Sunday, February 18, 2007

Black Comics Month: Day 15

Get ready to look SOOOO good!I loved Young Justice. The book ended tragically the same month as Peter David's Supergirl, and within a year of Superboy and Impulse, all comics I loved dearly. In fact, I was ticked that YJ was being killed to make way for Teen Titans. Sure, TT was great in the beginning, but it was a completely different book. Young Justice was fun, and while Teen Titans was good (up until right after "Titans Tomorrow," I'd say), it wasn't as fun as Young Justice. Somewhere in the angst and the epic plots, it lost the fun character interactions and the sense of innocence that characterized Young Justice.

It lost something else, too: half the cast. Slobo died, Secret lost her powers, and Arrowette and Empress have been floundering in comic book limbo. Which is really a shame.

See, Anita Fite's father is one-half of Fite & Maad, agents of the All Purpose Enforcement Squad (A.P.E.S.); her mother was a vodoun priestess; her name is a pun; naturally, she had a fantastic combination of combat skills and magic. According to Wikipedia, she also has a bit of the Anti-Life Equation floating around her brain, but either I didn't read that issue or I blocked it out along with the rest of "Our Worlds at War," one of very few major crossovers to which I own every single part. She's got a funky costume, she's got a staff that turns into two swords, she has that 'cheerful personality that masks the disturbing parts of her past and the nature of her powers" thing going on. In other words, she's a very versatile character. So why isn't she on some team?

Hey, Titans, you know Ravager and Raven? Why clutter up your team with two girls whose names are so similar, when you could have Empress? She's a more efficient use of character, combining Ravager's fighting skills and desire to be accepted with Raven's magic and angst! You'd be stupid not to take her!

Hey, Shadowpact, Nightmaster and Blue Devil are cool and all, but you really need a woman who can hold her own in hand-to-hand magic combat. Enchantress and Nightshade are cool and all, but they never really get their hands dirty. Recruit a girl who can tussle with the best of them!

Look! Empress could be the new Question!Hey, Batman, aren't you miffed that there are all these teams running around without someone working for you? Don't you want to keep tabs on the new Suicide Squad? What about the Secret Six? How about (Rao forbid) the Outsiders? Sure, you kind of screwed the pooch with Cassandra, but there's a perfectly good Empress around, just waiting for your phone call. She's got the stealth skills, the fighting prowess, and I know how much you hate magic, but it certainly gives her an edge. Plus, she's not really well-known enough to be spotted as a hero. She could be your whited-out eyes and pointy black ears in any of these teams, and we all know that you know how to reach her.

Oh, Catwoman, are you looking for a babysitter? I know someone with oodles of experience! Poor Anita Fite lost her parents, but they were reincarnated as infants! They're a little bit older than Helena by this point, but she could sure use some playmates her own age, don'cha think? Plus, what better security could you have than a girl with vodoun guardian spirits watching over her? I'm sure you can work out a fair pay schedule, just give her a call!

Okay, if you want to know how awesome Empress is, if you really want to see why she deserves a spot in any team in the DCU (have we seen her picture on the JLA table at all?), I really only need to recount one of her adventures to you. See, Anita? She survived a date with Lobo.
I'll take the frag frag eggs bacon and frag.
Let's see Ravager do that.

7 comments:

Derek said...

Wow. Never heard of her.

But now I want to. Are you listening, DC?

LurkerWithout said...

As long as Didio and Johns and the like are the primary direction givers for DC I don't want any characters I like to be in their hands...

The more interesting 3rd stringers stay in Comics Limbo right now the happier I am...

Marc Burkhardt said...

I agree with Lurkerwithout. If Empress popped up in a comic right now, she'd probably end up dismembered or something equally unnecessary.

Besides, I think Peter David characters are persona non gratis at DC these days, for whatever reason.

Mens Vaga said...

Hey dude,
I've been reading your profiles on Black Superheroes and loving it. I'm glad you brought up Empress and Skyrocket. Like you I was fairly sad when YJ was canceled, (and Supergirl too.) I'm really liking your blog, keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

Ahh, I absolutley love Empress as much as I loved Young Justice. It would of course be brilliant to see her with the Titans, as it makes an awful lot of sense to have her voudun practicing butt kickery on deck...but alas, limbo and Slo-Bo seem to be in her future for some time. Still, such a shame to waste such a neat character with such a neat backstory.

Gavin

Anonymous said...

Empress was in the Day of Vengence special for a panel.

Inexplicably, she was white.

As far as I'm concerned, all these characters are ebing held hostage by the Anti-Monitor.

Tom Foss said...

Yeah, but she showed up in a later cameo in Infinite Crisis, black again. Chalk it up to the multiverse and Superboy's time-punches.