Bechdel Test: Adventure Comics, the return

Bear with me on this one.  The numbering changed on Adventure, starting at #1 then taking over the old v1 Adventure numbering.  As I mentioned in my last post, Adventure did not start with just the Legion.  It read more as a Superman-family book with the aftermath of Legion of 3 Worlds. Some of the issues focus on Connor Kent which I won't count as Legion stories.  There was a Superboy-Prime story that I won't count either.   

Adventure starts with Geoff Johns on the first issue, with some later issues credited to Johns and Michael Shoemaker.  As some of the issues feat split stories, they don't feature a full Legion cast, only maybe 4 characters or so.  The Last Stand of New Krypton also runs through as well with most of that being written by Sterling Gates and James Robinson.  Levitz's run on Adventure starts with some "classic" Legion style stories in issue 12.  There is no issue 13 as the series goes from 12 to 516.   Issue 521 joins Retroboot continuity and 523 focuses on the Academy.  The series ends with 529.

Funny side note:  Supergirl appears in issue 520.  Invisible Kid is also listed as Jacques even when it is clearly Lyle. Continuity what?

The Legion does not appear in issues 5, 6, or 7.  The non-Levitz issues do not pass the Bechdel test.  Sensor Girl was the only female Legionnaire in the Last Stand storyline.  So I guess you can say Johns, Gates and Robinson are all zeroes with the Bechdel test.  

I think I will just give each individual issue for simplicity's sake

12- Levitz - N

516 - Levitz -N

517 - Levitz - Y (focused on Saturn Girl and she talks with new character Esquivel)

518 - Levitz - N

519 - Levitz - N

520 - Levitz - N

521 - Levitz - N

522 - Levitz - N Sorry, I have to be a dick here and say the only female characters with dialog are GiGi and Harmonia.  No female Legionnaires say anything. 

523 - Levitz/Jiminez - Y

524 - Levitz/Jiminez  - N

525 - Levitz/Jiminez - Y

526 - Levitz - Y

527 - Levitz - Y

528 - Levitz - Y

529 - Levitz - Y

Again, I have to wonder if there is a trend that when Levitz has a co-writer, he is more likely to pass the Bechdel test.  It also helps that there is a large portion of female characters in the Academy stories.  While issue 526 already passed in the main story, the XS backup also passes because Levitz had Night Girl talking to XS.  He could have sent Bouncing Boy and I'm kinda surprised he didn't.  That's how you pass the Bechdel test though. It's not that hard and it's not artificial or some type of SJW agenda.  

All in all, 12 issues are attributed to Levitz solely and 5 of those pass which is 42%.  If we add in the Levitz/Jiminez issues, that is 7/15 or 47%

Where does that leave everything?

v8 -62.5%

Secret Origin - 0%

v7-42%

v6-29%

Adventure (overall) - 32%

Levitz's track record overall with co-writers (22 out of 62 issues)- 35% passing.

Up next:  v5 or the Threeboot.  It might take me a while for this since I want to revisit Mark Waid's run, but also Jim Shooter. I want to see how Waid's run holds up but also, people think Shooter's run was bad and I remember liking it.

Bechdel Test: V6 Retroboot

Again, I am working backwards here.  After doing Secret Origin, I was not looking forward to V6.  So I am just going to rip off the band-aid here.  How did Levitz do?

There are 5 out of 17 issues (16 plus the annual) that pass the Bechdel test, and I'm being generous here.  That is an abysmal 

So some observations about this volume. While this builds off of what Geoff Johns had wrote, we have Night Girl shipped off to the Academy and XS in Limbo. There are 27 Legionnaires we see in this volume; only 9 are female and some don't last the whole way through (Saturn Girl, Lightning Lass, Shrinking Violet, Phantom Girl, Dawnstar, Sensor Girl, Shadow Lass, Dream Girl, Chameleon Girl).  Saturn Girl is in the first arc, but she is remanded back to reserve status after.  Now, I haven't read the Geoff Johns "Superman & LSH" story in a while so I can't remember if he was writing her as an active member or just came out of retirement.  If we remember V3, Imra and Garth both gave up active membership but Imra returned.  Sensor Girl goes inactive after the events of the annual which is about halfway through this volume.  Chameleon Girl is largely ignored as an active member.  Harmonia and GiGi are 2 female supporting characters but that barely helps.  

Despite the fight for representation, the other part of this is Levitz really doesn't write his female characters well.  Cham, Tinya and Yera are standing outside in the rain for a mission, no transuits which would keep them dry, but Tinya could go intangible to stay dry.  I know that seems really nitpicky but it makes total sense and is a fun visual.  Cham also has to tell Tinya to stay intangible while infiltrating.  This should be second nature for Tinya.  It's silly how she gets knocked out by a rock in issue 2.  Ayla is not written very well even though she is a big gun.  Shady barely uses her powers throughout.  Vi doesn't really get any spotlight until the Annual.  

When we do see two females interact, there are 4 times they are discussing a man.  Dawnstar and Nura are on a mission together with Gates in issue 2 but there really isn't any interaction between them.  The standout issue for passing the Bechdel test is the annual which shares a writing credit with Giffen.  Now, it helps that Ayla and Vi are the focus of the issue and that their antagonist is the Emerald Empress.  Also, because of location of Orando, Sensor Girl is involved too.  Is it because of Giffen's involvement that this issue passes?  It's not clear, but between V6 and V7, there are 3 issues with writing credit to Giffen/Levitz and 2 of those pass the Bechdel test.  Issue 6 also has the Legion Academy backup but Levitz is credited as Writer.  Jiminez is only listed as artist.

If anyone has any thoughts about Giffen/Levitz being parsed out separately, let me know.  It's often hard to know how much Giffen contributed to a story when he is only credited as artist.  Steve Lightle even contributed to plot in some of his issues back in the day even though not credited as such.  

The next will be the Adventure run.  That is tricky as not all the issues are Legion focused, with some just as backup stories.