Creote
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Creote is the name of a comic book character from DC Comics.
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[edit] Character History
Creote, a fictional Soviet Special Forces operative, is believed to have wandered throughout Europe after the dissolution of the USSR. It is suspected he had encountered Savant in Greece and formed a partnership or later upon coming to Gotham City.
In the story that first introduces the pair, Savant has devised an extortion scheme to force Oracle to divulge Batman’s secret identity. A scene in Birds of Prey #57 gives the first sign of Savant’s disorder affecting his ability to process events in time and memories. This is also the first indication that Creote may be more than a simple henchman. It is revealed in flashback that Savant tried to become a super hero four years previously. Batman rebuffed and threatened Savant for putting civilian lives in danger.
Savant’s plan hinges on capturing Black Canary which he does by breaking her legs during a fight and cuffs her hands to a headboard. In the few issues of this arc Dinah uses observation and deception to deduce that Creote is in love with Savant.
By Birds of Prey #70, Oracle has persuaded Savant to give up crime and realize his dream of being a super hero. Ever loyal, Creote is by his side helping to keep him on track despite his mental disorder. In all of his appearances Creote has been portrayed as devoted in his own way to Savant, regardless of the awkward situations resulting from Lady Blackhawk's attempts to capture his attention.
It appears that Savant hasn’t a clue to the true nature of his partner’s feelings. Savant's reaction will be interesting if he ever learns the truth.
[edit] Powers
As a wolf hound in the Spetsnaz GRU, Creote was highly trained in extreme methods of hand to hand combat and physically trained to deter, capture or kill hostile agents, saboteurs, bandits, and other criminal elements. He would also have received training for reconnaissance and sabotage.
[edit] Creation of Creote & Savant
On her message board, creator Gail Simone discussed the creation of Savant and Creote:
| I very rarely do this, but I thought I'd talk a little bit about the creation of those two characters.
First, I wanted a villain who could compete with both Oracle and Canary, but I also wanted him to not be some perfect genius type, but rather a flawed and slightly non-functioning guy. The freak with the knife who doesn't know what day it is is a lot scarier to me than the supergenius from planet Kleplock or whatever. Also, it's funny, but so few supervillains are actually hot guys. Lots of muscle types, but few are model pretty, and I like the friction that brings. Like, say, Dinah, Savant is aware of how he looks, but a bit dismissive of it. It's not really important to him. First, we were told he couldn't be called Savant because of a pre-existing character, but that eventually went away. Creote was created so that Dinah would have someone to play her mind games on and for Savant to have someone to talk to, rather than have all his dialogue be captions. Originally, Savant was going to die. This was my first script for DC, I didn't really know the people there, but when I turned the script in, I got this HUGE response from DC peeps saying, "Don't KILL THIS GUY!" They wanted him soundly defeated, but the editors liked the character so much they wanted him to live to be used again. Which was okay, because I became really fond of him, especially the never-knowing-time foible. And the relationship between Creote and Savant seemed pretty rich for new characters. But remember, I was still very, very new so my judgment, I felt, could simply be that of a newbie a bit too in love with her creations. But what happened is, from issue two on, Savant and even Creote started getting fan mail. Not just, 'ooh, good villains,' but, 'oooh, I love these characters!' And apparently, that's a bit weird for DC, because they were surprised as well. One month, we got more mail about Savant and Creote than we did about Oracle, Huntress, and Canary combined. I still get mail about them all the time. Everyone says you can't have real change in mainstream comics, which is just nonsense...it just has to be honest, logical, and organic. We saved Savant so he could be a major Birds villain, but very quickly, it became apparent that he wanted direction, as he had never had any in his life, and he slowly started to see Oracle as a shot at some redemption and meaning in his life. The problem is always, with background characters, that they can sort of push the main characters out, and as much as I love Brian and Creote, I love the Birds more, so that can't happen. But we've been asked many times to do an all Savant and Creote issue. I don't see that happening any time soon, but Savant DOES have a major plot coming very very soon. Creote's devotion for Savant is one of my favorite elements of the book, and the fact that Dinah put it all together with just a few clues and some body language showed an important quality of the Canary. If it's not on the net, Oracle can miss a detail like that, but Dinah reads people extremely well. That's about it! Thanks for the kind words! |
