Marvel continue to tempt me with their extraordinary cover designs that are leaving many other publishers in the shade. Coming to Fearless Defenders blind of recent continuity, I had high hopes for this all female line-up, and was promptly swept off my feet.
Fearless Defenders #1 was an impulse buy – I picked it up along with a few other titles on the shelves on my new journey of Marvel discovery after being impressed by Hawkeye and Young Avengers. I’d heard a little about the new book from Bunn and Sliney but I hadn’t paid much attention as it didn’t seem to feature characters I immediately recognised. It was the cover that leapt out at me – two women fighting off the villainous hordes, in practical yet sexy clothing (no heels!), fighting back to back with sword, axe, and guns, and hey… a bionic arm? Whaddaya know, I do remember Misty Knight!
Both the first and second issues take their time introducing the various players, with Misty taking centre stage in #1, kicking ass and taking names. Her friend, archaeologist Dr. Annabelle Riggs is sweet and slightly reckless, accidentally unleashing the aforementioned hordes, leading to the appearance of the mighty Valkyrie. As she and Misty do their stuff, the dynamic of this title really comes to the fore – it’s a buddy cop comic essentially, the two of them trading on their different personalities to provide highly entertaining banter as a team of strong women forms around them. The plain talking Misty and the very Asgardian Valkyrie mesh well together almost immediately, the writer sidestepping the all too familiar trope of having lead ladies clash their personalities for pointless melodrama.
And speaking of pointless melodrama, let’s have a quick peek at the general reaction to #1 on the internet. Ah yes, “pointless”, “fanservice”, “socially inept”, “gratuitous”, “ill timed and forced”, and “pandering”. Whatever could these people be talking about? Well you know already of course, it’s the kiss between Annabelle and Valkyrie, the former planting a surprise smooch when saved by the latter. No more out of place you might think that the many women who reward Stark, Storm or Odinson with a quick lip attack after being saved from a burning building/tweet/spaceship and certainly less awkward than the costumes-stay-on sex favoured by Gotham’s finest, yet because both kisser and kissee were in this case both women, it gets called pandering. And the non-straight women who read comics rose up and replied, hell yes, pander me harder.
If Valkyrie swoops to your rescue the next time you’re being attacked by the undead, I defy you not to want to kiss her. Annabelle just had the ovaries to go ahead and do so, time from her perspective slowing down to savour the moment, and the Asgardian warrior did not seem terribly put out. On the contrary, #2 hints that it might be something she’d like to revisit at a later date, if you know what I am saying, hurr hurr.
If the cover to the first issue was enough to hook me, the second was what put it on my pull list. Well, the cover and the last page combined. Which I’m not going to spoil even though I really want to. Bah.
In this issue we are introduced to Dani Moonstar, and while my vintage Marvel reading did prod my memory with regard to Valkyrie and Misty, I admit that with Dani I was at a bit of a loss. However, enough information was fed to me in a few pages to give me some background, and I think prove that this book is very accessible for any new readers. And she pretty much kicks ass, despite the lack of powers. What really hit me again in this issue – and it’s a shame that this is something that leaps out – is again the lack of overt sexualisation of the characters. They are powerful and sexy women sure, but they are portrayed as heroes rather than just hot girls with their clothes torn off in towering heels.
It’s a little slower than the first issue, perhaps inevitable for plot building, but the opening sequence with Dani is terrific, as is the small diner scene between Valkyrie, Misty and Annabelle. Valkyrie’s failure to find new shield maidens is interesting given just how saturated this universe is with superwomen, and how readily she teams up with her new friends. I’m interested to see where this is all leading.
Each issue has been deliciously self-contained, demanding the reader is desperate for the next issue while also layering the characterisation deftly. It’s a bold move to be in the second issue and still have one of the three main players completely separate but it works well here, both in the short term and (I’d imagine) for the trade collection.
Yes there are tits. There is indeed ass. But for the first time, I get the sense that this is cheesecake that isn’t being aimed primarily at the male readers. There is a whole other demographic out there that loves reading about smart, sassy women who happen to be fantastically gorgeous without being objectified for the male gaze.
