Well, I don’t think there is such thing like “every woman likes to read this or that.”

I agree with Lyle Masaki:

I think the simplest solution is to keep an eye out for the books that is getting embraced by female fans and to put them in a “protected” category where the long-term investment in building goodwill is prioritized over short term profits.

That would be fine. :-)
So we won’t have to grieve for Manhunter, Nightwing etc.

That reminds me what I’ve said before about the dynamics found in the Legion. Traditionally, the Legion is full of characters who don’t have action-oriented powers, the team has to be creative in how they use their powers and combine them with their teammates. I think that’s something missing from superhero comics nowadays, “guns blazing” powers seem to be more common, writers seem to have a harder time with more intangible powers.

For example:
Monk (TV Show) and his “superpower” of OCD, constantly saves the day.

Doctor Who (TV Show, Comic – Ongoing, Comic – Upcoming Mini) Though he has the “superpower” of being an alien (and a few gadgets, notably the sonic screwdriver), they generally don’t play a part in saving the day. It’s the intelligence and wit that wins out.

House and Psych. Two tv shows where the hero knowledge wins out.

The television peeps are obviously a bit better at this that comics are.

To keep men interested, I think television makes a wise choice in keeping the male as the lead. The geeky audience (male and female) could see themselves having the wit to overcome the enemy (as opposed to having the… optic blasts needed to overcome the enemy). Having the lack of “guns blazing” and lack of penises might alienate men too much, and as much as we want to invite a larger female audience, it’s important not to lose the base that we have.

——

Another tactic is adding more characterization to the superhero comics. This is well displayed in Runaways, where they still defeat the enemy using powers, but there’s a low of downtime from the fighting where you learn about the connections between the characters, important to women. Another example would be Exiles, especially when the team is still controlled by an unknown Timebroker, which makes an effort to include moments for the characters to ponder their destiny.

I read the following superhero books: New Avengers (ambivalent), Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (like), Astonishing X-Men (like a lot), X-Factor (adore madly) and Runaways (barely counts, but also adore madly). I also read two TPBs of District X, which I loved, and a TPB of NYX, which I was deeply ambivalent about.

Often enough, my favorite characters are male. However, in ensemble books (by far my favorite kind) I will always be looking for the female characters, trying to find what to like and sympathize with in them.

I’m mindful of Bechdel’s Law: are there more than two female characters? Do they interact? Do they speak? About things other than men? Do they have relationships with other female characters? Mothers, sisters, best friends, co-workers, class-mates? Are they more than love interests, and more than token girls? Are they markedly and deeply different from each other?

That’s what will impress me in a book. Assuming, of course, that it’s well-written, emotionally plausible, has good characterization etc.

I do agree to an extent – personally, I like seeing how powers affect a person’s ‘normal’ life. But I do like the fight scenes/battles, the heroes saving the day, as well.

I don’t think that a complete overhaul of the genre is needed to make superhero comics girl friendly. Quite frankly, all I think superhero comics need to be girl friendly – everyone friendly – is good stories, good art, well rounded and varied characters (in looks, personalities and powers/abilities), and storylines that are respectful to their characters (male, remale, and genderbending/genderless/alien/robot/etc alike).

And we all know that I’d like to see inclusivity and acceptance from the comic book companies/stores/fans, but girls who like superhero comics might need more of a presence (which would certainly be helped along if there were some small changes made to get them reading in larger numbers) before that can happen.

I think that team building and interaction are probably interesting to girls.

In our late teens, my sister and I used to collect the reprints of the Dark Phoenix era X-men. I liked the early Excalibur too.

This might seem silly but “magical girl” anime shows like Sailor Moon or Tokyo Mew Mew are essentially superheros in pink ribbons.

My teenage sister loves FullMetal Alchemist and that seems close to a superhero series.

Personally, it seems that superhero comics have really bad press. I keep hearing news and seeing images from the industry publishers and creators that seem negative toward women.

I don’t have strong feelings either way about the Mary-Jane-does-laundry thing. But it is a bit like a another “boys only” sign on the clubhouse to me.

I went on too long but it’s a very interesting topic.

Heavy continuity, I’m not sure about. I’ve seen women in other fandoms getting heavily into the continuity of it (Harry Potter and Transformers are biggies with heavy continuity). Too convoluted a continuity will put the majority of potential readers off, but I’m not sure it’s a gender thing.

“why do superhero comics need girls reading them?”

Coz girls have money.

