All language subtitles for Le.Regne.Des.Super-heroines.2021

She had been written by men
and drawn by men

because that was
the comics' tradition.

When I was younger,

my mother told me
superheroes were for boys.

Some readers felt, "How come
you're writing so many girls?"

You know,
there'd always be one girl,

and she had the least powers.

Whenever a woman gets there,
she's not worthy.

The poor thing died
in solitude and poverty,

and it's not fair.

We have a serious problem
as a society, I think,

with the hypersexualization
of women.

And we are playing with 50% of
the world population's feelings!

Today, we are seeing
a reversing trend.

The idea has always been

to look on these characters
as people who can grow,

who can change,
who can surprise you.

What's great is that
she actually reclaims

the artifices of femininity.

Minorities bonded with the team
to a remarkable extent.

For the time, she was
a revolutionary character.

She is a symbol
for the entire LGBT community.

It was very fascinating to see
a woman in a leadership role.

There are a lot
of female writers,

a lot of female artists,
a lot of female editors.

The reader is not
the traditional male reader.

They will be our kids' heroes.

Matriarchy will save the world!

Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel,

Black Widow, Supergirl...

Superheroines are taking over
movie screens

and people's hearts

but they are also milestones
in a story

that began over 80 years ago.

Social progress
as well as sexist backward steps

have marked the journey
of these superwomen

and their female readers.

We've met with men and women

who spearhead
these characters' adventures.

From the United States
to France, and even Italy,

they all speak of the worldwide
influence of superheroines.

Australian comic book artist
Nicola Scott, for instance,

has long been fascinated
by a particular amazon

whose adventures
she draws today.

The very first time
I saw Wonder Woman,

it was the very first time
I saw a superhero.

And it was when I was four,

watching TV in the afternoon,

and Lynda Carter's TV show
came on.

And I had never seen anything
like it and it blew my mind,

and I was 100% a convert
from that moment on.

Before seeing the show,

I didn't know
that superheroes were a thing,

so that was the very first time
I saw a superhero.

And it wasn't long after that

that the Super Friends cartoon
started playing on TV

and I'd go, "Oh my God,
there's Wonder Woman again!"

I knew Wonder Woman
as a character before the movie

because she's the superheroine.

Perhaps not the most important
but an icon,

the one everyone
is familiar with,

because there aren't
that many superwomen.

From the little
town of Cortona in Italy,

comic book artist
Maria Laura Sanapo

works for American publishers
like DC Comics or Dynamite,

producing pages
for Wonder Woman.

My favorite superheroine is,
without a doubt, Wonder Woman.

She marked my childhood
because when I was little,

I discovered Lynda Carter.

I really love Lynda Carter,

her beauty, her elegance,

because she is both
strong and elegant.

And so, I love that Wonder Woman
I admired as a little girl.

She is dear to me.

I also like the modern version
by Gal Gadot,

but not to the same extent.

When I was younger,

my mother told me
superheroes were for boys.

She said it was
out of the question,

I had to act like a girl.

So, I went to newsstands
in secret

to buy my comic books,

and I read them in bed under
the covers with a flashlight.

That's when I began
to dive into that world

and get caught up
in who was who,

why did he do that,

and oh, my God,
there are girls, too, awesome!

In Rome, Emanuela
Lupacchino is one of the most

internationally renowned
figureheads

of this new generation
of female artists.

In the course of my career,

I've been able to work
mainly on superheroines

because I feel that
it is with them

that I can express myself
in the best possible way.

And readers appreciate the way
I portray superwomen.

But that doesn't mean
that I'm not also a big fan

of how the male body
is represented

with male superheroes,
such as Conan.

Heroines are fierce
and intelligent,

and they manage
to solve problems.

It's been a source
of inspiration,

Girl Power, as we call it.

I want to be as strong
as they are mentally,

perhaps even physically,
I don't know,

but in any case,
it was a huge inspiration

for my professional life,
with drawing for instance.

It was a source of inspiration
and motivation.

But might not
Wonder Woman sometimes be

the tree that hides the forest?

Not only is she not
the only superheroine out there,

but she is also not the first.

Several months
before her appearance,

a mysterious adventuress
disguised as a cat

was already turning heads,

but not the one
you might think.

Miss Fury could be considered
as a kind of Catwoman,

but the truth is
she was there first.

Miss Fury was created,

She beat Wonder Woman

to the stands.

by about six months, I think.

She was created in 1941
by a woman also,

which makes her really
the first woman,

costumed action heroine
drawn by a woman,

created and written by a woman,

Tarpé Mills,

who just happened to look
exactly like her heroine.

She's a very wealthy woman.

She's rich,
but she's very strong, too.

She's a very humane character,
and she's a crime-fighter.

She has a panther skin and at
one point she starts to wear it.

At first,
she only pulls it on for fun.

But then, things start to happen

and she begins to show
extraordinary abilities.

That's when she becomes
a superheroine.

This picture, in particular,

was done as a pin-up
for the troops,

during the war.

Miss Fury had a lot of fans.

And G.I.s would write
her fan letters.

And she had this picture
printed out,

and she would send it to them
and sign it for them.

Miss Fury is a heroine

that I'm lucky
to be drawing right now.

When they contacted me to draw
her, I said yes immediately,

because she was not only drawn

but also entirely created
by a woman in the 40s,

a woman who succeeded as a
comic book artist at that time.

This clearly inspired me
because, since the early 2000s,

many female artists
have become famous.

But, in the 40s,
it was much harder.

The other reason
why I accepted this project

is that it was an opportunity to
talk about June Tarpé Mills,

who created Miss Fury.

The poor thing died
in solitude and poverty,

and it's not fair.

It's not fair
that this woman was forgotten

because she had so much talent.

In 1941, America
was on the brink of war.

Superheroines took their cue
from patriotic tradition,

and most particularly
from Columbia,

the female personification
of the United States,

to find inspiration for
costumes reflecting the times.

Wonder Woman first made
her appearance in this context.

Wonder Woman was created
by William Moulton Marston

using the pseudonym
Charles Moulton,

and he specifically aimed it
at girls.

He was quoted as saying,

"Even girls don't want
to be girls."

Because they don't get to do
all the exciting things boys do.

So, he wanted to create
a role model for girls,

to show that they could be
as good, better, than boys.

All they needed

was the training.

was to work at it.

And they could do it.

We could all be Wonder Woman.

At the end of the day,

it's only doing what superhero
culture has been doing all along

namely following
the evolutions of society

and, ahead of time
or a little late,

addressing those questions.

All superheroines
are great characters,

but they were minor characters,

and Wonder Woman...

She was an amazon.

None of the others were amazons.

And she hit
at just the right time,

just as America
was about to go to war.

Just as the war was starting,
she shows up.

And she goes to the man's world
with Steve Trevor

to fight the bad guys,
to fight the Axis.

She was just
at the right moment.

She was an amazon.

She didn't fly.

She didn't have superpowers.

