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about_faces May 19 2015, 00:45:12 UTC
Jessica is a bit better than Rachel Dawes, though, because at least she did survive and will evidently make an impact on the series beyond 'I'm the motivation for all the guys in this story'.

Well, she'll still presumably in the position of Batman trying to save her while also thwart her plans, but at least that's perfectly in keeping with the Batman/Two-Face relationship, just with romance thrown in. I can't think of any instances with a male hero trying to save the soul of a female villain, so that alone should make it an interesting combination of several cliche tropes.

By contrast, I'm not sure what the female Lex brings to the table beyond a novelty factor. It doesn't help that her motivation is entirely shallow and ill-conceived, as she has no reason to hate Superman without some serious mental gymnastics. Then again, we are talking about a villain whose classic motivation was "You made my hair fall out! VENGEANCE!" But I think we're a little beyond that, aren't we? I should really read the Superman: Earth One books in full to get some idea what JMS is doing, despite my intense distaste for JMS' takes on Clark and his world.

The point is, it's a thing. I wonder if the Earth One writers are aware of that, and are tapping into it, or if this is just a case of crossed wires?

I suspect crossed wires. I have to think that either JMS and/or Johns were annoyed by the eerily similar twists they employed for their Lex and Two-Face, but either there was insufficient communication or they didn't want to change their long-game plans to accommodate the other series. I'd like to ask them both what they thought about the other's twists. For all I know, maybe they were just amused in a "jinx, you owe me a Coke!" kinda way.

As for the scarring, yeah, I was wondering about how extensive those burns would be on Jessica's face. I can't imagine that the scarring would have gone deep enough to cause truly horrifying Two-Face-worthy disfiguration, but I could well be wrong. In either case, I'm sure that Gary Frank will draw her any way he wants to, regardless of realism.

If the bandages and burn area are anything to go by, I imagine only part of her face will be scarred on that side, probably giving her a bulging eye and scarred cheek. I notice that her lips are intact too. I'm actually a little annoyed that her scar won't cover half her face, so she'll still be allowed to be mostly pretty, but eh, at least it'll be an original design. We'll have to wait and see for volume three in several years.

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psychopathicus May 19 2015, 01:43:51 UTC
I would have thought that the Batman/Catwoman relationship would fall at least partially into the category of 'trying to save a villainess' soul' - even in most of her older appearances, it was emphasized that she basically had a good heart beneath the criminality, and was one of his first villains to reform for a while.

I've read that origin, and If I recall correctly, the 'bald=vengeance' is really more of a misnomer than anything else. According to Wikipedia, Lex was in the middle of an experiment when something went wrong and things started to blow up. Superman (then Superboy) rescued him, but unknowingly left the results of one of Lex's previous projects, an artificial life-form, to die in the flames - and, yes, spilled some chemicals on Lex's head that caused him to go bald. Lex, who had loved the creature like a son, blamed Superboy for its death, and thus was born a life-long enmity - it's just that the full details of all this were seldom repeated, so over the years the impression was given that the baldness was the reason he hated him, not the 'leaving his creation to die' bit.
Regardless, it does strike me that if they DID go the basic baldness route, such an origin would make much more sense for a female villain than for a male. Given how much importance is attached to a woman's appearance in modern society, I can imagine going completely bald all of a sudden would be traumatizing.

Maybe she'll be a new villain - Stripe-Face!

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about_faces May 20 2015, 00:48:58 UTC
Well, Catwoman's sane. I was thinking more along the lines of trying to reach and redeem a mentally ill villainness the way Batman does with Harvey. I guess he's maybe sorta tried it with Ivy once or twice? Maybe? But even then, he wasn't romantically interested in her.

I have to wonder what story Lex's artificial life-form was from, because I don't think that was in the original Silver Age comics. I imagine that was a retcon added to make the baldness excuse less silly.

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psychopathicus May 20 2015, 00:59:31 UTC
She is at this point, yes, but remember that originally her Catwoman persona was revealed to be another personality of sorts that took her over after she had been hit on the head in a plane crash and got amnesia. Mind you, this was retconned out not too long afterwards, but at the time Batman was honestly committed to helping her get her life back in order - it's stretching the concept a bit, perhaps, but I'd say it counts.

I think it was genuine Silver Age stuff - I remember that the artwork and writing seemed like the Silver Age, and if anything, it seems to me that modern writers have over-emphasized the ha-ha-baldness bit to make the modern version of Lex look better - like 'look, he originally fought Superman because he made him bald, fercryinoutloud - our version kicks that ones ass!' I'm going to have to look it up and see.

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psychopathicus May 20 2015, 01:05:11 UTC
OK, got it. That was from Adventure Comics #271, back in 1960, so yes, genuine Silver Age. (Also, regarding Catwoman being crazy - are we counting spin-offs here? Because if so, the Batman Returns version of her probably counts.)

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