Katana's first foray: Batman and the Outsiders #1 (August 1983)

Katana’s first appearance is in the first DC Sampler giveaway comic, but for our purposes and because I no longer have that (I did all those years ago, though!), we’re going to say it was in Batman and the Outsiders #1 (August 1983).

As we've discussed before, I’ve always considered Katana a pretty cool character.  Well, except for her original ketchup and mustard color-schemed costume.  It’s really a shame what happened to her recent solo series.  Out of all the New 52 redesigns, hers is the most visually arresting and appropriate.  But we're old school hereabouts, so we're going to spend some time with the original Katana, from back in the day.  DC and Comixology just released for sale the first two issues of the 1980s Batman and the Outsiders series and, of course, I jumped at the chance to buy them again. 

The plot mechanics show through.  There's trouble brewing in made-up country Markovia, and that's where Bruce Wayne has sent trusted employee Lucius Fox (the guy played by Morgan Freeman in the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy) there.  Rebel troops capture Fox and hold him hostage, but wouldn't you know it, Superman has told the United Nations the Justice League will sit this one out, and if you're a member of that team, his promise is legally binding.  When Batman finds out no one's going to help him rescue Fox, he flips out and quits, thus finding and exploiting the one small loophole in the United Nations charter as it relates to solemn promises made on everyone's behalf by a guy from another planet.  Even with Batman giving everyone yet another snarled recounting of his origin, this is still an all too convenient way to get Batman out of the Justice League and together with the Outsiders-- all of whom just happen to be in Markovia at the same time for their own purposes.

Well, to hell with that.  This was-- and remains-- a cool book.  You really can’t, or shouldn’t, argue with Jim Aparo’s artwork, and writer Mike W. Barr builds a strong team dynamic once he gets past the set-up.  The unique mother-daughter relationship he establishes between stone-cold killer Katana and naïve amnesiac Halo helps set this book apart from its ensemble-cast predecessors Uncanny X-Men and New Teen Titans and keeps Outsiders from becoming too generic—the DC equivalent of The Defenders.  Geo-Force is a real zero, though.  His brown costume is dull, as is his origin.  Fortunately, there’s Black Lightning and super-freak Metamorpho.  Black Lightning gives us someone badass to root for who isn’t a jerk like Batman, and Metamorpho adds visual interest.

What does Katana add besides maternal love?  Why, dead bodies by the truckload!

The all-murder-all-the-time team member element hearkens back to the early days of Uncanny X-Men and the Wolverine character arc, before he became overexposed and watered down by revealing his many origins and future demises.  I can’t get over Batman sort of standing back and letting Katana murder so many people, but it certainly makes her more interesting than blandly heroic dopes like Geo-Force.  She doesn’t have any powers to speak of, although because she’s Asian and in a comic book, she’s adept at all martial arts, and because she’s Japanese, of course she is a samurai.


Script:  Mike W. Barr/Art:  Jim Aparo


See?  The very first thing she does is kill that general, just as a disguised Black Lighting (he's not in the JLA, so he's legally allowed to help Batman all he wants) has successfully tricked him into believing he's Fox's brother and wants to trade lovely gold bars for his lovely fake brother.  Black Lightning's thought balloon and clinched fist both show he knows this ruins Batman's scheme.  He quickly strips off his civilian clothes to reveal his super-costume and starts fighting the enemy troops. 

Okay, let's take a break from all the killing to talk about the very thing from which Katana takes her codename.  What?  You thought Katana was her birth name?  No, her parents named her Tatsu Yamashiro, but only her close friends who know her in her civilian identity call her that.  And even they don't call her that.  They call her Yamashiro-san.  Or Ms. Yamashiro. 

And a katana is a type of samurai sword.  I'm far from an expert, but I do know samurai had more than one kind.  There were longer ones and shorter ones, and they all have names which I don't know.  We say "katana" when we mean the basic samurai sword.  Unless we say "samurai sword" sword instead.  This is Katana's main weapon, her version of Green Lantern's ring, Green Arrow's bow and arrows and Green Keyboard's magic computer.  Anyway, Katana uses a katana.  You know Katana talks to her katana, right?  That’s one of her “things.”

