Wasted Potential: Looker

    They're the characters that could have been something. They're the ones who had the coolest powers, or the best possible backgrounds. They had some spark of potential, of possibility. They're the ones who would have become something far more than they became, if only for one little push, or one person who was willing to explore who they are. They're the ones who may have become great, but were let down. And in turn, they let us down.

    This is all about the Wasted Potential, and what might have been, had someone put just a bit more thought into them.

    I'm the Knight, and I'd like to bring you some of the possibilities and angles that made some characters iconic, but then quickly forgettable because of what little was done for them. They may have been somewhat popular, or cool, or groundbreaking. They were the ones given the most hype, or the most page presence. They were the ones we were told were meant for us, but in the end, were left behind. And when it's all said and done, I'll give you my take, and some direction that may have served the character if they were really rebooted. For the first installment, let's have a look at a beauty that might have been something, had DC decided to treat the character as something more than a fashion trend.

    Let's begin by looking at Emily Briggs, aka Looker the psychic vampire superhero.

The Character:

    Emily Briggs was a mousy bank teller, who was happily married and had a steady, if uneventful, life. Well, until the day she found out she was in line for the throne of an underground kingdom, and was abducted so that she would rule over them. It was when Hailey's Comet passed by that the mousy teller was transformed into a statuesque beauty who would take the handle "Looker". With the new found beauty came the immense psychic abilities that came with her status, making her one of the most powerful psychics in the DCU. Telepathy, Telekinesis, Psychometry, Energy projection (like blasts and shields), flight, and even abilities like enhanced healing and metabolism (which helped her in her future career as a supermodel). It's very possible that she was strong enough to go toe-to-toe with what many consider DC's most powerful psychic, Martian Manhunter, who himself is a character that can fight Superman to a stand still (and possibly win, if outside help doesn't come for Kal El).

    For a while, she worked with the Batman and the Outsiders, but it was apparent that she let her beauty get the best of her judgements. Though still an intelligent, capable woman, she clearly couldn't handle her new features and importance, unintentionally causing grief and strife for her teammates, and her husband when she had an affair with teammate Geo-Force, the prince of Markovia. Shortly after ending the affair, she was called back to Abyssia to fight for her throne, but in the process was stripped of her beauty and much of her powers, which were all returned without explanation later. While a member of the Outsiders, she's one of the few that are able to penetrate Batman's mental guards, and learn of his turmoil, making her more sympathetic to his plight and role.

    Then came the vampiric invasion of Markovia. Geo-Force summoned the Outsiders to his kingdom to help stem the tide, but in the midst of all this, Looker found herself alone with the progenitor of the invading vampires, Roderick. On sight, Roderick was taken by her, and immediately turned her, intending to take her as his bride. But she rebuked him, and escaped with the Outsiders, who were framed for the death of Queen Ilona, who was ruling Markovia and sought to kill Geo-Force during the invasion to have sole claim to the throne. Serving as fugitives for a while, they were able to rally enough support, and learn enough about Roderick to finally destroy him. But it came at a high cost for Looker. Not only was she still one of the undead, but her husband served her with a divorce. She abandoned her old life, and fully embraced being a vampire, but with the added bonus of the sun not being able to harm her due to being a metahuman before being turned.

    Things have continued down this route, with her using her beauty to remain in the spotlight as a model while hunting down her fellow vampires, as her psychic abilities have continued to grow (even being able to reach to other planets in terms of range), while she simultaneously became more prone to vampiric weaknesses. As of the New 52 reboot, she's essentially the same as her more recent version, but with full vampiric weakness in place, completely isolating her from daylight and all things relating to the daytime.

The Waste:

    Where does one go with a character like Looker?

