‘Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst’s Amazons #1’ Reimagines the Suffragette Movement in England

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cover59425-mediumHidden behind the walls of a fight studio in London are a group of women struggling to use their fighting techniques to gain the right to vote. Armed with their skirts, their wits, and Suffrajitsu, the women work together to break up sessions of Parliament that attempt to continue to ban the right to vote for women. The women run into difficulties when a large group of police swarm the stage at  rally. Part one promises daring rescues in part #2.

Comixology describes the characters this way:

• Persephone Wright, a “fallen woman” who will protect those she loves at all costs
• “Flossie” Le Mar, a rough-diamond adventuress from New Zealand
• Katie “Sandwina” Brumbach, a fiercely loyal Austrian wrestler and strongwoman
• Toupie Lowther, a cunning, cross-dressing woman of means
• Judith Lee, a proud Anglo-Chinese socialite and amateur detective
• Kitty Marshall, a quick-witted teenager who keeps her radicalism secret from her wealthy family
• Miss Sanderson, an enigmatic “governess” with an appetite for violence

Street-fighting suffragettes. This is what Mary Poppins was missing. Flossie is perhaps my favorite character, mostly because of how much she eyes everything English as eyeroll worthy.

Every once in a while I stumble upon something like this. I really want to like Suffrajitsu, and in fact most of it I quite enjoy. Women fighting the system while wearing petticoats is amusing, but they become deadly when they switch to bloomers. The issue stands however, that I’m not sure how far the vote would have come for women if they perpetually were attacking Parliament during the time period. I do love the fact that they are able to take a stand against their male counterparts when violence has been dealt towards them.  To put it bluntly, I’m torn on Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurt’s Amazons. I’m looking forward to the next issue to see where this goes.

 

Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurt’s Amazons #1 is now available on Comixology.

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One Response

  1. Jen Tatro February 8, 2015 Reply

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