Half -metahuman? does anyone find this silly

[Empress Vader]

why do they keep saying that? Helena's not half metahuman. That's like saying she's a half-mutant, you either have a mutation or you don't (unless we're talking two face here, and even then). But still it's not like being part black and 1/4 indian, 1/4 Irish etc. etc. It's like if one of your parents are a dwarf, you either inherit the dwarfism or you don't, you either are a dwarf or aren't. You aren't "half dwarf".

[Helena Kyle]

Yeah I totally get what you are saying, it doesn't really make any sense at all. I guess they just think we put it down to her conflicting traits due to her parents and leave it at that, problem is.....we don't ;)

[Ted]

What I find silly about this is is not the concept of half-metahuman but rather the fact that the characterization of it was done sooo badly! That was perhaps one of the most uneven bits of the episode. If Helena has an internal conflict because of the fact that she is half-metahuman why does it only surface now? I'm sure it must have been a point of contention for her for years, right? If she feels so strongly about her 'people' how come she's visiting the bar only a few times a year? How come she shuns them and makes a point to them about being half-human, then later on embraces her metahuman nature and then is all wrapped up on her feelings by the end of the episode? The whole struggle of being a superhero is the quintessential 'Who am I?' battle between the secret identity and the superhero identity and it even harks back further to interior conflicts of ego and superego and your desire for normalcy vs. your need to save people (for what reasons? Guilt for being a bad person, or for past misdeeds? Pride, and desire to be recognized as a hero?). There's soooo much going on with the storyline that it should be used as an always-there conflict, a problem whose answer for which Helena is always searching but never finds because it's not so black-and-white as to be found right away. They should just always have it going on as characterization to build on, but not to bring up out of nowhere for this episode and then have it be one way in the beginning (shun the metas) and then another twenty minutes later (protect her 'people'), and then just solve it at the end. Poorly done, BoP people!

[HyperGear]

Good point, I found it funny thought how they all decided to all go to the metahuman bar at the end. Even Helena thinks she should hang out with the metahumas more often.

[Cassandra Cain]

Yes, excellent point Oracle. Last week she just wants to be normal, this week's she's pushing Dinah to be normal, and then wham bang she's meta. Especially considering the fact that she pretty much rejects everything about her father, wouldn't she all along identify more with the meta 'half' of her and reject the 'human' or rather non-meta?

And Harvey Dent wasn't meta I don't think - he was just disfigured and crazy ;) And I wish we could see more villains like that on the show instead of this meta focus.

[Empress Vader]

Originally posted by Cassandra Cain
And Harvey Dent wasn't meta I don't think - he was just disfigured and crazy ;)

I wasn't saying he was half-meta, I was mostly joking by pointing out he's visually sort of, half-disfigured, messed up, whatever. With Helena, it's not like half her body has metahuman abilities and the other half doesn't. It's one of those you either are or you aren't things. Like hair color, you either inherit a parent's hair color or you don't :D . I mean Helena isn't half blond because mom had blond hair.

[Hecate]

Though, of course, technically it's correct that having powers must in itself mean you are meta-human I take Helena insisting she's half-human, half-meta sort of like Tiger Woods not wanting to claim one race over another because of his parents. Which is kind of interesting because she has more of a problem with her father--the human-- than her mother so it might signal she doesn't want to reject him as much as she cliams. She has apparently made a point of not totally "embracing her meta-ness." Perhaps this can be the theme of one of her future therapy sessions...

[Cassandra Cain]

Originally posted by Empress Vader
I wasn't saying he was half-meta, I was mostly joking by pointing out he's visually sort of, half-disfigured, messed up, whatever. With Helena, it's not like half her body has metahuman abilities and the other half doesn't. It's one of those you either are or you aren't things. Like hair color, you either inherit a parent's hair color or you don't :D . I mean Helena isn't half blond because mom had blond hair.