    That's the main question that has to be asked with her. She's ultimately an ugly duckling story, with a sliding power scale that progressed as time went on. And that's where the first problem arises. In a world with Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, not to mention the New Gods and a host of other incredibly powerful entities, many creators and fans tend to think that power equals absolute presence. Which is funny, because the character many people consider DC's flagship is someone that has no powers (except for plot contrivance and overblown fan responses). The real issue with power scale isn't in the power itself, but in application, and that's one area where Looker is ultimately wasted. Due to power scale progression, she can go toe to toe with Martian Manhunter, who himself can go toe to toe with Superman. In some regards, that's AWESOME. A female character that isn't as physically strong as some of the more well known heroes, but can hold her own in a fight by pure mental abilities? Diversity like that is what makes comics awesome, because not everyone's going to have the same skills or powers, but everyone deserves a chance to shine.

    And speaking of shine, the biggest issue is immediately apparent in her post-vampire transformation. This
is where the powerset just becomes absolutely ludicrous. On top of having immense psychic abilities, due to the transformation into a vampire, she has strength, speed, greater resilience, shapeshifting abilities, absolute control over lesser creatures like vermin, additional mesmerism capabilities, and the concept of immortality added to an already comprehensive powerset. And frankly, that's almost Mary Sue levels of powerscale. The other problem with the vampire addition to her backstory is also one of the worst things you can do to a character: a blatant change to market on current trends. In her case, she was turned around the time that Interview with a Vampire was released. To cash in on the trend, there were quite a few characters and stories made to fit around the introduction or expansion of vampires in comics, and this is sadly one of those byproducts of that influx, which was continued after Twilight and True Blood became hits. Couple an unchanged haughty attitude with a vampiric storyline, and you tend to get a character that is not only a hackneyed shell of a potential character, but also a dated and vastly inferior character due to no growth or progression towards being something other than a pretty face that people will not identify with.

With all that in mind, how do you change a character, but remain true to not only her, but also to those around her.

The Fix:

    Here's where you can have some fun with the concept of "superpowered ex-model".

    Strip the unnecessary vampire backstory. Remove the whole royalty angle. Now, what do you have? A badass psychic ex-model with a bit of an attitude named "Looker". Notice the name. Now what could "looker" mean? It can mean someone beautiful. It can mean someone who has psychic power. Now, take a look at the pic of Sherlock and Holmes from the BBC production on the left.

    That "click" you heard in your head? Yeah, that was awesomeness entering the equation.

    The idea that they haven't played more with her handle and her powers flabbergasts me. You have someone who is known for her beauty, and not using her abilities to help people, while using her looks as one of her tools is a sad fact about most creators. The impetus is more on her being used for melodrama as of late, but that does her a disservice, in my opinion. So there's one way to make her noticeable for a right reason: bring her back to square one, but on a completely different board. And that board is the "psychic detective" trope that DC abandoned long ago. Albeit that her powers would have to be drastically reduced, that would actually work in her favor. A character's strength comes in application, and not in their powers. Believing the character is found in their powers alone is the equivalent of ordering a sandwich, and removing the internals so that you can just have the bread and the condiments that were put on it.

    So, you might be asking "how does reducing everything about her for a reboot will change the character for the better". Well, that's why it's called a reboot. The idea is completely retooling and re-purposing elements of a characters' story so that it can not only be taken in a new direction, but also stay true to the character. And that's why the psychic detective trope is perfect for Looker. You can keep the attitude, you can keep the essential powers, and then highlight aspects of her personality that many tend to forget about her: that she's an intelligent woman who came from nothing, who essentially does care about people, and the fact that she had fame, but lost it all for a specific reason. I'm just changing the reason and how she got her powers.

