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For this week’s Danger Gal profile, we’re going to take a look at three female characters from upcoming movies who have been re-imagined from their previous incarnations in comic books. The jury is obviously still out about whether these ladies will qualify as Danger Gals or if the writers/directors/producers fall short of creating interesting female characters.

First up as a potential Danger Gal is Trixie portrayed by Christina Ricci in the upcoming re-imagining of Speed Racer. At the Tribeca Film Festival, Ricci has actually considered her character Trixie from a feminist point of view and said:

“Trixie is Speed’s childhood sweetheart. He’s his best friend and confidant; his partner in crime. In some ways, she’s the feminist ideal model. She’s as girly as she wants to be, she’s into her hair and outfits and makeup … she has a special outfit for each activity, but at the same time she’s into all the things the boys are. She’s never judged or given the irritating title of ‘tomboy’ and that’s important for young women. Young women tend to watch the reaction of men around older women and they see if someone’s judged, positively or negatively, in too strong a way. Young women shy away from making those kinds of decisions.”

In the cartoon, Trixie did little more than moan and yell “Speed!” a lot, so I’m really looking forward to how they might have developed the character. Rebecca Murray mentions that Trixie is “an outgoing young woman who’s equally unafraid of dressing girlie and kicking a little butt” and quotes Ricci as saying:

“It was really fun. It’s fun to play someone who’s a little bit cartoonish. They dressed me up like a doll, but then they let me go and fight people and race cars and fly a helicopter so it was fun…It was really fun and it was something that I loved because that really is the sort of ultimate feminist thing where you can be as girlie as you want to be, but you’re still as capable and as able to do everything that the boys can do. But I still want more.”

Trixie evidently isn’t just the girlfriend of Speed Racer, but an important member of the Racer family’s racing team. Sadly, some of the stunts Ricci enjoyed doing ended being cut. Still, I’m hoping for a positive re-imaging of Trixie.

Next up is Shana ‘Scarlett’ O’Hara from the new G.I. Joe movie and portrayed by Rachel Nichols. I’ve mentioned Scarlet before, and liked what I read about her in the G.I. Joe character guide:

…Scarlett had a natural affinity for the ancient fighting arts and was only fifteen when she was awarded a black belt. Scarlett and her sister Siobhan never got along well, and they drifted apart as they got older. After joining the Army, Scarlett received a varied education, attending Covert Ops School, Marine Sniper School, Special Air Service School and the Marine Tae Kwon Do symposium. Scarlett has participated in many martial arts tournaments and is also qualified as an Army hand-to-hand combat trainer. She is proficient in various weaponry, including the XK-1 power crossbow and many martial arts weapons such as throwing stars, garrote and ka-bar.

When I first saw these promo movie photos, I have to say I wasn’t enthusiastic about her costume as it compared to Duke’s and Ripcord’s, but looking at her comic book attire I can kind of see the inspiration. Still, her suit has all sorts of “armor” over the breasts, none between them (like where your heart is in the middle of your chest) and her backside implies a thong. Considering costumes only, I’m more interested to see what Cover Girl’s character is like.

Lastly, is the character from a movie we know the least about in this group. The Gatchaman movie is animated, just like it’s predecessors and will be based on the original Japanese version of the story rather than the Americanized Battle of the Planets and G-Force versions. Still, those latter two versions are how I came to know the character of Jun (Princess/Agatha June). Wikipedia has an informative table explaining how the different versions relate to each other.

Jun/June/Aggie has a slightly different kind of character in all of the versions of the series, and each version has different levels of how the male characters treat her as well as how seriously her skills are taken overall. Absolute Anime describes her as the following:

Jun was discovered by Dr. Nambu in an orphanage, and, after insisting he take Jinpei along as well, was trained with the others as a Science Ninja. She is a highly capable fighter, able to handle a number of Galactors without blinking an eye, and is an expert with explosives and electronics as well. Occasionally, however, her actions cause her to get into a pickle that requires the rest of the team to come in to rescue her (though she’s far from the only one).

Here’s to hoping the new movie continues with the forward-thinking aspects of Jun’s character and dispenses with the paternalism that sometimes showed itself in the original series.

This week’s Danger Gal profile is about Sirantha Jax from Ann Aguirre’s novel GRIMSPACE. If you haven’t read this book yet, please note that spoilers follow.

