In the visual text, “Bitch Planet”, a woman named Penelope is faced with racial injustice, judgement, and a loss of self-worth. Throughout the comic, different visual elements such as imagery and repetition are used with certain symbols and different color schemes that drive the audience’s attention. The visual aspect of “Bitch Planet” contributes more to the theme and meaning of the comic than the actual text. Kelly Sue DeConnick is able to bring out more meaning from the text when backed by the illustrations that go along with the text. Repetition of certain color schemes are used throughout the comic and because of this DeConnick is able to let the audience know what to think and this helps the audience interpret more in depth. In this futuristic dystopia, Penelope is depicted as being a criminal and needing change according to the fathers and society as a whole.

“Bitch Planet” contains many symbols that help contribute to the overall message of this visual text. One strong symbol that is brought up in both the beginning and at the end in the visual text are the muffins that she is making in the beginning with her grandma and another time when she is working in a restaurant that sells muffins. The first time she is making the muffins she is taken away from her grandmother at the age of eight and the second time she overhears people in the restaurant saying racist and other hurtful things that set off her temper. When Penelope is in the room with all the “fathers” on the television screens she is virtually the only person in the room who is African American compared to the guards and the fathers who are all white and are on brightly colored screens. The difference in color schemes throughout the visual text describe the overall mood at the time, for example, when she is making muffins with her grandma, the room is a lightly colored yellow and the mood seems happy and comforting then when the guards come to take her away they are in all black and it brings the overall mood down. As the mood of the visual text drifts from happy to sad and so forth, the color scheme drifts along with it, letting the reader know that something is changing. After the scene with her grandma, no other scene is as bright and cheerful as that one was. 

Racial discrimination plays a big role in this comic. At many points in the story, Penelope is discriminated because of her race and her size as a woman. In this dystopia it seems that her and her grandma are the only plus sized women depicted and for that they stand out. People in this dystopia try to change Penelope for the “better”, but in the end when they set up the device to see Penelope’s ideal version of herself, and they see that it is exactly how she is, that’s when the reader sits back and really sees the message of discrimination and judgement. Penelope sees herself just as she is but to everyone else it seems like they couldn’t imagine being in her shoes. In the scene where Penelope is in the muffin shop and the man calls her a “baboon”, she loses it because she knows that they will never be able to see her the way she sees herself (DeConnick 195). Not only did the man saying that bother her, but the slim, white women in the muffin shop bothered her only because of the thought of them judging her. At the end when all the fathers see that she sees herself just as she is, it shows that she does not want to change, she is content with the way she is. 

In this story, Penelope experiences, on multiple accounts, the feeling of no self-worth in the world she lives in. Time and time again she is judged and faced with hardships that one would think to only lower one’s self esteem, but she shows the reader in the end that she is a strong woman who feels comfortable in her shoes and knows that she is cared about by at least one person, that being her grandmother. To the eye of the reader it seems like the only pleasant time in Penelope’s life was in the scene with her grandmother, but with more thought and interpretation, one can see that she is fine with who she is, it’s just everyone else that has problems with her. Three lines at the end of the story that stand out as being very influential in noticing one’s self-worth are after the scene of the ideal version of herself when she says, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I ain’t broke. And you bastards ain’t never gonna break me.” (DeConnick 199). Those last few lines tie together the meaning behind this visual piece about racial discrimination, judgement, and self-worth. 

Elements that make this visual text so meaningful are the diverse color schemes and symbols used to describe the mood of the story. Kelly DeConnick creates a way to drive the audience’s attention towards the story by using different illustrations that have different perspectives, angles, and lighting techniques. One set of panels at the end of the story show Penelope’s determination to resist the fathers and society by using a close up perspective of Penelope’s face smiling. The whole meaning of the visual text is driven by the close and complementary relationship of the diverse illustrations and the dialogue that can only truly be interpreted when they are presented to the reader simultaneously. Repetition plays a part in this story with the constant flashbacks and returns to reality that remind the audience that these memories are only being brought to thought by the questions from the fathers. The whole time the fathers are trying to figure out how she “should” view herself. One should not determine one’s self-worth by what others think, one should always remain true to oneself no matter the risks involved or the amount of outside pressure put on to change who someone really is.