This listing of sisters in superhero comics is sponsored by The Summer time of Sunshine & Margot by Susan Mallery.
Twin sisters Sunshine and Margot are as totally different as chalk and cheese, however what they do have in frequent is a whole lack of luck relating to love. Emotionally stunted by a mom who dropped all the pieces to observe boyfriend after boyfriend, the sisters have ever solely had one another for help and to share a pint of post-heartache ice cream. When Margot, an etiquette specialist, is employed to work with Bianca, an icon from Hollywood’s Golden Age with romantic entanglements of her personal, she and Sunshine turn out to be the daughters she by no means had, and their friendship teaches them tips on how to embrace the quirks that make them distinctive, and tips on how to demand the love they deserve simply as they’re.
Ladies with sisters in superhero comics are weirdly skinny on the bottom. (And within the sky.) Gruff, child-endangering foster fathers? Oh, we received ’em. Cryptic youngsters from the longer term in rad jackets and eyepatches? Oodles! Twins of various genders who may be sort of incesty? Extra frequent than anybody would suppose or need.
However girls who’re sisters, versus girls who’ve a brother? (See: Shuri, Mary Marvel, Scarlet Witch, Sue Storm…) Surprisingly uncommon! Or possibly not, contemplating how overwhelmingly male the inhabitants of most comicsverses is. Getting two women in the identical household in the identical technology is admittedly beating the chances.
Nonetheless, they do exist, and right here’s just a few of my faves, in no specific order:
1. Lois and Lucy Lane
What on Earth is occurring right here? You already know what, by no means thoughts, don’t inform me.
It’d sound bizarre, however I really like Lois and Lucy as a result of they modify a lot from one decade to the following. Whereas Lois a minimum of has a gradual core of investigative brassiness to her, Lucy has morphed significantly through the years. Within the Silver Age she was Jimmy Olsen’s fickle, nagging girlfriend. Within the ’90s she had a still-slightly-daring-for-the-time interracial relationship with Each day Planet staffer Ron Troupe. Within the late 2000s she was reimagined because the villainous Superwoman, preventing Kryptonians to please her jerk dad. In between she’s trotted out for random wacky adventures: Vampire bride! Hallucinogenic mutating fungus! However that’s what’s so enjoyable about her. Not solely does Lucy floor the larger-than-life Lois by giving her a backstory and a household, between the 2 of them they’re a tapestry of all of the weirdness and cultural commentary this unusual little style has to supply. And I find it irresistible, goofiness and all.
2. Laura and Gabby Kinney
Laura Kinney is a clone of Wolverine, raised to be a killing machine till she broke free from her captors and found that she had the capability to do good as a substitute of hurt. Gabrielle Kinney is a clone of Laura, raised to be…nicely, I imply, you get it, it’s the fundamental Wolverine story. Although technically their genetic relationship is way more like mom and daughter, their vibe is extraordinarily sisterly. Gabby’s presence permits Laura to discover the softer, extra susceptible elements of herself. And Gabby herself (codename: Honey Badger) is an unfettered delight, as candy and feisty and loving and morbid as solely little women could be. Everybody who meets her loves her, and so do I.
three. Anissa and Jennifer Pierce
The daughters of Black Lightning, Anissa and Jennifer are superheroes in their very own proper: Thunder and Lightning, respectively. Anissa can alter her personal density, which is extra spectacular than it sounds, and Jennifer, like her father, controls electrical energy. They’ve a sophisticated relationship, with the older Anissa feeling that Jennifer is the favourite and will get extra help in her superhero profession than Anissa did. I really like when superhero comics can take a really typical dynamic and blow it as much as over-the-top proportions, and this can be a good instance—who amongst us older siblings hasn’t felt just like the youthful ones get away with issues we by no means would? I even have to offer a shoutout to my favourite Thunder and Lightning appearances: their cute DC Nation appearances.
four. Medusa and Crystal
These two Inhumans have the most effective hair within the Marvel universe and that could be a stone chilly reality. They’re additionally soapy as heck, which is simply correctly, contemplating that they’re area royalty with superpowers. However what I recognize about them is that regardless of all of it—stints as supervillains, ill-advised marriages, frequent displacement of their complete civilization, thoughts management out the wazoo—they nonetheless love one another. Their conflicts are as epic as all the pieces else about them, however they solely lower so deep as a result of they care a lot. What lesser-haired mortals might perceive?
5. Kate and Beth Kane
When Kate Kane was 12 years previous, she, her twin sister, and their mom had been kidnapped. Kate was to all appearances the one survivor, and deeply traumatized by the expertise. Years later, whereas preventing a clearly mentally unwell supervillain named Alice, Kate found to her shock that “Alice” was really her sister Beth—not lifeless in any case, however very a lot not okay. If there’s one factor comics does nicely, it’s “that supervillain is secretly somebody extremely vital out of your previous!” (If there’s two issues, it’s that and robots.) Kate and Beth’s story is tragic and terrible and beautiful in a horrifying method and I would like extra sophisticated histories like that for girls in my cape comics.
There’s undoubtedly extra I haven’t coated—Diana and Donna! Wanda and Lorna!—however these are just a few of my favorites. What sisters in comics do you’re keen on?
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