GirlFrenzy: the Mist
Mar. 29th, 2015 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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scans_dailyBack in the day DC decided to have a series of one-shots based around various female characters in their universe, and the one we're focusing on today is based around the second Mist, one of the main antagonists in James Robinson's Starman series. In the story, Mist ends up up in a team-up of sorts with pretty much her polar opposite, one Mary Marvel...
How do they end up working together? Well it's complicated...
The story begins in England, where the Mist is in hiding with her son (via Jack Knight, the current Starman, conceived via the Mist drugging him unconscious and raping him so any resulting kids could be raised to hate and kill Jack further down the line... yeah, being raised by a Classic Supervillain didn't do much for the current Mist's mental state). However, someone has had the audacity to kidnap the child, leaving a tape telling the Mist to come back to America so that the kidnapper can make some demands...
The Black Hand (this being the pre-Geoff Johns death fetish version, obviously) has been hired by a foreign government to build a "military device", and although he's managed to compile most of what he needs by himself, there are still some parts he needs to complete it. However, the parts he requires are in a secure US government facility, and since he doesn't want to add treason to the list of charges they already have against him, he decided to blackmail the Mist to do it for him.
Because the Black Hand is evidently kind of lazy. But, because she does love her son (despite him being primarily a means to mess with his father) she agrees to the Black Hand's terms. However, while breaking into the facility she bumps into Mary Marvel, who was warned by a friend that a villain was going to try and steal it.
The Mist tries to kill Mary, but unlike the superheroes that she killed in France, Mary is able to easily overpower her. Realising that she's lost, the Mist tries begging Mary to let her go, otherwise the Black Hand will kill her son. Mary tells her to go and tell her story to the cops, and the Mist says that the Black Hand would then hear she's been arrested and kill her baby.
Mary considers this, and then uses the Wisdom of Solomon to formulate a plan...
Later, the Mist hands over the parts over to the Black Hand, and demands that he give her son back. Only the Black Hand has decided that having the Mist work for him is actually pretty useful, so he's decided to prolong this arrangement indefinitely. Despite being understandably angry at this, the Mist tells the Black Hand that they have to go, as Mary Marvel is coming to get them, explaining that she managed to appeal to her sympathy by explaining about her kid so she would be able to escape easier.
And right on cue, Mary smashes in through one of the windows and begins beating up the Black Hand's henchmen. While she's doing this, the Mist and the Black Hand run off, with the male supervillain leading her to one of his back-up safehouses so they can regroup. Once there, the Mist threatens to gruesomely torture him to death for kidnapping her boy, and after a tense stand-off the Black Hand cracks and hands the kid over, who was being kept in a backroom in said building.
It's at this point the Mist decides to straight up kill the Black Hand, saying he really didn't think that he could get away with kidnapping her son and get away with it, right? This is immediately followed up by Mary showing up, who explains that she'd arranged this with Mist back at the facility so that they could rescue the kid while arresting both of the supervillains... but the Mist killing other other bad guy wasn't part of the arrangement.
Mary says that she pities the person that has to fight the Mist next... At which we cut to the airport, where the Mist is booking a flight back to Opal City, hometown of Starman. Turns out that she's got a new scheme in mind...
---
Upon reflection, this probably wasn't the best depiction of Mary Marvel, though that's probably due to her being there more to contrast with the actual main character of the story: the Mist. But on the other hand, she is actually competant enough to suggest a plan that would probably had worked if the Mist had been honest with holding up her end of the deal.
I did find the running joke regarding what I call Gotham Syndrome somewhat amusing, where people who are new in town get the personalities and names of the resident superheroes and villains wrong. Hence the Mist and the Black Hand (who aren't familiar with Mary, due to her not being the resident hero of Austin, where the story takes place) repeatedly calling her Captain Marvel, and Mary thinking that the Black Hand's name is Black Mask.
The premise seems to be a contrast between 90s supervillains with the more traditional sort, with the Mist being of the more pragmatic "real" kind of villain compared to the more stereotypical villainy of the Black Hand. BH not wanting to get a treason charge versus the Mist being an actual rapist, for example. This kind of reflects Jack Knight's version of Starman to most of the other DC superheroes of the time (no costume, public identity, has an actual job etc.).
Overall, I think that a better depiction of both Mary and Billy could be found in the actual proper team-up storyline the trio of heroes had later on the actual Starman series.
How do they end up working together? Well it's complicated...
