Justice League #8

[flint_marko]

Billy meets his new family.




Darla cries and runs off, and the others go after her. Mary pushes Billy into his room.





Billy says to himself that he didn't mean to make Darla cry. Then it starts thundering, and he sees a face that looks like the wizard Shazam in the clouds.

Comments

[bulletsandbraclets]

If this wasn't Billy Batson, I could get behind this. I'm perfectly okay with unlikable characters so long as I get where they are coming from. And I do empathize with him a bit. Strange environment, patronizing adults, over excited little girls, I've been there. And the kid lost his parents, how could you not feel bad for the poor kid and understand when he snaps.

BUT BILLY BATSON IS NOT UNLIKABLE! *ahem* Sorry. Billy Batson would never be so awful to people who are just trying to help. Yeah, they're a bit of know it alls, but they're still trying. It's okay for him to be angry and sad about it, but mean? No. That's not Billy.

This kind of reminds me of the short "Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam." Billy was clearly sick of his situation and wanted out, but he still managed to keep his chin up and kept trying to make the best of things for everyone. Is this realistic? Probably not. But this optimism and determination is what I like about the character, and so seeing him act so contrary to that is maddening.

Also, hi scans-daily! I've finally crawled out of my lurker shell.

[salinea]

welcome to the comm :)

[jaybee3]

Part of me thinks it goes back to Mark Waid (when talking about what was done to Mary Marvel in Countdown) - who said "....It takes more imagination than most comics creators have to find something interesting about a good girl, but it’s not impossible."

Blanket that with all "good" kid characters and I think it applies. Geoff Johns (whose GL and JSA runs I loved) created Stargirl/Courtney Whitmore yes (and she's the type of character Billy should be) but he also gave us Superboy-Prime becoming a hero who saved the universe into a whining mass-murdering villain, Black Adam becoming a genocidal (in "52") villain killing millions, the decapitation of Pantha and the murder of Baby Wildebeast (who had the mind of a child) by Prime and then made it a RUNNING JOKE, having Captain Boomerang Jr. (who was Supergirl's roommate and almost a member o the Outsiders) feed women and little children to his zombie father in the Blackest Night and more and more blood and gore. He's also an unapologetic Black Adam fan more than a Captain Marvel/Shazam/Billy fanboy so frankly I'm not surprised. Outside of Blue Beetle/Jamie and Steph's run as Batgirl I can't think of a recent DC teen who wasn't made all dark and edgy. They think thats what sells.

[flint_marko]

How did the Pantha thing become a running joke?

[jaybee3]

I forget the issues (and it wasn't Johns who did it to give him credit) but there were a couple of instances (the "running" was a bit of hyperbole, I admit) later (could have been in the awful TT runs post-Johns) where the phrases Superboy-Prime and "losing your head" (or something to that effect) were tossed out and we were clearly supposed to think of what was done to Pantha.

I hated what was done to them (particularly Baby Wildebeast, who like I said had the literal mind of a baby and rushed in to save his "mama"). The fact that no one outside of Red Star seemed to be effected by their deaths (outside the above mentioned comments related to S-P) spoke volumes to me.

[ruhig_knight]

It was also mocked in the Ambush Bug mini; Ambush Bug was hit in the head with...Pantha's head if I remember correctly. Either way it was a sick joke of a fridging of woman (who would later to be revealed a POC in some alternate universe) and her adopted child just so her boyfriend/husband could angst about it (and his character wasn't even used much afterwards>_<).

It's like the theme of the fumbled "Titans East" arc (the Titans don't always take care for their own) was indeed true, given the treatment of Pantha, Baby Wildebeest, and so many more before and even after the said arc (Jericho, Roy Harper, Kid Eternity, Osiris again after coming back to life). Part of it had to do with DC only caring about specific Titans, but that favortism bled into the comics and made the rest of the Titans seem like hypocrites and asses (which is what the Titans were known for most of v3 era)

[flint_marko]

I think it was to show how tough SBP was, not to give Red Star angst.

[ruhig_knight]

Yes, because everyone needs a reminder on how tough someone with the exact same powers as Superman -only more suspectible to throwing tantrums and able to alter the time line by punching it - can be. Or if you mean "tough" as in willingly to decapitate an opponent (who was nowhere near his power level, so yeah real tough there SBP), I'm pretty sure Pantha's death was accidental on SBP's part plus there's the other deaths and mutilations SBP was responsible for.

Also, Red Star seemed to be one of the lesser-known Titans that DC liked enough to keep alive. It was obvious Pantha and Baby's deaths affected him greatly in IC and the deaths were brought up manyin his appearances after IC. He was pretty damn obviously and understandably angsty about them. I think Johns himself, the guy who killed Pantha and Baby off, even mentioned they were killed for Red Star's character development in interviews but I can't recall exaclty so I may be wrong on that, it's been awhile since I've read those. Either way, Red Star angst, SBP toughness, or both, it was a painfully obvious text book example of fridging a female character.

[flint_marko]

I think Geoff just chose a couple of really obscure Titans as cannon fodder.

Pantha, Baby, Bushido, and Risk getting his arm ripped off. Not to mention all the other characters SPB killed later, or the various other minor characters who died in Infinite Crisis.

[ruhig_knight]

Oh he did, one thing the Titans have been since the early 00's besides miserable was canon fodder. But still, it was obvious that Pantha's and Baby's deaths were incorporated into Red Star's character development. Even if it was she died solely for canon fodder, Johns had her die in a pretty twisted way. Not to mention Bushido was one of the very few Asian Titans; they've been either canon fodder(Bushido, Thunder and Lightning) or white washed (Ravager/Rose, even Traci 13 in one TT arc).

Personally, I liked Pantha and would rather read about her (another crappy thing about her dying was there was no closure to her discovering who she really was prior to being Pantha or if she really started out as human; fans finally knew in an alternate universe in a Booster Gold issue) than some of the Titans considered DC's darlings (like Rose/Ravager and the former YJers who mostly lost what made them endearing, and so on).

[halloweenjack]

Part of me thinks it goes back to Mark Waid (when talking about what was done to Mary Marvel in Countdown) - who said "....It takes more imagination than most comics creators have to find something interesting about a good girl, but it’s not impossible."

This is essentially what Alan Moore said that got so many fanboys' underwear in a knot, not to mention Jason Aaron's.