Batgirl feeling backlash from BOP?

[DisneyBoy]

...I couldn't help but feel disturbed when reading this:

Batgirl #39

A mysterious metahuman called Black Wind has turned Batgirl's world upside down. Not only is he more than a match for Batgirl on the battlefield, but he also seems to have swept her off her proverbial feet. The only solution, as Babs sees it, is a cruise. But when Black Wind and another familiar metahuman show up on the same ship, Cassandra's vacation takes a turn for the worse!

...could someone who reads this book please tell me why I'm hearing the word "metahuman"? It scares me. Please don't tell me the word has become "mainstream" in the DCU.

[Jor-El]

As far back as I can remember, this word has always been used in the DCU. This isn't anything new.

[Jin Kazama]

Yeah, I kinda doubt they'd start doing stuff like that considering the fate of the series.

Now, if Batgirl started facing Metahumans every issue, and took off her mask to fight crime, then I'd be worried.

[TimTwoFace]

The first time I ever heard the term "metahuman" used was in BATGIRL #3...and I wasn't a fan of it. I dunno, I haven't read enough of the BATGIRL or BOP comics to argue whether the term should stay or not, but if it's anything like what was on the BOP TV show, then please, DC, drop it and move on. :p

-Tim

[Jor-El]

"Metahuman" is just the term for any superpowered individual. Superman is a metahuman. So are the Flashes, Alan Scott, Plastic Man, etc. Even Black Canary is a metahuman, with her canary cry.

There's a small debate about where Green Lantern stands in the classification. I say that he's not metahuman because his power is from his ring, but in a Grant Morrison JLA tale when Starro creatures took over the world's metahuman population, GL was taken over. So I don't know. Personally, I wouldn't classify GL, Stargirl, or even Hourman (the first one—Rex Tyler,) as metas.

But like I said, the phrase wasn't coined by "Birds of Prey" and has been around in the DCU for years. So "arguing about the term staying or not" is a moot point. It's an established term and it's here for the long run.

[DisneyBoy]

I guess I just had a poor introduction to it. Thanks for the info, guys :)

[Domino]

I think the term metahuman started being commonly used in the DC universe during the Invasion crossover back in the mid-to-late 1980s. They started using explanations involving the "metagene," which evidently most of the powered characters would have.

It all sounded kind of silly to me. I never needed a pseudo-scientific explanation for superpowers in the DC universe. Marvel had already spent way too many words on the subject in their own mutant books.

I agree with the assessment of Green Lantern too. He's no more metahuman than Green Arrow is, he just has a better weapon.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

I know John Ostrander was using the word pretty frequently in Suicide Squad in the late 80's and early 90's. I always thought he coined the term so people in comics could say something other than "superheroes" to describe people with extraordinary powers, but the Invasion crossover (and the Metagene bomb) is probably a better etymology for the word.

-- Ed/Ace

[peterparker05]

I wouldn't classify Superman as a metahuman as he's an alien.