History Main / BadGirlComic

* [[ComicBook/{{Magyk}} Illyana Rasputin]] from the Franchise/XMen started as Colossus' little sister. After some convoluted events, she manifested a SuperpoweredEvilSide called Darkchilde[=/=]Darkchylde, who had a monstrous demonic form at the time. Later, she got killed off, and was resurrected in the mid-00s, as Darkchilde. Her new design and persona were heavily influenced by Bad Girl Comics. She later became Magik again, but retained parts of her Darkchilde personality.

* [[Comicbook/{{Magyk}} Illyana Rasputin]] from the Franchise/XMen started as Colossus' little sister. After some convoluted events, she manifested a SuperpoweredEvilSide called Darkchilde[=/=]Darkchylde, who had a monstrous demonic form at the time. Later, she got killed off, and was resurrected in the mid-00s, as Darkchilde. Her new design and persona were heavily influenced by Bad Girl Comics. She later became Magik again, but retained parts of her Darkchilde personality.

[[folder: Chaos Comics]]

[[folder: Avatar Press]]

[[folder: Awesome Comics]]

[[folder: DC Comics]]

[[folder: Marvel Comics]]

* ''[[Comicbook/{{Magyk}} Illyana Rasputin]]'' from the Franchise/XMen started as Colossus' little sister. After some convoluted events, she manifested a SuperpoweredEvilSide called Darkchilde[=/=]Darkchylde, who had a monstrous demonic form at the time. Later, she got killed off, and was resurrected in the mid-00s, as Darkchilde. Her new design and persona were heavily influenced by Bad Girl Comics. She later became Magik again, but retained parts of her Darkchilde personality.

[[folder: Other publishers]]

[[folder: Film (Live-Action)]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

* ''ComicBook/GrimmFairyTales'' by Creator/Zenescope Entertainment, and its various spin-offs. A mid-00s series paying homage to Bad Girl Comics, with settings based on {{Fractured Fairy Tale|s}}. Among the general comic fandom they're mostly known for two things: their erotic cover art, and their sizeable female reader base.

** ''Barb Wire'', who also was the protagonist of her own arc, which has {{Cyberpunk}} influence. Nowadays, she's mostly remembered for its poorly received [[Film/BarbWire movie adaptation]] starring Creator/PamelaAnderson.
** ''ComicBook/{{Ghost|DarkHorseComics}}'' also was part of this series, but in the first arc and seen as an ActionGirl for ''ComicBook/XDarkHorseComics'', but later she receives her own solo series. Like her first appearance, all about her was written and drawn by her creator, Adam Hughes.

* ComicBook/HarleyQuinn and Enchantress in ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'' are clear-cut villains who, like the rest of the ComicBook/SuicideSquad, are only working on the side of the good guys because the government will have them killed if they don't. Both of them are played by gorgeous women in skimpy, fetishized outfits (Creator/MargotRobbie as a trashy punk chick and Creator/CaraDelevingne as a gothic witch, respectively), and while Harley is a BadassNormal, Enchantress is a woman named June Moone who is possessed by the spirit of a witch. After Enchantress breaks the bounds placed on her and becomes the BigBad, her and Harley's interactions can be thought of as Bad Girl vs. Bad Girl. The later Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse film ''Film/BirdsOfPrey2020'', however, toned down the fanservice such that it doesn't really qualify, even if it otherwise ticks most of the boxes on the list (R-rated crime movie about a group of female {{Villain Protagonist}}s and antiheroes).

* ''[[ComicBook/IllyanaRasputin Magik]]'' from the Franchise/XMen started as Colossus' little sister. After some convoluted events, she manifested a SuperpoweredEvilSide called Darkchilde[=/=]Darkchylde, who had a monstrous demonic form at the time. Later, she got killed off, and was resurrected in the mid-00s, as Darkchilde. Her new design and persona were heavily influenced by Bad Girl Comics. She later became Magik again, but retained parts of her Darkchilde personality.

During UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks, comics reveled in exploring all previously "forbidden" themes: violence, gore, crime, cynical grittiness, occult or demonic imagery, sex and sex appeal -- usually cranked UpToEleven. On one hand, we got the NinetiesAntiHero, with emphasis on the "violence, gore, crime and cynical grittiness" part. On the other hand, we got this trope.

* The version of ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} featured in ''Film/BatmanReturns'' is about as close as a movie can get to this within the bounds of a PG-13 rating. She's played by Creator/MichellePfeiffer in an extremely form-fitting [[SpyCatsuit black leather catsuit]], she's motivated by revenge against her former boss Max Shreck after he has her killed for trying to expose his villainy, she's supernaturally revived by mystical alley cats, and she is far more violent than [[ThouShaltNotKill Batman]] and willing to team up with ComicBook/ThePenguin to take down Shreck.

