In 1994 Milestone comics released it's first mini-series titled Deathwish. It would seemingly follow the character of the same name. A violent vigilante known for killing people involved in sex crimes. However, what people got was a story following a detective by the name of Marisa Rahm as she tried to end a killers war path.
Detective Martin is working a case to find a killer known as Boots or Twisto. Boots typically kills only trans women and drag queens. Despite nobody willing to take the case Marty found himself drawn to it like a moth to a flame. One night in a warehouse he gets his first major clue when he finds a survivor named Dini. He also meets Deathwish that night. Deathwish is The Punisher, if the Punisher worked special victims unit. Deathwish targets sexual predators after a gang rape killed his family, with him as the only survivor. Deathwish warned Marty he might be one of the girls one day. This made no sense at the time.
Fast forward a few years and Martin is in the process of transitioning, now going by Marisa. She's also dating Dini who is helping him with the process. Deathwish has been arrested and Boots is still on the loose. Determined to end it, Marisa goes to meet Deathwish in prison. Later that night Deathwish escapes without hurting a single person. The two make contact and the hunter for Boots is on as he grows more aggressive in his crimes, now posing bodies as "art." Marisa is paired with Lt. Thorne and they don't get along well due to Thorne's constant sexual harassment and a failed raid on a club. This becomes one of Marisa's reasons for quitting the police force.
Eventually Boots plans to throw a party for all the tans women and drag queens in the city where he plans to his masterpiece. Unfortunately he kidnaps Dini and sends Marisa on a war path. She crashes the party alongside Deathwish. There they find Boots in drag as Miss Twisto. Boots kills himself and Marisa looks for Dini only to learn she had been kidnapped and murdered by a Lt. Thorne. Marisa ends the series by heading to Paris like she had promised Dini.
The story of Deathwish isn't exactly exciting to me. The thing that I enjoy watching is Martin transition to Marisa. I'm not a trans person, and I'll be honest, I hadn't given much thought to the process. See, I figured, the person always knew who they were inside, and then one day they just did it. I figured one day Martin goes to sleep and wakes up as Marisa and that's it. Then they have to deal with all the stuff that comes with transitioning. I hadn't given much thought to the before process.
Deathwish was written by Maddie Blaustein who was a trans woman, so there's a lot of insight that couldn't have come from anywhere else. Marisa talking about the inner struggle between Martin and Marisa. How Martin tried to kill Marisa and would destroy her clothes. It's described as two spirits fighting. Issue #2 ends with Sonnet 144 from Williams Shakespeare. The sonnet is about the spirits of a woman and man fighting for control. It's as follows:
Two loves I have of comfort and despair,The idea that for Marisa to be happy Martin has to die. But at the same time Martin has brought so much joy through the years. I just never considered that internal struggle as something that would be ongoing even afterwards. Marisa never fully comes to terms with it. In fact, struggling with it led her to determine that Boots was killing trans women because he didn't know how to handle his own feelings of transitioning.
Which like two spirits do suggest me still
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman coloured ill.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And, whether that my angel be turn’d fiend,
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell,
But being both from me both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another’s hell.
Yet this shall I ne’er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
Then there's how other characters view Marisa's change. The other detectives laugh and make fun of her. Purposely calling Marisa a man to get under her skin. It's hell. Then in issue three when she decides to leave the force for good. It was because she wore a skirt for the first time. Again, I didn't consider how big something so minor could be. Despite being a woman, she had still been wearing only Martin's clothes until that point. That day the same detectives that had been tormenting her through her transition spent all day sexually harassing her. They're assholes in the worst way. Except for one person.
That person is Captain Gil. Now, Captain Gil had known Martin since they were young. Captain Gil supports the transition because that's his friend and will shut down any officer harassing her. Despite that, he still struggles with it. It's not on purpose, it's just that he's watching his oldest friend die and come to life as someone new. While other characters blatantly call her Martin or Marty he does so and will catch himself mid sentence. Often time he'll catch himself saying something like "Martrisa," or he'll call Marisa a "he" and catch himself, because it's hard on him too and when Marisa quits the force he takes it hard.
I don't think the art was anything spectacular for the time period. The story main story was kind of lame, but I do recommend Deathwish. Sometimes comics can teach us things, show us new place or give us insight we lack. I never considered my transphobic because I'm of the mind state that we need treat all people like people. After reading Deathwish I realize I didn't, and still don't understand the struggle of trans people fully. But, now I know this shit is way deeper than some ID cards and bathrooms.
You should buy Darrell's Book, watch him on the Blerds Online YouTube Channel or The CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts.
