Disclaimer - I don’t think about this stuff all that much, but this one stuck me as odd. And no, that’s really not Black Canary’s hand talking a la Cartman’s in South Park with Ben Affleck.
Quick – name the one thing that characterized Marvel’s Hank Pym for years - decades even.
Right the first time – he hit his wife, Janet Pym. In anger. It was a pretty horrible thing when it happened, and its echoes got worse and worse. In his (limited) defense – he did have mental problems. But yet – that domestic abuse reverberated, and was often used as the short-hand characterization for Hank, while being the “thing she had to get over” or otherwise motivation for some of Janet’s stories and character development.
That was in the early ‘80s.
Fast forward to the next century. Last week, as a matter of fact, Justice League of America #31. Fourth page. Black Canary sucker punches her husband in the face in front of a witness (Green Lantern). Now let’s break this down a little more - she’s a trained martial artist – one of the deadliest in the world. He’s a man in prime physical condition who is knocked down by the hit. When he tries to joke it off, she threatens him with “Don’t make me smack you again.”
Her reason for hitting him? “Embarrassing me.”
To be totally clinical about it - she struck him with a closed fist, in anger when he was not expecting it, knocking him down.
(a side note: This part of the story takes place after James Robison’s Justice League #1, when Green Lantern has left the JLA to form his own team that is after its own brand of justice and Green Arrow has joined him. No – you haven’t missed it. This issue of JLA comes out before the issue it references, but yet occurs after that issue. Right now, it looks like Justice League won’t be out before July, so just keep this issue hanging around while you’re waiting if you want to refer back to it.)
Back to the main point here. While we’re traveling in time, let’s visit any episode of Fox’s Cops over the past 15 years:
Officer: Why did you hit your spouse?
Suspect: They embarrassed me in front of my friends.
Officer: And when they were down, did you threaten to hit them again?
Suspect: Yes sir.
Officer: Right. Let’s go (followed by the reading of the suspect’s Miranda rights).
For the last piece of this thought exercise, flip the players. Instead of Black Canary – the woman – punching her husband – Green Arrow – in the face for embarrassing her and threatening to hit him again, play it out the other way around. Black Canary leaves the Justice League to form her own team, and Green Arrow, angry about being embarrassed, punches her in the face in front of a witness, knocking her down, and threatens to hit her again.
Why is the first one apparently played for laughs (see Green Lantern’s “one punch!” expression, the goofy sound effect that’s part of the art and the stars nearby) but the flipside would be a horrific, character assassinating version of superhero domestic abuse?
I’m not looking at this scene as a critique of Justice League as a series at all, but rather wondering why this scene is acceptable, and managed to pass through the script and editorial process with the seal of approval, and yet, had the roles in the scene been reversed…it most likely wouldn’t have.
To be totally fair, Green Arrow and Black Canary do have a discussion afterwards, but you know what? So do many of the couples on Cops before Bobby Ray is taken to the pokey for the night to sleep it off.
As said, I don’t dwell on these things nearly as much as others, so what’s going on here? Why’s this played for laughs, but the flipside would surely have the blogosphere screaming? Yeah, yeah, Green Arrow and Black Canary have an… interesting relationship, but physical abuse in front of a witness and family friend is acceptable? And no, I’m not buying the suggestion that a punch to to Green Arrow’s head by a trained martial artist who is also his wife is something “different” given his and his wife’s occupation, thus the knockdown was no more than a loving slap on the ass or sock on the shoulder when one is “mock-angry” with a close friend or relationship. That idea starts to erode other aspects of a superhero universe that need to stand for the whole thing to work.
What also kind of really weirds me out is that this issue is approved by the Comics Code Authority, which sends an interesting message in and of itself, not to mention the fact that the seal gives a level of third party, objective approval to a character who hits her husband in the head first because she’s angry at him, and then talks to him later. Have we really sunk so low as a society that this is how the Comics Code thinks our heroes should act? That a wife punching her husband in the head when you’re mad at them instead of talking to them is acceptable behavior?
Not to mention Green Lantern sits back doing nothing. A hero, witnessing domestic abuse sits by and does nothing. That whole message is just…weird.
Thoughts? What am I missing here?
Hopefully, at the very least, we’re not looking at twenty years worth of stories drawing this out, and playing Green Arrow as a victim and Black Canary as an abuser.
March 30th, 2009 at 8:21 am
I wouldn’t say it’s been totally ignored - 4thletter! called it out, as did a number of people back when the same thing happened in the Wedding Special (except there it led straight to coitus - get it, fighting and fucking are just SO SIMILAR WE ARE SO CLEVER!). I’m glad somebody with a bigger soapbox called this out, though, because this is seriously completely ridiculous.
March 30th, 2009 at 8:28 am
The tone of this sequence was way off. If you read Captain America this week, there was a situation where Natasha was upset with Bucky over something and gave him a “sock”. Reading that after this, made this feel even worse.
March 30th, 2009 at 8:59 am
It’s a funny world we leave in isn’t it. Because if Green Arrow had complained, it would have made him feminine.
