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Post by dans on Jan 16, 2024 2:19:29 GMT
Perhaps in her civilian identity, Susan works a specialist role as an undercover art and/or currency and/or antiques and jewelry fraud specialist detective, which would give her opportunities to dress up, socialise with high society and satisfy her sleuthing capabilities? She might have minored in art history if she decided to upskill. Nice!
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Post by DocQuantum on Jan 16, 2024 2:56:15 GMT
Let's just make her a brain surgeon and be done with it. I'm sure it would be totes in line with what has been done with the character, and if not who cares?
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Post by DocQuantum on Jan 16, 2024 3:05:42 GMT
In all seriousness, it's a bit futile to discuss the career status of a character who has never been shown to have any in a story. If this discussion leads to a great Bulletgirl story that fits, then great. Otherwise it seems a bit pointless. Bulletgirl is Susan Barr's only career of note.
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Post by redsycorax on Jan 16, 2024 3:17:06 GMT
As far as we know. Would it do any harm to develop the character in question?
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Post by jonclark on Jan 16, 2024 6:32:06 GMT
As far as we know. Would it do any harm to develop the character in question? I think that depends on how the development works. If giving her a career expands the stories that can be told or if it adds real depth to the stories that are told, then great. But if the development is done just to add something without caring what it really adds, then maybe it isn't a great thing. Is Bulletgirl getting a civilian job just to provide a detail for her Who's Who entry? Does this new job have legs or is it something to be used in one story and then not be brought up again? In Dan's case I suspect he is going to follow up. He's shown that in his writing. But I can see why the site can be reluctant about stuff based on some past writers who either took things in bad directions that later had to be undone or inserted details that no one else felt like using. We Pre-Crisis types have been burned a lot and tend to be a bit gun-shy.
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Post by dans on Jan 16, 2024 12:56:06 GMT
My main purpose in asking is to make sure I don't impinge on our current continuity. I agree that her job probably isn't important but if someone else has already established a job for her in either the comics or here, I don't want to just blow that off. Continuity is very important to me. And I agree with Jon - when someone ignores continuity and then a bad direction has to be undone, that kind of thing irks me. I don't want to leave a mess that someone else has to clean up. Also important to me to keep the people in my stories in character with the people readers already know. I believe Sue would have a 'job' when she's not being Bulletwoman, and I don't think she would be Jim's lab assistant or a secretary for her Father in her new life. And whatever she does has to be believable. She can't have a full time attendance mandatory absence requires a written excuse type job or she would be fired. She would probably make a great brain surgeon - she is intelligent and has excellent coordination and reflexes, and certainly the courage to see it through in life or death situations that require split second judgement, but someday a situation would probably arise where she needed to decide between saving lives as Bulletwoman or saving lives as Dr. Susan and that would suck. Some super hero doctors don't have that choice - they were doctors before they were super heroes - but I can't recall any cases where a super hero became a doctor in their secret identity after getting their powers. I really like the Specialty Detective idea. (I'm tempted to have Sue set up her own agency called 'Spicy Detective Agency' and maybe use a cover from one of the pulps in her marketing literature. I think this fits in with Lib's characterization of her quite well!)
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Post by dans on Jan 16, 2024 17:34:30 GMT
I like #3. Detective Spicy Suzy daringly rushes into danger just in time to save the damsel in distress from a fate worse than death! Not sure what the other story lines would be, but none of them actually look appropriate, unless the cops in #4 are crooked?
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Post by redsycorax on Jan 16, 2024 23:19:16 GMT
Well, there you are then! Susan Barr, specialist art and fashion bunco detective! It would segue quite nicely into her Bulletwoman role and provide her and Jim with useful information in their costumed crime fighting career/s. Whether it's private consultancy or big city police department work is up to you, Dan. However, and just to help you out if you do decide to go down this road, larger cities have greater possibilities in terms of municipal government funding or private enterprise endowment of art museums or galleries.
Here are some plot points for you to consider, partially inspired by lateral thinking related to the pulp cover prompts above:
As for fashion-related crime, hmmm. Intellectual property infringement when it comes to unlicensed use of particular designs? Actual theft of those designs, whether online, from filing cabinets, business premises or family homes? Fashion houses entangled with underworld family members who use them as a front or distribution network for contraband use or drugs? Blackmail of fashion entrepreneurs or models with shady pasts? Fashion entrepreneurs and models who are still involved in covert criminal activity? Vandalism or arson to fashion business premises? Commercial rivalry that crosses the line? Kidnapping in that context?
And as for art crime...forgery...vandalism...theft of valuable artwork...smuggling away of stolen artwork or sculpture...threats to artists dealing with controversial subject matter...hijacking and ransoming of intercepted artwork while in transit... abduction and ransoming of high end artists...use of artwork to conceal contraband goods or drugs...
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Post by dans on Jan 16, 2024 23:34:32 GMT
Thank you. I don't think my current story will do anything more than refer to Sue's agency in passing, but if I ever get back to the Bullets I will definitely consider some of these. She just got done with a high profile case that involved going undercover at a modeling agency that was involved in a human trafficking ring.
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