Image Comics are quickly proving themselves to be the publishing equivalent of a fairy godmother for creators and readers alike. They offer some of the biggest names in the industry the chance to write/ draw the comic they’ve always wanted – to create the characters and craft the story their career has been building up to. Bitch Planet is a perfect example of this. Its writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick, has recently done some fantastic work on the Captain Marvel series – receiving praise from fans and critics alike.
DeConnick’s Captain Marvel is often thought of as a strongly “feminist” take on the character, but without losing focus on the actions and superheroics that long-time fans have come to expect. The downside of this is that Captain Marvel remains a Marvel product, not a DeConnick product – she has a lifetime of character development outside of the author’s imagination and there is only so much “transformation” her creators have the freedom allow her.
Bitch Planet is an entirely different beast altogether. Here, DeConnick isn’t required to dilute her politics or have her social commentary play second fiddle. If Captain Marvel is a series that started with an existing character and got some of DeConnick’s gender politics stapled on, Bitch Planet is a series that starts with its creator’s message and sculpts everything else around that. The result is an indulgently political comic, with a clear feminist slant; it pulls no punches and offers no apologies. Each issue comes with a short critical essay at the back, and while some may find this idea overly preachy and self- indulgent, I find it a refreshingly personal touch.
While Bitch Planet is a deeply political series with a clear agenda, it’s also one with a heart. This isn’t a slow-paced lecture, it’s a punch to the chest. The series is set in a dystopian future where “non-compliant” women can be sent to a huge space-station-come-prison-