In the story Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick there are three flashbacks to Penelope’s life one in her early childhood pages 179-182, one in her teenage years pages 185-188 and one as an adult pages 191-197, the author uses visual motifs in these flashbacks to show Penelope’s descent into a life she doesn’t like. The author uses colors, camera angle and visuals in the background to show the difference in these flashbacks and to show how Penelope is not content and her life has gone down a path she doesn’t want. 

In Penelope’s first flashback She’s in a house with her Grandmother and they are baking. The colors in these scenes are very vibrant and bright and warm with the use of many yellows oranges and pinks which are very unthreatening colors. The lines are not sharp they are more soft, and there are no intense camera angles this allows the reader to look at the picture and not feel anxious or feel like there’s something wrong. Everything about the house they are in seems normal and everybody seems happy. The visual motifs help convey a strong sense of this is a home and that Penelope is in a place she can be happy. Then towards the end of the panels shadows start to show up in the background where they weren’t before and above the fridge and door you are able to see cracks in the walls that you couldn’t see before these two motifs are subtle but are still easily seen and I think the author was trying to show that Penelope’s life is starting to break and get worse. Another motif that points to this is in the very last panel in the kitchen the cabinets and door seem to be slanted and out of place. Then at the end of the panels the police come to do something at the house. And because of the prior visual motifs you can assume something bad is happening. 

In Penelope’s Second flashback she is in what seems to be a school and she has hit another kid and then she goes to Mother Siebertling’s office, in these scenes the colors are much dimmer and duller right off the bat and there are also some close ups right from the start too showing that this time is already a more intense part of Penelope’s life that the previous flashback. In these panels she refers to Penny’s grandma and it seems as though she was taken away or killed, which would explain the colors being dimmer because she is no longer in a home she loves. All around the mother’s office there are pictures and other visuals that point towards her being this stereotypical “perfect” girl. There’s sorority letters, beauty pageant prizes, prom queen pictures and a family picture. These all show that she has totally conformed to this society and shows the readers the contrast between Penny and her grandma, and Mother Siebertling. At the end of this flashback Mother is talking about fixing Penelope and in the very last panel you see an over the shoulder shot of mother Siebertling over Penelope and her shadow on Penelope, this seems very sinister almost like in a scary movie when a killer is about to kill someone and this shows the readers that again something bad is going to happen and points to something about Penelope’s personality is about to be “murdered” like in the movies.

In the very last flashback the panels are very dim and washed out to show that Penelope isn’t much of herself anymore. The author uses dark cool colors to help show this. And again there is another close up in this flashback at the beginning showing the intensity of the situation. In the background you can see a Born Big sign that seems to be the name of her shop, and if you look in the first flashback in the very first panel you can see a flyer with the same name on it and this makes you make a connection that this was where her grandma worked and shows that even though penny has gone off her original path that she is still thinking about her grandma and she still doesn’t fully conform to this society. In this flashback you fully get to understand how brainwashed this society is and helps you appreciate Penelope’s originality the author does this by showing the T.V.’s on every table that everyone has to watch and showing the big T.V. and then adding in the weird adds advertising products for the bowels and news about beauty. As this flashback goes on there is a conflict between two guys and Penelope. In the conflict the guys are saying very offensive things about Penelope and as it goes on the camera angles are slowing getting closer which conveys intensity and the expressions on Penelope’s face slowly come more into view with each camera angle getting closer shower her anger, then she snaps and the angles go from close-ups on her to close-ups on her, her roller and the men and then the angles go to camera angles that resemble action movie fight scenes and this conveys the feelings going on inside of her and the intensity of this situation. Before the fight her face was filled with anger but during the fight you never see her full face and then at the end you see her face and it sort of looks like a face of relief and this really helps show that she is starting to be happy even though she just did something bad she didn’t give in she didn’t let a piece of herself be taken this time and this is why she is relieved and its only because the authors ability to show this through his angles that you are able to see this.

In conclusion the author uses the visual motifs of color, angle and detail, to help convey the wrongness of this world Penelope’s in and her journey to find herself. The author used colors to show the scale of the situation in each flashback and the emotions being felt. The author did this by having the colors get dimmer and cooler with every flashback. The author used camera angles to show intensity or lack thereof in each panel and with each flashback the panels became more intense. The author used detail in lines and in the background to show the full story, she did this in a subtle way but it was still noticeable and helped to create a story that they don’t tell you. Overall these were used in a way which shows Penelope being broken with every flashback while she still tries to hold on to her real self until she finally breaks away from society and feels happy, and accepts herself no matter what any person tells her to be. This idea is finally revealed in the last page of the story outside of the flashbacks where the leaders try to show her true self that she’d be happy with but it backfires and shows that she is her true self because she accepted herself for what she is in her flashback.