She had amazon training,

which made her
the best possible athlete.

She could run, she could leap,

and she did them
all marvelously.

And it didn't hurt
that she was also beautiful

and that she was a princess.

William Moulton
Marston was also a psychologist

whose research contributed

to the development
of the lie detector.

In the comic,
Wonder Woman's golden lasso

is an illustration
of that research.

It is a magical variant
of the lie detector.

Wonder Woman's creator
was also very ahead of his time

with the amazon's love life.

William Moulton Marston
hypothesized,

or suggested
in a rather evident way,

that she was an LGBT character.

She was bisexual at least,
or pansexual.

Later, depending
on her evolution

and the people who wrote her,

we had a lesbian Wonder Woman,

a bisexual or pansexual
Wonder Woman,

or a heterosexual Wonder Woman.

If Wonder Woman's costume

is based on the American flag,

a large part
of her roots and appearance

is grounded
in Greek and Roman mythology.

This could explain
why this particular heroine

quickly reached beyond borders

and why today,
in Italy or elsewhere,

female artists can work on her
with such ease.

It's a concept

that has been brought
to my attention many times,

although being immersed in it,

I am not
consciously aware of it.

Many American colleagues
tell me,

"You're so lucky
to have been born in a country

with such a rich tradition
in art, ancient history...

...and culture."

Drawing Wonder Woman and
the island world of Themyscira

has been relatively easy
for me.

Wonder Woman
is most certainly a warrior,

but she fights
for the greater good.

She has to fight because
she's in the middle of a war,

but she never does it
in a perverse way

or just to fight for herself.

As soon as I was able
to cross two streets

to get to the candy store
that sold comics,

I would just look
at all the comics on the rack.

Once a week,
I could buy a comic.

I took my allowance
and I could buy a comic,

and I would buy whatever comic
starred a woman.

Whatever comic had a woman
or a girl on the cover

who was powerful,

not somebody
who was tied to a chair

and waiting for a hero
to rescue her,

but a woman who was
her own person, her own heroine,

right there on the cover.

And it even helped
if that was her name,

her name was the title
of the book.

So, it wasn't just Wonder Woman
that I bought.

I bought Sheena,
Queen of the Jungle.

She really was my favorite

because my fantasy
was to live in a treehouse

with my pet chimpanzee,

in the jungle
and wearing leopard skin.

And I still love leopard skin.

Wonder Woman's
success quickly paved the way

for the appearance
of other superwomen,

like the all-powerful
Mary Marvel

whose sales soon rivalled
those of Wonder Woman.

I bought Mary Marvel.

She was a girl.

She was Mary Batson,

and all she had to do
was say the magic word "Shazam"

and she became Mary Marvel.

And Mary Marvel could fly.

And bullets bounced off her,
and she had fists of iron.

And she was only 12 years old

which meant that you didn't have
to become a woman.

You could still be a girl
and have superpowers.

So, I bought all the comics
that had female heroes.

But during the 50s,

things began to take
a backwards slide.

Even Supergirl's spectacular
debut wasn't a step forward,

at least at first.

Supergirl was...

She was so tame, really,
you know?

Her cousin, Superman, told her

that the world must not know
about her, you know,

so she kept herself secret.

And she lived in an orphanage,
for God's sake.

She never interested me.

She was only really
Superman's sidekick at the time.

She wasn't
a very interesting character,

except to expand
Superman's universe

with what we call
the Super Family.

The war was over.

War had been over for 20 years,

and women had been driven back.

All these wonderful things
they had done,

you know, driving the trucks,
and working in the factories,

and making ships and planes,
and flying planes.

That was over.

They've been sent back
to the kitchen.

The guys came back
and got their old jobs back.

This is evident throughout
all the comics of that period,

even with another heroine
like Wonder Woman.

It really was a peculiar era

in terms of how female
characters were represented.

The 60s also saw the arrival

of a new generation
of superheroines

created by Marvel.

But at first,
they were limited to unexciting,

almost invisible roles.

I think, for me,
the basic rationale was,

I looked at all these teams.

I looked at the Fantastic Four.

I looked at the Justice League.

I looked at the Avengers.

And they were all predominantly
white men.

With a girl.

And it was always a girl.

Marvel Girl.

Supergirl.

Aquagirl.

The Invisible Girl!

There'd always be one girl,
and she had the least powers.

She didn't run around and jump
and punch people out.

I mean, think about it.

The Fantastic Four
is the core hero group

in the Marvel universe.

They are the foundation

upon which all the subsequent
heroes derived.

Mr. Fantastic.

He's brilliant, he stretches,
he's a cool guy.

The Thing.

A giant monster,
the heart of the quartet.

Johnny Storm.

He catches fire

and races around the world
to save things.

And Sue...

What is Sue Storm?

She turns invisible.

She vanishes. She disappears.

It is, intentionally or not,
the most powerful metaphor

for how the world
tended to view women,

and women in the workplace
at that era.

They were invisible.

Oh, the Wasp, she's this tiny,
little character, you know?

And what do they do?

They go shopping a lot.

You see this in the comics
of the period.

Although I believe that Stan Lee
and Jack Kirby both thought

that they were doing
the modern woman, you know?

They really did think this,
but they were guys.

There were no women involved!

At the end of the day,

truly independent heroines in
the 60s were mostly 'bad girls',

like Catwoman or Poison Ivy.

The very first time I saw Poison
Ivy was many years ago.

It was in the cartoon

in which Harley Quinn appears
for the first time.

In the French version
of this cartoon,

Poison Ivy was called
"the Poisoner"

and I really liked her.

Even if she's a little
too extreme

in what she says and does,

she really wants Nature
to take back its rightful place,

and she thinks
that men damage Nature.

This is something
I really like about her,

even if she should
temper her actions.

Today, Poison Ivy would probably
be considered a superheroine,

because Nature
needs to be protected!

But still, she does have
a rather evil side.

Meanwhile,
far from mainstream books,

American comics
began to present heroines

enjoying much greater freedom
in magazines

for an older readership.

At the end of the 60s,

Warren Publishing
launched the adventures

of a bikini-clad bloodsucker,
Vampirella.

Well, really, my only part in
the creation of Vampirella was,

I designed her costume.

And the costume, by the way,
that I designed

was not as brief
as this little red ribbon

that she wears these days.

It wasn't a comic.

It was really a comic magazine
published by Jim Warren.

And it was the first of these
books that starred a woman,

Vampirella,
who told the stories

and who also took part
in the stories.

And that was very revolutionary
for comics in 1969.

I really love Vampirella.

That's partly because
she's a vampire,

and vampires fascinate me.

They always have because
they can do whatever they like.

So, they're rather
sexual characters.

They're mesmerizing,
and they're charming.

It's therefore natural

that their clothes reflect
that sexy side.

You have to know

that she has been exaggerated
and exaggerated and exaggerated,

as the years go by.

