seriousfic

So a while ago I talked about my idea for an "Earth-0" Mr. Miracle/Big Barda title, one of the conceits of it being that they would be fighting/courting each other through a fully realized alternate DC universe, as if they were crossing over with books that just happened to not be being written. I talked about Gotham and how here, Dick and Kory would still be involved, so...

Quick primer: In what's left of mainline DC continuity, Koriand'r was an alien princess (Tamaranians, who can fly, remember that). Her sister, Komand'r, was born with a birth defect which didn't let her fly, which caused feelings of resentment on Komand'r's part. Eventually, she betrayed Kory to the Citadel, the Tamaranians' mortal enemies, and they enslaved Kory. This being comics, it was pretty rapey. Then they were both captured by Psions, another race of evil aliens, who experimented on them, giving them both energy projectiles, eponymously in Starfire's case. Eventually Kory escaped to Earth, where yadda yadda yadda.

Revised history: A Green Lantern is killed in the Apokolips War, and his ring selects the strongest will in the sector--a woman who is just then resisting torture. Kory becomes the Green Lantern of Sector XXXX before things can get too enhanced interrogation, and she slaughters her captors before reporting to Oa for training. With Kory gone, the Citadel refocuses its attention on Komand'r, who eventually is instilled on Tamaran as a puppet ruler. (Although when she receives a yellow power ring, she shows just how much of a puppet she is. But that's a hypothetical hypothetical story, if you get my drift.)

After a crash course in ring-slinging, Kory is sent to Earth, where Hal Jordan has just gotten his ass Parallaxed. Still a rookie compared to Lanterns like Guy Gardner and John Stewart, she finds herself placed with the Teen Titans to "assimilate," where things develop much according to the classic NTT run, just without Raven blowing up the priest at her wedding to Dick (comics, folks). Then a whole smorgasbord of AU happens, with Batman being killed by Darkseid, Jason Todd coming back and putting the Joker's head on a pike, and a little thing called No Man's Land. Ironically, the stress forces Dick and Kory to rely on each other more than ever before, and when the smoke clears, they've actually dealt with a few of their issues. Their bad-idea wedding is still on the books, but they're just living together and working side by side as always, just with rings on their fingers. Dick "commitment-boy" Grayson likes it, Kory takes it as a grand romantic gesture and takes her belated honeymoon in stride, and so they're a married couple.

Flash-forward to present-day. Kory is the hometown hero of Gotham, the equivalent of Metropolis's Superman in contrast to the dark, scary urban vigilantes. In keeping with that, she'd have a costume that's... a bit more keeping with Gotham. Not that I have anything against her classic costume...

I see no problem here.

But in Gotham?

Nightwing: It looks like the nuns were disemboweled, then posed in sexually suggestive positions to be found by children walking their puppies.

Starfire: *thong rides up ass, breasts jut out*

Nightwing: This could only be the work of Kite Man.

So, instead of that, the classic Green Lantern green-and-black costume, maybe with a backless/halter modification to keep from completely neutering the character. Sexuality is an important part of Kory's characterization after all, just so long as nobody goes overboard. The goal should be for straight women to look at her and say "Oh, nice! I'd want to cosplay as that!" and not "Oh, puh-lease."

But tell me this: If she didn't have thigh-highs, how would she be dealing with this situation?

In keeping with the Gotham decor, since Nightwing has one of those timeless costumes with the blue stripes, perhaps Kory's could reflect it in some way. I'm no artist, but it seems that 'alliterative' blue-black/green-black costumes could be used to show how simpatico they are.

Power-wise, Kory's Green Lantern powers would take the place of artificial starfire, with her using her extensive knowledge of martial weaponry for offense and memories of her homeworld for defense and rescue--conjuring up herds of Tamaranian animals or a striking alien tree, for instance. Dispelling the negative stigma of her being a bimbo, she'd be very willful and strategic with her powers. And when she flips out with a green power ring backing her, watch the fuck out.

In larger terms of character, Dick Grayson is a guy who usually shows up in team books as "Mini-Batman" and in Batbooks as "lovable Dickie-bird," so it'd be interesting to see him and Kory as two-of-a-kind: fighting crime while being flirty and swashbuckling. And while it's hard to see how they'd fit into the larger narrative without actually writing it (since you don't wanna just fan-wank, but you wanna use "guest stars" to illuminate the core cast of Scott, Barda, and company), I could see Barda fighting Kory to a standstill and coming to see that emotions don't make someone a lesser warrior, and that sharing your life with someone can make you stronger--an important lesson while she's still in "ROBOT IS NOT PROGRAMMED FOR FEELINGS BUT ROBOT WANTS TO BAKE SCOTT FREE COOKIES AND HOLD HIM LIKE A TEDDY BEAR" mode.

Also, less rapey backstory. That's a plus.