Profiles in Supervillainy: La Dama

Eileen’s major literary love is comedian books, however she’s all the time looking out for her subsequent literary journey it doesn’t matter what type it takes. She has a Bachelor’s in media research, a Master’s in digital communication, a smattering of revealed quick tales, and a severely cute canine. Follow her on Tumblr and Twitter.

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What is a superhero with out a supervillain? Not a lot. Some supervillains, nonetheless, are price much more than others. I’ve due to this fact determined to highlight some lesser-known villains. Are they underrated gems or irredeemable losers who should be forgotten? You determine! Today’s topic: La Dama!

In the eyes of Brenda Del Vecchio, one among Blue Beetle’s associates, Amparo was the perfect aunt you possibly can ask for. She was definitely higher than Brenda’s father, a violent abuser who serendipitously died in a automotive accident after placing Brenda in the hospital.

There was only one downside: unbeknownst to Brenda, Amparo can also be La Dama, the pinnacle of a legal empire who is set to construct her personal military of magical meta-humans. And she figures out Blue Beetle is basically Jaime Reyes in no time flat. Oops.

La Dama threatens to expose Blue Beetle's real identity if he crosses her. Blue Beetle realizes she killed her niece's abusive father.

Like many criminals, La Dama has one huge weak spot, and that’s Brenda. She will do completely something to maintain her secure and blissful, as much as and together with homicide. She organized her father’s automotive “accident” to guard Brenda, and he or she tolerates her friendship with Jaime as a result of she is aware of the 2 genuinely look after one another.

Amparo and Blue Beetle every have blackmail materials on one another — she is aware of he’s Jaime Reyes, he is aware of she’s La Dama — so they comply with a truce on the finish of her first look (Blue Beetle #3-6). Needless to say, that doesn’t final actual lengthy.

Notable Appearances

Despite her personal love for Brenda, and regardless of being an astute observer, La Dama doesn’t fairly appear to understand that different folks have loyalties, too. She is frequently shocked by the lengths to which Brenda’s different pal Paco is keen to go for her.

She was, nonetheless, conscious sufficient to maintain her actual profession a secret from Brenda, solely to have Brenda unintentionally discover out about it in…

Blue Beetle #19

Obviously, Brenda could be very upset by the information, however she does additionally study that Amparo had been making efforts to tone down the worst of her legal actions to be a greater guardian for Brenda.

In two panels, Brenda realizes that her aunt has been scaling back her criminal activities ever since learning she might have to take Brenda in.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get a lot decision to this revelation. In later points, Brenda moved in with the Reyes household so she might course of the whole lot, and we noticed a few temporary interactions between her and La Dama that indicated they could have the ability to restore their relationship sometime. And that was how issues stood when the collection (and your complete DC universe) bought rebooted in 2011.

Blue Beetle #1-5

I hate this reboot. In addition to altering Jaime and the Scarab’s backstory and inserting some questionable Spanish (why would you employ the casual You to speak to your boss, who can also be a criminal offense boss?), it revived Brenda’s dad and erased all information of La Dama’s actual identification from the principle characters’ minds. Oh, and she will do magic now, I assume.

La Dama prevents Jaime from moving through the use of magic. She refuses to let him go until he tells her what he did with the Scarab.

On the upside, Amparo lastly will get a final identify: Cardenas.

Beetle’s first encounter with La Dama in this reboot ends together with her unintentionally magicking her home — and herself — out of this aircraft of existence.

Justice League 3001 #8-12

In a far-off future the place the whole lot sucks, the Justice League is cloned and set to combat Lady Styx, a supremely highly effective despot who has conquered Earth. It goes type of dangerous and culminates in the collection getting canceled with out a clear decision.

What does this need to do with La Dama? Well…sigh…

Blue Beetle #13

This situation reveals that Amparo Cardenas is definitely an immortal being who has passed by many names, together with La Dama and Lady Styx.

Lady Styx reveals to a shocked Blue Beetle that she is also la Dama. — Why do I really feel like Oscar Isaac saying Palpatine has by some means returned?

I’ll get extra into why I hate this in a second. But what actually burns my toast is the assertion that Lady Dama is incapable of affection or heat emotions for anybody, even Brenda. Whereas Brenda was beforehand the point of interest of Amparo’s life and even impressed her to vary (considerably), the rebooted model simply needs energy and can step on anybody to get it.

The situation ends vaguely (sure, once more), with the implication that Blue Beetle will sometime work for Lady Styx. As far as I do know, although, she — and La Dama — haven’t appeared in any new tales since this one.

Anything Else?

Not actually. She apparently confirmed up in Catwoman: Hunted as a member of Leviathan. I haven’t seen it, so I can’t say which model of the character this was.

The Verdict

Both.

The unique model of the character is a refreshing change of tempo out of your regular villain. La Dama is a “big fish in a small pond” (as Batman places it in Brave & the Bold #3) on function. She by no means turned a worldwide or nationwide menace as a result of she doesn’t need or want that type of bother: her empire in El Paso offers all the cash and energy she wants, and he or she is proud of that. There’s one thing to be stated for a villain who doesn’t let their ambition get the higher of them for a change.

And then the reboot occurred and threw all that out the window. It pains me to say this, since I usually like Giffen and DeMatteis’s Justice League work, however the Lady Styx enterprise is completely the mistaken transfer for this character. They took a morally advanced antagonist and turned her into one other generic supervillain. Maybe the truth that Justice League 3001 bought canned hampered their skill to flesh out Lady Styx, however the very idea of that character goes towards the whole lot that made La Dama attention-grabbing.

I’d very fortunately see Lady Styx dropped right into a volcano, however La Dama deserves one other likelihood — maybe in a future Blue Beetle film (trace, trace)?

Want to satisfy extra ignored villains? Check out my profiles on King Tut, the Matador, Peek-a-Boo, Man-Killer, Mad Mod, Big Wheel, KGBeast, the Living Monolith, Egg Fu, Mahkizmo, my One-Shot Special, Lord Manga Khan, and Deadly Nightshade!

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