One of the most influential and popular tropes in superhero comic books is the concept of the amazon world, a female civilization that opposes mankind and features strong women as their inhabitants and rulers. DC has Themyscira while Marvel has the subject of today’s post: Femizonia, a world where females rule with an iron fist.
Included within the pages of Savage Tales #1 we find the story titled Fury of the Femizons, written and created by Stan Lee, who was inspired by the women's liberation movement in the early seventies. It surely captivated readers who were living the feminist fight around the time. Femizonia became so influential it would eventually come up again and again in Marvel comics throughout the years, spawning the homonymous group of female villains and even Thundra herself.
The story begins with an introduction to the female-lead world. In this first scene, a woman warrior is seen engaging in mortal combat with a fellow gladiatrix, the fierce Lyra executes her opponent, instigated by the surrounding females. Right out of the gate, Femizonia is established as a ruthless and merciless world where women have become cold and savage warriors with a lust for blood. Not a bad start, since it's already completely subverting the traditional ideas of femininity and womanhood that were predominant in the culture at the time but it kind of turns into a very villainizing portrayal of a female civilization.
Another stereotype unfolds as growing contempt dooms over the females at the top, particularly Lyra, who has antagonizing interactions with a fellow Femizon, Syrani. There's always betrayal and secret treason in these stories about women in power.
Soon enough, Lyra begins to have strange doubts about her world and her place in it. A sense of discontent clouds her mind, she feels as if there's something wrong or missing in her life. Next thing she knows, a male slave revolts and tells her he has discovered secret tapes guarding humanity's occult past.
At this point it is very obvious what the background here is, we are dealing with an alternate 23rd century where war drove humans to the downfall of the world of men and to the birth of the world of women. The male slave argues that women have been just as evil as men since they left most male children to die and kept a few as slaves.
Both fall in love and as their relationship progresses Lyra begins to trust him and decides to join his cause and help the remaining men to have a better life. You know how this is gonna go, Lyra's intuition about something being wrong refers to an imbalance between the sexes in their world and she becomes fulfilled by her lover and new sense of justice.
The man takes Lyra to meet his fellow rebels but it's a trick by Syrani who promptly calls Lyra a traitor and a battle between the defector Femizon and her fellow warriors begins. At the climax, Syrani takes Lyra and her man to the Queen and tests her alliance to Femizonia by telling her that if she isn't a traitor then she should kill the male slave and end the accusations.
Of course, in this moment of truth the man insults Lyra and sacrifices himself to save the life of her beloved Femizon. The story ends with Lyra proving her loyalty to womankind and the Queen but lamenting the death of her man and her unfulfilled dreams of living in peace.
Overall, it's a well structured and dramatically effective tragedy of the best kind, well illustrated and creative, tapping on topical subjects in a timeless story of an emotional search for love and justice. But perhaps a it's a little too antagonizing towards it's female characters, just kind of feels like a reactionary criticism towards radical feminism (the last line being particularly egregious), maybe Stan Lee wasn't going for that and was instead advocating for less misandry and more legitimate equality, which isn't a bad thing but it doesn't feel right to depict an all female world in such an extreme fashion. In contrast, the Amazons from DC were always portrayed positively and with affection, as we have seen in my previous reviews of the Wonder Woman comics, maybe that's why those became more popular with audiences over the years while the Femizons were mostly forgotten. Either way, the concept stuck around and branched off into several other storylines.
It's a quick and swift read that feels mandatory for comic book fans and those who like superheroines. High caliber fantasy with great designs for the female warriors and interesting lore.
