Japanese and cheap

That practically was the case before in the mid to late 20th century that even as Japan began improving in the 50s, many Western animation production houses still turned to it because it provided cheap, quick animation. Historically, anything made in Japan had the same reputation as anything made in China today (though that too is changing quickly for the latter). Comes to think of it in hindsight, there’s a reason why in the 20th century before there were a lot of Japanese co-productions.

These included Alfred J Kwak, Superbook, GI Joe, Batman, Gargoyles and Thundercats. Currently, this has shifted to Korea and China especially for both Japanese and American productions. (I guess Japan at this point’s now a truly developed country so for most of the part, there needn’t much Japanese co-productions since it’s now a bit too expensive for that.) Not that there aren’t any more Japanese and Western co-productions but that these have gotten rarer.

Looking back, there was a time when Japan was more or less in the same economic situation as China is today. In the sense of being rising but still fairly cheap enough for international companies to turn to when producing productions on the cheap.

Stephanie Brown the sports coach

It’s neither than Steph should remain reckless nor become super-competent. I think in making Stephanie develop a penchant for playing football/soccer not just in her spare time but also use its techniques in defeating bad guys she might even go on as a sports coach or PE teacher. I know of one German woman who coaches footballers (and she might help out others and go pious too).

And there’s a lot of sexism, discrimination, racism and abuse there. One could imagine Steph being mad at the teasing she got in soccer/football even though she does this to find something better to do and maybe to try to win her father’s affection (or something, I could be projecting). There’s bound to be emotional abuse in football.

But that would mean even athletes themselves do get bullied and something not too many consider never mind it’s got a precedent. Phineas and Ferb had a bully who admitted to being bullied himself (and in-line with data). Firestorm has a jock who got bullied. That also makes Stephanie even more relatable.

And with her becoming a sports coach, she becomes very empathetic to those who’ve been through it before as well as doing a lot of emotion work again. (When you add in the pressure to keep calm and the need to impress and care for people, she’s going to do emotion work and then nag at Tim for not helping her and misunderstanding her a lot.)

Her becoming a PE teacher/sports coach sounds odd but a way to make her stand out even more given the Batman comics are abundant with martial artists but very few footballers and not much room for athletes who get bullied themselves. And that makes Stephanie Brown much more believable.

Especially in how far’s come as a sports coach and her involvement in football/soccer as a way to improve her athletic ability makes her compelling.

Who abused Tim?

Something that wasn’t new before since DCAU but one that might have much deeper resonance and perhaps more disturbing subtext should Black Canary ever show up as his biological aunt. It’s not so much about incest in here but rather that her involvement (and that of her husband) wouldn’t just lessen Batman’s influence. (Not just by becoming overly protective of Tim.)

But also make Batman look bad. It’s not that Batman’s gay, bisexual or whatever. But that since growing numbers of readers are finding him, well nasty, the possibility that he could’ve abused Tim Drake would have Dinah and Oliver watch out for him more. BC’s no stranger to mentoring youths if Young Justice’s any indication.

Her being Tim’s biggest maternal figure and aunt would practically make both Lady Shiva and Dana Winters redundant. (As for Oliver Queen, should Jack go broke he’d always be around to support him and when comatose, Ollie would gladly parent Tim with Dinah.) Let’s not forget that both Dinah and Dana were brunettes that got blonder over the years and have very similar sounding names.

This makes the substitution way too easy and perhaps too damning as to recontextualise Batman as a borderline Michael Jackson figure. If you know what I mean.

A bad bat

The real problem with having to make Black Canary into Tim’s blood aunt’s that Batman starts to look kind of pervy. To be fair, such sentiments did predate what I’m proposing. It’s not that Batman’s gay and he really isn’t. But when it comes to Batman being rude to his own proteges yet he still keeps getting them, and that Dinah is related to Tim then he starts to look bad.

As in Uncle Ollie and Aunt Dinah aren’t letting Tim go near Batman and would do anything to monitor his behaviour a lot. Tim having overprotective uncles and aunts (and biological ones at that) would make you wonder if Batman may’ve preyed on him or something close. The idea that Tim himself got abused isn’t new really. If the DCAU’s any indication, he got tortured by the Joker.

Having Black Canary around as his biological aunt makes it all the more damning and harsh. She’s shown to tutor youths before on Young Justice and her being Tim’s mentor and aunt makes her much more involved in his life than Dana was. Rather than merely cheering for him, she’d tutor and even monitor Tim a lot.

