Touch Me/Don’t Touch Me: Representations of Female Archetypes in Ann Nocenti’s Daredevil

In the late 1980s, Ann Nocenti became the principle writer on the Marvel comic book, Daredevil, the second woman to be lead creator on the book and the first to write a significant run on an ongoing basis. Nocenti integrated themes relating to social justice, violence and the treatment of children into the narrative. She also shone the spotlight on the supporting female cast members in a way that was original and refreshing. In this article, Nocenti’s challenging of feminine archetypes, such as the housewife, the temptress and the Barbie Doll, reflects ideas of mutable identities, promoted by second-wave feminism. Examining her writing of Karen Page, Typhoid Mary, Brandy Ash and Number Nine, this article argues that, despite the comic centring around a male superhero and with a predominantly male readership, Nocenti succeeds in introducing a more nuanced picture of women and pre-empting some of the changes in the promotion of female characters now apparent in the industry.


Introduction
Comics are great because they're all things. Sometimes just plain fun, sometimes they have deadly intent. Anything goes. (Ann Nocenti, interviewed by Mithra 1998) Creativity in comics is not only represented by the skilful marriage of writing and art.
The medium is often at its best when exploring grand theories and themes and translating these to what is often a largely younger audience. Comics can challenge power and raise social concerns, giving space for ambiguity thanks to how the combination Hagan: Touch Me/Don't Touch Me Art.9, page 2 of 24 of words and pictures can contrast, for example, inner thoughts with external actions (McAllister et al. 2001).
Since the 1970s, as comics reflect social change, the medium has increasingly, though tentatively, embraced feminist thought and ideas (Gibson 2015). However, attempts to integrate second-wave feminist thought in Marvel comics in the 1970s has been criticised as being diluted by 'good-faith attempts by sympathetic male authors' (Heifer 2018: np) and missing the mark (Jorgensen and Lechan 2013).
Whilst male writers took on female heroes as protagonists, their narratives have been criticised as being shaped according to men's experiences and disregarding feminist hopes (Magoulick 2006). By contrast, a female writer taking on a male protagonist in a mainstream comic book was rare to spot. One individual bucking this trend in the 1980s was Ann Nocenti, writer on the long running Marvel comic book, Daredevil, in the late 1980s/early 1990s. This article will examine how Nocenti's writing coincided with the twilight of second-wave feminism and how four female characters, Karen Page, Typhoid Mary, Brandy Ashe and Number Nine, challenge the constraints of archetypes.
A note before proceeding. The author is conscious that he is viewing a woman's writing through the lens of male privilege. This may result in a perception of male authority giving ' authenticity' to the female writer, and risk potentially undermining the ability of the original creator's power and agency within the original material (Lange 2008). Whilst this is a valid limitation of the piece, the article argues for Nocenti's agency in how she has developed her characters and narratives throughout and establishes that her authorial voice is not lost or diminished.

Superheroes and Jungian Archetypes
Carl Jung defined archetypes as comprising the innate tendencies of dominant characters within myths and legends, and across a diversity of cultures. These were often male and typified in variables such as the god, the wise man, the father and the trickster. Jung saw archetype identities as unfathomable, emerging from an unknowable place (Jacobi 1959). Archetypal behaviour drives individuals at subconscious levels and so these characteristics were perceived as being innate and immutable.

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Art. 9, page 3 of 24 One of the most famous of Jung's archetypes, present in comic books since its earliest days, was the hero, who embodied the hopes, dreams and fears of the culture he represents (Indick 2004). Perhaps the best example of this in Marvel comics, is Captain America, the Sentinel of Liberty. One of Marvel's oldest superheroes, back when the company was called Timely Comics, Captain America is reminiscent of an These kinds of emblematic, idealised characters are redolent in ongoing comic books, where the hero is presented in not just one story, but a catalogue of tales that weave in and out of one another, often for years. Herein, multiple writers establish as continuity a mythology that revolves around a central heroic God of that comic's universe. This hero may experience some change over times but he is at root immu-

Challenging Archetypes: Second-wave Feminism and Comics
The emergence of second wave feminism broadly coincided with the rise of Marvel comics in the 1960s. This wave critiqued existing functionalist concerns about women's isolating roles in nuclear families and private spaces, particularly the non-identity of the housewife, challenged existing notions of power and promoted better developed female characters in popular culture (Bisignani 2015;Budgeon 2011;Genz and Brabon 2018). In the Second Sex, Simone De Beauvoir (1953) argued that women were othered, constrained by patriarchal views that determined their value by nature of their physical beauty and ability to nurture. She accused society of enforcing women to take on these feminine aspects due to cultural constraints and to fulfil socially constructed roles. By contrast, ways in which women expressed their intellect or engaged in freedom outside of these confines were either ignored or undermined (Lovell 2000). This was echoed in comics and other literature, where women were constrained by supporting roles and in thrall to the domineering Jungian male hero.
In Western cultures, archetypes were seen to represent patriarchal ideas and values, where 'public worth is measured according to a masculine standard ' (Wehr 1988: 16) and women classified as an interior identity in contrast to man as 'the universal Outside of comics, Nocenti has had a remarkable career outside comics as both a film-maker and educator, working with minority ethnic groups and at-risk young people in various parts of the world, including New York, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Haiti (Nocenti 2018). More recently, she has returned to comic book writing.

