Dawnstar returns
Dawnstar is one of DC's biggest Indian superheroes. She may be the biggest, which would be a sad reflection on DC's lack of diversity.
Anyway, she's back after a long hiatus. Here she is:
DawnstarDawnstar is a fictional character in the DC Universe of the 30th and 31st centuries, and a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Dawnstar is her real name (she has no Legion code name), and she is from Starhaven, a planet colonized from Earth in the 23rd Century. Her name is derived from the planet Venus, the "morning star." This is why Dawnstar wears an eight-pointed star ornament on her forehead. Dawnstar is of American Indian heritage, although no specific tribe was ever linked with her.
Dawnstar's unique powers include the ability to track life forms and objects across light years of distance and through interstellar space. She can survive in deep space for long periods of time without a spacesuit or oxygen. Dawnstar and other Starhavenites have pairs of large, white-feathered wings that grow out of their upper backs, the result of genetic engineering. In deep space, she can travel at faster-than-light speeds. Recent appearances:In a JSA-JLA crossover story, "The Lightning Saga," Dawnstar (along with many other Pre-Crisis Legionnaires) is seen as a statue in Superman's Fortress of Solitude.
Dawnstar, with her wings and original appearance, unites with other Legionnaires in the 21st Century in a still-mysterious effort to save someone's life. (They hold rods that resemble those used for a similar action, to save Lightning Lad, in the original Silver Age Legion stories.) Although it was predicted that at least one was risking his or her own life, no one dies, and the Legion contingent returns to the 31st Century.
The Legion shown in this story is currently taking part in a story set in its own time and involving Superman, beginning in Action Comics 858.
Dawnstar is now being depicted as part of a Pre-Crisis Legion—highly similar to the original, though not identical—that is known by Superman. Comment: In the most recent ACTION series, Dawnstar has a modified costume. But her essential traits remain:
1) She's a buxom Indian princess type in a revealing costume. The revised costume has less fringe but is equally revealing.
2) She has no specific cultural traits or heritage. Her only Indian traits are an ethereal personality and a vague spirituality. She's a typical generic Indian.
3) Her tracking power is somewhat stereotypical, but it's mitigated by her unusual wings and extraterrestrial abilities.
4) She and her family members--Mistrider, Moonwalker, Greybird, and Greatfire--have clichéd Indian names.
The lack of a specific heritage is the worse problem. I believe the idea is that Indians in general colonized the planet Starhaven. And what...they all abandoned their individual cultures and became New Age pan-Indians? Tlingit and Ojibwe, Seminole and Hopi, Cheyenne and Mohegan, Oneida and Paiute...one big happy family?
Anyway, she's back after a long hiatus. Here she is:
Dawnstar
Dawnstar's unique powers include the ability to track life forms and objects across light years of distance and through interstellar space. She can survive in deep space for long periods of time without a spacesuit or oxygen. Dawnstar and other Starhavenites have pairs of large, white-feathered wings that grow out of their upper backs, the result of genetic engineering. In deep space, she can travel at faster-than-light speeds.
Dawnstar, with her wings and original appearance, unites with other Legionnaires in the 21st Century in a still-mysterious effort to save someone's life. (They hold rods that resemble those used for a similar action, to save Lightning Lad, in the original Silver Age Legion stories.) Although it was predicted that at least one was risking his or her own life, no one dies, and the Legion contingent returns to the 31st Century.
The Legion shown in this story is currently taking part in a story set in its own time and involving Superman, beginning in Action Comics 858.
Dawnstar is now being depicted as part of a Pre-Crisis Legion—highly similar to the original, though not identical—that is known by Superman.
1) She's a buxom Indian princess type in a revealing costume. The revised costume has less fringe but is equally revealing.
2) She has no specific cultural traits or heritage. Her only Indian traits are an ethereal personality and a vague spirituality. She's a typical generic Indian.
3) Her tracking power is somewhat stereotypical, but it's mitigated by her unusual wings and extraterrestrial abilities.
4) She and her family members--Mistrider, Moonwalker, Greybird, and Greatfire--have clichéd Indian names.