Sirantha Jax is a Jumper, part of a small group of people genetically attuned to navigate ships through Grimspace. Such abilities lead to a shortened lifespan, but Jax is unique among her kind, having survived over 500 jumps and living to the ripe old age of 33. The story opens after the destruction of her ship and with it the death of hundreds of people, the least of which was Jax’s pilot and lover. Jumpers and their pilots often become involved due to the nature of Grimspace where their minds must intertwine. Jax finds herself in a psych lockup with memory loss from the event when March breaks into the station and offers escape — at a price. His rogue Jumper has just died, so getting off the station means jumping one more time, a jump that could be her last.

Once past this initial conflict, Jax learns that March and his crew are trying to create an alternate group of jumpers to wrest control of Grimspace away from the Corp monopoly. Jax’s journey becomes one of moving from caring only about herself to caring about a cause, and March is the catalyst for this change. Aguirre’s choice of first person point of view plants the reader firmly in Jax’s mindset, that of an acid-tongued smart-ass who wants to think she cares only about herself, but as SciFi Weekly points out:

Sirantha never really manifests the celebrity jumper’s snobbery she ascribes to herself. True, she often puts her own needs and wants ahead of other folks’. But that’s not rock-star attitude. That’s the behavior of a grief-stricken person who has narrowly escaped death herself, and who is compelled to help people she barely knows and doesn’t like.

This makes Jax likable for me, and also lends credibility to her character arc. Her inaccurate view of herself makes it that much more believable when Jax finally joins March’s cause. Jax’s voice is so strong, that adding other points of view in the story would have been distracting. March’s psi abilities, specifically his ability to read Jax’s mind, gives the reader a round-about point of view from March as well.

March is a catalyst and example to Jax. He’s made his own journey into caring about something larger than himself, but he’s had to sacrifice parts of himself to get there, a void it seems only Jax can fill because of their unique psi connection. The jumper-pilot relationship is an intimate one, but March’s psi abilities increase that exponentially. Jax’s unique compatibility provides a stabilizing effect and enables March to interact with others more easily. Jax’s smart-mouth attitude is ultimately a cover for her not believing in herself, for falling into the trap that all she has to offer is the J-gene. She tricks herself into believing the few moments of bliss in Grimspace are all that really matter to her. However, March’s psi abilities enable Jax to see herself through someone else’s eyes, and she becomes stronger from that interaction when Jax realizes the difference she can make against the Corp. Through March’s example Jax finds the tools needed to transform herself and also complete March’s own final transformation into a more well-rounded individual.

Plus, when Jax tells March to “frag off” in her mind, it’s fun.

I agree with SciFi Weekly in that Aguirre writes March as “interestingly dark and driven, without turning him into a bad-boy alpha-male cliche.” Both Jax and March subvert stereotypes, mostly by flipping emotional expectations. Aguirre writes March as, initially, the more emotionally aware of the two and Jax is the one unable to easily commit. March’s hard-won emotional balance was learned from an older female teacher, a gun-toting wild woman who sacrifices herself for the greater good. I found this Obi-Wan Kenobi twist on the usually-evil crone stereotype refreshing. Also, Jax often makes decisions based on what she wants out of life rather than out of fear of how people will judge her if she chooses the unexpected.

Three more books are expected in this series, and I know I’ll be looking for them on the bookshelves. Check out the following reviews for more information on GRIMSPACE:

• Lurv à la Mode
• Dear Author’s Review by Jane
• Dear Author’s Review by the other Jane

[Many thanks for the insight, Mr. FuManchu]

This week’s Danger Gal Friday profile examines the Battlestar Galactica character of Lt. Sharon “Athena” Agathon.

Athena is a Number Eight humanoid Cylon. I’ve deliberately chosen to profile the Athena version of Number Eight as opposed to the Lt. Junior Grade Sharon “Boomer” Valerii version, even though the two share many of the same memories and experiences. While Boomer was a sleeper Cylon agent who tried to assassinate Galactica Commander Adama, Athena’s main mission was originally to procreate with a human male. Not a particular terrific trait for a Danger Gal, you might be wondering, but Athena has proven that she’s much more than her programming.