Some comic creators decided to combine the sexual allure of "good girl art" with other themes that were previously forbidden by the Code: violence, antiheroic attitudes, occult and demonic themes. Thus a new comic genre was born, nicknamed "bad girl art" or "bad girl comics" by its fans. Its usual definitive elements include:

# She usually (though not always) has some kind of occult connection, be it her powers or her backstory or the enemies she fights.
# She's got a cynical antiheroic or outright villainous attitude, or is simply AboveGoodAndEvil.

** The [[Series/{{Witchblade}} live-action TV series]] was an aversion, toning down the fanservice for basic-cable television and making Sara's outfit look more like stylized medieval armor.

* ''ComicBook/{{Vampirella}}'' is considered the UrExample. Created in 1969 by [[PromotedFanboy sci-fi and horror fan]] Forrest J. Ackerman and designed by feminist underground comix creator Trina Robbins, she later enjoyed a revival during the Bad Girl Comic craze of TheNineties, and remains relatively popular ever since.

* ''ComicBook/GrimmFairyTales'' by Creator/Zenescope Entertainment, and its various spin-offs. A mid-00s series paying homage to Bad Girl Comics, with settings based on {{Fractured Fairy Tale|s}}. Among the general comic fandom they're mostly known for two things: their erotic cover art, and their sizeable female readerbase.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'' can be considered a textbook example of this trope: a kick-ass female antihero protagonist with occult powers that come from demons, who wears a sexy risque outfit (a lovely dominatrix-style catsuit made out of her own hair), and dispatches her [[LightIsNotGood angelic enemies]] without mercy.

* Velvet Crowe from ''Videogame/TalesOfBerseria'' is a downplayed example. She's a NinetiesAntiHero with a {{Stripperiffic}} outfit and demonic powers hell-bent on revenge against the man who murdered her brother, and has the melancholy attitude to match. The downplay comes from the fact that Velvet's sexuality is never emphasized as much as one would expect from her archetype, and the aesthetic of the rest of the game is as colourful as any other game in the Tales franchise.

The Bad Girl genre of the '90s was popular enough to survive UsefulNotes/TheGreatComicsCrashOf1996 relatively unscathed. Bad Girl Comics were mostly published by smaller indie publishers, which appeared ''en masse'' during the Dark Age. In their heyday, Bad Girl Comics gathered a large and surprisingly diverse audience, with female readers comprising a large part of it. That was possibly because the comics featured ActionGirl protagonists who had cool powers and usually didn't rely on men to achieve their goals. Some female readers also liked the risqué costumes, with some even managing to {{cosplay}} them despite their improbable designs, and even fans who didn't like the outfits still liked the characters themselves for being among the more competent, independent, and legitimately badass women in comics of that era.

Of course, SturgeonsLaw led to a lot of literally ''bad'' Bad Girl Comics. Bad writers created overly edgy and clichéd plots, and bad artists turned "sexy" into "horribly mangled anatomy". Even the best examples suffered from a problem common to most comics of the era: they came across as cartoonishly camp and silly to many readers, but instead of being self-aware they often took themselves completely seriously.

** One of the most successful examples of this genre. It even spawned an eponymous [[Anime/{{Witchblade}} Anime]] set in the same world but with different characters (and later a [[Manga/WitchbladeTakeru Manga]] unrelated to the anime). The main character of the comic series, Sara Pezzini, is more of a heroine than an antihero -- however, she wields a powerful magical artifact which doubles as a skimpy outfit, uses it to dispatch of her enemies, and has a rather dark backstory.
** A spin-off out-of-continuity comic called ''[[ComicBook/{{Switch2015}} Switch]]'' by longtime Witchblade artist Stjepan Sejic is stated to be published in 2015. However, as it features a teenage heroine and is intended for an all-ages audience, most Bad Girl Comic elements [[LighterAndSofter will be obviously absent]], so it won't be an example of this genre but rather a traditional teen superhero story.
** The 2017 reboot on the other hand seems to be moving away from the more fanservicey elements of the genre.

* ''ComicBook/TheDarkness'' could be considered a rare male version: its protagonist is a Mafia hitman who became a wielder of the primordial mystical power of chaos and darkness, seized control over the mob and created his own drug cartel, while wearing a rather skintight magical armor over his toned body. However, his series also features "bad girls" like The Angelus and The Magdalena.
* ''ComicBook/MadameMirage'' is a mid-00s homage to Bad Girl Comics as well as to the pulp vigilante genre (e.g. ''Franchise/TheShadow''), created by Paul Dini. It features a FemmeFatale vigilante with mysterious superpowers on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against an equally mysterious evil corporation. Madame Mirage wears a quite flattering outfit, and her appearance is said to be based on the creator's wife.

