Assassin Spider
11-28-2007, 12:04 AM
It seems, in the eyes of a lot of fans, that DC Comics editorial is forcing characters they don't like or find no use for down their throats. Yet, there are those of us who happen to like those disliked or "useless" characters and we often wish we could find a way to convince detractors to take a second, closer look at those characters. My idea is that part of the reason those characters are so disliked is that there doesn't seem to be a clear plan in mind for them that makes sense, given their history and characterizations. Thus, I thought we could use this thread to come up with character arcs for them.
Jason Todd: The "misbegotten" second Robin who used to be dead until a temporal flux undid his death, Jason comes from the streets and maintains a certain "street" sensibility when it comes to fighting crime. He's also shown a degree of contempt for adult heroes who preach from their ivory towers about the sanctity of life while insulated from the cruel reality that life is not sacred to most of the scumbags they fight, along with a sense of empathy for some of the modern generation of teen sidekicks. (See Green Arrow 69-72 for more on that.) Combine those things with his often-lethal propensities where fighting crime is concerned and you have an "anti-villainous" neo-Deathstroke in the making.
For those of you who don't know, an anti-villain is an antagonist whose ends may be heroic or noble in intent but whose means are highly morally questionable if not utterly in line with how malevolent villains tend to operate. That's Jason in a nutshell, here: He wants to fight crime by more permanently incapacitating (by maiming or killing) those that would persistently prey on innocent people if not stopped and, on some level, he wants to protect some of the younger sidekicks from going through what he did while thumbing his nose at the sanctimonious and self-righteous adult heroes. Let's show him doing that, fighting crime at the street level in Gotham, in New York, in Metropolis, all over the north end of the East Coast, going after criminals that Batman, Nightwing, Red Arrow, and Superman don't have the testicular fortitude or the inclination --- as Jason sees it --- to bother with. Let's show him acting as a foil to these adult heroes by mocking their idealistic notions, their seeming squeamishness, and what he sees as their hypocrisy. Let's show him as a foil to "successful" sidekicks like Nightwing and Red Arrow who have grown into capable young adult heroes in their own right and the current crop of teen sidekicks, in the sense of reminding Nightwing and Red Arrow of what could happen if they falter in their "big brother" roles toward their successors and in the sense of showing the younger heroes how they could turn out if their relationships with their adult mentors or their heroic careers go sour.
As a further development, let's show Jason developing tense working relationships with the younger heroes and, despite his seeming eagerness to needle and challenge them, reveal through his inner thoughts/monologue that he has some empathy for them because he can see himself in them and, on some level, he wants to protect them from what he went through. Let's see those working relationships create tensions between the adult heroes and the teen heroes while some of the teen heroes start to question the ideals of their adult mentors. In fact, even later down the line, Jason can become a sort of "rebel icon" for the more anti-authoritarian younger heroes like, say, Black Alice.
Throughout it all, Jason should remain as primarily a "dangerous ally" to the hero community (particularly at the street level), someone whose basic goals aren't very far removed from theirs but whose methodology is completely untenable by their standards. As a result, he is largely mistrusted by the hero community, although he does maintain pleasant acquaintance-level relations with a few of the younger heroes here and there, particularly younger heroes who have experienced life on the wrong side of the proverbial tracks.
And no, there will not be a story arc where Jason saves a city or the world and the hero community is left in his debt; that's not how it's going to work. Jason's role is basically as a "friendly antagonist" to the heroes, someone who's there to show them the flaws in their worldview and methodology but who will occasionally deign to help them when he feels they have a common goal or enemy and they'd be better off working together than against each other. (But let's make it clear that they won't come to him first.)
Anyone else have ideas?
Jason Todd: The "misbegotten" second Robin who used to be dead until a temporal flux undid his death, Jason comes from the streets and maintains a certain "street" sensibility when it comes to fighting crime. He's also shown a degree of contempt for adult heroes who preach from their ivory towers about the sanctity of life while insulated from the cruel reality that life is not sacred to most of the scumbags they fight, along with a sense of empathy for some of the modern generation of teen sidekicks. (See Green Arrow 69-72 for more on that.) Combine those things with his often-lethal propensities where fighting crime is concerned and you have an "anti-villainous" neo-Deathstroke in the making.
For those of you who don't know, an anti-villain is an antagonist whose ends may be heroic or noble in intent but whose means are highly morally questionable if not utterly in line with how malevolent villains tend to operate. That's Jason in a nutshell, here: He wants to fight crime by more permanently incapacitating (by maiming or killing) those that would persistently prey on innocent people if not stopped and, on some level, he wants to protect some of the younger sidekicks from going through what he did while thumbing his nose at the sanctimonious and self-righteous adult heroes. Let's show him doing that, fighting crime at the street level in Gotham, in New York, in Metropolis, all over the north end of the East Coast, going after criminals that Batman, Nightwing, Red Arrow, and Superman don't have the testicular fortitude or the inclination --- as Jason sees it --- to bother with. Let's show him acting as a foil to these adult heroes by mocking their idealistic notions, their seeming squeamishness, and what he sees as their hypocrisy. Let's show him as a foil to "successful" sidekicks like Nightwing and Red Arrow who have grown into capable young adult heroes in their own right and the current crop of teen sidekicks, in the sense of reminding Nightwing and Red Arrow of what could happen if they falter in their "big brother" roles toward their successors and in the sense of showing the younger heroes how they could turn out if their relationships with their adult mentors or their heroic careers go sour.
As a further development, let's show Jason developing tense working relationships with the younger heroes and, despite his seeming eagerness to needle and challenge them, reveal through his inner thoughts/monologue that he has some empathy for them because he can see himself in them and, on some level, he wants to protect them from what he went through. Let's see those working relationships create tensions between the adult heroes and the teen heroes while some of the teen heroes start to question the ideals of their adult mentors. In fact, even later down the line, Jason can become a sort of "rebel icon" for the more anti-authoritarian younger heroes like, say, Black Alice.
Throughout it all, Jason should remain as primarily a "dangerous ally" to the hero community (particularly at the street level), someone whose basic goals aren't very far removed from theirs but whose methodology is completely untenable by their standards. As a result, he is largely mistrusted by the hero community, although he does maintain pleasant acquaintance-level relations with a few of the younger heroes here and there, particularly younger heroes who have experienced life on the wrong side of the proverbial tracks.
And no, there will not be a story arc where Jason saves a city or the world and the hero community is left in his debt; that's not how it's going to work. Jason's role is basically as a "friendly antagonist" to the heroes, someone who's there to show them the flaws in their worldview and methodology but who will occasionally deign to help them when he feels they have a common goal or enemy and they'd be better off working together than against each other. (But let's make it clear that they won't come to him first.)
Anyone else have ideas?