Okay, not so shocked. Silver Age comics frequently didn’t treat their women well. Particularly Marvel. Still the two examples that follow are particularly egregious
Thor #164 (Stan Lee, Jack Kirby) wrapped up a mediocre multi-part plotline very badly. In his first appearance, Lee and Kirby gave Pluto some personality; in this arc, he’s wasted as a generic evil god. But that’s nothing compared to the creators resolving it by a literal deus ex machina — Zeus shows up, kicks Pluto’s butt, game over. However we do get a seeding for the next issue, when a familiar cocoon — well, familiar to Fantastic Four readers — shows up in a research institute.
In #165, Him hatches out (his cocoon’s presence back on Earth involves an implausible plot twist with the Watcher), sees Sif and claims her as his mate. Sif, the mighty Asgardian warrior woman, does exactly what Jane Foster would do in that situation — nothing. Thor fights, Him escapes with his prey.
In #166, the man-made demigod battles the Asgardian deity. The Thunder God now succumbs to a berserker fury, to the point when Him traps Balder, Thor doesn’t help — that’ll keep his buddy sidelines while Thor punches Him alone.
The sexism (besides Sif’s perennial uselessness) comes when Sif decides there’s only one bad guy in this issue and it isn’t Him.
Hapless innocence? In the first place nothing about Him has ever indicated he’s a “child” or “innocence.” In the second place, there’s a term for taking a mate by force and it’s rape. Attempting rape doesn’t make Him the injured party. He’s the villain.
Lee and Kirby could have worked around that (showing when he’s alone with Sif he’s not going to attempt anything) but they didn’t. I half-wonder if the story run aground on the old dispute between Lee and Kirby over whether Him should be evil. Maybe Kirby wrote him as a bad guy here and Lee pushed back? Either way, it doesn’t work.
The same team gives us more sexism in Fantastic Four #89, though I’m inclined to see it as part of the overall idiot plot of the issue. The FF have decided moving out of the Baxter Building will be safer for Sue and the as yet unnamed Franklin (in an earlier bit of sexism Sue can’t think of a name — Reed’s so much smarter about that stuff!). Turns out there’s a high tech house out in the woods — nobody knows where it came from or who built it and apparently it has no owner. Wow, sounds like a perfectly safe place to move into, doesn’t it?
Well, no (duuuuuh). While Reed and Sue are alone in the house, Reed realizes it’s full of deadly danger — but of course, he’s not going to scare the little woman.
Even when he accepts it’s dangerous, he can’t just say “Sue, it’s dangerous. Let’s get out of here.”
I remember when Reed waxed furious in FF #11 about readers who thought Sue couldn’t pull her weight on the team. Now apparently he agrees with them. And even by that standard, sticking around that house is about the level of “there’s a killer among us, I guess I’ll go down in the basement by myself.” Which is a low bar not to clear.
Given the general state of things, I was surprised when “The Super-Team’s Split-Up” in Adventure Comic #382 actually has a character admit “yeah, I was a sexist jerk.”
No, not Superman. And contrary to the rules of Silver Age covers, this scene doesn’t even appear in the Cary Bates/Kurt Schaffenberger story — Supergirl simply alludes to Superman saying he’s going to bar her from the Fortress after she makes an error on a mission (a forgivable one, as he admits at the end).
The story concerns Topar, a mysterious being who vows to drive Supergirl out of superheroing. He frames her for crimes, causes her super-stunts to go bad — unsurprisingly she suspects Mxyzptlk. I spent much of the issue thinking “Topar” was some sort of “I. Namtab” disguise name (e.g., “Gem dealer I. Namtab announces the security around the Namtab Ruby is so good not even the Joker can steal it.”), even though it obviously isn’t.
It turns out it’s the Kryptonian robot teacher who tested Superboy in Adventure Comics #240 to see if he deserved his powers. As the robot admits to Supergirl, testing her wasn’t part of his mission statement, he’s simply a chauvinist pig.
It’s hard to believe the Teacher has never run into a super-powered woman before — even off Earth, there’s Katma Tui, Strong Girl from Green Lantern #32, probably others I haven’t thought of. Still the way he’s handled is a slight sign that things are changing.
#SFWApro. Marvel art by Kirby, cover by Curt Swan, Supergirl panels by Schaffenberger.
