I’ve been thinking about a few things and you cool cats get to reap the benefits.

Damsel in distress/lost family stories. They form the basis of characters like Punisher, and are common in Spider-Man, Batman, and Daredevil stories. They’re part of a “You Touched My Stuff” trend that’s understandably bothersome. They tend to reduce the damsels, or families, to things that are possessed by the hero– my wife, my son, my family.

All that is true, but I’m having trouble letting go of them. It’s an easy story, but one that never fails to get me. It’s a suspense builder. It’s an easy way to get that “Oh, snap!” reaction. It gets that because it’s an easy pop. Of course the hero is going to fight harder when his family is in danger, who wouldn’t?

I’m not all about them, don’t get me wrong. But, if a story comes up featuring a character I know and a writer I enjoy, I’m much more likely to give it a chance than I would if it was some no-name character.

There were two that have gone down in comics relatively recently that come to mind. Punisher: Man of Stone featured something like a damsel in distress, and Daredevil’s most recent arc features a traditional one. I’m going to spoil both of them, mind you, but they’ve been out for a while so I guess that’s okay.

I kind of wish I could put my resolution right here, above the fold, but it kind of flows better if it’s at the end. Read it if you’re interested in seeing where I’m going, hey?

Punisher: Man of Stone kind of dances around the You Touched My Stuff bit. In it, there is a woman named O’Brien. She’s damaged goods. She’s been a career special agent and been through the kind of things that breaks people. At this point, she’s just out for revenge. She wants to kill these last few men in Afghanistan and then end it all. That’s all she’s living for.

She met Frank Castle back in the States when she was part of a special force that was trying to recruit him for government work. It was one-sided love at first sight. A few story arcs later, they meet up again and end up sleeping with each other. It’s a physical thing, no emotions necessary, and they go their separate ways.

The woman gets nabbed by a British SAS force when she tries to pop a member of the Taliban. Through them, she meets Castle again and they head off to take care of some unfinished business, and by that I mean kill a whole bunch of bad people.

Anyway, they do their things. They end up walking through the desert and talking. O’Brien says that after these last few men are dead, that she’ll have nothing left to do. The only thing she’s good at, she won’t want to do any more. It frightens her. “What am I going to do with myself?” she asks.

“It can’t be anything to do with me,” Frank says. “Be clear on that.”

And then she steps on a landmine. Frank tells her that he can’t do anything for her, medical-wise. She tells him that there are two things she can do for him. One is Rawlins, her bastard ex-husband and one of the men she’s been chasing. The other is left unsaid.

The issue all this is happening in ends with two hard hitting, and silent, pages. One shows Frank holding O’Brien as she dies. She gasps and goes limp. The latter is a full page shot of Frank holding her lifeless body and glaring out at the reader. No words. No text. Just his eyes and your knowledge that everything is about to hit the fan.

His monologue in the next issue reveals her last wishes. The one that was left unsaid was be there for her, so that she didn’t have to die alone. “The other was a thing I’m good at,” it says. He tracks down Rawlins and kills him.

Daredevil #98 was another Damsel story. Milla Donovan, wife of Matt Murdock, has been kidnapped by Gladiator, who is under the control of someone else. The beginning of the issue is dedicated to Matt escaping and trying to find them both using his senses. When he gets there, he prays that Milla is just bait and attacks. Gladiator throws Milla off a roof in return, proving Matt wrong.

He leaps down, catches her, and they crash into an abandoned building. He checks to be sure that she’s all right and Gladiator comes rushing in. Matt turns on him, screaming “Do you know who I am? Going after my wife? Do you know what I will do to you?”

Milla screams for them both to stop. She’d spoken to Gladiator on the roof, almost breaking through, and she does it again here. She tells Matt that Gladiator isn’t in control of himself, and that he should know better. I’m paraphrasing here, but this was the gist of it. She talks them both down and Gladiator gives in.

In a way, both of these hit all the hot buttons. Female dies for male character development. Capable female does something stupid (and admits it in the story) and pays the price, leading to the male character leaping into action. Female gets put into peril, allowing a leap into action/white knight scene.

But at the same time… both of these are parts of good stories. O’Brien wasn’t exactly a weeping flower, and she could more than handle her own. Milla was helpless in terms of physical strength, but she successfully managed to defuse a bad situation. Both women suffered for the sake of the male lead, but they are also supporting characters. Their suffering wasn’t sexualized, but it was there.

It’s all very confusing. These kind of stories get really old, really fast, but they’re also a hard habit to break. If you’ve listened to me talk about comics for any length of time, you probably know my opinion on tons of things. I think that this comes back to the idea of “Where do you draw the line?” What does it take for something to offend you?

This isn’t to say that I don’t go “Oh wow, hero’s wife kidnapped :rolleyes:” when I read a solicit that features a damsel in distress as the hook. But, at the same time, I really want to judge stories on their own merits, because sometimes you get a nice surprise. It’d be nice if all things were equal and we didn’t have to worry about this, wouldn’t it? Ha, that’s a ways away, though.

Case in point– Spider-Man: Back in Black. It uses Aunt May as the impetus for Spidey to go get a costume he swore he’d never wear again and go be HARDCORE and EXTREME and threaten to kill people, one of which is a character that we know will live due to a storyline that was published months ago. It feels hollow and stupid and insulting to your intelligence. This is what sets him off? Turns him dark? He’s been through this before. At least Daredevil has the excuse of being kind of hilariously mentally unstable.

I’m using damsels in distress as an example, but it applies to everything, I think. A story can be riddled with questionable stereotypes, but a good writer can turn it into something incredible. At the same time, that story in the hands of anyone but a good writer is complete crap.

So I guess what I’m saying is that there is a lot I do not know, and sometimes good writing can turn something that’s generally bad into something good? I’d wager that good writing is the key to overcoming any kind of ism, and not just good writing in the “Paying attention to continuity sense.” Actual good writing, not good comic writing.

I guess sometimes you have to think things through, and when they don’t add up, keep thinking. Anyone else got a take? Drop me a comment or an email, if you’d prefer it that way.

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