This is from the last issue of Kelly Sue’s first run. I’m not spoiling anything.
I’m dusting off this old blog to share my enthusiasm about the recently released news about the Captain Marvel–Carol Danvers!–movie.
I fell in love with Carol about two years ago, when Shannon and I were talking about supporting women in comics. Not just female characters, but artists (line and colorists), writers and editors. It does not matter how far the comics community has come in welcoming women into the hobby. What matters is that there is so much more to do, and using my money to support women is the very least I can do to help bring about change.
The night Shannon and I talked about women in comics, I came across Kelly Sue DeConnick’s run of Captain Marvel. There was also a sale on ComiXology. I spent $0.99 on my first digital comic to see what the big deal was. I ended upstanding $6 to read all the digital issues, and I was immediately hooked on the character. Carol reintroduced me to all of the Marvel Universe.
Carol is a big fucking deal to me. She’s someone I can show to my goddaughter (and her sister) and say “you can be whatever you want.” She is someone I can point out to my nephew and say, “Girls rule.” She is a fictional character that punches holes in the sky. I get the appeal of Wonder Woman. I love that she’s part of DC’s Trinity. I prefer Carol. She has the more identifiable background (working class woman from Boston who goes to the Air Force because her family chooses to send their sons to college instead of her). She’s becomes an ace pilot, works in intelligence, gets super powers and becomes a reporter. She is also emblematic of the bullshit that some writers put their female characters through.
Giving Carol her own title–and working on it for so damn long–says that we’ve made just a bit more progress in one of my communities. Now all we need is for Carol to punch a whole in the sky for the next wave of women artists, writers and characters.
