snap judgments no, really, there are some comics you really should read

You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby

Is it just me or are the Daughters of the Dragon really cool?

And not in a 'Any minute they might make out!' kind of way. But in an action-adventure, kung-fu way, the kind of story that makes me wrack my brain for another example of Local Girl Does Good without particularly extravagant super-powers. Take Misty Knight for example: she's just a tough NYC cop who just so happens to have a bionic arm. Is the rest of her bionic? No, just the arm. Can the arm shoot rockets? No, it's just an arm. It stopped Sabretooth from biting her once, I think, but that's really her 'super-power'. How about Colleen Wing? Well, she knows kung-fu. Can she make her fist like unto iron? No. Is she the Master of Kung-Fu? Nope. She's just good at what she does and has some sort of ancestral link to the samurai class.

These two chicks fight crime. Not as Avengers, but detectives on the street, entrepreneurs in a way. Wikipedia tells me that:

Later, Knight's right arm was severely injured by a bomb explosion and was amputated. Colleen encouraged Knight to rise above her depression and return to an active role in life.

The two became fast friends and went on awesome blaxploitation kung-fu adventures. Misty has been dating Danny Rand and hey! Wikipedia also tells me Colleen was an item with Scott Summers for a time! She dated a mutant! How progressive. A quick check of Women in Refrigerators shows that they're not listed as having been 'killed, raped, depowered, crippled, turned evil, maimed, tortured, contracted a disease or had other life-derailing tragedies' which is remarkable and awesome.

Sure, they've gone through bad fashion fads, a few bad romances and at least one assisted resurrection, but all in all these two seem to be pretty solid characters from the '70s in the era of the revival.

Now let's take a look at the front runners of the title of Marvel Poster Gal: the woman with the company title in her name, Ms. Marvel is a bit of a wreck these days, fighting of insecurities and alien invasions into her body, being a pushover as the 'leader' of the Mighty Avengers, she hired a publicist to improve her image in the public which infuriates me for reasons that are far too long to go into right now, but yet she's on the cover of everything and is sort of the House of Ideas go-to gal for covers and exposure. Spider-Woman? Oh lord. Tell me she's not the heroine I have to look up to? She doesn't even know who's side she's on! Dare I even mention Tigra? How about one of the Avenger's finest chairpersons, the winsome Wasp? She's... awfully in the background of Mighty Avengers and ... is still having the same arguments with her ex-husband that's she's been having on-again, off-again for the past how many years...

Folks, go read the Immortal Iron Fist. Support the Daughters of the Dragon.

Or maybe you shouldn't.  The last time they were spotlighted in their own mini-series it came at a Kill Bill cost and then led to that horrible Heroes for Hire series that started strong as a Civil War tie in then ended in a miserable mess of crying over a mercy kill on Humbug and putting Moon boy into SHIELD custody and Colleen Wing getting her first entry on the Women in Refrigerators list for her suffering and crying under the Hulk Invasion and Misty Knight taking far too much responsibility for the failure of the Heroes for Hire in the epilogue book and gah.  Maybe that's the trick, you shouldn't promote your favorite characters but let them coast in supporting character roles in really fantastic books, under the radar.  Matt Fraction said at WizardWorld that he'd be keeping the Daughters of the Dragon for as long as they'll let him, and they are eight shades of fun in that book, kicking ass and getting the REAL Heroes for Hire back again...

So forget what I just said.  DON'T support the Daughters of the Dragon.  Just keep reading the Immortal Iron Fist and share that little wink with me.