The lack of a specific heritage is the worse problem. I believe the idea is that Indians in general colonized the planet Starhaven. And what...they all abandoned their individual cultures and became New Age pan-Indians? Tlingit and Ojibwe, Seminole and Hopi, Cheyenne and Mohegan, Oneida and Paiute...one big happy family?
posted by Rob at 8:21 PM
7 Comments:
The "Star Trek: Next Generation" and "Voyager" Indians were rather "Generic" when it came to their identity by tribe/nation.
I'm thinking it is carelessness on the part of the writers/creators: they just did not bother, and Indian is Indian.
One could easily imagine some sort of future situation where Natives have pretty much given up tribal identity, but that requires creativity.
I've posted a long critique of Chakotay because of his ill-defined heritage.
Good point that tribal identities might fade in 1,000 years. But if that's what the writers intended, they should've stated it. If they don't address the point, I presume they haven't thought about it. And that Dawnstar is just another generic Indian.
Even an Indian from some unified tribe would have cultural traits. And the traits would be more than a superficial spirituality. Dawnstar lacks any trace of this. If she ever expressed a cultural thought, it was no more than a prayer to the "Great Spirit."
I've met lots of urban Indians whose cultural knowledge comes from distant relatives or books. Even though they're acculturated, they're not the same as you or me. They still think about issues that matter to Indians. They commiserate over Columbus, Wounded Knee, or boarding schools because these things are part of their history.
Dawnstar has never done anything like that. She's a one-note cardboard cutout, not a good character who has abandoned her heritage. Giving up one's heritage is as much a characteristic as keeping it, and Dawnstar doesn't have it.
Another point:
You're suggesting Dawnstar is an Indian the same way I'm a German. After 1,000 years, I've lost all ties to any Germanic tribe. I'm as generic a German-American as they come.
If that's the case, I don't leave with my fellow German-Americans to colonize a planet. I don't have anything in common with them except a nonexistent "Germanness" based on my name. I'd rather emigrate with the Indians because I feel more akin to them.
You see? A group identity requires shared thoughts and feelings. Dawnstar has a pseudo-Indian identity, but she doesn't have an Indian's thoughts and feelings. So her character rings hollow.
In other words, she's a cipher in Indian's clothing, not an Indian to the core. If she were an Indian to the core, she wouldn't be wearing a sexy babe outfit or mouthing platitudes to the Great Spirit. She'd be expressing whatever beliefs and values led her people to move to Starhaven.
You could apply this analysis to almost any generic Indian character. For instance, Wyatt Wingfoot or Dani Moonstar. They don't have any traits particular to their tribes, so they don't seem real. They lack the depth that a real Indian in their position would have.
I want to thank you for posting about my own favorite Legion (and DC) character. And for concluding your comments with the lovely Greg LaRocque portrayal of her that I had cleaned up and posted as part of the Wikipedia article, where I've contributed on many occasions.
You can easily guess from my user name — and from the portrait sampled in my avatar, and "taken" by another Legion fan — that, in part, I disagree with your take on Dawnstar. Only in part, though.
Yes, the diversity of tribal identities and the particulars of Indian/Native qualities were suppressed or made generic on the part of those who shaped Dawnstar as a character, over thirty years ago. I'm the last to say that this was accurate or well-informed.
I'll have to say, though, that the creators of Dawnstar — Mike Grell, in her visual traits, Jim Sherman, the first to draw her in ongoing stories, and Paul Levitz, in writing about her future origin and culture — intended a character that more generally respected Indian heritage and perspectives, and did honor to courage and the diversity of talents, from whatever source or background.
They made this explicit, as you can judge from reading interviews with them that talk about Dawnstar in the TwoMorrows book The Legion Companion, which is searchable at Amazon.com. (I contributed scans of two Dawnstar artworks to that book.)
The four-color mass-printed result does, indeed, end up flattening a wealth of detail and doesn't flesh it out, visually or verbally, as Indian diversity would call for. You have every logical and personal right to be dissatisfied with what came about.
