Swanwoman

The Swan is an animated series that will appear on Netflix. It is a spinoff of The Radicals and the series revolves around Strikeforce member, Jenny Price, businesswoman by day, and crimefighter by night. The series will air on Netflix, alongside the Radicals.

Background
The series details Swanwoman fighting a variety of criminals and supervillains in the city of Oakland, California. Her rogues gallery consists of sociopathic crime boss Mai Shiranui; Mad-Dog a steroid-addicted former professional wrestler; Mr. Nguyen, Vietnamese crime boss who relies on technology to commit his crimes; and Chun Hyun-dwan, a rogue North Korean spy. The series also focuses on The Red Swan's relationships with other characters, including Naomi, her personal assistant and confidant; and Sen, her foster daughter and sidekick. The first few seasons take place before the events of The Radicals, and the latter seasons take place in conjunction with the events of The Radicals.

The series takes a rather unconventional turn from more traditional superhero media. It can be described as a mixture between Daredevil and The Wire. Rather than merely portraying her as a crimefighter, the Red Swan merely becomes one piece of the puzzle that is the Oakland underworld. It shows her as a master manipulator and politician, who uses her negotiation skills, as well as her martial arts skills, to fight crime. The Red Swan's relationship with Oakland's villains, particularly her relationship with her archenemy Mai Shiranui, is just a bloody game of chess in which she is just one of many players.

Another thing to note is that each episode, with the exception of one, is named after a Janet Jackson song. This trope exists to cement the fact that the series, according to its creators, seeks to center Black women. The series deals with the themes of Womanism, as it shows Black women (Jenny, Gina, Simone, Miss Marie) in close and loving relationships with one another, protecting and caring for each other.

Heroes
Jennifer "Jenny" Price/Red Swan: Born and raised in Oakland, Jenny Price was raised by her father, Harold Price, and her mother died after giving birth to her. Jenny was the sole heir of the Price Corporation, a computer company based in Oakland. Despite the death of his wife, Harold loved his newborn daughter, raising her until the age of eight, when she was sent to live with a mysterious African woman named Clara, who trained her in martial arts. Clara trains Jenny to be like the swan; that she should carry herself with grace and beauty, but react with ruthless aggression to any threat. She remains in contact with her father, who calls and visits her frequently. However, once she turns sixteen, her and Clara have a falling-out, which leads to Jenny returning to Oakland. She is enrolled at Berkeley, by the time she is seventeen as she is light-years ahead of her classmates in terms of intelligence. While she is at Berkeley, her father dies in a mysterious plane crash, which leaves her in charge of the company.

She builds the company to great heights, building it into the largest tech company in the world. She begins fighting crime after her a close friend of hers is raped and murdered, thus becoming the Red Swan and vowing to rid her city of crime and corruption. In her secret identity as Jenny Price, she is a businesswoman and socialite who owns nightclubs and mingles with the city's elite. Her archenemy is Mai Shiranui, Oakland's queen of the Yakuza. To Jenny, Mai represents the crime and corruption that she seeks to destroy. To Mai, Jenny represents a dangerous and uncontrollable enemy that Oakland has no room for as long as she is at the top, but one whom she also, in her own twisted way, respects as an equal. Jenny is a kind-hearted woman with a motherly spirit, and a calm, laid-back disposition. However, she is also guided by strict principles, and will defend the people she loves by any means necessary, whether as Jenny Price or the Red Swan. She follows a no-kill policy, which places her at odds with both Clara and the Sharpshooter, who are both more violent heroes. She is at peak physical strength, with the typical athletic build of a female, and has been trained to perfection in African martial arts by Clara the Justician. She is also a genius in computer science, business, and mind games. She gets into the heads of her opponents using her manipulation skills.

Naomi: Jenny's personal secretary and confidant. She is one of the few people who knows that Jenny is the Red Swan, and assists her in her adventures by providing her intelligence on her enemies. She was born and raised in Chinatown and believes that the Red Swan can make it a better place.

Simone Wyatt/Starling: A young orphan girl from East Oakland. She begins tagging along with the Red Swan, although she is initially considered to be a nuisance by her, Jenny eventually takes a liking to her; even adopting her as her daughter. Jenny then trains her in martial arts, and she becomes her sidekick, Starling.

