SuperRamble: Supergirl, Powergirl - A Story Redux.

Now that I've gotten the 'OMG the bare ass' out of the way, I want to see what I can write up about Superman/Batman:Supergirl and Supergirl Vol 1. But I highly doubt it'll make much sense. There's too much stewing.

I like outsider stories. I like stories where people try to figure out how to fit in, why to fit in and what makes them who they are. I like the base thread of Supergirl (the new Kara from Krypton)'s story so far. But I only like the base thread. It took me a while to figure this out, since I was beginning to wonder what exactly I was feeling. I had a lot of excitement and enjoyment and odd offkey disappointment and agitation. I had to sleep on it for a while. And I realized I like outsider stories, so Supergirl's current story appeals to me right off the bat.

However, Supergirl's story, excluding the bit about her being evil and sent to kill Kal-el as a baby, reads a lot like the troubles and turmoils of Powergirl. And I fell in love with Powergirl way back when, because she was an ultimate outsider. She was the Kryptonian with knowledge of Krypton, the one with answers to questions about the culture and society. She was the one who could look at humanity and just plain not understand them. Which is why I've been so disappointed at realizing the story arc where she was seeing things and losing her powers and having conflict went right back to the status quo.

Yes, I wanted some interesting history for her. But moreso I wanted an explanation. I wanted someone to skillfully weave everything that had happened in her life and give it purpose. Was Powergirl out of time? Out of phase? Why had she been so badly used and abused throughout the years?

I didn't get an answer to that. And then on top of it, I get Supergirl playing out Karen's story. Supergirl's the confused one, the alone one, the one seeking out Kon to talk to him, and dealing with all these new feelings and sensations and curiosities and powers and enemies and hormones and boys and...

Powergirl is Supergirl too. And maybe it's my fantasy alone that Powergirl is Supergirl all grown up, come back to where she was originally meant to be in the timeline from the far future, with unstable whatevers that mess with her memory. Maybe it's wrong of me to think of Powergirl and Supergirl as being the same person, from different spots in the time stream and/or one shade over in realities.

But it's a lot harder not to think that, when Kara is walking in PG's footsteps. It's a lot harder not to do it when I end up thinking they're doing PG's story, only updated for the times.

"Am I Superman's Cousin? What does that mean? What does it mean to be a Kryptonian on Earth? Why did I have to live? Do I want to die? Will I ever fit in? Will I ever be what they expect me to be? Do they have the right to expect anything at all? Will I ever measure up to Kal's legacy? Should I? Could anyone? Who am I? What am I? Should I try to have a normal life? Can I? Is it possible without all the years put in to having a normal, human, childhood? What am I missing out on in the human world? Is it anything like what I'm missing out in from Krypton? What do I want? Can I want something for myself? What does being a hero mean? Should I be a hero? Why do I have to handle this all in public? What's my purpose? Why can't I live a normal life if I can manage to blend in and lie and be a human? Why does Kal live a human life? Does he feel anything? Does it feel weird to him? Does anyone understand how weird it feels to me? Should I remember being Kryptonian and of the House of El or should I try to forget? Am I following Kal's footsteps because he's currently the head of the House of El? Does that even matter anymore?.....'

So many questions. So many interesting questions and conflicts and desires and emotions. But I associate them all with Powergirl. And I keep wanting to see them interacting, so I can maybe observe the differences. Except that there's this stupid premise that they can't be too close together physically because they cause each other's powers to act up.

So Kara's alone when she doesn't have to be. She's alone when it makes her story mimic Karen's that much more. She's alone and a teenager and angsty and trying to figure it all out. But the writers so far don't seem to be looking at it from a teenager's pov.

Kara isn't watching teens on the street, or looking at MTV, or flipping through the channels or reading books about teenagers. But she is spending time with the Outsiders and crushing on Nightwing, and wondering why everything gets tongue tied around him. But it doesn't move from there, because there's a crisis and off she runs.

Kara isn't exploring what having powers and doing heroic things means to her. She's aping Kal-El and wearing his symbol and his costume. And in that she seems somewhat less that PowerGirl. Though understandably she's much younger and as a teenager she's going to be easily swayed.

And yet...

It's like they're missing all the edges of the outsider story. They have the frame up, a rough sketch. But the things that give it dimension are missing.

There's more to trying to figure out who you are, in a world where people die, and relatives lose their powers and enemies haunt you just because you're part of the House of El; than exploring smoking, costume changes and man on the street interaction.

There was this beautiful hint at all the anger she feels in her interaction with Cassie. Kara has grief and rage. She's lost the world she knows, moreso than Kal-El can ever imagine. In fact, she has more in common with Batman, in having had her world shatter and break.

As much as I love Batman, he's not the best person to help her deal with that. But I know he'd take her to the person who is, Jonn Jonzz.

I've heard much of Kyle of Green Lantern Fame, and the trip he took where he met up with lots of Superheroes and slowly realized that what he had inside him was a hero's heart. Why can't Supergirl have something similar? Why can't Jonn teach her about celebrating old rituals and customs in private and dealing with the huge weight of loss that will never really go away? Why can't WonderWoman teach her about female empowerment and humanity's history and self-respect? What would be wrong with a series where a strong telepath like Jonn realized the pain she was in and sent her down the right path?

I found something very wrong with Superman calling an assembly of heroes to welcome Kara when she hadn't proven herself yet. I know she didn't join a particular group. But she hasn't had any training. Is it my Batman love showing that I think like this? That I want to point out that when WonderWoman lost her sight, Batman went for her tooth and nail to ensure she could still take care of herself. But he and Superman leave an untrained girl to discover for herself how to do things? Since when do they do that?

The book kept mentioning Clark wanting Lois to meet Kara. Has that happened yet and I missed it? Cause if not, why can't it happen? What's wrong with Lois and or Martha helping Kara see the point of view of human females? Why isn't there a chance for her to see there are things she might want to experience as just a girl without costumes and responsibilities being right there front and center.

I guess I want to see something more. So far I haven't even figured out why Kara wears the S, other than mimicking Kal-El and so once again I find myself thinking of Powergirl's independence in not wearing a symbol. Though I personally wouldn't fret if I saw her belt-buckle had the S. Or that she suddenly sported a ring that held the emblem. Because it means 'House of El' to me as much as it means 'SUPERsomeone' and Karen's worthy of her house.

Is it possible the writers of Supergirl don't understand the 'Outsider' story? That they don't remember being awkward teenagers and don't have the imaginations to pretend to be an alien girl who doesn't even understand why what she wears and how she looks should be more important than what she does? Or perhaps hasn't even had that thought or philosophy enter her head yet?

They've showed that she wants someone her own age to talk to but they haven't given her that someone. Why?

Why does the whole run that I've managed to read, leave me with more questions than satisfaction?

It's All Been Said Before / Same Old, Same Old

There's something to be said for reading a thing yourself versus reading other people's essays and only seeing a couple of scans of a particular comic or comic arc. This past weekend, while having phoneline and connection problems I went out to the bookstore and the library and I had a chance to read Superman/Batman: Supergirl and I believe Volume of Supergirl.

And I have so many thoughts, about Kara and Karen and how I feel like Powergirl's story is being appropriated; about the mess of Kara Zor-El assasin, and Kara's pain and alienation and feelings of isolation and where she might go next. But the first thing I need to talk about is the cheesecake factor.

