DCnU should have had more genderswaps

The newly re-titled JUSTICE LEAGUE UNITED (formerly "Justice League of Canada") had a partial roster announced on USA Today and on Jeff Lemire's blog that—despite only depicting the new Adam Strange on the cover art—listed Alanna Strange as a member as well.

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The roster of the new Justice League team will be a collection of some of my favourite DC characters: ANIMAL MAN, GREEN ARROW, STARGIRL, MARTIAN MANHUNTER, ADAM STRANGE, SUPERGIRL, ALANNA STRANGE and HAWKMAN.

First, I love the idea of a "justice league cosmic", so that's great. But even more-so I'm happy to see that they took a character like Alanna who was traditionally a princess/damsel for Adam and put her on equal footing with him. By making her an Earth native instead of a Rann native, they've avoided a whole slew of unfortunate implications and stale character roles for women. She's no longer the Dejah Thoris, a native "princess" who—traditional meek damsel version or modern action girl version—exists mainly to fall in love with the male lead. Now she's a space Indiana Jones all on her own. That's better.

I like this so much that it makes me wonder, do you still need Adam Strange? Or at least, do you need him to be in the active hero spot? Why not make him fully a supporting character and her be the hero? This type of swap—switching the gender counterparts of traditionally male heroes as the premier mantle holder—on a broader scale would go a long way toward evening up the gender divide in the DC roster without disrespecting the legacy of the original characters. This is something I would have liked to have seen the new 52 do on a broader scale.

Potential Swaps

There are a number of fantastic female counterpart characters for some of the lesser known characters that would do wonderful in the primary slot for their mantle. (Better-known too but I wouldn't suggest Supergirl/Power Girl instead of Superman or Batwoman/Batgirl instead of Batman. That'd be crazy.) The all-female digital title Ame-Comi Girls did a great job of showcasing this, but even outside of the ones they selected for that there are a number of good candidates for swapping support or legacy characters into the primary role for a mantle.

My top mantles where I would've liked them to have considered swapping the female counterpart as the lead:

• Hawkwoman: My most wanted is definitely Hawkwoman/Hawkgirl instead of Hawkman. I've never been much of a Hawkman fan and the messy continuity just didn't seem to have much to offer. The way they handled it in the Justice League/Unlimited cartoons with Shayera Hol, however, was brilliant and I think they should have made that the definitive version/origin of the mantle. That portrayal proves they can reverse the "origin" character and still introduce the male version later.
• Natasha Irons: DC has done everything they could to make Steel the new thing but it has never stuck. And then they bought Milestone and inherited Hardware and suddenly they had a much better Steel than Steel. But Natasha Irons is pretty cool. There was that time she led Lex Luthor's pseudo-evil superteam and that was interesting. Make her the head Steel instead.
• Robin (Stephanie Brown or Carrie Kelly): Rebooting with all four male Robins and only one Batgirl was disappointing. One obvious way they could have gotten around that would be to drop one of the Robins for Stephanie Brown or Carrie Kelly. Kelly could've make a good stand-in for Jason Todd, Brown for Tim Drake. The sad truth is that for all the storylines they've done in the central Batmantitles, Dick and Damian are the only necessary ones. Jason and Tim don't matter outside their team books.
• Green Lantern (Jade): Similar to the Robins, having five different male, American-born Green Lanterns (six if you count Alan Scott) was just eh. It would've been far more interesting to drop or more of the GL's for Jade, or introduce the Chinese version of Jade from Ame-Comi Girls (Jade Yifei) instead of Simon Baz.
• Alanna Strange: I'm glad they're making her into the swashbuckler, but now I don't see the point of Adam. I do see the point of a married couple of superheroes, but you don't need them to share a mantle to do that trope.
• Big Barda: Similar to the Stranges, I get the appeal of a romantically paired couple of heroes, but you don't need Mister Miracle to lead the duo (although with them you could argue he never did). Also, if they drop Scott Free as the primary hero that opens up the Mr. Miracle mantle for other legacy heroes like Shilo Norman.
• Question (Renee Montoya): Hey, I love Vic Sage, but the new52 "trinity of sin" version is an affront to decency, and not because of the alleged sinning. Continuing the Renee Montoya legacy version that was introduced in the excellent 52series would've been far more entertaining, especially with Montoya's past romantic entanglements with Batwoman.
• Vixen: Getting into the options I'm more torn on, there's no reason Vixen wouldn't work for the plot of the new 52 Animal Man over Buddy Baker, except for the fact that she's not married and with a family. But they could have given her one. Well, It was certainly an option to make her the avatar of the Red.
• Miss Martian: I know there are a lot of Martian Manhunter fans out there, but he's always been the odd man out on the Justice League—being more powerful and more alien than the team's flagship super-alien character is his primary sin—and Miss Martian has a little more to offer narratively, covering a few unique archetypes among the founding members (e.g., teen hero, naive rookie, comes from an "evil" race of aliens).
• Mera: Aquamanhas been a huge success story for the new52 so I would hesitate to change that, and Mera has been great in that book anyway, but the option shouldn't be overlooked to put her in the lead spot. I think it would be interesting to make her the JLA member and/or ruler of Atlantis instead of Arthur. I suggested as much for any pending JLA film adaptation.
• Jesse Quick: If people don't like the idea of Wally West as the founding Flash, they'd really be up in arms over Jesse Quick, but I maintain it's a reasonable option. The Flash isn't one of the big three and Jesse was a great character in the JSA stuff. It could work. And really, Barry only needs to exist long enough to create the speed force. Somebody else could actually be the founding Flash.

