Badass, Brilliant & Black 2: The Re-Up
Remember that thing I said about Black women possibly becoming the face of fictional villainy in pop culture? I... I might have been right.
OK, so I might be onto something.
In my last post (Badass, Brilliant & Black: The New Face of Fictional Villains), I justified wanting to nerd out about smart Black woman antagonists by claiming it was the start of a trend before I jump into a pages-long analysis about Sister Sage and Dr. Gaul. I even admitted it was based off of two instances, so it was clearly a tongue-in-cheek claim that Black women of higher intellect were the new face of fictional villainy. But here's the thing (and you'll never get the Aquarius in me to shut up about it):
I MIGHT BE RIGHT.
Here's what I said in the post if you didn't read it:
Now, before you accuse me of jumping the gun, I'll admit this isn't exactly a full-blown trend... yet. We've seen brilliant Black female antagonists before—Amanda Waller in DC Comics, Fish Mooney in Gotham, Maeve Millay in Westworld, to name a few. But there's something about Sister Sage and Dr. Gaul that feels different, more potent.
Thing is, one of the examples I gave was totally corroborated by someone else entirely unrelated to me, which gives me a third instance of evidence that the little pattern I noticed might actually be the start of a trend.
tl;dr: Amanda Waller, whose characterization is that of a chessmaster/brilliant strategist, is (or is becoming, depending on your POV) the Big Bad of the DC Universe.
I'm basing this from Fantastic Frankey, a creator I follow and whose takes and analyses on pop culture I enjoy:
Post by @fantasticfrankeyView on Threads
I'm not deep enough in the DC Comics Universe weeds to know the specific arcs and character beats as intimately as with The Hunger Games and The Boys, so I can't do a big character dive like I did without more research first. That being said, Frankey's comment section on Threads and Instagram are a great place to start and her community (while vocal and opinionated) is pretty nontoxic, so definitely check there for more Waller lore.
In any case, what do you think? Are these 3 instances over the span of 3 big franchises enough to justify announcing Black Woman Villains as a trend? Or is it still too early to call?