Support tough gals in comic books! Don't tolerate the "women in refrigerators" syndrome!

Hawkgirl - Ms. Marvel/Warbird

Don’t have much to say about the current iteration of Hawkgirl, other than her prominence in current DC comics seems to originate from the popularity of the Thanagarian iteration of the character on Bruce Timm’s Justice League cartoon, of which I cannot say enough good things…

But Ms. Marvel? Here was a female character that didn’t just strike a pose and point in order to engage foes. She decks bad guys, just like red-blooded Marvel dudes did! As I’ve said before, Marvel never had a female bruiser front and center, like Wonder Woman, up to that point. And so, despite the fact that she was written with rather a lot of Chris Claremont’s sympathetic feminist boilerplate, Carol Danvers had an important function.

But it may not be putting too fine a point on it to speculate that many comic book writers have problems with strong women. Before she became a key comic book writer, Gail Simone identified a syndrome in super hero fiction, which she dubbed “women in refrigerators.”

Taking its name from a plot point in a ‘90s Green Lantern story, in which Kyle Rayner’s girlfriend is murdered and stuffed into a refrigerator, Simone cataloged the indignities suffered by female characters in super hero fiction. Many many characters before Sue Dibny’s brutal killing by an insane Jean Loring were disposed with or forever compromised via editorial diktats that, most likely, were concocted and approved by men who probably were ignored or laughed at by chicks in high school. Oh, the horrors the fairer sex visits upon adolescent males who can tell you the issue in which the Vulture picked his nose!

Ms. Marvel got the “women in refrigerators” treatment but good. She was immaculately impregnated by a Kang-style dude, and then was hypnotized into living with him in some mystical dimension. She escapes and, after losing her powers to X-Man-to-be Rogue, gives the Avengers holy hell for abandoning her (well done, Mr Claremont). After a period that found her with cosmic powers as Binary, Kurt Busiek made her into a drunk in his Avengers run, but saw to it that she joined AA and becomes a lucid heroine again.

To Marvel’s credit, Carol Danvers is one of the key characters in their line, one with a mean roundhouse left. But she again bears the name “Ms. Marvel,” which is nowhere near as cool as Warbird (well done, Mr Busiek).

Commonalities:
Two broads known to throw a helluva punch, and known to have connections to expatriate extraterrestrial heroes on Earth.

Differences:
Hawkgirl has them wings and archaic weaponry; Warbird is super-strong, flies and shoots force blasts out of her fingertips.

Alternate histories:

HG: Kendra Saunders is a young pilot in the U.S. Air Force when she encounters and then enters a romantic relationship with Katar Hol, the Thanagarian dissident known as Hawkman. She appropriates some of his abilities, which she uses under the codename of Hawkgirl. Saunders then joins the Justice League, although she is spirited away to mate with a extra-dimensional being. She escapes and then angrily rebukes the JLA for abandoning her; she then spends some time with the Teen Titans before spending time in outer space. She returns to Earth and rejoins the JLA. Hawkgirl currently leads the sanctioned iteration of the JLA, which includes her current swain Captain Atom.

WB: As a young woman, Carol Danvers attempts suicide, but is revived when the spirit of an ancestor enters her body. Via Kree technology, she is imbued with abilities native to that race, and takes the codename Warbird. She joins a later iteration of the wartime organization the Liberty Legion, and is courted by a charter member of that organization to be named later, who she resists. After encountering Kree antagonists on their homeworld, Warbird has joined the Avengers, which includes her current swain, the Angel.