Championess is a 2021 graphic novel about 18th-century bare-knuckle boxer Elizabeth Wilkinson, a pioneering figure in the history of women's boxing, written by Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas and illustrated by Amanda Perez Puentes. It is the first comic released under Legendary Comics YA, the young adult imprint of Legendary Comics, which is itself the graphic novel division of Legendary Pictures.
Re-imagined as half-Indian, the story follows Elizabeth during her initial rise to fame as she fights to keep her sister out of debtor's prison, settle a score with an old rival, and come to terms with her family's past and her current place in the world.
The comic was released on April 14, 2021.
The story provides examples of the following:
- Artistic License – History: While much of the information about Elizabeth Wilkinson is scarce, the general consensus is that she went undefeated as a boxer her entire career, due to there being no evidence to the contrary (such as none of her opponents in her famous back-and-forth, trash-talking newspaper ads mentioning anyone beating her as an insult). Here, she has the sorts of struggles common to many sports protagonists, including losing an early fight.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Zig-zagged. Elizabeth does get a black eye, a bloody nose, or just a general battered appearance at various points, but it's not applied consistently. For instance, her training sessions with James Stokes involve her taking many blows to the face on successive days, but her face never shows marks from them.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The comic is entirely black-and-white apart from Elizabeth's caption boxes (which are yellow) and a dull red in chapter breaks.
- Distracted by the Sexy: At one point during Elizabeth's training, James Stokes invites Elizabeth to stay in his room. The offer is purely platonic, and nothing sexual ends up happening between the two... but Elizabeth is still thrown for a loop when James removes his shirt while undressing for bed. She tries to snap herself out of it by becoming extremely interested in the room's furniture and floorboards.
- Insult Backfire: Early on, James Stokes tracks down Elizabeth to let her know that James Figg, the famed promoter and boxer, wants to speak with her after she demanded him to train her. When Elizabeth asks how Stokes found her, he says he asked around for "the loud woman who punches people." Elizabeth takes it as a compliment.
- Loophole Abuse: Elizabeth fights under the "half-crown" rule set, meaning that both fighters hold a half-crown coin in their fists, and that if a coin is dropped, that fighter loses. The rule was meant to force boxers to keep their hands in fists to avoid scratching, gouging, or grappling, the last of which is one of Elizabeth's weaknesses. During Elizabeth's first fight with Hannah Hyfield, Hannah holds both of her coins in one hand, allowing her a free hand with which to choke Elizabeth and win the bout. There is some discussion later about whether this violated the rules or not, since a coin technically wasn't dropped.
- Race Lift: Likely in the case of Elizabeth and James Stokes. While there's little historical information to go on, there's no evidence that makes note of the race of either the real Elizabeth or James, indicating they were almost certainly white. Here, Elizabeth is half-Indian and James is black.
- Shown Their Work: The depiction of boxing as it existed in the early 18th century is rather accurate, particularly the mention of wrestling moves being allowed, which was indeed the case and made early boxing more reminiscent of modern MMA than a pure fistfight as is the case today.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Due to the lack of detailed historical information, much of the story is invented for the sake of even having a story to begin with. Aside from the aforementioned Race Lifting, there's also the entire subplot of Elizabeth's sister Tess (including Tess's very existence) and the notion of Hannah Hyfield being a pseudonym for a woman who had been The Rival of sorts to Elizabeth since they were children.
