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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 24, 2024 6:39:48 GMT -5
This book was released in 1967 and it was an era where they weren't ready for the kick ass women that would follow like Red Sonja, Big Barda, and Thundra. And yet Barda was introduced in Mister Miracle #4 (1971 ) by Kirby and kicked a lot of @$$, mostly male. It was a missed opportunity. Sif could have at least knocked out 3 or 4 before being captured.
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Post by Yasotay on Sept 24, 2024 23:46:30 GMT -5
I don't know if Marvel had any kick ass women back in the 60s. Even when one would help out in winning a fight, like the Scarlet Witch, she'd still usually end up captured or fainting or something. But to be fair, there weren't many examples of kick ass women in real life back in the 60s to inspire the comics. There were barely any female boxers, no women in combat positions in the military and not that many female police. I'd say Leiko Wu in Master of Kung Fu was the first kick ass Marvel female who didn't spend a huge amount of time doubling as a damsel in distress.
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Post by berkley on Sept 25, 2024 1:33:09 GMT -5
I don't know if Marvel had any kick ass women back in the 60s. Even when one would help out in winning a fight, like the Scarlet Witch, she'd still usually end up captured or fainting or something. But to be fair, there weren't many examples of kick ass women in real life back in the 60s to inspire the comics. There were barely any female boxers, no women in combat positions in the military and not that many female police. I'd say Leiko Wu in Master of Kung Fu was the first kick ass Marvel female who didn't spend a huge amount of time doubling as a damsel in distress.
Maybe we can add the Black Widow, though I'm a bit vague on that character's chronology and when exactly she transitioned from more of a hands-off schemer type to the combat expert she became known as later on.
I hate to say it but as time went on, I think even Leiko Wu was put into the damsel in distress role a few times. But I think this was indirectly part of a general trend of diminishing the supporting cast i order to show how Shang Chi was progressing as a martial artist. Reston and Tarr also seemed to become less impressive physically as time went on. And Shang Chi and Cat agrees that while Shang Chi likely would have lost their first fight he would have won their second one years later.
This is one of my few real criticisms of MoKF: that in the last years of the series Moench, perhaps unconsciously, sometimes seemed to be trying to make the protagonist more impressive at the expense of the other characters. In her earlier appearances Leiko Wu was pretty much on equal terms with Shang Chi, but in thelater years, not so much. I've always wondered if this was Moench's way of trying to hold on to the original series concept of depicting "the rising and advancing of a spirit". Yes or no, I always think it's a mistake in fiction to try to make one character look stronger by taking other characters down a peg or two.
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Post by Yasotay on Sept 25, 2024 10:56:44 GMT -5
Maybe we can add the Black Widow, though I'm a bit vague on that character's chronology and when exactly she transitioned from more of a hands-off schemer type to the combat expert she became known as later on.
I hate to say it but as time went on, I think even Leiko Wu was put into the damsel in distress role a few times. But I think this was indirectly part of a general trend of diminishing the supporting cast i order to show how Shang Chi was progressing as a martial artist. Reston and Tarr also seemed to become less impressive physically as time went on. And Shang Chi and Cat agrees that while Shang Chi likely would have lost their first fight he would have won their second one years later.
This is one of my few real criticisms of MoKF: that in the last years of the series Moench, perhaps unconsciously, sometimes seemed to be trying to make the protagonist more impressive at the expense of the other characters. In her earlier appearances Leiko Wu was pretty much on equal terms with Shang Chi, but in thelater years, not so much. I've always wondered if this was Moench's way of trying to hold on to the original series concept of depicting "the rising and advancing of a spirit". Yes or no, I always think it's a mistake in fiction to try to make one character look stronger by taking other characters down a peg or two.
I thought of Black Widow but I recall, even when she was in Daredevil in the early 70s, she frequently ended up needing rescuing by DD.
Moench had introduced a precursor to Leiko even before she came along. I recall a Chinese woman who was a kick ass kung fu babe that appeared in one issue. Credit to Moench for being ahead of the curve.
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