Note: This post was inspired by this one.

Today is National Women’s Day, so I’m posting a list of my personal favorite female-centered comic series. Now, I stopped reading current books many years ago, so I recognize that this list will mostly be older books and I’ve missed out on the new stuff. Feel free to drop a comment about newer books (or older ones) that you think belong on this list and someday, when I get through cataloging all the Marvel books, I’ll get to them…

In other words, this is just 20 books I thought of when writing this post. It’s not definitive or scientific, and everyone else’s results will vary. And that’s great. There’s lots of great stuff out there worth reading.

I’d also like to take this moment to preempt any hate mail: I know that virtually all the creators attached to the books listed below are male. It’s a sad truth that most comic creators are male. And it’s a happy truth that many female comic creators work on books about men.

And now, the list…

THE TOP 20 WOMAN-CENTERED COMIC SERIES

Honorable Mention: GLORY

Glory is a world-breaking superhero created by Rob Liefeld, but don’t hold that against the recent reboot by Ross Campbell and Joe Keatinge. She’s also an evil bitch and a horrible role model, but her comic is quite good. It’s told from the perspective of a young African American girl, who looks up to Glory but doesn’t know the truth about the character.

20. WONDER WOMAN.

A powerful woman tries to figure out her place in worlds dominated by men (both the God- and Earth-kind). But it’s the challenges to her motherly side that really sell this book for me—the tension she has over protecting a girl who she’s basically adopted, at any cost. By Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang.

19. CAPTAIN MARVEL

Kelly Sue DeConnick is on this list more than once, but it’s because she’s that good. Her reboot of Ms. Marvel has made her the definitive Carol Danvers scribe.

It’s rare to see a book that focuses almost entirely on character—the situations she’s in are almost irrelevant. What’s fascinating is seeing Carol Danvers develop as a person. Plus, it features Monica Rambeau—who was a great female leader of Nextwave.

Captain Marvel also had the dubious distinction, when it was launched, of being the only Marvel comic titled after a female character.

Great book.

18. LADY KILLER

Joelle Jones’ book about, well, a lady who kills. All while hiding in plain sight as a traditional homemaker.

17. RACHEL RISING.

It’s not a horror book. It’s not a soap opera. It’s not a mystery. It’s not a character study. It’s all these things. It’s Terry Moore. It’s brilliant.

16. SINISTER SIX.

A female-led team of villains, scripted by the great Gail Simone–who has truly been a force for feminism and moving the industry forward.. I’m talking about the pre-new 52 book. Accept no substitutes. Check out my coverage here.

15. JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY.

This Sif-centered Marvel Now! book is funny, smart, plays with sexism, features a sexist main character who also female, and generally is a delight.

14. HELLCAT (2008)

The Kathryn Immonen/David Lafuente series is a sentimental favorite for me. I just love it.

So much, in fact, that I’m including it and not Dan Slott’s She Hulk—which was a great comic, but it wasn’t so much a “woman” comic as a great, hilarious romp.

13. ELEKTRA: ASSASSIN

The more-adult oriented Epic Comics eight-issue miniseries by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz moved the Elektra character away from her stereotype as a sexy ninja by, ironically, throwing her up against tons of ninja ultraviolence. The book was so violent, in fact, that the Comics Code Authority refused to give it the seal of approval. It was also one of the first books to be watercolored and released on glossy paper solely through direct distributers.

There are endless arguments about whether this comic was canon, but I don’t care. It was amazing.

12. BATWOMAN (2010)

I’m not talking about the new 52 series, which in my view never really made sense. I’m talking about Greg Rucka and JH William’s creation, from Detective Comics #854-860 (collected as Batwoman: Elegy). The book introduced a wild and weird mystic take on the standard Gotham-cowl type, and quickly became known as the first lesbian-focused superhero comic.

She actually came across much more like Moon Knight, with her supporting cast of characters, but the best parts of these were the tie-ins to beloved Gotham Central characters and her relationship with her ex-military father. Oh, and the art. The panel arrangements were simply revelatory.

11. POWER GIRL Vol. 2 #1-12

Jimmy Palmiotti, Justic Gray, and Amanda Conner’s reboot and retooling of DC’s most famous boob carrier was hilarious and sexy, and it also focused on the difficulties faced by women in corporate America—juxtaposed by the fact that as a superhero she has a power level comparable to Superman.

10. SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL VOL. 1

Steve Gerber gave some script assistance in the first two issues of this series, created by Carole Seuling and George Tuska in response to a corporate edict for “more women” handed down by Stan Lee himself, before taking over the series outright with issue #4. It was a terrible comic, truly, by most standards other than this one: It was the only comic I am aware of that self-consciously knew it was bad, commented on its own problems, and mused about the merits of its own existence.