So, she really does not, today,
bear any resemblance,

as far as I'm concerned,

to the costume that I created.

She was beautifully drawn
in those days

by Spanish artists,
Filipino artists.

For the time, she was
a revolutionary character.

In those comics, they didn't
really deal with sex very much,

but she was certainly
a sexy creature.

True activism made its way

through fanzines
and underground comics.

In 1973, Trina Robbins brought
an icon from World War II,

Rosie the Riveter,
back to life in her comics

to give her new relevance

in the context
of women's liberation.

Rosie the Riveter, she's become
much more well-known now.

She's famous, in fact.

Everyone knows
Rosie the Riveter.

But at the time, people had
kind of forgotten her.

But she represented
the strength of women

during World War II, you know?

When suddenly women were taken
out of their homes

and working in factories,
making planes,

making ships,
even flying the planes.

That's what she represented.

That wonderful period
during the war,

when women were
as strong as men,

when women did all the things
that men had done before.

Trina Robbins
is a personal icon.

She's a living symbol
of feminism in comics.

She's a real pioneer.

She took the first step

to turn the spotlight
on feminism in comics,

when independent comics
began to appear in the 70s

in San Francisco.

She's a figurehead for
a whole comic book movement.

Next to Vampirella or Rosie,

traditional superheroines
seemed outdated.

A young beginner writer
called Chris Claremont

became part
of a new generation of writers

who decided
to shake things up.

When I came aboard at Marvel,
ten years later,

roughly ten years later,
very little had changed.

Women were still primarily
an afterthought.

With comic book
artist Dave Cockrum,

Chris Claremont was rapidly
put in charge

of producing new episodes
for X-Men.

Female characters in the series

quickly became
varied and strong.

Mature or teenage,
powerful or even controlling,

heroines acquired
a diversity of profiles.

The point here is...

I know women who are courageous,
who are smart,

who are all of the attributes
of a superhero,

except for one element,
their gender.

So, I thought,
no one else is doing it,

I'll take a shot
and see what happens.

So, I found, with the X-Men,

especially with the X-Men

that Dave Cockrum and Len Wein
created in Giant-Size No.1,

not only a diversity of gender,

in Ororo and Jean,

but of societal, racial gender.

Seven years after the death

of Martin Luther King,

Ororo a.k.a. Storm
brought new changes.

For the first time,

a black woman became a regular
member of a superhero team.

Under Chris Claremont's
leadership,

this heroine evolved
to the point of becoming

a leader of the team
a few years later.

Basically,
I gave shape to Storm

the way I give shape
to all characters,

which is look at them

and try to imagine
who they are as people.

Ororo has spent her adolescence
on top of Mount Kilimanjaro

or a reasonable fac-simile,
in Kenya,

being worshipped as a goddess,

which is somewhat removed
from the reality of Kenya but...

That's comics.

And suddenly, she is uprooted

and brought over
to the first world.

If I had to mention one comic,
it would be X-Men.

It's my favorite
superhero series.

It's wonderful.

The characters...
Everyone can identify.

It was fun.

She was distinct because she was
a leader of the X-Men team.

Although I may have been exposed
to other X-Men members,

it was very fascinating to see
a woman in a leadership role

with that much power.

With Ororo, it's more personal

because her father
is from New York.

But it takes time
for her to arrive

at what that realization means.

John Byrne and I did a story

where she goes to what
she remembers as her home

in New York City, in Harlem.

And what she remembers
as a loving apartment

has now become a drug den,

full of young adolescents

overdosing on crack and heroin.

It is a voyage of discovery.

For her,
as with all the characters,

it's dealing with them

as I imagine real people would
act in a similar situation.

The change and
revival brought about by Storm

was only the beginning
of a new wave.

With new recruits,

Chris Claremont diversified
female character profiles.

Before then,
within a given comic book panel,

heroines were
mostly distinguished

by their hair colour.

From that point on,
female members of the X-Men

cultivated diversity in terms
of race, shape, and age.

Yeah, probably Kitty Pryde and
Rachel Summers from Excalibur,

because I think
that how I see female characters

is very close to the work
of Chris Claremont.

The reader response was varied.

Some readers felt, "How come
you're writing so many girls?"

I went to work on an X-Men book
with the X-Women.

And I was so lucky because
we had the chance of doing X-Men

with an all-female
character roster.

The only guy was Colossus.

I didn't have to make
too many sketches

to find my Storm
or to find my Psylocke,

or to find my Rogue.

They were already there.

The idea has always been

to look on these characters
not as characters,

not as functions
of a defined paradigm,

but as people who can grow,

who can change,
who can surprise you.

The way women
began to take power

is perfectly illustrated
by Jean Grey,

formerly one of the weakest
members of the X-Men

but then reinvented as Phoenix,

the most powerful being
in the Universe.

The Saga of the Phoenix
and then of the Dark Phoenix

remains, to this day,

one of the most famous stories
of the X-Men series,

marking many generations
of male and female readers.

Jean became Phoenix.

Phoenix, within eight issues
of that transformation,

saved the universe.

That is not a small thing.

She saved every living being
in Creation at that time.

No hero had ever done that.

And yet, within 25 issues,

Phoenix became Dark Phoenix
and she destroyed a world.

She killed eight billion,
six billion people.

That action had consequences.

It didn't matter
that she saved the universe.

She did something unforgivable
that had to be atoned for.

And the nice thing was that,

for women characters,

because they were new and the
readers weren't expecting them,

their journeys could be
more dramatically portrayed.

Changing Cyclops is a challenge

because he'd existed for ten
years before I came on board.

Whereas with Ororo,
she was brand new.

Jean, by the time
I was done with her,

was brand new, as Phoenix.

Kitty was brand new.

Rogue was brand new.

There were
all these opportunities

to change and to build
a new reality around the team,

a reality which reached out

to so many different aspects
of the audience,

people who hadn't seen anything
like themselves in the X-Men.

Minorities bonded with the team
to a remarkable extant.

While women in the
X-Men series were emancipating,

a feminist icon in comic books
returned to the fore

through the TV series

in which Lynda Carter
plays Wonder Woman.

Thanks to Lynda Carter,

Wonder Woman became a symbol
for several generations.

The Wonder Woman TV series is
very important even for comics,

for comic book creators

who, still today, claim
the legacy of Lynda Carter,

a character that really marked
American minds and even beyond.

The series dates back to 1975

and the context
of women's rights

and the minorities' rights

and civil rights movements
in the United States.

This series really puts forward
a feminist agenda.

It's very clear, very explicit,
as early as the first episode,

and even the pilot episode
of the series,

in which Wonder Woman,
played by Lynda Carter,

says that
matriarchy will save the world.

But, other fervent
super-feminists began to appear

besides Wonder Woman.

Aware of lost time,

Marvel Comics launched
a new wave of comics

such as Spider-Woman
and She-Hulk,

all variations
of existing male heroes.

One of these new characters
is Carol Danvers,

first known as Ms. Marvel.

