Bekka

Bekka
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	DC Graphic Novel #4: The Hunger Dogs (1985)
Created by	Jack Kirby
In-story information
Species	New God
Place of origin	New Genesis
Team affiliations	New Gods Sinestro Corps
Abilities	Super Strength, Super Speed, Nigh-Invulnerability, Flight, Self-Sustenance Immortality, Desire/Love Induction, Healing Touch Concussive Force The Mother Box Yellow Power ring Allows flight, superhuman strength, and hard-light constructs through its use.

Bekka is a fictional character that has appeared in various comic book series published by DC Comics. The character has been featured primarily in series dealing with Jack Kirby's Fourth World and DC's main shared universe, known as the DC Universe.^[1]

She is a New God of New Genesis, the daughter of Himon and the wife of Orion. She made her first appearance in DC Graphic Novel #4: The Hunger Dogs (1985), written and pencilled by Jack Kirby.

Fictional biography

Bekka is the daughter of Himon, one of the New Gods whose achievements include invention of the sentient Mother Box computers and discovery of the "x-element" that fueled his co-creation of the teleporting Boom Tubes alongside fellow scientist Metron. For many years, Bekka lived with her father in secret on Apokolips as Himon organized an underground uprising against Darkseid's tyrannical rule. Hunted for his role in this planned insurgence, Himon took extra care to shield Bekka from Darkseid's notice. Himon never imagined that Bekka would fall in love with Orion, Darkseid's own son, when he stumbled into their lives. After healing the wounded Dog of War, Himon and Bekka aided Orion in freeing his mother Tigra from imprisonment. For this act, Himon was seemingly slain by the dread lord of Apokolips. Bekka then accompanied Orion and Tigra to New Genesis, where her love continues to soothe the savagery that lurks within the Dog of War.

In the storyline "Torment" in Superman/Batman #37–42 (August 2007–January 2008), she and Batman help Superman escape from a fictional planet called Tartaros, where Superman is being held prisoner by Desaad. During the rescue mission, she and Batman fall in love and her affection causes Batman to reflect on the lack of love he has forced himself to endure. Bekka likens her spell of desire to a siren's call but says that it affects her as well. In the end, however, she leaves with Orion when he comes to get her. In her home, while thinking that, staying with Orion, she will forget Batman, some unknown person approaches her, and she is then apparently killed as part of Death of the New Gods.

In Death of the New Gods, it is initially revealed that her killer, and the killer of all the New Gods, is none other than her father Himon. However, the killer was later shown to actually be the Infinity Man disguised as Himon.^[1]

The New 52

Bekka was born a daughter of Genesisian Scientist Himon and she held a subconscious power over the emotional attraction in others, one so powerful that not only would people uncontrollably fight over her affections or follow her lead to a fault; men and women alike could and would do anything she asked of them, inadvertently making her life rather harsh. Eventually this charm drew the attentions of Izaya, current and longstanding leader of the New Gods. So potent was this charm that, while he was resistant to it, he could see the potential it would have on the battlefield.^[2] A charm that would be honed, refined and become more focused with age eventually growing in power and magnitude that it'd enabled her to bolster her lieges armies and could potentially have wrested control of his throne if tested.

Godhead

Bekka is presented within the cities of New Genesis among a council of elite new gods under the direct command of Highfather called "The Council of Eight" serving as a member of his elite warrior guard. When called forth at the command of their monarch Bekka communes secretly with Orion regarding his approach towards recruiting the lanterns and acquisition of The Life Equation, Orion states that they would be stupid to refuse his offer but she retorts that if they refused would they force them to join; the revaluation stuns the latter to silence.^[3] After a quick reprimand by the all-hearing Highfather The Council is dispatched all across the Prime Earth universe to retrieve a ring from the various lantern sects.

