I have been reading Marvel Comics' Civil War series, which pits superhero against superhero when the country passes laws demanding that superheroes register their real identities with the government. Many heroes obey; others fight; some opt out; many go to prison for believing they have a right to their privacy. (If you're noticing parallels, that's the point.) It's intriguing, depressing, well- or not well- written, depending on the authors. It's a Really Big Thing.

MARVEL COMICS CIVIL WAR #4 SPOILER HERE:
So. One of the many plot lines involves the Fantastic Four. Reed Richards, science nerd, superbrain, stretching guy, and the epitome of Germaine Greer's Father Phallus, is on the side of the act's enforcers, helping to come up with ways to round up and register dissenters, including former friends of his (Captain America leads the strongest group of those who fight against the registration). Johnny Storm, the Torch, was beaten up by an anti-hero mob and put in the hospital in a coma. Sue Storm, Reed Richards' wife, the series' ÜberMom, powerful Invisible Girl, and the glue holding the Four together, has been begging Reed to visit Johnny, who is family. Reed has been finding excuses. He's also been ignoring her attempts to discuss her unhappiness with the registration act, the arrests, and his part in the whole thing. She's been getting angrier and unhappier. I've been wondering what she sees in this clueless dipstick all along. In Civil War #4, she finally does it. She bails. And here's the letter:
(I said this was a festering boil of a spoiler. If you didn't get that, I'm not sorry and you didn't read the big spoiler notice up above.)
My darling Reed ...
I know Johnny's out of the hospital and the family is back together again. I know I should be happy, but I'm not.
I'm so ASHAMED of you right now, and ashamed of myself for supporting your fascistic plans. I hate what I've become, and that's why I'm joining Cap's SECRET AVENGERS team.
Please understand: This is not another cry for attention. This is not me trying to distract you from your all-important work.
This is because our hands are soaked in [XXXXX]'s BLOOD and you're so blinded by your graphs and social projections that you can't even SEE it.
Johnny and I will be working UNDERGROUND from now on, and that's obviously no place for Franklin and Valeria {the other kids}.
That's why I've left them in your care and beg you to give them the time you have so often DENIED them in the past.
I also didn't want your last memory of me to be tainted with all the blazing fights we've had in recent weeks.
Hence the oily-fish dinner (good brain-food), the bottle of your favorite claret (an excellent anti-oxidant) and making love one final time (good for the immune system).
I hope I don't look like a coward for leaving this way. I hope you don't think I'm a bad wife or, worse still, a bad mother.
I'm doing this for the best of reasons and pray that your genius can RESOLVE this thing before one side ends up slaughtering the other.
I love you, Reed. More than anything in the world.
Please fix this.
Susan.
XXX

Okay. He's a fascist. He's got blood on his hands. He's helping to lead the side that she is about to fight against. But she hopes his "genius" can resolve things for both sides (one assumes well, so she and Johnny Storm don't die). She asks her fascist to "fix this." She leaves her children with said bloody-handed fascist whom she herself says has denied them his time in the past.
PLUS
She's not going off to a church social, folks--she's going off to fight, in a war, in which friends of hers have been mauled, imprisoned, and killed; she has just declared herself and her intentions to a man she knows has positioned himself securely in the leadership councils of those who have brought all of this down on them, and . . .
she fixed him a smart dinner
she poured out his favorite vino, which is also heart-healthy
and she gave him a farewell TUMBLE.

This is supposed to be a female hero? This is supposed to be a rational, intelligent woman? This reads like a kewpie doll with a squeak and a writing chip programmed by someone who wasn't mouthing the words as he went! It's not just me, is it? She just talked both ends against the middle and told a man she accuses of being a murderer that he's responsible but he can kiss and make it all better and she's helped to make him healthier while she goes and fights on the other side? Does that mean it'll be okay if she and all of her friends get killed?

The writer is Mark Millar. And I am just out of my mind with this. I've seen some comic book females made to say crazy stuff, but this is just too twisted. What was he thinking Was he thinking? Or does he believe this is what really goes on inside a woman's--inside a mother's--head?

These are the days when you wish the characters could just rear out of the pages and sock the writers.