A Tribute to Amazing Woman
A world without trans people never existed. They were always there, we just never noticed them.
Amazing Woman, formerly known as Fury
After the mega crossover even Infinite Crisis in DC Comics back in 2006, the main DC Trinity took a break for one year, and the comics company decided to follow the lives of more ordinary heroes. Among them was an ill-fated team calling themselves Infinity Inc.
While I was re-reading 52 a few weeks back, when I got my curiosity piqued and decided that I wanted to know whatever happened to Infinity Inc, in the aftermath of 52.
Among the original roster of Infinity Inc was a shadow of a character called Erik Storn, codenamed Fury. He was the violent guy of a group. Wanna be wolverine with hands that turn into claws.
In the aftermath of 52, several of the Infinity Inc roster began manifesting new powers and dealing with mental health issues. And we see Erik stumbling through figuring out his gender identity, which is manifesting as an almost separate personality, with a separate gender identity and the power to BECOME a different biological gender.
It's nowhere near perfect as representation. None of the members of Infinity Inc were cut out to be heroes in the long term. But I like it as a time capsule. A young person questioning their identity, and not having the language to express what they're feeling. They're so deep in denial that being gender-fluid is a thought that can't enter their mind.
Erik Storn was a unconfident, stuttering want-to-be everyman. Their gender-flipped side was a confident, invulnerable hero, that why she was known as Amazing Woman.
But, they just couldn't hold themselves together.
Erik Storn died before the Flashpoint. The pressure of being a hero proved too much for them. They died as part of one last heroic mission. Erik / Erika were part of a deep cover operation to prevent a war between planets. Sadly, they were executed for knowing too much.
Maybe if they had lived they would have reconciled their two halves, or fully transitions into being Erika all the time. Their story is a footnote in the DCU, but at least now, someone had read it.