In this version,

she is first described
as the editor

of a feminist magazine
called Woman.

Then you had
Jim Starlin's Captain Marvel

with the best costume in comics
for a superhero.

It was great!

And then, for Ms. Marvel,

they just put that costume
on a woman.

Except...

This is where the train begins
to go off the rail a little.

If you look
at a comic book male body,

it is a perfect triangle.

You have the broad shoulders

and this ferocious descent
to the hips.

And wow!

You look at that and you think,
"Oh, baby, he's a hunk!'"

But when you put
that same design

on a woman's body,

you run into problems.

The reality was,
she's 29 years old.

So, here's a woman who's 29

and, in her life,
she's been a secret agent,

chief of security
at Kennedy Space Center,

thrown out of the Air Force.

She becomes the editor-in-chief
of Woman Magazine.

She has done
in a half dozen years

what most of the rest of us

would devote a lifetime,
an entire career, to achieving.

And she isn't even 30 yet!

When superheroes
began to appear in cinemas,

superwomen swiftly followed.

After Superman,

Hollywood decided to devote
an entire film to Supergirl.

However, the results
were rather mixed.

When the movie Supergirl
was released in the early 80s,

it was on the heels
of the success

of Superman
with Christopher Reeve,

a movie we know, and that was
the first big superhero movie

shown in theaters.

And what's interesting
about Supergirl

is seeing how a character

with exactly the same powers
and skills as Superman,

so, Supergirl, his cousin,

was not at all portrayed
in the same way

and did not do the same things.

When she arrives on Earth,
in order to try out her eyes,

the rays that beam out
from her eyes,

instead of destroying rocks
or something else as impressive,

she makes a little flower grow
using her eyes,

because of course, all girls
love flowers, don't they?

So, she makes a daisy grow
using her eyes.

And when Supergirl flies,

it's not fist forwards
like a warrior,

like a conqueror,
like Superman.

No, she flits,
she's very graceful,

probably because she did ballet
as a girl, like all girls,.

It's worth
mentioning that, for decades,

most superheroines
had been created by men.

Even Wonder Woman had to wait
40 years after her debut

for a woman to finally be able
to illustrate her adventures.

So, yes, I drew
the first Wonder Woman.

Why did it take so long?

Because comics, comic books,

have traditionally been
male-oriented.

I mean, she was created
by a man.

He was a super-feminist,
you know,

William Moulton Marston.

And he really... In fact,

I believe that he thought
women were better than men.

He was definitely
a super-feminist.

But she was created by a man,

and she had been written by men
and drawn by men,

because that was
the comics' tradition.

And I just happened to be around

when the tradition
was starting to be broken

and women were
finally, finally, very slowly,

getting into comics.

The door opened
by Trina Robbins

paved the way for women
to play a bigger role

in writing and illustrating
comic books.

So, I made the decision
to draw comics,

actually knowing nothing
about the industry

or how to do the job,

or the art
of sequential storytelling.

So, to sort of make it happen,
I just had to push myself

and learn as fast as possible,

make sure I was
challenging myself all the time,

asking a lot of questions,

sometimes
really dumb questions,

so that I could get informed
and get better.

And constantly drawing,

constantly trying to stick
to short jobs,

so that I could evolve quickly,

and making sure
that I put myself out there

and not be shy or embarrassed,

just be arrogant

about the potential
of my ability.

I don't know
that it was difficult for me

to break in as a woman,

and I know that my story
is a little unique in that way

because I know
a lot of my female peers

have had a slightly harder time,

or a much harder time,
depending.

For me, I think
it was a combination

of being a little older
when I started...

I was already in my late 20s,
early 30s, when I was starting.

...coupled with the fact that
being an Australian in America,

and also I'm kind of loud,
and bossy and tall.

And, so, people kind of were...

...a little surprised to see me.

While Supergirl's
first appearance in cinemas

was a missed opportunity,

another character stepped in

to represent women's rights
on the big screen.

Catwoman became
more than just a criminal.

I was moved by Catwoman

because her journey
is not cliché, to my mind.

Her story doesn't
give the impression

of showing a revelation
or a political act,

and, in the end,
it does become one

because no one wants
to show it.

In fact, Catwoman,

who was first
an enemy of Batman,

appeared before Miss Fury but
with a very different disguise.

She gradually drew inspiration
from Miss Fury

and finally acquired the
costume we know her to wear.

She most closely resembles
my own character.

I love her costume.

I love her whole personality.

I drew Catwoman
for 30 issues in a row.

That's 22 pages,
so that's 440...

660 pages of Catwoman.

I made those many pages

for two years and a half.

It was my daily job,
and it was super cool.

She is sexy, and at the same
time, she is quite free.

She has a bold personality.

She is independent.
I really like this character.

All the while,
she remains very feminine.

For me, Catwoman is Tim Burton.
It's Tim Burton,

and it's especially Michelle
Pfeiffer in Batman Returns.

That was around 1992.

She's really a superwoman
between good and evil.

She's a super-feminist,

she defends women
who are attacked in the streets,

and she defies Batman.

For me, she's the perfect
superheroine.

I think it's modern poetry,
actually.

It is about how
a being is suffocated

to the point of forgetting
they even exist,

and about how they awaken
to who they really are.

It's a bit cliché of course,

and it reflects the values
of the early 90s

so, women are represented
in a very particular way.

But at the end of the day,

because the character
is played by an actress

who is portrays her brilliantly,

it's not cliché after all.

And what's great about Catwoman

is the fact
that she has a real life.

She works, she has a boss,

and like many women in real life
and many people in real life,

she is harassed by her boss.
He throws her out the window,

so, of course, that's a bit
more extreme than in real life.

With Catwoman's character
in the movie by Tim Burton,

what's great is that
she actually reclaims

the artifices of femininity

and everything
that's supposed to oppress her,

like the clichés
that women sow,

that women have to be
gentle and sweet.

Catwoman, Selina Kyle,
actually, reclaims all that

to make her costume.

And we see it in
her amazing transformation scene

where she gets home

after being thrown out the
window by her boss, Max Shreck.

She gets home,
paints her whole house black,

brings out her sowing machine,
and makes her costume.

She reclaims what was a cliché
of traditional femininity

to make a weapon,

and she makes her costume
out of vinyl patchwork

and creates her claws
at the end of her fingers.

Her claws are made
of elements used for sowing,

sowing machine spools.

So, she really
reclaims everything

that makes up
the oppression of women.

And she rules the movie
by Tim Burton, in fact,

something that future Catwomen
won't do.

I remember the Tim Burton
movie, with Michelle Pfeiffer.

She was really, really sexy,
but elegant, too.

What interested me most
about superheroines

is that they are both
elegant and strong.

In the comics,
Catwoman, a.k.a. Selina Kyle,

started out
as a clearly corrupt criminal.

It was not until
about 30 years later

that she began to display
a more ambiguous attitude

and then was allowed to have
her own solo comics.