Gina Davies: Jenny's best friend. She eventually begins dating Darrion Woods, a powerful drug dealer who operated in the projects. When the Red Swan moves in to take him down, the Red Swan also tries to get her to leave Woods, who is also highly abusive of her. Jenny is forced to reveal herself as the Red Swan following a brief confrontation in which Gina pulls a gun on Jenny, forcing her to unmask herself. Therefore, she is one of the few people in Jenny's life who knows that she is the Red Swan, and she eventually comes to believe in what Jenny does. She has a bubbly personality: loud, animated, and is the comic relief of the series. Jenny, in her civilian identity, often plays the "fall girl" to Gina's antics.

Bret Locke/The Sharpshooter: The son of a former Oakland police officer, and highly skilled archer, who declares war on the Bossman and the Oakland police after they murder his mother for writing an article in the paper about corruption in the police department. In addition, he declares war on Oakland's elite and politicians, whom, along with the police, he sees as the "real criminals." He targets and kills corrupt cops, politicians, and corporate executives with his bow-and-arrow; which brings him into conflict with the Red Swan. His relationship with the Red Swan is initially antagonistic, as the Red Swan abhors his violent methods. However, after they get to know each other, they become allies and even have a brief romantic affair. In contrast to the Red Swan's law-and-order, "do-gooder" orientation, the Sharpshooter is a left-wing radical who seeks to overthrow "the state, capitalism, patriarchy, and White supremacy."

Whereas the Red Swan solely fights crime, the Sharpshooter does not target criminals, seeing them merely as misguided victims of Oakland's corruption, instead targeting crooked cops and politicians. Whereas the Red Swan has faith in the system, the Sharpshooter believes that it is irredeemable and must be destroyed through violence. When the two of them team up to take down a White supremacist organization, they learn from each other: the Red Swan learns the importance of understanding the social inequalities that lead to crime, while the Sharpshooter learns that criminals are just as oppressive towards Oakland's citizens as the crooked cops and politicians. They have a ying and yang dynamic when it comes to solving Oakland's problems, which often causes conflict between the two. He is a mysterious figure who frequently does his work in other places before returning to Oakland, often to assist the Red Swan when she is in trouble.

Clara the Justician: A mysterious, elderly woman who served as a surrogate mother to Jenny, having raised and trained her. Born in Nigeria, she is a member of the Cult of Kamalu, an ancient, secretive, all-female organization that travels around the world killing criminals, and is also named for the Igbo god of justice. She was a close friend of Harold Price, who also knew of Clara's involvement with the Cult of Kamalu. When Harold's personal life becomes dangerous, he sends Jenny to live with Clara in London. She trains Jenny in ancient African martial arts and home-schools her as well. When Jenny turns sixteen, Clara attempts to induct her into the cult, but Jenny refuses, having been turned off after watching Clara kill a criminal. The two of them get into an argument, and Jenny returns to Oakland, using the money her father sends her for upkeep. She appears in the early seasons, mainly in flashbacks.

After learning of Jenny's exploits as the Red Swan, she returns into Jenny's life in the later seasons. Seeking Jenny's help in taking down the Purifiers, a terrorist organization led by Chun Hyun-dwan that seeks to "purify" the Earth by wiping out humanity. She has a love-hate relationship with Jenny, frequently attacking her at random. She can defeat Jenny in one-on-one combat with little effort. Though she loves and cares for Jenny, seeing her as her best student, she also sees her as a weakling for showing mercy to her enemies, and a lost opportunity who abandoned the way of the Justicians for the "material, Western culture." She hides her activities through a string of African restaurants.

Officer/Detective Arielle Mendoza: An officer in the Oakland police department who is disillusioned with the corruption in Oakland, and one of the Red Swan's primary allies. She is one of the few police officers in the department who refuses to be intimidated by the Bossman, and actually wants to help her city. Coming from the ghetto, she is motivated by a sense of justice and duty. Though she initially disagrees with the Red Swan's methods, she eventually warms up to her, and the two form a close relationship, much to the chagrin of the Bossman. She is eventually promoted to detective after the death of the Bossman.