If humans are the only species that go through life with an awareness of the inevitability of their own death, then this may be the only comic that did the same. When read from that perspective, the book becomes fascinating, particularly when you keep in mind that Steve Gerber himself was essentially held “hostage” by it—he didn’t want to write it, knew it was going to be cancelled soon, thought the idea of calling one of the only woman-centered comic titles a “she devil” was demeaning, but at the same time needed the regular work.
For trivia fans: The other woman-book launched at that time was “The Cat” by Linda Fite, starring Greer “future Tigra” Garson. It was unredeemably bad.

The Frank Cho reboot of Shanna, titled Shanna of the Jungle, was a decent and sexy book, but it wasn’t anywhere near as smart as Steve Gerber’s book.

9. MANHUNTER

In 2004, and then again in 2008, Marc Andreyko and Michael Gaydos reimagined John Ostrander’s Manhunter character as a single mom district attorney who steals supervillain gear from the evidence room and fights crime at night. Terrific premise, and extremely well-executed. It’s a damn shame more people don’t know about this comic.

8. THE PRO

Garth Ennis, Amanda conner, and Jimmy Palmiotti created this graphic novel about a super-powered hooker. Go ahead, complain that it’s sexist and whatnot, but try to read it without laughing. Also, it plays with hooker and john stereotypes in a way that I have to say seems empowering. In a really perverted, and extremely NSFW kind of way.

7. iZOMBIE

A terrific take on the “romance comic” by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred, and a 2011 Eisner winner, the book uses zombification as a metaphor for love. It’s filled with humor and, of course, terrific art, and is told from the perspective of a female zombie named Gwen Price.

It’s refreshing to see a female lead here who is not bisexual or conflicted—she’s a strong woman whose strength is, in fact, what makes her able to overcome her affliction and rise above it all to become a hero to the human race.

6. LAZARUS

Greg Rucka’s tale of a future world of samurai-like soldiers who represent and fight for the wealthy. This is a truly fantastic book made even better because the art is by Michael Lark.

Another great Rucka book with a female lead is Stumptown. There were two Stumptown miniseries. The first was much better than the second, but both are solid.

5. BITCH PLANET

I loved this book because it represents my teenage favorite genre: Women’s Prison Stories! In a dystopian future, “non-compliant” women and jailed, form gangs, fight, and resist…Awesome. By the great Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro.

4. MS. MARVEL

G. Willow Wilson changed comic fandom with this book. Carol Danvers’ own solo book was already a huge hit, but instead of creating a “legacy” character that was just a clone of the original (which, ironically, is the story of Danvers’ own inception), Wilson created something all new.

Marvel’s first Muslim title character, this book offered an unrushed, decompressed look at a Pakastani teen who suddenly gets super powers. It received (well-deserved) comparisons the Stan and Steve’s rollout of Spider-Man and his extended cast. Warm, kind, loving, funny and action packed–and appropriate for all ages.

3. ALIAS.

A book that unfortunately shared it’s name with a female-focused spy show. I say unfortunately because it had nothing to do with spys. Alias was the book by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos that introduced Jessica Jones, formerly known as “Jewel,” into the Marvel Universe and in so doing introduced the world to Bendis’ later infamous retconning. One of the best examples: The photo on Jones’ wall showing her as part of the Avengers lineup. Priceless.

But the series wasn’t silly at all. In fact, it was a deeply character-driven story of a “washed up” woman trying to redeem herself, and find love, in a chaotic world that superheroes affect—but don’t play a daily role. In this way, the tone of the book reminded me quite a bit of Rucka and Brubaker’s brilliant noir series Gotham Central.

2. PERSEPOLIS.

Perhaps it’s unfair to include Marjane Satrapi’s autobiography here, but it’s honestly one of the best books of all time. I tried to keep this list mostly to fantasy, but something this strong deserves placement on this list.

Books like this could have dominated the list, but since this is mostly a site for action and superheroes, I’m not going to give all of them their own spots. I’ll just list a few: Fun Home by Allison Bechdel. This One Summer by the Tamaki sisters. Embroideries (also by Satrapi). There are many others.

1. STRANGERS IN PARADISE

Yes, Terry Moore’s work is on this list twice. Deal with it. He’s a personal fave of mine.

SiP, as it’s known to its small but rabid fanbase, was a long-form soap opera tale of the toughest angry blonde in the history of comics, Katina Choovanski, and her on-again off-again romance with Francine Peters, a woman that every man (and most women) falls in love with, despite her ongoing weight problem and her constant struggles with her own sexuality. This book made me cry (more than once), at how well-drawn (both literatively and artistically) the characters were, and it’s a perfect book to use to introduce female non-comic fans to the art form. One of my favorite comics of all time.

Another great woman-centered book by Terry Moore is Echo, which is a sci-fi tale, but it’s just not “as great” as SiP.