Since then, she is clearly
a more positive character,

with a role of her own
in Batman mythology.

My understanding
of the character

is that she's the queen
of Gotham

because she can beat the heroes,

because she's a villain,

and she can beat the villains
because she's a hero.

And she's the only one that
Batman is not going to beat up,

because Batman
is in love with her.

He deals with crazy people,

but the only sane person
in Gotham City is Selina Kyle.

And she fakes
to be crazy sometimes,

but she's in charge
of everything.

I like that about the character.
It's very deep.

You know,
someone like Catwoman,

who kind of weaponizes
her sex-appeal,

she's a character that
I would absolutely draw in...

...sexual and suggestive ways.

But not in a way
that's compromising to her,

because she's very much
in control.

But then, in the late 90s,
early 2000s,

Darwyn Cooke took Catwoman,

not changing her backstory,

but making her less sexualized

and more utilitarian.

Every single part of the costume
that he designed had a purpose.

Versus putting on high heels,
like we saw in the 90s.

She had boots,

she was wearing things
that a thief would need,

she had googles
to see in the dark.

So, you can see Catwoman change,

and she's a reflection
of the time that she's in,

just like other characters
that old.

Catwoman is a sexy character,

but she uses that,
she's in charge of it.

That's the difference.

She's not an object.
She's an actor.

Yes, she's sexy, of course,

and she uses that to tease
people, men and women.

But the line
between sexy and sexualisation

can be a very fine one.

Militant heroines claiming
ownership of their bodies

sometimes gives way
to clichés.

What annoys me
is having to represent women

through hyper-sexualized
objects.

In everyday life
that just doesn't help us.

When I work
on younger characters,

I try to be respectful

because we have a serious
problem as a society, I think,

with the hypersexualization
of women,

and especially teenage women.

We have top models
that are 14 years old.

Those are kids.

They don't know about things.

They're not allowed to vote,

and they are selling stuff.

I tend to think

that things mustn't be
all of one or all of the other.

Room must be made for stuff.

Of course, is the
objectification of characters,

who aren't always of age,
not a little controversial?

We've beauty standards
that are absolutely impossible.

I remember Cindy Crawford,

the top model in the 90s,
saying,

"Oh, I would love so much
to look like Cindy Crawford."

It's impossible.

There's a song by Ladytron.

They sing, "You're only funny
when you're 17."

"When you're 21, you're no fun."

And we are selling that.

That's not fine as a society.

And as a comic book artist,

you have to know how to draw
a 16-year-old woman.

So, the girl has to be pretty,
she has to show cleavage...

You have to have
a whole list of things

that will really sexualize
the character.

It's very hard
to handle certain things,

like the fact of not looking
like that famous Power Girl

with her big breasts,
dressed in a body,

looking amazing and having
a lot of people drool.

We're in a moment
of our history

that we have to know
what we are playing with.

And we're playing with 50% of
the world population's feelings.

You know, it's not fair!

When I work on female
characters, whoever they are,

I generally always try
to find their humanity.

It's more of an inner
representation.

I work on micro expressions
a lot.

I work on the expression of
character and strength a lot.

I try to give
a great deal of majesty

to the characters I represent.

But there is still this thing

with your basic superheroine
having to be pretty and sexy,

and that bothers me a little.

Whenever a woman
in our society...

looks far from
the beauty standards,

the impossible beauty standards
that we have,

whenever a woman gets there,
she's not worthy.

And it's absurd!

I feel like there are
some female characters

whose sex-appeal is very much
part of their personality.

And, for those characters,

I'm interested in finding

the different flavors of female
sexuality and sensuality

that are appropriate
to that specific character.

But there are
other female characters

where I find it
really inappropriate.

There certainly was
a whole period

when female characters,
in particular,

were shown
in very improbable poses.

Especially on covers

with that traditional pose
called the "broke back".

There are characters
that I couldn't...

that I wouldn't like to draw,
because...

Well.

Some characters
don't inspire me.

They just wear too few clothes.

At first, I was very inspired
by male artists to draw women,

the interpretation of women.

My vision was very masculine.

A character like Wonder Woman,

who is beautiful, and is sexy,
and is empowered,

she's not someone

who I would necessarily
be doing a butt shot of,

because she represents a
different kind of feminine power

and a different kind

of feminine sexuality

of sex-appeal.

It was very sexy,
very accentuated

in terms of appearance and pose.

It wasn't that natural.

I wanted keep that sexy side

because that's what I like most
about male characters,

but in a more natural,
less forced way.

There are things
that I couldn't draw

because I find them overkill.

Like those poses showing
the character's bottom.

It looks misshapen.

The body is not natural.

Superheroines have therefore

sometimes been looked upon
as bimbos.

But things started to change

as more female writers
and readers

made their voices heard.

The injustice
began to be redressed

through projects that reinvent
and restore a forgotten past.

Women have been fighting
for a long time,

and it is time
to point that out.

In this regard,
the modern comic DC Bombshells

is rewriting history

by giving the principal heroines
in DC Comics

the lead role in World War II.

I've worked on the DC Bombshells
heroines for DC Comics.

It's a very special project

because it's not every day
that you're asked

to improvise heroines
from the 40s,

to draw something

that's supposed to work
in the context of the 40s.

When I started working
for DC Comics,

the Bombshells project was
still in its development stage.

I saw it come alive
and grow before my very eyes.

So, all the superheroes
in the DC world

have been reinvented,

with clothes, contextualizations

and references
to a historical period

that more or less goes
from the 1920s to the 1950s.

Therefore, everything we find
in the Bombshells world

is determined
by a specific historical period.

And the nice thing is that

each character is reinvented in
relation to their specific role.

Working on Bombshells
was an amazing experience

because, like I said,

heroines from the 1940s
have largely been forgotten,

except for Wonder Woman

who lasted well beyond
that era.

And then,
we added modern heroines

who were reinvented
to adapt to the 1940s.

I had the privilege
of creating the designs

for a number of these characters
from scratch with Ant Lucia,

a very good colleague,

who is involved
in the development

of the entire
DC Bombshells world.

I was also offered
to create statues

and DC Bombshells-version busts

of Supergirl, Mera,
and Wonder Woman,

restyled according
to a particular concept

evoking the various sectors
of the American army.

One of the characteristics found
in the Bombshells characters

is a reference, by analogy, to
the poster of Rosie the Riveter.

You can see it in the statues
of Supergirl and Wonder Woman,

represented with
that classic gesture

of raised arm and closed fist,
as a sign of courage,

to convey the idea
that we can do anything.

This concept is inseparable
from the Bombshells.

Their job is
to encourage enthusiasm,

to send a positive message
to people,

the message that
we can all roll up our sleeves

and move on
at any point in our life

and face any difficulty.

I think that the combination
of Supergirl and Wonder Woman

is perfect for expressing
that concept

and that it fully represents
the spirit of the Bombshells.

