I’ve decided to highlight some instances of positive portrayals of skepticism in the entertainment media. Considering how much woo is pedaled as entertainment it may seem like us skeptics never get to be the heroes, but occasionally there are good stories we can root for.

My first example is from comic book that came out quite a while back. The Dirty Pair are two scantily-clad law enforcement agents that starred in a series of sci-fi novels in Japan, and later in many animated movies and TV series. In 1988 the American comic book company Eclipse bought the rights to do a book based on the characters. The American Dirty Pair took the form of a series of mini-series, all written and drawn by Adam Warren, with the first three series being co-written by Toren Smith. The third series (1990-1991) was entitled A Plague of Angels, and that’s the series the scene below is from.

Set-up: Kei and Yuri are agents for the 3WA, an organization that enforces the law within the interstellar civilization that humanity has become by the 22nd Century. Though Kei and Yuri’s technical code-name is “Lovely Angels” they’re widely known as “The Dirty Pair” because of their wonton use of violence and the fact that most of their operations have tendency to go  horribly worng, resulting in innocent casualties sometimes on a planetary scale.

In an attempt to rehab the Angels’ image the 3WA has ordered them to spend time with a reporter, Cory, who in turn has be ordered to turn in a positive story about the Angels no matter how hard that may be. Cory takes Kei and Yuri to a club, hoping that perhaps alcohol will bring out their best side.

(Click on each image to see them full size.)

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