men. There is a SOS graphic novel that’s pretty good.)
Neil Gaiman’s Black Orchid miniseries is usually well-regarded. But it is quite short ( three combined issues ) - basically an origin story.
I rather liked the Amanda Conner( artist ) run of Power Girl. It’s more light-hearted fun than anything else, though. Not terribly deep, just entertaining.
I guess you could also pull out the excellent Neil Gaiman Death miniseries as well. But she’s not really a super-heroine of the standard sort and you should really have read Sandman first.
Good call! The Sensational She-Hulk graphic novel, by John Byrne, 1990, was pretty good. Byrne rather ineptly promotes a feminist point of view…and also exposes a whole lot of flesh. But the story is good, the characterization is fun, and there are some good jokes.
I don’t recall Liberty Belle having much of a role in it at all. Maybe you’re thinking of Miss America? Also, the Tigress (who later becomes the villain called the Huntress) features prominently. Those are the only female characters I recall having a significant role, though the biggest roles belong to the male characters in the story.
Libby’s the one who beats the hell out of her would-be abusive husband, at the culmination of a subplot contrasting his failure-to-earn-a-living problems with her useful-exposition-for-the-reader journalism, the story ending as she reunites on her own terms with the other guy she’d divorced – after she comes out of retirement in the climax to save the world by killing the [del]century’s[/del] book’s primary villain, right?
Very good recommendation. People checking this out should be aware it’s one of those series that grew a beard as it was told. It started out as a fairly one-dimensional joke series before adding a lot of depth in the characters. So don’t dismiss the series too early if you don’t enjoy the first book.
This, absolutely - it isn’t exactly a “superheroine” thing in that it tends to be more of an “ordinary people in a world with superheroes” detective story, but the main character is a woman with superpowers who failed to make the big leagues.