Marvel Women - University Of East Anglia

Introducing. The Mighty Women of Marvel! February 5th 2014, a Wednesday—known to comics readers as “new comic book day.” Every collector of comic books eagerly awaits new comic book day. Gracing the stands this week are Marvel titles featuring characters such as Captain America, the Punisher, Wolverine and the X-Men. Amongst these familiar names, one is believed to be exceptional. On the cover of this particular issue is a girl. The frame cuts off the top half of her face and the bottom half of her body but enough of her is visible to make an impression: her mouth contorted to a snarl, one hand in a fist, the other clutching a stack of books. Around her neck is a decorative shawl, her hands accented with silver and gold rings. Her dark hair is long. Her skin is brown. Emblazoned on her black t-shirt is a familiar lightning bolt—the symbol of Ms. Marvel. Kamala Khan has arrived. The release of Ms. Marvel (Wilson and Alphona 2014; figure 1) was arguably a watershed moment for Marvel Comics. The introduction of a new incarnation of the Ms. Marvel superheroine as a young, PakistaniAmerican Muslim girl made headlines on both comic book news and in the mainstream press (Aran 2013; Gustines 2013; W. Robinson 2013; Bricken 2013; Ching 2013). The fact that Marvel had recast the previously blonde bombshell heroine as a racial and religious minority, and a girl, was, apparently, staggering. Far be it from my intentions to characterize Ms. Marvel as the epitome of contemporary gender/race representation, the comic book, and its reception, perfectly sums up the issues that exist in representations of female superheroes in mainstream media. The book focuses on issues of identity—of growing up “different,” a difference not only marked by Kamala’s eventual possession of superpowers, but by the fact that she, as a Muslim, as an Asian, as a girl, is different to what Western media has promoted as “heroic” since the dawn of the superhero. What does it mean for a woman or girl to be heroic? What sorts of women have been portrayed as heroes, villains or sidekicks? And what does this say about the culture of which they are a product? 11

These questions are at the heart of this project. While comic books remain a niche medium, the superhero narrative is well and truly cemented within Western cultural consciousness due to the booming popularity of superhero movie adaptations. At the forefront of this trend have been films based on Marvel comic books (Burke 2015, 59), with Marvel Studios churning out two or three films a year in addition to those produced by other studios. These films, and the women presented within them, are the focus of this thesis. Figure 1 Kamala Khan on the cover of Ms. Marvel #1 (Wilson and Alphona 2014) 12

Marvel Comics has showcased myriad super-powered heroines and villainesses alongside its more well-known male characters. The company is most famous for introducing to the world the likes of Spider-Man, Iron Man and Captain America. The white, heterosexual, masculine hero has been a staple of Marvel superhero narratives, as well as those of Marvel competitor DC Comics. But one should not undermine the role of women in these stories. From heroines such as the matriarchal Invisible Woman or super spy Black Widow, to morally ambiguous characters such as Elektra and Mystique, and civilian women such as Pepper Potts and Gwen Stacy, this thesis acknowledges the mark such figures have left upon popular culture. In the early 2000s, Marvel recognized the commercial potential of superhero adaptations, and along with Spider-Man went Mary Jane. Marvel films currently have the upper hand over films based on DC comics. While there exist over thirty films based on Marvel characters, there are fewer based on DC properties over a wider timespan. Given the cultural significance of films based on Marvel comics—they have made over 4 billion domestically in the US since 2010 alone 1—they are a rich object of analysis of which a limited number of scholars have made use. The issues raised in my brief discussion of Ms. Marvel are undoubtedly feminist— notions of identity, gender, sexuality and race are foregrounded. Yet the cultural moment in which these narratives have formed can be characterized as postfeminist. This evokes a complex set of discourses concerning contemporary feminine subjectivities which incorporate feminist goals, while simultaneously positioning these goals as no longer necessary. Furthermore, feminist issues in superhero texts have become an increasingly hot topic in recent years. 2010 was the year of “Marvel Women,” a programme through which female creators and characters were showcased in individual comic book issues and series under the “Women of Marvel” brand (Doran 2013). Comic book conventions increasingly host “women in comics” panels, many of which particularly focus on Marvel comics, giving fans the opportunity to discuss with female creators the challenges women in comics continue to face (Reed 2013; Means-Shannon 2013). In other news, issues of women’s representation in Hollywood 1 See Box Office Mojo 2010; 2011; 2012; 2013; 2014; 2015 13

