Tim Drake, the new Killer Frost

As I said, it’s going to be really ruinous should DC reinvent Caitlin as a werewolf at all, that it even necessitates an heir in Tim Drake. That’s also going to be shocking for his fans even if I don’t like him very much (I actually think he’s much worse than Damian Wayne) if because he’s not supposed to have powers and be evil. But because Caitlin Snow’s now the werewolf who killed Wally West and becomes Barry’s punching bag (JJBA and RRH undertones with one stone), Tim becomes the only other option to keep Killer Frost viable.

I could even see him hanging out in Suicide Squad whilst Cait, being a wolf, now ends up as either Barry’s punching bag in whatever media they appear in or Beast Boy’s girlfriend on Teen Titans Go. Complete with the full moon transformation. Also, with Dick Grayson being the go-for Robin in most media, the only other option for Tim to be less redundant’s when he becomes Killer Frost. It wouldn’t matter if it sucks for his fans because DC turned the original (Cait) into a werewolf.

Tim Drake becomes the villain or Killer Frost DC needed, not what fans want now that Caitlin’s a werewolf.

Tim Drake as Killer Frost

If DC were to reinvent Caitlin Snow as a werewolf at all (and have it recur in comics and cartoons like Teen Titans Go, Justice League Action and DC Superhero Girls), there’s a high chance of not only letting out the JJBA and Red Riding Hood undertones in Flash storylines (accusations and cliches) but also DC reinventing Tim into Killer Frost. This will only happen as Caitlin’s now a werewolf but that also makes it seem as if Captain Cold (Flash’s villain) seem badly wasted on telly that it may’ve been better to use him all along.

Instead of Caitlin, who’s now Barry’s werewolf punching bag in both telly and comics. Actually I think if they ever did reinvent Tim as Killer Frost, complete with all the expectations but onto a male character, there’s a good chance of both him having powers and DC having plagiarised from Marvel’s Wolfsbane (now that Cait’s a werewolf) and Iceman (Bobby Drake). If these were to happen at all, Caitlin would be evil Rahne Sinclair and Tim as straight Bobby.

Not a good sign but inevitably so if Caitlin gets reinvented as a werewolf at all.

Objectively considering the Mary Sue

I think one of the biggest red flags for a Mary Sue character is that it’s polarising, especially on the basis of having flaws bearing no real consequences in the stories and having a vocal fanbase supporting said character. It could be any other character but the biggest ones that come in mind to me are Marvel’s Kitty Pryde* (especially if you’ve read archived 4Chan threads), Arrow’s Felicity Smoak and the bloke from Sword Art Online.

They have fans and haters in nearly equal measure. (DC’s Damian Wayne shouldn’t count as he’s rightfully depicted as an unlikable moron.) It’s not that Mary Sues lack fans but that their fanbase isn’t as big as it should be. While there are characters that might be considered tolerable Mary Sues (whatever that means), there are others that fit the bill in a really bad way.

Again like how some 4Channers think of Kitty Pryde. Not necessarily lacking fans but polarising enough to divide people.

*I suspect it wouldn’t be any better if writers turned her into a wereleopard or even an actual leopard for real but based on her namesake it makes her into an even bigger punching bag. Same for turning Felicity into a hyena.

Sueing those without personalities

That’s tricky to tell but I get the odd impression that while Barry Allen and Tim Drake (to some extent) don’t lack personalities, the problem is what keeps them from developing real personalities’s that writers keep projecting a somewhat idealised version of their target demographics onto them. People have been writing semi-idealised author surrogates for years.

The major difference is that Barry Allen and Tim Drake have been written by different authors over time that it’s that hard giving them a definitive direction and personality. Let one a personality outside of the idealised target audience. Self-insert characters are inevitable as many written works are autobiographical to some extent.

Though I think real Canon Sues are more likely to be supporting characters that resemble a certain target demographic if Arrow’s Felicity Smoak’s any indication. Tim Drake fits squarely into my take on Canon Sues. Barry Allen deviates it somewhat by being the main character.

