Catching Up On Marvel-caused WTF

I'm reading She Hulk.

There are many things going through my mind. Not the least of which is that if it weren't for Kalinara I'd never have bothered with the book at all. The covers have all been far too cheesecake for me. No, that's not fair to the term cheesecake. The covers have seemed like very bad sf porn. And considering how much I enjoyed the 70's tv series Hulk as a child, and how much the concept of a SHE - Hulk appealed to me, I didn't want to see it played out in typical 4 colour porn fashion.

But the content has been the sort of stuff I like; the backstories and side stories of a life with superheroes and I seriously enjoyed it. HOWEVER...

The Starfox On Trial Storyline?

Marvel failed there. Failed big.

I'm currently stopped near the end of that. I think She-Hulk's about to break up with her husband. But I had to stop and write this.

The premise of the Starfox On Trial Storyline Is... (and I'm sorry if this is still spoilery for folk, but Blogger's cut tag process is too damn complicated for me. So don't read anymore.)


The premise of the storyline is that we eventually discover that Starfox's evil brother Thanos, implanted a false memory into Starfox's mind, of him, in a moment of extreme sympathy for his brother (Thanos) using his powers to try and convince Thanos to 'embrace death'. It's not made clear exactly when Thanos kidnapped his brother and implanted this false memory, which is a shame, because you see there's a plot-line here that could be about morality and ethics and how long this has been going on would give some scope as to Starfox's victims. How long has Starfox been unethically using his powers? How long as he been violating person after person and robbing them of their free will?

We don't know.

Instead we get told that everything that's happened was due to brain damage and that Starfox's powers have beem 'malfunctioning' without him being aware of it.

Way to wuss Marvel.

So here's some of the plotline:

Starfox ends up on trial on earth accused of rape. He's charged with using his powers of euphoria to get women to sleep with him where they otherwise might not have. The defendant is revealed on the stand as a possible super-hero fangirl. But, she's also a devoted wife and the mother of three small children; one of whom is an infant, an actual babe in arms.

During the trial all the women who have been debriefed by the prosecution, suddenly turn their stories around on seeing Starfox again. Things seem so bad that Starfox is relegated to being in the trial via remote video link-up only. Which Jen, She-Hulk, thinks is extremely prejudicial. And in a way it is, though in a way it could also be claimed that now no one can claim people speaking well of Starfox are being influenced.

Now during the trial, Jen has a flashback, based on the victim's words and needs to know if Starfox ever used his powers on her.

Do note I do not like in the least how this is presented in the comic. It's presented as if Jen -is- a rape victim, having a flashback and moving into hysteria. A hysteria that ends up seeming verified when we cut to Starfox having charmed his guards into letting him out of lock-up, so he can escape, because he doesn't like his lawyer/fellow Avenger asking him those sorts of questions.

Yeah, it seriously doesn't look good at all for Starfox.

But Jen racing out of the courthouse mid trial isn't presented as her becoming aware that Starfox is about to skip out. It's presented as an almost hysterical need to find out from him what happened between them in the past. It doesn't make her look good either.

Also tangential to the trial, but part of the plot, is the fact that Starfox uses his powers to make Jen and John Jamison fall in love with each other, just as they're on the verge of breaking up. He does it, because he wanted his friend to be happy.

He violates the mind and free-will of a fellow hero, because 'he wants her to be happy'.

This relates right back to the false memory implant. In it Starfox only wanted his brother not to be so depressed and woeful about death in said memory, wanted him to embrace death, to be happy and not so sad about death and Thanos' accidental killing of a creature.

A seed is set into Starfox's mind of him having a precedent of making people happy because he -wishes- it so. Of him having warped ethics about over-riding people's free wills to feel what they feel. Of him having a bent created in his morality of his RIGHT to do this. Now the original purpose of this implanted memory was to show Starfox abusing his power in such a way as to make him responsible for the death and chaos (under his world's laws) caused by his brother Thanos.

But whatever the intent of the memory, memories make up who a person feels and believes they are. People often say 'so and so would NEVER do something like that' based on so and so's history of not doing such things and the character it speaks of.

The memory of an incident in the past, however, is as real as having actually done such a thing. It builds actions in the present based on itself, the way a real incident in the past has actions in the present build on its foundation.

To have this all wiped away as mere brain damage by the device or a process used to implant the memory is Marvel totally failing to follow through on the storyline of what ethically and morally makes up a hero. As well as what repercussions should happen to both Starfox and Thanos for what they've done.

Does Marvel think their readers are unintelligent?

