Thursday, August 21, 2008

Misty Knight

The Marvel comic book character known as Misty Knight was created in the mid 70's. You could think of her as Pam Grier, with a bionic right arm. She was originally a cop but lost her arm due to a bomb explosion. It was replaced by a cybernetic version from Stark Enterprises. No longer being able to be an officer of the law she often assisted Power Man (Luke Cage) and Iron Fist in their Heroes for Hire business. She fits right in with the Blaxploitation era complete with afro and attitude. Her abilities include markswoman, martial arts, detective skills, and the strength and power of her bionic arm.  She became romantically involved with Iron Fist and has been, pretty much off and on, since the creation of her character. She has been a mercenary, private investigator, and bondswoman, and of course businesswoman, with her company Nightwing Restorations co-owned with her long time business partner and friend, Samurai, Colleen Wing.

Most, Black Superheroines, especially those from the 60's or 70's era sport the Afro, Afro puffs, or Braids. Misty Knight is no exception. She is every bit the stereotypical blacksploitation era kick-ass Black woman. It's easy to imagine that everything she's ever done in comic book could be played in live action by a young Pam Greer. She never made it to her own comic book but she has starred in plenty. She's more than once lead an all woman team as well as other teams consisting of heroes with and without powers. Some of those teams have had their own comic. There is even an action figure of her out there somewhere. Her character has changed very little over the decades. She's still around, still relevant, and still showing up powerfully in the Marvel Universe. And why not? She's smart, foxy, a good leader, ready for action, and has a mean right hook. Her story has all the elements of a good movie or at least a TV show.

2 comments:

Rebecca V. O'Neal said...

i love misty knight... she definitely one of my favorites.

Anonymous said...

... but what do you need to say misty is a great character?

No particurla stereotypese for her, not more than every other superhero.