(Part One and Part Two if you haven’t seen ’em) Before she became a comics writer, Gail Simone coined the phrase “women in refrigerators” to refer to the way some female characters were killed in comics. A “woman in refrigerators” story is one where the woman is brutally murdered, often graphically, but the emphasis isn’t on her: it’s on the gigantic manpain her death causes her husband/boyfriend/father. She’s a McGuffin in someone else’s story. Her fridging is the inspiration for the hero’s grief or revenge or heroism or whatever. For example:
•Shortly after Kyle Rainer acquired his power ring, his girlfriend Alex is murdered and stuffed in a refrigerator by Major Force (the origin of the trope’s name). Ambivalent about being a Green Lantern, he has to man up and prove himself to bring Force to justice.
•Green Lantern villain Star Sapphire hacks and murders Katma Tui, ex-GL. Not because she’s an ex-GL but because of how much pain her death will inflict on Hal Jordan and John Stewart.
•Major Force (again) murders ex-GL Arisia because of the pain it’ll cause super-hero and ex-GL Guy Gardner. I don’t know it’s a particular thing with GLs, more likely just the randomness of my reading choices.
•The Joker shoots and cripples Barbara Gordon, AKA Batgirl, not because she’s Batgirl but as part of a plot against Commissioner Gordon (although she isn’t killed, I think it qualifies).
Like most terms of criticism, there are other definitions, and different victim lists and arguments the whole concept is nonsense. But it’s my blog, so that’s how I’m defining it. And I’ve got to say, Identity Crisis’ treatment of Sue Dibney fits the concept perfectly.
In the first issue, we get several pages of Ralph discussing what he feels about Sue. Sue herself, we see for a couple of pages, preparing for Ralph to get home. Then she’s dead. Identity Crisis isn’t about Sue, it’s about Ralph’s pain and the grief he and the other heroes feel. By contrast, Firestorm gets to die fighting heroically (and no, Mr. Metlzer, he doesn’t blow up if he’s cut, but that’s a minor point by comparison). Tim Drake’s father goes down fighting and we get several scenes before he dies of him and Tim interacting in the present; Mr. Drake’s there as a person, not as Tim’s memory.
And then there’s the rape scene. While there’s no skin showing, Sue’s pain and suffering is graphically dramatized in her face, her body language—and then the story forgets about her. Nothing about her healing, nothing about her at all until Jean murders her. The importance of the rape isn’t that she was raped, it was that this provoked the JLA to try reprogramming Light, which fuels much of the rest of the plot.
Sue Dibney was fridged. She deserved better.
Cover by Michael Turner, all rights with current holder.
