Elizabeth and Kathryn joined fans of Transformers to attend the Comic-Con panel “Women in Transformers,” where several members of the creative team talked about the growing presence of both female characters and female creators, and gave the audience some tidbits about upcoming developments in the Transformers universe. (And they also gave accolades to one member of the audience, the owner of the Transformers Wiki site. We didn’t catch his name, so give us a shout if you know who that was, because TF Wiki is amazing.)
Featured on the panel were Maighread Scott and Georgia Ball, (writers), Corin Howell and Sara Pitre-Durocher (artists) and Sarah Carroll (Hasbro marketing and product development). The panelists talked about some of the unique complications with adding new female characters. There are always questions about why there’s a need to emphasize gender at all, when the characters are technically genderless (robots, remember?) The panelists pointed out that in actual practice we don’t perceive the characters as genderless, we see them as male. They’re always referred to as “he”, since it’s difficult to get an audience to relate to a character that’s referred to as “it”. Maighread believes that gender absolutely does matter, since “If Optimus Prime were voiced by a female actor tomorrow, would you feel differently about the character? Of course you would.”
Sara Pitre-Durocher talked about her inspiration when drawing female robots. She tries to take into account the characters’ different functions in the story: medical technician, racer, soldier. Each one would require a different body type, and they don’t always have to transform into tiny cycles or race cars in order to fit a “sexy” body: “There’s no such thing as a svelte tank.”
Maighread pointed out that cartoons and toy lines are always targeted towards a particular gender; that’s just the way it is. Her goal when writing a story is to have at least 10% representation by the opposite sex, whether the particular story is being geared for male or female readers. Interestingly enough, the people who seem to be the most enthusiastic about having more female characters created are dads who are looking to be able to include their young daughters in the fandom.
Maighread also went into her experience with writing the Windblade story (if you haven’t guessed by now, Maighread was really the liveliest of the panelists). Windblade has been a great way to introduce new readers to Transformers. Her world has been separate from the millennia-long war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, so she’s not a battle-hardened soldier like the rest of the characters, and she brings a unique perspective to the ongoing comic. Maighread also mentioned, when asked about bringing characters from the other titles into the Windblade story, that she’s actually very intimidated by James Robert’s continuity. Mr. Roberts apparently has plans for the story that will be going on for a long time, and it would actually be easier for her to let him use Windblade in his stories, rather than the other way around.
The panelists took questions from the audience for a while:
Q: Will the Nautica character have a bigger toy presence?
A: No plans for that in the immediate future, but plans can change…
Q: Will the “Smurfette Syndrome” (all male characters, one token female) be a problem?
A: The upcoming storyline “Combiner Hunter” will feature almost exclusively female characters.
Q: Will there be more female Decepticons? (Currently just one, the “den mother” of the Decepticon Justice Division, Nickel.)
A: Fans have mostly voted for female Autobots, but a lot of new unaffiliated female characters have been brought in with the introduction of characters from the Lost Colonies.
Q: Will there be female Headmasters? Targetmasters? Dinobots?
A: In order, the answers were: Nah, probably not, and panelists were not at all opposed to the idea
Q: We’ve seen the first romantic pairing in the comic book with Chromedome and Rewind; will there be any male/female pairings now that more female characters are being introduced?
A: Transformers is actually one of the few brands where it’s been easier to have homosexual pairings than heterosexual. Alita One has now made a brief appearance, which would indicate that there might be a relationship (past or possibly future) with Optimus Prime. Mixed-gender combiners are also a possibility, especially since the Combiner toys that are being created have universal joints, so the different combiner teams can always be switched around.
Q: Where exactly does Arcee fit in all of this?
A: All of the other female characters evolved on the Lost Colonies; Arcee was a science experiment. She’s a recovering psychopath, but her experiences mean she actually had a reason to go crazy. Both Maighread and Georgia agreed that Arcee is a complex character who’s story is going to be a lot of fun to write.
There were two big reveals at the panel. First of all was the announcement of a new Transformers title: “Till All Are One”, with Maighread Scott writing and Corin Howell doing the art. There aren’t a lot of details about the story, other than it will feature “the return of a big city”.
And second? There’s a Beast Wars issue coming up, and Blackarachnia will make an appearance. Beast Wars fans rejoice!
The panel wrapped up with a shout-out to John Barber, for including so much diversity in both the creative team and the Transformers characters.
