Because I just read JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #4...
...and as one of the half-dozen Damage fans in the world, I just have to gripe.
No, it's not the Hideous Scarring. It does seem a bit over the top, but on the other hand he could be dead. You take what you can get. No, it's this business about his powers manifesting when he was thirteen (and maiming his best friend, because Geoff Johns has never seen a backstory that couldn't be improved by adding random bloodshed) and his adoptive father torturing him to make him admit he'd done it through natural causes. Which...is really problematic. Leave aside the fact that it was a really big deal when Grant started manifesting his powers at sixteen (not seventeen), and that he certainly didn't think he'd done it before--let's say that he repressed. Leave aside also that Grant, whose backstory is already filled with manipulation, abuse, loss, and guilt, wasn't really in need of More Damn Angst, although it's a point. No, the problem is that both of Grant's adoptive parents already knew that he was a metahuman, because they were paid employees whose job was to hand him over to their employer when his powers showed up. Which they did, happily.
It's always helpful to know these little details, isn't it?
So what I'm being told here is that Henry Emerson, in addition to being an abusive bastard (previously established by Devin Grayson, although it was a little dubious then, too), a) completely blew off his assignment to turn Grant in when he manifested, for no apparent reason, and b) is the stupidest person on the entire planet, to stand there torturing a kid that he knows perfectly well is a metahuman who just blew his best friend's hand off. Without even meaning to. What is this, some kind of suicidal stress test? I'll know his powers have really kicked in if he kills me? At least Devin's version of the story didn't specify that the guy beat Grant after his powers showed up. *sighs* Yeah, there might be ways to work around this--maybe he was dead drunk, maybe he was so arrogant it really never occurred to him that Grant could hurt him, maybe he was having so much fun kicking Grant around that he didn't want to get rid of him yet...but it's pretty tortured, and it irritates me that Grant's backstory has gotten fucked up because of what looks suspiciously like Geoff Johns hearing the word "abuse" and assuming it's okay to slide in a boilerplate piece of nastiness without spending ten seconds to check whether it fits this situation.
On the bright side, there are signs that Grant and Jesse might be developing a relationship, which is something I've wanted to see since the previous Titans series. Now if we can just get Jesse's personality back...
No, it's not the Hideous Scarring. It does seem a bit over the top, but on the other hand he could be dead. You take what you can get. No, it's this business about his powers manifesting when he was thirteen (and maiming his best friend, because Geoff Johns has never seen a backstory that couldn't be improved by adding random bloodshed) and his adoptive father torturing him to make him admit he'd done it through natural causes. Which...is really problematic. Leave aside the fact that it was a really big deal when Grant started manifesting his powers at sixteen (not seventeen), and that he certainly didn't think he'd done it before--let's say that he repressed. Leave aside also that Grant, whose backstory is already filled with manipulation, abuse, loss, and guilt, wasn't really in need of More Damn Angst, although it's a point. No, the problem is that both of Grant's adoptive parents already knew that he was a metahuman, because they were paid employees whose job was to hand him over to their employer when his powers showed up. Which they did, happily.
It's always helpful to know these little details, isn't it?
So what I'm being told here is that Henry Emerson, in addition to being an abusive bastard (previously established by Devin Grayson, although it was a little dubious then, too), a) completely blew off his assignment to turn Grant in when he manifested, for no apparent reason, and b) is the stupidest person on the entire planet, to stand there torturing a kid that he knows perfectly well is a metahuman who just blew his best friend's hand off. Without even meaning to. What is this, some kind of suicidal stress test? I'll know his powers have really kicked in if he kills me? At least Devin's version of the story didn't specify that the guy beat Grant after his powers showed up. *sighs* Yeah, there might be ways to work around this--maybe he was dead drunk, maybe he was so arrogant it really never occurred to him that Grant could hurt him, maybe he was having so much fun kicking Grant around that he didn't want to get rid of him yet...but it's pretty tortured, and it irritates me that Grant's backstory has gotten fucked up because of what looks suspiciously like Geoff Johns hearing the word "abuse" and assuming it's okay to slide in a boilerplate piece of nastiness without spending ten seconds to check whether it fits this situation.
On the bright side, there are signs that Grant and Jesse might be developing a relationship, which is something I've wanted to see since the previous Titans series. Now if we can just get Jesse's personality back...