Home Is Where The Heart Was

If you haven't read "The Death of the New Gods" yet, then you may want to wait until you do to read this.

That said,

I am so glad Barda got to die in her kitchen.

Raised in the cruel environment of Apokolips, poor Barda didn't grow up with the same secure home that so many of us Earthlings take for granted. She grew up in strife, trained from birth for combat, violence, killing. But, she got to leave all that behind and come to Earth to make a new home for herself with the person she loved.

I remember her most from her series with Mister Miracle, where they were living in, mm, Vermont, I believe it was. One of the running comedy bits was that Barda's upbringing hadn't really prepared her well for the kind of domestic life she had chosen for herself. But Barda strove to be more than just the killing machine she was raised to be; she worked had to be a respected costumed adventurer in her own right, and good partner with her husband, in both their professional and homemaking goals. When Barda finally had a home, she didn't take it for granted, and sought to make the most of it.

How I used to chuckle at Barda padding around the house in bunny slippers screaming at Scott on the phone about his needing to come home for dinner! You could take the girl out of Apokolips, but not Apokolips out of the girl. But she always remembered what sometimes seemed to slip Scott's mind: how important and special it was for them to have a home together and to make that a priority in their lives. I was glad to see she remained in character in her final story: Barda was concerned about getting home to prepare for their guests but Scott was focused on doing some crimestopping.

I know a lot of readers, particular female ones, may have seen Barda as a role model of the tough warrior woman. She was. But it was always pretty clear in most stories that Barda saw herself as much more than that; indeed, she never would have left Apokolips if she hadn't. She saw herself as a well rounded person who may have fought for a living, but who lived for her home life, not for fighting.

Her home life was her focus. Do you know where the word "focus" comes from, by the way? It's the Latin word for "hearth", the kitchen fireplace where meals were prepared and shared, in that most intimate of family traditions, the family meal. Barda sought to put hearth and home at the focus of her life, and while she was never a whiz at cooking (!), that was never the point.

Bored readers like us dream us of grand battles and grander deaths. But Barda dreamt of a quiet life at home. And, while, having your heart ripped out isn't a completely, er, peaceful way to go, at least her death wasn't a battle. At least her death was at home. At least it wasn't a titanic gritty slugfest rendered in detail for our prurient amusement.

You may think you deserved for her to die to differently, but I think she deserved to die in her kitchen, in the home that she worked so hard for and meant so much to her.