With its upcoming universal reboot The Dawn of the DCU , DC has (another) opportunity to fix whatever is still messed up since (or because of) their last universal reboot. I'm going to take a look at some wrinkles and missing characters I personally think they should address. Because there are so many I'm going to have to do so in installments.
It's clear that DC is invested in diversifying representation in their cast of characters. How nice; I applaud the effort. However, their job would be easier if they didn't keep misplacing the ones they already have. DC spends a lot of time running in place trying to replace characters they've allowed to fall of the edge of the Earth-1 (or -2, or -you-get-the-idea).
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| The Cosmic Treadmill is the perfect metaphor for the DCU. It uses infinite energy to run in place, has no forward motion, resets the timeline, and Barry Allen is always in the middle of it. |
Here are some of the black and biracial characters whose status deserves to be cleaned up going forward.
1. Wallace R. West. I get what you were trying to do by introducing this character in 2014, DC. But it's 2022, and delightful Keiynan Lonsdale hasn't been on the soon-to-end "The Flash" show in years. Even for the Flash family, his comic book backstory is absurd. In his eight years of existence, I think I have seen him appear beside Barry Allen exactly once.
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| I'd rather remember him as he was: cooler than Barry in every possible way. |
Delete him; the DCU is already lousy with speedsters, most of whom are less problematic than WRW (even though almost all of them are quite problematic).
2. Melba Manton. Sure, I sound crazy when I mention this '70s back-up character from Lois Lane. But DC confirmed her existence as recently as 2017. DC wouldn't be in a state of continual concern over lack of minority representation in their cast of characters if they didn't regularly jettison all supporting characters who lack Golden Age pedigrees every time a writer or editor changes on a title. Just bring back Melba already and stick to it.
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| And she'd damned well better be wearing that outfit when you do. |
3-5. Ron Troupe. Speaking of black characters, remember Ron Troupe, who's been around for over 30 years now? Does anyone remember that when last we saw him, he was Superman's brother-in-law, because he married Lois's sister, Lucy Lane, with whom he had a son, Sam Troupe? Do any of these people still exist, DC? Do you realize I am more interested in knowing that than in hearing about Gosh-Darn, or whatever other latest Kryptonian villain you've pulled out of your ***?
One of the distinguishing characteristics of Superman stories over the years is that his civilian supporting cast was an integral part of the storylines; we knew who they were and they mattered. You can only do that if they are large and diverse enough to be interesting and Ron Troupe is part of what can make that possible again.
6-7. Lucius and Luke Fox. Look. It's pretty simple, DC. I don't know how many times you have to see this happen before you get it. You create characters like the Foxes as part of an iconic character's dynasty. Then you (or one of your writers) immediately decides to 'grow' the character and they 'outgrow' being part of the dynasty. Or you never really had a unique role planned for them in the first place. Then you have them boldly set out on their own in the own title, which, naturally, flops (or folds after an initial splash). Then you shuffle the character around as the diaspora representative of that dynasty in various ad hoc team books, usually of similar characters. Harley Quinn and The Outliers; The D-Listers; Odd-Man and the Also-Rans; the Underwhelmers.
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| It's never the time, Luke. |
Then after those fail, you either forget the character, have them Question Their Path, or relegate them to special guest-star in dynasty-wide crossovers when Dynasty City is threatened. Even Ace the Bat-Hound got treated better than that. **** or get off the pot. Either make Luke Batwing with something to DO, or put him in the Batcave doing the backup stuff every hero in the field needs and let Lucius do tech research for Bruce so that Alfred can do some DUSTING. That mansion is BIG and the man's come back from the dead twice now to clean it.
P.S. No, I am not going to mention Jace Fox. The situation is bad enough as it is.
8. Power Girl. Not the one with the boob window. The one with the pom-pom hair. Tanya Spears was from Earth-2. Does that still exist? Does she? Or does she now exist again, because multiverse? I don't know; do you? How would I even find out if I wanted to? From what little I know of her, she seemed like an interesting concept. But she suffered from the same problem so many of today's "young heroes" do.