Canon Sues are paradoxical in that they’re supposed to be normal even though they only closely resemble the target audience and it’s not that they’re flawless but there aren’t that many lasting or profound consequences for what they do. JJBA’s Rohan Kishibe (and Josuke to some extent) have consequences for what they do.

Both of them are based on the author to varying degrees. Rohan loses his cool and literally writes on peoples’ faces whilst Josuke loses his cool from being taunted and nearly beat Rohan to death as well as things going awry whenever his familiar tries to fix them when Josuke himself gets pissed.

That isn’t to say there isn’t any for Marvel’s Kitty Pryde and DC’s Tim Drake and Barry Allen. With Barry Allen, especially with him trying to undo his parent’s death there are consequences but the setup’s treated as nothing more than a plot device. Kitty Pryde’s got a bad temper but it seems whatever flaws she has don’t have profound or lasting consequences.

In fact they’re immediately undone though I could be misremembering about JJBA. But the point here’s that author surrogates can always evade being/becoming Canon Sues. Rohan Kishibe being a Mary Sue’s up to anybody’s guess but I think the real defining factor for a true Canon Sue’s being readily appropriately by fans.

Authorial surrogates usually don’t count much as many fictions do have semi-autobiographical elements. (Kishibe’s in a grey area.) True Canon Sues by contrast have a lot of similarities with target demographics, especially if they’re specific ones at that if Buffy’s Willow’s any indication. That got averted in canon where Willow becomes evil.

Tim Drake, Kitty Pryde and Felicity Smoak are way better examples of Canon Sues in that they not only have a lot of similarities with niche audiences but also where either writers have come to pander to them a lot (Felicity, Tim and Kitty to some extent) or where fans get to write about them (James Tynion to Tim, Joss Whedon to Kitty).

Barry Allen’s in a grey area where he’s somewhat idealised version of his target niche (superhero nerds) and got written by them, especially Geoff Johns. Yet he has flaws like tardiness and there are profound consequences for whenever he does try to undo his parent’s murder. Often messing up timelines.

I’ve come to regard both Barry Allen and Rohan Kishibe as ‘Grey Area Sues’ where they’re both semi-idealised versions of both audience and author(s) yet have also have profound consequences for what they do (Rohan gets beaten up by Josuke for taunting him) though with Barry, it comes off as a bit of a plot device at times.

Doesn’t read comics but

I could get the suspicion of newly hired writers apparently having not read any comics but at the same time, given some don’t want retreads of old stories and themes it’s best to do something else. Admittedly I’m guilty of it. It’s going to be that hard going out of your comfort zone and stepping into somebody’s shoes to get a feel of it. But then again if you keep doing the same things all over again, you need to do something else.

Sometimes it needs to be really radical to start things anew. That needn’t to be entirely discarding the old but something else to be interested in as well. It’s already possible though not without some resistance. I don’t think it’s always down to political agenda given some racebend because it’s not just about lack of representation but that some characters really need a makeover.

Admittedly that varies depending on opinions but I suspect making Barbara Minerva Kenyan and basing her appearance after King’s Cheetah is refreshing but also politically incorrect as it plays into the idea of black people being animalistic…and athletic. (Racebending her might turn racebending’s intention on its head when you think about it.) Whether or not racebending Jimmy Olsen’s a good thing’s up to anybody’s guess.

Making Tim Drake black would be more complicated in that he’s already got a black replacement in Duke Thomas but making Tim black would make the latter redundant. Though that also leads to a dilemma whether if Tim should be made black or just by having a black character in the form of Duke around. (It’s going to be a case of choose wisely.)

Again I could get not wanting to promote certain lifestyles but not when it comes to intersex, especially harsher forms of androgen insensitivity where individuals are women but can’t menstruate and give birth. But most superheroines don’t seem to menstruate either likely due to constant exercising and from having low body fat.

Caitlin Snow having severe androgen insensitive syndrome’s about as shocking as realising she’s lesbian or something. Except that Caitlin never had a sex change but she’s got a y chromosome from having a medical disorder. Her being intersex’s a grey area where she definitely falls out of the gender binary but also because she’s like that due to a medical defect.

