Element Woman - Updated! - 5 April 2011

I'm usually not one for re-broadcasting what comes out on other sites or blogs, but I think I'll be following the course of the new Elemental Woman who looks like she'll be appearing in DC's major event 'Flashpoint'. Designed by Jim Lee, I don't mind the look of her.

The artwork appeared on DC's The Source blog.

It will be interesting to see what they do with her.

UPDATE (5 April 2011)

In an interview over at Newsarama, Flashpoint writer Geoff Johns had this to say-

Johns: There's another character that's very obscure who is going to have a bigger role in the Flashpoint mini-series than she's ever had in the DC Universe. That was one of my goals. I think it makes it more fun to read. I think it's fun to introduce some of these characters to people who don't really know them. I think it's fun to explore them in totally different way. And it also just shows how capable and powerful these other characters are. Look at Mera, before Blackest Night and after. She's in a totally different place.

Nrama: Just to clarify, you did say "she" when you referred to the obscure character you're giving more attention in Flashpoint?

Johns: Yes. But you know, it isn't just attention. What I mean is, you can't force people to like characters by just throwing them in the spotlight. You see people try to do that and it just doesn't work. What I like to do is take characters that I love, characters that I already have a passion for, and concentrate my effort there. Whenever I wrote my top favorite characters down, on the list was some of the top characters, but there were a lot of obscure characters too. I want to share the passion I have for these characters. And I think the only way to elevate characters is to pick the ones you love. Pick the ones you have ideas for, that you have stories for, that you know and have an emotional core for.'

With the new character design out and Johns referring to an obscure character - and Element Woman is that - it can only be her.

The original Element Girl (aka Urania Blackwell) appeared as a love interest of Metamorpho in his first series back in the 1960s and was subsequently killed off by Neil Gaiman in Sandman #20. You can read about my thoughts on that in my essay 'It's Elemental: Portrayals of Metamorpho and Element Girl'.

So where did this new Element Woman come from? Did she get exposed to the Orb of Ra like Rex (Metamorpho) and Element Girl before her? Or did she, like Shift, spontaneously generate from a piece of Metamorpho whose body was scattered over America when saving the Justice League after their headquarters crashed from orbit to earth? Something else?

Now I'm more likely to follow Flashpoint more closely... How will Rex react? More importantly, how will Sapphire react? Will this new Element Woman vie for Rex's affections? The original Element Girl looked like she had won Rex over when the series ceased. I'd certainly like to see  return to that story. I've never liked that whiny princess Sapphire. Element Girl was ahead of her time, a real outsider. Even though she was weak when it came to Rex, she still had a strong nature. She actually revelled in her otherness, and accepted her 'freakiness', unlike Metamorpho who constantly sooked about losing his good looks.

As we can see by the comparing the two characters that Jim Lee has kept the segmented body parts look. Don't worry about the tentacle hair, Element Girl had normal hair, she's metamorphing in this picture. Looks like Lee has used the rocky look on the left shoulder, something which Metamorpho displayed for a while when he was in the Justice League. Is that a hint?

Viva la Element Woman!