Moses Miller: Oakland's new district attorney in Season 3, and Jenny Price's primary love interest. He is elected on the platform of cleaning up Oakland. He is able to learn that Jenny is the Red Swan. He is killed by a car bomb in Season 5.

Villains
Mai Shiranui: Initially referred to as "the crime lady." The queen of the Yakuza and the Red Swan's archenemy. She is a violent, sadistic psychopath who enjoys murder and torture, brutally murdering friend and foe alike at the slightest provocation. Born in Tokyo, Japan to Hanzo Shiranui, the president of a shipping company, her mother dies shortly after giving birth to her. Her father, blaming her for his wife's death, and angry at the fact that she is female child instead of a male child, wants nothing to do with her. He sends her to Oakland to live with her uncle Hiro, an alcoholic pervert who abuses Mai, both sexually, physically, and otherwise. Growing up on the rough streets of Chinatown, she turns to crime to escape the abuse at home. From the time she is in elementary school, she is frequently harassed and beaten up by a gang of Chinese girls. Fed up with being a victim, she unites with other Japanese girls and forms her own gang, eventually committing her first murder at the age of sixteen, killing the Chinese gang's leader by stabbing her to near death with a butcher knife before slitting her throat: which would become Mai's signature way of killing for the rest of her life.

After joining the Yakuza as an assassin, she carves out a trail of murder and terror before eventually becoming the boss of the Yakuza in both San Francisco and Oakland. She appears in Season One merely as an obnoxious socialite, the owner of a string of who is a rival to Jenny Price and often crashes her parties, often teasing Jenny by calling her "daddy's little girl" and "the rich girl." Her role as Oakland's lady of crime is merely alluded to, with people on the street referring to her in dread. However, her real role as the head of the Yakuza is gradually revealed by the end of Season One, which brings her into conflict with the Red Swan.

Mai and the Red Swan have a strong, intense, and mutual hatred for one another. Mai has an almost sexual obsession with the Red Swan, frequently holding and touching her erotically when the Red Swan is at her mercy. The two of them spend much of the series fighting a tit-for-tat war for Oakland, and trying to make each other's lives miserable. This is intensified ten-fold when Mai learns that the Red Swan is Jenny Price, which she keeps as a secret until finally revealing it to the world in exchange for a plea deal in Season Four, getting Jenny sent to prison. Her fights with the Red Swan tend to be long, brutal, and drawn-out, adding to the drama of the series. She is the primary heroin source in Oakland, and her heroin is sold by gangs across the city. Much of the Red Swan's time is spent in destroying her heroin shipments. Her and the Red Swan are physical equals, and she has even defeated her a few times. She is a superb martial artist, though she is less rational than Jenny and shows signs of bipolar disorder, often flying into a murderous, violent rage at the slightest provocation.

There are many parallels between Jenny Price and Mai: Both had their mothers die giving birth to them, both are the two richest women in Oakland, and both live double lives, hiding their activities (both as the Red Swan and the head of the Yakuza respectively) from the outside world. She is killed at the end of Season 6 when she falls off of a bridge.

Det. Frank "The Bossman" Sneperger: A highly corrupt police detective, who is in charge of DUST (Drugs, Underworld Street Task Force), and is seen as the Red Swan's second archenemy. Hiding behind his badge, and the incredible amount of influence he wields within the Oakland Police Department, he robs, kills, and terrorizes the residents of Oakland's ghettos. He also works with Oakland's gangs in selling drugs and weapons. DUST, and by extension the entire Oakland police force, is a massive criminal organization with Sneperger secretly at the head of it, and the primary representation of it. He hates the Red Swan, seeing her as a threat not only to his criminal activities, but to the legitimacy of the the Oakland Police as well and launches an all-out against her. Using the media to portray her as a criminal and vigilante, he spends much of his time and energy trying to arrest and/or kill her. He is finally brought to trial for his crimes, but he is acquitted, setting off riots in the city of Oakland in Season 3. No longer seeing any use for him, Mai personally kills him near the end of Season 3.

