GCA 2008: Best Female Character

Amanda Waller
Checkmate
Greg Rucka, writer, Joe Bennett & Jack Jadson, artists
created by John Ostrander, Len Wein & John Byrne

“…In the revamped Checkmate series set in the One Year Later continuity, Waller is shown to have been assigned by the UN to serve as Checkmate’s White Queen, a member of its senior policy-making executive. Due to her previous activities, her appointment is contingent on her having no direct control over operations. Regardless, she continues to pursue her own agenda, secretly using the Suicide Squad to perform missions in favor of American interests and blackmailing Fire. It is also implied that she may have betrayed a mission team in an attempt to protect her secrets and facilitated an attack on Checkmate headquarters for her own gain.” - from her Wikipedia entry

Lee Wagstaff
Bayou
created by Jeremy Love, writer and artist

“Lee is the embodiment of the resilient spirit of southern blacks in the face of terror. Growing up as a poor sharecropper has made her body strong and durable. The big thing about Lee is her optimism and determination. Her struggle is to retain these qualities while she navigates the dangerous parallel world… Lee enters this world in order to save her best friend, a white girl, from the clutches of an evil force that rules the parallel world. The bond she has with her friend has far-reaching effects on our world and the parallel world.” - Love, from his Newsarama interview

Martha Washington
Martha Washington Dies
co-created by Frank Miller, writer, and Dave Gibbons, artist

“…we want people to question those political and social elements, as they reflect certain repressive elements in our own world. That’s part of what it’s all about… The first Martha story came out of Reagan’s America, which was a really cynical sort of a time and witness to the rise of corporate power at the expense of individual freedoms. And though the landscape has changed, in some ways it’s gotten an awful lot scarier, so the time seems ripe for more Martha.” - editor Diana Schutz, from her Newsarama interview

Saida Nri
Adrenaline
co-created by Tyler Chin-Tanner, writer, and James Boyle & Fabio Redivo, artists

“…During my year in Africa, I was really inspired by the strong African women that were working so hard to make a difference to their society. In the U.S. we only get the images of the poor, starving people who need our help, and this is very accurate, but what we don’t see are the many strong native Africans who are leading the way in resuscitating their country. I felt they needed to be the hero of a comic book.” - Chin-Tanner, from his Jazma Online interview

Thomasina Lindo
Welcome to Tranquility
co-created by Gail Simone, writer, and Neil Googe, artist

“…the main character is a smart, tough, pretty African-American Sheriff, whose grandfather was the first public black superhero. She adores these people and recognizes them for the heroes they (mostly) are. In return, they adore her, as well. The normally publicity shy town allows a network reporter to do a story on Tranquility, to show it in the best possible light, and things go wrong from the minute the cameras start to roll, starting with a plane crash and leading up to an unexpected death. The sheriff’s in over her head, and there are forces who don’t want her to find the truth. It’s fun stuff.” - Simone, from her Newsarama interview