And on Comic-Bloc, a fan responds to allegations that his logic was based on sexism.
If you don’t see how out of the six redundant EARTH BORN characters. Five being male and five being “chosen”. The only female and only one born with the powers, makes Jade the most unmistakably obvious least redundant of the six?
Then you probably have some ax to grind against Jade.
I get the impression the user had best intentions in mind (wondering why Jade died instead of any of the five guys), but, yeah, the logic behind it is rather off. The user is appealing to diversity, but reducing Jade to being a token representative, rather than showing her to be a fully rounded and unique character.
ReplyDeleteI think it underlines a different problem as well, that people confuse unique powers with unique characters.
ReplyDeleteIt's like the people that say Hal, Alan, Guy, John, and Kyle are exactly the same because they are all male and all have power rings, when I can't think of anything else they have in common.
Or that there shouldn't be more than one guy who runs fast, or that Superman and Captain Marvel shouldn't be on the the same team or in the same universe, because they have the same powers.
Or that the X-men or Legion are diverse and interesting because they all have different powers.
Bleh. I'd much rather read a book about seven people who get exactly the same power but have seven different reactions to it.
So this guy thinks Jade is unique because of a)boobies, and b)green boobies, but can't (or chooses not to) name any personality or character issues that distinguish her.
It's like Kalinara's complaint about Voodoo (and a certain rail-thin Kryptonian). Just because she has special powers, or a special destiny, or a special heritage, doesn't mean she's actually, you know, interesting or a good character.
And Jade wasn't a good character, and Kyle is a great character (suck on it, Sims), so sacrificing her to give him some more story to deal with... you know, I'm suddenly pretty okay with that.
As a dabbler in the world of GLs, I was never particularly impressed by Jade - in my mind, the sexy green girl of comics is She-Hulk, an assertive badass who'll knock your block off in the courtroom and on the battlefield.
ReplyDeleteSo the green didn't sell me on anything, the Alan Scott connection wasn't terribly compelling, and certain bloggers of the female persuasion have colored my opinions against her by railing against her characterization.
I can see how this guy is perplexed - how can a girl be fine with the only major female GL snuffing it? I can even emphathize with his viewpoint to a degree - female GLs are rare, legacy characters are rare, we need more female heroes, et cetera et cetera...
But to steal shamelessly from the Filing Cabinet of the Damned... Jade has no Frisson of WOO!
The fact that her character can't be summed up without a long discourse is exactly her problem - she simplifies down to green skinned girl born with powers. There's no hook there.
Ragnell, I CHALLENGE you to write up Jade's Frisson of Woo. And then do some more over at the Filing Cabinet, because they're hugely fun to come up with - I've done three so far (Captain America, Captain Marvel, and Flash).
jlg1 -- Yep. As Kalinara said, we need less woman characters and more characters that are women.
ReplyDeleteSteven -- Wierd how I've been making that point for a while and this guy, trying to make the opposite point (in argument wherein I was actually siding with the Jade-fans) inadvertantly does it better.
Toby S -- I infamously hate Jade, but that challenge is too damned good to pass up. I'm going to mull it over tonight, then I'm going to write it, and it'll be beautiful and make everyone want the character back.
I haven't read about Jade in Green Lantern or Outsiders, but I'm an Infinity Inc. guy from way back, and she was the heart of that group. I sold off that part of my collection years ago, so it's been quite a while since I've read them, but there simply wouldn't have been any comic book without her. Poor Infinity Inc.; they deserved better than they've been getting.
ReplyDeleteMatthew -- Obsidian and Power Girl have been shining lately.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I've never seen Todd so well-written.
I'll give you Obsidian, but I don't think Power Girl really counts as an Infinitor. I don't like what's happened to Nuklon, but I respect it, and DC has gotten more mileage out of Mr. Bones than I thought was possible. And I think Rick Tyler's currently alive (yes?). But everyone else is either dead or irretrievably messed up. There's been some talk about DC doing something in the future with Infinity Inc., but how? Much as I liked Nuklon, I don't think he and Obsidian can carry a comic book by themselves.
ReplyDeleteBut anyway, Jade. Was it you or Kalinara who did that thing a while ago about how to reinvent Jade to appeal to little girls? Not a bad idea. My contribution to it is to find a way of tying it to the Gemworld somehow. Come on: Jade, Gemworld... it's a natural.
Jade and Gemworld. Is really genious, since her powers are magic-based, being related do the mystic heart. Also if her control over plants like her mother and considering the strange ecology of Gemworld, it would be great.
ReplyDeleteAlso I think Amethyst as one of the best comics written for girls: Amethyst was both really girly and a lot like a amazon warrior ("The I destroy evil monsters for the good of my kingdom but fret about the blond nobleman on my spare time" was nice, specially because she was the one in control all the time.)