Kat Kan’s Favorite Comics Characters
CHARACTER: Batgirl, Oracle
SECRET IDENTITY: Barbara Gordon
APPEARS IN: Batgirl, Birds of Prey, and other comics from DC Comics, by various authors and artists
WHY SHE’S A FAVORITE: I started reading comics when I was very young (about five years old), and "graduated" to superhero comics in second grade. By the time I was eleven, I read mostly Green Lantern and Hawkman, along with the occasional Tarzan comic. It was also around that time of my life when Batman became a TV series, and I watched the show every week, the two nights it was on each week. I hadn’t been reading the Batman comics much, but I loved the show, and one of my favorite characters was Batgirl, as played by Yvonne Craig. I thought it was cool she was a librarian, and she could also really kick bad-guy butt. Over the years, I read some comics featuring Barbara Gordon as Batgirl; she was the one female superhero I loved and admired, as much for her civilian identity as a librarian as for her crime-fighting superhero identity. She’s one of several reasons I ended up becoming a librarian myself. When Barbara Gordon became Oracle after Joker’s attack made her a paraplegic, I admired her for not giving up, and for using her sharp mind and amazing computer skills. I’m kind of torn about her becoming Batgirl again in September, when DC Comics rolls out its new DC Universe, but I’ll read to see how Gail Simone (a real-life hero, a woman who writes superhero comics) handles one of my favorite characters.
CHARACTER: Blue Beetle
SECRET IDENTITY: Jaime Reyes
APPEARS IN: Blue Beetle, Teen Titans, and other comics from DC Comics, by various authors
WHY HE’S A FAVORITE: Jaime Reyes is a Mexican-American teenager, a good kid with above average but not super-genius grades in high school, who loves and respects his parents and affectionately fights with his kid sister. He becomes the Blue Beetle by accident, when an alien A.I. weapon fuses itself to his spine and gives him superpowers. I love the fact Jaime doesn’t hide what he has become from his parents, and I love his family, especially his mother who doesn’t shy away from scolding other superheroes when she thinks they’re taking advantage of her boy. When he’s not encased in the alien armor and fighting super villains and evil aliens, he’s just a typical teenager. The Blue Beetle series started in 2006 and ran for 36 issues prominently featured Jaime’s family and friends. He’s coming back in September, in a new series written by Tony Bedard, and my teenage son and I are both looking forward to it.
CHARACTER: Daikichi Kawachi
APPEARS IN: Bunny Drop by Yumi Unita
WHY HE’S A FAVORITE: Daikichi is a thirty-year-old bachelor, with a face he describes as one women and children don’t like. When he goes home for his grandfather’s funeral, he discovers a six-year-old girl who is his grandfather’s "love child." When no one else in the family wants to take care of Rin, Daikichi impulsively says he’ll do it. And all of a sudden, the bachelor who thinks of women and children as his natural enemies must become a father to a little girl. I love the way he shoulders his new responsibilities as a single parent with great care, sacrificing his chances for quick advancement at his company for Rin’s sake. Unita covers all the little domestic details of this unique family with quiet, everyday humor.