An Exercise in Egotism 2.1: Continuing Ideas for Jade

Well, much to my surprise my previous Exercise in Egotism regarding Jade became much more interesting in the commentary than I'd anticipated. Lots of new ideas brought up that seem like they could be fun.

As a result, Ragnell and I started toying around with the ideas, developing a few of them in ways I find interesting. And because it's my blog, I'll share.

Expanding on the Idea

Now, as I've indicated in the comments, I'm particularly taken with the idea of re-imaging Jade toward a younger female audience. See, I've been thinking about Amethyst, lately, and I thought that series was interesting in its scope and target audience range. It had managed to cash in on a fanbase that tended to be neglected, one that's currently neglected now except by manga and some few indie comics. Neither DC nor Marvel really have a series that targets younger teenage girls. Supergirl is possibly the closest, but her current re-imagining, as much as I've been liking the LoSH version, is not really geared toward the same audience as the pre-crisis version.

Amethyst was interesting because it combined elements that are very common in young girl's manga(though I don't know if it was intentional) like the magical girl/girl falls into another world/little girl is aged to a more adult figure elements. However, there were distinctly American elements to the story and its presentation. It became a story both younger readers and older readers could enjoy. Now the only real outlet for younger girls interested in comics is really the manga section, which is a shame for the Big Two.

I think Jade could easily slide into that particular, underfilled niche. Jade's an older protagonist than Amethyst, so it won't be the same style precisely, but she's got a lot to attract young girls. She's very beautiful, in a way that manages to remain quite a bit more modest than most of her sisters in the comic fandom. She's got what amounts to magic powers. She's got a regal governing father figure. And she wouldn't take much work to be a positive character for parents to like their daughters reading as well. (Youthful indiscretions in Green Lantern aside). Her flaws are considerable: self-centeredness, bitchiness and incompetence but she's really no worse than a lot of starting manga heroines. Maturing the character tends to come part and parcel with the plot.

Merchandising would probably be pretty easy. Some lovely imagery-intense posters. And lets not forget dolls. I still want a green Barbie Doll.
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Now as for her potential setting, much as I love Opal City, and the notion of all the gemstone-people fighting Star Sapphire there, heh. I'm not sure the setting would suit her. It'd be visually striking, but really, I don't think it'll suit her. She might be a legacy character, but she doesn't have the same vibe as say Jack or even Courtney.

And ultimately, I think I'd like to see her some place quieter. A lot more trees. Rustic. Which would allow for some character humor as well, Jade's a city girl at heart, so this sort of lifestyle would take a great deal of getting used to. It'd be a nice, sympathetic, mundane problem to counter act the weirdness.

I like the notion of using nature and the wilderness because well, for one, the image. Jade is green. There could be a lot of artistic imagery casting her as something of a mother-nature sort of figure. I also like it because it would take Jade out of her element. As a "princess" type character, we've never really seen her have to buckle down and be self-sufficient, but that's really a wonderful way to humanize said "princess" characters. We may not know what it's like to be rich, or the daughter of a hero, or to be born with special powers and find out you've got a long lost twin. But we know what it's like to strike out on our own. And we sympathize with the foibles and frustrations of someone in a new environment. Besides, we can move her back to the city later.

And it'll help introduce a lot of the supporting cast. See, we actually ended up thinking, well, why not take the fantasy/fairy tale elements to a logical conclusion and use the Fair Folk themselves. Best part of the Sidhe is how in the right circumstances, they could be enemies OR allies. Part of it's just that I like Faeries. But another part is that they're an element of magical folklore that I don't recall touched much upon in the DCU...which allows for a lot of author leeway. Heck the idea of creating an entire Underhill setting: the Courts, the politics, the society...that's a really attractive prospect.

Faeries (naturally I mean the intense, messy, scary folklore kind, not Tinkerbell) would be a good for Jade's skills as a character. First there's the theme elements of nature and Green Magic, but also subtler bits. I said in my previous post that Jade worked best as an audience-window sort of character, as the sane normal one. And certainly, the interworkings of the Seelie and Unseelie folk would be alien enough to highlight that element. The politics inherent in the folktales indicate a healthy dose of diplomacy (specifically in managing volatile personalities...which she certainly has experience with), social maneuvering and intelligence.

They're also wonderfully suited to a young adult book. I've never thought Young-Adult had to mean sanitized so as not to damage the fragile things' minds. Faeries, in the stories, are often savage, terrifying creatures. They're elements of nature and man is just their plaything, and even when they're benevolent, it's a touchy thing.

And they're pretty, thus allowing for interesting relationship potential.
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I would also, were I writing this story, rework Jade's powers a little. Well, re-envision's probably a more accurate word. This is where it gets really controversial.

I don't want to take away the green powers of course, but I want to re-imagine them a little. As long as Jade's powers are portrayed as the weaker version of Alan's, she's never going to stop being the "least competent" Lantern. The thing is, she's really NOT a Lantern at all. And she shouldn't be. She's born of the *Starheart*. Her green magic was inside her from the beginning.

Thinking about that leads me to two thoughts. The first is that, it could be very easy to establish that she's not actually incompetent. But rather, she's trying to use her powers in the same directing/focusing/controlling way Alan does or the Corps Lanterns do. I mean, what they're doing is using an inanimate object (even if Alan is merged with his). They've got to activate the object, extract the energy, form it into a usable state, make it go in the right direction, make it not explode/expand too far/or anything like that on the way...But Jade's isn't an external object. It's *her*. It's a part of her. It pulses through her body to the point where she's *green*. It's default state seems to be on, and it's supposed to be chaotic energy, it's plausible that it's tied far more with emotion than with a deliberate effort of will. Instead of forcing it, she should be letting it free...or something like that. It'd explain away her weakness and give her the chance to be more effective once she'd figure this out.

The second thought is a little wilder though. Why should Jade's powers be a mirror of Alan's exactly? One could take them in a different direction entirely. Still the conjuring stuff and flying of course, but with a different emphasis. The Starheart is inorganic, inanimate. The Power Pulse is organic and alive. His powers are artificial, hers are natural. And given the nature of her mother's abilities, it might be interesting to re-conceptualize the Power Pulse as an amalgamation of her mother's nature powers and her father's celestial powers. I know not many people liked that bit where she briefly manifested plant powers, I didn't either. But it could be interesting to use in tandem with the Pulse. The Pulse being tied to life or something like that. I admit, it might just be that green growing plants could be visually very pretty. I'm shallow like that.

Besides, I'd like to tie Jade more into her mother's legacy as well as her father's. She's not Athena, sprung full grown from her father's head. Obsidian has a lot more thematic ties to both father and mother, but Jade is solely her father's daughter. And that's a shame. Besides, Green Magic's tied with plant growth in stories. So thematically, it'd fit together nice. It could be a very natural, organic extention of her powers.
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The set-up of the story could be easy. A hero's quest. Perhaps after being returned from the dead, she's trying to get on with her life, and her powers start acting up. Alan can't help her so she's forced to try other means, whereupon she ends up in way over her head.

There could be a lot of striking visual imagery, which would really be a selling point to the comic. Romantic tension's easy, a few intriguing male characters here and there. And well, if it doesn't work, just move her back to the city, write it off as a drug-hallucination, and/or kill her again. :-)

I think it'd be fun though.