I haven't read every book the character has appeared in but while catching up on Artemis I've seen some serious WW fans impressions of her. Which seems to amount to her being a side character that never had many moments and her appearance in RHATO thus far being the best she's been written. They also confirmed my suspicions that Artemis never had much of an origin before. I looked and got the Artemis Requiem series because I thought it would have more of her early life. It didn't, it just mentioned a few small things.
From what I've seen her worshiping Egyptian gods has never been a big thing as the Greek gods are the ones that usually show up in WW. Yet Artemis seems to have something of a relationship with one. Nephthys, a goddess that's connected to death (among other things), which got me thinking. Will this relationship affect how she will view Jason since he came back to life? Death and the afterlife did play a big part in those ancient Egyptian beliefs.
Artemis has never been the easiest person to get along with although I have to say this is this harshest I've seen her. At the same time she's not the stereotypical warrior that doesn't think before she acts. She gives Jason the chance to leave and wants to hear his reasoning later on. There is a sense of arrogance she has that gets to Jason even though he usually has no problem dealing with Damian. Even if we didn't get Lobdell confirming her seeing Jason a a child in an interview there are already hints of this. "Little one" sounds like an Amazon turn of phrase for a child and in her thoughts Artemis refers to him as a kid.
The arrogance comes in not just the causal insults she slings but how much she dismisses him. While Jason asks for her name then later asks what she wants to be called she announces she doesn't know or care who he is. Not once afterwards in #2 does she asks what to call him. Will this and the fact he hasn't taken off the helmet be built up? I hope so because it represents a barrier between the two. Roy and Kori already knew who he was or had a connection to his family. Artemis doesn't which makes them total strangers and is another reason connecting will likely be harder.
Once she notices Jason took advantage of an opening to stun her but didn't kill her things shift a little. Artemis chooses to get answers from him rather than go after the weapon in the train car. (*1) Artemis does get him to think about his actions when she demands answers. When Jason tries to shrug off her questioning who's rules he's playing by and she corrects him by explaining why it's important. Later on she blames Black Mask escaping on Jason's poor planning when she was the one that interrupted what he was doing. (*2) While Artemis still doesn't think much of Jason her perception of him has already changed. She has seen him trying to protect her thus seen him in a more noble light and thinks his undercover plot is sound.
Jason however doesn't help his case by labeling himself a bad guy but this is after the fallout from Jokers' Daughter where he doesn't see himself as a hero. (*3) Despite not thinking their allies Artemis still make the choice to work with him by flinging him into the towards the cargo.
Despite Artemis being hard to deal with its interesting that Jason is willing to work with her, a change from volume 1 where he was very against the concept of working with others. This is notable when he attempts to countdown to help them time their attack and calling them allies. They had common ground on having to live in others shadows and not being those people. There's also a sense of both having the rug pulled out from under them. Artemis was promised a future as the leader of be people while the fatherly Black Mask reminded Jason of Batman seemingly promising great things foe him. Neither of them had those promises kept.
There's not much to go on right now but it's already shaping up as a very interesting working relationship.
*1 Artemis choses this action over the cargo as she separates Jason from Black Mask and calls out to him. This might hint that he did get her slightly curious about his character but Artemis knows from experience not to rush in without all the information.
*2 Jason was literally getting information from Black Mask who claimed there were no more secrets between them when she attacked. This might cause even more trouble down the line.
*3 Granted Jason didn't see himself as a hero per se before but he seems to think less of himself now.
From what I've seen her worshiping Egyptian gods has never been a big thing as the Greek gods are the ones that usually show up in WW. Yet Artemis seems to have something of a relationship with one. Nephthys, a goddess that's connected to death (among other things), which got me thinking. Will this relationship affect how she will view Jason since he came back to life? Death and the afterlife did play a big part in those ancient Egyptian beliefs.
The arrogance comes in not just the causal insults she slings but how much she dismisses him. While Jason asks for her name then later asks what she wants to be called she announces she doesn't know or care who he is. Not once afterwards in #2 does she asks what to call him. Will this and the fact he hasn't taken off the helmet be built up? I hope so because it represents a barrier between the two. Roy and Kori already knew who he was or had a connection to his family. Artemis doesn't which makes them total strangers and is another reason connecting will likely be harder.
Once she notices Jason took advantage of an opening to stun her but didn't kill her things shift a little. Artemis chooses to get answers from him rather than go after the weapon in the train car. (*1) Artemis does get him to think about his actions when she demands answers. When Jason tries to shrug off her questioning who's rules he's playing by and she corrects him by explaining why it's important. Later on she blames Black Mask escaping on Jason's poor planning when she was the one that interrupted what he was doing. (*2) While Artemis still doesn't think much of Jason her perception of him has already changed. She has seen him trying to protect her thus seen him in a more noble light and thinks his undercover plot is sound.
Jason however doesn't help his case by labeling himself a bad guy but this is after the fallout from Jokers' Daughter where he doesn't see himself as a hero. (*3) Despite not thinking their allies Artemis still make the choice to work with him by flinging him into the towards the cargo.
Despite Artemis being hard to deal with its interesting that Jason is willing to work with her, a change from volume 1 where he was very against the concept of working with others. This is notable when he attempts to countdown to help them time their attack and calling them allies. They had common ground on having to live in others shadows and not being those people. There's also a sense of both having the rug pulled out from under them. Artemis was promised a future as the leader of be people while the fatherly Black Mask reminded Jason of Batman seemingly promising great things foe him. Neither of them had those promises kept.
There's not much to go on right now but it's already shaping up as a very interesting working relationship.
*1 Artemis choses this action over the cargo as she separates Jason from Black Mask and calls out to him. This might hint that he did get her slightly curious about his character but Artemis knows from experience not to rush in without all the information.
*2 Jason was literally getting information from Black Mask who claimed there were no more secrets between them when she attacked. This might cause even more trouble down the line.
*3 Granted Jason didn't see himself as a hero per se before but he seems to think less of himself now.
I find it strange that many people seem to see Jason as arrogant, while he seems to feel pride in his skills (which he should) he seems one of the less arrogant of all of them, he never seems to feel personally ofended when someone like Artemis looks down on him, at much he appears exasperated, or was the arrogance something that was writen on the othrer comiscs?
ReplyDeleteI don't see Jason as arrogant, Artemis yes (it's more of a humorous character bit.) Other comics have had character suggest Jason is arrogant which I never bought. I believe UTH had Alfred say this for example. Nothing in Jason's behavior has really suggested this as: a) he's usually protecting his vulnerable side with a facade and b) he's shown a lot of doubts about himself.
ReplyDeleteI did entry on this a while about questioning why he's seen this way as others have acted far more arrogantly.