Starfox may not be responsible for his actions in one sense, since he was building his present actions based on a false concept of who he was as a person. But that doesn't make the women he'd slept with any less violated or Esquire Mallory or Jen and John. Starfox should have to face the repercussions of his actions, even if he wasn't directly responsible for them. It might not be his fault he did something wrong, but he can do his best to make things right again. Heck, in this same issue series, Jen's shown doing that exact thing concerning the town of Bone. She was be-spelled when she wrecked it, but she went back to try and help fix it.

So it's not as if the editors and execs at Marvel don't understand this concept. They do. And therefore it's not as if they haven't trusted their readers to comprehend this sort of moral / ethical issue before. They have.

Yes rebuilding a town isn't quite the same thing as rebuilding people. But saying that Starfox will have to 'go around to all the neighbouring systems and seek forgiveness of his victims' and only then 'will his good name be restored'makes it all about him instead of all about them.

He's not making restitution. He's not apologizing. He's to head out into the universe with this excuse so that he'll be pardoned and his good name will no longer be associated with that of a rapist.

Excuse me Marvel???

You take a powerful character like Jen Walters / She-Hulk, then have her mind be whammied and violated by Starfox, so much so that she becomes submissive to her boyfriend, marries him, tries to be what he wants to be. She so much so tries to be what he wants to be, that the text can be used to argue that when she decided against staying as Jen all the time to please him, she balanced that out by following his political wants - approving the Registration Act and hunting down fellow Heroes in the middle of the streets, while they're fighting criminals, in order to get them registered. She's in the field with him, fighting side by side with him, to get people registered. She so wants to make him happy, she agrees to sue Spiderman for Jonah Jamison.

The text STATES that just being near Jamison sends her into feelings of positively dizzy euphoria.

Now the maintained state of euphoria was caused by Awesome Andy. Starfox attacked him and he unknowingly absorbed the powers and never realized it.Starfox's abilites only work for a few hours but with Andy around so many people, unaware, they were being re-dosed time and again. But it's not as if Starfox had never fought Andy before or was unaware of Andy's abilities. So Andy too is yet another victim of Starfox's abilities.

Now, while Jen gets a mind to mind heartfelt 'I never used my powers on you to get you to sleep with me' Starfox's other victims aren't likely to get or want such an apology. And what's Starfox to do anyway? Convince people who fear and are repulsed by him and what he did to who they thought they were to let him near them with a telepath?

Yeah.

Right.

And even though Jen got an apology, Starfox's actions still sent chaos into her life. She registered and thus ended up working for SHIELD. She got married.

And what of Jamison? He thought he was getting exactly what he wanted - but it wasn't real. His marriage prompted old enemies to try and attack him, thus turning him into a Man-Wolf and The Star God.

Awesome Andy thought he was getting someone who loved and wanted him - it was a lie. He ends up questioning whether he's a sentient person or simply a thing.

Mallory Book, ended up defending The Leader and not incidentally getting him off, because she needed to show how stone cold she was again, to fight back towards her reputation as a shark after images of her relationship with Andy are published.

That's four lives, plus the original victim and her husband and three children. That's now nine lives. Then there's Pug. That's ten lives, all changed irrevocably by Starfox's actions / misuse of his power. I'm sure if I think a little I can find more.

And yet, does the character get set up with having to deal with this baggage for the rest of his life / super hero career? Does he have to deal with the fact within a few short hours he can complete ruin and upset a person's life?

No. It wasn't his fault. There was evil mind manipulation. And he's given up his powers because the ability to control them wasn't ETHICALLY DAMAGED, oh no, it's not his JUDGEMENT to be called into question, it was PHYSICAL BRAIN DAMAGE.

In every story arc I've read so far with Jen, there's always a questioning of her identity - is she losing herself in She-Hulk? Is she hiding in Jen? So Jen Walters has to deal with other characters querying or judging her behavior but Starfox doesn't have to?

And yes, Jen has her own series and I'm not sure if Starfox is used anywhere else ever again. But is that less of a reason to wrap up the story arc with such a wonderful character premise and plot premise in place? A male superhero who has to forever be vigilant in how he uses his abilities and be wary of why people are being chummy/social / getting close to him? That's not interesting? Moreover, personally I think Starfox declaring himself celibate for an extended period of time would be at least some form of reparation to the lives he's so chaotically influenced.

But seriously Marvel?

This is the message you want to send?

Rich white boy is charged with multiple counts of rape. Flees jurisdiction with Daddy's help. Expert witnesses say he's brain damaged and they've permanently confiscated his access to any and all date rape drugs. He can still buy alcohol though. There'll be letters sent out absolving him from any culpability.

No time served.

No cognitive behavioral therapy to change his way of thinking about women.

No reparations are made to his victims.

Wow Marvel, you not only wuss out. You suck.