Same goes for people of colour with albinism and vitiligo. Sometimes I think when it comes to changing characters’ ethnicity, orientation or something like that, it’s not always due to a political agenda. In Caitlin’s case, it might as well be a grey area.

She’s not me

In hindsight, the real problem with racebending Helena Bertinelli’s that she’d been made interchangeable with Helena Wayne so often that it necessitated a big change in her appearance (beyond her fashion sense). She still acts like her old self but not when Wayne wore her clothes and used her name that Bertinelli got reinvented as a black woman.

There’s some interchangeability with male characters (most notably between Barry Allen and Wally West as well as the Robins) though I think female characters have it much worse. (To be fair, as Barry’s dead for a long time that when Wally West was made interchangeable with him it lasted well onto the cartoons that somebody had to make him to ‘easily’ tell them apart.)

Supergirl’s has been passed onto different women and there are some who think that even Kara Zor-El herself doesn’t act like her old self either. Same goes for Black Canary and others to whatever extent. There aren’t that many characters who have a defined persona to call their own in DC. There are many other Batgirls before and after Barbara but she’s the definitive Batgirl.

Catwoman’s expected to be Selina Kyle, Poison Ivy’s Pamela Isley and Wonder Woman’s Diana. Again not necessarily always the case but not when there are male superheroes with constant, well-defined personas that female characters are almost always either made interchangeable with one another or constantly change their persona.

Legion of Super-Heroes might be more gender-equal in having more male and female characters that change their personas but then again for every Cosmic Boy, Brainiac 5 and Invisible Kid (though he got a black successor) there’s just Saturn Girl. Phantom Girl not only changed her persona but also had been made into two women before uniting into one.

Triplicate Girl goes from splitting into three, then two (Duo Damsel), three twice and then multiples. Shrinking Violet’s predictable but also has been known to change her persona thrice and becoming a giantess at some point. Ayla Ranzz changes her persona a lot as much as she alternates between lightning and anti-gravity.

Stephanie Brown’s been Spoiler, Batgirl and Robin. Nobody really knows what to do with Donna Troy. Tora Olafsdotter’s been Icemaiden and Ice, the former which was taken by another character before her! Similar things can said of their Marvel counterparts to whatever degree.

Cheetah has it worse as the persona’s not only being passed down to different women (Priscilla Rich, Debbie Dominaire and Barbara Minerva) but that nobody knows whether if Cheetah’s should be costumed, half-animal or be an actual furry! There’s not much of a consensus over who Cheetah’s supposed to be.

Racebending’s not any better but not when there’s nary much of a real consensus for many female characters that there aren’t that many definitive versions of them to begin with.

Like a legitimate biological child

I think the relations between Green Arrow and Batwoman would be analogous to either an illegitimate child and a legitimate one or somebody who’s adopted and somebody who’s biologically related. It can even go both ways or either way. It’s even like that within Batman canon where Batman may’ve adopted several orphaned lads but his only biological son (Damian)’s illegitimate in a way through reproductive technologies.

I misread it but even then it can still go both ways for his own children and either way for derivative characters like Batwoman (his cousin like what Supergirl’s to Superman) and Green Arrow. As Green Arrow’s often considered to be a Batman ripoff, then Batwoman and Robin might be somewhat better in that they’re much more directly connected to the original. The original being Batman (barring his predecessors like Black Bat and The Shadow) is at the very top.

That still says a lot about how Green Arrow lives in his shadow as much as Nightwing and Batwoman do.

Chun Li in a room of many Juri Hans

I think the dilemma of having Tim Drake around is somewhat similar to the one with Juri Han. Street Fighter is one of the most popular and enduring fighting game franchises, which is still being played in arcades. One of the most well-known characters is Chun Li who casts a long shadow over subsequent characters like Cammy White and Juri Han.

Initially Juri wasn’t deliberately made to resemble Chun Li but whose official iteration was unconsciously influenced by her. Many of the Young Justice characters like Bart Allen and Tim Drake deliberately resembled their predecessors (Barry Allen and Dick Grayson). Maybe not exactly but close enough to be in Juri Han’s position.