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One other instance where they seemed to actually be going this route is with "Atomica", who seemed reminiscent of Avril Palmer from Ame-Comi Girls while still giving Ray Palmer a new52 role with S.H.A.D.E. Unfortunately I'm not sure she counts because of recent revelations.

What's everybody think? Would you have liked to see more of the female counterparts take the lead for their mantles in the new52? Are there any other swaps you would've preferred that I didn't list? Let me know.

I agree with Hawkwoman, female atom, Vixen, And Steel swapping as well as one of the GL's. Never Martian Manhunter. Never , never,never, never, never. Same with Tim Drake, he's just about the only Robin who can consistently hold my interest. I wouldn't mind seeing Mera on the league or in her own book but I wouldn't want Arthur to be erased.

Swap out Cyborg for Vixen on the Justice League and I'll be a happy camper.

That team would be perfect with Raven

Are you saying you want an all female league or just swapping certain/random characters? I definitely like this idea, it's one of the reasons I really enjoyed James Robinson's "2nd Gen" JLA team before the reboot. It had Dick Grayson as Batman but also had swapped GL for Jade, Superman for Supergirl, and Flash for Jesse Quick. It was a great team.

that isn't what genderswap means

Tim's a tough call for me. He's simultaneously my favorite Robin and the one that's least crucial to the Batman/Robin lore overall. Typical middle child I suppose.

Vixen has a much bigger following than the character gets credit for.

Just not new52 Raven. Please no.

I think that the DCnU would have benefited from taking some number of the female gender-counterparts—be they love interests (e.g., Alanna Strange), side-kicks (e.g., Miss Martian), legacy characters (e.g., Stephanie Brown), or just similar archetypes (e.g., Vixen)—and thrusting them the forefront as the lead character for those mantles. I'm not saying every character should have that done, although that worked fine in Ame-Comi Girls, just that it would have been a good way to even up the gender balance across the line and maybe bring in fans from other eras of the comics than just the classic lineup.

Too late, can't edit the title. Should have been "Gender-Swap" there. I used more accurate verbiage in the post but I always struggle coming up with an accurate-yet-brief title for a post right before hitting submit.

