New Wave openness and accountability until you decide to put a mask on and go out to bitchslap some criminals so you don't get in trouble for it.
She would argue, if it came down to it, that she never signed up for New Wave openness. And that the criminals are the bad guys, not her. And superheroes are
meant to stop crime. And there are far worse crimes than vigilantism out there - and she made sure that the police were called and that they had the criminals to arrest and it's not like she was
killing people or anything that's actually bad. She took care not to kill people!
I laugh and laugh when people call superhero comics apolitical. No, they come with a very certain set of assumptions and a particular view of the world. And Victoria is a naive idealist who's been told all her life that superheroes are there to stop crime, protect people, and that the criminals are the bad guys. All she's doing is applying the logic based on the axioms that culture has provided her.
(Ah, and isn't that appropriate? There aren't any great men standing against the flow of society here. Victoria's been programmed with one set of axioms by society, while the people she assaulted also are acting on logic based on rational axioms - like "money is necessary", "there aren't any jobs around", "selling drugs makes money" and the like. People act inside the invisible walls that society sets up for them. Superheroes aren't freethinkers - they're acting on cultural programming just as much as the people selling the drugs.)
Scarecrow: They called ME mad! MAD! But I've SHOWED them! I've showed them ALL! I've joined the Protectorate!
"Ah, Dr Crane. Why, yes, we do offer grants. Your speciality is the psychology of human fear, including the chemical basis? Well, well. I know some people from the CIA who will be wanting to talk to you about that. To be blunt - and off the record - play ball with us, and we'll play ball with you. Don't go off the reservation, and in return you're set for life. We offer a very generous salary, excellent benefits, full medical care - including dental and psychiatric therapy - and a final salary pension scheme."
"Final salary? But who gets those nowadays..."
"No more than a man of your talents deserves, Dr Crane. Of course, that's dependent on you keeping within our rules - but do that and you've got an easy life ahead of you. Much easier than robbing banks and factories to get cash and equipment for your production of fear gas, eh? Get us a reproducible tinkerfab formula, and we'll name the factory after you."
Well Glory Girl makes a much much better Batman than she does a Flying Brick Superman, what with the fear aura and the mobility and the ability to survive when somebody freaks out and shoots wildly into the darkness.
She also has the maturity level of some versions of Batman, going out and beating up the poor and unfortunate to deal with her family issues.
I must confess, yes, I did look at the Arkhamverse Batman's fighting style for inspiration for her. Because the way he does things basically requires you to bounce between foes hitting them very hard, in a way that a baseline human just couldn't manage. However, when you add flight to the mix, it's suddenly easy for her to move like that. Also... well, there aren't really any gargoyles in the Ormswood area of Brockton Bay for her to crouch on, but she's willing to improvise with chimneys and billboards.
(Her signature move seems to be working out as the 'I can fly, so I can pin you much more firmly than a normal human could". Which made sense to me - normally you're pinning someone using your own weight, but she has a thruster built in so can apply more force.)