Bekka being dispatched to New Korugar where the Sinestro Corps reside, after having dispatched Arkillo with loping off some fingers and taking his ring, she heads back to New genesis; all while garnering the interests of their leader Thaal Sinestro. After handing her ring in along with the others to Lord Izaya, they head out to test this new power they've acquired in the belief That the Seven Lights will yield the ultimate power he seeks. But when this test fails after trying to convert a gutter slum planet into a vassal for the new gods only to create horrendous monsters in their wake, her sovereign orders the Council to find The White Lantern who is currently in possession of what he desires and to seek out the rest of the Light Wielders to coral as well as contain deeming them too dangerous to be left loose. Bekka and her vanguard are found on the planet Nok laying siege to the Indigo Tribe she begs their leader; Indigo-1 to surrender nearly winning her over using her power only then to be blasted by the oncoming Sinestro Corps. The shock is short lived however and she & her forces soon retake the advantage slaughtering dozens of fear lanterns in the ensuing battle.^[4]

Seeking to capitalize on this Sinestro himself detonates his rings and corpsmen from outer orbit ordering his more trusted group to pull out while the rest are used as dirty bombs to cover theirs, the GL stragglers and whats left of the nomadic lanterns of the violet light's escape. Enraged at the callous fear lantern masters tactics and the deaths of her allies and enemies in his service, Bekka swears bloody vengeance against him and his entire corps. In another corner of space She can be seen floating through the debris of ruined pirate ships sent as a distraction and a form of invite to Bekka by the Sinestro Corps leader, who appears to her as a glowing yellow construct to convey a message.Still inflamed by his tactics taunting the fear lantern by stating how the New Gods have all but captured the rest of the light users stating defeat is inevitable.

But Sinestro only retorts by adding that all they had to do was ask and many of the corps would have willingly offered to help in their quest against Darkseid but instead they went and pressured the various corps into submission causing the conflict in the first place. Bekka orders her men to join in the search for the remaining Lanterns and to seek out the controller on the other end of the apparition speaking to her, after they leave professing their love Sinestro marvels at how she can coax their loyalties the way she does, going onto say that he did not send those space pirates to delay her advance but to profess he liked her influential work. Wondering why the construct Sinestro sent is still following her, he goes onto say that while it would be interesting a face to face encounter is out of the question considering her odd talents when she brought the notion up. Although he also says if Bekka wished to be rid of him she could have just as easily ported away using a Boom Tube by now, when questioned as to why he remained if it was not to broker terms of surrender. The construct elaborates that it is because he sees prime corpsmen material in her as the light form fades away revealing a Qwardian Power Ring.

Back on New Genesis Bekka stands Guard with Hylat as Highfather preps a Boom Tube to Earth readying to conscript its populace into his armies. Bekka professes he underestimates the passions of the human race seeing as how fervently the lantern corps have resisted them to a point, Izaya rebufed her claims stating they were nowinvicible with the life equation in hand and wondered if their fears should be more concerned with more internal treachery given Malhedron's turn table antics.As if to quote her fears Sinestro soon appeared within Highfather's war council nodding in compliance with her on the will and grit of earth's people. After Sinestro fled the scene from Highfather's thrashing she claims he is escaping only to hear her war chiefs reassurance that he is heading where the tube's passage will lead him, right to earth.^[5]

Sinestro Corps

On the warpath for one who had attacked and desecrated his fellow Korugarians using Ater Clementia (Black Mercies), Sinestro found himself overpowered by the warlord Mongul and his Apex League leaving him at the mercy of the conqueror and Warworld. Having sent a distress beacon to any and all able Yellow Lanterns, bekka soon arrives into battle brandishing the colors of a fear lantern after having accepted invite into the corps by the Ring given to her.^[6] As her rings energies are drained by the weaponized satellite, Bekka resorts to going hand to hand with the despotic Mongul as the other fear lanterns floundered without their power, proving to be on equal footing with the tyrant. Aided by former enemies who're charmed by her siren call among them being the Apex league Members as well as Monguls own assault forces, but lost her advantage as Mongul gained the upper hand immune to her enchantress abilities. Luckily she found both hers and the powers of the fear lantern corps restored Sinestro showing up binding Mongul and jettisoning him into deep space as a lure for an anti-emotion cult called the Pailing; a form of good will to the Apex League whose home worlds of which were razed by.

Afterwards Bekka had words with Sinestro stating her disapproval of summons; who noted that inspite of this Bekka came anyway of her own accord, as the Corps assembled Bekka laid witness as they took claim of Warworld for their own.^[7] After it was disclosed that there was a traitor within the Sinestro Corps, Bekka along with a host of other ring wielders were put onto high alert, As Lyssa Drak retells the various life's stories of members of the Corps present, Bekka snaps angrily at her and Sinestro for invading her privacy only to learn that once a ring finds its host everything about the new wielder of fear becomes known to her; as the lore keeper of Parallax and the Sinestro Corps.^[8] On the way to monitoring New Korugar's unstable core, Sinestro was informed that his daughter was scheming behind his back.^[9] After a short altercation ending with her introduction into Sinestro's faction of lanterns Bekka is present along with the entire roster of Fear Lanterns as Soranik Natu's initiation, after a while the New God confronted him again on the matter of how and why he initiated her into corps accusing him of garnering weapons in an upcoming war.