March 30th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Physical violence against a spouse is never funny in my book. Never mind which spouse hit the other. We can fight against each other in martial arts class, but at no other time. Period. Hubby and I have survived 31+ years of marriage with this agreement.
March 30th, 2009 at 9:38 am
Black Widow playfully punched Bucky in the shoulder. I wouldn’t read too much into it
March 30th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Note: I’m not talking about real life here, or even another kind of fiction. Just the superhero genre.
Physical violence is how superheroes relate to each other. If they have differences, they tend to punch it out. Thus it has ever been. It’s a convention of the genre. It’s actually pretty messed up if you think about it for two seconds, but there it is. Anyway, I think the real problem here is that the Wasp didn’t hit Hank back all those years ago. If she had, it would have been just another superhero story. But oh no; someone had to try to get realistic about it, and now we’re stuck with two contradictory standards.
March 30th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Monetta, I think Pedro was bringing that up as an example of couples playfulness done realistically without being domestic violence, not as another example of, well, superhero domestic violence.
March 30th, 2009 at 10:33 am
I personally think this was just as offensive had it been written in reverse. Physical violence against a spouse is NOT funny at all and shouldn’t be portrayed as such in any medium, especially in comics where teens can see it and think it’s okay. I’m very surprised the CCA approved of this too.
March 30th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I haven’t read this issue, but can it be a case of an oppressed group turning the tables on the oppressor? A sort of humorous inversion?
Sometimes women do physically abuse their significant others, but most case of domestic violence result from men’s violence on women and seeing the tables turned might be empowering. On the other hand, while empowering such portrayals arguably reproduce the patterns they claim to fight against.
Another possible point against a positive reading is the point that “if Green Arrow complains then he is feminine.” Maybe the scene’s humor relies on stereotypes of men’s and women’s gender roles not female empowerment.
Cheers,
Bob
March 30th, 2009 at 11:11 am
I do see a total double standard, much in the way that a male teacher getting with a student is deplorable, but a female teacher in the same situation is hot.
Somehow the sucker punch has become effective storytelling (Batman and Hal Jordan in recent books with each other), but it strikes me as lazy. Had Canary shoved Arrow Elaine Benes-style (”Shut. UP!!!”), maybe it would’ve come across as more funny like “I’m pissed at you, but I love you.” Instead the sucker punch she delivered was petty, unprofessional, and suggested that League leadership is more than she can handle.
March 30th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Wow.
I don’t read JLA, so I hadn’t heard this. Why hadn’t I heard this? Why aren’t the comics news sites making a bigger deal about this? Without the greater context, it may be a little difficult to pick up on the subtext of the scene, I understand that. But GL just stands there? Really?
Wow.
On the other hand, super-heros punch each other and make up all the time. I don’t know what the very first team-up was, but it probably had the format of:
1. Heroes punch each other.
2. Heroes team up to fight bad guys.
So heroes punching each other doesn’t bother me. But this is a husband and wife. Somehow, it’s really creepy.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Role reversal - always funny.
Movie about woman being a housewife and having a problem watching the kids, and the successful husband may be having an affair - not funny.
Movie about a GUY being a house-husband and having a problem watching the kids, and his successful WIFE may be having an affair - comedy gold.
If a man hits a woman, it’s a crime. If a woman hits a man, it’s empowering.
I mean really, if Rhianna had laid the smack down on Chris Brown, would there have been a single person feeling for him?
“Physical violence against a spouse is never funny in my book.”
-Dolores winging a frying pan at Ed Wood in the eponymous film
-ANY installment of Maggie and Jiggs
-One of these days, Alice, ONE OF THESE DAYS…
ANYTHING can be funny.
But thank you for adding “in my book”, which makes it personal opinion, and as such unassailable.
March 30th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
If Rihanna beat the shit out of Chris Brown so hard that his entire face was a contorted mess, then yes, I think people would probably feel that was not especially funny.
March 30th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
It’s not that far off from Hank Pym hitting the Wasp, both were out of anger it seems, neither was right. Nice message to send to that ever coveted “child fan base” everyone seems to pander to.
MZ
March 30th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
This isn’t the first time Canary has clocked Green Arrow out of personal slight. I know she did it a couple of years ago in GREEN ARROW, the think after she learned he had slept with another woman. She hit him so hard that he landed on the floor. Obviously, if the roles were reversed and Ollie punched Dinah for sleeping with another man, you would hear howls of protest from people like Johanna Draper Carlson and others who criticize comics from an ideologically feminist perspective. Have we heard from her recently about this latest Dinah smacks down Ollie incident?
March 30th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
It would be fascinating to see a JLA or GA/Black Canary writer follow up on this. Perhaps this is part of an unseen history of violent overreactions by Black Canary that the rest of the heroes have just been ignoring because they don’t know how to face it. “What happened to your eye, Speedy?” “Oh, that? Uh, gee, Deathstroke must have got in a lucky shot. Yeah. Heh, heh. Don’t worry about.”
