Bechdel Test: The Threeboot

 So I was finally able to track down all the Threeboot issues and render an analysis.  Recently, I have come to respect the Threeboot, which is Legion of Superheroes volume 5/Supergirl & The Legion of Superheroes as of issue 16.  I think Mark Waid had a lot of great ideas and excellent storytelling.  It really is much stronger than Levitz's return to the Legion and way more interesting that Bendis's version of the Legion.  Some people have suggested Bendis and Waid have tried to write their own versions of "modern" teenagers. Wadi's version holds up and his dialog is so much better than Bendis.  

So v5 has primarily three writers:  Mark Waid, Tony Bedard and Jim Shooter.  Waid pretty much controlled the first 2.5 years of the series, however issues 20-22 are credited to Waid and Bedard.  Bedard has a fill-in with issue 29 and Waid's last issue is #30.  Bedard then writes 31-36 before Shooter takes over in issue 37.  Issue 50 is the final issue and is credited to Justin Thyme as Shooter was forced to wrap up the series early and didn't want his name associated with that issue.   The series itself finishes for an overall Bechdel result of :

That's not terrible but it is worth seeing how this breaks down.

Waid and Bedard

Of the 3 issues credited to Waid/Bedard, 2 issues passed for 66%

Of the 26 issues credited to Waid alone, he passed on 13 issues, so 51%.  Adjusted percentage for co-writing would be 53%

Of the 7 issues credit to Bedard alone, only 2 pass 😱  for a lowly 28%.  Adjusted percentage for co-writing would be 40%.    Based on Tony's fail rate, I'm inclined to believe the co-written issues passed because of Mark Waid.  Some of the issues Bedard wrote barely have any female characters.  

I think one of the successes for Mark Waid was one of the surefire writing crutches for the Legion: having a parent involved.  This time, it is Saturn Girl's mother so she helped up the pass rate for at least one issue.  Bringing in Supergirl helped a bit as well has having Theena as a supporting character. Some of why Mark did not pass in some issues is because some of the first year only focused on small squads which meant only 1 or 2 females may have been featured together in the issue.  And remember, they actually have to talk to each other about something OTHER than a man, which can be hard to do if you have Brainiac 5 dominating stories.  

Jim Shooter

So I was quite surprised when I started analyzing this.  Shooter lost Supergirl and didn't have Cosmic Boy, but introduced some new female characters Gazelle and Sizzle.  Sizzle seemed to emulate power-wise a character Shooter knew well: Dazzler.  He also focused heavily on Projectra, and why not?  This was a character he created 50 years prior.  Presumably, he read all Claremont's Dark Phoenix Saga issues so Projectra became his corrupted hero, with all the power and skill of Mastermind. I digress!

But if you know anything about averages, you realize that he had to be pretty strong.  Now if we disregard issue 50 (which passed!), Shooter passed 12 out of 13 issues for the Bechdel test.  He utilized Saturn Girl's mother. He made the female characters talk to each other.  A one-off character was a female that interacted with Projectra.  I mean, that's the way to do it.  Shooter scores a 92% on the Bechdel test.  He's the best one so far.