Red Lantern #35: Guy Gardner and Tora Olafsdotter lounge on beach chairs on the sands of Dubai, chatting. She suspects that he’s interested in taking on the possibly superpowered dictator of Qurac, just across the water, but he’s charmingly coy. Later, alone, he does attack said dictator Shahkavat, but their fight is interrupted by the arrival of four New Gods serving Highfather in his hostilities against Lanterns. Outgunned, outnumbered, Guy is about to be killed by Malhedron when he is rescued by… by…
Green Lantern Simon Baz.
In violation of Chekhov’s maxim - and of her own superheroic impulses and any concern she might have for Guy Gardner - Tora is nowhere to be seen.
And I was disappointed. In her day, Tora - known as Ice - was a respected superhero. Princess of a hidden race of ice people (or, well, highly confused and traumatized metahuman member of a Gypsy-like family, depending on the story), member of the Global Guardians and Justice League International, partner (with Beatriz DaCosta) in the two-person villain-thrashing team of Fire & Ice, Tora can fight and rescue with the best of them. But we’ve seen very little of this in The New 52. Why bring in Tora, and not let her do anything superheroic, just when it’s called for?
I understand this is Godhead, the New Gods vs. Lanterns mega-event, but frankly I think it would have been interesting if a non-Lantern had gotten involved. Even if Simon was necessary to the plot, have them both come and help Guy against four - count ‘em, four - New Gods. Don’t treat Tora, in one of her rare modern appearances, like so much cheesecake.
You know what Tora Olafsdotter (if that’s even her name….) gets to do in this story?
- Pose in a bikini for a brightly-lit full-page pin-up
- Act like a sour ex-girlfriend, nagging Guy about his lack of communication skills
- Chill his lukewarm beer
- Not help