* ''ComicBook/{{Glory}}'': During Liefeld's original run she was a blatant {{Expy}} of Franchise/WonderWoman with a couple added Bad Girl Comic elements, e.g. she was a half-demon who tried to overcome her evil side. When Creator/AlanMoore came on board, he toned down most of those and turned her into a mix of a cheerful {{Deconstruction}} of Franchise/WonderWoman comics and a prototype for ''ComicBook/{{Promethea}}''. (The 2010s {{Retool}} of the series by Joe Keatinge and Sophie Campbell has nothing to do with this subgenre at all.)

* ''ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}'': In her 1993 solo series she was reimagined with elements of this genre. It was written by Mary Jo Duffy who later wrote Creator/RobLiefeld's ''Glory'' series, and drawn by Jim Balent who also drew several other Bad Girl Comics.
* After her 2000s solo series ended, Catwoman teamed up with Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy for the ''ComicBook/GothamCitySirens'' series, which fits squarely into this as a comic about three borderline AntiVillain[=/=]AntiHero women with extremely fanservicey artwork.
** Harley Quinn, in general, has been pushed in this direction in recent years, becoming effectively a superhero-flavored take on this genre.

* ''Satana'', the Devil's Daughter, was one of the earliest example of this genre. She was created in TheSeventies, but wasn't used much for decades. She later appeared in all her "bad girl" glory in the mid-00s ''Witches'' miniseries where she played the token evil teammate, and as a BoxedCrook in ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}''[=/=]''ComicBook/DarkAvengers''.

* Lara Croft of ''Franchise/TombRaider'' fame, especially in her earlier adventures. She was a NinetiesAntihero who did not have compunctions about cutting down opponents with dual handguns in pursuit of occult treasures for no reason other than the sport of it; and for a video game character at the time the amount of fanservice focus in marketing was extremely high compared to contemporary games. Since [[VideoGame/TombRaider2013 the 2013 reboot]], more emphasis is placed on her character her outfit has changed to be less revealing.

The Bad Girl Comic is a comic book starring a female lead who is usually {{fanservice}}y to the point of being {{stripperiffic}}, often a vampire, witch or other occult figure, and most certainly an {{antihero}}, usually of the NinetiesAntiHero variety. Some qualify fully as a VillainProtagonist.

During UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks, comics revelled in exploring all previously "forbidden" themes: violence, gore, crime, cynical grittiness, occult or demonic imagery, sex and sex appeal -- usually cranked UpToEleven. On one hand, we got the NinetiesAntiHero, with emphasis on the "violence, gore, crime and cynical grittiness" part. On the other hand, we got this trope.

As the Comics Code waned, comic readers re-discovered pre-Code comic books and comic strips of the late GoldenAge. A lot of them featured depictions of sexy women, featured in various roles: from [[DamselInDistress Damsels In Distress]] to ActionGirl pilot aces to [[FemmeFatale Femmes Fatales]] to outright bloodthirsty villains in some crime books. That style, exemplified in the works of Bill Ward and Wally Wood, was nicknamed ''"good girl art"'' by its new fans. Note that it didn't mean "art depicting good girls" (since a lot of these "girls" were quite "bad") but rather "good art depicting girls".

Some comic creators decided to combine the sexual allure of "good girl art" with other themes that were previously forbidden by the Code: violence, antiheroic attitudes, occult and demonic themes. Thus a new comic genre was born, nicknamed ''"bad girl art"'' or ''"bad girl comics"'' by its fans.

Its usual definitive elements include:

# She's got a cynical antiheroic or outright villainous attitude, or is simply beyond good and evil.
# She is usually driven by personal motives (e.g. revenge), rather than any kind of altruistic ideals.
# She (and most other female characters) is depicted with an idealized body and skimpy outfits, to maximize sex appeal. It wasn't treated as occasional {{Fanservice}} but rather as an inherent part of the genre.

It should be noted that there are pre-nineties precedents for this genre. In 1940, Fletcher Hanks created Fantomah, a blonde supernatural heroine who was sometimes drawn in a flimsy, entirely sheer garment - but whose face became a skull when she used her powers. ''Comicbook/{{Vampirella}}'', originally a HorrorHost, was similar in aesthetic to many later Bad Girls, while Italian comics had long combined sexy anti-heroines and supernatural horror.