As a self-confessed fan of Catwoman, and an ardent supporter of more diversity in women characters in comics, my mantra is frequently this: “There’s nothing wrong with cheesecake. But it’s not all we want to eat.” In this case however… well this is damn fine and well written cheesecake.
PS – can I get my Catwoman/Nightwing cheesecake now please DC?
Fearless Defenders #2
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Will Sliney
Colourist: Veronica Gandini
Cover Artist: Mark Brooks
Letters: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Ellie Pyle
Publisher: Marvel
[Laura Sneddon is a comics journalist and academic, writing for the mainstream UK press with a particular focus on women and feminism in comics. Currently working on a PhD, do not offend her chair leg of truth. Her writing is indexed at comicbookgrrrl.com and procrastinated upon via @thalestral on Twitter]
As a new character joins the cast of Cullen Bunn and Will Sliney’s Fearless Defenders, so she joins team members Valkyrie and Misty Knight in our growing group shot of the team! Today sees the release of Fearless Defenders #2, which sees Dani Moonstar enter the scene. The leader of the New Mutants for years and years now, Moonstar is a Native American character who was depowered during the M-Day storyline – but that didn’t stop her from her duties as team leader.
Now stepping into Fearless Defenders, I asked artist Will Sliney a few questions about the character, and her design in the book. Will’s been profiling all the characters as they appear, and you can find his previous looks into Valkyrie and Misty Knight here. But as we’ve been going on, Will’s been adding each member into a group image of the team, which establishes his ability to draw expressive and individual female faces for his cast. Read on! And gawp!
Steve: We’ve spoken previously on your interest in the mythology and cultural identity of Valkyrie. With Dani Moonstar, do you feel that same interest? As a Native American character, she is again a character with a vast cultural background all her own.
Will: Yeah, it’s nice to see the cultural diversity in Fearless Defenders already coming to the forefront. Anything new can be a big interest to me too. Obviously I know much more about Norse mythology having grown up on this side of the Atlantic, but its important to learn about the backgrounds of each new member. I have had fun researching for her.
Steve: As a Cheyenne, she again has quite specific facial features such as a flatter, longer nose, and quite pronounced cheekbones. How do you approach the character, in terms of look and features?
Will: I usually create a model sheet for each character. You can hopefully see the different facial features already in the group shots that have been building here at The Beat each month. You pretty much have hit the nail on the head for Dani. These features will have been laid out before in the many artists who have drawn her. I really liked David LaFuente’s recent take.
Moonstar joins Misty Knight and Valkyrie in Will’s group shot of the Fearless Defenders cast
Steve: While the other two characters are hand-to-hand fighters, Moonstar tends to use ranged weapons like the bow and arrow. Has this come into play in the action sequences, or do you prefer to have her in the middle of the fighting alongside the other cast members? How do you plan fight sequences?
Will: Dani’s opening scene shows that she can mix it up in hand to hand combat even when she is out of arrows. Bow or no bow. I think being de-powered, Dani is on a mission to prove herself as a fighter, so she is not afraid to go in fists first.
Steve: She’s also well known for having spent time as a valkyrie herself, with several stints in Asgard. How do you think the character fits in alongside Valkyrie, both visually and in personality?
Will: Its obviously an important part of the story. Dani does look different from Valkyrie when she is in her full Valkyior form. (I always have difficulty spelling that word.) and that is reflected in Dani’s personality too. I’m not too sure yet how highly Valkyrie respects Dani at the start. We will have to wait and see…
When the news was announced that Cullen Bunn would be writing Fearless Defenders for Marvel next year, the world breathed a sigh of relief. It’s no secret that this is a project many have been waiting to happen ever since he first hinted at it earlier this year, during his ‘The Fearless’ miniseries starring Valkyrie. Fearless Defenders returns to the character, this time asking her to assemble a team of women in order to protect the Marvel Universe from imminent danger. Artist Will Sliney will be drawing the series, which will begin in February. Wikipedia are already very excited about the book!
