
In pieces of literary work, such as articles of writing, the first sentence is often quite important to the overall theme of the work. It gives the reader the very first piece of information on what they are about to read. In a similar way, the first panel of a comic shares this importance. In the comic “Bitch Planet” by Kelly Sue DeConnick, the first panel uses a variety of visual elements to supports the author’s theme that the main character is portrayed as a prisoner of a masculine society. 

In the first panel of this comic, the main character is wearing an orange jump suit, similar to that of a prisoner. Because of the bright orange color of the suit in contrast to the darker colors of the background, the focus goes straight to the main character. This visual element is an obvious comparison. The main character is wearing the clothing that a prisoner wears because DeConnick is portraying her as a prisoner to the male society around her. Her “fathers” expect her to act, think, look, and dress a certain way. She wishes to be her own person and live the life that she wants, but because the life she wants to live does not match up with the expectations of the men around her, she is a prisoner to them. 

Another visual element DeConnick uses to portray the imprisonment of the main character is the positioning of her hands and her facial expression. The girl is holding her hands balled up in fists at her sides, an action generally associated with holding in anger. The facial expression she has is that of a scowl. In later panels, it is shown that in the spot she is standing in, she is surrounded by screens of her “fathers,” or the men that are in control of her. In the same way that a prisoner holds anger towards those that are in charge of him, the main character holds this same anger towards the men that feel they are in charge of her. 

A third visual element used in “Bitch Planet” that draws a comparison between the main character and a prisoner is the aspect of fear. In any given society, people tend to fear those in prison. They fear what they are about, how they managed to get there, and just the prisoner as an individual in general. The way the main character is drawn is meant to give the reader that same aspect of fear. She is tall, wide, and muscular, taking up a majority of the panel just by herself. If you took her out of the comic, and made her a person in real life, especially a person associated with jail, those around her would no doubt fear her.  

The final visual element that the author of “Bitch Planet” uses to portray the main character as a prisoner of the masculine society she is a part of is that of a “prison atmosphere.” The room that the main character is standing in in the first panel is darkly colored and barren, similar to that of a jail cell. Behind the main character, there appears to be bars of sort that are keeping her confined in the room. On the opposite side of the bars as her are two guards holding weapons. The combination of the dark colors, bars, and guards, all work together to create the atmosphere of a prison, specifically a jail cell in which the main character is standing at the center of. 

Through the use of the orange jumpsuit, the hand positioning and facial expression of the main character, the aspect of fear associated with her, as well as the “prison atmosphere” she is drawn in, Kelly Sue DeConnick portrays the main character of her comic “Bitch Planet” as a prisoner of the masculine society she is surrounded by. In the similar way that the guards in jail expect a prisoner to abide by their rules, the “fathers” in DeConnick’s comic expect the main character to live the way they want her too. Because the main character wishes to be free to make her own decisions and think the way she individually wants to, despite the expectations of her “fathers” she is a prisoner to the masculine society they surround her in.  