Why would anyone do that when there's a perfectly good Batman standing right there?  I'll tell you.

Like Katana herself, Katana's katana has its own special name:  The Soultaker.  It does that.  It takes souls.  If Katana kills you with it, your soul goes into the sword with all the other souls, but Michael Moorcock doesn’t sue you or anything, so don’t worry about it.  I think a cooler codename than Katana would have been the Japanese phrase for Soultaker, which is something like 魂を取る人, or “Tamashi o toru hito,” or 魂を盗み (“to steal the soul”) according to Google Translate.  Hm.  Maybe not.  Kind of clumsy, huh?  Looks as if Barr and Aparo had a good idea all along and I'm wrong, all right?  I'm Wrong Roy.  Toby!  You are close to death!  Come out here!

So her husband's soul is inside Soultaker.  They talk a lot.  In the new series, she sleeps with the sword as well, which is all kinds of kinky especially when you consider most of her pals don't believe her husband's soul (or anyone's) is inside the sword.  But trust me, in the original series, he's in there and she talks to him and he talks back and gives her advice.

 Anyway, she--



Script:  Mike W. Barr/Art:  Jim Aparo

Oh, look!  Katana's second kill.

She's not really in the first issue of Batman and the Outsiders all that much, but with two kills in two pages, she's made quite an impression.  Batman hogs most of the story space, the same way he hogs the front part of the title, as if this were one of those noisy rock combos the kids like nowadays, where the lead person has their name up front and everyone else is kind of smashed into a collective to the rear.  And then the named artist quits and starts producing music that sounds just like the original group’s, only not as inspired or interesting.  As a result of Batman’s outrageous ego, Katana barely gets into the comic, but she has an impact much greater than you’d expect given the few panels in which she appears.

Another interesting aspect of the character is--

Script:  Mike W. Barr/Art:  Jim Aparo

That's our Katana!

DC's Katana to star in her own book?

He's either in there or he's not!

I've read some articles, or items, speculating that DC has a Katana #0 coming at us in September with a cover by David Finch.   Okay, it's the same rumor twice and then referred back to.  That doesn't change the fact I read all three of them and it's yakuza, not yakusa (unless yakusa is simply an acceptable alternate spelling in which case good for you).  Oh, and the old Katana really did have her husband's soul in her sword.  I'm not so sure about the new one.  This rumor seems all the more likely when you consider Katana will be co-starring in Beware the Batman, the new "cutting-edge" CGI animated series coming next year from Cartoon Network.  You know how these media companies love to create synergy.  Which is just a fancy way of saying they like to advertise their other products within their products.

DC occasionally does things that seem aimed directly at getting me—specifically me—to buy their product.  Of course this is solipsistic thinking.  DC’s plenty happy with the 100,000 or so regular readers they have.  They’re not about to aim a title at any one person, especially not a person who spends half his blogging time telling their editors, writers and artists how to do their jobs—although I do know best-- and the other half ignoring them.  And they do just as many things to alienate me however inadvertently.

But sometimes… sometimes… 

I’d love to see a Katana book.  My reasons?  Even though no one at DC cares in the least, I’m going to share them here.  Because it is my blog and because it is bitter.

As an American living in Japan, I’m endlessly fascinated with how the folks back home view my adopted home.  I’ve liked Katana since her Batman and the Outsiders days and she’s by far the most visually appealing character DC’s got at the moment.  I’m also a huge fan of katana-slicin’ action a la Lone Wolf and Cub and Lady Snowblood—to name a couple of books infinitely superior to just about anything either Marvel or DC has done with their Asian characters.  Or in most cases, their North American characters. 