I actually need to talk about it. It's almost a physical need. I'm so incredulous at what I saw. It only got worse when I got home and a day or so later I got Greg Rucka's WonderWoman graphic novels. Because there was Diana, powerful, sleek, muscled, athletic and beautiful. She was a wonder woman; noble, self sacrificing, loving, stern, determined. And then there was WonderWoman as I'd seen her drawn in Superman/Batman: Supergirl. And that WW looked like Brigitte Nielsen in Red Sonja. I love that movie almost as much as I love LadyHawke, but at no time did I ever delude myself into thinking that there wasn't significant set up for T&A and that a lot of the scenes played on the fact that the woman in charge didn't look as if she could handle herself. To me WonderWoman should always look like she can handle herself. She's the Queen of the Amazons.

I got back into comics almost without realizing, about a year to 18 months ago, possible a bit longer than that. But I had started by catching up. This is the first time I've looked long and hard at what's current (relatively speaking). And I don't know what to think. I was inspired by the comic blogs of so many eloquent women online. But I don't think I'd ever really seen what inspired them to speak. And now I have. Now it's hit me personally and viserally. And if it seems like I'm about to start harping on 'the clothes' like any other 'comic book femminist'; If it is easy to ignore my points because I'm just another girl talking about T&A and how much she doesn't like it; I suggest you move on, because you'll likely never see my point of view. And I point you now to Dictionary.com so you can look up the words in the phrase; 'Consistent Internal Continuity'.

In Superman/Batman, Clark is being overprotective of Kara. There's something in him that sees in her a precious connection to the past and the future. She's like a daughter to him. She's an innocent. A child. All the power in the world wouldn't change the fact that she's a miracle to him. Those wonderfully corny lines when he thinks she's dead, wherein he talks about her smile, and laughter and her first dance and falling in love are all things a Father would wish for his little girl. Moreover, it shows how lonely Clark is; the unique lonliness of the ex-patriot or the exile. It shows beautifully that he longs to have someone else to check in with about human rituals and talk about how they came to mean anything to him or even if they really do mean anything to him at all. Does kissing really do anything, or is it because he's a male Kryptonian with different erogneous zones, or is he some how stranger and more alien than he thought; just for example.

Everything he wants to show her, and teach her and share with her, is akin to parent to child; this world is now your oyster, let me show you the wonders. They make it clear from the beginning before things even get to the point where she's in danger, that he sees 'A little, lost, Kryptonian girl'. That he doesn't in fact give her up and over to Martha to look after says a lot in how much he wants to be in her life and be there for her and share first hand with her. Perhaps he even regrets (in that way that guilt makes no sense) not being able to be there, right from the beginning, for Kon. And it also shows, I think, that as wonderful as he thinks his parents were, he doesn't think Martha will 'get' Kara, without years of human indoctrination happening first.

And yet, despite all this, it doesn't occur to Superman, the Father, to be overprotective of the gazes Kara might draw, when she's walking around like a hootchie-momma?! I'm supposed to believe he doesn't think about how she's blonde and young and you can see her underwear outside and over her jeans and if some jackass tries something, Kara's still too untested to check her strength and she might hurt a human?! Are you telling me that Clark is too stupid to live and that Batman really has reason to think this girl is bio-chemically engineered to mess with Clark's mind, because Clark didn't take one look at all that skin on the girl he thinks of as an innocent child and go 'Kara, I think you still have a problem with human clothes. Maybe I should pick out your outfits.'

Was the point maybe to show that she's not yet accustomed to Earth ways and Earth clothes? If so, wouldn't it have been more recognizable in point for her to have one black shoe and one red shoe? Wouldn't it have been easier to show her putting the bra on the outside of the clothes? And even then, Kara isn't five. You can let the five year old get away with wearing the Fairy Princess dress night and day for a week. Kara's a teenager who needs to start learning how to blend and fit in. Is the only way for that to happen, is to have her be, unconsciously, an over-sexualized teenager? Is the only way for Kara Zor-El to fit into Earth, and among Earth women, is for her to a Virgin/Whore?

The nakedness out of the capsule-ship is logically required in the story. It is connected to plot in that Kara had exposure to yellow sunlight during her trip and stasis so she arrived on Earth with powers. Showing her hip bones however, is not a plot point. And in fact, there is no way I can believe that Lois-Independent-Femminist-PutsClarkInHisPlace-Lane bought those clothes for her; a high cut leotard with low riding jeans; french cut thongs showing over her jeans!

I realize that a lot of young girls and women do wear thongs and you seen the line of the thong sticking up past their pants. But the women are grown and making their own choices about their appearance. And most of those girls, even if they do think they're making a femmnist stance or any stance at all about their bodies, have more life on Earth experience than Kara and practically are very likely sneaking those clothes out of the house, or don't have anyone at home to tell them better(different).

In a perfect society it'd be instantly recognized that an idiot who hit on a woman when it was unwanted was harrassing her. In a perfect society how a woman dresses wouldn't factor into whether or not a man thought he had the right to touch her without permission or force himself on her. DCverse is not a perfect society. In fact there's a long list of just how many DC heroines have been raped or sexually assualted. DCverse is ripe with powerplays of a sexual and violating nature.

Am I to believe that in a society like that, that Lois Lane would give an innocent and ignorant girl clothes that said 'Come and get it' when said girl hasn't got a clue what the clothes say? Because I don't believe it. And I also don't believe that Martha Kent, who thought about aerodyanmics when she made Clark's costume and being a practical farming woman would put a young girl who's going to be zipping through the air in a skirt. And not just a skirt, but a ruffle of a mini. Not a ruffle attached to a leotard for a bit of girly whimsy but a sash with delusions of grandeur matched with a cropped top. Martha Kent; who knows the kind of enemies her Clark has faced, who knows the kind of enemies her granson Kon has faced, puts one of her baby boy's relatives in that outfit?

No. I don't believe it.


What I do believe is that the artist and author wanted her in those clothes for their own reasons. That this was what they wanted to see. And maybe that explains why WonderWoman, Queen of the Amazons was wearing a star spangled thong. Because what every warrior woman needs in the heat of battle is a wedgie and to have her bare ass cheeks available for scoring.

And if this is what every warrior woman wants, it also explains why Artemis had a bodysuit on that had one leg clothed and one leg bare. Because Artimis as the premier fighter among the Amazons, under the Queen, is just the sort of hard core warrior that needs the rage that comes from having an unplanned wedgie caught up in the crack of her vagina and ass. And if this is what every warrior woman wants, then it explains why Darkseid, a being who has as his personal guard the Furies, would put Kara in long pants, but add 'fuck me now' platform heels like something out of 'When Porn Stars Attack!'. Because Darkseid would definitely want his honor guards pissed off and ready to lop heads and even if Kara can fly and as the girl of steel can't twist her ankle, the unecessary frustration of balancing on those heels, with easy access scarves on her arms so her enemies can pull her closer is just the thing to keep her anger on the surface and her darker nature out and free.

Are any of the men writing and drawing this shit fathers?! Are they uncles? Older cousins? Older brothers?!

There's a time and place for cheesecake. There's a time and place to say that this is a young, fresh, nubile, young woman with no body issues. The time and place, however, is not downtown Metropolis on a young, alien, superpowered, girl's very first shopping trip. The time and place is not on Apokolips in its fight or die atmosphere. The time and place is definitely not while fighting Lex Luthor in his green and purple exo-skeleton, and his various kryptonite jewels while a teeny ass skirt swishes, sways and reveals at every movement. Lex Luther isn't the villian to be stopped by a glimpse of underage poontang.

I've got nothing else to say except to wonder if the artists had never heard of skorts, or hadn't thought of Supergirl in spankypants like WonderWoman or if they really wanted that 'distract them with the bare midrift' look, tights, just like her cousin. These artists are artists, right? They've earned that title? They could flip through a couple of online sites for fashion houses and see design? Or a magazine? Or something, right?

