Platinum Age Comics

Selina Kyle opens up an “acquisitions firm” in Gotham’s East End.

“Bradley, Robinson, & Kyle Acquisitions”: Selina Kyle, Holly Robinson, Kitrina Falcone, and Slam Bradley.

They are “not thieves or P.I.s; [they] just procure whatever needs procuring.” The series itself is all about Selina regaining everything she’s ever lost: edge, finesse, fun, sexuality, love, family, power, and, ultimately, freedom. Morally ambiguous agency, globetrotting adventures; Selina’s relationships with The Crow and The Blonde; her and Kitrina’s shared Falcone heritage; reunions with her sister, Maggie, and her daughter, Helena; Selina’s taking control of and uniting the Three Families in Italy; the establishment of an international thieves guild; and her eventual marriage to The Blonde.

(It will be revealed that the private school Dick got Kitrina into was actually St. Hadrian’s Finishing School for Girls. Naturally, she leaves following Batman and Batgirl’s infiltration. Never accepted—and intent to be an outsider—Kitrina was never brought into the Leviathan program but picked up a thing or two, giving her a proper martial arts foundation.) 

The second season would feature Selina as a virtual queen, ruling the Italian underworld in the most self-serving way possible. When her scheme stands fully revealed, she leaves The Blonde with divorce papers, moving her cat agency/thieves guild to The Crow’s country, Tropidor. She assists him in the final stages of his political coo in exchange for asylum.

Eventually, The Blonde launches an all out attack against Selina’s people. Slam is gravely injured. The Blond takes Helena, accusing Selina of having taken his daughter away. Selina and her surviving cat girls go on the attack, taking the fight to Italy. Kill Bill-style, they decimate the entire Italian Mafia and it’s top lieutenants to get to The Blond. In the end Selina decides not to kill him but Kitrina does. After this Selina decides to return to Gotham with Slam and Holly. Kitrina and the Italian Catwoman stay behind, assuming control of the mafia for themselves.

–———-

- Catwoman (Selina Kyle)
- Kilkenny Cat (Holly Robinson)
- Catling (Kitrina Falcone)
- Topcat (Slam Bradley)

- Calicat (Orabella Palladino)

- The Blonde
- Louisa Falcone

- Magpie (Leticia Vasco)
- The Crow (Vincente Barbosa)

Between Winick’s “Under the Hood” and its film adaptation, Grant Morrison’s “Revenge of the Red Hood” storyline in Batman and Robin, and Winick’s “Lost Days” mini-series, a Red Hood series has been a long time coming. Jason is an extremely compelling character, he has a sizeable fan base, and he’s a badass anti-hero with twin red pistols, just waiting to take back the anti-hero niche in market (he’s Daredevil, the Punisher, Wolverine, Daken, and Venom rolled up into one guy who was trained by the goddamned BATMAN).

When DC came out with The New 52, Red Hood should have been a title selling at least 90k. Instead, we get Red Hood and the Outlaws, debuting at a respectable 65k but now down to 39k. Instead of a book bordering on Batman-meets-Boondock Saints, we got a book so contrary to the highlights of Jason’s character—ancient magic zombie sensei, say what?—that it really feels like it could have been about…anyone. It’s not bad—39,000 people might even say it’s good—but that doesn’t change the fact that it should have been great. It should and could have been a breakout hit: the birth of a new franchise in its own right.

My intent is not to discredit the current creative team but to suggest a more financially profitable and hagiologically rewarding alternative.

First and foremost, Jason is a redhead. Bruce is WASPy, Grayson is Romani, and Tim is also pretty WASPy, and it all adds up to every Robin having black hair. Jason having red/blonde hair works perfectly to signal him as something slightly apart (the red headed step-child) and the fact that he used to dye it black to look more like Grayson just works so well with his character and his relationship with Bruce that I hate to see it forgotten. Then there’s the matter of his being the Red Hood and all, so his red hair works there, as well—almost like a predetermination of his character arc. The red also works well with the fact that the Joker, his pater mortis, beat his brains out—and the fact that only Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, another redhead, received equally harsh treatment. The Joker hates redheads?

Also, Todd is an Irish surname; so let’s take advantage of that by making Jason not just kind of Irish but extremely Irish: his father was first generation Irish-American and most of his extended family is still located in Ireland. This way, he has a place to build something for himself outside of Gotham while retaining a sense of personal history—for example, his ancestor, “The Flying Todd”, a Robin Hood-esque who mounted a private war against corrupt landlords during the Great Famine.

Jason could never work in Gotham, not with Batman around, and for him to work outside of Gotham it would have to be somewhere low key. Ireland is a good starting point and home base, but his adventures will take him global.

As far as his mission statement is concerned, Jason will have taken the next natural step in his development. Jason, the child soldier raised from the dead, will shift his concerns from the egotistical (proving his methods to the Bat-Family) to the universal (allowing his methods to speak for themselves). No longer a spirit of his own vengeance, he will embrace his role as a protector of the world’s innocents, staining his hands with blood so they won’t have to.

Batman doesn’t kill because he values life too much. The Red Hood does kill because he values innocence even more. The bigger sacrifice, in Jason’s mind, is to kill and live with the burden. The Red Hood is the result of Batman’s own selfish morality—had Bruce been willing to get his hands dirty, Jason never would’ve needed to. But the mark requires its Cain, and since Bruce wouldn’t carry the burden, it was passed down the line to Jason. Jason embraces the sin-stained mantle of the Red Hood. He’s happy to consider himself Life’s violent “catcher in the rye.”

Batman couldn’t prevent the Red Hood, but the Red Hood could have prevented Batman.

The Red Hood kills the killers.

—-

The series would pick up right where Morrison left it. During the chaos of Professor Pyg’s escape from Blackgate Prison, Jason will also have escaped. He will have returned to the sewers—as in Battle for the Cowl—emptying one of his previous bases before hitting the road. When the series opens, Jason will already be operating in South America, tracking down a lead to the rogue Flamingo. Jason has vowed to rid the world of its deadliest and most sadistic killers. He’s decided to let The Joker be Batman’s problem, letting the responsibility of each victim fall squarely on Batman, while employing his own methods to more effective ends around the world.

The major themes of the series will be trace—the inability to escape the past entirely, no many how many bodies you bury it beneath; revenge versus retribution—acting out of self-interest or out of interest for the greater good; and the dynamic of nature versus nurture—can man be anything more than the product of his circumstance?

(Source: platinumage.wordpress.com)