Not every comic can attain those heights.  Kazuo Koike is a genius and there aren’t many around who can operate on his level.  But more funny book writers need to aspire to that instead of aiming for Michael Crichton.  Or Brad Meltzer.  And don’t bother reading Memoirs of a Geisha.  A smart Katana book that balances ultra-violence with moments of great beauty and perhaps some mono no aware as well would hook me.  Don’t make it resemble a cheap Rush Hour knock-off.  Ignore the Hollywood influence.  Stop trying to cram Michael Bay nonsense onto the printed page.  Instead, go for the nastiness of Takeshi Kitano with the humanism of Akira Kurosawa.

I have the feeling—cynic that I am—they’ll do it and it’ll be full of shallow characterization and a setting influenced more by secondhand info and The Last Samurai clichés.  And it’ll be as disappointing as that god-awful Kato series I foolishly gave a shot for some of the same reasons I’m willing to take a chance on a Katana book.  I mean, it’s DC.

Still, I can’t help hoping this rumor turns out to be true…

Every Old Katana is New Again!

Created by writer Matt W. Barr and artist Jim Aparo, Tatsu "Katana" Yamashiro's been bouncing around the DC universe since 1983 when she debuted in the pages of The Brave and the Bold #200.  Despite his long held aversion to killing, Batman allowed Katana to join his Outsiders group, where her place was roughly the same as that of Wolverine in the first Chris Claremont-written issues of Uncanny X-Men.  Like their Marvel analogues, the Outsiders were originally an international team.  Katana as one of the few members from a real nation with a real culture to explore, even if in a somewhat superficial way.  Her code-name is the Japanese word for the main sword used by samurai, a similar situation to when I appeared as a character in a manga about dorks who blog about comics and called myself Computer Keyboard.

Strangely enough, her sword wasn't always a proper katana.  In some issues, Jim Aparo's version appears to be a no-dachi, a longer bladed weapon used for chopping down riders and horses so one might have a better chance at fileting the fallen enemy. And not just any no-dachi; it's a magical one named Soultaker because it contains the souls of all killed by it-- which gives it more of a Moorecockian lineage than anything having to do with samurai-- including Katana's dead husband. To whom she talks fairly often while... er... polishing him.  It.  I mean "it."

Alan Davis's sword is more the classic katana, although as you can see, its size sometimes varies from panel to panel.   "SHAKKKT" was Katana's version of Wolverine's famous "SNIKT."  But however an artist depicted the weapon, once it was in Katana's hands even the largest of enemies understood discretion as the better part of valor.  We can only imagine that quizzical guy... polishing... Katana's sword there lying in the bushes in two neatly bisected pieces, the grass covered in red slowly drying to a brown crust.  No word from Katana's dead husband on how much he enjoyed the poor fellow's loving hands, though.

Since Katana's a comic book Japanese person, writer Mike W. Barr characterizes her as secretive and largely emotionless, expert at martial arts and the ways of Bushido.  The other choice for comic book writers at the time was to write their Japanese characters as arrogant and frequently infuriated for no reason; i.e., the female Dr. Light and Sunfire over at Marvel.  And experts at martial arts and the ways of Bushido.  Katana's backstory also contains an ex-lover in the Yakuza for the customary family honor business.  Once again, this was during the era when The Uncanny X-Men and its break-out character Wolverine-- especially the version drawn by Frank Miller-- had made all things Japanese cool and hep in the superhero genre.

In Katana's case, think Wolverine's doomed fiancee Mariko Yashida, only this time she's the stone-cold killer instead of just giving someone else justification for his various murders.

Okay, so we've established Katana as an efficient martial arts-based hero with a fancy sword.  But what about her powerful maternal nature?  This is what makes her unique among comic book martial artists.  Sure Lady Shiva spends a lot of time trying to repair her relationship with biological daughter Cassandra Cain, but that's only because it's every parent's dream to fight her offspring to the death for the leadership of a secret cabal of international assassins.  Katana, however, truly embodies the classic nurturing archetype.  You know:  the extraordinarily deadly martial artist mother with a fancy soul-eating sword.

