10 Awesome Female Comic Book Characters You Should Know About?

Grant Morrison (and then Joss Whedon) did something with Emma Frost that I didn’t know was possible. They made her fascinating beyond her giant tits and white bustier. I’m officially an unabashed White Queen fan now, in fact she’s one of my favorite X characters, something I had previously never even considered – and THAT my friends is a hell of a re-imagining.

Characters I’m most excited to watch in 2010? Well, other than seeing the ladies listed do more great things I’m anxious to see the end of Cindy’s arc from Crossed (Brian did a good review of Crossed 7 here if you haven’t heard of it), and I’m already wishing that series wasn’t going to end at #9. And of course Greg Rucka’s newest female private investigator Dex from his book Stumptown, of which I am hungrily awaiting more issues.

As I mentioned above Amanda Walker from North 40 really caught my eye and I heard a rumor (totally unconfirmed) that there might be more coming on North 40, which would be great as she’s a unique and interesting character with a voice I don’t really think I’ve heard in comics before. Of course we’ve also got things like Girl Comics coming out which is sure to have a few interesting female characters and stories along with all those female creators. Something that occurred to me while I was pulling this list together is that 7 of 10 characters from my list are not currently in circulation (and one of them only just began).

And while it’s possible that that is part of what makes those characters so strong (i.e. They had clearly defined storylines with definitive beginnings and ends) I will say that it makes me sad to realize that most of my favorite female characters of the past decade don’t currently have ongoing stories I can read. Also interesting – although not on a ‘this is rocket science’ level – is that all of these characters had one writer throughout their stories (with the exception of Cass Cain, and I think it’s generally accepted that it was when other writers took over for Puckett that her character went horribly wrong).

I think that’s something the big two should really pay attention to – the power of a good writer to really drive a character and subsequently a book. We fans (okay, nerds) talk about it constantly – editorial throwing out mandates, and writers without the talent or experience, or respect for the character we love being tacked onto a book – but looking at this list and seeing that 9 of 10 (and most of my honorable mentions) were written by one writer – I don’t know, that seems pretty significant to me. That seems like science or something.

Someone put together some kind of fancy science like equation and send that baby over to DC and Marvel, okay?