Writer: Robert Schnakenberg
Pencils: Cesar Feliciano
Colours: Kirsty Swan
Letters: Wilson Ramos Jr.
Graphics: Darren G. Davis
Cover: Joshua LaBello and Azim
Production: Adam Ellis
BlueWater Productions
Sonia Sotomayor was born in the Bronx on June 25, 1954. Throughout her childhood she had experienced many financially and mentally unstable situations. Her father had passed away when she was merely 9 years old leaving her with no other choice than to aid in raising her younger siblings, in turn giving up a good portion of her childhood for her family’s sake. Once her mother could afford doing so, they moved to a safer area of the Bronx forcing Sonia to commute daily to her school and volunteer activities. Through all of this, however, she managed to come out on top and graduate her high school class as Valedictorian.
Sonia continued her schooling at Princeton in 1972 – a time when the Hispanic community was looked down upon. She spent her years there creating help groups for students of the same ancestry in order to help them receive on campus jobs and higher rates of college acceptance. She also spent long hours in the library and with Professors bettering her English and gathering as much knowledge as she could through books and the experiences of her teachers. In 1976 she graduated, earning herself an ivy league degree. Sonia then went on to marry, and divorce, Kevin Noonan. During which time, she had also attended Yale and left with a law degree.
After her Yale graduation Sotomayor began her career in law. Her first position came from Robert Morgenthau who had given her many cases for training including shoplifting and murder trials. After she had felt she received sufficient guidance, Sonia had taken up a job prosecuting companies making counterfeit items. Over the next few years many opportunities had caught her eye, allowing for her to work more interesting cases such as the copyright infringement of a trivia novel against the creators of Seinfeld. In 1997, Sonia was offered a position for the U.S. Court of Appeals and in acceptance pursued the position for 10 years. Her greatest achievement, however, came on May 26, 2009 when she was nominated as a replacement for a retired member of the Supreme Court and was later confirmed as an Associate Justice on August 6, 2009.
There are very few political and judicial bodies that avoid extreme public reticule in their career and Justice Sonia Sotomayor is no exception. Being the third female and the first of Hispanic ancestry to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States, Sonia instantly guaranteed herself a part in the history books. However, this did not come without backlash from critics such as radio host Rush Limbaugh. He, alongside many others, were quick to accuse her of “reverse racism”, claiming she supported the rights of the minority while lowering the those of white Americans and asking that she be removed from consideration. Some even went so far as to say that President Obama was himself a “reverse racist” and was tainting the system with others like himself – using Sonia’s inclusion in the Supreme Court as their prime example. A claim, which I may add, that has very little back up in terms of actual proof.
Biographer, Robert Schnakenberg, has done an amazing job in this issue. Sonia’s eventful and achievement-oriented life was nicely laid out in layman’s terms making it easily accessible for nearly all readers. He keeps to the point and although some detail is lost through this, it is made up for in the art. Feliciano draws each panel with a high amount of detail, which gives perspective in reading about Sonia’s life – more so in the situations I could not relate to. My only complaint as far as the art goes is the blandness of the colours which became very unappealing to the eyes by the time the final pages were reached.
Alongside being an enjoyable and informative read, Female Force: Sonia Sotomayor was very eye-opening experience for me. I never realized how harshly and unjustly attacked many people in the government are in the media and although, that can be blamed on my intentional ignorance of all things politics it proves that this issue of Female Force, in the least, can provoke thought on the government and give life to those in the media we see more as robots than people.
I highly recommend this issue, as well as most of the Female Force series, to comic book fans and non-readers alike. At the end of each issue it feels as though you had read an entire novel’s worth of information when in reality it has been about 32 pages – saving yourself a lot of time while still expanding your knowledge on those who had made a difference in our societies. After all, it’s never hurt anybody to learn through their entertainment resources.
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