Do they realize what they're saying when they draw/ describe women like this? I'm curious now. I think of 'Eyes of the Gorgan' and 'Land of the Dead' and I wonder. Aphrodite walks around in nothing but whisps of fog and ribbon, there's ample opportunity to be risque and yet the sight of her doesn't make me feel as if someone is trying to disempower me as a woman (or disempower my heroes).

Can someone point me to where Greg Rucka has disrespected women some how? Cause I'd rather find out now than later, after purchasing a very low, very accessible pedastal.

NEXT: (or eventually) Supergirl, Powergirl; A Story Redux.

Supe / Bat Pairing (Note to me)

Random brainstorm I want to keep a record of. Instead of Ms. Supergirl of the barely there skirt, and cigarette burning self, bad ass attitude - having a crush/teaming up with Dick/Nightwing; what would happen if she ended up hanging around Jason Todd?

They're both trying to fit in, and get out from under the expectations of a well known hero. They're both confused, messed up, angry, emotional people. They're both trying to find and figure themselves out. Jason's supposed to be getting over his madness and dealing with his impulses to be more violent and vengeful with criminals. But is Supergirl still having impulses of evil? Has she figures out how to deal with her darker aspects yet?

Am I the only one who thinks that'd make an interesting story? A random one off mini-series wherein they become aquainted, bitch, fret, fight, talk....

I can so clearly see Jason taking the meanest potshots on the barely there skirt, and crop top and asking if she wants to be the SuperHo.

I can see Supergirl calling him a monster at some point, and him morphing into that wtf tentacle creature, just for a second, and admitting he doesn't know what or who the hell he is anymore.

Would it be insider to have them wondering about what's real and what's not real? Would it have to be? Couldn't it just be human and young and confused to feel unreal or like the world was unreal because of everything that's happened? Because of expectations? Because of feeling left out, unloved, unavenged, abandoned.

She could explain why she felt so alone among the Amazons even though to all appearances it was the best place for her. He could explain why Batman sucks (from his pov) or maybe someone would actually go deeper with Jason and deal with him feeling replaceable and like some cog in the wheels within wheels the Bat spins.

And then from there, I don't know, a friendship wherein they branch off into their own books after? It's not unusual for a Supe and a Bat to be friends. There was Tim and Kon. There's Kal-el and Bruce. Why not, Kara and Jason?

Dick can get taken under Powergirl's wing and get given lots of books on coming out of the closet and being a modern gay figure and have deep talks about being taken seriously and trying to form identity when so much of you is tied up in another person; but at a far more adult level than Jason and Kara. J and K could be the teenagers trying to sort things out. And PeeG and Dick could be the adults who still haven't figured things out.

And now I wonder if I'll end up writing some hastilly scrabbled summary (it's been ages upon ages since I wrote fanfiction) because I'm interested in the story now. I'm interested in the layers

ETA: Even the 'incest' thing could be explored well between J and K, as part of the confusing emotions and perceptions of being a teenager and coming back from the dead/ being in stasis etc.

A Letter To Greg Land

Dear Greg Land,

I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I wish your mother showed up in your dreams and spit on you. And all your female relatives turned their backs on you. I wish you'd fall and trip on the sidewalk, and a little girl poured her ice cold soda on your crotch and said 'That's for us girls everywhere!'

It's bad that you trace. It's bad that pictures can be found that are exact copies of what you 'drew'. It's horrible that people keep talking about your so called fucking talent. When in actuality you'd be nothing without Justin Ponsor. It's Justin's color's that make your tracings come alive. He makes them pop. He makes them eye catching. He makes them dynamic because what he does is build depth into a coloring book. That's how empty your drawing is.

But no. On top of all that, your porn face, blow up doll, easy access holes, women never seem to shut their fucking mouths. They're open all the time just waiting for a hard, warm, cock shaft to fill in their empty, brainless cock sucking, cum wanting, dick needing mouths in order to fulfill their destiny as cumslut fantasy whores with superpowers and perky sperm soaked breasts.

Why do your male characters get to smirk, sneer, grin, smile with their mouths closed or when they do talk, do so with the barest breath space between top lip and bottom? But your female characters are always trying to double team the dongs with mouths open wider than if they were at the fucking dentist.

Open mouth for screaming.

Open mouth for sighing.

Open mouth for frustration.

Open mouth for sadness or shock.

Do the hordes of fanboys who flock to your defense have no idea the reason they're so tuned into you, and like you so much, is because you present some of the comic's world strongest women as nothing more than eager, wet, fuck holes, just waiting to be filled by a real man?

Jeeze you peanutbutter on a pogo cheese stick! You can't order a couple subscriptions to like Women's Fittness and Health? Hell even Cosmo has women looking as if they're intelligent to go along with their heaving, ripe tits. There are fashion magazines and erotica coffee table books that have nudes in interesting poses with intelligence in their eyes and closed mouths.

Anita Blake; Vampire Hunter is supposed to be a comic book sometime soon. I suggest you get your ass away from Marvel's actual interesting titles and go do that. Because you could be up to your neck in 'hot wet tightness, so wet, so hot, so tight, so fuckable' in no time at all. Unless of course the comics stick to the first ten books in that series and the strong female protagonist actually stays a strong female protagonist and not someone who's a slave to her sex drive.

The characters you are tracing are women, Greg. Women. Women as in, your sister, your mother, your little cousin. Women in control. Now it's quite possible that other than your mother, your sister and your little cousin you've never interacted face to face, within six inches of a real woman, but they do exist. I'd suggest you start watching tv shows like 'Sex and the City'. Because for all the whining and Jimmy Choo lusting; those are women. I'd also suggest 'The Closer' on TNT. 'Bones' and DVD's of 'La Femme Nikitta'. If you pay careful attention you'll see that these leading women think before they act and when they do act, their mouths are not perpetually open.

I'd also suggest you talk to Jenna Jameson and see if Asia Carrerra is still keeping up her porn website. Asia has been retired for a few years, but she had lovely interactions with her fans and she's a bonified and proud geek. I'm sure she could find the time to explain to you that not even porn stars keep their mouths open all the time. No, Greg, they're not wired open with dental implants and flushed with constant injections of silicon into their lips. They're women with backpain, and gas, and bad days, and stress, and breakouts, and cravings for fried chicken or pizza or chili-dogs, who want to spend time on the internet surfing, who read comics and do cross word puzzles and live in ratty jeans and old flannel in the comfort of their own homes.

Oh, did I burst your bubble? Deal. It's called being a man. Now gather those peanuts you call balls and try drawing or tracing an actual woman for once.

No Love,
Willow


[[ This post inspired by the pictures posted and the cluelessness of the defenders in this interaction. I found myself wondering if these guys couldn't see the sexual harassment because Sue's goddamn mouth was open like a porn star just asking for it. And given that men are visual, I suddenly wondered if her open mouth was skewing their perception of the set up going on; if subconsciously they thought, but this is the 'Rebellious Land Bitches & The Ocean King 4: Hot Wet Touches' ]]

Whee, New Universe Reboot!

Some wonderful anonymous person replied to my first budding comic bloggy question of last year. The character who did the black spotted duplicates, in actuality negative astral versions of himself is: Randy O'Brien, nicknamed Antibody. He was a character who was part of Marvel's 'New Universe'. Given the premise, which was of a more regular world, where a phenomenon, akin to what happened in today's modern 'What if' story, 'The 4400'. There is, The White Event. It gives some individuals paranomal powers and abilities. But Randy is one of a set of people who check themselves into a Clinic that's supposed to be looking out for these new Paranomals to help them learn how to control and deal with their abilities. Instead due to his astral projection, he learns it's a front where the patients are going to be used as part of an army. So he and and a group of others, essentially his group therapy members, escape. And the series is about what happens to them in real time over a year (the series lasted 3 yrs) as they try to figure out what to do and where to go from where they are. They were DP7; Displaced Paranomals Group 7.

