Bechdel Test: Legion Lost v2

I can't believe I forgot this one.  Yikes.  I didn't give the series a full reading but it's not a memorable one.  LL v2 feature a smaller set of Legionnaires with only 2 females, Chameleon Girl and Dawnstar.  That could be a hindrance to it passing.  Let's find out.  

So to refresh  your memory, this series starts out written by Fabian Nicienza for 6 issues.  Tom Defalco has a co-writing credit for issues 6 and takes over solo after that.  How did they do?

Niciena - 17%

Fabian only succeeds in the first issue.  Yera is presumed dead as of issue 2 but resurfaces a few issues later.  Her absence doesn't help.

Defalco -42%

Tom's contribution has a lot of crossovers with Titans.  Because we see Ravage, Caitlin Fairchild and others, he starts off strong with 5 issues in a row.  After that, not so much.  The 0 issue is a Timber Wolf spotlight.  Tom's run tried to do some stuff and it's hard to say whether the crossover's helped or hurt.  

I don't have much else to say about this.  There was a little too much infighting going on with the characters for me to enjoy this.  Yera seemed to have some moments of development but she was depicted as having a failed relationship with Colossal Boy.  That contradicted Gim's story in v7.  

Again, we have a lack of female supporting characters that doesn't help interactions either. The interaction, when they happen, are overall positive, i.e. not discussing a man. I guess we can give the full series a dismal 

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.

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.

Bendis Legion at the Bechdel Test

I went through 16 issues for Bendis which includes his entire LSH run, Millennium and Future State.  

So how did Bendis do?  62.5%  

10 out of 16 issues pass the Bechdel test.  To go over a few of the results I do have to point out a few things. 

Methodology:

Bendis is a fan of multiple parties having word balloons in a panel.  Just because there are two female characters in a panel who say words, they are not actually talking to each other.  These scenes do not qualify as a pass.

However, I have decided I will try to be as broad as possible.  In scenes with multiple characters, if it was apparent that one female was talking to another, like a question asked and responded, then as long as it met the last criteria, I gave it a pass.  

Another thing to consider as I move on will be Luornu Durgo aka Triplicate Girl, aka Duo Damsel, aka Triad, aka Duplicate Girl.  Bendis liked to write a sentence spread between the three of them.  This is not a pass.  They are not even having a complete conversation.  I may asterisk these character interactions as time goes on.  Different writers had different takes on the character, and I feel some takes should be a pass of the test.  

As I started to analyze, I realize I only wanted to track whether there is a "pass".  I generally won't be noting how many passes there are per issue.  It might be an interesting metric to track but the test itself doesn't specify that.  It also stands to reason that an issue may have have two female characters talk about a man earlier in an issue, but then later, talk about something else.  I have decided that will still be a pass.  One will not negate the other.

One decision I will have to make as I continue will be to determine how I should rate a hero/villain interaction.  RJ is technically an antagonist for this series but not really a villain.  The actual villains (Mordru, Rogol Zaar, Crav Nah) are all male.  As we go back, we will have many more female villains, so the question will be whether to count banter in a battle as an actual interaction.  I'm inclined to say no but would be willing to hear any thoughts on it.  

Breakdown:

Millennium

1 - P

2 - F While there is a lot of internal dialog for Rose, she doesn't speak to another female the entire issue.  In fact, she is the only female in the issue.

Main Title

1 - F

2- P Twice

3 - P

4 - P

5 - P

6 - F

7 - F

8 - P Twice

9 - P

10 - P I am giving a broad pass between Imra and Sevenbergen

11 - P

12 - P

Future State 

1 - P  This is a broad pass.  Imra addresses Tasmia when she asks if she is going to kill Ultra Boy.  While they are technically discussing a man, it is not in any romantic sense.  I decided to pass it.

2 - F  I give this a fail.  Duo Damsel's conversation, while it gives some insight to the loss of their "sister" is not really two characters talking to each other.  They are responding in tandem.  

I will note that one thing that helped Bendis pass the test was the gender swap on RJ Brande.  Issues 2 and 8 both had an RJ interaction that would not have made a different technically, but issue 5 would have been a fail if RJ was male.  

I know I was critical of Bendis early on for the optics of having a male dominant team.  I think I originally counted it was less that 40% of the team was female.  He did focus a good bit on females like Triplicate Girl, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lass, RJ, Rose with some others receiving some dialog.  Will other writers fare better or worse?  That is an interesting question.  I think I do Volume 7 next and give that series a go.  That series had a nearly 50% female to male membership of Legionnaires.  Will it rank higher or lower than Bendis?

The Legion of Super-Heroes and the Bechdel Test.

One of my favorite Twitter accounts is The Claremont Run.  He analyzes various aspects of Chris Claremont's time spent writing The X-Men and its spinoffs.  One thing he painstakingly tackles is whether Claremont passels the Bechdel Test aka the Bechdel-Wallace Test.  The Wikipedia entry tells you what you need to know about the test, the origin and why it can be a useful tool for female representation.  Quite simply, applied to a movie, in order to pass, it must check three boxes:

1. The movie has to have at least two women in it,
2. who talk to each other,
3. about something other than a man.

Sounds simple enough, right?  It does boil down a bit to defining parameters. Some add the element that both women must be named, or there must be a total of sixty seconds of conversation.  Obviously, the time limit can be seen as arbitrary, but I think that named aspect is fairly important.  A female character asking a waitress about specials on the menu passes the test in the broadest sense, but if that is the only female-female conversation in a movie, should it pass?  We really didn't learn anything about either woman in that time, except what foods they may prefer.  Not really deep stuff.

Nevertheless, this tool can be applied to comics.  Because of the nature of comics, I think we should look at it from a sharing of panels.  I think the characters should be named, but there really can't be a time limit (we all read at different paces).

So I think I want to apply this to the Legion of Superheroes.  I have often been critical of the Legion over the years.  They hadn't always been good at positive representation of female characters. My intent is to break down various runs by writers.  This will of course be difficult considering Paul Levitz had three separate runs on Legion titles with sometimes multiple concurrent series.  I also intend to log the years as well to help analyze any trends or other factors.  Bendis will the easiest writer to start with since I feel.  Wish me luck.