Profile: Fury

Lyta Trevor/Kosmatos Hall, Fury
First appearance: Wonder Woman #300 Vol. 1, February 1983. She was originally created as the daughter of the Golden Age Earth-2 WW and Steve Trevor. After Crisis on Infinite Earths, she was reworked as the daughter of a Golden Age Greek superheroine of the same codename, whose real name was Helena Kosmatos, who appeared in All-Star Squadron. Lyta was one of the first members of Infinity Inc during the 1980s.

Current status: in death limbo along with her husband, Hector Hall (Silver Scarab and later a new Dr. Fate).

Was subjected to the following acts of discrimination: she went nuts after Daniel Hall, her son, went MIA in the Sandman series. She was later captured and rendered unconscious by Mordru in JSA. She was later saved from this effect, but then, in 2005, she and her husband were banished by the Spectre to hell. Daniel Hall later brought them into the Dreaming, after which we see that they’re presumably dead with their spirits now in the Dreaming.

What’s wrong with how this was done? Just when there was a chance to develop some focus upon this notable couple anew, and how they try to rebuilt their lives, they’re dragged into the mechanisms of a crossover (Infinite Crisis) and tossed away. The Spectre and Jean Loring have both been misused, and with that storyline in JSA #80, we can now add Fury and her husband to the list.

Indeed, what was the whole point of bringing back Hector Hall, son of the Hawks, if all it could add up to was this? And they certainly weren’t helping matters if Fury was also being written out when she’d barely even returned.

Record: Mark Millar

The errors I can find that Millar made in his own writing career took place in the Ultimate Marvel line during 2001-2003. Here are at least two examples of what this decidedly pretentious writer did:

• In the Ultimates, just 5 issues into the series, he regurgitated the infamous 1981 Avengers story where Hank Pym beat up on Janet Van Dyne. Pure sensationalism. Of all the storylines that could’ve been used as fodder for a new twist, that’s not one we needed to see. Certainly not if Jan was being pegged as the one who’d provoked Hank into being violent towards her (but no, I don’t think I’ll try to describe just what happened).
• He implied that the Ultimate versions of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver had an incestuous relationship.
  
• In Ultimate X-Men, the Ultimate version of Wolverine leaves Cyclops stranded or for dead in a deep valley, all so that he can then seduce Jean Grey for sex (and she may be underage!). Yet he’s never expelled from the Ultimate X-Men. Supposing your own best friend left you stuck in a valley where you had to survive on rock plants for a week so that he could go and take advantage of your own girl Friday. Would you want him to continue maintaining membership in your own team? Would any of the other members want him to either?

Let’s just say that Millar is by far a crude, pretentious and overrated writer who did little more than to take some once effective cast members of famous team books and turn them into something otherwise unlikable. His work is so ludicrous, and I can’t understand what anyone sees that’s so great about it.

Profile: Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld

Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, aka Amy Winston
First appearance: Legion of Super-Heroes #298, April 1983, in a special promotional story that served as a lead-in to the maxi-series that followed a month afterwards. Originally a princess from the magical dimension/planet of Gemworld whose parents had been slain by the evil Dark Opal, she was sent to our dimension on Earth, where she was raised as a youngster named Amy by a couple called the Winstons. Since time moves differently between our world and hers, she became approximately five years younger on Earth. On her 13th birthday in her Earthly state, that’s when she found herself travelling to Gemworld again, where she became her older self and discovered her heritage, and did battle with Dark Opal.

Current status: after Infinite Crisis, not sure what it is, if at all.

Was subjected to the following acts of discrimination: she’d been blinded at one point, and later merged along with a Lord of Chaos called The Child with Gemworld itself in order to stop him from causing more disaster in the magical planet. Still later, she was wrecked even further in Legion of Super-Heroes, where her story background may have been retconned to be more part of the 30th century. And then, during the 1990s, she became a power-hungry witch in Book of Fate.

What’s wrong with how this was done? It’s sad enough that she had to be “killed” in order to stop The Child from carrying out his acts of terrorism for the Lords of Chaos. But even sadder still is how she ended up being turned into a villainess in Book of Fate, and bringing her back into the spotlight in the awful Day of Vengeance miniseries as well as Infinite Crisis was also a perfect way to sour people’s milk.

These days, of all the characters rendered almost completely unrecognizable and grossly misused, she definitely tops the list.