On the rare occasions when she does show emotions (I mean other than the joy that comes from bisecting an anonymous thug with with a perfect killing stroke), Katana largely directs them at her naifish teammate Halo.  During the first few issues, the two quickly form a sort of familial relationship, with Katana as the strict and occasionally insanely protective and possessive parental figure who seems obsessed with her young charge to the point of stalking her.  Finding Halo working as a roller-skating server at a fast food join in #43, Katana demands she quit and then rather desperately offers to buy the girl any clothes she wants.  Which is kind of wacky, considering Katana herself was the one initially trying to push Halo into the superhero equivalent of a "normal life."

You know, attending school, hiding your powers from your classmates, donning disguises, lying to everyone you meet, jetting off at odd hours to kill people all around the world.

Classic Katana may have been two parts stereotype to one part Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford in the trash classic Mommie Dearest, but she was also a pretty cool and compelling character for those of us who are into Sonny Chiba movies and Koike Kazuo comics.

What about contemporary Katana, now that she's got a regular monthly gig again, but no longer with the Outsiders?  Some things about her are comfortingly familiar.  She's still a working part of a renegade team of heroes, this time the Birds of Prey alongside Black Canary, Starling and Poison Ivy.

"SHUK" instead of "SHAKKKT," but Katana shows up in Birds of Prey #2 (by writer Duane Swierczynski and artist Jesus Saiz) and immediately racks up quite the body count.  On her first page, she's already diced and cubed five members of the Crazy 88s without changing her facial expression. Or even having one.  Katana kills and kills and in between killing she sometimes takes breaks to kill.

Why, I remember this one time Katana woke up, killed a couple of guys on the way to the kitchen, poured herself a bowl of Frosted Flakes, killed three more guys while getting the milk from the refrigerator, ran outside to kill a team of ninja trying to steal her morning paper, then killed a few more people on the way back to the front door before sitting down and reading For Better or For Worse while eating her cereal; a breakfast ritual for her-- she loves that strip.  She spent the rest of the day killing.

So if you're not willing to take my word for it and you're still wondering whether or not Katana uses her sword in the way The A-Team used their Ruger Mini-14s or if she swings it in earnest, I think this image pretty much settles the issue:

"SSSSSHK?"  Wrong again.  It's "SHAKKKT."  Just a flesh wound.  The flesh being the center of that guy's heart.  I don't think those two rubes in the bottom panel are going to be bouncing their children on their knees or swinging them up to the blue, blue sky anytime soon, either.  Or breathing.

No one really seems interested in stopping her murderous ways, which is kind of odd.  We all love dark stories where the murk hides the boundaries between right and wrong, but honestly, what kind of hero team amasses that many corpses and remains a hero team?  And why don't the international authorities care about due process and basic human rights?  Sure, these are villains and some of the killings can be justified as self-defense, but one has to wonder how many and what the limitations are on deadly force as they pertain to superheroes.

Hey, I'm not judging her.  I'd rather have a killer Katana than a Katana who waves around a mostly useless sword and only uses it to cut ropes and buttons off villain shirts and pants.  I'm just wondering why people like Black Canary-- and even Batman back in the day-- tolerate it, and why Interpol or the United Nations or even Amnesty International doesn't get involved at some point.  I understand why Starling doesn't; she's too busy shooting people in the face.

Katana has evolved on other ways over the years.  Her costume was once Ronald McDonald-esque with a vaguely Asian motif.  Now she's one of the more visually impressive heroes in DC's roster.  The new Superman flies around in a hideous cast-off that looks like a collaboration between Mr. Data of Starfleet Hills and the people who invented "Mighty Men and Monster Maker" (when he isn't wearing a bath towel, t-shirt and jeans), Batman now wears a codpiece or an adult incontinence pad, but Katana sports a sleek armored suit reminiscent of Japanese lacquer wear, with a samurai shoulder protector and greaves.  She hides her face behind a half-mask and Kabuki-inspired make up.  It's an extreme look, making her somewhat monstrous and robotic and all together menacing.  She's one of the few sensibly protected female characters in comics.

We'll probably learn later it's a plastic bikini and some kind of shiny body paint.  But until that day comes-- and perhaps it never will-- she looks fantastic.  Not someone you want to mess with.  Or sit next to on a crowded train.

