Bernadeth
1451 - Bernadeth is born among the elite of Apokolips, the daughter of Desaad. She is given over to Granny Goodness and the Terror Orphanages by her father, guaranteed a place among the Female Furies.
1738 - Bernadeth is selected for the Female Furies, believing herself to be the natural choice to become their field leader.
1748 - Bernadeth is passed over for field leader of the Female Furies by Big Barda, despite her strategic prowess and cunning.
9 years ago - Bernadeth and the Female Furies are brought to watch as Granny Goodness makes Auralie dance in High Voltage Shock Boots until she immolates herself.
7 years ago - Bernadeth and the Female Furies are sent to Earth by Granny Goodness to capture Scott Free. They are betrayed by Big Barda, who abandons them and leaves them in chaos.
4 years ago - Bernadeth and the Female Furies join the Parademon wave invasion of Earth. She is defeated by Big Barda.
2 years ago - Bernadeth and the Female Furies are sent to Earth to capture Supergirl, sending an army of Doomsday clones as a distraction. Supergirl is put through a training gauntlet and is tested by the Furies but defeats them all, as well as Granny Goodness, earning her own freedom.
We've made a change to Bernadeth that honestly shouldn't be that important, we make adjustments to characters like this all the time, but in this case it feels much bigger because the thing we're changing is basically this character's entire deal. Hopefully, you guys will enjoy the results of the change as much as we do.
Bernadeth's StoryBernadeth was one of the original founding Female Furies from Mister Miracle #6 in 1972. She made her first appearance along with the rest of the group at the end of the issue, after everyone else had ambushed Scott on their own. While everyone else was clearly designed to be a combatant, Bernadeth seemed like more of a schemer and backstabber, complete with a weapon that seemed perfectly designed for backstabbing. Like the rest of the Furies, she would eventually turn on Apokolips and follow Barda to join Scott's act on Earth, although this detail seems to be largely forgotten by modern continuity. Later, in the pages of Ostrander's Suicide Squad we see Bernadeth vying for leadership of the remaining Furies with Lashina.
From her very first appearance, Bernadeth has always been described as the sister of one of Darkseid's most loyal followers, Desaad. This has really been the core of her entire characterization. Unfortunately, we're adapting a story from the pages of 1992's Eclipso that establishes that Desaad was actually a young lad from New Genesis that Darkseid corrupted, and if we do that it means that Desaad is completely cut off from his family and couldn't have a sister on Apokolips with him. The solution was pretty simple; we made Bernadeth his daughter instead. While at first it seems like a pretty lateral change, in practice I would argue that this actually makes even more sense, establishing that Bernadeth was handed over to Granny Goodness and the Terror Orphanage as a child, and that she grew up with a certain amount of privledge among the other 'orphans', believing she is destined to lead the furies by virtue of that privledge. It gives her a little bit more personality, and we really like the result. |