As am I. I couldn’t be more onboard for this book if Pixie and Hepzibah were on it (but think about it, Cullen?), so I immediately asked if he’d be interested in talking to me about it. He kindly agreed, and we talked about how the series came to be – specifically, how the pitching process began, how it developed, and how the book went from a tease at the end of The Fearless through to a new ongoing series.
Steve: When did you first pitch Fearless Defenders? Has it been a long process?
Cullen Bunn: I remember the moment the idea for this team first dawned on me pretty clearly. I was working on the series FEAR ITSELF: THE FEARLESS and was brainstorming how to wrap the final issue. There were these eight magical, evil hammers floating around the Marvel Universe, and I wanted to get rid of them. So, I thought it might be interesting to have the Valkyrior—the Shield Maidens of Asgard—take the weapons and scatter into the universe. That left the Marvel Universe without Valkyrior, and I wanted Valkyrie to have a new sense of purpose.
So I thought it might be cool to have her tasked with gathering a new team of Shield Maidens. I also thought it might be interesting if these women had to be chosen from Midgard—from a group that might include already established characters.
I rushed to my computer and fired off an e-mail to my co-writers and the editorial team, just to see if they liked that direction. At the end of the e-mail, I wrote something along the lines of, “Be warned. I’m working up a proposal for this series right now!”
And I put together a short proposal that I sent to my editors at the same time I sent in the script to the final issue of THE FEARLESS.
It took a few months after the finale of THE FEARLESS for the series to get the go ahead. Remember, this was during the time that Marvel NOW was being planned, and I’m guessing there was a lot of discussion in regards to where this book would fit. Editorial teams changed a bit and the book went through a number of changes from my initial 1-page proposal.
Steve: The book was first hinted for readers in the final issue of Fear Itself: The Fearless, in which it was presented as an option to Valkyrie. Was this always a beat you wanted to include in the story? How early on did you first think of the premise, and how much did it inform the story in The Fearless?
Cullen: That idea for the formation of the new team of Valkyrior hit me around the time I was writing issue 6 or 7, and from that point on, I really couldn’t wait to reach that final issue and that teaser image. So… yeah, it helped shape where the second half of that series went.
Steve: When you pitch an idea like this, do you come with a firm idea of the book and where it’ll head and how it operates, or a more general premise, which can be altered? Do you try to firmly define the book, or do you leave room for editors to manoeuvre around the premise?
Cullen: My initial proposal was only one page. I knew, though, that I wanted a good part of the book to be about how Valkyrie would choose the members of the team. That was the note that I really wanted to stick to. I think that building the team relatively slowly gives every character a chance to find a place and voice in the group and in the book as a whole. Beyond that, the proposal definitely had room for editorial input. The collaborative nature of comic books is something that I enjoy, and I love seeing where new ideas can take a book. Sometimes, some of the suggestions I’ve been given have really challenged me, but I think it takes the series in some unexpected directions.
Steve: This has clearly been a book you’re passionate about creating – what was it about the series which spoke so strongly to you?
Cullen: I thought the concept was interesting and would give me a chance to showcase some characters who rarely get the spotlight and almost never get to work together. And I liked the way this could develop these characters. Also, I just thought this was an outlet for some really crazy, action-packed, surprising stories.
That’s all it took for me to be hooked.
Steve: How has your pitch developed since the original idea?
Cullen: I mentioned that the book went through more than one editorial team. Every time a change occurred, the book changed a little. It’s funny, though, because in many ways it came full circle. The premise moved away from what I originally had in mind, then circled back to something that was very close to my original pitch.
The biggest development is something that occurred because of the timing of the book. Because it took a while for the series to be approved, I decided that Valkyrie was procrastinating when it came to the task of choosing allies. She simply didn’t see anyone worthy of becoming a Shield Maiden. This, I think, paints Valkyrie in a much more interesting light, and I love the idea of exploring her definitions (right and wrong) of heroism.
Steve: What do you think is the essence of a good pitch? Do you follow the idea of boiling down the premise to a five-word ‘elevator pitch’?