cinema resurface in the popular press at a clockwork frequency (usually peaking around Oscar season) (E. Gray 2015; Bacle 2015; Ogilvie 2015; Dowd 2015). Meanwhile female actors have been quoted speaking out against Hollywood’s gender pay gap (Setoodeh 2015). The parallels between the pervasiveness of feminist issues in both film and comics are significant and perhaps indicative of both media’s place within popular culture. Likewise, the lack of female-led superhero films has been the topic of much discussion (White 2015; Dockterman 2015), with a film focusing on Captain Marvel—the superheroic Air Force pilot previously known as Ms. Marvel—having been announced by Marvel, but repeatedly postponed (Denham 2015). Now is a crucial time in the discussion of feminine representations both in comics and in film, prompting this theoretical intervention in which representations of women in Marvel superhero films are fully examined in one place for the first time. The purpose of this project is thus to address such questions as: how is power negotiated in female Marvel characters? How does an emphasis on sex appeal relate to feminist and postfeminist culture? How do these representations intersect with greater issues involving sexuality and race? And, importantly, in what ways do these representations tie in to modes of female empowerment and women’s roles in society at the time periods during which these films were released? This thesis thus incorporates multiple theoretical approaches including film studies, feminist film theory, cultural studies, comics studies, queer theory and postcolonial studies. My analysis of the films is textual and discursive, drawing in ideological and contextual elements, and highlighting assumptions regarding femininity present in these films. The project accounts for how women of different backgrounds are “realized” through superheroic narratives and questions how “womanhood” is discursively constructed within these texts. Annette Kuhn identifies a textual approach as beneficial for feminist film criticism as it highlights ‘the ways in which woman has been constituted as a set of meanings through processes of cinematic signification’ (Kuhn 1994, 67). ‘Cinematic signification’ can refer to both visual signifiers, narrative signifiers—identifying narrative occurrences and suggesting how they signify the broader cultural issues at stake—and discursive elements, such as language and themes. Hence I examine the 14

films with regards to the characters, narratives and cinematic elements such as music and mise-en-scène, questioning how these elements collectively engage with gendered discourses. This is not to say that texts external to the films will not be utilized, although this is not a reception study. It does not suggest what audiences do with the texts since this is beyond the scope of the project. To paraphrase Angela McRobbie, there has been a marked interest in reception studies based on the apparent ability of audiences to “subvert” dominant readings of media texts (McRobbie 2009, 3). While McRobbie’s stance is more severe than my own, I want to stress the possibility that a focus on audience studies draws attention away from popular texts and essentially removes responsibility for representational inclusion from those who create them (e.g. Western, global-reaching media corporations run predominantly by men). The focus on audience activity could have the unintended side-effect of limiting the significance of media representations: for if the power to subvert lies with the audience, why even attend to issues of representation at all? Likewise, the focus on subversion does not address the fact that the very need to “subvert” stems from the notion that representations can be limiting, that they are created with a particular target audience in mind, and that those outside of that audience must, in McRobbie’s terms, “make do.” This is not to say that audiences are irrelevant, or that audience studies are completely valueless. However, it is my intention throughout this thesis to maintain the focus on the text and to highlight the importance of heterogeneous media representations of feminine subjectivities. As I discuss in the next section, comic books form a crucial contextual backdrop to my analysis. Likewise, texts such as interviews from filmmakers and comic book creators are included to provide insight into some of the representational decisions made in the production of these texts. These texts offer some indication of several aspects of film production informing representations of gender, including choices regarding the selection of source material and representations of female physicality. Since it is my aim to maintain a relationship to industry practices while prioritizing the film texts, such peripheral insights provide support for my analysis, but should not be considered the main focus of the project. This remains a film study guided by the multiple disciplines described above. My 15

