Women in Comic Books

      In class a topic that is constantly being conversed about is whether the depiction of women in comics is a good one. In the early Wonder Woman, although she is saving the day she is constantly swooning over her love. Why couldn't the writers just depict her as this sole hero like Schuster did Superman? Why did she need a love interest that seemed to inspire all heroic actions?In Fantastic Four, Susan (Invisible Woman) plays let's say for a lack of a better word a silent role. Although, she has all these amazing powers her contribution to the group is that of nurturer. I find her ability to be invisible, build force fields, and throw back energy to be much better than that of Mr. Fantastic's stretching ability then why was she thrown in the background?  In X-Men, Jean might have had an aggresive role more so when she was the Phoenix but this is seen as a bad thing as she is soon taken down by the team. Why is that the comic world which normally plays a progressive role in discussing today's issues is so behind in the depiction of women?
      In my paper I plan to delve into the role of women in comics. How are women depicted as a whole in the world of comics taking the good and bad as we have only just touched on but a few comics? Why are women depicted in such a way? How does this affect the comic book reader?  Has there been any progression? Before this class I did not even think about the depiction of women in comics, however, as the comic book world is looking to revamp itself and gain more readers would changing the way they depict women have them gain many more readers? What I mean is if women were to be depicted in a more positive light couldn't they gain a much bigger audience? These are but a few questions I hope to answer and research.