Creator Ted Naifeh comes over from his independent all-ages work to try his hand at the superhero genre. Read on for our review, which contains some spoilers.
Written, Illustrated, and Colored by Ted NaifehCover by Ted Naifeh
Lettered by Taylor EspositoMY NAME IS MARCY MADISON, AND I’M HERE TO SAVE THE WORLD! -w4w
This message is for any woman blessed with extraordinary abilities. The world gets scarier every day. Are you fighting to make it a better place? Or are you leaving it to the guys? How’s that working out? This isn’t about showing men I can do it better. I’m just a smart, capable person with superpowers and I want to do my part. I’m willing to bet there are others like me. I want to meet you. It’s time for us heroines to get in the game!
With superheroes being so well represented by Marvel and DC, tackling the genre can be tricky for an independent creator. For one, there’s a ton of competition in terms of the number of titles available. Beyond that, the new characters need to build their audience from scratch, whereas Marvel and DC can put out any comic with an established character and find some moderate success. So, if an independent book wants to compete, it needs to have a unique spin on the genre to stand out among its contemporaries. It appears that Naifeh was aware of this in crafting “Heroines,” so he’s decided to use the genre as a mechanism to explore other themes — namely, the themes of inclusion and marginalization.
On its surface, this is a good move. Superheroes tend to be a male-dominated field, so there’s certainly potential in focusing “Heroines” on the women. Unfortunately, in practice, I found the attempt rough around the edges.
The issue has a number of men vs women moments that feel far too bold and on-the-nose, appealing to those already aware of the issues in a way that wouldn’t win over many who aren’t. The main character, a white blonde woman named Marcy, starts the issue off by giving a graduation speech about her privilege and the role of money in her life. Soon after, she discovers her powers and a male superhero asks her out, and while out with him, she’s offended that he thought it was a date, since he brought her to his superhero base. Marcy then gets gunned down by an older male hero, who then scolds her and the young male hero for not being careful enough. Marcy ends up interpreting these situations as her being marginalized.
The messages end up way too mixed. The young and inexperienced Marcy ends up looking exactly that: young and inexperienced. The male hero who asked her out never said the word “date” but still asked in a way that implied a romantic interest. He wasn’t being a creep, either, meaning the situation was too much of a gray area for the reader to truly take Marcy’s side. If Naifeh had gone all the way and made the young male hero, the whole situation would have been far too on-the-nose, but at least the messages wouldn’t have been as mixed as they were here. As for the moment with the older hero, while he was harsh to the younger heroes, the way they handled the situation was dangerous and did show their inexperience. These moments and a few others somehow come off as simultaneously too bold, beating the reader over the head with the message, as well as being too muddled to accurately give weight to the themes.
It’s a good thing “Heroines” started with a double-sized first issue, however, as things pick up in the second half when the focus switches exclusively to the women. Most of this has to do with the introduction of Raven, a knowledgeable, morally complex black female crime-fighter who, it becomes clear through subtle interactions, has experienced her fair share of discrimination. With a character like this playing off Marcy, it almost makes the first half of the issue seem like it was building up Marcy’s simplistic version of reactionary white feminism so that Raven could tear it down and help her rebuild it into a more complex, more realistic version. Whether this was on purpose or not, I’m not sure. Either way, Naifeh has a lot to work with in this dynamic, so I’m excited to see where it goes in future issues.
Continued belowAfter establishing those characters, the issue’s plot ends up taking a more straightforward approach. Marcy fumbles around while trying to assemble a team during which we meet more new characters, and soon after the team foils a bank robbery. What isn’t as straightforward is the execution of that plot: the hero meetings take place in cafes and apartments, the introductions have a distinctly human quality (except the Katana-like character who leans more toward parody), and the robbery happens by accident. In this way, “Heroines” feels completely original, looking at superheroes groups as if they were start-ups.
As both writer and artist, Naifeh keeps both perfectly in sync with one another. His art tends to emphasize the fact that everything takes place in the real world, framing many panels from a lower angle than is common so the ground level becomes more apparent. He opts for muted colors, meaning things rarely pop, but he nonetheless tints each scene with a different color for variety. Naifeh also a good feel for contrast, allowing him to highlight the right aspects of each image to better tell the story. His character designs are varied — no two characters look anything alike, which is a huge plus given the amount of characters we’re introduced to here. There weren’t too many stand-out unique moments in the art for me, but as a storytelling device, Naifeh showed that he knows his way around a page.
In all, there are some kernels of a great series in this first issue of “Heroines.” The art and overall feeling of “Heroines” is unique when compared to other superhero books, and Naifeh is playing with themes that fit the genre well. Some of that unfortunately came off as muddled in the first half of the book, but there’s still plenty to work with going forward from here. I’m excited for the next issue.
Final Verdict: 7.5 – A good debut which stumbles a bit in introducing its themes.
