Y is for …Gertrude Yorkes

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If you're a comics fan and you've not yet read Runaways, you definitely should. It's a series about a group of teenagers who learn that their parents are supervillains and band together to break out on their own.

Gertrude Yorkes is my favorite of the main characters. She's sarcastic and cynical, as well as smart and capable. Gert's parents are time-travelers. Gert is telepathically bonded to a dinosaur. When they make their escape she takes on the name Arsenic and calls her dinosaur Old Lace, after the classic comedy. Got to love a teenaged character who knows that play/movie and loves it enough to reference in her superhero name!

I tend to like characters with gruff exteriors and hidden deep compassion and love. Gert fits this category. She's skeptical to the point that it causes tension with the rest of her team, but she would fight for any of them, and often does. She spends a lot of time caring for the youngest runaway, a superstrong girl name Molly.

I can't say too much more about Ms. Yorkes without spoiling her character arc for other readers, but she is really something different among comic book heroines. She's not interested in being anybody's eye candy or taking stupid risks. She believes in justice, and not just for herself. She's quite a young woman!
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This post is part of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. I'll be writing about superheroes I love all month. You can check out other bloggers and see their creative takes on the challenge here.

Don't forget to check out my own superhero stories. Change of Life, book two of my Menopausal Superheroes series just came out a few days ago!