Darrion Woods: The primary antagonist of Season 1. He is the lord of Oakland's public housing neighborhoods, having united all of Oakland's African-American and Latino gangs under one powerful criminal organization. With the backing of both Mai Shiranui and DUST, he runs a large heroin operation in the streets of Oakland, contributing to the crime, corruption, and decay that plagues Oakland in the beginning of the series. He loves flash and flare, rubbing shoulders with Oakland's elite, and putting up a front of philanthropy by giving to Oakland's poor and organizing turkey dinners in the public housing projects every Thanksgiving. His organization is eventually taken down by the Red Swan at the end of Season one and he is arrested. Fearing that he will turn state's evidence, Mai has him killed while he is sleeping in his jail cell. Woods is the first example of how deep Oakland's issues run. Woods is just one pawn in a seemingly never-ending chess game between justice and corruption, and not a major player. "When one goes, another replaces him" is a recurring theme in the series and a source of great depression and grief for Jenny Price, and Woods is the first and most significant example. As each crime lord is defeated, a more dangerous one always looms in the horizon.

Muhammad Abdou-Karim/Ghost: An albino assassin who carries out hits for the highest bidder. Born in Senegal, he was sent to America to live with his brother. He grew up on the streets of Oakland, however, and quickly got into a life of crime. Working initially as a soldier of Darrion Woods, he eventually turns to freelance work, taking part in the massive gang war that erupts on Oakland's streets following the death of Darrion Woods. He is a master marksman and fighter, with years of experience, who is capable of holding his own with the Red Swan.

Black Leather: A Black, female criminal initially hired by Darrion Woods to kill the Red Swan in Season One. She eventually becomes the leader of a gang after Darrion's death, participating in the bloody gang war in Oakland. Little is known about her early life, but she is a master of various martial arts and one of the Red Swan's most dangerous and recurring enemies. She fights with two golden brass knuckles that she wears on both of her hands.

Tomas "Tommy" and Antonio "Tony" Gutierrez/The Genocide Twins: They are the primary leaders of Barrio 13, the largest Mexican gang in Oakland. Tommy, who is mentally challenged as a result of a birth injury, is the more violent and sadistic of the two. Though Tommy is capable of holding his own, Tony being the more level-headed one often has to watch his back. Tony sees Tommy as his little brother, due to his mental deficiency, even though they are twins, and Tommy is the older of the two. Though Tommy resents being seen as the little brother, he and Tony are inseparable and have a very tight bond. They often fight together, preferring to wield machetes, which makes them dangerous enemies for the Red Swan.

DeRay Patrick/Windchill: A repeat offender who, after stealing a refrigeration device, begins committing crimes with the device under the moniker "Windchill." He is named as such because the device blows subzero-degree air which freezes anything that it comes in contact with. He does not dabble in Oakland gang politics, often working solo as a freelance assassin or robber. He is a large, stocky man who wears a blue hooded jacket.

Willie "Mad Dawg" Parker: A disgraced MMA fighter who, after being banned for using a steroid known as "dog food", turns to crime, selling the steroid to Oakland's criminals. Dog food is unique in that it grants its user superhuman strength, and the inability to feel pain, while making them psychotic and aggressive, operating in a similar manner to PCP or bath salts. True to his gimmick, Mad Dawg owns several pitbulls, whom he uses as his protection. He is also able to empathize with dogs, having a soft spot in particular for puppies. Though he was once an MMA fighter, he is not very intelligent, nor is he as skilled in combat or as agile as the Red Swan. He relies too much on brute strength, and not on strategy and intellect, which makes him an easy enemy for the Red Swan to defeat and little more than comic relief. He is a brash and tough-talking lout, a heavy drinker and drug abuser. He is also a violent sexist, often referring to both the Red Swan and Mai Shiranui as "toots" and "dragon lady" respectively. Though they reject his advances.

Mr. Nguyen: A mysterious, elderly Vietnamese crime boss who runs a nightclub in Chinatown called Blitz, and head of the Vietnamese criminal organization. His grey hair, and laid-back, seemingly friendly disposition hide a calculating and manipulative criminal mastermind. He prefers political maneuvering, chess games, and manipulation over violence. He uses his docile appearance to his advantage: playing Mai, the Red Swan, and the rest of Oakland's major players against each other; hoping that they will all destroy each other, thus leaving the door open for him to take control of Oakland's underworld. He particularly sees the Red Swan as a force that has critically changed the dynamic of Oakland, and he believes that this is in his favor. He despises Mai as much as the Red Swan does, and hopes that the Red Swan will take down her organization. As such, he has no issue playing the role of informant for the Red Swan, being her eyes and ears in the criminal world.

