The Joker's Daughter

UKPONDSIDE posted the following message...

Hey, Bob, nice stuff with the pics and stamps and all, BUT COME ON, MAN! Surely you are aware of the HEAT that you have caused, surrounding a certain New 52 DC female character! Uh, THE JOKER'S DAUGHTER, aka Duela Dent!
With the absolute buzz surrounding the 3D cover of Batman - Dark Knight 23.4 (The Joker's Daughter), surely you are willing to give us a behind the scenes expose from the great mind that wrote the original Joker's Daughter script in Batman Family #6, plus many of her other early appearances!
Please enlighten us as to the direction you wanted to take her, and her "intended" identity, and if the current writers are doing your character's story justice!

Actually, UK, I haven't caused any heat regarding the current incarnation of a character I created thirty-seven years ago. I have nothing to do with any of DC's current output nor am I on their comp list, so I haven't even seen the issue. I have taken a look at some of the reviews of it that have appeared online, however (and particularly enjoyed the video of Rich Johnston putting his copy in the microwave). Based on what I've read in those reviews, I have no interest in seeing the actual story.

My version of the Joker's Daughter was created as a foe for Robin when I was writing his solo adventures in Batman Family.

 

After her first appearance, she returned as Catgirl, claiming to be Catwoman's daughter, and then as the daughter of a bevy of Batman's foes in a Robin / Batgirl team-up story. By the time of that third tale, editor Julie Schwartz and I had decided we wanted her as a hero rather than a villain, so she revealed at the end that her plan all along was to become a member of the Teen Titans.

 

Oh, yes, and that she was actually Duela Dent, the daughter of Harvey (Two-Face) Dent. Harvey, with his fixation on the number 2, had wanted twins. I got some flak from fans about the fact that Dent had not become Two-Face until after Robin had joined Batman, so how could he have a daughter who was now the same age as Dick Grayson? I explained it away with my theory of "selective aging" -- Duela got older faster, the same way that Dick went from being twelve to eighteen while the rest of the Batman cast remained the same ages. Hey, it's comic books!

 

Duela did indeed join the Teen Titans, changed her name to the Harlequin, and was with the team when they ended up in a battle with her father.

 

 



When Teen Titans was cancelled, Duela joined Dick Grayson as a student at Hudson University and appeared in a few more of his solo tales in Batman Family and Detective Comics. That was the last time she appeared in a published story I wrote. As the Harlequin, Duela was scheduled to appear in a back-up series in The Vixen. I wrote the first script for that series, but it was never drawn, as the book was cancelled before it appeared during the DC Implosion.

Marv Wolfman used Duela in a throwaway bit in his Teen Titans story about Donna Troy's wedding. In it, she is portrayed as an older woman. (Talk about selective aging!) She also turned up in other incarnations, including as a semi-regular in Tiny Titans, and was explained away (and killed) in Countdown, one of the more recent revamps of the DC Universe.

This Month in Alex's World

"Well, this seems to be making Daddy happy, so I'll just go along with it."

 

   Here's Alex modeling one of his maternal great-grandfather's shirts. He's growing quickly, but I don't think it quite fits him yet.

Getting Along... Swimmingly

    Sixty-four-year-old Diana Nyad made the news last week after she swam 110 miles from Cuba to the Florida Keys. I'm not sure I understand her reason for even attempting this, especially after failing to make it four other times, but I suppose it falls into the same category as George Mallory's reason for attempting to climb Mount Everest: "Because it's there."

  Today's newspaper reports that other long-distance swimmers are questioning the veracity of the story. One swimmer in Seattle is questioning how she could have sped up to 3 miles per hour from her average speed of a mile and a half an hour; her navigator and an "official observer" of the swim assert that she benefited from a swift and favorable current.

  There is also some concern that she did not follow the "English Channel rules" because she used a special mask and neoprene suit to protect herself from jellyfish. So what? This is not an Olympic event where all the competitors have to be on even ground.

