Joan: The Woman Running the Auction in Hellchild: Blood Money

Joan: The Woman Running the Auction in Hellchild: Blood Money By the time Angelica gets to Joan's mansion, we already know Tor is horrible. We've watched him torture people, kill people, and talk about women as if they're things somebody stole from him. So I expected the next part of Blood Money to keep building around him. Instead, the auction gives us Joan. She isn't simply an employee waiting for Tor to tell her what to do. Harry explains that she runs this operation independently. Tor supplies people. Joan handles the event and the buyers. That matters, because it means getting past one violent man isn't the same thing as dealing with the whole business. Her first scenes are mostly management. She's checking on captives, giving instructions to Tony, and deciding what people are worth. Jenny Marks is potentially a very profitable sale. A man who tries to give his name barely gets the chance before Joan decides he isn't worth keeping and orders him killed. Tony follows through. He strangles him in front of the other captives. There's no real hesitation from Joan about any of this. She doesn't need a personal grudge against the man. She just doesn't think he has enough value to her. I find that colder than a villain having some elaborate reason for wanting a particular person dead. She's running an event, and his life is a problem she wants removed before it starts. The party upstairs has the usual expensive setting, dressed-up guests and masks. Angelica tries to pass as someone bidding for an anonymous client. Joan is perfectly willing to have that conversation, but she wants to see who she's dealing with. Meanwhile, the people being sold are waiting elsewhere in the house. Once the rescue attempt is exposed, Joan doesn't just want Angelica removed. She realizes Hellchild herself can be another lot. An unusual captive means another selling point. Then we finally see who the customers are. Joan presents people with details about their bodies and health, including blood type. The buyers start taking their masks off, and the purpose of all that information becomes a lot more disturbing. These are monsters purchasing human beings. One of them, Olivia, buys Jake and begins eating him there. Then she wants Jenny next. Joan keeps the auction moving. That tells you more about her than a long speech would. The human body being torn apart in the room isn't an interruption to the business. It is what the business is there to provide. When Olivia bids on Jenny, Joan accepts the bid and makes the sale. Her confidence doesn't survive Angelica getting free. Suddenly Joan wants Tor. He isn't there to protect her. He has escaped, and the woman who was organizing everyone's fate is left calling for somebody who has already saved himself. Angelica kills her during the destruction of the auction. Joan doesn't walk away from this one. I don't think she needs some extra invented power to make her worth talking about. What she actually does in these issues is enough. She supplies the structure around the monsters: the invitations, the guards, the valuation, the buyers and the sale. Tor is the obvious threat when somebody is trying to run. Joan is the person who has already arranged where they'll end up if he catches them.