Karen Page: Critiquing Domesticity
In the old days, a lot of females [in comics] were like the secretaries, the wives, the girl that needed rescuing. Again' storyline. In Karen's first appearance, Nocenti presents her as a fragile blonde princess, literally gathered up in Matt's arms, whilst a bystander remarks, 'I thought people only did that in the movies' (Daredevil 239, see Figure 1). There is a deliberate artificiality to the softly lit scene, an echo of the 'paperback romance': the woman who is loved by the strong man, who will hold and protect her.
Immediately Nocenti plays with the dynamic of Daredevil as the hero or knight in shining armour, with Karen the frail, rescued damsel. Karen's need for recovery amplifies her reliance on Matt; she is locked into the dual roles of victim and girlfriend. In these initial episodes, Nocenti presents Karen, at least partially due to her overcoming narcotic addiction, as an archetypal trapped housewife, experiencing Betty Friedan's problem that has no name (David 2016), relegated to essentialist gender roles centred around domestic duties (Romero 2018). Her life revolves around her apartment, too scared to go out and succumb to potential temptation.

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Art. 9, page 7 of 24 Oakley (1974) associated the housewife role as being one burdened by monotony, loneliness, compromised autonomy and dissatisfaction, and Karen's experience infers this. In one remarkable scene, Nocenti shows Karen washing Matt's costume and hanging it out to dry. Not only is Karen the housewife but fulfils the archetype of the 'Good Mother' (Berkowitz 2005: 608), where she is both nurturing and self-sacrificing. As Miller (1986) notes, 'Heroines are not heroes…. If a woman loves a hero that is more likely to make her a wife or a mistress than a heroine' (135). Given Karen's status as a character who has been in the comic since 1964, it is perhaps appropriate that Nocenti presents her as someone who pre-dates second wave feminism's battles for equality and locked into a position of victimhood (Budgeon 2011).
As the storyline progresses, Nocenti explores the ambivalence in Karen's relationship with a man who is also a violent vigilante. In the 'Don't Touch Me'/'Touch  Hagan: Touch Me/Don't Touch Me Art.9, page 8 of 24 Using violence to achieve justice is a trope of the male superhero, whilst heroines are more likely to desire to make the world a better place (Madrid 2016). In order to resolve this dissonance and build on the nurturing characteristics of the mother, Nocenti has Karen encourage Matt to develop a free law clinic in Hell's Kitchen as an alternative to his vigilantism. This both gives Matt legitimacy but also gives Karen a role and purpose that allows her acceptance in society (Whitehead et al. 2013), albeit in a way that is always dependent upon her relationship with Matt. This vicarious dilemma experienced by women like Karen is echoed by Sheila Rowbotham: 'If the housewife wants to "improve" herself, she has in fact to "improve" the situation of her husband ' (1972: 21). Karen's need to be looked after by the strong man and achieve value only in relation to Matt's own success and achievement is recognised by Demaris Wehr:

[C]apturing a man is felt to compensate for women's lack of recognition and worth in themselves. By association with a man who has status [and] recognition
[…] a woman may unconsciously be trying to acquire those qualities.  As her storyline with Daredevil concludes in issue 260, she triumphantly conducts the hero's emasculation, dropping Daredevil from a bridge to his supposed death.

Brandy Ash: Building Agency
Whilst in Typhoid Mary, Nocenti weaves a dichotomous character in one body, the next two significant female characters represent dichotomies in their personae and very different outlooks.
Nocenti explicitly identifies Brandy Ash early on as a feminist with a social conscience. Daredevil, who has survived his battle with Typhoid and escaped from Hell's Kitchen, first encounters Brandy in a rural location, where she ruminates on the ambivalence she feels at gaining some privilege from her father, Skip, who both owns a genetic farm and operates as a drugs supplier in New York, and whose actions also disgust her:

Brandy: I hate him! Yes, I can spend your money!… I'll show you tonight! I'll
spend your money to undo some of the damage you do making it! (Daredevil 271: 6, panels 1, 2 and 4) Nocenti presents Brandy both as a free thinker and also as being still in thrall to a patriarchal, capitalist society. In order to free herself from this, she plans to blow up her father's genetic pig farm, an act which echoes the militant actions of Suffragettes (Bearman 2005). Whilst Typhoid may be the phallic girl and exude power in a way

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Art. 9, page 11 of 24 that seems to echo male behaviour, Brandy is the 'Just Warrior' (Berkowitz 2005: 609), an individual who is less reliant on sexuality and beauty but instead on intelligence, inner toughness and defiance, and who wishes to overthrow corrupt elements of the dominant society which constrains her.
Nocenti also uses Brandy to critique the male superhero and his lack of awareness on the consequences of his actions, an important theme in Nocenti's run and Nocenti's material, intentionally or otherwise, is being addressed to a majority male audience. Perhaps this is why, increasingly, Brandy's feminism is deliberately tempered.

