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Kitsune Sniper (foxhack) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-08-19 14:55:00

Current mood:	annoyed
Entry tags:	char: batman/bruce wayne, char: great white shark/warren white, char: jane doe, creator: dan slott, creator: ryan sook, publisher: dc comics, title: arkham asylum: living hell

The Mysterious Case Of Jane Doe
xdoop posted some scans from Batman: Streets of Gotham's Manhunter stories a few hours ago. They featured Jane Doe, who was... quite different from the last time I'd seen her in comics. The first time I'd seen her was in Arkham Asylum: Living Hell, where she was one of the three or four parallel stories featured in the six issue miniseries. This post contains a summary and several spoilers for the book.

All books were written by Dan Slott, illustrated by Ryan Sook, and colored by Lee Loughridge. The artwork has a very Hellboy, Mike Mignola vibe to it which works well in this context.

Arkham Asylum: Living Hell #1: Jane Doe killed and impersonated Doctor Anne Carver. She then tricked Warren White (a large-scale con artist who by the end of this series becomes Great White Shark) into giving her money so she could transfer him out of Arkham. And well, she seduces him, but Batman intervened. A scuffle happens, White discovers Dr. Carver's head stuffed in a mask ornament, and... well, this happens. (Two and a half pages out of twenty-three.)

In issue #2, one of the guards (who had a thing for Dr. Carver) confronts her and asks her what she did with her body.

In issue #3, she speaks to a not-quite-very-honest guard...

She impersonates him afterwards, and starts a breakout by leaving some cells open.

In issue #4, she sets more inmates free, and kidnaps Warren White. (No scans, she was barely in the issue.)

And in issue #5... she explains her plan to Warren.

(The skin she was working on had no scars, but since White got beat up so often, she had to make some adjustments to it...)

Issue #6 only features her trying to escape from the ghosts of people she's killed, and after the demonic event that cause them to happen is over, she almost gets out, but Batman stops her at the door.

So what have we learned here? Whoever this is, it's not the same Jane Doe from this miniseries, unless some weird retcon happened while we weren't looking... The Jane Doe featured here has some very good crafting skills, can create fake skins with facial features and fake hair with materials (I'm guessing she made the Fish skin while she was still impersonating Dr. Carver) but nowhere is it mentioned that she's a metahuman. Nowhere is it mentioned that she doesn't have any skin, or that her skins have "expiration dates" (but I wouldn't have a problem buying the idea that they wear out, because the fake skin that Jane is wearing in these scans ripped easily when other people tugged on it). Unless someone did this to make Jane Doe different from ~~that guy featured a while back... the one that superglued his face to a mask and his father ripped it from his face, taking the face itself with it~~ No-Face. (Thanks,

suzene!)

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	icon_uk 2009-08-19 10:11 pm UTC (link)
	Given the absurdities this sample implies (changing her apparent gender, height, build and even ethnicity based on wearing a skin???) I think you HAVE to make the character a metahuman to make this schtick work. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	foxhack 2009-08-19 10:12 pm UTC (link)
	Not really. She only appears to impersonate people who are around her same height, and the build can be faked with the proper padding. Didn't you watch Big Momma's House? (Is ashamed he saw Big Momma's House.) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-08-19 10:23 pm UTC (link)
	Mercifully the trailer served as a warning to avoid that one like the plagues of Egypt... which it might well qualify as. And the same height size thing limits her more than seems entirely wise for a character you might want to make a credible threat. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	foxhack 2009-08-19 10:25 pm UTC (link)
	Well, she's not a supervillain in this book. She's a serial killer. When it comes to the Batman universe, there's a big difference. (We could argue about Joker and Two-Face and so on, but there's no point, I don't think...) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-08-19 10:38 pm UTC (link)
	If you don't want to argue the point that's fine, but I see nothing particularly out of keeping about classifying a serial killer as a Batman level threat, like Mr Zsasz, or Kadaver, or Vox, or Black Mask in his original personality, or many, many of the other threats that Batman has faced. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	petalsinthewind 2009-08-19 11:20 pm UTC (link)
	Her facial features change. She gets a jawline when she impersonates that last guy. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	foxhack 2009-08-19 11:24 pm UTC (link)
	Like I said... padding. She most likely made the suit during her time as the doctor, so she would've had access to better materials. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	petalsinthewind 2009-08-20 12:19 am UTC (link)
	That "padding" would basically have to be a skull-face-mold to shape the nose, lips, jawline, etc. I do prefer this over the skinless meta though. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

foxhack
2009-08-20 12:28 am UTC (link)

That "padding" would basically have to be a skull-face-mold to shape the nose, lips, jawline, etc.

Sorry. My head wasn't translating words the right way. Considering she made the fake skins on her own I wouldn't find it unsurprising if she actually did build prosthetic facial attachments into the faces or other parts of the body to appear to have the proper features. :)

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