Gail Simone's Swords of Sorrow (Dynamite)

[shevek]

I'll tell you the same thing I told The Mary Sue (although I bet my comment over there will be deleted by the relentless censors):

I recently bought this tpb for $50 because there were 25+ female characters in it looking good while kicking ass. The same exact reason I loved Simone's long Birds of Prey run. If a couple of speech bubbles here and there resemble Simone's preachy IRL tweets, so be it. The cover (the first of the two above - the second is a reaction to the first by cosplayers who tried to tone down the sexiness of their poses but they *failed* to do so..look at Jana's horizontal attitude) was irrelevant to my purchase. The issue shouldn't be what they are wearing or how they are posing - the controversy is ridiculous just like it was with Spiderbutt. The issue should be is it feminist because all the characters have agency in spades - they act fiercely and are not acted upon. And I get the message of the book: powerful women act in solidarity to quash the ultimate MRA and end the concept of anyone ever needing an antiquated Prince Charming anymore. Fair enough.

You will enjoy this book if you like dozens of iconic sexy female heroines kicking ass. Jana the Jungle Girl is the cutest I've seen in a while,whether drawn or cosplayed. Also Lady Rawhide.

OK, more details..here is the total list of hotties that appear in the book: Jana, Rawhide, Bad Kitty, Chastity, Mistress Hel, Purgatori, The Traveller, Dejah Thoris, Red Sonja, Vampirella, Athena, Black Sparrow, Eva Daughter of Dracula, Irene Adler, Lady Greystoke(Jane), Jennifer Blood, Kato (the female version), Lady Zorro, Masquerade, Miss Fury, Pantha, Red Riding Hood, and Voodoo Childe. These are either (I assume) currently licensed properties of Dynamite or golden-age public domain heroines that the company picked up, etc.

What's interesting about this book is that it is no doubt about the sexier side of feminism (as interpreted by politically-correct lawgiver Simone) but it is by no means about morality whatsoever. The "good gals" aren't really good at all, they're almost all criminals, miscreants and mass murderers (Jana is one of the few exceptions..she looooves animals to death, wouldn't harm a scale on the head of a velociraptor). They work together only because they are kindred souls and because they want the universe to continue existing while the Prince wants to obliterate it. The cause is existential, not moral in the least.

I mean, I love the team-ups here, for example between Vampirella and Jennifer Blood. But Jennifer (for whom I should really do her own thread - probably will soon, because her own book is hot) in her super-sexy black wig, is surely the biggest mass murderer in the whole bunch. By the time SoS rolls around, she has killed literally hundreds of people in her own comics, including her own husband for finding out her secret. She briefly goes to prison (but of course isn't executed) but then breaks out and currently hides out, suffering nothing for her crimes. Now I don't have any problem with anti-heroism of that scale, especially because this is fantasy. Kill whoever you want, destroy universes and reshape them. But then feminists complain when a woman is stuffed in a refrigerator to motivate a male hero? Are there any male mass-killers in comics who are venerated as sexy heroes? Don't tell me the ladies find Galactus, Victor Von Doom or Darkseid to be sex symbols..didn't think so. But feminism gives the female characters the license to do whatever the hell they want, because no matter what they do, it shows "empowerment".

The new double standard!

and now by special request some Lady Rawhide.
1830s Mexico, a melee at the governor's ball. the lady in her finest dress:

she changes into Lady Rawhide:

she has a little misunderstanding with Miss Fury before they figure things out:

Hope that stokes your fires!

[sugarcoater]

Can you add some more details and a visual or two of Lady Rawhide? Absolutely loved that character back in the 90s, but the art never did her justice (other than the cover art, which was phenomenal).

[harriertalon]

I loved that trade as well. Money well spent for any fan of hard-fighting women drawn by some of the best in the business. Alas, Lady Rawhide only has one story in the collection, but it's a good'un. Also enjoyed Jana (aka Jungle Girl's) storyline. About the only thing that makes it difficult to follow is that they published the individual stories in the chronological (street date) order in which they appeared, so the overall story jumps a bit here and there. Nothing that can't be quickly figured out, of course, by any storied comic book reader. And man, there's some nice artwork in this book.

[Dogfish]

Hunted down some Jennifer Blood comics and they are properly hot in that unsettling way that only a good incredibly violent/incredibly sexy comic can be.

I would say that she's an interesting character, but I think Shevek pretty much nails the key flaw, she's gone so far past anti-hero that I think any particular characterisation there is pretty much dead. Not that the comics aren't good, but I can't bring myself to care about anything or anybody in them beyond the lashings of gratuitous violence and tactical boobs.

As characters go she's comparable I think to The Punisher but without the writers bending over backwards as far to keep the character seeming morally upright. I think it makes the comics more interesting though that there is a less defined sense of good guys and bad guys. The Punisher, because he has this place in a larger continuity, has to always be sort of deniable, can't be doing anything wrong or else who couldn't be in movies or be mates with Daredevil. Jennifer Blood just does whatever, and while it means the character is just basically a cypher for carnage it does mean that the carnage itself is going to be more interesting.

[shevek]

Dogfish, good comments. I was going to soon do a separate Jennifer Blood thread, because her stories are still ongoing (I think) and I recently bought her very first tpb. So I'll probably repaste both your comments and my comments re JB there, plus offer more info and graphics of her.
Also...I'm going to start some threads about 90s bad girl titles. I'm about to acquire a shitload of those types of comics at $1 a pop from an obscure store collection.