And that she won’t let Batman go near him or heck any villain. Oliver Queen wouldn’t necessarily make Batman redundant but rather having Tim as his nephew strengthens the differences. Though Ollie did start out as a Batman clone, he did take on a life of his own and having Tim as his nephew would mean that he’s going to support him and be really involved in his life.

Not that Batman’s made redundant but when you realise that Jack (Tim’s dad) was made comatose and that Batman went for either troubled youths (Tim in DCAU, Jason Todd) or orphans (Dick Grayson) it makes Batman look fishier. Batman’s presence in Tim’s life would be lessened somewhat, especially given Dinah and Ollie’s involvement.

Character development wise, like I said, Dinah Lance isn’t necessarily any less sexualised but now made more rounded by that she’s practically the biggest mother figure Tim ever had and the biggest female influence in general. And she’s strict enough to lessen Batman’s influence, since she can’t always trust him around Tim. Same with Green Arrow and Batman now starts to resemble…Michael Jackson.

In the Mine

I sometimes think should Black Canary ever be outed as Tim Drake’s biological aunt, it’s inevitable that once Uncle Ollie gets brought up he’s going to make Batman look bad. (I even think Dinah’s presence alone renders both Lady Shiva and Dana Winters redundant.) As in Michael Jackson bad.

Even if MJ’s not a paedophile, he habitually dumps most boys after they’ve grown up, can’t stand dealing with most females and especially adults (if because he knows, based on his own experience with two of his sisters, they won’t submit to him a lot). Besides many of the women in Batman stories, until recently, were almost always villainesses.

And Batman was often seen with younger, though not necessarily prepubescent, males. If one’s not mistaken, many of his proteges came from troubled backgrounds of sorts. Tim Drake’s parents fought, Dick Grayson’s orphaned and Jason Todd’s from a broken home. He also seemingly had a type, just like Michael Jackson.

I think in having Black Canary be Tim’s blood aunt, she’s going to strict on and overprotective to him. Especially when in times of danger but that would mean she’s much more involved in his life, especially as his mentor than Dana ever was. (I get the impression of Dana being often too over-enthusiastic whereas Dinah’s shown to mentor youths on Young Justice.)

Not to mention one could imagine storylines where she and Ollie would argue with Batman and would anything to overprotect Tim. (There’s also the inevitable Charles Dickens undertones when it comes to Tiny Tim, Oliver Twist and his penchant for fallen women.) So there’s that.

The second tier

I guess in terms of importance to Christianity, the animals that rank highest are humans, pigeons and sheep. The first tier. The second tier would logically consist of the more ambivalent ones like cats, dogs, monkeys, lions, leopards and goats. They do have a place, whether heroic, clerical pets or the like. But since they’re also associated with vice, they’re going to be ambivalent anyways. (Especially the seven deadly sins.)

If I’m not mistaken, dogs are sometimes associated with greed, envy, lethargy and treachery. (Cats sometimes with lust, treachery or lethargy, monkeys with lust.) I do remember a sermon where leopards are associated with anger and pigs with greed. It’s not wrong to be angry, you just need to be more constructive about it if it doesn’t come easily to you (something like channeling it into kvetching and criticism) and possibly the same with any vice really.

But as it stands, the second tier beasts are more or less equivalent to DC’s Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Green Lantern and Flash. They can handle their own magazines but not without impending cancellation and renumbering as well as repeated attempts to make them more interesting. Whereas Batman and Superman remain stable and manage to sustain multiple titles at once.

Superman used to be more popular in the like manner, sheep and pigeons used to be more highly esteemed. (To be fair, he’s still a prominent enough character.) But that’s saying in terms of reputation and what’s objectively better in some regards.

Not quite goodbye to Kori

It seems over at DC Comics proper, there’s a tendency to promote Dick Grayson’s ‘love’ for Barbara Gordon at the expense of Starfire (his original true love) never mind that cartoons and now live action often promote him Starfire. Though this isn’t always nor consistently the case, it’s as if DC would do anything to retcon it never mind that it shows up often outside of comics. Not that I like her but it seems to me the first thing that comes in mind is his romance to an alien woman.

