Lost In Translation

I am genuinely looking forward to the new Phantom Lady miniseries out this week; I've long been a fan of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray's work and this, coupled with their recent Ray miniseries, gives me hope for a new Freedom Fighters series someway down the line.

However, I've just read the blurb in the Source article and something made me chuckle / wince:

"When she was very young, Jennifer Knight watched her parents get killed by Metropolis’ oldest and strongest crime family: The Benders. Cut to years later and an adult Jennifer is following in her father’s footsteps by taking on the crime world as a reporter … and as a super hero! Phantom Lady to be exact. But will she experience the same fate as her parents when she tries to infiltrate the next generation of Benders?"

You see, I grew up in 70's Britain and while we had some good things like Action and 2000AD (along with other things that should be consigned to the darkest pits of hell, like the Bay City Rollers) we also had our own particular slang terms that, maybe, Americans aren't aware of.

In Metropolis, calling someone a Bender obviously implies they're in the "oldest and strongest crime family" and may, by some, to be seen as something of a compliment.

In Britain, calling someone a bender is less likely to win you any favours.

So when I read the new Phantom Lady's trying "to infiltrate the next generation of Benders" I can't help but utter a guilty chuckle.