Marvel's Black Widow

was born out of another
conflict, the Cold War.

She starts out
as a dangerous Soviet spy

before redeeming herself and
going over to the heroes' side.

But her popularity with the
general public remained limited

until she began to appear
in cinemas

alongside Iron Man
and the Avengers.

At first, Black Widow
is incredible,

and then, as time goes by,

a few small things
shift her back onto the rails

of a more admissible
femininity.

She starts taking care
of Hawkeye's baby,

she takes an interest
in how people are doing.

She's involved with care,
with how people are doing,

while Iron Man, Thor,
and Captain America

sort out
the world's real problems.

It also presents a problem

because the characters'
costumes in the movies

are much more elaborate
than the original costumes.

For example,
if you look at Black Widow,

her costume basically
is just a black leather jumpsuit

with bracelets, the belt,
and that's it.

The jumpsuit she wears
in the movie

has lots of little seams
everywhere, accessories...

In Age of Ultron,

she suddenly becomes the one
who has to appease the Hulk,

who has to pat his hand.

In a scene where she is opposed
to the Hulk, to Bruce Banner,

she even describes herself
as a monster

because she can't
have children.

It's completely unbelievable.

The issue of refusing or being
unable to become a mother

comes up at that point
in Black Widow's story

and makes her a monster,
which is just staggering.

In France,

film director Simon Astier
created Hero Corp,

a television series
that turned out to be so popular

as to be turned
into a comic book.

The comedy series
describes the adventures

of very French supermen.

There aren't many superheroines
in HeroCorp.

In my writing today,
I do things differently.

I think it's to counter
that pattern.

What I did
with my last projects,

specifically to counter
that law

or way of doing things,

was write characters that
I find cool, stylish, and funny,

and give them names at the end.

I also tried to create
other characters,

female characters,

that are double-sided

with a cool side
and a darker side.

The first movies
featuring superheroines,

far from successful,

were booed and ignored by the
general public and by critics.

There was a saying in Hollywood

to the effect that superwomen
movies were guaranteed to bomb.

Real filmmaking success
began to happen

when Wonder Woman finally
appeared on the big screen,

and shortly after
in films of her own.

I decided to make
this Wonder Woman costume

for a competition at Japan Expo.

That choice was based
on an idea I'd had

for a performance
with the character.

I wanted to create something
that could really move on stage,

and we were in full
Wonder Woman craze.

The movie had just
been released.

And superheroines were something
I was interested in.

She remains an icon.

When you see her, you can hardly
mistake her for someone else.

In the movie by Patty Jenkins,

Wonder Woman is also
a feminist.

I think that can be argued,

even if it's a much more
tender, soft kind of feminism

compared to Lynda Carter
and the 70s version

where it was really displayed,
explicit and really stated.

Wonder Woman is justice.

I mean, she fights for truth,

she has her Lasso of Truth
to which no one can lie.

In the movie by Patty Jenkins,

Wonder Woman still has the idea

of making the world
a better place,

with as little violence
as possible it seems,

even if she does fight.

It's a lot more low-key
than in the series.

Despite her very powerful,
"nothing can touch me" side,

she does have
an inner sensitivity

and something that makes her
a bit human.

Even if...

Well, if I were to take a bullet
in the shoulder,

I'd burst into tears!

What's interesting
about the film by Patty Jenkins

is the way
she films Wonder Woman.

Unlike Zack Snyder, she doesn't
focus on her buttocks,

with tons of shots of Wonder
Woman viewed from behind

when she's fighting,
for example.

Patty Jenkins takes
a greater interest

in everything that has to do
with actual action.

So, she focuses on Wonder
Woman's biceps, her calves...

She also films her views
from the front and in motion.

Like that incredible scene

where Wonder Woman
runs through the trenches,

with wide, front shots of her
in full motion.

The Boys,
a comic book series

by Garth Ennis
and Darick Robertson,

is a blithe pastiche
of the Justice League.

But under false airs
of trashy parody,

room is given to a feminist
message through two superwomen,

cynical Queen Maeve
and innocent Starlight.

The concept has become a hit
TV series on Amazon Prime.

Even The Boys talk
about girls!

As far as the women

and how they're treated
in the original Boys comic,

the idea back then
that Garth had

was inspired by true stories
from the 1930s

about Hollywood casting couches

and the way women were treated
back in the day.

Queen Maeve is not Wonder Woman.

She just does things like Wonder
Woman would do with her powers.

But she's not Wonder Woman

because Wonder Woman has
a good heart, a good soul,

and cares about people,

and Queen Maeve
is shattered inside.

The conversation that,
in the comic,

Starlight and Queen Maeve have

when she first meets her after
she's throwing up in the toilet

and runs into Queen Maeve
in the bathroom,

that was based on
a real conversation

between Marilyn Monroe and
Bette Davis that Garth had read,

where Marilyn Monroe
said to Bette Davis,

"Oh, I'm so happy to meet you,
I'm your biggest fan!"

And Bette Davis told her
to fuck off.

In the television show,
they're doing a great job

of updating that concept
to a more socially aware world,

where Starlight is
fighting back a little bit more,

and she's not as victimized.

And Queen Maeve is a little bit
more sensitive to the fact

that, you know, she's not going
to make it easy on her

but at the same time, Queen
Maeve is more sympathetic

to what Starlight
is going through.

While Wonder Woman
and her variations

began to appear on-screen,

Marvel profoundly reinvented
another heroine, Carol Danvers.

Divested of her identity
as Ms. Marvel,

she was promoted
to Captain Marvel

with a less tight-fitting
costume

and a soaring popularity.

When I started working
with Captain Marvel,

I had conversations
with Kelly Sue DeConnick.

She worked her ass off to make
her from a very small character

to something huge.

For a couple of years,
maybe three,

she went to all the conventions
in the tour.

She wanted a character
that's power in the best ways.

I think that sometimes,
people make comparisons

between Captain Marvel
and Wonder Woman.

But that's wrong.

Captain Marvel is Superman.

In the comparison,
she's the strongest one,

the fairest one,
the best human being possible,

and she knows
that if she's that powerful,

she must be good.

It's like, "With great powers
comes great responsibility."

And today, Captain Marvel
sends out a stronger message

that "I'm a woman and I take
care of myself in this world,

today, as I am."

"I'm a woman
and I take care of myself."

She's never threatening unless
she must threaten somebody.

She knows people can fail,

because she has failed
so many times.

I think she's a good example
for people,

not only for women of course.

A hero is not the one who flies.

A hero is the one who, when
he falls down, he gets up again.

You're never beat until the
moment you don't get up again.

And that's the thing
about Captain Marvel.

She's been an alcoholic.

She's been through a lot
of crazy shit.

In the movies, Captain Marvel

sort of embodies the message
driven home by Wonder Woman

that yes, female superheroes
can carry a film

and be box office hits.

Did you think
that being a cosplayer

was just about the costume?
Think again.

