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Thinking about family patterns, influence, and dynamics in comics. Spurred in part by this post at Ragnell's Written World, on Motherhood in Comics. I've been reading the Cassandra Cain Batgirl series in trades recently, mostly because I'm in love with Damion Scott's artwork after his Solo, and I'm struck by the use of the obvious shadow of pain cast by Cassie's father, the assassin David Cain, over her life; and more importantly the obvious absence/presence of her mother, Lady Shiva even before she connects the dots. This got me thinking about a bunch of different characters and their familial relationships...also, parse this with the Waynes in Batman Begins and how Thomas Wayne is the All-Father while Bruce doesn't seem to have noticed his mother actually doing anything or having any kind of an effect on him in any way...
James Robinson's Starman's a pretty obvious legacy series with a focus on father-son relationships and to a smaller degree brother-brother relationships. Well, father-child; Jack's relationship with Ted Knight is often played against Jack's nemesis, Nash, and her relationship with the Golden Age Mist. Jack resists the Starman legacy in a lot of ways; he's trying to be his own man, even as he accepts the responsibilities of the cosmic rod (shock! Phallic representation of Male Legacy) while Nash constantly vies for her father's acceptance and approval. Ted and Jack have an uneasy relationship as well, but it's mostly just that don't see eye-to-eye on the what the legacy is supposed to mean and they have Jack's brother, David, hanging over them - he died because of the Starman colours and I think that greatly influences how they react to each other; Jack doesn't take the responsibility seriously enough for Ted but Ted hasn't devoted his science to what he "should" be doing with it, preferring to make cosmic weapons and toys and play at childhood - something that's always bothered Jack, apparently. Doris Knight, the Mother Figure, is present mostly in absentia; she's represented at various points by Doris Lee, who shared her name and was Ted's first love, and she is a shadow when Jack learns that his father had an affair with the first Black Canary. I think Dian Belmont in some ways stands in for her, and Jack's idolization of Dian for reasons of artistic prowess rather than martial skill suggests something. Something. Haven't quite parsed that out. It's also important that Jack, during a time travel adventure, inadvertently helps himself be born by forcing his father to go to the party that he would end up meeting Jack's mother at. Nash, meanwhile, is constantly betrayed by her father, treated like she will never amount to anything, and when she becomes a mother to Jack's child and unites the legacies this seems a final nail in the coffin, in some ways.
Brubaker and Cam's Catwoman has something going on with sisters, either blood (Selina and Maggie) or street (Holly and Selina; Selina and Sylvia). Selina never strikes me as a mother figure but she always operates as a big sister to those around her, especially to Holly - Selina looks out for Holly but never babies her. The relationship between Selina and Maggie is fraught with incident and discomfort, they haven't seen each other in years but they're drawn back into each other's gravity to try and rekindle their sibling sense, much as Maggie is punished for it by the Black Mask. I don't remember there being a lot of emphasis on the Kyles, senior, maybe one panel of the dad, but that was it. Selina and Sylvia were given quite a lot of development as well, especially as they were "sisters" who fell out and never rekindle properly, never reclaim their connection. But they know each other, are sisters enough, to hurt each other and exact revenge.
Batgirl - based on what I've seen so far - is caught in a tension between Shiva and Cain, and Shiva's presence in the series is this overwhelming one; Cassandra needs to be better than her mother, replace her in a very real way, or else she dies. Cain maintains a distance from his daughter and is more present through her inability to communicate. Barbara and Bruce exist as these replacement parents who never quite understand how to get through to her because of course they've got as many communication problems as her real ones, although they get around them far more. I need to reread the trades so I can form some better rounded thoughts on Batgirl, though, but does anyone have thoughts on family in comics, the idea of it and the presence of daddy issues, oedipal complexes, parents-being-replaced and kids not proving worthy? Fire some off. |
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