[brain dump] death & the maiden 2: it came from the refrigerator

[clockwork_hart1]

So like I mentioned in the last post I'm working on another little poetry chapbook full of poems about dead women but this time specifically comics focused JUST so I can name it it came from the refrigerator. And I needed to throw up a little post mostly for myself to vent / dump about it as I'm writing because it's just clogging up my Tumblr and also not that interesting lol.

So the list of featured women is:

• Alex DeWitt
• Jean Grey (+ Maddy Pryor)
• Kara Zor El
• Gwen Stacy
• Donna Troy
• Elektra Natchios
• Sue Dibney
• Gert Yorkes
• Tara Markov
• Kamala Khan
• Lian Harper
• Mariko Yoshida
• Bobbi Morse

I may write a second Steph poem to round out the DC side since there's an extra marvel gal on there.

Basically going to use this post / the comment threads to draft some things, complain, keep track of who's been covered and update as I actually put the chapbook together. It'll be on my ko-fi eventually, I might try to comish someone for a cover.

If you have any girls you think I've missed or comics women you wanna talk about do let me know! Idk if anyone would be remotely interested in watching me redraft poems and throw tantrums when I don't think they're working but I'm gonna post through it anyway lol. Enjoy?

Comments

[clockwork_hart1]

Melo!! I had also basically disappeared off of tumblr for a while, and I'm still a little restless over there, so I'm trying out using my DW again, we'll see if it sticks lol.

Lian clicked for me yesterday it suddenly hit me that she was one of the people I was subconsciously reaching for when I was going through the DC girls who felt the most jarring and brutal. You've got Lian, a whole baby, and Sue Dibney who is raped and murdered and that's the whole thrust of an event comic, which really shifted DC's whole direction into edgelord territory. It's interesting that they don't have like big tentpole famous girl deaths the way marvel do with Jean and Gwen, except Kara's in Crisis. Very few of the significant DC gals have been killed and stayed dead for any length of time, but they make up for it by having some just really horrible and graphic ones instead. Yay? Sorry this turned into a whole rant lmao.

Also you might actually be helpful to me bc I haven't actually read any of Tara's appearances (03 is the only titans book I've ever read lol.) Is there anything besides Judas contract that's worth having a look at just to get a feel for her? No worries if you don't have anything to rec I just thought I'd ask just in case.

[luckyzukky]

hahah besties in disappearing off tumblr lol! i hope DW treats you better - i've been less active wrt posting but i'm on here basically constantly refreshing my reading page so there's that haha

lian was just such a brutal example of this. she was a fucking child and they still pulled the shit they did??? just shameful but it's a part that's just great to analyze critically and creatively i think. like both horrifying and interesting to explore in both senses. also i've never really noticed how marvel has the giant explosive deaths while dc just does it for funsies so often that we're like desensitized to it as angry as we are lol.... god being a woman who likes dc is rough

for tara i ABSOLUTELY suggest the judas contract arc of new teen titans. it's essential to understanding her as she was created to die in that arc, her portrayal and creation in general, it's foundational for every future use and depiction of her. so that's like, my highest recommendation. i also suggest the deathstroke rebirth run's "defiance" arc which makes great use of tara and rose - it shows tara in a unique position post-judas contract, post survival, well, in a world where she did survive, sorta (we both know how much of a mess canon is with timelines so just roll with it lol). it's an interesting though light examination of her as an adult. i highly recommend it even if that book is kinda all over the place.

[clockwork_hart1]

I mean as an original marvel girl who defected to DC but regularly commutes back lol marvel do also kill minor characters REALLY often I actually originally had way more of them on the list and whittled them down to the ones that felt tentpole and important. They kill of half the x men population like once every 3 years, and both of their mainline kid teams (young avengers and runaways) had one of their younger female characters die. I think they were actually much more notorious for it for years until DC had it's big grimdark Serious push in the 90s/2000s and now it's just fair game for everyone. Basically being a female comics fan in general is rough lol. Love it out here!

Also thank you for the rec!! It's really helpful!

[luckyzukky]

ahhh i see thanks for the marvel context! crazy that the kid teams both had young girl characters die wow. it really is rough being a fan of comic women lol....