If I Assembled A-Force
This is a guest post by Becca Sexton. Becca is one half of the dynamic duo behind the This Week in Ladies podcast. By day, she’s a librarian evangelizing for comics. By night, she’s…pretty much the same.
So, we’ve all heard the big news: Marvel’s putting together an all-lady Avengers team.
True confession time: I failed out of two recent Marvel series featuring all-lady superteams: Fearless Defenders and X-Men. I also failed out of a couple series by two members of the A-Force creative team: Ms. Marvel by fellow Boston University Terrier (yes, really) G. Willow Wilson and Angela: Asgard’s Assassin, which features stories by Marguerite Bennett. So, there’s my dirty laundry. S.R. Ranganathan asserted, in his five laws of library science, “every reader his book” and “every book its reader.” None of these books were bad; We just weren’t right for each other. Despite my spotty history, I’m really excited for this book.
Far be it for me, a relative novice to the world of Marvel comics, to criticize the team Marvel depicts in the image accompanying the A-Force announcement. This isn’t about who I’d throw off that team, or trade out. But the fun of imagining my own dream team of Marvel superladies is too hard to resist. So, I present, without further ado, my A-Force Dream Team.
Angela, Guardians of the Galaxy and Angela: Asgard’s Assassin
I know, I know. I just said I failed out of her solo title. But, I love her in Guardians of the Galaxy. She’s a great character to mine for culture clash humor that isn’t gross and racist. Besides, what’s an Avengers team without an Asgardian?
Any Young Avenger
Hawkeye, Miss America, Stature: take your pick. Better yet, include all three.
Arsenic, Runaways
Okay, she’s technically dead. Whatever. I’m not bitter. We all know that’s not really a deal breaker in casting her in another Marvel series, anyway (see Lang, Cassie). Arsenic, also known as Gertrude Yorkes, has brains, sass, and a dinosaur sidekick named Old Lace with whom she has a telepathic connection.
Black Widow, Mockingbird, Spider-Girl, and Spider-Woman, Various
Why just one entry for all of these awesome women? Because their strengths, for me, come in how they work together. Check out Black Widow, Mockingbird, and Spider-Woman as Hawkeye’s exes in Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye; Black Widow and Spider-Woman enjoying a spa day in Ales Kot’s Secret Avengers; and Spider-Girl learning the Avengers ropes with Black Widow and Spider-Woman in Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Avengers Assemble.
Dazzler, X-Men
I’ve never actually read a comic featuring Dazzler, but the Wikipedia entry tells me everything I need to know: She’s a roller skating disco star mutant. Yes, please!
Melinda May, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
You know she’s the best part of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent May and Black Widow could team up for missions as the quietest, most terrifying duo those bad guys never saw coming.
She-Hulk
I’m not over the cancellation of Charles Soule’s She-Hulk, a book that appeared on several 2014 “Best of” lists, but it looks like she might be the leader of A-Force and I’ll accept that as a consolation prize. She-Hulk kicks ass in a costume and in a suit. She’d be the captain of my team, too.
Wasp, Avengers
As a founding member of the Avengers, Wasp gets an automatic spot on my team. Besides, have you seen the Avengers Assemble cartoon? Wasp is a badass motha who don’t take no crap off of nobody. She’d pretty much have to be as the lone woman on a 1960s superhero team.
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