Forgotten Characters: Element Woman
Whatever happened to Element Woman?
Back when the New 52 continuity actually mattered and tried to hold itself together, Element Woman was one of the first, permanent new members of the Justice League! She was created and written by Geoff Johns himself!
Just look at her little element car!
But her introduction was part of a larger storyline leading into the Forever Evil crossover. And then she immediately disappeared and got shuffled off to the nonexistent Doom Patrol. She hasn’t been seen since, and definitely hasn’t had a part to play in Rebirth.
What happened? Why would this awesome new character get such a short shrift? Join me after the jump to help commiserate!
Who is she?
Element Woman debuted in the Flashpoint event ahead of the New 52 reboot. She is Emily Sung, a chipper and friendly superhero who is super excited about being a superhero. She’s got the same powers as classic Justice Leaguer Metamorpho, but for some reason doesn’t really have any direct connection to him. Or, at least, he hasn’t shown up. Honestly, we haven’t seen Metamorpho since before the New 52 for some strange reason.
Emily’s got the power to transform her weird body into any element.
Platinum is also an element she can change into
In the New 52 era of DC Comics, Element Woman was notable because she was one of the first real recruits onto the Justice League. In New 52 continuity, the Justice League consisted of the original seven characters for the first five years of their existence. That’s five years of the same roster for the Justice League.
Then during a battle with Ocean Master and the forces of Atlantis, Cyborg put out the call to get other heroes to help out, and Element Woman suddenly appeared to answer the call.
Here she is in the middle of a big double page action splash!
After that fight, the members of the Justice League sat down and decided to finally, after five years, add new members to the team. This was kind of a big deal. They chose the Atom, Firestorm and Element Woman.
Emily was cool enough and important enough that she was one of the first ever new members of the Justice League! (At least in the New 52 continuity).
She’s the equal of Firestorm!
Emily was great! She was funny and friendly and a really great foil for the far more serious members of the League.
Sadly, it turns out that Element Woman was just meant to be a throwaway character. Not soon after she was inducted onto the team, the Atom betrayed the Justice League and kicked off the Trinity War and Forever Evil crossovers. Element Woman was with the rest of the League when they were tortured by the bad guys.
But when the heroes escaped and the day was saved…nobody bothered to find Element Woman. I guess they went looking for her, but it was never shown, and clearly they didn’t do a very good job.
The Chief may have been lying to her…
Instead, Element Woman as found and brainwashed by the wheelchair guy from the Doom Patrol, who insisted she join his team because nobody else would want her.
Oh yeah, definitely lying
Poor Emily was dragged along with that dude’s lunacy, and eventually the Doom Patrol came up against the Justice League in a fight. She had to fight her former friends because of the Doom Patrol brainwashing, and when the fight was over, the Justice League just let her stay with the Doom Patrol, where she was clearly being messed with. Some heroes.
Nobody bothered to say, “Hey, Emily, now that we’ve found you again, come back to the Justice League where you’ll be safe and actually do some good.” Nope, it’s apparently better that you say essentially kidnapped by some maniacs.
Why should you care?
Because Element Woman is fun! How many fun superheroes are there at DC Comics? Especially back during the New 52 era. She’s a nifty update to the Metamorpho character who actually enjoys being a superhero.
Taking bullets like a champ!
Plus, she’s another positive female character for the Justice League! We should all want more of those, right? Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl need some new friends.
Look, I read the New 52 Justice League and enjoyed it for the most part. But all these years later, the only thing I really remember is Element Woman. She was fun, she was super, she as cheerful, and in a world where Squirrel Girl is one of the most exciting, popular characters at Marvel Comics, DC could use their own cheerful and colorful lady awesome.
Bring back Element Woman!
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Posted on June 6, 2017, in Comics, DC, Forgotten Characters. Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.
Henchman-4-Hire 
Great little piece here.
I think Element Woman’s issues stem from a couple things: Geoff Johns and the New 52.
The New 52 sometimes gives off the vibes that it’s the DC universe remade in the image of Geoff Johns. He had a hand in Flashpoint, Superman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Shazam, Justice League, Justice League of America, and more. And don’t get me wrong, I like Geoff Johns, but one thing he loves to do a lot is “tinker” with characters’ backstories to cater to whatever story he wants to tell. But none of the aforementioned DC characters are his original characters. Sure he’s created some hits! Like Stargirl, Miss Martian, and others, but none that equal the popularity of the classic heroes.
Part of the benefit of the New 52 meant creators could create new characters and erase old ones without garnering too much pushback from editorial or fans. Why write Garth (Aqualad) into the Aquaman book when Geoff can create a whole team of original characters (The Others)? Why make Kyle Rayner the young GL of the New 52 when you can create a new GL (Simon Baz, and later Jessica Cruz)? Why include Ray Palmer and Metamorpho when you can create Atomica and Element Woman (although Emily is a holdover from Flashpoint)?
I will say in Geoff’s defense, I totally get wanting to receive more royalties. I totally get wanting to be in control of a character from inception to execution and not have decades of continuity to endure. But it also means that once you leave the book, someone else is going to come in and either want to create their own characters Or DC editorial will prefer to use the tried and true characters they own. Either way, it means that unless someone is particularly motivated to keep the character around, it will be forgotten. When Geoff created Emily Sung, I was surprised he didn’t use Urania Blackwell (The original Element Girl from Metamorpho comics). But then I realized he probably just wanted to create an original character. He did and I liked Emily. But as someone who really enjoyed Metamorpho, I never saw the point in multiple Element people when DC rarely uses one. (And I think some fans resented the idea of Metamorpho being erased from continuity entirely, I know there were a number of characters that I was upset never to see in the New 52 which have since returned post Rebirth).
Sorry, long comment. I just think this topic is worthy of discussion of the much larger problem of pay and residuals and royalties in comics, which finds some of our favorite old and new characters being forgotten as a side effect.