    The idea is that she was a model, but she never knew she was royalty. The comet aspect works to this day, but the circumstances that revealed her powers have changed. On the night that Michel's Comet (something made specifically for the story, as it's practically unavoidable due to Hailey's Comet only appears once every 75 years) passes by our planet, Mrs. Briggs was at a party celebrating the release of a new shoot that's reached over 30 million views in a week, and sending the site to unprecedented numbers. She and her husband Gregg get separated by the owner of the site, who proceeds to give her drink after drink, and attempting to woo her, to which she is rejecting. In a rage, he begins to strangle her, causing her powers to erupt, showing Emily what he's done to other models and women. She can't call to her husband vocally, but her powers can, alerting him where she is. As he rushes to help her, he's just in time to distract the would-be rapist long enough to let Emily recover, at which point she unleashes on him, and telekinetically throws him through several walls in the process. After being blacklisted in the modeling world by executives and people who were jealous of her in the first place, she instead went into college, and earning a degree in Criminal Justice in two years, and successfully passing the Police Academy, she then put her services for hire, acting as a private investigator, with her husband as her assistant. If you're wealthy, you can pay. If you can't, no need to worry. Your cause is worth a look.

    It's from this basis that you not only play with a set of overdone tropes (the "rape as origin" concept, female empowerment = sexiness and exposed flesh), but also quickly subvert them as well with the full development. You can create characters with haughty attitudes, but making them someone people can relate to is the main issue. And for that, there are two main ways to make relatable characters: bring them to a point where there's a commonality between the character and the readers, or give them traits or aspects that provide a unique perspective. And for that, you turn to the weaknesses. Looker's powers are impressive, but they usually come at a price. If she's not careful, the overwhelming static of everything with even a conscious thought can overtake her, and she does tend to shy away or be abrasive with people, albeit in a snarky, "I just want a little space, please" way.

    For example:

    Panel 1: Looker is at the counter, waiting for her coffee to arrive. The patrons of the coffee shop are talking away in the background. She is looking away as a young man, dressed as a bro, is eying her. It's obvious what his intentions are.

    Panel 2: The bro is trying to look his most suave, a combination of a sneer and a duck face, as he flexes his arm, showing off how built he is. Looker sees his actions, and is clearly not amused. Her coffee is delivered by a worker's hand from the bottom of the panel.

    Bro: Hey, girl! You ain't gotta be psychic to be all into my mind! I can do things to you no other man can do!

    Panel 3: A shot of pink energy from her eyes is visible to the reader, as she reaches for her coffee. The bro's face contorts into a goofy look, as his body has motion lines around it. He is mid-motion as he is falling over backwards, groaning. The patrons behind them have noticed what's going on.

    Panel 4: Looker is calmly holding her coffee, clearly amused with herself as she looks down at the man on the floor. The patrons are laughing and pointing at the man on the floor, hidden by the counter top.

    Looker: Was it as good for you as it was for me, baby?

    Now, that's not to say that the only potential for the character is purely comedic. For all her strengths, her flaws can still come out. The new ugly duckling story for Mrs. Briggs comes from a Blue Collar background. Growing up poor and gangly, she was picked on ridiculously badly until her 18th birthday, when she was discovered. She may not outwardly express it, but she does have a strong geek side, due to the comfort that sort of retreat gave her in her formative years. That sudden "rags to riches" kind of setting does change people, and that's where she developed her haughty attitude. Given the added bonus of her powers, she can come across as frigid or spiteful at times, but that's also partly due to her powers overwhelming her.

    But there's another part to her weakness: no matter how hard she tries, outside of telepathic communication with her husband, Gregg, she is completely unable to read him outside of cursory details like location and emotions. One of the real bonuses she thought she would get would be a greater intimacy with her husband, and somehow she is unable to do anything outside of just talk with him, and know where he is. And this troubles her immensely. He's a loving husband, and her strongest supporter, but that seeming gap between them is both disquieting to her, and frightening in her own mental processes. For all her love for her abilities, it's her fear of loneliness that really drives home the pathos for the couple.

    It's from this point we can then further develop stories and plot details for future issues. What exactly does Michel's Comet really portend? Who are her potential enemies and allies? What if she really did come from royalty that was driven underground (but not in a literal sense)? There are a ton of renewed possibilities when you free Looker from the responsibilities of being a Queen, a Vampire, and a model. The idea was to always allow the possible to happen, instead of worrying about making a character relevant or able to compete with other characters. The relation is in the character, not the power. The character is the potential, and that's why reboots need to be thought out instead of rehashed.