Although I suspect if men were to look at the kind of stuff women like to read, we might find things to object to in some of their portrayals of men…

The fact that a given genre appeals more to one sex than the other is not necessarily a problem, and is not necessarily sexist. There’s room for all sorts. Besides, women as a group don’t have any better taste than men as a group – there’s a lot of trash aimed at women – so appealing to women is not necessarily any indication of quality.

This debate reminds me of the attempts in the 80s to make comics more literary and respectable. It’s all about the geek inferiority complex – if we could get cooler people reading them we wouldn’t feel so geeky.

And as a woman reader, I’m particularly driven away by “male gaze” artwork. One change I would love is to get rid of panels where women’s body parts are used as framing devices. It’s dialogue … and foreground ass!

I mean look at the women readers we do have now for evidence of the diversity. There were female readers of Lady Death and Danger Girls after all, and they may not overlap with those who read manga, or those who read stuff like Spidey Loves Mary Jane.

So the thing to do is just do quality work, that doesn’t insult the intelligence of your audience. Whomever they may be.

You know, mostly what makes any story good.

I used to think I didn’t like superheroes. Then I saw The Incredibles and Spiderman, and realized I didn’t hate superheroes, I hated lousy superhero comics.

When comics companies stop making lousy superhero comics (and lousy includes porny imagery inside and on the covers), and they’ll get more female readers, and they’ll get sales in stores habituated by people with higher standards than floppy spank fodder.

Using powers/abilities to go out and stop danger by hitting things is pretty much the basis of the genre though. If THAT is what’s putting girls off, then I don’t see any way of getting them to read superhero comics ever. That can’t be right, surely?

Compare that to TV shows with a predominantly female audience: Gilmore Girls, Grey’s Anatomy… all of them are dialogue and character-based, with the conflict arising from the characters… which is incidentally exactly the same basic structure that is shown in most girls-oriented Manga (was that Shojo? Sorry, it is late over here and my brain is somewhat frazzled): Outsider comes into a new environment and has to overcome obstacles to a) be accepted b) find a boyfriend and c) learn how to become a responsible goddess/pupil/witch whatever.

Compare that to the typical super-hero writing. I have been given powers, my parents were killed, the Earth/USA/New York is in terrible danger, so I best take out my costume and fight the villain… and the next… and the next.

Super-Hero stories at the moment are primarily POWER-based, with the character elements thrown in primarily to get us from one fight to the next, where something SO DREADFUL WILL HAPPEN that nothing WILL EVER BE THE SAME!

Adolescent boy power fantasies. And there is inherently nothing wrong with that. But then one shouldn’t be surprised when girls tune out and go someplace else, and no amount of begging to “try out Supergirl, you know, she is really like you, except for the impossibly long legs, the anorexic body and the fake tits”

Or the arrogance of “well, girls are reading Manga and YA novels, but sooner or later they will come around and read us, because we are so much cooler”

(Sorry, Mr. Berganza and Mr. Breevort, it does not work like that in the real world, and you can pray for that to happen every day… it won’t)

@ Tommy: I can relate to your argument there, but it has an inherent flaw. From your name I assume you are — like me — a man. What YOU or I want or can relate to or project is ultimately irrelevant. Me, I’d like more Ellen Ripleys and less Paris Hiltons… but projection of what we as men — as diverse a group as I hope we are — cannot necessarily be transported 1:1 to what a potential girl audience wants.

That’s why I would opt for research, strong female creators with their own heads, a functioning marketing department and take it from there… and let’s see where it would lead. Magic bullet I got none to offer (well, I do, but that one is for emergencies only… for I had to sell my soul to get one)

But you do have a point in that very few of the female superheroes the sort of middle-class, average Jane background that may be needed to access the characters. It worked for Buffy, to some extent for Alias, and seems to be working for NBC’s Heroes.

Reflect that against Princess of the Amazons and the female demigods of the DCU who seemingly don’t have a life outside of their super identities. And with the exception of Jessica from Bendis’ Alias and The Pulse, I’m sort of hard pressed to think of a female superheroine at Marvel who isn’t a secret agent, ninja, etc…

And, I mean, really… Sue Storm in her ivory tower may not be the ideal counterpoint to the argument.

Point that against DC’s decision to NOT give Supergirl’s latest incarnation a secret identity of any sort, and it’s an interesting question. Does the world need Linda Lee?

All that said… I’m not seeing a lot of women responding either here or at

http://www.filmfodder.com/comics