Posted in: Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: dc comics, suzie su, trans

Did Transitioning Give Suzie Su Her Powers? Red Hood: Outlaw #43 (Spoilers)

When the character of Suzie Su was first introduced in Red Hood And The Outlaws #2 in 2011 by Scott Lobdell, drawn by Kenneth Rocafort, it wasn't the most subtle or sympathetic of portrayals. An organised crime figure in Hong Kong, with her own enforcers, she was also one of DC's first trans characters. However, she was visually portrayed as a grotesque, a cartoon, and there was considerable criticism of this at the time.

But in that first appearance, it appeared that Red Hood, Jason Todd, shot her. To death. So there was that as well.

However, in subsequent issues however, it appears that she was only in a coma.

So she went up against the Red Hood once more.

And was shot in the head. Dead again, properly this time. Or so we thought. She popped up again in Red Hood/Arsenal.

Somehow back from the dead without explanation, with the knowledge that Red Hood had killed her a few times already, being lampshaded by the Joker's Daughter, another Lobdell creation.

Then she appeared in Red Hood/Arsenal and taking down Arsenal…

…only to be shot in the head again. There certainly was a pattern emerging.

She returned in a dream-ish sequence of Red Hood And The Outlaws Christmas Annual...

…and even out of reality, died again.

But she still hung around. Back in a coma…

…not down to head trauma, but liver failure. She got knocked down…

,..but she got up again. Ain't no one going to keep Suzie Su down.

And it's from here that she really started to be more than a cartoon figure but a more rounded personality, both in the way she was written and drawn. And in the most recent Red Hood: Outlaw series, she has even joined Todd's gang working as, for want of a better word, a heavy.

Recognising her past, but moving forward, giving Suzie Su a chance to better herself.

…by beating up the right kind of people. And not getting shot in the head. And the way she was portrayed continued to evolve.

Even having a little agency of her own, able to seize the initiative with her new employer.

And then getting her just rewards.

A legitimate business of her very own. A second chance, a way to prove herself and a way to step away from all of this.

So what happens in Red Hood: Outlaw #43 out today? Well, it seems, she is back to being killed again. Though not shot in the head, at least.

But this time we have an explanation.

It turns out that transitioning was what gave her the power to come back from the dead. That may be the first superhero power to come from such a process in comic books, and it is one that some may be able to read as a parallel or power fantasy. Superhero comics – they keep on finding new ways to be… new.

RED HOOD OUTLAW #43
(W) Scott Lobdell (A) ChrisCross, Scott Hanna (CA) Dan Mora
We're living in strange times! Magic and metahumans are everywhere, but good and evil are easy to spot-right? The heroes of the world would never let anything happen to it…unless it happened already. Red Hood and the Outlaws are about to discover that the line between moral and immoral is very thin indeed.In Shops: Feb 26, 2020
SRP: $3.99

Red Hood: Outlaw #43 is out today from DC Comics… I bought mine from Piranha Comics in Kingston-Upon-Thames. Piranha Comics is a small south London comic store chain with a small south-east store in Kingston-Upon Thames's market centre, which runs Magic The Gathering nights on Fridays, and a larger south-west store in Bromley, which also runs Magic nights and has an extensive back issue collection and online store. If you are in the neighbourhood, check them out.

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