approach enables the tracing of a film’s journey from comic to film production to the end product of the film itself. This provides enough cultural context to offer an overview of the gendered issues informing Marvel superhero film production, but also allows a focused and rigorous study into the specificities of the films. Indeed, popular discourses around superhero films, even before their release, have become more prominent with the rise of online arenas such as blogging and movie discussion sites. As such, there has been more material in terms of paratexts surrounding a film such as Deadpool (Tim Miller, 2016) than there was for X-Men. Likewise, popular discussions of Deadpool and their highlighting of sexuality issues prior to the films release would make excellent material for a future study, but I have opted to focus this study on a detailed textual rather than paratextual analysis. The interpretation of Marvel films is thus fostered by approaches which allow the connections between film and culture to be recognized, considering films as constructs which are the result of complex industrial, social and cultural mechanisms. Such an approach has similarly been put forward as beneficial from a feminist-criticism-of-postfeminism viewpoint by Morgan Blue, who characterizes her method as a ‘discursive and ideological approach to textual analysis’ (Blue 2012, 662). Her approach highlights how media texts generate discourse which ‘allows for the dissemination of socially constructed concepts and ideals, which wield cultural power and knowledge’ (Blue 2012, 662). Hence a text-based approach which accounts for discourse, ideology and cultural context is still a useful means of interrogation. The theory adopted for the use of my discussions largely stems from scholars based in the United States, with fewer from the United Kingdom. Nonetheless, much academic debate of the issues raised in this project focuses on US media. With Marvel films being a product of Hollywood and its conventions, these texts were the most useful. However, due to the correspondence between US and UK politics—particularly with regards to postfeminist discourses—this does not rule out the benefit of UK-centric works (the work of McRobbie in particular has focused on postfeminist culture in the UK but forms much of the foundation of academic feminist criticism towards postfeminism). 16

The films analyzed span from 1989—the year of Marvel’s first theatrical adaptation—through to the present day. This allows sufficient focus on Marvel’s more formative years, which featured the likes of The Punisher (Mark Goldblatt, 1989), Captain America (Albert Pyun, 1990) and Blade (Stephen Norrington, 1998). This said, there is not enough space in this thesis to exhaustively discuss every single film. Thus, particular films have been selected as being emblematic of specific issues related to women’s representation. Likewise, it is often difficult to offer considerations of developing trends. For instance, the popular media announce that we are entering a “new era” of gender inclusivity as evidenced by the multiple opportunities offered to women in superhero narratives on a regular basis (Andersen 2014; Tremeer 2015; Landsbaum 2015; Gould 2015; Schkloven 2015). While I would take such a statement with a grain of salt (or a truckload, given that according to these accounts we seem to be perpetually on the verge of the new era rather than in it), it is useful to consider the notion that political and economic developments have moved us towards a time which may be something beyond postfeminism (see Negra and Tasker 2014). Since a study of postfeminism forms the backbone of this thesis, it might be hasty to include very recent releases within the postfeminist bracket, and it may be more beneficial to closely assess such films retrospectively in the future. Additionally, because it seems that the studios are churning out Marvel films at increasingly rapid rates, it is at times difficult for scholars such as myself to keep up. Thus, much of the discussion is focused on films released between 2000 and 2013, years which can be situated within postfeminist modes of representation. Throughout I refer interchangeably to the films

on her black t-shirt is a familiar lightning bolt—the symbol of Ms. Marvel. Kamala Khan has arrived. The release of Ms. Marvel (Wilson and Alphona 2014; figure 1) was arguably a watershed moment for Marvel Comics. The introduction of a new incarnation of the Ms. Marvel superheroine as a young, Pakistani-