Apparently Warren Ellis (and I could really come to love the man, so far he seems responsible for cradling several characters I remember from childhood. Not to mention he made Batman and Superman have a one true love in a version universe; Apollo and The Midnighter. How can I not strongly like the guy?) is responsible for the relaunch of 'The New Universe' as NewUniversal, starting December 30th of this year. He wants to do it as an all involved story; all the characters will relate in someway to one long plot.

I'm excited enough that I sit here and consider going against my impulse against impatience and waiting for the trade. I'm considering buying the damn serial. Though I honestly have no idea how I'd be responsible for a comic collection, between the chaos that is my current rental and my hope to move. I'm having images of keeping them in ziplock bags in styrofoam coolers. Anyone have any links on 'How to take care of your comic collection?'

Because I am so excited. I'm a faithful watcher of 'The 4400' and hope to own S1-3 at some point. And here is something I remember from my youth that's quite similar to that, that will have characters I remember - eventually. So far Ellis has mentioned other characters and character groups from the universe. But I have hope to see incarnations if not reinventions of my favourites. Hey, it worked for BattleStar Galatica.

At some point I could probably talk about my Uncles, and how their tastes affected what I first read. Because I didn't quite know where comics came from, other than the box under their beds and presumably a bookstore somewhere. And when I did ask, as I've said before, I got Dazzler, Katy Keene and Cloak and Dagger. I didn't like the ones without the D. But, there's nothing more to do than say the occasional 'thank you' when I realize where my original loves came from.

But New Universe, possibilities. And the artwork in the previews at marvel.com is wonderful. The colorist makes me think - Justin Ponsar does landscapes. Though I might be thinking Ponsar because the artwork is very realistic and the lines are very clean ala Gred Land. But in this case there's character in the characters. I find myself thinking of Renaissance Italian Portraits. The florid colors on the skin (suggested by the art), the creases in the faces; the weight of life - for older characters; the awkward body positions that happen when something unbeliavable has occurred and people are going 'w. t. f.?!'; the flowing priviledge of the strength and energy youth. It's beautiful.

I'm going to be hunting down more information on Salvador Larocca, as I don't follow X-Men, Uncanny X-Men or X-treme X-Men. But now I'll give them a look to peruse the art. Warren Ellis and a good artist can't really do wrong, can they?

I've become burnt out on X-Men and 'Civil War' as I've said makes no bit of sense to me whatsoever. When I finally get around to talking about it, it'll be a streak of cursing. Maybe I'll even code those words all blue. But I could support Marvel in this along with 'Runaways'. Now all that needs to happen is that DC does something that makes me get as excited.

SUPERGIRL

My new rule is if I find myself stating having more than three things to say about a comics character in IM, and it's in a ranty manner, I should rant on here. So now I will.

SUPERGIRL. Just saying the name makes me feel eleven years old and oh so excited. She was a girl! She was just like Superman! A girl could be just as strong as Superman and just as smart and just as able. My introduction to Supergirl via comics was rather brief and I admit, I fixated on the movie version for many, many years. But given that I was Batman's girl since the age of five or six, the fact that Supergirl made any impression on me whatsoever is a big thing, a very big thing. She was Wonder Woman, only young enough and confused enough about Earth, that a little kid like I was then could relate to her. I can remember thinking I'd never understand the grown up world, and bucking myself up with thoughts that Supergirl managed to figure out Earth, so I could too.

I wasn't fully satisfied with Supergirl again until The Adventures of Batman and Superman on the WB, where Kal-el found Kara and brought her back to Earth where she could live with the Kents as his cousin. I didn't like her superhero uniform, but I loved her. I loved her family issues, I loved her looking up to, feeling jealous of, feeling overshadowed by Superman. Even though Justice League lost me when it became the JLU, I did actually tune in when there was anything going on with Kara. Because it was going to be about Supergirl!

The Supergirl in the comics now has so much potential. She thinks of Batman and Superman both as her fathers. Supergirl has two dads! How's that for a new way of looking at the world, and Earth and human politics and prejudices etc. She's spent time with the Amazons, surrounded by indepenent strong women who make no appologies for being that way. She has three role models who keep telling her she can tell them anything, talk to them about anything. For me at least, that's total wish fulfillment. As a teenager I'd have given darn near anything to have even one person who wanted to be there for me like that.

Instead everything I read, and see discussed is about this girl who wears a Supergirl outfit, but who's someone totally different. She's trapped in her head with her issues. She's morose. She's potentially masochistic. She's emotional. She feels misunderstood. She's lost. She has no goals. She feels she has no purpose. She has no actual direction and no clue where to go for direction. She has impulses she doesn't understand. And she just happens to have Kryptonian physiology.

Who is this girl? Why does she seem so listless in all her poses? Why does she seem without focus on the covers? How could she have been among Amazons and not learned the basic body language of two feet solidly planted on the ground, spine straight, shoulders back? Why is her skirt so teeny? What true reason does she have to be so lost? How and why did she become a character that I want to avoid? A character who seems spoilt to me and unable to see her blessings? Where's her gratitude gone?

The Supergirl I remember was grateful to be alive. She was grateful for the chance to be a hero and do something with her life. She was grateful for family to feel jealous of in the first place. Where did the gratitude go? The more I write, the more I realize what bothers me is the utter lack of graciousness. There seem to be no wonders of the world, to this new Supergirl. I don't look at her and imagine seeing the world through new eyes. She's world weary and cynical when she should be young enough to bounce back. All my memories of her are about bouncing back. She felt and she felt deeply and she made it ok for girls to cry. If Superheros like her could cry, then I could cry and it didn't take away from my tomboyishness or my strengths or any of my accomplishments. Because crying wasn't weak, it was simply emotion. After Supergirl cried, she did something.

For all the story of Powergirl has become so convoluted and I feel a keen sense of disappointment in the prelude to crisis arc where nothing new came out of having her confront all the varied aspects of her past; Powergirl is more like the Kara I remember as a girl. She's determined, she's sassy, she's powerful, she's a role model.

The new Supergirl seems like an appendage. Since when was it ok for SUPERGIRL to be an appendage?! I don't know about her earliest incarnations, was she Superman's appendage then? Because I remember her as her own damn entity. Even when she was doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, or doing the right thing the wrong way, she was her own person.

Superman was an adult but Supergirl was somewhere in between. She could see adulthood but she was somehow innocent enough that I could put myself in her place far easier than I could with Superman. (And we can get into why I so strongly identify with Batman later). When playing with my cousins and they chose to be Superman and Spiderman and any number of male characters and then told me I couldn't play - I loved saying 'Sure I can. I'm Supergirl!' and whipping out my comic books. Boom. In your face. A real girl superhero!

Can little girls do that with the new Kara? Or do little girls not exist like that anymore? Is that what the new Supergirl comics are trying to say?

Asterix & Memories

Asterix.

All it took was a google search 'Little warrior, french, comic, gaul, viking' and there it was. Sometimes you just don't think about how easy it really would be to find certain childhood loves. Superhero comics were either my first reading materials or so prominent in the top three that I can't remember any others. I know I must have read regular children's books. I remember Noddy and I remember Enid Blyton's Adventure Children's Series; The Famous Five,The Secret Seven.