Because the concept of 'kid sidekicks" is considered passé, such characters almost never appear with the heroes they are supposed to be connected to. They are created only to be junior versions of those heroes in Teenager Hero Group. If you don't read Teenager Hero Group, you have zero idea who they are. The multiverse is back, DC: just confirm that she's on Earth-2 and ignore her until you need her. That's still better than leaving her in limbo.
9. Miss Martian. I know what you are thinking: Miss Martian's not a black character. I know; that's the problem. Because J'onn Jonzz is a black character. Or, rather his "human guise" has generally been depicted as one, rather consistently, for quite some time now. And Miss Martian's human guise, as Megan Morse, is supposed to be his niece. Yes, people of different races can be close relatives. But even Martians should realize it might raise fewer question if her human guise were also a black character. It's an easy fix, DC.
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| The CW certainly mishandles lots of things, but generally they do really well on handling race and sexuality with equanimity. |
I mean... assuming Miss Martin still exists. There's really no way of knowing these things unless you read Teenager Hero Group, is there? And I don't think that's even being published right now.
10-12. Icon, Rocket, Hardware, & Static. Give the Milestone characters their own Earth. They deserve it, because as time has made extremely clear, they will never get any attention if you keep pretending they are on the earth of your main continuity.
Treat them like Milestone characters, not millstone characters.
7 comments:
Would love to see XS in this time again, with her cousin Bart. They were so sweet together, even my withered heart grew whenever they were in the same book.
About Tanya Spears, I felt she was more a collection of directives than a character. "She's a Black teenager! She's a genius! She's a technical whiz! What more could you possibly want??"
"Would love to see XS"
XS is one, and her relationship with her cousin, is one of most memorably touching characters in comics for me across all my years of reading. Batt leaving a note for her to find at the museum in the future? That's the kind of thing I remember in comics, not what Imperiex did or who Leviathan was.
"more a collection of directives than a character."
On the one hand: I hear you. Such characters can seem awfully... obvious when introduced.
On the other hand: isn't that what MOST characters are when they are introduced? They really only become more with time and attention, which I don't think she was given.
I think that some heroes start with a vision, a well-fleshed-out character (if only in the writer's head initially), and their adventures are a matter of revealing who they are. Kamala Khan over at Marvel is a perfect example of that.
But you've got a point that initially flimsy characters can be shored up later by a writer with a vision. Tanya Spears COULD get that treatment, if someone figures her out.
Power Girl has been a mess since Crisis on Infinite Earths. Making her from Atlantis was... an interesting choice. But then they have brought back Earth 2 but it wasn't the same Earth 2 as before so it is just very confusing. So anything connected to her is also confusing.
Introducing another nephew of Barry Allen who is also named Wally West is just dumb. I picked up an issue of Flash recently and they are trying to go with calling him "Ace" which is a start at least but I think having Barry Allen, (the white) Wally West, and Jay Garrick all being called The Flash is also confusing. Especially when Barry and Wally's costumes are so similar.
B-M, I agree they are definitely trying to have their cake and eat it, too. Or more accurately, let each generation of readers have its own Flash. Or personality type/ ethnicity gets its own Green Lentern. Flash and Green Lantern and especially vulnerable because of the break between the Golden and Silver Age versions of the characters; it's simply too late to fix that and they have allowed it to set an unfortunate precedent. You do strength a character's brand when you add to their dynasty, but you weaken then brand when the character is nearly indistinguishable AND HAS THE SAME NAME. Then "Flash" is merely a franchise not a character. Bruce Wayne has handle this well (of course) with the "Batman Inc" concept, which coordinates Batman-like heroes in other countries. But no one is going to confuse them with Batman.
Unless their successors are well and truly dead (which they aren't ever going to be) calling Jon Kent "Superman", Jackson Hyde "Aquaman", etc. is confusing and silly.
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