In common with Boomer, Athena is a Raptor pilot, a multipurpose military spacecraft similar in purpose to the U.S. Navy’s EA-6 Prowler, but designed after the U.S. Army’s Apache helicopter. According to Wikipedia, a Raptor:

. . . scouts ahead of the fleet and it accompanies Vipers and provides targeting information and electronic counter measures (akin to the EA-6B Prowler). Raptors can also carry external munitions to assist Vipers against large targets. Its non-combat roles include SAR (search and rescue) operations (akin to the SH-60 Sea Hawk) and transport of military personnel in hostile areas. Raptors, unlike Vipers, are capable of short-range FTL jumps. They are also capable of atmospheric operations. Standard crew includes a pilot and electronics countermeasure officer (ECO)

Other Cylon models have said that the Number Eight is flawed, when in fact Athena seems to be the only one able to find some balance in, as Hathor Legacy points out, the overly-emotional nature of the humanoid Cylons. They all seem to go to extremes, but unlike all the others Athena has a purpose, and it’s that function which enables her to find her way out of the Cylon emotional morass. First, her purpose is simple: procreate. That purpose becomes complicated when Athena actually falls for her intended mate, Lt. Karl “Helo” Agathon, whom she eventually convinces that her feelings are true. Athena’s sense of purpose begins with self-preservation, but radiates out in an ever-widening circle as she begins to become more accepted in the Galactica ranks.

After first wanting only to avoid being “boxed” by her fellow Cylons, Athena then finds a purpose with Helo, then finds a purpose through protecting her daughter Hera. These personal initiatives expand when she chooses the call-sign Athena and begins to find purpose in protecting the crew of the Galactica and finally the fate of the human race. Intentionally or not, this is an interesting metaphor for a growing maturity. When we’re young we think only of ourselves, as we age that concern moves outward. From this perspective, the epithet “Athena,” the goddess of wisdom and war, seems appropriate.

After a long struggle, Athena is valued not just for her ability to procreate, but as a partner and protector as well. It’s important to note, as contentgrrl does, that these latter two achievements came after she became a mother, contrary to many stories where once married or giving birth a female character isn’t so valued. A similar and refreshing comparison is Stargate: Atlantis’ character of Teyla, whose Wraith communication abilities actually become more powerful with approaching motherhood.

On today of all days I just couldn’t contain myself anymore.

I have to tell you how great I think Stripperella a.k.a Erotica Jones is, voiced by Pamela Anderson. Stripperella is the perfect conjunct to Anderson’s inexhaustible career that began with Baywatch, moved on to the ground-breaking shows that were V.I.P. and Stacked, not to mention Barb Wire. Words of wisdom from The Pam:

“I don’t really think about anything too much. I live in the present. I move on. I don’t think about what happened yesterday. If I think too much, it kind of freaks me out.”

“It is great to be a blonde. With low expectations it’s very easy to surprise people.”

I mean, really, Jones has enhanced reflexes and senses (and you know what that means…), an above average intelligence (do you think she might qualify to join Sexa, that elite cabal of savant stripper secret agents?), she can even jump really high and has sexy martial arts and killer stripper moves. I sooo wish I could use my extravagant blonde hair as a parachute too.

That would just be, like, awesome.

Today’s Danger Gal profile is Barbara Gordon a.k.a Batgirl, most notably played by Yvonne Craig (pictured) in the 1960s TV series Batman.

While today’s profile concentrates on Gordon, there have been several other iterations of this character to wear the bat-cape, namely Bette Kane as the original “Bat-girl” who debuted in DC Comics in 1961, as well as Cassandra Cain and Helena Bertinelli, both of which are much darker characters than Gordon. According to Wikipedia:

The Barbara Gordon version of Batgirl has been adapted into all media relating to the Batman franchise, including merchandise, television, animation, and feature film. During the early 1970s, the character was also used as an advocate for women’s rights.

Not bad for a character originally concocted as a love interest for Batman’s sidekick Robin. More than just a strong super-heroine, Barbara Gordon has become an icon for people with disabilities. After an accident damaged her spinal cord, Gordon morphed into The Oracle, an information broker providing intelligence and computer hacking services to other superheroes.

The Birds of Prey comic book series also portrays her as the leader of a team of mostly female crime-fighters. The series depicts her as a great intellect uninhibited by her paralysis, skilled in the martial art of eskrima.

In the past week or so, the subject of Buck Rogers has come up several times and I keep reiterating that I’d love to see a “re-imaging” of Buck Rogers similar to what’s been done for Battlestar Galactica.

Today SFSignal linked to my robots Thursday Thirteen because of the Twiki reference. They also posted a You Tube video about the 1979 Buck Rogers TV series, which just got me all nostalgic for the kitchiness of the show. I confess that as a kid growing up in the 70s I had a crush on Gil Gerard and wanted to be Col. Wilma Deering. So I’ve postponed my original plans for today’s profile and instead am going to profile Col. Wilma Deering as this week’s Danger Gal.