EDIT: Oh-ho! You CAN edit titles! Why didn't I realize that? Could you do that in the old CV? Anyway, changed it to the laborious-but-more-accurate "female counterpart swaps".

EDIT 2: And if you were disappointed by the content, I should say that I'm not necessarily against straight-up genderswaps either if they'd gone that route, as they did for some characters in Ame-Comi Girls that didn't have established female counterparts (e.g., Sinestra, Metra).

EDIT 3: Oh of all the...okay so I can change the title on my blog page but on the forums it's stuck. Ah well.

Hawkwoman/Hawkgirl- no. The last Hawkman title before New 52 was doing excellent until they decided to switch Hawkgirl to the lead role. It killed the title.

Natasha Irons- Anyone would be better than Steel, if they just give them a better looking suit of armor. A less lackluster name would be okay too.

Robin- As much as I am a fan of Dick Grayson, Tim Drake is the character that made Robin popular enough to carry his own title. Stephanie Brown as Batgirl was an interesting move, but she apparently couldn't carry the title, so I don't see any reason to make her Robin. Carrie Kelly is a footnote at best.

Jade, Arisia, Katma Tui, whatever... a GL is a GL is a GL.

Alanna Strange is a cool twist, but they're reinventing her characterization to make her work. I'm never really a fan of that, but that's what the New 52 has been all about. No reason not to do it with her. It does make Adam redundant though.

Big Barda and Mr. Miracle are two completely different characters. There is no switching them. They're a couple, but they work independent of each other also.

Question- I prefer Vic Sage, but Renee Montoya was a workable replacement. My only gripe with her as Question is that she was a great cop character. I get tired of cop characters becoming vigilantes. The Trinity of Sin version is an awful change for the character.

Vixen- I could go for that. I liked the way she interacted with the animal power better anyway. However, with the Tantu Totem being the original source for her power, I've always thought it more logical that she be connected to Shazam.

Miss Martian- Sure, she could fill a bunch of trope slots, but Martian Manhunter is the wizened old man of the JLA. He has to stay.

Mera- I've never found her interesting. And as you've noted, Aquaman has been a success for New 52.

Jesse Quick- They've muddled with the Flashes so much, sure, why not Jesse Quick?

I think one to add is Mary Marvel in place of Captain Marvel. My actual preference is Captain Marvel Jr., because I like his costume better, but if we're talking females that could take the lead, there's no reason Mary couldn't be in the top slot for the Marvel family. The Black Adam coloring on her costume was cool too.

Honestly wouldn't know because I wasn't reading it. The New 52 Hawkman was trash though. Anything would be better than that.

Fair. She's been called "Starlight" and "Vaporlock" before but those are both awful.

Well, Stephanie was a major figure in the Tim Drake Robin title, was briefly Robin herself, and had a pretty decent following as Batgirl, so it made sense to me. Carrie Kelly was Robin in Ame-Comi Girls and did fine although of course that version was wildly different from the future version one.

Again, I absolutely agree that Tim is the best Robin, but he's not "necessary" so to say for the stories the new52 is telling. It's all Dick and Damian (or was, /singletear). I just think it was not cool to cut all the Batgirls and keep all the Robins, but of course my preferred solution was not to cut anyone.

Yep. Only listed Jade cause she's human but it could have been Carol Ferris and I'd have been cool with it.

I think people underestimate how much the classics were "reinvented" before we got what we're familiar with today. No reason not to tweak an old model, and as you say, it's what the revamp is supposed to be for.

Big Bard disagrees.

No seriously, they get paired up a lot as a romantic duo of heroes.

I would love a resurgent GCPD book with her and Gordon as the leads. Or hell, just feature her more in Batwoman.

I hadn't considered that. That's actually really interesting. You'd think they'd lean on that connection a little more.

I dunno. I'm a big fan of Cyborg in his place on the JLA. Of course they haven't done enough with him to justify that since.

