| Betty Clawman | |
|---|---|
 Drawn byJoe Staton inMillennium #2. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Millennium #2 (January 1988) |
| Created by | Steve Englehart (writer) Joe Staton (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Betty Clawman |
| Species | Homo magi |
| Place of origin | Earth |
| Team affiliations | New Guardians |
| Abilities | Cosmic awareness |
Betty Clawman is afictionalsuperhero and disembodiedcosmicforce in theDC Comicsshared universe. She first appeared inMillennium #2 (January 1988),[1][2] and was created bySteve Englehart andJoe Staton.[1][3]
TheMillennium series was specifically written to introduce superheroes of color into the DC universe. Betty Clawman is an Aboriginal Australian woman, and her teammates includeGloss (aka Xiang Po, from mainland China),Jet (aka Celia Windward, an Afro-Caribbean British citizen),Extraño (aka Gregorio de la Vega, from Peru) and Inuit mechanicThomas Kalmaku.[3]
Betty Clawman was a youngAboriginal Australian girl fromUluru,[4] who was selected by theGuardians of the Universe to take part in an experiment in human evolution,[1][5][4] and to advance the human race.[6] Clawman, along with the other nine "chosen", are taught about the nature of the cosmos and endowed with immortality andmetahuman abilities.[1] Clawman was given the power to enter and merge with theDreamtime, gaining vast and ill-defined abilities.[1] Together withHarbinger, seven of the chosen form the superhero teamNew Guardians.[7]
Betty Clawman and the New Guardians appear inTeen Titans Spotlight #19.[8]
Following the end of theNew Guardians series, Betty Clawman largely fell into obscurity. In the seriesDoomsday Clock, Clawman assumes the alias Dreamer and joins theSleeping Soldiers, a group of Australian metahumans founded as part of an internationalarms race.[9][10][11]
Betty's abilities since entering Dreamtime are vast and unspecified. She appears to have a degree of cosmic awareness, as befitting anEarth Mother figure,[10][11] and has some ability to influence dreams.[1][2][10] On one occasion she "synced" withTom Kalmaku and amplified his abilities to unleash the genetic potential of several human clones.
Writer and scholarFrederick Luis Aldama described Betty Clawman as one of several superheroes of color that began to emerge in comic books in the 1980s and 1990s,[3] and he described her character as "interestingly fleshed out".[6] Luke Pearson of theSpecial Broadcasting Service noted Clawman is one of several Aboriginal characters in comic books who was not originally written or drawn by Aboriginal authors or artists, but said she is among a handful of recent characters created with more care for Aboriginal origins and characteristics, expressing hope that this would lead to future characters written and drawn by Aboriginals themselves.[1]Tyson Yunkaporta according to an article inThe Guardian, said that Clawman made an impression when first launched, but was among a handful of Aboriginal characters who were eventually "neutralised, reconciled with the main protagonists and retired to obscurity".[12] Tim Richards ofThe Sydney Morning Herald called Clawman "the most obscure of the big comic book companies' Aboriginal heroes".[10] Pop culture writer Valerie Estelle Frankel noted that Clawman is part of a trend of female characters having telepathy, mind control, or telekinesis, which Frankel said is presented in comic books as a "specifically feminine power".[13]
History professor Allan Austing and English professor Patrick Hamilton, both ofMisericordia University, were critical of the portrayal of Betty Clawman and other members of the New Guardians, who they described as racial stereotypes rather than actual characters. Austin said he was "horrified" by the depiction, and said while the characters were an attempt to promote multiculturalism and the benefits of a more inclusive society, the way the characters were executed risked having the opposite effect. Clawman and others from the New Guardians were made part of a course the two taught at Misericorida called "Race and Graphic Narrative in Post-War United States".[14]
