Superheroines and the Epic Journey by Valerie Estelle Frankel

Author:Valerie Estelle Frankel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Published: 2017-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

Bluebeard: Scarlet Witch (Marvel Comics, 1994)

In the comic “Mad Love,” Harley prances around in a red nightie singing “I Feel Pretty.” As she tries seduction, the Joker shoves her off his desk to the floor. He then yells at her and insults all her jokes as worthless and unfunny. He drags her down to the cellar by her nose and literally kicks her in. She reflects, “Another night I get dolled up, and another night I get the boot….” She realizes she’s “hopelessly in love with a murderous, psychopathic clown.” Despite his cruelty, she dreams of domesticity—twin children, the Joker old and still in love with her. When she tries to win this happy ending by capturing Batman for the Joker, however, he’s furious at being shown up by his girlfriend. The Joker slaps her and screams, “Batman is mine! You had no right to interfere in my fun!” He shoves her out the window to be dashed to the ground, and the police must call an ambulance. Bandaged in the hospital, she decides, “I finally see that slime for what he really is…” though the Joker’s gift of a flower leaves her charmed once more. Clearly this is an abuse story with the victim going back over and over for more (Dini, “Mad Love”).

In “Union,” the first comic of Gotham City Sirens Book One, Catwoman begins the comic explaining, “Two months ago, that psycho Jason Todd put on an armored Batman suit and kicked me through the roof of a parked cat. This was shortly after my heart was ripped out by another lunatic, Hush.” Both specifically disguise themselves as Batman, emphasizing the Caped Crusader’s ability to destroy her. Afterward, she feels shaky and weakened. Zatanna explains, “Selina was attacked in the most vicious way imaginable. She was made to feel abused and completely vulnerable. That leaves scars no magic can erase.” The damage is caused by an alternate Batman, emphasizing the caped crusader’s mysteriousness, as well as his power over the heroine.

“Many women have literally lived the Bluebeard tale. They marry while they are yet naive about predators, and they choose someone who is destructive to their lives. They are desperate to ‘cure’ that person with love,” comments Estés (50). Nonetheless, several superheroines find themselves in such a destructive relationship, with the savage male pleading with her to devote her goodness to him and redeem him. This needy, alluring, though also destructive male is a great temptation for the compassionate heroine. She must work through this experience to reject his claim over her and banish him from her psyche: “Today, it is generally understood that the romantic and spiritual man-god—the male ideal worthy of a woman’s self-sacrifice and worship, for whom she is expected to set aside herself and her life—simply does not exist” (Pearson and Pope 35).

Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s short run Avengers: Scarlet Witch features such a journey for the heroine. In a far-off dimension, a monstrous creature with a horned skull for a head captures Eleyn, witch-queen of Amzar, and demands her kingdom.

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