Sinestro proclaims while Bekka believes both she and Warworld are but weapons in his arsenal he proclaims neither are really a source of power for him.^[10] A trait he intends to show her just as the planet begins to fall apart around them, the irate goddess thinking to herself she could easily kill him and pretend her involvement with the guy never happened. She followed him to the planets core where he showcased the power he boasted of before in the fear entity; Parallax. Using its power Bekka saw first hand how Sinestro forfeited his ultimate asset to stabilize his new homeworld's core, leaving him vulnerable for the very first time in decades. Him showcasing it to her as his token of reassurance, giving her an ultimate weapon; a secret to keep to herself or share at her leisure.

Powers and abilities

Pre & Post-Crisis

As is with all of the New Gods boasts Superior Strength, Speed, Endurance, Stamina, Immortality, Self-Sustenance and is nigh-impervious to physical afflictions including a resilience if not outright immunity to disease. She is also a gifted scientist just like her father, having memorized how to utilize and create her own Mother Boxes as well as invent a host of other New Genesis devices like a phase shifter device built into her suit which allows her to become Invisible and Intangible as well as cloak the presence of others around her. Being born of Apokolips it stands to reason that she is a skilled warrior and adept at hand-to-hand combat, being skilled in the use of both new Genesisian and apokoliptian weaponry.^[11] Her god power being a goddess of love of sorts revolves around emotional manipulation and compulsion, able to draw out and amplify resting or repressed emotions in individual beings around her and move them to act on it as was the case with Orion and Batman. Two largely emotionally repressed beings who denied themselves the embrace of love or compassion in any of its forms. The only way to break the spell of her attractive compulsion is to consummate it in physical union,^[12] She also possesses some kind of force projection that knock over a horde of parademons or badly concuss a mind controlled Superman. She also has a healing touch enabling her to expedite the regeneration process of the fatally wounded variety as said by Batman.

New 52

In the wake of the DCnU Bekka's power and status as a New God remains the same relatively, she might be stronger and faster than her previous incarnation. Seeing as how she could battle and fend of Mongul of Warworld for a time.^[13] Other than that her Empathic abilities are more controlled, magnified even, to a point where she can move countless dozens if not thousands of people to move in accordance with her whims if she so see's fit. Becoming a sort of Empathetic Beacon able to move peoples love and devotion for her to complacent obedience following her lead without question and inadvertently making them fight over her affections as a consequence. She's also able to fly under her own power and survive in hostile environments like the void of space with ease.

Skills & Equipment

Bekka brandishes her skill as a New genesis warrior in her graceful mastery of the sword, being an able combatant capable of ripping through countless lanterns on the battlefield as well as dispatching some of their more seasoned veterans with ease. Using her twin Mother Box blades in combat which can project concussion beams, open Boom Tubes and cut well through most anything their edges meets.

On top of all this she also wields a Yellow Power Ring, which is functionally similar to those of the Green Lanterns, granting her flight, the ability to survive in any environment, and the ability to create constructs of any shape and size. The ring must be regularly recharged with the aid of a power battery shaped like a lantern.

In other media

Film

• A parallel world version of Bekka appeared as Wonder Woman in Justice League: Gods and Monsters, voiced by Tamara Taylor. She is still depicted as the wife of Orion, but here her marriage to Orion (who was apparently raised on Apokolips) was presented as a peace treaty, even gifted with a sword shaped Mother Box as a wedding present by the Apokoliptian Prince. Only for the New Genesis residents to kill the ruling family of Apokolips despite Bekka recognizing that Orion had the potential to be more than another monster like his family was. Bekka left for Earth and became Wonder Woman where she joined the Justice League. By the end of the film, Bekka leaves the Justice League and heads into space to face her past.

Web series

• The parallel version of Bekka appears in Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles (a companion series of Justice League: Gods and Monsters), voiced by Tamara Taylor. Having been dispatched to save Steve Trevor from kobra as they prep a doomsday weapon in the form of a Mechanized Giganta to present at Amanda Waller's Presidential Coronation.

See also

• Himon, Bekka's father
• List of New Gods
• New Genesis, Bekka's home planet
• Orion, Bekka's husband

References