Katma Tui should be brought back to the land of the living
Published by Avi Green on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 8:40 AM.
Quite by accident, I discovered this post on the Written World blog from 3 years ago, which cites how, if there was any GL Corps member left behind in dead-land when GL: Rebirth was published in 2004...it was Katma Tui.
Since I was becoming alienated from much of DC's output at the time thanks to Identity Crisis, I couldn't have paid clear attention, though I may have realized that some GL Corps members would remain dead. Even so, to read this and discover that Katma Tui, the first female member of the Corps was not resurrected, really startled me. So of all the opportunities Geoff Johns missed when he revived those GL Corp members who'd been wronged in Zero Hour, it was Katma? Clearly, I didn't miss anything.
What if he had revived Katma or had her death retconned away? It wouldn't have counteracted the bad taste Identity Crisis left behind, though it could have provided Johns some some credit for which people could have appreciated him better. That he would throw away such a golden opportunity to right a wrong was really missing the boat.
This got me to thinking: while I do think that Jenny-Lynn Haden, daughter of Alan Scott, should be revived, and it's good to know if her awful death in 2006 drew some backlash, I agree that Katma Tui should be brought back first, probably because of how overlooked her death was, and she should not be forgotten. And, she and John Stewart should be able to reunite and repair their relations together. Shortly after her resurrection in 1992 (which made it easier to exonerate Carol Ferris of slaying her), the editors threw her out again along with so many other GLs. That's a wrong that should be righted, and for Geoff Johns to say that he's righting a wrong by reversing Hal Jordan's death yet not doing the same with Katma is ludicrous and talking out of both sides of his mouth.
While reading this, I also found a little something in the comments section that raised my eyebrows:
As said before, Katma Tui's death should be reversed entirely. However, I don't expect that to happen with Blackest Night, where I'm fully expecting her to rise as one of the many zombies in the wretched story.
While we're on the subject, how about bringing back Hank Hall from Hawk & Dove as well. Many of the problems today, IMO, stemmed from his poorly written death in Armageddon back in 1991 (correction: he was first turned into the villianous Monarch, and it was a decade later that he was killed, in JSA, also written by Johns), and by bringing him back, I think that could be another key to solving a lot of the other tasteless deaths as well. For now, sadly, he's become another zombie in Blackest Night (via Titans Tower Monitor).
Since I was becoming alienated from much of DC's output at the time thanks to Identity Crisis, I couldn't have paid clear attention, though I may have realized that some GL Corps members would remain dead. Even so, to read this and discover that Katma Tui, the first female member of the Corps was not resurrected, really startled me. So of all the opportunities Geoff Johns missed when he revived those GL Corp members who'd been wronged in Zero Hour, it was Katma? Clearly, I didn't miss anything.
What if he had revived Katma or had her death retconned away? It wouldn't have counteracted the bad taste Identity Crisis left behind, though it could have provided Johns some some credit for which people could have appreciated him better. That he would throw away such a golden opportunity to right a wrong was really missing the boat.
This got me to thinking: while I do think that Jenny-Lynn Haden, daughter of Alan Scott, should be revived, and it's good to know if her awful death in 2006 drew some backlash, I agree that Katma Tui should be brought back first, probably because of how overlooked her death was, and she should not be forgotten. And, she and John Stewart should be able to reunite and repair their relations together. Shortly after her resurrection in 1992 (which made it easier to exonerate Carol Ferris of slaying her), the editors threw her out again along with so many other GLs. That's a wrong that should be righted, and for Geoff Johns to say that he's righting a wrong by reversing Hal Jordan's death yet not doing the same with Katma is ludicrous and talking out of both sides of his mouth.
While reading this, I also found a little something in the comments section that raised my eyebrows:
Gerard Jones was good about bringing in female characters, only to see them die in Emerald Twilight. Alan Moore wrote some good spotlight issues for Arisia and Katma, only to see Katma killed and Arisia turned into a sex toy in later issues. The earliest team made one of Hal's most formiddable oponents a friendly villainess with similar powers, who was also his boss, only to have her go batshit crazy and have her power attributed to an externalized "masculine side" of her personality known as the Predator. Come to think of it, even the much-maligned Marz (who was not allowed by the editors to make Lanterns, only to destroy them. Hell, he wasn't even allowed to make a brand new girlfriend after he killed the first one, he had to use a pre-existing teambook female to draw readers) created females when he had the chance, I think I've seen Kyle fight more villainesses than any other Lantern. Fatality was a fairly strong villain until Winick got hold of her and made a point of showing that her willpower wasn't a match for Kyle's.If that's so, that Marz wasn't allowed to introduce a new girlfriend for Kyle Rayner, it tells that Green Lantern was under an editorial mandate for much longer than it seems. (As of now, the only reason why it may not be is because Johns is none other than DiDio's idea of what writer is suited to the job.) And it also helps strengthen my theory that the reason why many comic series today lack a convincing supporting cast is because the writers are not allowed to come up with any new members, or storylines in which they could get mixed up with the mafia, like Betty Brant did in Spider-Man when it first began. And why Mary Jane Watson's relatives never turned up, if at all.
As said before, Katma Tui's death should be reversed entirely. However, I don't expect that to happen with Blackest Night, where I'm fully expecting her to rise as one of the many zombies in the wretched story.
While we're on the subject, how about bringing back Hank Hall from Hawk & Dove as well. Many of the problems today, IMO, stemmed from his poorly written death in Armageddon back in 1991 (correction: he was first turned into the villianous Monarch, and it was a decade later that he was killed, in JSA, also written by Johns), and by bringing him back, I think that could be another key to solving a lot of the other tasteless deaths as well. For now, sadly, he's become another zombie in Blackest Night (via Titans Tower Monitor).
Labels: dc comics, dreadful writers, golden calf of death, Green Lantern, misogyny and racism