I also believe, though, that with the compression of all such detail that the mass media indulge in daily, what ended up on the Legion's pages didn't end up dishonoring or dismissing Indians as such, either.
Dawnstar was shown as one of the most powerful Legionnaires. She was the fastest denizen of the DC universe, by far. (Role-playing handbooks pegged her at 32 light-years per hour. That outdid Superman, Mon-el, and their relatives.) Her being able to travel in space without hazard or oxygen suggested a degree of invulnerability that put her in the upper echelon of DC's otherworldly powerhouse characters.
Many of the later Dawnstar stories try to respect and amplify the Indian background of her portrayal, with consistent respect, albeit, yes, without showing the detail of tribal life. In this sense I can especially recommend (using the Overstreet Guide terms) Legion of Super-Heroes volume 2, issues 311 and 321-323, from 1984-1985.
The comics medium doesn't allow for nearly as much storytelling grist, in the sense of amplifying characters, as it ought to do. It never has, but sadly, this has only gotten worse over the past 30 years, with SF memes and psychological terror dominating the storytelling. (Too much of the latter is already part of the current storyline showing Dawnstar and the Legion, beginning in Action Comics 858.)
In any event, I simply hope that you'll take some pleasure in seeing such a character returning at all, as I am, after first seeing her in the Legion's pages 25 years ago. (And, by the way, both powerful and physically whole, getting past what some artists and writers did indeed do to disrespect her.)
Yes, she always was too much of the stereotypical princess, and always showed more skin than most would prefer — though far from the comics' extremes, then or now. She's beautifully portrayed by the current artist, Gary Frank, and that — along with the weaknesses of her Earth-colony backstory being put in the deep background — ought to count for a great deal.
I'll note in closing that Dawnstar's first and greatest appeal to me has always been her wings, shown to great advantage and utter beauty by a host of artists. Who also did often manage to suggest Indian and exotic features for her, at least attempting to make her a prominent visual aspect of the Legion's cast.
And this has extended to superb portrayals by Legion fans and by pros on their days off. I have a gallery of such fan(nish) art that does her honor at my page on ComicSpace.
Thanks for your own commentary, and for putting up with mine as well.
Dawnstar has appeared in, what, 50 or 100 Legion stories? Levitz and company had plenty of space to define and develop her cultural heritage if they wanted to. That she remained a cardboard character after all those stories is not a testament to the writing.
I don't know how much credit we should give the writers for "honoring" and "respecting" Indians with a generic princess type. This is the same argument people have always used--for instance, with sports team names and mascots. They're honoring a sanitized, romantic version of Indians while ignoring the complexities and contradictions of real Indians.
The fan art you linked to kind of proves my point. Most people seem to see her as a fantasy object, not an Indian person. If she didn't have a sexy body and costume, I bet she'd be about as popular as Matter-Eater Lad.
Any hero with super-speed should be a formidable fighter. But I don't remember her defeating a major villain singlehandedly, and certainly not a heavyweight like Darkseid or Validus. If she hit someone at 32 light-years per hour, I suspect he would fall down and stay down.
If she's that great a character, let's elevate her to her rightful place over Superman, Mon-El, and the rest. Until then, she's more of a token than a real hero. Like Tyroc, she exists mainly to create a faux multiculturalism, so DC can pretend the Legion is more diverse than it really is.
Anyway, thanks for your comments, Greybird. You've given us a lot to think about.
I have no doubts that Dawnstar's Indian heritage is insufficiently detailed and insufficiently specific. And it's certainly fair to say so, to critique her portrayal on that basis. And for someone who is coming at the subject from the point of view of looking at Indian characters in pop culture, she's going to come up short.
One thing Greybird didn't quite say is that, despite this, Dawnstar was nevertheless a memorable and well-written character. She may not have been a good Indian character, but she was/is a good character. And if her cultural background was poorly sketched out, well, so too were the cultural backgrounds of the rest of the Legionnaires.
I've written more on Dawnstar here.
Thanks for your thoughts too, Matthew.
For more on Dawnstar, see the comments I posted on Legion Abstract, Matthew E's blog.
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