But Asterix was something else all together. It was historical seeming superheroes; gaels and vikings and romans running around in bright colors having adventures being trumped or triumphing. Asterix the tiny, witty one and Obelix the large strong one, putting towns together, stealing food, fighting the enemy.

I loved them. Absolutely, positively loved them. Wikipedia can explain the series much better than I can. But I think after my current indulgence in Greg Rucka's Wonder Woman and Queen and Country series, I'll borrow a boatload of Asterix and settle down to laugh and until I almost pee myself.

Of course, there's always the possibility that I won't find it all as funny as I did as a child. And that's the problem with looking back and then going to find the thing you're reminiscing on so fondly. People are shorter than in memories, things don't smell as sweet, or taste as good, most of the time. And in terms of comics, DC and Marvel seem to have gone and lost their goddamn minds. I've got a list of possible essay topics and even if all I manage is two paragraphs I will have words to say about 'Civil War'.

But I hope Asterix isn't like that. I've charted how my love of comics led to a love of mythology and myths and legends. I wonder now and hope Asterix had a part to play in how easily I took to the thought of strange customs, stranger gods and very weird people with all sorts of quirks, in fiction and in real life. If you learn that everyone's different early on, and everyone's laughable does that make you more tolerant?


(( And is that what my parents wanted? Or where they just sharing literature. I can't remember or figure out who first gave the books to me to read, my mother or my father? My father was a science fiction fan. His favourite heros were 'The Phantom' and 'The Shadow' and he read Heinlin, Herbert and Asimov. My mother was a francophile. It's easy to say my father, because he's always encouraged my love of reading and my mother was far more concerned with making sure I got my school work done. My memories of my mother don't include her really reading anything. She drew, she danced, she was very active, but I don't remember her reading. Yet at the same time, she's the one who taught me to read. Huh... a puzzle within a memory, wrapped in an enigma, hidden inside the pages of a comic book. ))

Scott Summers: Reading Between The Lines

I promised myself my first real 'post' / essay was going to be on Scott Summers. So the musings about colorists and what on earth is going on with Greg Land will just have to wait. Scottness! Scottness calls to me.

[Old Eyes vs New Eyes]

It's funny, I didn't used to like Scott when I first got into comics. As a little girl and then as a self absorbed teenager, Scott was just boring. He was internal. That is, he wasn't obvious and all he ever seemed to do was hang around going 'Jean. Jean! Jean? Jeeeeeeaaaan!' A lot of the time I just wanted him to shut the hell up and get to prissily ordering people about already.

Wolverine had claws and a past he wanted to know but didn't want to know. Remy had drama and trauma and a sexy accent. Beast was a wonderful intellectual, and a true friend to anyone willing to befriend him back. Storm (cue the aria) was absolutely kick ass; a personal comic book Mary fricking Poppins. At least to me.

In comics and cartoons it seemed like everyone quickly got who the other characters were, readers/watchers, artists (voice, pencil, cell, color). But Scott, was just always in the background, except when he wasn't. And when he wasn't, he was lying and cheating on one woman, to be with another woman; being the only thing to hold Jean to the physical plane as anchor or distraction depending on how dark she was at the moment; or he was leading the X-men into battle. He was the guy shouting orders.

Thinking of it right now, I almost feel like Scott was the girl. His life revolved around other people and his love relationship to them and when he wasn't in orbit, or being a romantic foil, or being angsty about it all, he was being nurturing via tough love and training. He was being parental via leadership and power utilization on the battle field. Maybe most girls in comics generally don't get the last part , the chance to be leader, but doesn't it seem when I describe him this way that he was made to fade into the background except when needed? That he was a walking plot point? That in fact people haven't known what to do with Scott when he's not in a love triangle? And that's a shame.

I discovered just how much of a shame, because I was lucky enough to find myself in the position of having to play him for an rpg. And being the intense, researching, method-player, geek I am (think method acting), I sat down and studied him.

I borrowed Scott centric book arcs in the trades. I poured the internet for scans. I looked up his history. I wrote down what I remembered from when I was younger. And when it was all done and I was writing up my personal character biography, I realized that looking at Scott through new eyes, adult eyes, revealed a whole new character to me. A character with depth and richness that I'd never really bothered to see before, because it wasn't right there on the surface. Because the writers hadn't been able to, or hadn't bothered or just plain didn't put it up front and in a spotlight. It was like a snow drop; those spring time flowers you're lucky to see if you push aside some of the overgrowth before summer's heavier heat causes them to wilt away and wait another year.


[Scott Summers Is Not A Bastard]

Scott is not a robot. He's not an automaton. He's not a stick in the ass, authority loving, fun sapping, kiss ass, vortex of soul sucking rule following; a tool of the overseer. He's not an old fashioned boyfriend and love interest. He's not a romantic foil. He's not wish fulfillment about the perfect man. And he's sure as hell is not a callous cheating manho! (Let's not even go there) He's not all this despite what the writers have done to him. Despite the saga that is Jean Grey, Phoenix. (And how I feel about her is a whole 'nother essay)

Scott is who he is due to his past, machinations by Sinister, his relationship with Charles Xaiver and in my perhaps unknowledgeable opinion, some really lazy writing. But even that writing and how his internal life is ignored doesn't detract from his potential. Potential, some of which Joss Whedon found in 'Astonishing X-Men'.


[The Beginning]

Scott starts his life out as an ordinary all American boy, with an all American life; with two parents and a younger brother. And then one day on what should have been a simple flight to visit his grandparents (you can chant 'A three hour tour' right about now), he finds his whole world turned upside down.

Imagine being a young boy, a pre-teen, the plane's on fire, your parents sacrifice themselves to keep you and your brother alive. They strap you two together, and put on you the only parachute and shove you out the door. You're falling, in shock, crying even though big boys are supposed to be brave, because your parents are dying right in front of you. And then something burns your cheek or your shoulder. Or your little brother screams, or your eyes realize that not all the fire is on the plane, which is quite possibly exploding in shards and fragments all around you. Your parachute is burning and suddenly you're staring at your own death; at your brother's death. It's all been wasted; this one chance to save you. You've been separated from final moments in your mother and father's arms, from a quick end, for no real reason and the ground is rushing up beneath you...

At that young an age the thought of unstrapping himself and hoping his brother somehow makes it without his weight doesn't occur to Scott. He's still at an age to be selfish in the face of death. And he's young enough to be stunned still and shocked stupid. None of this isn't something he's ever had to even remotely think about before. And then, suddenly, adrenaline rushing through his body, fight or flight or death, Scott's powers activate incredibly early for a mutant and his force beams slow their fall and churn the snow topped earth into something soft enough that impact won't kill him and his brother immediately.

As defining a moment for a traditional stoic, brooding, need to be in control character if ever there was one, in my opinion at least.

Imagine waking up after the world's gone dark to discover that you've been in a coma. The doctors and nurses tell you to be brave, to push through. They tell you you're young, you can adapt and overcome.They tell you it doesn't matter that you can't remember Mom and Dad and little brother; all of whom are lost now, dead or gone away. You're just so lucky to even be alive.

You're too young to understand magical thinking and blaming yourself and you're far too distracted with recovery; everything gets put on hold until you get better. But then one day you're well enough to leave the hospital, the only place you can remember ever knowing and you're put in an orphanage. You're an orphan.

Maybe times have changed enough to remove the stigma and weight of the word 'orphan'. But being 'alone' and without natural family has shaped Scott in so many ways that it's hard for me not to see him wearing it like a brand beneath his shirt; something he lives with always. To me it defines who he is, what he wants, what he needs and years for and what he fights for.

