The Thorn appeared after the Crisis in early Byrne/Stern Superman books where they preserved her continuity by reminding readers of her successful elimination of the 100. Gail Simone’s mini-series throws that out.

Huntress was the daughter of Batman and Catwoman. The current Huntress is nothing, a completely generic mask, and in case you don’t know it, I don’t believe Gail Simone writes very well. She ends up turning characters into jokes, and I don’t find them all that funny.

Ray

But why are you saying that Huntress and Thorn were retconned out of existence? Thorn had a mini-series and guested in BIRDS OF PREY a few years back. The original Huntress was retconned out of existence by Crisis(as were a number of male characters), but the revamped version by Cavalieri– a superior revamp IMO– was given quite phenomenal depth by Simone in BOP. And following Simone’s departure the character’s still in the book, and still kickass.

Heidi:

I haven’t seen the Tigra scene, though as a parallel I’ll cite the recently-cancelled HEROES FOR HIRE, which started out with strong heroines under one set of creators and descended into simple-minded degradation under the second set of raconteurs. That’s not as explicit as the Byrne thing, and might be compared to the way other Marvel characters get wiped out at the end of unsuccessful runs (Iron Fist, Bloodstone). But it did make me uncomfortable.

I think it depends on the context. Tigra’s recent beating with heaving breasts and torn costume was definitely presented in a sexualized (and disturbing) manner.

“sometimes a cigar is more than a cigar.”

Always a possibility, but I like to look to see at least some strong corroboration between sexuality and violence until I make the correlation.

For instance, when John Byrne has Sue Storm’s mind “violated,” and then has her dress up in dominatrix-wear to fight her buddies, something’s going on, even if it’s just a cynical desire to tap into some B&D thing that the creator thinks the public wants.

Whatshername getting cut up and stuffed into a refrigeator isn’t automatically sexual, despite what the famed “Girls in Refrigerators” website says. It’s a cynical attempt to juice a series with gratuitous death, but no more sexual than Gerry Conway bringing back the Sub-Mariner’s dad for one issue, only to kill him tragically. (I know I cried– not.)

Ray:

I was sure someone would ask about Conan being implicitly raped in the comics. Oh well. I forget when the Cap Marvel stuff happened, but it was something about the Captain getting it on with Beautia in his adult form.

On another point. When was “Captain Marvel, Fawcett– molested in his child-identity by an adult woman?” If it happened in a Geoff Johns book, I wouldn’t be surprised, but for the life of me, I haven’t any idea what you’re talking about.

Ray

Sheesh, Gene. I don’t mind analyzing everything on its own merits and not making blanket statements, but sometimes a cigar is more than a cigar.

Hithcock got it wrong (probably on purpose):

The name of the game is not “torture the woman.”

It’s:

‘TORTURE EVERYBODY!'’

Let’s look at the male counterparts to some of these, now:

Batman– back broken for several months (hey! he didn’t have time to prepare!); eventually recovers good as new
Superman– killed about 8 million times, a couple for realsies; often reduced to a wimp or a coward by this or that plot-device
Conan– got implicitly raped in his own comic book
Captain Marvel, Fawcett– molested in his child-identity by an adult woman
Captain Marvel, Marvel– dead of cancer until recently
Green Arrow– killed, brought back, retconned into a lech
Spider-Man– where do I even start?

Thanks.

The only women in that production who haven’t become “damaged goods”–to quote a bad movie–are the ones from television and movies.

Batgirl–permanently crippled
Huntress–retconned and non existent
Thorn–retconned and non existent
Tigra–pistol-whipped by Brian Bendis’ Hood; psychologically traumatized by the Hood; one of the SS Avengers
Power Girl–no history; a big boob joke
Red Sonja–entire history rendered a lie; turned into a “potato”
Ms. Marvel–The Iron Tyrant’s lieutenant in the SS Avengers
Black Canary–married to an idiot
Lois Lane–saddled with Kryptonian orphan; no longer the daring ace reporter
Mary Marvel–broken, corrupted and only now returned to glory but stained with a gray thunderbolt as an unnecessary reminder by idiot editors.
Spider-Woman–given breast implants, another one of the SS Avengers
Shanna the She-Devil–A blow-up doll
Wonder Woman–last good book was by Rucka and Johnson; still not the action dynamo she was

The super-hero who comes out alive is Supergirl. Thanks to her introduction in Smallville, she’s now Kara-El in the comics. Puckett writes her as smart, caring, powerful. Superman and Batman care about her, and she’s finally drawn beautifully.

Ray

btw, some of those ‘menu’ links are crazy! Check out the Wonder Woman one, that vampirella one has one of the hottest looking women I’ve ever seen portrayed her. And the Hidden Treasure video seems to have a line in it taken from an 80’s song…’Somebody’s watching me’ would be the way the song had it.