Yeah, of all the potential changes I think that's the one I'd least want to see in the New 52.

Lol, yeah, that was my thinking.

Great suggestion. I actually really enjoyed one of the semi-recent cartoony, youthful take on Billy and Mary Marvel. I can't remember the name of that volume now though.

Wait, it was Billy Batson and the Magic of SHAZAM!

That featured a very kid-sister style Mary Marvel, but there's no reason they couldn't have put her in Billy's role for the new 52. They already totally reinvented Billy's personality into some sort of Artful Dodger-type so why not?

What? Thought Renee had replaced Vic as the question, I love that comic and while it was sad when he died and brought back and killed again I don't want him rebooted... I dread to even look to see if he has a new comic... :(

On a happier note Mary Marvel as Shazam would be the biggest rip off ever, she would be nearly identical to Marvels Captain Marvel... Lol

Edit: before the comments come, I get the irony that she was invented by Fawcett comics a good 15 years or so before Ms Marvel... But my comet stands...

How about we keep all the guys and get rid of all the girls.

The new Question is listed as Vic Sage on CV, but I'm not sure that's actually been confirmed in the new52 yet. He's like Phantom Stranger now, or something? It's awful.

That would be an amusing bit of coattail riding. But I love Carol so I wouldn't mind so much.

Sounds like a perfectly reasonable suggestion with no possible downside.

Meh....I really don't like many of these ideas.......

I mean,some are good,like the Hawkwoman one,but others......I mean,you can understand if I'm iffy on those

Sorry. Martian Manhunter and Vic Sage are far better than their female counterparts. But I wouldn't mind Vixen getting more spotlight.

What good would that do?

I think Hawkwoman is the most obvious swap, yeah. Just trying to be comprehensive with most of the others.

I only really like MM in New Frontier.

@fodigg: Stormwatch was meant to be the "cosmic Justice League" originally, but anyway.

I'd rather they use female characters that stand on their own rather than counterparts of male characters.

Out of the ones you mentioned:

I think Hawkgirl is more popular than Hawkman with mainstream audiences anyway due to cartoons and Injustice.

I also think Mera is equal to Aquaman, similar to Wasp and Ant Man, they can exist well both together and separate.

I realize that but it never worked for me because the whole "secret organization" thing kept taking the focus and then suddenly they'd be in space and it was just odd to me.

Absolutely yes they should do that, but these two efforts aren't mutually exclusive. I just think the new52 was a missed opportunity to diversify the lineup as far as both demographics (e.g., gender, race, nationality) and fan-bases (e.g., fans of different teams, eras).

/agree with both points.

I realize it's odd to be arguing Mera could be taking the spotlight in the new52 when the new52 Aquaman book (and Flashpointas well) was a big reason why I like the character now. She's in a good place.

No point in replacing Mr. Miracle with Big barda they work better as a team nor are they the same character and Shilo Norman is not a good replacement in my eyes. Also I don't like switchings genders people for no reason, make a new character make one.

Shilo was cool in Seven Soldiers of Victory I thought.

While I like new characters, the new52 was supposed to "contract" the DCU and make it easier to understand, so less characters to keep track of was one of the explicit goals at the outset. In this context, I think this sort of tactic would have been absolutely warranted. As in the Justice League cartoons with the Hawkpeople, the male characters could have been reintroduced in later waves (as we're starting to see with reintroduction of characters like Wally West and Stephanie Brown).

Why would changing the genders of characters make it easier to understand? While I personally prefer Hawkman I won't argue that point, but most of your other gender swaps would do more harm then good.

You don't even need to swap Cyborg out..just add Vixen, she can take Hal's spot, cause I don't see him comin' back any time soon.

I honestly was a bit disappointed when it was revealed that the female Atom in Justice League was really the traitor Atomica. I actually liked her character and was hoping to see her develop on the team.