I didn't mean that as a criticism :) I knew you were joking - I mostly said that to make the point that a villain doesn't have to be meta to be good :)

[jhowlett]

maybe the reason why she said she was half-meta 'coz bruce wayne is pure human. Although it still sounds silly...

[Hecate]

I do think that is the reason they keep emphasizing "half-human" in the introduction and some promos is because Bruce Wayne was and so many people have such problems with the meta-human thing anyway--trying to make it clear that Batman was human and we're all aware of that.

[Larry]

The whole concept of the meta-human in the show may end up turning viewers off because I can already see it becoming tedious. Barbara, Helena and Dinah will face an unending stream of threats and danger from meta-humans instead of super criminals and it will be an overly used plot device to drive the storylines along.

[RageneoX]

I think the word we're looking here is PARTIAL. It is possible to be a PARTIAL mutant if parts of you are mutated and other parts are left untouched.

The meta-human thing is tricky. I believe Barbara's explanation was that if more than 5% of your neural cells are active, then you're considered meta-human. Perhaps a FULL meta-human would have a cortex level of 100%. However, I see your point, Empress: If you're even "a bit" meta human, you're still a meta-human. Thats just my theory though.

|2ageneoX

[huntressearth2]

Can someone clarify when Catwoman became a meta-human. As long as I remember, she has been a skilled martial artist. I don't remember her having any special powers - she is probably the female counterpart of Batman.

[Ted]

The show seems to tie directly into the first two Batman movies - and if you'll recall, Catwoman was a little more than human in them. She fell many stories to her 'death' but was somehow revived by those weird cats and then after that had multiple lives. She wasn't really like Batman in the movie, just a regular person, and they're drawing from that.

As for metas, it's not that humans use 5% of their neural cells and metas use more, it's that most people use 5% (including Helena probably) and Dinah uses much much more because of her amped brain powers and psychic abilities.

[Dingoes8MyBaby]

This is before this crisis people keep talking about. I doubt Helena knows that you can't simply be half-meta. Science is really Oracle's domain. I wonder why she has cat abilities. Mutations are rarely repeated and it seems odd that she would have cat powers like her mom.

[Empress Vader]

I see that they're trying to emphasize this whole metahuman subculture thing. And Helena's "between worlds" because she doesn't have two metahuman parents. But, I don't know, Helena's not the only meta-human with non-meta parent(s) I'm sure.

Originally posted by larterx1
Barbara, Helena and Dinah will face an unending stream of threats and danger from meta-humans instead of super criminals and it will be an overly used plot device to drive the storylines along.

I hope they don't make *every villian* a metahuman, but I don't think that particular plot device is going anywhere fast. Smallville's been going two years by making the meteor rocks turn smallville towns folk into low-level super villians for the up and coming superman. The difference is, with Smallville they sort of needed that plot device to avoid becoming Dawson's Creek. This series is about characters who are actively "super heros", so hopefully they'll be more creative in the future.

[jhowlett]

I think the reason why there seems to be more meta-humans now is 'coz of today's age in comics. If you look at DC comics now...You'll rarely see heroes with secret origins, secret identities and old school stuff. Now majority of heroes in DC, take teen titans for example, almost all if not most are meta-humans. So it ain't really 'coz they're copying marvel's x-men 'coz even they are having a hard time creating heroes and villians now...so too with other comic book companies (except maybe to more mature comics like vertigo and dark horse). I think all the bases have been covered in terms of superhero powers and supervillians...they're just not much powers or origins left to be considered original...

Please don't say that's this is a rip off of this and that...'coz if you look at it and say that it is a rip off...then we should also say that the ff are also rip offs...

hero = copied from
Batgirl = Batman
Supergirl = Superman
Superboy = Superman
Impulse = Flash

You see it's not as much as they rip off heroes, villians and powers...it's how they make them different with it (like attitude, disposition, skill and story). I think that makes it (new heroes, new villians with the same powers) unavoidable to some writers, even in comics.