Unrelentingly, unyielding Kite man does not give up the flirtation. To Kite man had apologizing for being a creep and half continuing to hit on her with a “I’ve just never been alone with a woman of your caliber before… Your eyes, your smile, your silky shimmering … strong woman… osity?” (S1, Ep2 16:19-16:29). Kite man continues his advances on Ivy as they fly back to the party with the antidote (why they didn’t get into a cab at this point is beyond me we cut to them mid air and don’t get to see that discussion or how, one assumed, he guilted her into it). A lesson in what it’s like to be a woman in the world today. Assume the wink at other content that millennial audience enjoyed growing up, and let Kite Man disappear back into obscurity. ![]() One can’t simple be a victim and female, the victim must also some how be blames for the actions of the person trying to abuse, manipulate or take advantage of them.Īt this moment there’s a yuck factor. Something any woman I know is all too familiar with experiencing. S1 EP2 11:27Īs if none of that was problematic enough Kite Man blames Ivy for leading him on and asks “Why would you even have me come? I mean, a cab would have been faster.” blaming Ivy for the situation she finds herself in. Ivy, grossed out and repulsed throws his clothes at him, asks him to get dressed and explains that this wasn’t a move, that she needed to get the antidote back to the teens. Kite Man then pulls a “naked man” which, if the story ended here would have been a delightful wink to How I meet your Mother and the Barney Stintson character Chuck so closely resembles in this iteration. Ivy, annoyed, explains that the teens will die as a result if they don’t get an antidote and Kite Man flies her to her apartment to get it. This back fires in the best way possible. Ivy is her “typical” dismissive, introverted eHe then steals Ivy’s potions and uses it on the teenage friends of Joshua as a kind of partial prank, partial “see no one can resist you,” flirtation and an attempt to make him into some sort of hero fending off the enamored teens. Kite man enters the scene of the HQ series while Harley and Ivy are crashing the bar mitzvah of Joshua Cobblepot in “A High Bar.” S1 Ep2 5:42 Kite Man’s opening line Kite Man’s constant presence in the HQ series has been a thorn in my side and eating away at my enjoyment of the series since his appearance in the second episode and in season two has hit a whole new level of problematic for me. Chuck is writing as a seemingly sympathetic Character, too dumb to know better, but that’s a huge part of what makes him so problematic. He is still a B list character but has a significant amount of screen time and is featured in almost every episode. In Harley Quinn Kite Man is depicted largely as a clueless fuck boy with a thing for Poison Ivy that boarders on obsessive. With that as framing back the Harley Quinn series and the point of this piece. I find Ivy’s flaws to be some what relatable, where as Kite Man’s, though potentiality relatable, result in the normalization of a personality type that is frequently toxic and can become abusive. I would suggest that her character flaws in the piece are a result of bad writing and the feminist efforts of the team going largely into Harley’s Character. The other thing I want to note before diving in is that I in no way am painting Ivy innocent in this series of encounters so the incel haters in the back can shhhhhhh. I’ve read a couple issues since, but not done any kind of deep dive so I’m not going to make an bored generalizations to how he’s been written over all or how it may play into the over all trans-media arch. Outside of the “Kite Man, Hell Yeah!” catch phrase he has never been a part of my Batman reading or viewing until is unpleasant appearance here. I personally didn’t have any real exposure to Kite man, at least not anything memorable, until his presence in the Harley Quinn series. ![]() Along with many other character when DC Rebirth happened he was handed a darker origin story and some more panel time (he’s never been my favorite character so I haven’t read much of it) but over all isn’t in anyone’s villain hall of fame. He’s feature in a handful of story lines at the best and sometimes only make back ground cameos as a part of setting the screen or the illustrator having some fun. ![]() Kite Man is a B-list character at best, depending on the run he is either depicted as a divorced drunk, or a dad out for vengeance (Rebirth Run). Kite Man aka Charles “Chuck” Brown first appeared in Batman #133 published in August of 1960 and doesn’t see another issue until 1975. Before we dive in to this a little back ground on Kite Man as a character for anyone who, like me, couldn’t really place him before seeing him in this series.
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