As I said, my experience with Buck Rogers is the 1979 TV series, but the story goes back to 1928 as two novellas that appeared in Amazing Stories. Deering’s Wikipedia entry describes qualities about her character retained in the TV series as portrayed by actress Erin Gray, qualities that definitely fit a Danger Gal:

She is a sometimes romantic interest for Buck, always a loyal defender of Earth, and an attractive and smart woman. She is generally depicted as having a spunky attitude and a penchant for getting herself into trouble. As with other science fiction heroines from the pulp sf genre and others, she has sometimes been depicted as a damsel in distress but mostly as an assertive adventurer in her own right.

While part of Deering’s raison d’etre was as a romantic interest for Rogers, her character was painted with a much broader brush. In the TV series, Deering was always portrayed as very competent and because of Rogers being a “fish out of water” character often much more in control of situations than Rogers himself was. Gray’s attractiveness appealed in a “girl next door” fashion: pretty but not so groomed that the average girl watching the show would be intimidated. So, Deering was smart, competent, had achieved professional success as a colonel and was attractive in a real beauty kind of way, but a more important quality is that all the other characters took her seriously. She carried a gun on her hip, her uniform was as body conscious as Rogers’ was, something that cannot be said of Star Trek even in its more recent incarnations. The Wikipedia entry notes that:

Often, it was Wilma that came to the rescue of Buck, as opposed to the other way round. Erin Gray has commented that her role as Colonel Deering was an inspiration for many women who watched the program, particularly with regard to careers in the military.

I didn’t even mind those shiny spandex costumes Gray wore, mostly because Gerard had to wear similar outfits, so it was equal exploitation. And of course, Twiki. What’s not to love? So, what if he did sort of resemble a certain part of the male anatomy? I actually think his helmet resembled Darth Vader’s, which always made me laugh.

This week’s Danger Gal Friday profile is on Illyana Nikolievna Rasputina a.k.a Magik a character from the Marvel Comics X-Men.

Magik literally goes to Hell and back in the X-Men comics and while there she usurps the throne for herself. This is a woman in charge.

After Belasco kidnaps a young Magik and takes her to the demon dimension Limbo (pretty much like Hell, I imagine), Magik’s captor teaches her black magic. How this Lolita-Persephone motif gets turned on its head is that two female characters — Limbo’s version of Storm and Shadowcat — teach Magik white magic and swordplay.

Often in this kind of motif, it’s another man who teaches the young girl the skills she needs, so this switch to not just one but two female mentors is important.

Later, Magik rebels against Belasco and enthrones herself in Limbo as the sorceress supreme. (That kind of sounds like girl power to me…)

Magik’s mutant powers include the ability to teleport across time and space, astral projection, sense mystical presences, and cast simple spells. While in Limbo she forged Soulsword, “the ultimate embodiment of her mystical might,” and when in use her left arm is encased in mystical armor that endows her with super-strength.

I am by no means an expert on Magik, so if anyone has some additional points about how she fits the Danger Gal profile, please make it known in the comments.

Also, I found some great art galleries of Magik at Sorceress Supreme.

[Just for you, Scott B.]

This week’s Danger Gal profile is Sara Connor from the Terminator series of movies and the new TV show Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles. I thought I had already written up a profile on Sarah Connor based on the Terminator movies, but a quick look at the archives shows that I haven’t. So, read on!

First of all, it seems like a divergence from the TV status quo that this new series is about Sarah Connor rather than John Connor. Sure, there are other shows whose main protagonist is female, but the creators specifically chose to tell the story from the point of view of an over 30 mother rather than her messianic son. A mother has become the world’s savior, and even the promo material bills Sarah Connor as “the mother of tomorrows.”

When looking across the movies and the new TV series, the idea about Sarah Connor that strikes me is her metamorphosis from an average, every-day woman to one take-charge bad-ass you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley. In the movies, I appreciated that Linda Hamilton built up muscle for Termintor 2, which outwardly shows the transformation of her character. I always appreciate it when actors make it a point to beef up for a role that calls for it, this makes my suspension of disbelief much easier.

So far, I’m definitely enjoying the new series. The addition of Summar Glau’s Cameron character is an interesting development. As I mentioned in a previous post, I wonder if this machine is based on an actual person in John’s future life.

And did I also say I hope Michael Biehn makes a cameo appearance at some point? Oh yeah, I have said that, haven’t I?

This weeks’ Danger Gal profile is on Elise Chase from Lara Adrian’s third book in the Breed series, MIDNIGHT AWAKENING.

