Bechdel Test: Legion Secret Origins

Sorry, I was hoping to have a more regular posting schedule but I've had a lot going on personally, including the death of my mother.  

I didn't want to skip this limited series which came out right around volume 7.  It was pretty unforgettable except for the gorgeous Chris Batista art.  It was six total issues, all written by Paul Levitz.  So how did it turn out?  

That's correct.  Not one issue of this series passed the Bechdel test.

My notes:

This series had very few female characters.  The precog whom I'm not sure had a name, Saturn Girl, Triplicate Girl and Phantom Girl.  What would have changed it is actually: just making one of the other characters than the Naltorian was working with a female.  There wasn't really a reason Levitz couldn't have made another of the characters female.  But the lack of female characters meant it was be more difficult to have two females have a conversation for the Bechdel test. 

Triplicate Girl barely had any dialog.  There is a conversation between her and Phantom Girl in issue 5 and what do they talk about?  Ultra Boy.  And Superman.   Any incidental characters were also male.  

Not much more to say here.  If we are keeping track of Levitz as a writer, he has 10 passes out of 30 issues, making him overall at 30%.  Volume 6 will be next.

Bechdel Test - V7 (nu52)

This will be my first evaluation of Paul Levitz material.  I always felt like the Retroboot was an overall regression in Paul's Legion writing.  I was curious to see how this one panned out, considering the makeup of this Legion was near 50-50 male to female ratio.  Even though Yera and Dawnstar were moved to Legion Lost, there was a gain of Glorith, Harmonia, Comet Queen and Dragonwing.  I will also point out that issues 17 and 18 are shared Giffen/Levitz writing.  This also includes the 0 issue as well. 

How did Levitz do?  10 out of 24 issues.

I don't think this was a good showing at all.  Some of my notes:

1. There were 3 separate instances of two female characters discussing a man, specifically admiring them or discussing a relationship of sorts.

2. I have two instances where they technically count, Nura after she slaps Comet Queen after betraying them.  And Otaki and Duplicates girl talking about strategy. 

3. The Saturn Girl vs. Emerald Empress battle was counted in issue 22

4.  Issue 17 only featured 6 total Legionnaires, not counting the now dead Sun Boy.  Both Glorith and Phantom Girl were on separate teams. 

Now many female characters were represented, Phantom Girl especially which may have had something to do with her leadership vote but she really did not interact with many females other than being with Dragonwing on an early mission and there was no interaction between them. There were a lot of missions that were male oriented too 

What worked:  Harmonia being a scientist helped greatly as she could help fulfill that role instead of Brainiac.  Dragonwing's journey to China helped and gave some great positive representation by having her fight her sister. 

So far the rankings are 

v8 - 62.5%

v7 - 42%

Next, I think I will do the Legion Secret Origin since that fits in with v7.