Image credit: Vincenzo Sansone & Chris Canibano/Storm Entertainment
IT’S HARD TO FIND a politically-conscious U.S. citizen who doesn’t love Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Now you can express your love and admiration for the progressive powerhouse with Female Force: Elizabeth Warren, the new comic book from Storm Entertainment.
Warren is the latest politician to appear in Storm’s Female Force series. Hillary Clinton, Sonia Sotomayor, and Gabrielle Giffords have all been previously profiled. The publisher also produces a Political Power series, which has issued comics about Bernie Sanders, Clinton, and Donald Trump, among others.
Female Force: Elizabeth Warren chronicles the senator’s life and career before she entered the political sphere. In a few short pages, the comic book gives readers a solid sense of who Warren is as a politician, and where her views first took root.
Her family’s life changes dramatically when her working-class father, Donald Herring, suffers a heart attack and is unable to return to work. He sells his nice car and begins driving a junker, which serves as one of the comic’s more heart-wrenching visuals.
Image credit: Vincenzo Sansone/Storm Entertainment
It is at this point that Female Force: Elizabeth Warren has its first and only slip-up. When the family’s financial situation grows so dire that it forces Warren’s mother to return to work, we see the dutiful daughter help her mother dress for her first day. She’s wearing a slinky black dress and heels, and the dialogue between mother and daughter makes it sound as if Pauline Herring is making her return to sex work.
The effect of this scene is so strong that I paused to google “Elizabeth Warren prostitution.” As it turns out, Pauline was not a sex worker. Instead, after her husband’s medical emergency, Warren’s mother went to work in the catalog department at Sears. But because there are no hints or other statements about Pauline Herring’s place of work, the scene leaves readers bewildered, and may send some — like myself — searching for answers.
The middle third of Female Force: Elizabeth Warren focuses on her burgeoning political activism. We see Warren as a debate team member and college student, before she turns to married life.
The interplay between the Warrens is quite possibly the most interesting aspect of Storm Entertainment’s new comic. Her husband wants a traditional wife and mother, but Warren feels overwhelmed when she tries to balance domesticity with her pursuit of higher education. Their inevitable split comes with pleasant and peaceful words from Warren, who remembers her ex-husband as “a good man.”
Storm Entertainment’s biographical comic books provide young people with educational reading material of quality. The publisher doesn’t limit itself to showcasing female political figures, either; in fact, it uses its considerable reach to promote awareness of important issues affecting many people — both women and men — today. Case in point: in Female Force: Carrie Fisher, the Star Wars actress shares her struggle with bipolar disorder, and the issue featuring Olivia Newton-John allows the star to shed light on her experience with breast cancer. If Female Force: Elizabeth Warren is any indication, then kids who lack the comprehension skills and/or attention spans for full-length biographies would do well to pick up the publisher’s paneled profiles of today’s major figures.
While the comic book gives adult readers an excellent look at the development of Warren’s political career, liberal voters who want to teach the children and teens in their lives about progressive politics and politicians should reach for Storm’s offering.
You can purchase print and digital copies of Female Force: Elizabeth Warren for $3.99 from Comic Flea Market.
