Ayanni C. H. CooperEnglish PhD Candidate at the University of Florida
The webcomic Agents of the Realm (AotR) by Mildred Louis is a “college years coming of age story that takes influence from a number of timeless Magical Girl classics,” like Sailor Moon (“About”). The narrative follows Norah, Adele, Kendall, Paige, and Jordan—five young women at the imaginary Silvermount University who, after the discovery of magical amulets, transform into “fetching super-warrior[s] … [who] courageously fight the forces of evil” (Sugawa). Louis relies on some of the greatest, tried-and-true magical girl tropes in her story: the team of five become “a specialised task force” of “chosen” ones who must “protect our world,” plus they “are endowed with heightened strength, stamina, [and] magical powers” (Liu 5). That said, Louis also adds her own spin to the genre by making the main cast college freshman and by having “the majority of the cast [identify] within the LGBTQ community” (“About”). Louis uses the university environment in AotR to create a utopic space for her queer magical girls. While this is a story-wide project that unfolds over the course of many chapter, I’ll examine a brief sequence towards the end of volume one that demonstrates how this utopic space explores queer identities.1
To begin, I should explain what I mean by queer space and queer utopia. Queer spaces are, in what may be an oversimplification, “spaces which are not heterosexual spaces … these are the foundations where queerness is played out” (Prado-Castro and Graham 98). In addition, Sara Ahmed describes queer space as areas where “queers … have spaces to breathe…with breath come imagination. With breath comes possibility” (Ahmed 210). While queer space can be theoretical, I am also thinking of actual, physical spaces that can be sites of welcoming, sites of comfort, and sites of safety.
Through the use of her fantasy narrative, Louis is engaging in what José Esteban Muñoz called “queer-world-making:” “a utopia that understands its time as reaching beyond some nostalgic past that perhaps never was or some future whose arrival is continuously belated—a utopia in the present” (75). Using her comic to envision “the ways we might construct possible futures and more clearly understand how our present worlds inform these futurities,” Louis creates a present utopia in Silvermount University (Matsuuchi 275). Yes, Norah and her friends do have to fight monsters, face villainous antagonists, and “navigate the complexities of college” (“About”), but any violence they face is not a result of their queerness. Even more so, their social experiences speak to “the possibility of happiness in the here and now” (Matsuuchi 271).2
 Figure 1: “Woooooow” Panel Spread; Agents of the Realm Vol 1, pp 229 (Printed)
We can see this queer utopian space in action during chapter five’s party sequence, in which the protagonists attend the 10th Annual Halloween Pub party. Louis depicts four of the five girls excitedly sharing their expectations for the evening, illustrating their fantasies for the readers. Jordan imagines herself dancing with the girl she likes, while Adele comments that “there are so many cute boys! I need to talk to every single one here,” picturing herself being waited on hand and foot (Louis 1-229). Playing off Adele, and physically juxtaposed to her on the page, Paige says, “Mmm, yeah. There’s definitely some cuties with my name on ‘em” (Louis 1-229). The characters with her are neither overly masculine nor feminine, playing on gender-neutral use of “cuties” as opposed to “cute boys”.
Of all the cast, Norah is the least excited. However, leaning into the idea that the university is a queer utopian space, even hesitant Norah is given the chance to explore her sexuality safely. Taking a seat at the bar, she is smitten by a (perhaps genderqueer) party-goer dressed as Snow White, turns away in panic, and resolves to say “H-hey” (Louis 1-235). But Norah trips over her words, the conversation falters, and Snow White leaves. Sharing a glance with the bartender Leela, Norah mutters, “Okay. That was bad” (Louis 1-236). In this moment, Leela becomes an integral part of this queer, utopic space by helping Norah recover from her failure  Figure 2: “Safe, care free fun” Panel Spread; Agents of the Realm Vol 1, pp 238 (Printed)
Leela attempts to balance the ‘bad’ of the college dating scene with the positives: “It can be a chance to get to know someone. Finding out more about them. And sometimes even finding out more about yourself in the process. And if it’s something you’re looking for – a chance for safe, care free fun…Just try and enjoy yourself in the moment, even if it’s fleeting” (Louis 1-238, emphasis mine). Through Leela’s dialogue, paired with four images of Norah’s friends enjoying themselves with potential amorous interests, Louis is connecting learning about oneself—i.e. sexual identity and exploration—with the safety of this college environment.
Though this was just a quick glimpse at the text, AotR is deserving of a deeper, more thorough study. For example, I’d love to analyze how relationships and mystical connections to older, queer women also contribute to the university becomes a queer, utopic community space or to expand on how this space functions for queer people of color. As the narrative continues—and the girls move outside of the university—it will be interesting to see if and how Louis contrasts the rest of the world to her magical queer utopia.
Notes:
1. As a note, Louis does not ascribe specific sexual identities to her characters, leaving it relatively open to interpretation. While this could potentially be viewed as problematic or wishy-washy, I posit that she is leaning into possibilities of exploration, perhaps hinting that her characters are in the process of defining their identities within the narrative. 2. In the original version of this paper, I spoke some on how Louis’ creation of a utopic collegiate space in AotR recalls actual, lived experiences of queer young adults attending university. For more information, please see articles like “Constructing Our Identities: Identity Expression Amongst Lesbian Women Attending University” by D. M. Prado-Castro and T. M. Graham and “Bisexual Politics and Spaces: An On-Campus Discussion” by Kathleen O’Reilly and Erin Sidonia Mitchell.
Work Cited
Ahmed, Sara. The Promise of Happiness. Duke University Press, 2010. Jones, Angela. “Introduction: Queer Utopias, Queer Futurity, and Potentiality in Quotidian Practice.” A Critical Inquiry into Queer Utopia. Edited by Angela Jones. Palgrave Macmillan US, 2013. Liu, Yungi. “Superpower Empowerment: Portrayal of the Female in Japanese Girls' Comics.” (Unpublished MA thesis), Long Island University, Brooklyn. 2010. Louis, Mildred. Agents of the Realm: Volume 1 Semester 1. 2016. --- “About.” Agents of the Realm. Accessed 20 September 2020. https://agentsoftherealm.com/about/ Muñoz, José Esteban. Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York University Press, 2019. Matsuuchi, Ann. “Happily Ever After”: The Tragic Queer and Delany’s Comic Book Fairy Tale”. African American Review, vol. 48, no. 3, 2015, pp. 271-287. Prado-Castro, D. M. and T. M. Graham. “Constructing Our Identities: Identity Expression Amongst Lesbian Women Attending University.” South African Journal of Higher Education, vol. 31, no. 4, 2017, pp. 94-111. doi: 10.20853/31-4-914 Sugawa, Akiko. “Children of Sailor Moon: The Evolution of Magical Girls in Japanese Anime.” Nippon.com, Nippon Communications Foundation, 26 Feb. 2015, www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a03904/#auth_profile_0. Ayanni C. H. Cooper is an English PhD Candidate at the University of Florida, specializing in comic and animation studies. Her research interests include monster theory; feminist critique; gender & sexuality; science fiction & fantasy; representations of Blackness in speculative fiction; and anime & manga studies. Her dissertation project is tentatively titled “‘We Live in a Time of [Sexy] Monsters: Desire and the Monstrous in Contemporary Visual Media.” (To put it simply, she’s curious why so many folks are attracted to monsters.) Comments are closed.
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