March 31st, 2009 at 4:37 am
“If Rihanna beat the shit out of Chris Brown so hard that his entire face was a contorted mess, then yes, I think people would probably feel that was not especially funny.”
——————————————————-
Chris Brown beating Rihanna: Lots of guys saying he needs his ass kicked for it.
Rihanna beating Chris Brown: It would’ve let to a bunch of (the same) dudes chuckling and saying, “Well if he couldn’t stop her he deserved the beatdown.”
I’m not saying its right. I *am* saying that’s definitely what would’ve happened.
Also. You’ve discovered a double standard. One of many, and one of many that’s not going away anytime soon, folks. Sorry. Personally, I had a nice little chuckle about it, and yes I would’ve been horrified if it’d been the other way around, which is I realize is ridiculous because Ollie on his best day could *never* defend himself against Dinah if she ever got really angry.
March 31st, 2009 at 6:46 am
There are a lot of people who will spend time and energy denouncing “misogyny” and “racism” and calling for those they find guilty to be exiled from polite society, and many of them have absolutely no problem with indulging their own prejudices. I’ve recently concluded that they really don’t notice themselves doing it. Which is interesting for psychologists but doesn’t make them any less culpable.
March 31st, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I 100% agree with this double standard. However, my first thought was how out of character and unnecessary that was for Dinah. Sure when she cheated on him and she hit him she was hurt but that Dinah and this Dinah are two different people in my opinion. She’s grown a lot since then. Gail Simone built her up to be one of the best fighters on the planet. And now? She gets almost taken out by some two bit thief in GA/BC and punches her husband for going behind her back ;x That whole scene was poorly done.
March 31st, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Women being able to hit men and it be funny is not a double standard. That assumes that men and women under present social conditions are equal or nearly so. But they are not. The prevalence of male on female rape and domestic abuse is enough of an indicator that men (as a gender) oppress women (as a gender). In this context, an oppressed person striking back at an oppressor esp. in self-defense can be empowering and funny. That’s not to say such violence is free of problems, but it is not hypocritical.
Complaining about women hitting significant others is like privileged white boys whining “why can’t we say the n-word if they do?” So, why not quit whining and start working to end domestic and sexual violence if a comic book portrayal of a women punching her husband bothers you so much?
April 1st, 2009 at 1:38 am
Other Bob totally nailed it.
We don’t live in a world where domestic abuse figures are equal. Men are the overwhelming majority of abusers. Period. If we ever live in a world where that number approaches anything resembling equal—when men who beat women are as rare as women who beat men—then you can start making a big deal out of things like this story created by men (primarily) for men.
Getting huffy over a fictional “husband-battering” in a medium that is overwhelmingly male-oriented is insulting to real victims of abuse.
April 1st, 2009 at 5:22 am
You know what Matt, this really feels like you’re stirring the pot in order to drive traffic to the site. That may not have been your intent but it sure feels like it.
Black Canary and Hal Jordan have been hitting Green Arrow since the 1970’s, and now it becomes an issue? In the funny JLI there was a running gag about Batman hitting Guy Gardner so hard that he had a personality change.
Every other site or poster who has commented on this has made sure to include or reference the prior examples of this behavior, yet you have not. Why is that Matt?
April 1st, 2009 at 6:55 am
@Xero: How does the JLI thing have anything to do with this situation? Guy took off his ring and went at Batman, who then knocked him out with one punch. That was absolutely not a sucker punch situation. You could possibly invoke other Canary/Arrow exchanges, but Batman/Guy was clearly its own unrelated thing.
April 1st, 2009 at 7:07 am
>>Every other site or poster who has commented on this has made sure to include or reference the prior examples of this behavior, yet you have not.<<
You know what Xero, I thought the “Green Arrow and Black Canary have an… interesting relationship” covered that for people who knew, and implied an understanding of that, but for those who don’t, sure, here we go…
The Green Arrow/Black Canary relationship, over the years has shown other examples of battery such as this, always played with a wink and a nod to the seriousness of the actual event, to the point that Black Canary battering and physically abusing Green Arrow has become an accepted part of her character by many of her fans.
My gut feeling was that to point out that this has been going on for years, and that Green Arrow keeps coming back, was that it made this one incident seem even worse than it was.
How’s that Xero?
April 1st, 2009 at 7:55 am
I think its interesting that only a few pages later, Oracle asks Dinah if there was any sexism involved in Hal’s calling her out as a bad leader. To which BC replies “No more than usual,” indicating that there are always some male-dominant undertones to how Hal (and probably the majority of male super-heroes) operate.
So in the same issue as a wife decks her husband hard enough to knock him down, she is in a conversation regarding gender roles.
Hal being slightly misogynistic is bad. Dinah decking her husband is funny and “deserved.”
April 1st, 2009 at 9:03 pm
You know, I recall reading somewhere that Canary was written to slap Arrow, not sock him. I think it was the artist himself that changed it to a KO type punch.