As far as I can tell, no one else has posted this particular tidbit on this forum yet. So I'll spread the word.
DC has posted an "updated" solicit for "Catwoman #71" on its site at http://www.dccomics.com/comics/?cm=7973
The text of the plot summary says:
Selina Kyle has to say goodbye to the most important person in her life! And when all that was caring in Selina is gone, Catwoman will be at her most unexpected, her most unpredictable and her most dangerous!
The strong implication appears to be that Baby Helena is about to vanish from Selina's life . . . somehow.
Over on DC's own boards an unhappy fan has posted his complaints about this. He asked why it's evidently "so difficult" to keep writing about infant (or small child) characters, given that others have been created and then removed from continuity or "hastily aged" or whatever -- in comic books, TV shows, etc.
In response to his question, I said:
*****
I don't think "so difficult" is exactly the right way to put it. I think the biggest problems come when we're dealing the family trees of corporate-owned superhero characters who have been written by dozens of people in the past and will be written by dozens more in the future. Writer A may think it's a brilliant and touching idea idea to let a superhero have a baby boy or girl to start raising from the cradle. But later on, Writer B will take over, and Writer B will mutter, "What's this junk about spending lots of time raising a baby? That just slows down the plot! It's not the type of story about Catwoman (or the Scarlet Witch, or Cyclops, or Donna Troy, or Aquaman, or whomever) that I always dreamed of writing when I was just another fanboy!"
So Writer B finds a way to "fix" the "awkward problem" of the child's existence so that there won't be any further need to write about the kid in the future! If Writer B didn't do it now, Writer C would do it next year, or Writer D would do it the year after that, or Writer E would do it even later . . . you get the idea!
A few years ago I began a lengthy study of the inherent problems of "Superhero Reproduction" under such circumstances. I wrote a series of ten essays on different aspects of the subject, and someday I intend to write at least two or three more to finish up my "series." The final essay of the series will be an exhaustive examination of the biography of Franklin Richards (child of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman), with special attention on all the different tricks various writers have tried to use on one Fantastic Four title or another to get "that annoying little kid" (as they seem to regard him) somehow out of sight as much as possible during their runs. (Granted, some writers have also been perfectly willing to let him participate in their stories.)
Here's a link to the first and second installments of my "Superhero Reproduction" series, archived on my own website. (So are the other 8 installments if you get interested enough to look for them!
)
Superhero Reproduction (Part 1): "We Can't Follow the Normal Timetable!"
Superhero Reproduction (Part 2): Pregnancy Problems
A bit later in his initial post, the guy who started that thread speculated that Helena is probably going to end up being raised by another family (presumably far away from Gotham), and wondered why DC even bothered having Selina get pregnant if they were just going to write the baby out of the Catwoman series a bit later.
My attitude was very different from his. I said:
*****
I always took it for granted that the whole point of getting her pregnant was to have the "shock value" of letting her give birth as the OYL period started up last year, and also to have the "running mystery" for several months of just who the heck the biological father was! Those goals have long since been achieved!
I also took it for granted all this time that Baby Helena would definitely disappear from the ongoing Catwoman title (even if she theoretically was still alive, out there somewhere) within a few years of her birth. After all, now that the "shock value" has come and gone, and now that the "mystery" of her conception has long since been achieved, DC probably sees no further use for her!
So I'm not the least bit surprised by the solicit you [the guy on the DC boards] quoted. I've just been waiting for that other shoe to drop for almost a year and a half now!
DC has posted an "updated" solicit for "Catwoman #71" on its site at http://www.dccomics.com/comics/?cm=7973
The text of the plot summary says:
Selina Kyle has to say goodbye to the most important person in her life! And when all that was caring in Selina is gone, Catwoman will be at her most unexpected, her most unpredictable and her most dangerous!
The strong implication appears to be that Baby Helena is about to vanish from Selina's life . . . somehow.
Over on DC's own boards an unhappy fan has posted his complaints about this. He asked why it's evidently "so difficult" to keep writing about infant (or small child) characters, given that others have been created and then removed from continuity or "hastily aged" or whatever -- in comic books, TV shows, etc.
In response to his question, I said:
*****
I don't think "so difficult" is exactly the right way to put it. I think the biggest problems come when we're dealing the family trees of corporate-owned superhero characters who have been written by dozens of people in the past and will be written by dozens more in the future. Writer A may think it's a brilliant and touching idea idea to let a superhero have a baby boy or girl to start raising from the cradle. But later on, Writer B will take over, and Writer B will mutter, "What's this junk about spending lots of time raising a baby? That just slows down the plot! It's not the type of story about Catwoman (or the Scarlet Witch, or Cyclops, or Donna Troy, or Aquaman, or whomever) that I always dreamed of writing when I was just another fanboy!"
So Writer B finds a way to "fix" the "awkward problem" of the child's existence so that there won't be any further need to write about the kid in the future! If Writer B didn't do it now, Writer C would do it next year, or Writer D would do it the year after that, or Writer E would do it even later . . . you get the idea!
A few years ago I began a lengthy study of the inherent problems of "Superhero Reproduction" under such circumstances. I wrote a series of ten essays on different aspects of the subject, and someday I intend to write at least two or three more to finish up my "series." The final essay of the series will be an exhaustive examination of the biography of Franklin Richards (child of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman), with special attention on all the different tricks various writers have tried to use on one Fantastic Four title or another to get "that annoying little kid" (as they seem to regard him) somehow out of sight as much as possible during their runs. (Granted, some writers have also been perfectly willing to let him participate in their stories.)
Here's a link to the first and second installments of my "Superhero Reproduction" series, archived on my own website. (So are the other 8 installments if you get interested enough to look for them!
) Superhero Reproduction (Part 1): "We Can't Follow the Normal Timetable!"
Superhero Reproduction (Part 2): Pregnancy Problems
A bit later in his initial post, the guy who started that thread speculated that Helena is probably going to end up being raised by another family (presumably far away from Gotham), and wondered why DC even bothered having Selina get pregnant if they were just going to write the baby out of the Catwoman series a bit later.
My attitude was very different from his. I said:
*****
I always took it for granted that the whole point of getting her pregnant was to have the "shock value" of letting her give birth as the OYL period started up last year, and also to have the "running mystery" for several months of just who the heck the biological father was! Those goals have long since been achieved!
I also took it for granted all this time that Baby Helena would definitely disappear from the ongoing Catwoman title (even if she theoretically was still alive, out there somewhere) within a few years of her birth. After all, now that the "shock value" has come and gone, and now that the "mystery" of her conception has long since been achieved, DC probably sees no further use for her!
So I'm not the least bit surprised by the solicit you [the guy on the DC boards] quoted. I've just been waiting for that other shoe to drop for almost a year and a half now!
