Halo

24 years ago - Gabrielle Daou is born in Qurac.

11 years ago - 13-year-old Gabrielle's family flees Qurac to avoid religious persecution, becoming refugees in Markovia.

8 years ago - 16-year-old Gabrielle's family are all killed by human traffickers and she is used as a test subject by Helga Jace in an attempt to trigger her latent Metagene. The test is unsuccessful and she is killed, but as she is dying, her body becomes host to an Aurakle, an energy entity that exists in the depth of space that has been farmed nearly to extinction by the Reach. They awakens with no memory, existing as a gestalt of both beings. They are taken in by the Outsiders, and particularly by Tatsu Yamashiro, as they stop a coup in Markovia. They starts going by the name Violet, but uses the superhero name Halo.

6 years ago - 18-year-old Violet & the Outsiders discover that Helga Jace has been harvesting metahuman DNA for her experiments. While trying to stop her, they trigger their hypontic control of Brion Markov through his artifically enhanced Metagene. He fights the other Outsiders to a standstill before Violet is able to fully disable his powers, freeing him from Jace's control. The Outsiders are dispanded. Violet remains in Markovia as an ally to Brion, using their powers to protect the refugee population after the bombing of their home country.

4 years ago - 20-year-old Violet begins to learn more about Gabrielle Daou, exploring her Muslim faith.

2 years ago - 22-year-old Violet is given the Soultaker by Tatsu Yamashiro and takes her place in the Global Guardians, representing Markovia, Qurac, and all refugee populations. They officially identify as non-binary. They meet Jamie Reyes, his scarab reacting to the Auraklean energy of their aura.

1 year ago - 22-year-old Violet is taken prisoner by the Reach when they come to Earth. They are saved by Jamie Reyes, and help him defeat their fleet.

In an earlier version of our timeline, Halo was a founding member of the Outsiders, but she was killed when Geo-Force was mind controlled, triggering the end of that iteration of the Outsiders. It wasn't that we weren't fans of the character; but we just didn't have anything for her to do after the original series ended. Notably, this was long before there was ever a Young Justice animated series...

Halo's Comic History

Halo was, alongside Katana and Geo-Force, one of the original characters invented to join the Outsiders, a new team for Batman to lead. They debuted in DC Sampler #1 in 1983, but of course their actual story begain in Batman and the Outsiders #1. Halo is clearly an Ingenue, or a stock character dating back through literature or theatrical history; a young, beautiful, kind, endearingly innocent and often naive young woman or girl. You can think of a dozen examples of the top of your head, but honestly Halo might be the most perfect example of the trope you've ever seen.

She was found in Markovia by Batman as the Outsiders were coming together; a teenage girl with no memory, but with a spectrum of utilitarian light-based powers, able to deploy different abilities depending on which color of the light spectrum she was eminating. She took on the name Gabrielle Doe (she didn't like Jane), and her role in the overall comic often defined the series; the stories generally revolved around her adventures, or around the other characters relatioships with her. As the comic went on we slowly learned more about her. We discovered that her real name was Violet Harper, and that she had run away from home in Missouri, but that she had gotten mixed up with some bad people and was eventually killed, before she was found by a strange orb-like light-being from space that had essentially bonded with the deceased Violet, taking over her body.

This represented a pretty drastic change in the core personality of this character that had up until this point defined a lot of the team. She went from a sweet teenager to an ancient alien entity trying to understand it's new humanity, and while she would continue to appear in other Outsiders stories, they essentially moved on and stopped revolving around her as much.

The Animated Halo

The third season of the animated Young Justice series adapted a largely original verson of the original Outsiders to it's self-contained storyline, and perhaps it's most innovative reimagining is their entirely new take on Halo. The essential story beats are the same; a teeange girl is killed and her body becomes the host of an alien power source, creating a whole new person with a new identity.

In this case, rather than a blonde runaway from Missouri, it's a Muslim refugee whose family is killed by human trafficers. The names are changed slightly; instead of Violet Harper becoming Gabrielle Doe, it's Gabrielle Daou becoming Violet Harper. Also, they tied them into existing continuity a little closer by making the alien power source empowering them a Motherbox.

Our Halo Story

We are actually a little torn here, because both versions of Halo are actually really likeable. They're both charming ingenue archetypes who quickly become the core appeal of their respecitve teams. Ultimately, we decided that the story told by the animated character is just instantly more interesting. Rather than just a troubled kid who ran away from home, they're a refugee who's people and family are being trafficed as part of a very particular villain's story, and that just gives us so much to work with.

Also, while the original comic book Halo was really defined by being essentially devoid of any specific identity, the animated Halo goes on to evolve and define themself in so many fascinating ways; exploring Gabrielle's Muslim heritage, or defining themself as non-binary. There's this sense that they are going to continue to grow, and that inspired us to actually have them move forward as a hero in their own right even after the Outsiders end.

We considered using the idea that they are powered by a Motherbox, but ultimately that felt less interesting than them being bonded to a unique energy entity. We invented the idea that the Aurakles had been farmed to extinction by the Reach, perhaps being used as energy cores for starships, which gave us an excuse to include them in some of the adventures of Jamie Reyes, which we all immediately liked.

Some Potentially Problematic Elements
We Should At Least Acknowledge

There are a few red flags to Halo in general, and in animated Halo in particular, that we felt like we should probably point out. In the TV series Halo becomes romantic with Brion Markov. This also happened in the comic, although it ended fairly quickly. In the comic their relative ages were way more dubious; I think they're closer in age in the cartoon, but even if thats the case, this is still an example of a pretty problematic trope; Born Sexy Yesterday. Halo is, for all intents and purposes, a new being who is discovering the whole world anew. and there is an unshakeable power imbalance with any character attempting to engage them romantically.

This next one is actually a little more complex, but once you see it, it's kind of impossible to miss. Halo's powers in the animated series essentially allow them to regrow their body from any injury including their actual death, and since the show had just transitioned to a streaming service they REALLY leaned into this. The problem here is that they had inadvertantly stumbled into certain tropes about the depictions of Muslim women as the victims of violence. I honestly don't think this was intentional, but it does feel a little problematic once you start to notice it.

Halo's Costume

This is another case where we're torn, because there is a lot to love in both versions of Halo's costume. The original comic book Halo has gone through a lot of variations on her costume, some of them more generic than others, but that original black outfit with it's color swirls really told a story about the character and I think did a great job. I also love the streaks of color in her hair.

All that said, there is really something fantastic about the way the character designers of the animated series created a costume with so much versatility and character, and allowed the character to wear a Hijab. Costumes that celebrate a character's cultural or religious identity are fantastic when they're done well, and this is just so great that I don't think you could possibly go with anything else. We can just imagine that their hair is changing color too.

Halo's Future

Before you ask, no, this isn't a future version of Violet. This is actually a unique character from a miniseries called Another Nail, where the Aurakle found a different host entirely, but we're just using it here because it is just such a great visual representation of the wild sense of possiblility for the future of Halo.

In our timeline, they'd continued to work as a hero in Markovia for several years, protecting it's people and their own as their fellow Quroc refugees integrate into Marokvian society. Meanwhile, their surrogate mother, Katana, has been serving faithfully on the Global Guardians as the representative from Japan. When Tatsu finally is able to free the souls of her family from her sword and can step down from the Guardians to retire, it just seems so incredibly fitting that both that role and the Soultaker be passed to Violet. The sword is not really necessary, given their power set, but they are absolutely the person that should be wielding it.

From there, they get to be part of this newly expanding group of International heroes. They'd be representing not just their own country, not just their adopted country, but refugees worldwide, and that is absolutely something that deserves to be represented.

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