Tigress
29 years ago - 2-year-old Artemis Crock's father Crusher Crock is sent to prison by the All-Star Squadron when Paula Brooks rolls over on him.
26 years ago - 5-year-old Artemis Crock's father Crusher Crock escapes from prison and kidnaps her, taking her on jobs while on the run, relentlessly hunted by Paula Brooks
24 years ago - 7-year-old Artemis Crock is recovered by her mother Paula Brooks when she tracks her father Crusher Crock with the help of John Law, whose collarbone Crusher shatters before he is caught and sent back to prison. She goes to Africa with her mother.
16 years ago - 15-year-old Artemis Crock's mother Paula Brooks is killed while robbing an embassy in Algeria. She returns to the US, starting to work as a professional thief and assassin.
12 years ago - 19-year-old Artemis Crock helps her father Crusher Crock escape prison. He's caught in Gotham within 24 hours by Batman.
10 years ago - 21-year-old Artemis Crock befriends Roy Harper.
9 years ago - 22-year-old Artemis Crock joins Roy Harper's new team the Outlaws. They try to go up against William Tockman but are systematically picked apart. Artemis chooses to abandon heroics and breaks into the Justice Society Brownstone to steal her father Crusher Crock's equipment.
8 years ago - 23-year-old Artemis Crock is recruited into the Injustice Society. She begins a relationship with Joar Mahkent, and becomes pregnant.
7 years ago - 24-year-old Artemis Crock helps Wally West stop Joar Mahkent & Leonard Snart's battle in Keystone City. She chooses to retire to raise her son.
5 years ago - 26-year-old Artemis Crock's father Crusher Crock escapes prison again and attempts to kidnap his grandson. Wally West & Roy Harper track him down, and while she chooses not to kill him, he ultimately dies in his own deathtrap.
We would probably have included the Artemis Crock version of Tigress no matter what. She's a pretty heavily featured member of the '90s and 2000s Injustice Society, a team we'd be including no matter what. We probably wouldn't have spent a lot of time on her, as her story is pretty straightforward. What makes her even more important to our timeline, however, is a character from a certain beloved TV show.
Tigress's Comic HistoryArtemis Crock's first comic appearances happened in the pages of Infinity Inc, as the series introduced a new lineup of the Injustice Society. She was introduced all at once as the daughter of former members of the Injustice Society Sportsmaster & Tigress and went by her actual name, Artemis. She also had a wildly different look that is actually very cool but a pretty big departure from the vibe of her parents.
Artemis did make one more appearance in the pages of Young Justice before she was picked up by Geoff Johns as a member of his newly designed Injustice Society, now sporting her far more recognizable crossbow hunter look and using her mother's villainous name, Tigress. She was a pretty versatile character, challenging Justice Society characters that had their own books like Stargirl or Hawkman. She also appeared in the continuing adventures of the Injustice Society in their own story in the anthology series JSA All-Stars, where we see her relationship with Icicle evolve. This version of the character essentially dissappeared once she had her child; she's gone on to appear in the New 52 in some form or another, but that's really not the version of this character we're interested in... |
The Artemis ParadoxI really could not tell you why Greg Weisman & Brandon Vietti decided to use Artemis Crock as the basis for one of the founding members of their young superhero team, but it's hard to argue with the results.
The version of Artemis that appears in Young Justice is a combination of a few ideas; the backstory of the comic book Artemis Crock, the visuals and fighting style of Arrowette, or Speedy, or other Green Arrow proteges.. . and a completely unique characterization seemingly tailor-made to make her a fan favorite. So we're left with this strange decision to make, where we really do want to use a version of animated Artemis... but we also want to use comic accurate versions of all the characters she's built from. So the question becomes; can we keep Artemis Crock to just her comic-accurate story, and still evolve her into something that would be familiar to all the fans of the Young Justice version of the character? |
Our Tigress StoryOur goal here should be to create a timeline that leans into her original persona as a lethal criminal and assassin, someone who fought several members of the Justice Society and even took on the whole team once to break into their Brownstone... but over time, as she becomes a mother, her priorities should shift to be more about keeping herself and her son safe from the dangers of her past. This can open her up as a character, allowing her to build relationships with the heroes who work to protect her, and who accept her help when she offers it. Is this exactly the animated Artemis? No... but one of the benefits of deliberately building out these characters' whole timelines is we get to see them grow over time.
Another useful tool here is to look at Artemis's costumes because that can play a big role in how the character works. The Green Costume from the first season of Young Justice is fantastic, but it's clearly meant to emulate the Green Arrow characters. As Tigress, she uses her cool scoped hand crossbows and other gadgets, and that works much better in either her comic-accurate costume or the yellow and black outfit from later seasons of the show. Perhaps then the right idea is for her to wear her comic costume for much of her career, but for her to transition over to the yellow and black costume as she starts to put her criminal career behind her. |