Cullen: I think a good pitch needs to tell the editor what the story is about, who the characters are, how they will potentially grow, and who the audience will be… as succinctly as humanly possible.
My proposals typically have a one-sentence elevator pitch, a one paragraph expansion on that pitch, a breakdown of characters, and a three-act breakdown of the story (or first arc).
Steve: Did you write speculative issues, to show Marvel how the series would work in terms of tone? What physical work, besides a premise or synopsis, do you do to prepare for pitching a book?
Cullen: It’s different for every project, but I don’t often write a speculative issue. I’ve only been asked to do something like that once—for my first comic book series THE DAMNED (from Oni Press). Since I had no real prior experience, they asked me to write a couple of different scenes, just to make sure I could do the work.
Most of my proposals these days are less than two pages. That should be enough to interest the editor. If they’re interested enough, they’ll ask for more. That may, I guess, include a speculative script… but that’s not often the case for me.
Steve: What do you think ultimately sold the pitch to Marvel, and gave you the chance to create the series?
Cullen: I think they liked the basic premise of the series—Valkyrie building a new team of Shield Maidens from the women of Earth. It’s a clean, simple reason for a new super team to form. I think the fact that the cast is all women—an area that hasn’t been explored often and could draw some attention to the book—only helped.
Or maybe they just got tired of all my e-mails about the book.
Either way, I’m glad they took a chance on this. This is a book that is different from every other book on the shelf. And I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.
Many thanks to Cullen for taking the time to speak to me! I imagine I’ll be pestering him again in the future to chat about Dani Moonstar’s lovelife and if Misty Knight could beat up Iron Fist. He is also still writing The Sixth Gun for Oni Press, and just today he launched a competition open to anybody who pre-orders either of the titles. You can find out more at his website!
Both the first and second issues take their time introducing the various players, with Misty taking centre stage in #1, kicking ass and taking names. Her friend, archaeologist Dr. Annabelle Riggs is sweet and slightly reckless, accidentally unleashing the aforementioned hordes, leading to the appearance of the mighty Valkyrie. As she and Misty do their stuff, the dynamic of this title really comes to the fore – it’s a buddy cop comic essentially, the two of them trading on their different personalities to provide highly entertaining banter as a team of strong women forms around them. The plain talking Misty and the very Asgardian Valkyrie mesh well together almost immediately, the writer sidestepping the all too familiar trope of having lead ladies clash their personalities for pointless melodrama.
And speaking of pointless melodrama, let’s have a quick peek at the general reaction to #1 on the internet. Ah yes, “pointless”, “fanservice”, “socially inept”, “gratuitous”, “ill timed and forced”, and “pandering”. Whatever could these people be talking about? Well you know already of course, it’s the kiss between Annabelle and Valkyrie, the former planting a surprise smooch when saved by the latter. No more out of place you might think that the many women who reward Stark, Storm or Odinson with a quick lip attack after being saved from a burning building/tweet/spaceship and certainly less awkward than the costumes-stay-on sex favoured by Gotham’s finest, yet because both kisser and kissee were in this case both women, it gets called pandering. And the non-straight women who read comics rose up and replied, hell yes, pander me harder.
If Valkyrie swoops to your rescue the next time you’re being attacked by the undead, I defy you not to want to kiss her. Annabelle just had the ovaries to go ahead and do so, time from her perspective slowing down to savour the moment, and the Asgardian warrior did not seem terribly put out. On the contrary, #2 hints that it might be something she’d like to revisit at a later date, if you know what I am saying, hurr hurr.
It’s a little slower than the first issue, perhaps inevitable for plot building, but the opening sequence with Dani is terrific, as is the small diner scene between Valkyrie, Misty and Annabelle. Valkyrie’s failure to find new shield maidens is interesting given just how saturated this universe is with superwomen, and how readily she teams up with her new friends. I’m interested to see where this is all leading.
Great write-up. So far I’ve only read the first issue, but it left me wanting for more. It was a bit slight, yes, but it was fun and, being a US$ 2,99 book, I’m willing to overlook some of the shortcomings.
