What Works and What Doesn't, v. 1:

It occurs to me, that there are times in comics where a particular character concept works for me in one case and utterly irritates me in another, and I've decided that I'm going to name a few and try to elaborate on why.

1. The Incompetent Female Portrayed as Less Capable than Other Colleagues (Male and Female): Stephanie Brown (Spoiler/Robin IV) vs Jennie-Lynn Hayden (Jade).

Now I'm sure anyone who knows me can guess which one is the character I prefer and which one is the character I dislike, but just in case it's not obvious, I vastly prefer Stephanie Brown as a character.

Admittedly, the weaker female is a cliche in general, but I'm not gonna get into that so much. There are stronger, better women that these two are compared unfavorably to as well, so I'm not sure I'm willing yet to make the jump to an assumption that the motivation is sexist.

Besides, I don't mind incompetent characters sometimes. It's interesting to see characters make mistakes, learn and grow. And Stephanie did that, up until her death. She was never very smart (I personally didn't find the events of War Games particularly surprising or out of character...sad that she paid with her life, and it was irritating that her torture was in *Robin* of all books, but it didn't surprise me), nor did she have as much training or experience as Tim, Dick or Cassandra Cain.

But she tried, a lot. We saw her train, a lot. She trained with Tim, with Cass, with Bruce. She never gave up even when rejected by Batman, kicked out of the Birds, or anything like that. And I can respect that.

Related to that, my biggest problem with Jade isn't her bitchiness or incompetence, it's how we constantly see her screw up or perform sub par to the other characters, but she never does anything to fix it. Kyle Rayner is constantly showing her up in battle, despite his lack of experience and preparation. It makes sense though because from day one, we saw Kyle train to improve. He trained with Guy, with Alan, with the League. He specifically went out on quests to learn from fellow heroes. Admittedly, it's his book, not hers, but we never even got to see her try to train *with* Kyle.

Even in Outsiders, she takes over from Dick who's mismanaging it (though the misfortune seemed more like chance to me, when you're *searching* for something, splitting up is usually the best option), but never really got shown doing any better than he did. Which just made it pointless to me.

Meh, they're both dead anyway, but I felt sadder for Steph.

2. Wonder Girls, sidekicks extraordinaire: Cassandra Sandsmark vs Donna Troy

I've never connected much to Donna, probably because she's just too angsty. Every thing bad happens to this woman. And her backstory is flipping impossible...clone/mirror self of Wonder Woman cursed to live many lives. Why?! Why couldn't they use time travel or something to explain how she predated Diana?

Writing needs to employ a philosophical Occams Razor when it comes to backstories and explanations. Simplest is best. That's it. A character's personality can be complex, but what brought them here shouldn't. Donna's convoluted backstory isn't what killed the character, but it doesn't help her.

She doesn't have a strong personality either. She's nice...and?! She's a bitch when she's a leader...and?! Cassie on the other hand is a brat and occasionally a twit, stubborn, but pragmatic. She's Helena Sandsmark's daughter who walked up to Zeus, got powers and turned out to be his daughter. Okay. That's simple. I can follow that. She's got a strong personality, whether you like her or hate her. Okay, cool. I can deal with that.

Donna's just a loose collection of traits and tragedy that calls itself a character. Newsflash angst =/= development. Thanks.

3. Angsty Angst-Mongers: Dick Grayson (Nightwing) and Todd Rice (Obsidian)

Three months ago I would have went with Dick in a heartbeat. But somehow or another, poor Todd ended up with therapy, a new lease on life, and a hot blond thing on his arm.

I love angst, don't get me wrong, but somewhere along the way I've lost my interest in seeing characters dwell on their angst, wallowing in it. It's tedious. It's one thing if you're stoically brooding, or repressing, I can respect that. Sucking it up and getting the job done is fine, but damn if the constant self-deprecation, angst and mopiness doesn't get on my last nerve.

Todd was a bit more irritating though, as I could respect villainy, but he just wouldn't *shut up* about it. I kept wanting to be a character in the comic just so I could scream, to either of them, "Okay, your life sucks, I'm sorry. Deal with it! If it's so bad you can't suck it up, *fix* it!"

And then Todd did. When he lost his powers, got hospitalized, he actually seemed, in the brief glimpses we got in JSA, to be trying to fix it. And now in Manhunter, he has! I'd bet he still has angst, everyone does, and he certainly has reason to, but he seems to have largely put it behind him and moved on. AND he gets a hot blond out of the deal. (As well as what looks like a working partnership/friendship with the Manhunter).

Where Dick Grayson seems to be starting OYL rootless, shiftless, and banging hot redheads named Cheyenne, claiming to have disowned himself...

Well, other tastes vary, but I know personally which character I'm following with a new rapt devotion and fascination, just to see what's gonna happen with him next. And he's not even the main character of his book!