I picked up the Breed series after Dear Author’s Jane reviewed it in November. Like Jane, I pretty much inhaled this story, reading all three books (about 900 pages total) in seven days. I loved all three of them, but I enjoyed MIDNIGHT AWAKENING the best. The heroines in each novel were strong, independent, and had their own gifts to offer in the quest against the Rogues. Alert: This article contains spoilers.

Briefly, Adrian’s vampires came to Earth from another planet eons ago, but their physiologies could not digest any plant or animal, and so for sustenance they turned to human blood. Threat of the Bloodlust madness is always present, however, and those who have given into it are feral vampires called Rogues. The Brotherhood is determined to eradicate the Rogue threat, even though the civilized vampire communities, called Darkhavens, regard them as vigilantes and have unsuccessfully tried rehabilitation. All of Adrian’s vampires are male, and while they can sustain themselves on any human blood, the blood of a Breedmate is special. Partaking of it creates a lifelong bond, and near immortality for the human lovers. It is only with Breedmates that vampires can procreate. (The consistency of the Breedmate birthmark makes me think that it must be due to either genetic manipulation or some so far unknown shared heritage. Maybe an explanation will show up in future books.)

Both Elise Chase and Tegan have been deeply hurt by death and loss. Unlike Tegan, who has masked his emotions with apathy, Elise turns to revenge. With “a dagger in her hand and vengeance on her mind,” Elise hunts Rogues in the Boston streets using her empathic abilities to track them. Without help, neither Elise or Tegan can continue as they have been, but together they awaken to a life both thought dead to them, and work together to fight the Rogue threat.

Elise defies feminine conventions in her own Darkhaven society as well as in the human one. For years she sat in mourning for her husband, existing in self-inflicted near seclusion from vampires and total seclusion from non-Breedmate humans. It is the death of her son that spurs Elise into action. The notion that only danger to her children will elicit violence from a woman is a bit cliché, but Adrian sets up Elise’s motivations so well that it works: It’s not her femininity that causes Elise to initially withdraw, it’s her Breedmate gift of empathy. If not for the pain she experiences from this gift, I think Elise would have been more engaged from the beginning in the hunt for her missing son, and if not for her gift she would not have felt so helpless. It’s this sense of helplessness that prompts Elise to take matters in the opposite extreme and become a vigilante herself.

Many people have compared Adrian’s vampire brotherhood to J.R. Ward’s, and there are similarities. One of these parallels is the notion of the vampire males being legally allowed to control the women in their lives with a forced seclusion, a kind of house arrest approved by their societies as inflicted for the females’ own protection. Several characters in both vampire worlds consider this option to be not only outdated, but offensive. Elise’s brother-in-law realizes that he legally can stop her from hunting by enforcing seclusion, but can’t bring himself to enact it. Tegan never thinks about it, but it would seem very out of character for him to even consider it. It’s really the only thing that squicks me out about both vampire worlds, and I’d love to see these secret societies abolish it. That does seem to be happening in the Ward vampire-verse with Marissa discovering her Feminist sensibilities, fighting her personal experience with it, and setting up the society’s first women’s shelter. In Adrian’s vampire-verse, the friction between the levels of civilization and ferity — as represented in degrees by the Darkhavens, the Brotherhood and the Rogues — could lead to a focus on this issue from the standpoint of personal freedom. Regardless, I have enjoyed both vampire series and the motif has the potential to add another dimension to these stories.

In closing, when Elise and Tegan meet, both are living austerely, barely existing as real people from one hunt to the next. It was a pleasure to watch these two people help each other put themselves back together again.

Recently quite a bit of discussion has been going on in the comments of my Princess Leia Danger Gal post, and then I chimed in on some ruminating on the hero’s journey of Han Solo over at the io9 blog.

Then my hubby, and avid Star Wars figure collector (you are surprised by this?), pointed out to me the new Signature Series Concept figures based on early Star Wars art drawn by Ralph McQuarrie.

Evidently, Luke was supposed to be a girl.

Talk about a paradigm shift. How would this saga have been different if Luke Skywalker would have been Luka Starkiller? Evidently, Han Solo was also supposed to be a Jedi.

Admittedly, there are some facets of the saga we likely would have lost if the story had unfurled this way, namely Princess Leia, but how might it have influenced Hollywood if the most popular sci-fi adventure flick ever had starred a kick-arse female protagonist? Here’s a bit more background on this early Star Wars concept.

What do you think? What would you have missed about the version we know now and what would you have liked if this early concept had come to fruition?

Update: More information on the Starkiller Hero Action Figure here.