The Bad Girl genre of the nineties was popular enough to survive the Great Comics Crash relatively unscathed. Bad Girl Comics were mostly published by smaller indie publishers, which appeared en masse during the Dark Age. In its heyday Bad Girl Comics gathered a large and surprisingly diverse audience, with female readers comprising a large part of it. That was possibly because the comics featured ActionGirl protagonists who had cool powers and usually didn't rely on men to achieve their goals. Some female readers also liked the risque costumes, and some even managed to {{Cosplay}} them despite their improbable designs.

Of course, SturgeonsLaw led to a lot of literally ''bad'' Bad Girl Comics. Bad writers created overly edgy and cliche plots, and bad artists turned "sexy" into "horribly mangled anatomy". Even the best examples suffered from a problem common to most comics of the era: they came across as cartoonishly camp and silly to many readers, but instead of being self-aware they often took themselves completely seriously.

The genre's popularity started declining in the early [[TurnOfTheMillennium 2000s]], most likely because of the growing popularity of {{Manga}} and {{Anime}} in America. Still, some Bad Girl Comic elements got incorporated into mainstream comics, either by [[AscendedFan ascended fans]] or former "bad girl" artists themselves. And despite having become a niche genre, original Bad Girl Comics are still present on the market and maintain a rather stable readership.

* Lara Croft of ''Franchise/TombRaider'' fame, especially in her earlier adventures. She was NinetiesAntihero who did not have compunctions about cutting down opponents with dual handguns in pursuit of occult treasures for no reason other than the sport of it; and for a video game character at the time the amount of fanservice focus in marketing was extremely high compared to contemporary games. Since [[VideoGame/TombRaider2013 the 2013 reboot]], more emphasis is placed on her character her outfit has changed to be less revealing.

** ''ComicBook/{{Ghost|DarkHorseComics}}'' also was part of this series, but in the first arc and seen as an ActionGirl for * ''ComicBook/XDarkHorseComics'', but later she receives her own solo series. Like her first appearance, all about her was written and drawn by her creator, Adam Hughes.

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** ''ComicBook/{{Ghost|DarkHorseComics}}'' also was part of this series, but in the first arc and seen as an ActionGirl for ComicBook/{{X}}, but later she receives her own solo series. Like her first appearance, all about her was written and drawn by her creator, noneless than Adam Hughes.

# She (and most other female characters) is depicted with an idealized body and skimpy outfits, to maximize sex appeal. It wasn't treated as occasional {{Fanservice}} but rather as a staple of the genre.

** ''Barb Wire'', who also was TheProtagonist of her own arc, which has {{Cyberpunk}} influence. Nowadays, she's mostly remembered for its poorly received [[Film/BarbWire movie adaptation]] starring Creator/PamelaAnderson.

The Bad Girl genre of the nineties was popular enough to survive the Great Comics Crash relatively unscathed. Bad Girl Comics were mostly published by smaller indie publishers, which appeared en masse during the Dark Age. In its heyday Bad Girl Comics gathered a large and surprisingly diverse audience, with female readers comprising a large part of it. That was possibly because the comics featured ActionGirl protagonists who had cool powers and usually didn't rely on men to achieve their goals. Some female readers also liked the risque costumes, and some even managed to cosplay them despite their improbable designs.

** A spin-off out-of-continuity comic called ''[[ComicBook/{{Twitch}} Switch]]'' by longtime Witchblade artist Stjepan Sejic is stated to be published in 2015. However, as it features a teenage heroine and is intended for an all-ages audience, most Bad Girl Comic elements [[LighterAndSofter will be obviously absent]], so it won't be an example of this genre but rather a traditional teen superhero story.

* ''ComicBook/WarriorNunAreala'' by Creator/AntarcticPress is often considered one. However, her creator Ben Dunn argued against classifying his comic as this trope, noting that the protagonist has good and altruistic motives, and never resorted to violence.

* The Dark Queen in ''VideoGame/{{Battletoads}}'' was designed closely around this aesthetic. However, she's a villainess rather than an anti-heroine.

* The Dark Queen in ''VideoGame/{{Battletoads}}'' was designed closely around this aesthetic.

* After her 2000s solo series ended, Catwoman teamed up with Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy for the ''ComicBook/GothamCitySirens'' series, which fits squarely into this as a comic about three borderline AntiVillain[=/=]AntiHero woman with extremely fanservicey artwork.

* ''ComicBook/{{Glory}}'': During Liefeld's original run she was a blatant {{Expy}} of Franchise/WonderWoman with a couple added Bad Girl Comic elements, e.g. she was a half-demon who tried to overcome her evil side. When Creator/AlanMoore came on board, he toned down most of those and turned her into a mix of a cheerful {{Deconstruction}} of Franchise/WonderWoman comics and a prototype for ''ComicBook/{{Promethea}}''.