It’s not so much that they get marginalised but that you have attempts to distinguish them from their predecessors. It wouldn’t matter if Barry himself is a more successful version of his predecessor and patron saint Jay Garrick. By the time Juri Han reappeared in SFV, while her original outfit could still be accessed to her primary outfit’s now a catsuit.

Almost as if she unconsciously resembled Chun Li so much that a makeover’s necessitated. Juri could’ve been inspired by other characters but not when her predecessor’s more famous than her so it shouldn’t be hard to assume Chun Li had some influence on her. There are attempts to return both Bart and Tim to their pre-New 52 portrayals especially in DC Rebirth.

Even by reinventing them to be much more different from their predecessors (like say Bart Allen becomes nothing more than a Yoshikage Kira tribute act), if Juri Han’s makeover’s any indication they still can’t get away from their predecessors’ shadows though similar things can be said of Cammy White, Ibuki Momiji and Sakura to any degree.

The problem with Tim Drake

Or why the idea of him as a villain seems inevitable. It’s not that Tim Drake’s an inherently bad character as much as the problem lies with making him likable. Though this has worked to a degree and his magazine lasted for years, yet if his portrayal on DCAU is any indication it can be that easy to be leery of him. The idea of superheroes going bad at some point or another isn’t unique to Tim.

What’s unique to him is that he’s meant to be likable so it gets incentive to find him dubious. If I’m not mistaken, DCAU writers considered Jason Todd but were made to show Tim Drake instead. Even then in a way, you can’t help but be leery of Tim at times. Especially if he grows up and he’s not quite as heroic as he should be. Maybe this dilemma’s similar to the one around Raven.

To paraphrase this, while fans reasonably hate what’s been done to Tim Drake it’s also true that of all the DC comics characters he and his cohorts to some degree can and will easily give into evil. Bart Allen became Bar Torr. Kon-El turned out to be cloned from evil Jonathan. As if Young Justice characters can’t entirely be trusted.

To the point where DC’s much better off with the Marv Wolfman Titans if the Teen Titans programmes are any indication. Even James Tynion IV who admitted to liking him can’t help but have him be possessed by evil. Not that Dick Grayson’s any better but he’s a much less suspicious Robin than his successors were/are.

He’s Chun Li in a room full of Juri Hans (I’m referencing Street Fighter in terms of her importance as comparable to his). Even if Grayson’s something of a Gary Stu himself and outgrew being Robin, he’s the gold standard for every Robin to aspire to and be measured by. Like how Chun Li’s the gold standard for female characters in Street Fighter.

I don’t even play video games but it’s saying when the prototype’s also the gold standard for other characters to any degree.

Gary Stus please, we’re insecure

Like I said about Kenshiro crying in Fist of the North Star, there aren’t that many male characters allowed to be emotional without question and that’s reflected in real life to a degree. Except in reality, there are consequences to repressing emotions for so long that these same characters pressured not to be open about their feelings not only abuse drugs and porn but also kill themselves.

Real life musicians like Nick Carter and AJ McLean have had terrible upbringings and been through drugs. At this point, they’ve opened up about what bothers them and are recovering very well. (If I’m not mistaken, Carter admits* to being violently hurt by his dad and grew angry unconsciously because of it.)

While there’s often always middle ground for such characters (arguably Kenshiro himself but also Charlie Brown among many others), it seems for fear of making emasculated male characters writers go the opposite direction by making them super-idealised and romanticised.

While this isn’t exactly the case in Batman stories but I remember one of the real reasons for creating Tim Drake is because of the backlash Jason Todd got. Jason Todd seemed genuinely flawed. He argues, he’s irritable and reckless but not really as idealised as any Robin should be. (At least until recently.)

Tim Drake had to be as idealised as possible and to some people, this made him look like a Mary Sue. An idealised character. Again not always the case but it seems due to fears of being effeminate and stuff, idealising things seem to be a remedy to these.

*Read Facing The Music and Living to Talk About It.