Cartoons- The Tragedy of the Starfire Reboot by Caroline

As children, a majority of us grew up with a show called Teen Titans. Teen Titans followed a group of young superheroes- all of them from the DC Universe.

Without a doubt, most people would agree that Teen Titans was absolutely incredible. The art was impeccable, there were lessons to be learned, and there were plenty of dynamic and interesting characters.

One of those characters, the one I'll be focusing on in this post, is named Starfire.

" There was nothing you could've done. There will always be people that say mean words because you are different. And sometimes their minds cannot be changed. But there are many more people that do not judge a person based on how they look, or where they came from. Those are the people whose words truly matter. "

Starfire's powers are fueled strictly by her emotions, along with every other member of her alien race. She's passionate and she keeps her head high although she has a rough past involving her family members. Naturally, she's one of the kindest Teen Titans and still manages to be very powerful. She teaches young girls that it's okay to have feelings and it's okay to be sad sometimes but this doesn't mean that you're weak. Although she's naive, she's quite bright. This shows young women that even though you may not know everything, you're still knowledgable in some way or another. 

Recently, DC comics did a reboot involving Starfire's stories. This is the rebooted Starfire.

Needless to say, fans are furious.

We grew up with this wonderful show with these wholesome characters. We learned so much from them- everything from compassion to strength to lessons in friendship. With the reboot, we (and many other young people) have been given this exploited version of a loved hero. 

In this blog post by Michelle Lee, a seven year old girl and a fan of Teen Titans responds to the new Starfire. Her reaction is as genuine as a child can be as she goes on to say some of these things about the Titan's revamp:

Her mother asks, "Why do you like Starfire?" in reference to the original. Her daughter responds, "She's like me. She's an alien new to the planet and maybe she doesn't always say the right thing, or know the right thing to do. But she's a good friend, and she helps people. She's strong enough to fight the bad guys, even when they hurt her. Even her sister tried to kill her, but Starfire still fights for the good side. And she helps the other heroes, like Superboy and Robin and Raven. She's smart too. And sometimes she gets mad, but that's okay because it's okay to get mad when people are being mean. And she's pretty."

When asked about the appearance of the new Starfire, the seven year old immediately gets uncomfortable. She says that the new Starfire doesn't seem like a good hero. "Well, she's not fighting anyone. And not talking to anyone really. She's just almost naked and posing."

The child then goes on to agree that the old Starfire- the one from the Teen Titans cartoon, is definitely a hero as opposed to this new Starfire. She says that the new Starfire isn't somebody she would want to be when she grows up while the other one is someone she admires and relates to.

I find this child's reaction very interesting. She clearly understands that being scantily clad does not make you a hero as a woman, even if comics try to make it that way. Instead, she understands that it's what's on the inside that makes you a hero. I believe that the reboot was created to appeal to young men- probably around the ages of 17- 21 as they may have been Teen Titans fans when they were children.

I believe that this post is perfectly summed up with this popular comic regarding the issue.