The Red Swan tolerates his criminal activities, and does not see him as a serious threat, as the only territory he controls is his own nightclub, and his operations are not on the level of the Yakuza. Though, the Red Swan does not trust him and takes his information with a grain of salt. He has a dry sense of humor, and uses his wit to confuse and ease people up. He mainly sells highly advanced weapons to criminals, and though he avoids it, he often comes into conflict with the Red Swan. He prefers to fight with a guns, and is not a very good hand to hand combatant.

Liu Fang: An extremely powerful, immortal Chinese sorcerer, and the head of the highly secretive Heaven and Earth Society, a cultish and secretive criminal organization that seeks world domination. Other than the Red Swan, he is Mai Shiranui's main criminal rival. He is alluded to in earlier seasons, but makes his first appearance in Season four, emerging after Mai and Jenny Price are sent to prison, and he ruthlessly takes control of Oakland's underworld. He proves to be so powerful, that the governor of California is forced to pardon Jenny Price so that she can return to Oakland and stop him. In stopping him, she gains the support of the Sharpshooter and Starling. Jenny narrowly defeats him, however, and he is placed in a weakened state. After which, he is shot in the head and killed with an arrow by Sharpshooter.

Chun Hyun-dwan: A North Korean special agent who turns rogue and becomes a member of an organization known as the Purifiers. He seeks to carry out the work of Orochi, a divine entity who seeks to purify the Earth by wiping out all humans. He is the primary antagonist of the final season. He begins in Oakland, seeing it as a corrupt and hopeless city, and he steals a North Korean nuclear warhead and hopes to use it to destroy the city. A special agent, he is trained to perfection in martial arts and computers.

Season 1:
Season 1 deals with Jenny Price becoming the Red Swan. It also introduces the series major characters such as Starling, Sharpshooter, Mai Shiranui, The Bossman, Mr. Nguyen, Black Leather, Arielle Mendoza, and others. The central villain of the season is Darrion Woods, and the primary plot is the Red Swan's efforts to take his drug syndicate down. Along the way, she runs into numerous obstacles. In her private life, Jenny also deals with running her nightclubs.

Season 2:
The Red Swan is at the peak of her vigilante career. Following the death of Darrion Woods, an all-out gang war erupts in Oakland's ghettos. There is complete chaos in the streets, and Jenny hopes to calm the situation by stopping the flood of heroin into the streets and taking down the war's main players. Her activities bring her into conflict with the largest and most powerful criminal organization in Oakland: the Yakuza, and its leader, Mai Shiranui. Both the Red Swan and Mai have their first fight, in which the Red Swan defeats her, this would be the spark of a long and bloody vendetta between the two.

Season 3:
The war between Mai and the Red Swan continues, becoming more and more intense. The Bossman is arrested for his crimes. The Sharpshooter returns to help the Red Swan take down a White supremacist organization that plans on blowing up Oakland's public housing developments, and the two of them bond during this time, briefly becoming lovers and crime-fighting partners. The Bossman is acquitted in court, setting off riots in the streets of Oakland. The Yakuza worsen this situation by selling guns to people in the streets. At the end of the season, Mai kills the Bossman.

Season 4:
Mai is able to gain the Red Swan's secret identity, which she uses to psychologically torment Jenny. Oakland has a new district attorney: Moses Miller. Hoping to put Mai away for good, the Red Swan obtains incriminating evidence on her. However, this backfires when Mai reveals the Red Swan's secret identity in exchange for a light sentence. Both Jenny and Mai are sent to the same prison.

Season 5:
Jenny and Mai end up at the same prison. Mai continues to torment Jenny in prison, blackmailing her into being her bodyguard in prison. Eventually, the Meanwhile, on the streets of Oakland, Liu Fang and the Heaven and Earth Society fill the void left by Jenny and Mai's absence, terrorizing the city. Eventually, Jenny is pardoned in order to return to Oakland and stop Liu Fang.

Season 6:
Mai is released from prison, vowing to destroy Jenny Price and everyone she loves.