@war_killer: I haven't read any of her appearances but I was disappointed too.

No, no, I'm not saying it would. I'm saying that there was already an impetus placed upon the editing staff to reduce the total characters at the outset, so there was less "character slots" to go around. (Except for the Robins and Green Lanterns, who seemed to be immune to this.) So it wouldn't have been possible to add new female characters to the mix unless you're really willing to slash major known properties, and remember they were already taking big chances on lesser-known female characters like Voodoo and that Gemworld girl whose name I can never spell. But that's not why I want more even gender representation. I want that generally. It was just a context where switching who wears certain mantles would've been easier to manage than introducing new characters.

I'm not sure I'd say most of them would do harm. I only really figure the Flash, Aquaman, and MM spots would be really contentious.

I think people would be a little more up in arms if there was no GL as a founding member though.

Yeah, I was actually diggin it because I like the Avril Palmer character and thought that's who it was. Then I saw it was somebody new, then I was bummed because it's like "really? she's actually just some axe-crazy chick?" We have enough of those.

I usually hate things like gender swaps but your ideas were actually good. But with the robin thing, I wish they would make Tim and Jason more important, and find other ways to use Carrie and steph.

Oh, is he talking about the JL film? I thought he was talking about the comic title.

Yeah, I was hoping they would develop her character more and maybe tie her origins to Ray Palmer or something...but I guess not now. v__v

Well, ideally yeah I would've liked to see them all retained. I miss Cass.

Oh no I just meant, if people were mad over Vic taking MM's spot, imagine the uproar for no founding GL in the new52.

I suppose there's always a chance of seeing the version from earth-1 or whatever the core line is called.

@fodigg: Well steph is going to be in batman eternal which is a new batman title so that's good. I never found Cassie all that great. She interested me at first but grewbold quickly. I see why people love her but she's my least favorite batgirl. I do miss the original huntress though

@the_stegman: I was talking mainly about the comic since Cyborg has done nothing to prove his worth as a founder other than being the team bus. But hey, it could work for the movie as well as long as it prevents Vic from being a founder.

Right now, and with how Wolfman is writing her; I'd much rather have her on JLD where she and Constantine can try and out-manipulate each other.

Oh man, Cass was by far my favorite Batgirl. She had a great run in her solo book and the character really grew a lot. It was awesome seeing her develop from Oracles street-urchin sidekick to the premier martial artist in the DCU.

However, Steph was featured heavily in that run as in Tim's and was a good part of it. Strange to think how she's bounced around the Bat-family a lot and developed friendships with everyone. She was a big part of the glue that connected the headliners before she ever got her own title. I especially liked her interactions with Damian.

Do you dislike Vic as a founder generally or simply because they've bungled his appearances since the reboot? (Which they definitely have.)

That'd be an interesting conflict. I also wouldn't have minded seeing her pop up in Animal Man when they were featuring Sebastian Blood.

@fodigg:

I used to be support Vic as a founder but slowly became opposed to it since Geoff Johns can never seem to do anything interesting with him. This might change with Justice League 28, but then again part of me thinks that he'll probably just give all the spotlight to the Metal Men. At this point, it's become obvious to me that Cyborg is on the league just so DC can say "Look everybody we have a black guy on the team! Aren't we diverse?" and nothing more.

That and I still think Cyborg is a lot better as a Titan, so go figure.

Depressingly well-stated. I'm in full agreement. I think it was a doomed effort to start because they didn't launch with a Cyborg ongoing. What does being a founding JL member really mean if not that? Much as I loved, for example, the new52 Batwing book with Zavimbe, or any number of other new-ish solo titles (e.g., Voodoo, Gemworld, Mr. Terrific), they should have launched with a solo title for Cyborg.

I dunno, I mostly read him when the titans were already kinda grown up so I see him as a mentor for the second wave (i.e., Young Justice) characters as much as anything else, so I like him in the JL. I just want them to do something with him!