People have criticized the book for the supposedly cheesecaky poses of the female cast. To some extent I agree: Misty Knight surely has a high capability of bending her back. However, that problem hasn’t afflicted any other of the cast members, which makes me think that Misty Knight’s poses are an attempt to convey personality by the way the characters move and phisically behave. It could be toned down a bit, but it is not completely gratuitous.
And those covers??? This book has some of the best covers.
Because nothing says ‘feminist empowerment’ like fighting fuck-toys! Especially when they cater to male gaze and ‘lesbian’ fantasies! Yay!!
Dr. Riggs is cute, but I’d rather see Val hook-up with Moonstar. :)
Mark Brooks is wayyyyy too good an artist to be drawing covers for a Cullen Bunn book. Can we get him doing interiors on something good?
Nice review! I enjoyed the book too, and Bunn has been doing great things in comics lately!
I generally don’t care one way or the other about the kiss or sexuality of the characters but I am *extremely* bothered by the way Valkerie’s, um, chest-protection is drawn. It’s so unnatural looking that it’s the aspect of the book that feels like pandering. Even on the covers. It’s like she has the worst porn-boob-job ever. How they let that by when reviewing her costume baffles me.
I looked at the FEARLESS DEFENDERS #2 cover–you’re right. The metal cones jutting out from her chest make no sense as clothing, and since they’re not weapons– If she’s going to wear leather, then provide her with a leather top that is actual clothing. It’s as though the people at Marvel Editorial think that unless she has those cones, she’s just not the Valkyrie.
SRS
It’s not so bad with the full armour set from FD 4 and FD 5′s covers. I can see how people who’ve just been introduced to the character feel it’s pandering. On the other hand, that’s really been her outfit (mostly sans pants…so I’m glad she at least now has those) for 40 years…a fair chunk of it as a fairly haughty misandrist of a demigoddess.
They’ve tried different outfits on her before (there’s been an all gold one and a white one)…and they just haven’t quite clicked. Her sword even used to have the power to conjure up any outfit she wanted, hah. I imagine, if this series does well though, we might get a chance at getting a new casual attire for her. At least, maybe for when she does street level missions. Like, she wore jeans and a pretty sweet leather jacket over her “armour ” in one of the early issues of Secret Avengers a couple of years ago.
As a longterm fan of the specific character, I’ve gotten used to just suspending my disbelief on that part of her get-up, especially since, well, it does have slightly more basis than, say, Wonder Woman’s bustier. Then again, it’d be nice if they could move away from Wagner when they conjure up Valkyrie. Honestly, for the moment, the full metal get up is a pretty good alternate, even with the impractical cones.
Oh, I’m familiar with her character and her outfit and I know that’s a traditional part of her costume. I just can’t imagine the logic of giving her a new, more modern, less cheesecakey look by giving her pants but then looking at those two half-cannonballs on her chest and saying, “Yeah, let’s keep those. In fact, let’s make them super obvious.”
At no point did they bother me in, say, Secret Avengers. Here? Totally pulls me out of the comic.
Pink Apocalypse – “Because nothing says ‘feminist empowerment’…”, including this review? Cheesecake that has gone down well with many women readers, particularly non-straight women, is not the same as a feminist text for a myriad of reasons.
Carter – hopefully we’ll see more of Valkyrie in her civvies, as in #2 you do see a little and it’s clear her bust isn’t quite that ginormous. Mind, as an Asgardian Goddess she can have big bazoombas if she wishes :D
Perhaps if the silver was toned down a tad, like with Thor’s less vintage outfits?
Heidi – misandry, omg :P
Hmm…maybe it is that. If they actually coloured it more like well-worn armour, instead of polishing it up shiny…More steel than silver, it won’t be so obvious. Then again, the generally drabber colour scheme in Secret Avengers didn’t make it seem so obvious, in general. And yeah, just like any armour, I think it’s not like…its completely fitted to the body part it contains.
At the same time, they were really showing off her bod in certain issues in SA as well, and in a definitely more male gaze oriented way than here, I’d think. The only difference was she wasn’t always in her usual armour, due to the undercover situations.
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