Brandy:
You're a disgrace to women! Haven't you heard of feminism? By the late 1980s, the mainstream was increasingly adopting some feminist concerns (Budgeon 2011;Genz and Brabon 2018), but feminists experienced open hostility from an increasingly conservative and Republican mainstream, and feminism was considered a ' dirty word' (Whittier 1995: 195). This is the context into which Nocenti presents her confident, driven feminist. Nocenti would have been conscious that women who are 'too abrasive and aggressive' or 'too different' are regarded as being However, before this, Nocenti allows one final subversive triumph for Brandy.
Towards the end of the storyline in Hell, Brandy meets a beefcake angel, dressed in white underwear and a tight-fitting vest, a parody of comics' male gaze. In a reversal of Sleeping Beauty she awakens him and the angel, to her surprise, responds very affectionately towards her. Brandy's ambivalence to this reflects both her strongly held values and a willingness to take a lover through her own agency.

Number Nine: Gaining Freedom
When Nocenti first introduces Brandy Ash, her goal is to disrupt her father's plans for genetically modified meat, unaware that her father is not only genetically modifying animals but also women. One woman being experimented upon is Number Nine. The character is never given a real name nor much of a back story; instead her namelessness reflects her role as a cipher for a hegemonic man's idea of an idealised woman, one without her own identity and effectively ornamental (Whitehead et al. 2013).
For reasons Nocenti never explains, Nine has become involved in a process where Hagan: Touch Me/Don't Touch Me Art.9, page 14 of 24 she has submitted herself -or been coerced -into being modified to be "perfect", at least in the eyes of the man who is providing the resources to do so. Perhaps, prior to transformation, Nine was conscious of the value of a woman's physical beauty in a male dominated contemporary society. Frost (2001) identified that beauty has a transactional quality that heightens a woman's value: Nocenti indicates that Nine's beauty is complemented by a programming that makes her subservient. Olsson (2000) comments that feminine stereotypes 'include beliefs that women are "born to serve" and so will make the tea' (p 300). In her early appearances, Nocenti reveals in Nine functionalist housewife traits. The character is obsessed with cooking, especially for Daredevil and other male guests, who then reciprocate by fawning over her. As Nine says herself: Number Nine: I feel like cooking and cleaning and serving but Brandy won't let me. She says that's just sexist programming I must resist. Towards the end of Nine's narrative, where she, like Brandy, ends up in Hell, she begins to find peace with herself through engagement with a bespectacled and scrawny male angel called Lucy, who tells us that he likes her because 'she's insecure and clumsy' (Daredevil 281). Lucy is not just another male angel pursuing her for his own pleasure and, presented without genitalia, the threat of the male here is effectively neutralised. Nocenti shows that Lucy's ability to recognise Nine's inner traits and not her outward appearance both leads Nine to accept his friendship and to finally resolve to pursue her own aims and not those of the men surrounding her.  Writing in the twilight years of second-wave feminism and before third-wave feminist concerns had really taken route, Nocenti would have been aware of how feminism was fracturing (Genz & Brabon 2018). Whilst young women were still likely to support feminist goals at the time, they were more reluctant to identify as feminists, due to negative connotations around it being adversarial and monolithic (McDaniel 2009;Whittier 1995). As such, it is clear Nocenti was careful about how she developed feminist ideas in the comic, especially, as has been argued here, in Hagan: Touch Me/Don't Touch Me Art.9, page 18 of 24 relation to her most explicitly feminist character, Brandy Ash. Like Nocenti's run on Daredevil, She-Hulk would make asides to feminism, but these were delivered in a tongue-in-cheek manner that perhaps dulled their impact. Both books reveal that, despite cultural changes at the time, discussing feminism unapologetically was still difficult in mainstream comic books in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Nevertheless, the inclusion of stronger female heroes within comics by the 1980s gave some indication as to how feminism was making progress and influencing how comics were changing (Race 2013), though it would still be decades before Marvel paid more than lip service to female led titles like the Sensational She-Hulk in terms of both their central characters and creators. In recent years, demands for better representation has led Marvel to create a more diverse range of titles, featuring female lead characters more often than not written by female creators (Kent 2015).
As Nocenti herself says:

Editorial Note
This article is part of the Creating Comics, Creative Comics Special Collection, edited by Brian Fagence (University of South Wales) and Geraint D'Arcy (University of South Wales) with editorial support from Ernesto Priego (City, University of London). This article is based on the paper 'Touch Me/Don't Touch: Female Archetypes in Ann