#She Liked Nerds (Terry Capshaw)

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I can only imagine how a meeting between Terry and John Constantine would go. Both are snarky guys who have/had a thing for a sea creature person and they both smoke like chimneys. Though Terry’s less of a jerk than John can be at times and his smoking seems more nervous habit than something he can’t live without.

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Terry’s Attraction to Grace

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New Earth Orca’s Death in Batman: Face The Face (And Why It Was Stupid, Gross and Pointless)

Warning: This post covers part of a comic storyline that contains graphic depictions of gore and blood. I will be putting it under the cut for those who are sensitive to this subject matter, as well as for length.

Batman: Face The Face was a storyline that concerned a serial killer killing off C list villains, with evidence seeming to point to a supposedly reformed Harvey Dent, who at the time had been serving as one of Gotham’s protectors, sanctioned by Batman in the wake of his absence during the No Man’s Land story arc. Batman and the Tim Drake Robin had returned to Gotham to find that old enemies Magpie, KGBeast and the Ventriloquist had all been murdered. Batman sent private detective and old ally Jason Bard to continue investigating during the daylight hours. Batman soon discovered that each of the villains had been slain by two shots to the head from a specialized gun that belonged to Harvey Dent. He also learned that the villains had all been working for the Penguin and that they had had a secret meeting with Harvey prior to their deaths. While investigating the crime scene of the Ventriloquist’s murder, he discovered that the dying man had left a clue, finding the name of a street. Following up on the lead, Robin found surveillance footage from the area showing the clandestine meeting between Harvey and the now-dead villains, with the revelation that there was a fourth villain in Penguin’s employ: Orca.

While Batman and Robin worked with a police team under Gordon and Bullock, the murder weapon was soon found with Harvey Dent’s prints on it, leading Batman to confront Harvey in his penthouse. With Batman practically accusing Harvey of being the murderer, Harvey lashed out verbally before blowing up the penthouse, with both he and Batman escaping separately. On another night, Batman and Robin headed into Gotham’s sewer ways to try to find Orca, hoping to save her before she met the same fate as the other villains. They encountered Killer Croc and had a brief battle with him, with Batman using a flash grenade to blind him long enough to knock him out with a small explosive. Not long after, they found the mutilated corpse of Orca, having been partially eaten by Killer Croc. Closer inspection of the body revealed that Orca had been dead prior to her corpse being eaten, killed by the same tell-tale two bullets to the head as the other victims.

In the meantime, Jason Bard had been digging into Orca’s personal life, discovering that she had gotten married within the last year. Jason went to speak to her husband Terry Capshaw, unaware that Orca’s body had been found. Terry revealed that Orca had been missing for a week, how he and she first met and most importantly, that she had regularly held meetings with other lesser known villains in their home, including the others who worked for Penguin. When pressed by Jason, Terry revealed that Orca and the others planned to steal a cache of weapons from a storage facility owned by the Penguin, having been recruited to change sides by someone making a play for control of Gotham’s underworld. However, Harvey Dent arrived just as the heist was about to take place, convincing the group to stick with Penguin in order to act as Dent’s spies, threatening to expose their turncoat actions if they refused.

Just as Terry began talking about hearing a name referencing sea life, Jason spotted the laser sight of a gun aimed at Terry’s head. Frozen in sudden panic, Jason was unable to prevent Terry’s assassination. Jason was soon shot himself as the real serial killer revealed himself: the latest holder of the Tally Man moniker.

Despite his injuries, Jason managed to use his cane to knock the Tally Man off balance, shooting his hand to prevent him using his gun again before finally knocking him out during the ensuing brawl.

Jason then called Batman to inform him that Orca’s husband had been assassinated and that he had found/incapacitated the real killer. Unfortunately by this time, under the pressure of the framing and accusations, Harvey Dent had given in to his demons and once again become Two-Face. His threat to blow up a zoo forced Batman to go after him, with Two-Face ultimately escaping the confrontation and rightfully blaming Batman for his lack of faith in Harvey. Batman later discovered the final piece of the puzzle from the information Jason gathered: the sea life related name Terry had mentioned before his death was none other than the crime boss Warren White, the villain know as the Great White Shark. He had masterminded the whole plot: hiring the Tally Man to kill the villains working for Penguin in order to weaken his rival’s power, while framing Harvey Dent for the crimes. Unfortunately, Batman was unable to prove the Great White Shark’s involvement in the murders, but promised White that he would inform Two-Face about what had been done.

Notes: I hate this storyline. Both Orca and Terry deserved better ends than they got. Not just because I like them, but also just because their deaths were so nasty for something so petty as a power grab. The fact that Orca’s body was chewed up by Killer Croc for no reason other than shock value and that an artist had to render it in detail was just tasteless in the context of the story, as was showing Terry’s corpse. I didn’t show that panel because it wasn’t plot relevant, so it would’ve just been gratuitous. About the only thing of note about this storyline, outside of Harvey Dent becoming Two-Face again, was that all the C-list villains killed during this storyline remained dead and while the Ventriloquist, KGBeast and Magpie’s corpses later became Black Lanterns during the Blackest Night story arc, Orca did not. New incarnations of the characters wouldn’t show up in mainline titles until the New 52 and DC Rebirth reboots. No other versions of Terry Capshaw have appeared, with both the Prime Earth and Injustice versions of Orca only seeming to acknowledge the initial storyline of her first appearance in their backgrounds.

