Gold Goblin#1 Spoilers & Discussion

[Matt Rat]

How so? I'm not that familiar with Janine.

Janine was a rape victim as a child.

[Lunala]

Janine

Would it be feasible to ask that Janine be referred to as a CSA survivor rather than a victim? Both are acceptable addresses, but the first comes across as more clinical.

[Refrax5]

How so? I'm not that familiar with Janine.

She was a survivor of horrific sexual abuse by her father, which culminated in her killing him in self defense, which is why she was in prison. She was always depicted as a sweet, good person that had a lot of bad breaks, so the current depiction of her as a criminal rubs me the wrong way.

[PanicPixieDreamGirl]

The superhero genre has pretty much always been like that, pretty much ever since Arkham Asylum was first established. At this rate, I'm not sure if that can ever change.

I suspect you're right, but man, as another person with mental illness I really want it to change.

[Huntsman Spider]

She was a survivor of horrific sexual abuse by her father, which culminated in her killing him in self defense, which is why she was in prison. She was always depicted as a sweet, good person that had a lot of bad breaks, so the current depiction of her as a criminal rubs me the wrong way.

The sad thing is that this would be an especially relevant topic for a superhero comic to address and address well, given how increasingly aware people are these days concerning how law enforcement has not only often failed to protect sexual abuse/assault survivors, but all too often gone out of its way to punish them for (violently, sometimes lethally) defending themselves from their abusers/assaulters. What happened to Janine/Elizabeth in ASM 14 that pushed her over the edge and onto a path of villainy was (once again) being shown that society at large would never see someone like her as worthy of their sympathy or compassion, which would be something worth exploring in the hands of a writer that could do such exploration with respect. Alas . . .

[Refrax5]

The sad thing is that this would be an especially relevant topic for a superhero comic to address and address well, given how increasingly aware people are these days concerning how law enforcement has not only often failed to protect sexual abuse/assault survivors, but all too often gone out of its way to punish them for (violently, sometimes lethally) defending themselves from their abusers/assaulters. What happened to Janine/Elizabeth in ASM 14 that pushed her over the edge and onto a path of villainy was (once again) being shown that society at large would never see someone like her as worthy of their sympathy or compassion, which would be something worth exploring in the hands of a writer that could do such exploration with respect. Alas . . .

Yeah, it's depressing to see a Dematteis-created character reduced to this. The love and nuance he gives Janine (and Ben) lends to much higher quality writing than this sensationalist garbo Wells and Lowe seem to relish. I miss when writers treated these characters with reverence.