As a little boy in an orphanage Scott then goes on to try and be normal, to try and be what everyone expects him to be. He tries in fact to be charming enough that some wonderful family will come adopt him. But all his trying comes to nothing.

Why? Because the boogie-man in the basment is real for Scott. Even at that young age someone wants him to be a pawn; someone who was willing to set up shop in an orphanage, trick him into all sorts of experiments, and do their best to isolate Scott from the rest of the world. Essex aka Sinister is everywhere pushing his little mouse through the maze. He's Scott's fellow orphan. He's the doctor at the orphanage. He's the head of the orphanage. When a couple decides they want Scott for their own, Sinister has them killed. Scott never finds out why they didn't come back for him or fill out the paperwork. When a new administrator in the orphanage seems to warm up to Scott and become a likely friend, Essex brainwashes her.

Scott's entire time at the orphanage is under a cloud of not being good enough or welcome enough. People leave him. People are not to be trusted. People only ever want for themselves. There's something wrong with him. And on top of all that he's visibly different. He's marked. He doesn't remember things about his past. He has awful headaches and has to wear funny special glasses.

It's no wonder that Scott would withdraw into himself. That he hides his wounds and needs comes naturally and logically. Never let them see you sweat, is all about being prey in an enviromentment of predators. It's a high stress situation. But Scott doesn't break. He runs away from the orphanage instead. Unfortunately he runs head long into yet another predator. Jack O'Diamonds; a con man, extortionist, would be terrorist.


[Comic Code Says....]

Now this is when I personally think the Comics Code greyed and blurred an area that I believe can easily be read as 'The Days of Young Scott Summers, Poor Little Boy Whore'. But even without thinking about why a grown man would befriend a runaway teen boy before he knew about that boy's abilities. Scott's still a teenager being exploited by a not very good person. A person who thinks holding a nuclear power plant hostage is a good idea. It doesn't matter if Jack wants to use radiation to increase his powers, get money from the government or blow the area to kingdom come. It's a nuclear power plant and that's his plan.

But let's back up a bit to just after Scott runs away so it makes more sense to understand why Scott sticks with Jack O'Diamonds (Jack Winters) despite the exploitation and the beatings. And yes, there were beatings. But like I said, we're backing up.

Imagine being a young boy who's just run away from the only other place he's ever known. The first being a hospital. Out alone and very not street savvy but free. Imagine beginning to relax from the pressure of the environment of the orphanage only to get the stirrings of one of those horrible headaches. You take off your glasses, rub your temples and then.... shafts of force beam streak from your eyes and hit a crane.

Imagine watching it begin to fall onto unsuspecting pedestrians many stories below and your fright forcing up another beam, this one obliterating the piece of falling machinery. Imagine wondering how you did that. Wondering what you did. All the while a crowd of angry, frightened, confused adults start to converge on you and accuse you of trying to kill them all.

Scott's very first foray into the outside world and he's marked as a terrorist and has to run away from a mob. Yet another group of individuals thinking he's the problem. In reality they might fe failed adults, a mindless mob. But to a young boy running away from them, they're the villagers with pitchforks and he's Frankenstien's frustrated monster. It's yet another circumstance of being different.

But he doesn't get away clean. No, he gets caught by the police who treat him like a delinquent. What's the first thing that gets done with a punk who's known to have run away from an orphanage and who's a possible suspect against a group of angry tax, paying citizens? Someone takes the punk's sunglasses off. Cue Scott effectively blasting a hole through a police station! And of course running away again.

And where does he run? Right into the 'arms' of Jack O'Diamonds. Who, unlike Sinister, knows how to manipulate young boys. Jack's a physically abusive S.O.B. He knows how to make Scott feel as if there's a chance that Scott can do the right thing. That in fact Scott does occasionally do the right thing and is not a mistake or a freak and that Scott can be rewarded for it. But when it's not the right thing, Scott gets hit. A lot.

Now this was back in the days where a grown man beating on a teenage boy was ok in comics, even if just on this side of risky. But to me it's subtly coded for a whole lot more. If Scott had been a girl in that sort of situation, depending on Jack for food, shelter and protection they just couldn't have done it at all. A panel of Jack backhanding 'Scarlett' would read like a young female prostitute being disciplined by her pimp. And I don't think the comparison is unfair, because Scott is so dependent and so realistic about Jack's moods and abuses that he helps take part in a raid on a nuclear power plant. Remember, I mentioned Jack's 'genius' earlier? Nuclear Power Plant. Where thins go BOOM and glow.

Scott's forced to attack helpless people, certain that if he doesn't stun them with his blasts, Jack will shoot them or something worse. Scott's become a delinquent terrorist and Jack's minion. He may not be being pimped for his body, but he sure as heck is being used for Jack's pleasure.


[And then MosesXavier said onto the people...]

Today I'm talking about what Charles Xavier did to Scott Summers. Because being Xavier's pawn does play into how Scott grows up and what he becomes. But one of these days I'll talk about the pros and cons of starting up a private army to combat your boyfriend's private army while you both try to convince the rest of the human race that you're each individually sensible enough to make decisions for them. Because I think that will explain my views on Xaiver and how that shapes my views on Scott.

Like a bolt of lightening out of the blue, Charles shows up at the plant because he's been tracking Scott since the manifestation of his powers with the crane. (Apparently taking his own sweet time to so so). And he offers Scott sanctuary.

Charles offers Scott another way and says he'll take him away from people like Jack and that he won't have to be afraid anymore. He outlines his dream of mutant cooperation and a mutant strike force who'll do first response in emergencies. Peaceful co-existence, without having to take over nuclear power plants.

(I happen to believe Charles also says something along the lines of 'And I can make that pesky child fugitive thing disappear too'. Because how else can it be explained why Charles is able to swoop in and have Scott as his ward when there's an orphanage bulletin (missing child), likely a police bulletin (terrorist actions) and I'm sure some of those guards at the power plant would have remembered something before an Xavier class whammy.)

So Scott says yes to Xavier. Who wouldn't? Older man who wants to take over nuclear power plants and harm people vs older man who says he doesn't want to harm people. Also, in my personal opinion, older man who doesn't have to touch Scott in order to try to be close to him. Xavier can seem sincere by projecting it right into Scott's mind. Seeming kindness and familial intimacy without any physical affection to decipher. What young, on the run, mutant gene empowered boy wouldn't leap at the chance to leave the beatings (and possibly bad touch) behind him.

Imagine being a young boy, almost a man, with no hope for a future. You've been lied to and manipulated all your life. Sometimes you let it happen because you needed to survive. Sometimes you didn't even know it was happening until the end, or until you were told. People have betrayed you, misunderstood you, chased you, hit you, hurt you, been scared of you. And then here comes a man who's calm. Who doesn't seem to be hiding the violent rages and the demands and the want for instant obedience. Here's someone who isn't scared of you or shamed of you. And all they want is for you to help them realize something that sounds like a noble ideal. And if that ideal came true, maybe no other kid would have to go through what you went through. And even before that ideal goes through you can help other kids reach this man, find him, talk to him, be trained by him, feel calmed by him.

So there Scott is, in Xavier's hands. Xavier who can mold minds, erase memories, get people to do his will without even having to take a deep breath, far less break a sweat. (After all, Jack Winter just disappears, doesn't he. Poof, no more pesky abuser.) But Xavier doesn't even have to that with Scott, because Scott is eager to please. The mansion is large, the meals are good, Xavier's a cripple; and everything's dead below the waist as far as a teenage boy with a shady past is concerned.