While it's true
that reproducing costumes

is technically difficult,
there's also a moral challenge.

Wearing these
heroines' clothes

also means
representing their values.

From the moment you become
Wonder Woman or Captain Marvel,

that also involves another form
of heroism.

I found out about Captain Marvel
through her movie.

And then I said to myself,

"I have to start reading the
comics in which she appears."

After fighting my body
for a long time,

because, if I may say so,
I used to be obese,

I lost weight and I said,

"I too, one day, will not be
vulgar, for one thing,

and for another,
I will wear a morph suit

and interpret
a strong heroine."

She's just great.

She's really amazing

because she's a character
that reveals nothing.

We get the feeling
she keeps everything to herself,

she's very sensitive.

And I thought,
"Yes, she's you, really,"

because I really compared myself

to the actress's attitude
in the movie,

and in fact, we have a lot
of things in common,

even in terms of my personality.

I had to make
my very own Captain Marvel.

So, my costume
is 100% designed...

in here.

It's my very own creation.

It's my Captain Marvel.

The position she's in
at the end of the movie

when she sends her former boss
packing, when she beats him up

and tells him,
"I have nothing to prove,"

that's kind of how I feel.

Today, I have nothing to prove.

I've taken a 180 degree turn.

It's the same with work.

I made certain decisions
a year ago,

and it really coincided
with the moment

when I decided to play Captain
Marvel's character in cosplay.

Captain Marvel,

from an economic and strategic
point of view,

is very important because
she gives the green light,

somehow, to other projects

and to the possibility of having
superheroines in movies.

And she's a message
sent out to producers too,

telling them to go ahead.

Over the past 15 years,

female cosplayers
have become more present

in geek festivals than men.

They have profoundly changed
an atmosphere

that until recently
was mostly masculine.

Female readers
used to feel isolated

in a hobby for boys.

But when young women cosplayers

began to appear
as Oracle, Starfire, or Raven,

their presence
changed the rules.

Thanks to cosplay,
women have gained

increasing visibility
in comic book culture.

When we cosplay,
there's the character aspect

but there also the challenge
of the costume.

I hadn't made armors
in a very long time,

I wanted to test new materials,

so my costume became
a matter of course.

What's cool in cosplay

is that it involves more
than just the conventions.

Yes, we have the photoshoots
and the interviews,

but then there are
the hospitals.

I would like to create a group
of people or something,

to go and visit
those poor children

or even adult enthusiasts
or people who are suffering.

Success changes everything.

For a long time,

the point was to give heroines
a place in comics.

But now that this place
is acquired,

variety can be brought
to these women's profiles.

Rather than fitting
a unique model,

superwomen are unlimited
in their types.

This provides room
for diversity,

including for characters
that have been around for ages.

The first superheroine I
followed as a kid was She-Ra.

I think everyone remembers
the Masters of the Universe.

For me, the first superheroine
was She-Ra.

I became so enthusiastic
about this genre,

this fantasy genre,

in which the protagonist
isn't a damsel in distress

but the person
in charge of her own actions

and with the power
to save people.

I think it's something that has
brought me to perceive women

as unlimited
in what they can do.

It's true that I was impressed
by She-Ra

because it was
a rather revolutionary cartoon

in the sense that...

Careful, spoiler!

...the female protagonist
ends up with a woman.

Today, I've come out, and that's
why I did She-Ra because...

Like I said, my cosplay therapy
always matches something,

and She-Ra matched
my coming out.

Supergirl also evolved.

No longer just Superman's
unassuming cousin,

living in his shadow,
she began to be described

as having come to Earth
to protect her cousin.

Today, she even has
her own TV series,

in which Superman starts out
as a secondary character.

Supergirl is acquiring
new relevance

and becoming a positive symbol
for young girls.

Supergirl...

Well, I'm not a huge fan
of Superman and that world,

but I liked Supergirl

because she's was
a bit different, a bit younger.

For me,
Supergirl symbolizes hope.

It's the symbol
she wears on her chest.

She's also a young character,

quite juvenile
in the ways she responds

to the world in which she lives.

She doesn't react like Superman,
for instance.

She's a bit rough around
the edges, a bit hotheaded.

Supergirl is the first
important superheroine

in my life

because the first major title
I worked on

for DC Comics was Supergirl.

She opened the door to the vista
of the whole DC world for me.

And I liked her from the start,

maybe because
when I began to draw her,

we were pretty much the same
age, Supergirl and I.

To me, she was very clear
as a character.

I understood her well,

because she was my age

and I assumed she could do
the same things I did,

have the same friends
I hung out with.

For me, representing her
almost came from the gut

because I didn't have to study
much for her.

She's also
a very sunny character,

and I like that positive side
she embodies.

I think that, in the series,

that aspect of her
is very well represented.

What's nice is that the audience
is very different,

not necessarily people
who are comics fans,

but pretty much anyone can
recognize this character

from her symbol.

So, it's fun to play her

because you can really reach
and bond with everyone,

with children too.

You can see a lot more
in this character

than just
a super-strong heroine

that is an absolute symbol
or something like that.

While Batwoman
was an uninspiring variation

of Batman in the 50s,

she was entirely reinvented
in the early 2000s

as a much more competent
and modern character.

An LGBT heroine

claiming ownership
of her own place in Gotham.

Batwoman is
exactly the same thing.

She's a symbol.

But she's a symbol for
the entire LGBT community.

And, at the same time,

she's gone through almost
the same evolution as Supergirl.

In the 50s,

Batwoman was not represented
in the way she is now.

Rather like Supergirl,

she wasn't charismatic
or a feminist.

She used all sorts
of rather useless accessories,

like her famous eyeshadow.

She was also
just Batman's sidekick, really,

and, for the same reason,
here to develop the Bat Family.

But in the early 2000s...

It was in 2006 that Greg Rucka,
the screenwriter,

created that character.

...we are poles apart
from the 50s Batwoman.

She becomes a very strong,
very charismatic character,

she's a soldier,
part of the army,

and she goes through a lot
of terrible things in her life.

That's the character
that appealed to me,

even with regard
to my own experience,

and that helped me
move forward,

especially with regard
to her own sexuality

and her own personal journey.

Today, we have Batwoman, who's
in a relationship with a woman.

It's a cause of mine,

not only women in movies
but also homosexuality,

and I think it is important
to say it.

And today, things are
being taken even further.

To me, LGBT representation
in comics is essential

because it brings diversity
to comics,

even if that diversity
has always been there.

What was impossible in 1941,

when Wonder Woman's creator

only implied
the heroine's bisexuality,

is, today, explicit
in many titles.

She-Ra and Batwoman aren't
the only characters concerned.

Even Marvel's Asgard takes
an interest in LGBT issues.

Angela is
a pansexual character.

She's in a relationship
with a trans woman,

who was developed
for the series.

She's Thor
and Loki's forgotten sister.

There was
no particular pressure.

