I understand that women and minority characters are almost always the ones to get the most punishment and I agree that it has to change.

But I’m just not sure that Trajectory’s death really fits into the pattern. I do not think she was targeted by the writers because her death would be more dramatic yet more exceptable because she is a woman. Someone from Infinity Inc was going to die. It just so happened that it was Trajectory.

I figure there were two fates for Trajectory:
1) Remain in the background, without any personality or character development, or maybe just stay as a drug addict. Loose powers by the end of 52 and fade into obscurity.
2) Get some real character development, a person the reader can care about. Be brutally killed but at least remembered by the readers (no promises if the writers will remember her [re: Stephanie Brown])

Both options suck, but it’s one or the other. I think that some readers have become oversensitive to the deaths of female characters to the point where any turns for the worst can be regarded as sexist. This isn’t exactly fair to the writers.

Poor treatment of female, minority and GLBT characters is a very real problem in mainstream comics and it needs to stop, but that doesn’t mean that these characters should be immune to tragedy.

It’s sad to see Trajectory go. I really liked her. But if it were not for her intended death, 52 would have been lacking another interesting female character.

But hey, maybe she’ll come back. Booster Gold is sure too.

/hopeless optimism

Because it’s part of a pattern. It’s sort of what the women or characters of colour (Black Goliath in Civil War #4) are there for…To wear the red shirts.