Friday, December 18, 2009

I'm Always Up For A Money-Motivated Villain

Prior to Power Girl #7, I'd never heard of the Blue Snowman, but she's my kind of villain. She had a gimmick, and she uses it to commit robberies. 

Sure, the technology at her disposal is probably worth more than what she steals*, but you have to find some way to market it, set up a system for mass-production, and that requires capital, or selling your ideas to someone with capital, and since this is comics we're talking about, whatever businessperson Blue Snowman tried to make a deal with would undoubtedly tangle her in contractual mumbo-jumbo, and ultimately hoard all profits for themselves. At which point she'd swear vengeance, and get beaten up by some costumed do-gooder before she could carry out her revenge. Better to just skip all that and go straight to jewelry store heists. 

Plus, if she's successful, it probably brings a greater sense of accomplishment than hammering out some deal with International Cooling Experimental, Limited. But you know me, I'm a sucker for the old-school villains that use their weird abilities for things other than revenge schemes on the hero, or random mass slaughter. It's what I like about The Blank, and it was nice to see there was at least one super-criminal left at DC that had the same goals. I'm sure there are others out there (I guess most of the Rogues would fit), but they seem badly outnumbered by the other types.  

* Question: Do you think it a good idea for Palmiotti and Gray to have Power Girl and Dr. Mid-Nite actually mention that impracticality? Blue Snowman was being used as a joke villain, so discussing the absurdity of her strategy fits, but I'm not big on pointing out those sort of holes in superhero world logic, since it draws me out of the fictional world in question. I udnerstand that yeah, she'd probably make much more by patenting her ideas than by stealing in our world, but I'm willing to set that aside for the characters' world.

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