Heroine Chic  | Comic Books | Advocate.com

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Heroine Chic
In a new wave of comic book writing, lesbian protagonists are finally ready to take the spotlight
By Dan Avery
An Advocate.com exclusive posted February 6, 2008
Heroine Chic

Those rumors about Wonder Woman aside, queer characters have only been a real part of mainstream comic books since the early 1990s -- and usually as supporting players defined by their sexuality. For example, in a GLAAD award-winning issue of Green Lantern written by Judd Winick, the hero's friend Terry was savagely gay-bashed by gang members. Recently, though, a new wave of lesbian crusaders has barged on the scene in DC Comics, kicking ass, taking names, and sometimes even getting the girl.

Crime Bible large (DC Comics publicity) | Advocate.com

Leading the pack is the Question, the female protagonist of the current DC miniseries Crime Bible: The Five Lessons of Blood. In her civilian identity of Renee Montoya, the Question was a member of the Gotham City Police Department, but she resigned in the face of rampant corruption and the death of her partner. In her despair, Montoya spurned her girlfriend and retreated into an alcoholic haze. In the yearlong weekly series 52, Montoya was mentored by the philosophical detective the Question and took on the hero's mantle when he died.

Crime Bible, which started at the end of October, sees the new female Question -- sporting a fedora, trench coat, and faceless mask -- investigating a secret religion based on murder, blackmail, and depravity. As she tracks down the cult's Bible, the tenets of which makes Gordon Gekko's "greed is good" mantra sound like the Golden Rule, she finds herself both horrified by its depravity and oddly drawn to its embracing of self-determination.

Avery is an editor at Time Out New York.

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