10 Comic Book Moments That Were Profoundly Insulting

Comic: Green Lantern #54

What Happened: Kyle Rayner returned home after saving his sector of the galaxy, only to find that his girlfriend, Alex, isn't home. He finds a note that reads, "Surprise for you in the fridge. Love, A." When he opens the refrigerator, he finds her body, broken and stuffed inside.

Why Was It Insulting: Frankly, it's insulting to women and was so shocking when the book came out in 1994, the term "women in refrigerators" was coined as a comic book trope. It seemed as if Alex's only point in the comic was to become a victim to drive Kyle's story, and the practice is sexist and unnecessary.

For decades, women have been put into peril to further a plot along; after all, where would Superman be if he didn't have to rescue Lois Lane all the time? The concept of the "damsel in distress" is outdated and irrelevant to modern storytelling—it's true now, and it was true back in the '90s.

Needlessly victimizing a woman to make a male character's plot move in one direction or another, suggests the woman was worthless. Since this book was printed, anytime a woman was used in this manner in a story, she was said to have been "fridged."