It just occurred to me as I was reading this week’s installments of War Games.
Is it my imagination or since Dick Grayson moved to Bludhaven, are nearly all of Gotham’s costumed crimefighting types outside of Batman and Robin women?
I mean, we have Oracle (artist formerly known as Batgirl) doing the info/coordinating, Batgirl, Huntress, Spoiler (who did a brief stint as Robin), I believe Black Canary is also Gotham based… and I think Catwoman should also count, although she’s more in a grey area.
What gives here? Do the DC writers who like doing female characters just somehow end up writing the Batman titles? Is Batman more accepting/encouraging of a womanwho doesn’t have actual powers (other than a sonic scream) than your average Man in Tights? I know that some of the friction between Green Arrow and Black Canary is that Ollie, for all his liberal bluster, has a bit of a protective streak toward women and tries to keep them out of harm’s way. (No, Dinah, I’m not trying to keep you out of danger. I just need someone here in this nice, safe place and you’re the best person for the job.)
What is it about Gotham that seems to create so many female Spandex-wearing crimefighting types?
I once heard a theory on these boards—that no comic character could (if I’m remembering correctly) share a kind of “state” with any other character. (With the exception of sidekicks) This state consisted of powers, gender, and good-evil allignment. So Wolverine, for example, has Claws/Healing Factor, is Male, and is good. No other character can share all of those attributes—but you can have guys like Sabertooth, who has Claws/Healing Factor, is Male, but is Evil.
Perhaps something similar can be applied to Gotham City…call it a “Gotham State.” Batman is Male, works in Gotham, is a Hero, and his powers are—well, being super-competant and prepared for anything, along with a high badass factor. In fact, Batman’s abilities are so overwhelming that they act as a “wild card” in the powers category of his “Gotham State.” No matter how different the powers or abilities of a wannabe male Gotham hero, Batman already has them matched. And since no character can share a Gotham State, you’d have to change one of the other variables…if you change the good-evil allignment, the new character can’t be a hero anymore. If you change the “works in Gotham City” category, you make it a moot point. That leaves only one possible category you can change—gender. Since there is no female character as “Universally Badass” as Batman—or if there is, she still doesn’t work in Gotham—any abilities or superpowers can be used.
Thus, in Gotham City, you can have any number or type of supervillains (of either gender), and you can have any number or type of superheroines, but you can only have one superhero…Batman. (Robin, Alfred, etc. still don’t count, as they’re sidekicks, not technically “superheroes” proper.)
How’d I do, Coach?
The Justice League. If Batman’s adaptability trumps the powers of any other male hero in the same ‘state’ as him, his frequent membership to the Justice League (the ‘Justice League State’), becomes problematic.
By the same token: Superman would trump Flash, Aquaman, and Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter would trump him.
It’s called Writing 101. Batman and another male superhero would clash because Batman must be the alpha male. (See Anarky and Azreal and others. The lack of male vigilantes is purely in the OP’s imagination.) Batman and a female superhero can bicker to create character conflict, but can co-exist. No female can ever be a true threat to a man in the world of a Batman comic. And they’re all eye candy for the fanboys.
You can try to invent fancy theories to explain it, but good old fashioned sexism, er, catering to the audience is all that’s really needed.
Anyway, is the current Canary based in Gotham? I know she did operate out of there at first, but given her relationship with Ollie, she would have left Gotham at some point (or else Ollie proves the ‘No other male heroes in Gotham’ theory wrong) - did she go back?
Maybe not now, but a few years ago the place was crawling with 'em.
Tommy Monaghan. Natt the Hat. Ringo Chen. Sean Noonan. Hacken. Six-Pack. Bueno Excellente. The Defenestrator. Jean de Baton-Baton. Shakes. Friendly Fire. The deadly, enigmatic, Dogwelder. …and of course, BAYTOR!!!
Well, Dinah just dumped Ollie, so if she left Gotham, she might have moved back by now. Also, in the first intallment of War Games, it is mentioned that Gotham is short-staffed vigilante-wise partly due to there not being a Robin at just that moment, but also because Oracle had sent Huntress and Black Canary on a mission.
Black Canary seems to get around, actually. She was in Seattle when Ollie first came back from the dead. And she was definitely working in Gotham during the Bruce Wayne: Murderer? storyline.
Yeah, but with the Justice Leaguers, we don’t have the additional modifier of “works in Gotham City.” The location is a factor, because it’s a relitively small location—a single city. The Justice League, on the other hand, has a “home turf” of the entire Earth. (And OFF the planet, too, now and again.) So, while the entire planet might be big enough to support other superheroes besides Batman, “this town,” Gotham, ain’t.
