Question of the Month – Favourite Female Character

We’ve been focusing on female creators a lot around here and this month we thought we’d throw it out there – who’s the female character that holds a special place in our hearts?

Dee: For once I’m not going to say Kitty Pryde, for all that she was my first real love in comics. Instead I’m going to go for a more recent character I’ve come to adore.

Cinderella. Always a fairly minor character in the Fables books, over time it’s learned that Cinderella isn’t simply a flighty ex-wife of Charming’s but is also one of Bigby’s agents. It isn’t until her own series written by Chris Roberson and drawn by Shawn McManus that she gets the spotlight. An agent for Fabletown since its inception she’s kicked more ass than all of the James Bonds put together. She smart, tough and gorgeous, and can use that beauty as a weapon. She a fighter, she wise-cracks and then she goes back to Fabletown where everyone simply believes she’s another rich blonde with no real thoughts or cares for the world around her.

It’s nice to see a character I’ve loved since I was a child given this treatment. Seeing that princess all grown up and stronger than I ever imagined makes me happier than you could believe.

Chantaal:

 If you know me, please pretend to be surprised.

Theresa Cassidy was my Marvel gateway drug. I was fine reading self-contained series such as Runaways, but the moment I picked up X-Factor and was introduced to her, I had to know more. She’s the reason I read old X-Force and X-Men, she introduced me to other characters, and everything snowballed from there.

Banshee (previously Siryn) is a fantastic character; she’s fiery and uncompromising, a woman who’s had to overcome various obstacles in the course of her life — and while this could be said for any female comic character, it’s how Terry does this all on her own that I admire so much. She has her share of men who care for her and those she’s loved, but when it comes right down to it, she does everything on her own terms. She still makes X-Factor my must-read every month, and I will never, ever give up on her.

 Angel:

This is a tough question for me, if only because my favorite female character has changed more than once over the years. When I first got into comics, both Rogue and Kitty Pryde were favorites, and then Kitty because an absolute favorite again after I read Astonishing X-Men, but as of late, X-23’s really moved to the top of my list.

If I remember correctly,  I really only picked up Innocence Lost and Target X on a whim, but once I’d read Laura’s beginnings, I was hooked, and from there I followed her through New X-Men, then X-Force, and now her current title. There’s something about Laura’s story in particular that’s intriguing to me, and while she’s undeniably a badass (I will NEVER get over her carrying her own arm around in X-Force, NEVER), she’s really just a girl trying to prove that she’s just that— a girl.  Yes, she was engineered in a lab, and yes, she’s Wolverine’s clone, but she’s her own person, as much as the world keeps trying to convince her that she’s not.

Mostly, it’s just fun to watch her slowly grow as a character as she overcomes all of the internal struggles that come with what The Facility did to her and the external ones that come from being a mutant.

Lina:

Oh man. I have so many favourites that it is actually hard to pick just one. So naturally, I picked my favourite of my favourites using the handy power of a randomizer. The competition was tough (Felicia Hardy, Wanda Maximoff & Jean Grey were all contenders), but in the end I picked one.

Barbara “Bobbi” Morse better known as Mockingbird.

Bobbi is a tough, take action sort of woman who happens to be just as capable (if not more so) of kicking ass and taking as the boys. She holds a PhD in Biochemistry and has been both an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and an Avenger. She’s died, she’s come back and had some truly bad things happen to her, but she stays strong. I love how she is smart and funny and doesn’t let the strangeness of her situation get to her. This is a woman who was on a team chock full of people with actual superpowers and managed to prove that she had every right to be there. She’s died, come back, been lost in the past, tortured and kidnapped, divorced and dating and any number of other things. I love her take no prisoners sort of attitude. The fact that she makes quips and married a man after knowing him for two days. More than anything else I love that Bobbi is still very human. She shows her weakness and her fears and makes them a part of her. She’s strong in every sense of the world.

Bobbi might not be one of the big names of Marvel, but she’s important to me. She keeps it together under pressure which is something I admire. I’m glad to call her my favourite. Really.

Ashley:

It would be so easy for me to say Wonder Woman because I do love her so much.  And I always will…hell, I’m getting a tattoo designed in tribute to her!  But I won’t go with that (but it does not mean I don’t love her greatly).  Instead I will say Kate Kane, aka Batwoman.  She is an unbelievably strong character, both in and out of the spandex.

I am so excited that her book is finally coming out too.  I just recently finished reading Elegy and in that, she leaves the military because she cannot say the oath honestly.  Her father always taught her to fight with honor and honesty.  She couldn’t stay knowing that the military (at that point) was against homosexuals being open.  Being a lesbian, she took her ring off and left.  She fights for what herself and for those who can’t.  She wears the symbol of the bat on her chest and follows Batman’s rule of no killing, but she fights for more than Batman’s approval.  She does not need him to coddle her and be her protector.

I cannot wait to see how she does in her solo book.  I hope it lasts and I hope that she gets proper treatment.  I want to see her keep kicking ass and taking names.