  I haven't read of any other swimmers who are planning to attempt this, nor that there is some kind of prize associated with doing it. And I don't think it is going to inspire disgruntled Cubans that this is a good way to flee their country.

  Maybe Nyad gets a swimsuit endorsement contract or becomes a spokesperson for some energy drink. More likely, she has her fifteen minutes of fame and then becomes one more person no one can identify. In the meantime, these naysayers ought to find something else to keep them occupied... like going for a swim.

Fools and Their Money

  Yesterday's newspaper seemed particularly rife with ways to separate fools from their money.

  One full-page advertisement hawked a device that would allow all Americans to receive free television. Further, it proclaims that "Federal law makes TV network giants broadcast free TV signals regionally." Readers are advised that after making their one-time purchase (for $49), they will never have to pay to watch TV again. (Buried in the text is a line that says "it saves a ton of money because it won't pull in expensive cable-only channels like ESPN, so there's never a monthly bill." Well, yes, without a cable or satellite hook-up, you can't receive such channels and so you don't pay for them.)

  Potential customers are advised to check the chart on the page for the first two digits of their zip code and to call immediately if they are there. What a surprise -- every zip code in 49 of the fifty states is included! The one state that is not? California, which, I guess, is exempt from federal law.

  So, what is this fabulous device? It's an antenna that allows you to pick up over-the-air TV transmissions from your local stations. Gee, just like we all used to do back before there was cable and satellite TV.

  Bet I can find a better antenna somewhere else for a lot less than $49...

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   Another full-page ad says that you should convert your cash to gold immediately because their experts predict that the price of gold (currently about $1380 an ounce) could skyrocket to over $5,000 an ounce in the future.  "In our opinion, smart individuals are moving up to 30% of their assets into U.S. government gold coins."

 Your opportunity to cash in on this incredible windfall is to buy up the $5 gold coins they have for sale. They are offering these coins (each containing 1/10th of an ounce of gold) for the fabulous price of $158 each, or $1,580 an ounce! So with gold currently selling for $1380 an ounce, you are starting out $200 in the hole. This sure seems like a great plan.

  Oh, by the way, if you still want in on this fabulous investment, they will make special arrangements for purchases of more than $50,000.

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  My favorite of the ads, however, is the one offering "vault bags of rarely seen U.S. Gov't minted coins." For just $29, you can get a bag weighing "almost a quarter pound," filled with "rarely seen Indian Head collector coins dating back to 1913." You might know them better as nickels.

  How many nickels are in a quarter pound? By my calculations, that would be twenty-two of them, with a face value of $1.10! These "Buffalo nickels" were issued from 1913 through 1938 and there are a few that are worth big bucks to coin collectors. But I think it's a safe bet you won't be finding any of those in the bags.

  The ad advises you to stock up on these "nest eggs" for children, grandchildren or someone you might want to impress. "You just won't believe the expression on their faces when you hand them these heavy Vault bags."  Sorry, but I can just imagine the expression of someone who is handed a $29 bag of nickels!

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Two words, folks: Caveat emptor!

Don't Drive Into Classrooms

   As the new school year begins, there are a number of signs posted -- physical ones on telephone poles and electronic ones on highway message boards -- reminding us that "School's Open! Please Drive Carefully!" This is not something new; I can remember such signs from the days when I was in school and they probably date all the way back to the days of Henry Ford's Model T's.

  But what is the point of such messages? Presumably, it's a reminder that we should watch out for school children in the streets. (One has to wonder why we should be looking out for them on the parkways.) But if school is open, aren't they all inside?

  Wouldn't it make much more sense to tell drivers when school is out for the summer? That the kids are all free to roam the streets? And that driver's ed graduates with newly-minted licenses are on the roads?

  Unless, of course, you make it a habit of driving up and down the halls of your local school building. In which case, you are going to encounter some heavy traffic jams between periods.