Thanks to the wonders of Tivo, I’ve been catching the Justice League animated show on a regular basis. I like the show, and there have been some amusing surprises (like Cthulhu showing up the other day!), but one thing keeps bugging me: Hawkgirl. Oh, not the character. Tough chick with power mace? Sign me up for that. What bugs me is the way they write her on the show. 99% of the fight scenes follow this pattern.
1) Fight starts.
2) Hawkgirl leaps to attack, flying in with her cracklin’ mace o’ doom.
3) She lands one or maybe two blows if she’s lucky, and then she is somehow knocked out of the sky by a power or trap or fluke event.
4) Other Justice League characters carry on the fight until Hawkgirl recovers or is receives aid from one of her teammates.
The writers seem to be “Worfing” her. As you may recall, the way to establish the badassedness of anyone on ST:TNG was to have them beat up Worf. He was such a punching bag that Ferengi took him out the first time they showed up. All these damn writers need to find a new gimmick. I don’t want to see Hawkgirl knocked around every episode, I want to see her Thanagarian fury delivered unto the heads of her enemies. I want to see the smiting of mooks and supervillains alike. I mean really, give young girls a superheroine to look up to. Who else do they have on the Justice League, Wonder Woman? Please.