Bitch Planet #1 Review

Kelly Sue DeConnick has built a name for herself with the revitalization of Marvel’s Carol Danvers in the Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel series and her original Pretty Deadly title, demonstrating a facility for powerful, nuanced female characters. She has earned a devoted following, as evidenced by her popular panel appearances such as Dragon Con 2014. With her new Image series, she takes her creativity and purpose into the genre of Grindhouse, a term related to movie theaters in the 1970’s playing exploitative films rife with sex and violence. But don’t let that distract you – DeConnick is using a provocative genre to voice some of the best feminist fiction this year.

To summarize much of the story would rob potential readers of some of the multiple hairpin plot turns. At minimum, this review can set the scene: In a science fiction future, “noncompliant” women are shipped to The Auxiliary Compliance Outpost for detainment. Folks on Earth have dubbed this prison satellite “Bitch Planet,” and without heavy corruption, no woman ever returns. Given the visual similarities to a prison (guards, jumpsuits, cells), readers can assume that noncompliance means breaking some law, but in the context of the story, it seems more likely that a noncompliant woman is simply someone who disobeys her husband or fails to meet society’s gender expectations. One of the main characters was sent to Bitch Planet for not being a good enough wife to keep her husband from having an affair, for instance. In this first issue, most of the time is devoted to setting this premise, but there are some plot movements, such as the rise of a potential gang leader among the inmates.

As important as the story is the provocative manner in which it is told. The cover shows a woman giving the finger, and the title shouts a misogynist epithet American society has taken all too casually. Full-frontal female nudity is prevalent throughout this book, and the noncompliant women have two blood-drenched fights with a group of armed guards. Young boys who get around the “Rated M For Mature” cover label will probably react to this content the same way plenty of viewers reacted to the original Grindhouse movies. But an intelligent reader will see that there is a difference between depicting naked women collecting prison jumpsuits and depicting women as empty sex objects. Artist Valentine De Landro showcases a wide range of body shapes, and at no point do these women pose or smile or show any connection to pornographic imagery. The violence is used to depict the stakes for these women rather than to engage the reader to cheer on the carnage.

Kelly Sue DeConnick makes this point even more clearly with the back matter of this first issue. The first page following the story is “Bitchfest,” where she describes how she acquires the social science informing this project. Then, Danielle Henderson of Feminist Ryan Gosling writes a column in “Bitches Be Like…” citing references to describe the gender and racial inequality present in incarceration, and in the “Bitch Face” feature, readers are encouraged to send in pictures of themselves wearing “Non-Compliant” temporary tattoos that can be ordered off the charming retro mail-order ad on the back cover. This material could have come across as an attempt to legitimize an offensive work; instead, it’s so consistent with the tone of the story that it reads like a celebration, very “Aren’t we having such a good time talking about important social issues?”

This is the best work Kelly Sue DeConnick has ever done. I can’t wait to see where it goes next.