The story begins in England, where the Mist is in hiding with her son (via Jack Knight, the current Starman, conceived via the Mist drugging him unconscious and raping him so any resulting kids could be raised to hate and kill Jack further down the line... yeah, being raised by a Classic Supervillain didn't do much for the current Mist's mental state). However, someone has had the audacity to kidnap the child, leaving a tape telling the Mist to come back to America so that the kidnapper can make some demands...
The Black Hand (this being the pre-Geoff Johns death fetish version, obviously) has been hired by a foreign government to build a "military device", and although he's managed to compile most of what he needs by himself, there are still some parts he needs to complete it. However, the parts he requires are in a secure US government facility, and since he doesn't want to add treason to the list of charges they already have against him, he decided to blackmail the Mist to do it for him.
Because the Black Hand is evidently kind of lazy. But, because she does love her son (despite him being primarily a means to mess with his father) she agrees to the Black Hand's terms. However, while breaking into the facility she bumps into Mary Marvel, who was warned by a friend that a villain was going to try and steal it.
The Mist tries to kill Mary, but unlike the superheroes that she killed in France, Mary is able to easily overpower her. Realising that she's lost, the Mist tries begging Mary to let her go, otherwise the Black Hand will kill her son. Mary tells her to go and tell her story to the cops, and the Mist says that the Black Hand would then hear she's been arrested and kill her baby.
Mary considers this, and then uses the Wisdom of Solomon to formulate a plan...
Later, the Mist hands over the parts over to the Black Hand, and demands that he give her son back. Only the Black Hand has decided that having the Mist work for him is actually pretty useful, so he's decided to prolong this arrangement indefinitely. Despite being understandably angry at this, the Mist tells the Black Hand that they have to go, as Mary Marvel is coming to get them, explaining that she managed to appeal to her sympathy by explaining about her kid so she would be able to escape easier.
And right on cue, Mary smashes in through one of the windows and begins beating up the Black Hand's henchmen. While she's doing this, the Mist and the Black Hand run off, with the male supervillain leading her to one of his back-up safehouses so they can regroup. Once there, the Mist threatens to gruesomely torture him to death for kidnapping her boy, and after a tense stand-off the Black Hand cracks and hands the kid over, who was being kept in a backroom in said building.
It's at this point the Mist decides to straight up kill the Black Hand, saying he really didn't think that he could get away with kidnapping her son and get away with it, right? This is immediately followed up by Mary showing up, who explains that she'd arranged this with Mist back at the facility so that they could rescue the kid while arresting both of the supervillains... but the Mist killing other other bad guy wasn't part of the arrangement.
Mary says that she pities the person that has to fight the Mist next... At which we cut to the airport, where the Mist is booking a flight back to Opal City, hometown of Starman. Turns out that she's got a new scheme in mind...
---
Upon reflection, this probably wasn't the best depiction of Mary Marvel, though that's probably due to her being there more to contrast with the actual main character of the story: the Mist. But on the other hand, she is actually competant enough to suggest a plan that would probably had worked if the Mist had been honest with holding up her end of the deal.
I did find the running joke regarding what I call Gotham Syndrome somewhat amusing, where people who are new in town get the personalities and names of the resident superheroes and villains wrong. Hence the Mist and the Black Hand (who aren't familiar with Mary, due to her not being the resident hero of Austin, where the story takes place) repeatedly calling her Captain Marvel, and Mary thinking that the Black Hand's name is Black Mask.
The premise seems to be a contrast between 90s supervillains with the more traditional sort, with the Mist being of the more pragmatic "real" kind of villain compared to the more stereotypical villainy of the Black Hand. BH not wanting to get a treason charge versus the Mist being an actual rapist, for example. This kind of reflects Jack Knight's version of Starman to most of the other DC superheroes of the time (no costume, public identity, has an actual job etc.).
Overall, I think that a better depiction of both Mary and Billy could be found in the actual proper team-up storyline the trio of heroes had later on the actual Starman series.
no subject
Date: 2015-03-29 12:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-29 12:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-31 12:31 am (UTC)Yeah, Mary did go by Captain Marvel as well as Billy. It was ridiculous (because apparently someone at DC though "Mary Marvel" wasn't cool) but Robinson is the kind of guy who likes to highlight the ridiculous stuff other writers do - remember in Cry for Justice (which even he admitted wasn't his best work) he routinely had the other heroes not know what to call (Faux) Freddy!Shazam since he used to be Captain Marvel Jr. and he was pretty much redesigned to look like Billy (I have an inkling that Johns and Frank actually made Freddy blonde in the reboot so that he couldn't be used as a Billy replacement again).