Also different is her hair style.  No more bangs or Louise Brooks bob, nor does she sport the Davis-era shag.  But the change most telling of its era is that it's now ambiguous as to whether or not her sword contains her husband's soul.  She obviously still believes it does, but we readers are no longer party to their conversations.  Black Canary and Starling are presented as kind of dubious about the whole "talking to an inanimate object" thing as well.  The point is to call into question Katana's hold on reality.  Is she a little off?  A little nutty?  That makes her all the more dangerous.  And anyway, flying people and half-robot people are completely within the realm of possibility, but talking swords are only ridiculous, right?

Katana no longer uses contractions when speaking English.  As one of those EFL teachers over here in Japan, I find that kind of difficult to believe in someone who's as fluent in English as Katana.  It does give her that cold, almost inhuman feel to go along with the costume.  I have a hard time accepting a stiff, overly formal Katana knowing what I know about her relationship with Halo.  Still, as we've seen, people do change and Katana most of all.

On that note, time will tell if she's still competing for Substitute Mother of the Year.  I hope she is.  It gives her depth and humanizes her so she's not just a relentless human lawnmower-of-faceless-goons.  I hope she fixates on Starling and starts smothering her with concern and buying her clothes to cover that gothy corset top.  Or, alternately, offering to pay for more tattoos to make her arms appear more symmetrical.

Katana's new look

Let's talk about something positive. Let's talk about the inspired new costume Katana will sport in the upcoming Birds of Prey series by Duane Swierczynski and Jesus Saiz. I love the old Batman and the Outsiders series, so I have a soft spot for Katana. Besides Batman himself (old school Batman, not 1990s-2000s Batman), she's always been my favorite Outsiders team member. I haven't kept up with all the developments in her ongoing narrative, but now I see she's got a sharp new outfit. It sleek yet powerful, and announces Katana as a force to be reckoned with. I hope the writing measures up to the visual.

Jim Aparo, bless his heart, never quite got the katana. His version of Katana's namesake weapon-- which she apparently nicked from Elric of Melnibone-- usually looked like a scimitar straightened straightened by some gifted yet demented blacksmith. And Katana's costume was less samurai and more Indonesian, with a side of McDonald's and some Genghis Khan for dessert. Actually, now that I'm on a roll, she looked like one of Ming the Merciless's soldiers from the 1980 Flash Gordon flick. Or maybe she was angling for Ming's job all along.

While I lived in Japan for 6 years, I didn't meet too many samurai or ninja. Yeah, I hate to disappoint you, but there aren't a whole lot of ancient families living the bushido code in the high-tech urban landscapes of Tokyo and Osaka, no rooftop battles at night between American costumed heroes and hundreds of black-clad assassins. No haughty businessmen who spend their off hours railing at their kids for not upholding the family's honor who are also secretly training sword-wielding armies to protect their virginal daughters against the handsome yet deadly oldest son of their hereditary enemy clan. I'm not sure if they all live in a certain prefecture and I just didn't get up that way, or if they were all around me and their ancient martial arts powers of invisibility hid them from my idiot eyes. But I did see a few suits of samurai armor in museums. None of them were 100% magenta+100% yellow/100% yellow. Maybe those are too valuable to display. Or maybe I needed to order a tsukimi baga to catch even a glimpse.

The recent Wonder Woman design looks like a random assemblage of clothes meant for a motorcycle mama on her way to Sturgis and cluttered up with handmade jewelry from one of those stores that also sells dreamcatchers and tie-dyed shirts. No theme, nothing really tying it together other than bad taste. Katana's, by contrast, features authentic touches with the shoulder and wrist guards, sleek lines, interesting mask and elbow pads giving it a splash of color. Her gray face-- make-up?-- is reminiscent of a Noh mask. You look at it and you instantly get who she is and what she's all about. Okay, I admit ogling artifacts in glass cases certainly didn't make me an expert on Sengoku jidai arms and armor, but I like to think I know a bad ass when I see her. And baby, this new Katana is one of those.

She also reminds me a little of this guy: