By Danielle L. — The comic Henchgirl first came to my attention in 2015 or 2016 through the YouTuber Aaron Bishop, who is also known as Professor Thorgi, and the premise seemed interesting enough that I decided to seek it out and give the series a read. It’s a book that has stuck with me, so much so that today I’d like to take a closer look at some of the things it has to say about the superhero genre, which it seems determined to parody.

Henchgirl is the story of Mary Posa (mariposa, for those who might know, is the Spanish word for butterfly), a part-time henchgirl for a crime-boss (super-villain?) named Monsieur Butterfly. The book also gives us glimpses initially of her day to day life. The story opens with the Butterfly Gang committing theft before shifting to Mary Posa heading to her apartment where she lives with characters named Sue Tanaka and Tina Caro. One third of the way into the series, writer/artist Kristen Gudsnuk introduces the readers to Mary’s family: the superheroes El Romancero (who appears to be a play on Giovanni Zatara from the DC Universe), Flame Girl, and Mary’s sister, Photo-Girl. Through a panel of clenched teeth and angered dialogue, it is clear that Mary and her family have been estranged for years with no means of fixing things between them. This comes to a head in Henchgirl #9 as Mary travels back to her childhood, makes predictions and earns the moniker, Psychic Tot. The series’ end implies that Mary and Paige (Photo-Girl) have reconciled at the very least. 

So, that’s the general framework of our story, but what’s more interesting to me is what this comic has to say about superheroes as a whole. From the outset, it was clear to me that Kristen Gudsnuk is embracing the stereotypical elements of a standard cape comic, including super science, a group of villains, evil plots, aliens, and more. These, however, are used by Gudsnuk to almost parody the superhero genre as a whole in a loving way. Yet her use of these elements is fairly basic. In the real world, we as readers do not really experience the effects superheroes have on society as a whole, outside of them being celebrities and pop culture icons that we witness in comic books, on TV shows, or in movies. 

Henchgirl, or perhaps Kristen Gudsnuk herself, appears to be disdainful of at least one traditional superhero trope, and I’m thinking specifically here of the love interest. The two love interests we meet in this story, Fred (Mannequin) and Lana Street, are both killed off by the final page of Henchgirl #11. While Fred’s death is mitigated by the use of his powers, Lana’s is not and it leads me to question why it had to happen in the story. Anyway, I’d argue that with the dependence of supervillains as a focal point and superheroes as window dressing, Kristen Gudsnuk’s Henchgirl is an emotionally honest examination into supervillainy as a whole, particularly into what leads someone, it being Mary Posa in this case, to live that sort of life. 

There’s a lot of emotional honesty in that idea, and that emotional honesty peaks in Henchgirl #10, the penultimate issue of the series, where we see Mary Posa’s bad decisions throughout the course of this story as well as her entire life come full circle when Coco Oon (cocoon!), a fellow henchgirl, point out “She’s not the one who ruined your life. Think about it logically. You ruined your own life.” Coco’s correct assessment of Mary also serves to point out that the choices a person makes, whether in the moment or planned, can lead them toward a path of being a hero or a villain. This is reinforced in the final page when Mary is seen as part of a heroic team ready to make things right.

The end effect is a supervilian comic that uses parody to perhaps occupy a gray space between the good and bad of superhero comics. This is a book that seems less convinced that people with powers are destined for one route or the other because of family or other factors, or even that life is neat enough for us to be deliberately good or evil. What Henchgirl and it’s excellent parody says to me is that our choices are our own and we are best served by taking control over our own lives.

Henchgirl
Writer/Artist: Kristen Gudsnuk
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Publication Date: March 29, 2017

Danielle L. likes to write about comics. Follow her on Twitter @eldritchlesbian.