EiE: Infusing Estrogen into the JSA 2: Lady Danger

In my last Infusion of Estrogen post, Dr. Flem had a good point about overloading the JSA with younger characters and how he'd like to see a tough older female character. I like that idea a lot, so I thought I'd try it this time.

Okay, the trick this time is to create a female character that could be an experienced old-hat of a hero and yet somehow remain under the radar for the large amounts of earth-shattering apocalyptic events that the DCU sees on a daily basis.

Now there are some characters that are already pre-existing that would make fine editions to the JSA in this respect: Zatanna, Lady Blackhawk, Black Canary could all be characterized as more experienced female characters, however, and this might just be a petty thing on my part, they all look young. They're not all young of course, Dinah's got to be of an age with Hal and Ollie, and I don't really think Zatanna can be much younger, considering her own position in the Satellite League as of Identity Crisis at least. But they don't look it.

I'd like a gruff, older female character that actually LOOKS like she's in her forties. I'm not saying she can't still be very attractive (it's very hard to be unattractive in comics) but I'd like her to have some flecks of grey. Some lines around her eyes. I'd like her to visibly look around the age of Wildcat or Jay or Reed Richards.

This character should have the experience and presence to be something of a matriarchal figure in the group. I'd like her to be a warm, gruff, outspoken personality, one that the young women can turn toward for advice and a role model. I'd also like her to have an element of earthy sexuality. She'll be able to flirt back with Wildcat, for example, without it looking quite as inappropriate. She should be confident and able to match characters like Alan and Carter without backing down.

For the legacy aspect, I'd like to use that of Lady Danger. I'm not anticipating a great deal of personal connection between the characters, rather, like Michael Holt or Pieter Cross, I see her as being inspired more by the stories of the character as well as a few chance meetings, rather than a direct lineage element.

In order for her to be both experienced but under-the-radar, I'd design her to be without superpowers. She's an adventurer with some nifty toys instead. Which means she might have been in the background, helping to fight aliens in some of the many many invasions, but wouldn't really have been in position to draw a whole lot of attention to herself.

I actually like the idea of playing up that element actually. Few of the Golden Age/GA-inspired heroes ever seem particularly adept at subtlety. It might be interesting if this new Lady Danger had once been involved in some sort of military special ops or espionage group. (This could possibly create ties with Checkmate, allowing for a smoother character introduction). This means she'll have training and experiences that are vastly different from the majority of the group and a perspective that could allow for both a useful perspective and a source of personal conflict at the same time.

She'd be in an interesting position as well. She's physically older than most of the team except for Alan/Jay/Ted and very experienced, however, in a team with many of the characters that were running around during the second world war, she'd be considered one of the kids as well. It would be uncomfortable and she would feel the need to not give any ground when dealing with the older members, as well as to prove herself. I think she could be a lot of fun.