For further reasons why this storyline sucks, I suggest reading this in-depth review: https://about-faces.livejournal.com/43785.html 

So there you have it, now you know why I chose to ignore everything about this storyline outside of Terry Capshaw. Terry gets to live in my main verse and only dies in my Injustice verse because characters are constantly dying in horrible ways in that universe, so it makes sense for him to have a tragic end in that context. 

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Grace and Her Family Part 1: Terry

The only good thing (aside from the art) to come out of the story Face The Face is Terry Capshaw, Grace’s supportive, if a bit long suffering husband.

I just imagine him internally screaming whenever she had other D-List rogues over to discuss heist plans. Firebug III should not be confused with Firefly (there are about a billion ice villains in the DC Universe so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that there’s more than one fire villain).

Terry seems to take it all in stride though, even getting a little snarky about the KGBeast:

Sadly, shortly after this conversation, Terry is killed off by the assassin rogue Tally Man II before he can shed some light on the mystery surrounding the death of several Rogues, including Orca. This story is poorly written, the motivation behind the murders is incredibly petty, almost everyone who’s a major character is poorly written and it really had little impact on the overall universe. Terry is the only good thing in this comic and this is my mixed canon AU, so he gets to live in the main verse because I says so.

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Updated about page and doc for NPCs as I decided on Terry being an exotic vet.

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Like for a NPC starter from Grace’s estranged husband, Terry.

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I should probably give some information about Terry. Much like with Grace, he’s a mix of his brief appearance in the comics and my own headcanons.

- He’s a medical doctor of some variety (haven’t decided what kind yet).

-He helped Grace get her after school program and soup kitchen up and running.

-Within my main verse, he fell in love with Grace because of her strong personality and compassion, even if she wasn’t entirely his type physically. The irony with Grace fearing him rejecting her now is that she’s actually become his ideal woman.

-He’s continued to search for Grace and has most likely gotten involved with some shady stuff at some point, hoping that criminal elements can track her, since he can’t go to the police with her criminal record.

-He smokes as a nervous habit, as it helps him center himself and relax in stressful situations. Grace has tried to get him to quit, but her absence has made his smoking worse.

-Terry isn’t completely vulnerable, as he does know how to use a gun. He’s kept up on shooting range practice due to both living in Gotham and in case things go south while he’s trying to negotiate with someone who might be able to find Grace. He also keeps a knife on him in case the gun jams.

-Terry and Grace were planning on having children before the accident that left her paraplegic.

-He went to Jonah’s funeral, as he still keeps in contact with Grace’s parents and siblings.

-Terry is very tolerant of weird. While Grace would be hesitant to introduce many of her rogue friends to him, he’d be fine with them so long as they were respectful and not threatening Grace or himself. He might have snarky thoughts about them, but he’d save those the privacy of home.

-He did know about her initial transformations and worried about her safety, though he’s unaware that her hybrid form is now permanent.

-Although he didn’t necessarily agree with her choosing to a thief, he knew that her heart was in the right place and that she didn’t want anyone to be hurt.

-Grace chose kept her maiden name to avoid confusion during medical conferences with two hypothetical Dr. Capshaws. This had the added effect of making it harder for the authorities and criminals to connect her and Terry.

-After they reunite and get comfortable again, Terry will try to help Grace feel better about herself. This will include “wrestling”, though Grace will need deal with his own insecurity about not being able to satisfy her anymore.

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Like for a starter from main verse Grace’s husband Terry Capshaw.

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Like for a starter from Grace’s husband, Terry.

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So at least in more recent comics that Grace has shown up in, there’s a bar for lesser known rogues called the C-List:

As the caption box states, Ivy heads there to try to be more personable in the short story Auld Langs Ivy from the anthology special New Year’s Evil. Though what I’m more interested is the trio to the right. Now you might think that there’s no smoking allowed inside, but that isn’t the case. As it turns out, Ivy isn’t the A-List rogue at the bar that night: due to new laws in Gotham City banning smoking from restaurants, Penguin is basically not allowed inside the Iceberg Lounge, his own club, due to his smoking habit. But the C-List does allow smoking, at least with the electronic cigarette holder Penguin has (he’s trying to quit and is failing miserably).

So who are the people standing outside the bar? All of them seem woefully underdressed for the weather, so that would mean that they’ve probably have been inside at some point. Given that many of the rogues inside the bar are in full costume (the ones who wear them anyway), so these guys outside stick out like a sore thumb. 

I have a few potential guesses as to their identities:

1. Other bar employees, waiting for the rogues to clear out so they can clean, close up shop and head home. Based on the what we can see of the doorman and the bartender, there’s no dress code here, so it might makes sense if they’re just in casual clothes.

2. Undercover cops keeping an eye on the place. Several rogues gathered in one place means a strong potential for trouble.

3. Potential informants for the Bat Family, doing the same thing as above.

4. Significant others of some of the rogues inside. Being criminals hasn’t kept at least some rogues from finding romance, so the people outside might have come there with someone who’s inside the bar.

I took particular note of this guy with the dark hair on the left:

He bears more than a passing to New Earth Grace’s husband Terry Capshaw, (just with slightly longer hair and heavy stubble):

Terry was shown a smoker in his one appearance:

I’m probably reading too much into this, but I’d like to believe that on the rebooted Prime Earth, Terry went to the C-List with his wife on New Year’s Eve, though he stayed outside to let her have fun with the other rogues. I mean so far there hasn’t really been any set continuity with Prime Earth’s Orca as far as a timeline of events, so anything’s possible. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Grace and Terry said gay rights:

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Terry will be available as a secondary muse by request. Once a thread where he and Grace reunite happens, he’ll also occasionally show up alongside Grace in stories where it’s appropriate for him to do so.