Before She Was Kamala
According to an article published by Smithsonian Magazine on February 15th, 2017, titled “The 1977 Conference on Women’s Rights That Split America in Two”
“It was the early 1970s, and the women’s movement was on a roll. The 92nd Congress, in session from 1971–72, passed more women’s rights bills than all previous legislative sessions combined, including the Title IX section of the Education Amendments (which prohibited sex discrimination in all aspects of education programs receiving federal support). The 1972 Supreme Court case Eisenstadt v. Baird gave unmarried women legal access to birth control, and in 1973, Roe v. Wade made abortion legal across the country. Even the avowedly anti-feminist President Nixon supported a 1972 Republican Party platform that included feminist goals, including federal child care programs.
Grassroots feminism gained steam. Women across the country gathered to form rape crisis centers and shelters for victims of domestic abuse, produced the seminal book Our Bodies, Ourselves, and started businesses aimed at defeating sexism in the media.”
It is no surprise then that the first issue of Ms. Marvel published in 1977 would have an avowedly feminist take. I am of the mind that comic books reflect the world in which they were created. If we take a look at the world surrounding 1977 we see a clear divide between what journalists of the time called “Feminists v.s. Conservatives”. Feminism was swiftly turned into a partisan issue with one group fighting for equal rights in the workforce, and one group fighting to maintain a woman’s place as the caretaker of the house.
With Ms. Marvel, Stan Lee took a decidedly feminist stance. Where Wonder Woman reflected a world at war, where Batman reflects a capitalistic and police force ideal, Ms. Marvel defines a world changing to accept women as not just powerful, but containing powers never thought possible for a woman.
Ms. Marvel flies (quite literally) into her first ever comic book where bank robbers are in the middle of getting away. Her introduction is massive, her arms described as wide as an eagles, her eyes glowing, her jaw set with fierce determination. The second page is where I want to focus my analysis, especially with the context I sought out in the form of women’s rights movements at the time.
The first panel shows two of the bank robbers looking up to see the incoming form of Ms. Marvel swooping in on them. The dialogue is succinct, but telling:
The syntax used be characters to describe this mysterious flying woman follows this formula closely. People wondering who she is and a response using a synonym for the word “woman” that would be less sexist if the word “woman” were used. I’m convinced however, that that must be the point. A woman flying into the scene who is witty, powerful, and far more adept than anyone else the other characters have seen. There is no other mention of a superhero who could do what she does, in fact, it is made clear that she is unique, never seen before, and capable of holding her own.
Just these two frames alone are packed full of places to analyze. At first look it’s just a strong woman punching a bad guy. She is capable of witty one-liners. At an even more base level, she’s a cartoon, a made up character, punching another made up character. When we view it like that, these panels are boring, uninspired, and contain no meaning beyond entertainment. But this was 1977! This issue was released in January of the same year the first National Women’s Conference happened (in November). This was the year where conversations surrounding abortion, lesbian rights, and women’s rights was coming to a head.
In the middle of it all Ms. Marvel, a mysterious woman who seems strikingly familiar, beating up bad guys with the same strength as the male superheroes, if not more. She’s spectacular, she’s impressive, she’s a foreshadowing ingenue!
The thugs are blurred out, pawns for the larger point to be made, that Ms. Marvel is not to be messed with. She is shot at with bullets that skim past her, she lifts up their car before they can speed away, and then right as the police grasp at her to take her in for questioning… she flies away.
Perhaps, however, the most telling panel in these first few pages contains an otherwise overused phrase.
“When I grow up — I wanna be just like her!”
Ms. Marvel represents a changing world, one where little girls don’t have to grow up to housewives, they can be journalists, photographers, security analysts, or even superheroes.
Ms. Marvel may be a woman punching bad guys on a page, but what she represents is so much larger. She tells a story of womanhood, of strength, perseverance, wit, and charm. Those who doubt her prowess are seen as throwaway characters.
She is unbelievable and Stan Lee asks the audience to look at her…
and believe it anyway.
