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Girlfriend-in-Refrigerator Syndrome is a term used to describe the use of a tragedy in the life of a female comic book character as a plot device. The term was coined by comics writer Gail Simone in 1999.

The name comes from an incident in Green Lantern #54 (1994), written by Ron Marz, in which the title hero comes home to his apartment to find that his girlfriend, Alex DeWitt, had been killed by the villain Major Force and stuffed in a refrigerator. Due to the obscured view of the fridge to appease the censors, it ironically served to fuel speculation that she had been dismembered beforehand. In 2004, Marz revisited this scene. Green Lantern found what he thought to be his mother's severed head in his oven; this was later revealed to be the head of a mannequin.

Most cases of "Girlfriend-in-Refrigerator" syndrome deal with a gruesome injury or murder at the hands of a supervillain usually as a personal tragedy to the male superhero the victim is related to. In many cases, the incident helps cement the hatred between the hero and the villain responsible.

Many say the actual trend started when Gwen Stacy, girlfriend of Spider-Man, was killed by the Green Goblin. In fact, another name for the syndrome is "Gwen Stacy Syndrome"

The killing off of long-running characters is somewhat common in comic books and so are their predictable returns (see Comic book death). Another example given is that second and third-string characters (and not first-grade leads) are typical targets to be killed off, and this just so happens to include many female heroines who are derived originally from male stars.

List of other well-known examples

• Barbara Gordon, the Silver Age Batgirl, was shot and paralysed by The Joker
• Bullseye murdered two love interests of Daredevil, first Elektra, who eventually returned, and later Karen Page
• Ms. Marvel was severely injured when the mutant Rogue absorbed her mind, memories, and powers, which caused years of hardship for both
• In the Crisis on Infinite Earths maxiseries, Supergirl sacrificed herself to save the multiverse, dying in Superman’s arms.
• Silver Fox, a lover interest of Wolverine, was murdered by Sabretooth
• Betty Ross Banner, the Incredible Hulk's wife, was poisoned by the villain Abomination
• The X-Men’s Psylocke was seemingly killed by the villain Vargas but later returned.
• Moira MacTaggert, an X-Men supporting character and former love interest of both Professor X and Banshee, was assassinated by Mystique
• Mr. Freeze's wife Nora fell terminally ill and, after being kept alive in (notably) a refrigerator, died when the device was destroyed.
• Elongated Man's wife, Sue, was killed recently in Identity Crisis, ironically by The Atom's ex-wife Jean Loring.

External links

The Women in Refrigerators site which coined the term

• Comics