LGBT Character Of The Week: Knockout
This week we take a look at a villain, the former fury, Knockout. Knockout, also called Kay was raised on Apokolips by Granny Goodness, not unlike Scott Free (Mr. Miracle). However, Kay was trained to be a Fury, one of Granny's bloodthirsty warrior women, which gives her super-strength, regeneration and limited invulnerability. After being punished constantly for her rebellious tendencies, she eventually hijacked a boom tube to Hawaii, where she clashed with Superboy.
She spent a long time as an adversary of Superboy, and the two even had some sexual tension going on between them, but eventually she ended up pretty much permanently off-panel. She remained this way until the Villains United miniseries in 2005. She's outed in issue #6, and reveals she is dating fellow villain (and daughter of Vandal Savage) Scandal. Their relationship continued into the Secret Six miniseries with a few rocky moments but eventually they worked it out.
Knockout has since been killed during the Death of the New Gods stuff that's been going on with DC over the last year. She apparently requested one phone call to Scandal from her killer, (whom she knew), but the conversation was not shown. One would assume it was a tearful goodbye.
Sgt. Sausagepants
Posted to Comics on 1 July 2008
· Comments (3)
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And another bites the dust!
Let's see...she's gay, AND dead...do I detect a pattern?
First of all, Knockout was bi, not gay. She was trying to get into Superboy's pants in her early appearances, and unknowingly cheated on Scandal with Deadshot.
Secondly, she wasn't killed off because of her sexuality, she was simply another victim of Grant Morrison's hack writing. He decided to kill off all of the New Gods, and Knockout was unfortunate enough to fall in that category.
According to the Final Crisis Sketchbook, Morrison has plans to bring back most if not all of the New Gods in new Earth personas. The Apokaliptian men are coming back as cross-dressers, while the women are coming back as fetishists. So there's a chance that Knockout could come back, but givenn Morrison's treatment of these characters so far it might be a mercy to let her rest in peace.