Scott becomes a believer, hook line and sinker. David Caresh didn't need mental powers to convince people to be his followers in Waco and Xavier really didn't need to use his mental abilities to keep Scott at his side or send Scott out to hunt down other young mutants. Xavier wants a soldier, Scott becomes a soldier. Scott becomes the best soldier he can be. Here's his chance, underneath all the training to have that normal life; to be that normal boy. And if at the heart of it, he's still just a dream realized for some one else, at least Charles gives him time to try and be himself., whatever or whoever that might be.


[The Wicked Web]

There's a weird triangle that develops between Jean, Xavier and Scott; wherein Xavier doesn't seem to want Scott distracted. Scott wants to be with Jean. Jean just wants to be a normal girl. And Xavier has plans for Jean, plans that might well include himself.

But more important than Jean herself is what she represents. She's normalcy. She's a girl a guy could have. She's adulthood. She's Scott wanting something for himself even if he doesn't know how to go about it. And she's also someone who can slip past Scott's defensives; his front, his mental barriers; and see and speak to the real man beneath. She's a possible second person who won't be afraid. But most importantly she wouldn't / doesn't want anything from Scott, but Scott.

Scott's set apart from the small group Xavier collects. He came first. He's trained, first. He becomes team leader. He helped recruit the others. And he has absolutely no idea how to relate to people his own age, far less how to relate to people with similar struggles. (Scott wears a geeky bow-tie while Jean gets to wear minis, that says something right there)

Scott's not flirtatious or funny. He's not the brain. He's not the pretty girl. He's the boy who trains and trains so he won't disappoint Xavier, so he won't have to leave and so he never comes close to even accidentally harming anyone ever again. Scott retreats behind the facade of 'The Leader' or 'Xavier's pet' and everyone else carves out a niche for themselves in the group.

Imagine hearing these other teenagers talk about school and family and friends. Imagine that all you know is the pecking order of the orphanage, constant isolation, Jack Winter's fists and Xavier's cool praise. Imagine also knowing from the very start how destructive your power is; remembering the crane and the nuclear plant. The others can joke around. If they forget themselves the worst that might happen is something gets frozen, or broken, or levitates. Though Jean, if her power is close to Xavier's might understand. Jean's felt scared about what she might do and who she is. Imagine being drawn to that, and the fact that she's a pretty girl, and smart and she pays attention to you.

[The Hedge Is Made of Cardboard ]

The problem I think with all this is that after Scott's set up, to be the good guy, to be the leader and to be the one who thinks of others first, there are years and years and years where nothing much gets done with him. And by that I mean, 'And So Begins The Saga of Jean and Scott'. And it's Jean who gets all the character details, all the minutia.

That's what I mean about how growing up Scott was 'the girl' and 'the background character'. He was defined through Jean. He was defined through his love of Jean, him wanting Jean, him defying Xavier for Jean, him finally asking her to marry him, and then the whole horrid debacle that was Phoenix and Jean's death and Maddie Pryor and that marriage and the baby and Scott leaving Maddie to go back to Jean. And...

Heck, Maddie evolves. She becomes the Goblin Queen. She has motivations of love, jealousy, hate, wanting a family, wanting a normal life, wanting not to be a construct, wanting to feel real. Even her revenge stretches out beyond Scott to encompass all the X-men and to want to go against Sinister himself.

All the while there's not much delved into about Scott. What kind of man he is that he'd do the things he's done.. How does he feel about betrayal? The young boy I've charted from the death of his parents onwards would seem the type to want something solid. He would seem the type to always want to be dependable and to have someone to depend on. I would think he'd always wanted someone who could touch him without making it feel overt and forced and overwhelming. And that he's wanted someone to share things with, perhaps even the burden of leadership.

But not only did I grow up never seeing that happen between him and Jean, or him and Maddie. But I never saw long arcs of the type of quiet friendship he and Storm, for example, could have, based on their similar levels of control, leadership and emotional restraint.

When I first began to look at Scott differently, I realized that in all the throw away moments done while the writers were progressing some one else's story, were details about Scott Summers becoming a man. The foundation is there, the bricks are there and it would be so easy.

Imagine being a young man who's fallen in love, who's lost that love, tragically, horrifically and then finds her apparent twin right at the hardest point of his grief, when it's hit denial and seems stuck. Imagine being a young man without day to day interpersonal skills or any real introspection letting yourself fall and cling to this copy of the person you love; your first love returned to you. Imagine wanting her back so badly, and wanting a normal life so badly that you marry her, and have a child with her and quit the cause and the institution that have been your life since you were in your late teens. Now there's no way this love will be harmed. There will be no crazy attacks, no missions, no prejudice, just a nice normal family living nice normal days.

But then you find out that while you've been living this fantasy, your real love was alive and trapped somewhere and your team's been suffering. Imagine the dual guilt. Imagine returning to that team, to that 'love' and throwing yourself into everything to make up for the lapse you've had in being the good soldier. Imagine taking huge effort to drown out any thoughts or emotions in work and nothing but work, until your wife has to show up and remind you that life has consequences and that there are other people involved in your denial. And that no matter how much you wished people had talked you out of it, or that you'd listened to them, you have responsibilities now.

Did Scott feel resentful? Did he feel depressed? Was he confused and naturally torn between two women he loved? Or was he daily facing the fact that what he'd had with Madelyne was a pipe dream? And now the pipe was empty.


[My Boy]
There's a scene in Joss Wheadon's run of Astonishing X-men, where a Sentinel has crawled up the lawn to the Institute and Scott is pissed off to be facing one of these things again. He's pissed off that it's invading his home! He tells everyone to get behind him, whips off his visor and blasts the thing like half a mile (it looks like), through trees and making a great big furrow in the earth. The panel of the blast is one solid block of red. And then Wolverine says something along the lines of 'Just when I can't remember why that guy's team leader, he goes and does something like this'

That's Scott defending his home, defending his mission, dealing with his anger and frustration without the love triangle (Wolverine is strictly there as someone who respects Scott.) That's Scott the team leader, the heir apparent to the noble ideal. He's in charge, he's passionate he's real,. And it's made all the more beautiful for me, because the damn Sentinel is a distraction and the main plot is all about the Danger Room being sentient, so that Scott's being a leader in a normal (for the X-men) day. It's not an issue devoted to showing him as flawed and honorable and solidly fleshed out. It's two or three pages among twenty two that crystallizes everything about him. Where he's come from, what he's done, what he's learned and where he's going.

I read that and I thought 'Ahh, Scott. That's my boy.'

If Scott comes across as a bastard, it's because writers thought the easiest thing to do with him is make him one. If he comes across as cold, it's because they're juggling other characters and they need 'The Leader' to step in and say a few words before the adventure takes off again. It doesn't take much to round him out. And sometimes the writers do try and you have to look for it. It might have been in the art direction of him reaching out physically to someone. It might be in a panel where he holds someone's gaze.

But there's something there that's more than 'That Guy Wolverine Should So Totally Ass Kick For Jean'.

Recently, there was a Scott / Emma relationship. But now Emma's reportedly evil again and her getting close to Scott was part of a plot to undermine, corrupt and destroy. Scott was part of a larger plot about Mutant Hierarchy.

I'm guessing that when I find myself reading about that, I'll be looking for the little cues that let me know how Scott's feeling about someone having betrayed him yet again and whether or not even telepaths are off limits for those he dares let see more of him. I'll be looking and I hope Joss isn't the only writer who'll give me what I want.

Backdated:

Journal Header/Avatar: Artesia by Mark Smylie. I've been assuming she's easily recognizable, but it's come to my attention that I've not given proper credit. So I do so now.