That was even there to a significant extent in Marv Wolfman’s stories and the adaptations influenced by this (Judas Contract, Teen Titans twice, Young Justice and Titans) as well as in Kingdom Come’s sequel. It can be argued that the idea of Starfire as his girlfriend’s right there in the beginning of Marv Wolfman’s writings for Teen Titans and since that magazine influenced subsequent cartoons and now a live action production, this is enough to solidify Starfire as his true love.

It still does show up in the DC Canon comics but not as much these days. Either that Chuck Dixon’s rather intimidated by the fact that Dick Grayson’s in love with an alien woman who’s much stronger than him and perhaps arguably more socially awkward too (see also the original Teen Titans cartoon). Or that he and the Bat office editors seemed to prefer him with more mundane women. But that still goes back to my original point.

Kind of emasculating

I suspect it seems since Chuck Dixon and the like took over Dick Grayson’s life, his relationship with Starfire’s being downplayed never mind that this shows up fairly often in cartons and now live action. Maybe not always the case but it’s like Starfire gets marginalised to prop up Barbara. Partly I think because if these writers were sexist it’s not just that they’re intimidated by Starfire’s earthiness but that she’s practically stronger than Dick Grayson is.

And this is a woman who even literally escaped from an abusive household of sorts. I may not like her much but it seems like she’s gets pooped on never mind that she’s one of the better Superman surrogates around and isn’t so blatantly that based on Superman either. (With Nightwing taking his name from Kryptonian lore and Starfire having similar sun-based powers, it does parallel the Batman-Superman tie in a way.)

Though I think it’s not so much that Starfire sucks (even if she’s not my favourite character) but that the idea of a woman who’s earthier and stronger than a man, not to mention socially awkward at times, and dealing with abuse seemed to make her much too human I guess.

Depictions of women

I don’t watch Arrow but I do get the impression of a study stating that Felicity’s role as Oliver’s hacker also reinforces her role in the domestic sphere. One may wonder if that’s the same for Barbara Gordon to an extent given their similarities. Though I wouldn’t doubt if Barbara Gordon did something to deal with her then terrible situation, it seems as if being a hacker also reinforces certain things.

(Admittedly Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures isn’t always any better with Polnareff ending up as yet another sedentary hacker though Johnny Joestar defies this somewhat by being a persistent horseback rider who’ll do anything to move despite or because of his shortcomings and likely the author my improve in time.)

Admittedly I haven’t read much of Chuck Dixon’s stories, let alone remember some of the details well enough other than Dinah bleaching her hair. But it seems in relation to Dick Grayson, Barbara being a hacker reinforced her domesticity. Maybe not necessarily always nor deliberately the case. Though in Dixon’s case, it’s more to do with being awkward with the much worldlier (or more socially awkward) Starfire.

Whatever the portrayal (comics or cartoons), Starfire seemed often too otherworldly for some writers who’d rather have Dick date Earth women instead. Never mind it does happen fairly often in cartoons (and now live action) to the point where Starfire seemed like the more interesting choice that despite her past of being abused and her bad temper she’s still a capable heroine and does dress modestly in her spare time (like any popstar).

Not that Dixon’s entirely that sexist but I guess when it comes to pairing Dick Grayson with Barbara, a relationship did exist before but not really that romantic. To the point where it seems Barbara’s just there to fill the traditional domestic role (in a way) whilst Starfire’s shown to be rather worldly and though she did have a male counterpart, he’s not so well-remembered today.

(Not that Starfire’s any less feminist or even more feminist but it seems whatever the portrayal, she tends to be out of her element at times.)

Though I think the domestic hacker theory makes sense in why Chuck Dixon had Dick hook up with Barbara rather than Cory.

Air of novelty

It’s not so much that I like Jason Todd but I do understand the hype and appeal behind him. Largely and arguably because he’s got an air of novelty to him. Part of it owes to that he hasn’t been in comics (other than flashbacks) in a long time and the controversy surrounding his resurrection’s enough for people to check him out. He may not necessarily be a likable character.

But the circumstances surrounding his revival’s interesting enough to have him reappear again and draw writers and readers to him. He may not be a new character as he appeared in the 1980s. But he’s new to everybody else and why writers and even some readers are this eager to try him out in stories. DC sees this and capitalises on his newfound popularity (or infamy if your will).

Not necessarily the best character but rather his newfound popularity happened by accident through his curious revival and that he hasn’t been seen in a long time until recently.