With Kieron and Jimenez,

we tried to deal with
the question rather quickly

because that wasn't
the most important point.

The character is important

but that particular story
isn't the focus.

Their collective story
is the focus.

She's a character
like any other,

with a background
like everyone else.

That's one of the things
I appreciate the most,

I have always been given free
rein to interpret things my way.

I was never asked to reframe
things one way or another.

Alters, a series
by Paul Jenkins and Leila Leiz,

issued by independent publisher
Aftershock,

also addresses these issues

through the prism
of superheroes.

Alters is the story
of a young boy, Charlie,

who is transitioning
to become a woman.

In the meantime,
he also discovers

that he has special powers.

And as he's in that transition
to become a woman,

he transforms into Chalice
to do justice in the city.

Diversity also
means differences in appearance

as well as in tone
and story type.

Who would have thought
that one day

we would meet a superwoman
with squirrel powers?

At the same time,

there's a lot of superheroes
who don't have that standard,

that unrealistic proportions
that they had in the 90s,

and they find
their audience too.

For example, Squirrel Girl
is a college student

who's drawn, these days,
a little bigger,

not tiny-waisted,

the way characters
in the 90s were drawn.

I found out about her
in the comics,

and, for me,
she was completely kitsch.

A woman with squirrel powers,
to me, was completely absurd.

What are your superpowers?

Well, I have squirrel powers

and I can beat the biggest
bad guys in the Marvel world.

But she's also intelligent
enough to build strategies

to defeat bad guys

that no other character
has managed to overcome.

Following in
Captain Marvel's footsteps,

a number of heroines

are claiming equality
with male heroes

by replacing them.

In comics, Jane Foster,
Thor's former fiancée,

ended up taking on her friend's
identity and powers.

And Wolverine, for a few years,

took a back seat
to a female clone,

his biological daughter
of sorts.

Sometimes,
a character takes the mantle

of another superhero.

We have seen it in Thor.

We have seen it in Wolverine.

The point is that,

lately,
there's a reactionary movement

against women becoming powerful,

having their part of power,
the part they deserve.

And they get angry

because now Wolverine can be
a woman for a while.

But they didn't complain
when Thor was a frog.

And Thor was a frog
for some time,

and nobody cared about that!

I think it's OK as long
as the story is a good story.

And All-New Wolverine
was a good story.

I think that

the perfect image of superheroes
was readjusted over the years.

They began to be designed
as more human

in terms of appearance.

I remember Ms. Marvel.

As the years went by,

she was
completely revolutionized

to become closer to a concept
of someone we could meet

in our neighborhood, someone we
could meet at the supermarket.

And I think
that's a very beautiful thing.

Carol Danvers
abandoned the name Ms. Marvel

in order for her
to better become Captain,

and the Ms. Marvel identity

was attributed
to a young, modern heiress

in Marvel's first
regular series

with a Muslim female
protagonist.

Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan,
is really a small revolution.

She was even a big revolution

at the time
when she first appeared.

She was everywhere.

It was amazing to see a new
generation of heroines arrive

and represent a new generation
of female readers too.

She's a young Pakistani
and Muslim girl,

created by two Muslim women.

At the time, when she appeared
in the Marvel world,

it was a small revolution,

not only because her character
didn't exist before that point,

but also because she reached
a new readership.

Other people,
other female readers,

began to take an interest
in this type of heroine,

and it really revolutionized,
in a way,

the comic's readership
at the time.

Maybe a Muslim girl
might find herself

sharing stories of Ms. Marvel

more than sharing stories
about Captain America and stuff.

But I think...

I like the growth, but it should
only be the beginning.

Diversity can be
achieved at any level.

There is room for heroines such
as Kamala Khan or Squirrel Girl,

but also for more cynical
female characters

marked by life,
such as Jessica Jones.

Jessica Jones is superheroine
meets American film detective.

To me, she's really
a true-fake superheroine.

She's a heroine adapted
from a comic for Netflix,

but she's been adapted
by a woman

who has, to my mind,
brought new balance to things

compared to the comics.

A woman who has changed
a few things.

She doesn't wear a sexy costume
in the series.

She won't smile,

and so, she's actually
an anti-supergirl.

In Jessica Jones,

the first bad guy
sent against her is Kilgrave,

a man who invades her thoughts
and forces her to do things.

And even if it's not
very explicit in the series,

it seems that Kilgrave raped
and assaulted Jessica Jones

before we meet her
in the series.

So, Jessica Jones is a very
modern series and character

because if she raises
the issue of consent,

she raises the issue of rape.

What Kilgrave forces her to do
is smile.

He tells her, "Smile."

as Jessica Jones' smile
is a mark of her submission.

It's why she refuses to smile

for a very long time
in the series

and it's why, for her, smiling
is a form of domination.

Be it in the movies
or in real life,

there's always this thing
about women having to smile,

to be nice, to be cute.
Jessica Jones rejects all that.

At the end
of our trip, it is clear

that 80 years after Miss Fury
and Wonder Woman were created,

superheroines have become
a phenomenon

representing many profiles
of women.

A female comic book artist
in San Francisco

now speaks
much the same language

as other female artists
in Rome or Toulouse.

New heroines
are created every month

and are gradually helping
to make up

for decades of lost time.

As long as injustice remains,

superwomen will be there
to fight it.

Today, I think we are seeing
a reversing trend,

and we now have
interesting heroines.

We started off

with more female customers
than male customers here,

from 2017.

Whatever the direction
comics were going,

we were benefitting from
it being more open to others.

I think the representation
of women in comics,

both in the stories
as characters and as creators,

has been problematic
in the past

but it's getting
better and better.

The reader is not
the traditional male reader.

The fanbase really shifted
in the last ten years.

I think around 2009, 2010,

there was a definite shift
in the fanbase

towards a more
female-dominated group.

We are not an exception.

I am convinced that a great many
of us in the world read comics.

We realize that the girls
can save the day for the guys,

that they can succeed in
finding the necessary solution

to solving one problem
or another.

Today we have our place
in comics and that's beautiful.

It's nice to see girls and
superheroines finally come along

and prove that
they're just as strong as men.

That does feel good.

There are
a lot of female writers,

a lot of female artists,
a lot of female editors.

The era of Supergirl, Catwoman,
Elektra characters,

who were box office duds,
is over.

Now, money can be made
with superwomen,

and I think that's helping
to start new projects

with such characters.

There's a huge female audience

and so, I think
that's really exciting.

It's make comics better.

We're in an era where the girls
are taking their place.

They will be our kids' heroes.

I think there is a wide variety
of superheroes

of different races, and ages,
and genders,

but it is only the beginning,
I think.

Superheroines of tomorrow

will be invented by young
female readers of today,

just as Trina Robbins
or Nicola Scott

once admired these characters
before starting to draw them.

Today, young girls in turn
are passionately interested

in Wonder Woman
and Captain Marvel.

They will be the ones to carry
the torch into the future.

The reign of superwomen
is far from over!