Um, I'm "Halo" and I'm kinda the last person in the Comeback Poll. Please don't hate me.
Uh, my origin's sorta...complicated. But it involves ancient energy beings with an unlikely pun for a name ("The Aurakles"? Didn't they open for the Beatles?), Tobias Whale, Baron Bedlam, Jason Bard, Dr. Moon, Syonide, Kobra, the King of Markovia, and multiple body switching. As for my powers, er, just think of me as the Rainbow Raider's little sister.
Do you like the rainbow action in my hair and my I-don't-sweat-I-glow aura? I think they were supposed to appeal to the 'girls aged 10-13' demographic. Oh, and I have an "anomalous brainwave pattern", at least, that's what polite people call it.
I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself! My real name is Gabrielle Doe. And Violet Harper. And Melissa Brown. Whichever; I'll answer to hey-you, actually. My codename "Halo", well, Batman gave that to me when he found me unconscious in the middle of a forest in an Eastern European principality. Batman's like that. Always wandering around the world, finding wounded strays, anthropomorphizing them with cute names, and taking them home to show Alfred. "This is my little bird with broken parents, I named him Robin; I found this nasty rat in an alley, I call him Jason; this rabid racoon with busted language skills I call Batgirl 'cuz she doesn't need a real name."
I'm, uh, I'm also kinda the reason Batman left the JLA. So I guess I'm the proximate cause of the breakup of the classic JLA, and the creation of the Detroit League and the Giffen League.
Oh. Please don't hate me...
I don't hate you, Halo. Now c'mere.
ReplyDelete*Shudder*!
ReplyDeleteI can't hate any female character who was drawn by Alan Davis for a significant portion of her series. It's sad really.
ReplyDeleteMike Barr really seems to have had a thing for convoluted origins in that series. Look at her teammate Looker--she's the descendant of the royal family of an underground civilization who's mutated by a meteor and then becomes a--I'm not kidding here--"pseudo-vampire."
ReplyDeleteBarr was responsible for some of the stupidest characters of all times, most of them based simply on stupid names.
ReplyDeleteBut that's probably best left for a new post entirely...
I don't care what you say, I still liked the Outsiders.
ReplyDeleteThough I kinda wish Jim Aparo hadn't drawn so many of the comics, as his style was in no way suited to the dayglo colouring used in those Baxter issues.
I loved the Giffen League!
ReplyDelete(best league evar. Morrison is a good second hehe)
This post makes me sad. Sad is bad.
ReplyDeleteI never read the Outsiders (limited money back then), but was a regular reader of Secret Origins. I remember reading her SO tale and having almost no interest in the character afterwards. There were some interesting ideas there, but it was just a mess of story. After it was done I couldn't say that I liked, disliked, or wanted to know any of the characters, whether it was Halo, her family, Looker, or the Aurakle thingies. I don't know if it was a satisfying story for regular Ousider readers, but I thought it was a poor effort to get new readers interested in the series.
ReplyDeleteI always kind of liked Halo and the Outsiders and all that. Okay, Looker was stupid, but Katana and the whole "Lungbucket Brigade" always held a morbid place in my then 12 year old heart.
ReplyDeleteThe letters pages were their best things. Jef Packham started the bucketlung brigade.
ReplyDelete