My Blogger Identifying Image, I believe is by Leo & Diane Dillon.

About Seeking Avalon

~ Present / 2009 ~

What's New:
I'm not still sure this counts as my comics blog. It's become about more than graphic novels and sequential art, it's become about media and media representation in Speculative Fiction. It's become about Non White Futurism & Fantasy, about Intra Non White Peoples Dialogue and Observations when it comes to representation in fictional worlds of wonder; cg animation to black and white inked indie comics and all the text in between.

The political is personal here.



~ 2 Years Ago ~
Ah the inevitable out of date introduction.

Beginning
Hi, hello, how are you ? Me? I'm just fine. More than fine. I'm writing a comics blog. I'm practically giddy. See, I went to the trouble of doing pros and cons - if anyone's actually reading this and keeps reading it, you'll see I do that a lot; make lists. And I came up with thirty possible essay topics, off the cuff, at six o'clock in the morning after being up all night. So obviously I have something to say. I've been having something to say. Maybe more than thirty essay topics.

Maybe I've been keeping quiet because as an immigrant I fell unhappily into a land where all of a sudden comics were the domain of boys and I've been shutting up about them every since.

But no more. Cause hey, it's the internet and aside from the relative anonymity, there are all these wonderful blogs written by women talking about comics and their pov as women. And since early this summer because of them I've fallen even faster, back into my childhood fandom, from the initial trip about two-three years ago. Or maybe I've opened the door as an adult and I'm ready to talk and discuss and share rather than read alone and wonder alone about wtf they were thinking of, and hell, now I don't have to squee alone either.



Childhood
I grew up reading comics. I never read 'See Spot Run'. I read Fantastic Four, X-Men, Batman (my first and forever love). I had young teenage uncles try to appease me by buying me Dazzler and Katy Keene. I liked Dazzler. I also liked Cloak and Dagger, one of my other great childhood loves. I couldn't quite get the point of Katy. And there was another model too, whose name I've forgotten. I followed Spiderman in the paper, but I didn't much see the point in having a full comic to read him.

I loved the colors, I loved the stories. As a little girl who was being read Hemmingway, Whitman and Buck for my bedtime tales, I loved the thought of myths with color; larger than life figures, living, loving and fighting. My grandfather told me stories about my ancestors and kidded that on his side I was related to the Digo tribes in Africa. And when my uncles were busy, I snuck into their rooms and read about Storm the African Princess with amazing powers and Captain Marvel, leader of the Avengers. They were one and the same kind of tales to small me, with words I sometimes had to go back and look up. They were, are, amazing.



Adolescence
I missed them when I moved, not being able to have someplace to sneak to and read someone else's monthlies, not knowing where to go, not finding them in a bookstore. I was far too young to know about a comic store and I wasn't with anyone who could take me. I took to watching cartoons and wondering why the stories didn't seem to have as much depth and were all about the laughs. Scooby Doo was a poor substitute for Batman. Their mysteries sucked! (No offense if you like Scooby Doo. But I never got the love) And Archie comics were in all the grocery stores, but nothing ever happened in them. And even if Sabrina's Aunts were interesting, she wasn't. And Josie and the PussyCats seemed to stumble into things rather than hunt them down and often times only Josie had moxy.

Also if I wasn't careful or I asked the adults around me to do it, I got the Christian versions of Archie and I found myself wondering what accepting Christ had to do with a story about an ordinary boy, his horrible car, and the two girls who kept on fighting for him despite the crosses they wore.

Then came Batman the movie, Tim Burton, Michael Keaton. Finally something that was like the legends I'd read as a child. And like the legends I was currently reading to get my fix of the heroic; Norse Legends, Native American Stories, Anglo Saxon Folklore, Arthurian Fables, FairyTales. Aside from Cinderella I was almost twelve/thirteen before I got into Rose Red and Snow White and the darker side of the Grimm Brothers.

Sometime around fourteen, I finally heard about 'the comic book shop'; After spying some boys in class reading comics and asking where they'd got them from. It was like seeing water in the desert. For both of us actually.

They'd never heard of a girl who knew about Spiderman and Mary Jane and Brock and Doc Oc. I got quizzed on the spot. Thank goodness there was a substitute. They let me read them and I got momentarily caught up, thrown into a sea of Peter Parker Clones, and having missed Jason Todd's arrival and death and wondering who the hell that Robin was. I didn't know who the New Mutants were, but I could tell them about Storm and Cyclops and Jean, Hank and the Iceman. And I could tell them about Dazzler and mutant politics and all about the origin of Magneto. I didn't recognize any of the Avengers and they had no idea who I was talking about when I talked about a black, female team leader who wasn't Storm. Some of them were also immigrants, but they were boys and somehow, they'd found the comic book store. And they were allowed to go there. I wasn't.

After that it was several years later before I came across trades in a bookstore and at the library and I didn't have to worry about spending money every month if I didn't have it, or finding my way to the ever illusive 'comic book store'. I still haven't ever been to a comic book store. But I've caught up on my favourites and I've found new ones and in the interim well made cartoons like Cybersix and the 90's X'men cartoon and the various Saturday Morning Spiderman cartoons and the so beloved Batman: The Animated Series had kept me close to the worlds of fiction I'd first discovered and called my own.



Present Day
Nowadays I'm playing catchup via the library system. It was hard enough discovering that the Huntress was no longer Helena Wayne. And that Diana had a new origin. With all the stuff that's happened in the past three years with DC and Marvel, I'd much rather know before hand if something's worth it before I buy it. And then, there's the impatience. After waiting so many years to catch up on 'old friends', I'd rather wait and read a story arc all the way through than wait week to week and hope nothing prevents me from finding out what happened next. I'd rather not read it at all, than read it and be interrupted. There's only so many times you can go through that. And I've been through it enough.

Currently I'm about to investigate 'The Authority' for the first time; care of my county's library system. And this past weekend I walked smack into Runaways Vol 1 and realized that no one had 'pimped' it to me properly. My main memory was that it was the series where Cloak and Dagger come back only to have some little girl defeat him. It was more than that, it was so good in fact that I didn't walk out of there and rush home to reserve the book on my library account. I bought the damn thing and let my budget tremble and try and recover.

I've read The Dark Knight Returns. I'm geeky enough to have wanted the Batman Begins Collections DVD with the comic inclusion. And sure enough there was the art I remembered from when I was younger. I've just, finally read Year One. It took ages to hunt down and find a copy through inter-library(county) loan. Yes, when I said I use my library system, I really meant it.

Dick and Jason and Tim make sense to me, now. And I realize that I'd been confusing Jason with Bruce Wayne Jr from 'Generations'. See what happens if you're only hitting up teenage boys for hits, like nicotine addicts and cigarettes and not finding your own way to what you want? Confusion reigns.

I'm currently wary of Ultimate Spiderman. Ultimate X-men wasn't disappointing. It was good, very good. And yet.... I think I found myself comparing it to the cartoon 'Evolution' and Evolution came out on top because Xavier had one major personality/character thread there. I'd been looking forward to a 'Shadowy!Xavier' and I felt gyped (ETA: 2011 - WTH past self?) cheated by Scott's eventual reaction to things. Btw, my first major character analysis in here is going to be all about Scott. Ahh Scott Summers, my second stoic, emotionally restrained, brooding superhero darling.



______________

Marvel
I miss Scott a lot actually. Everything I've picked up about 'House of M' since I've started getting back into comics, has had me putting it down again. Somehow I've lost trust with Marvel and 'Civil War' seems redundant to me. It's hard to imagine a universe where the mutant registration act didn't go over well, somehow changing the name and including a different spectrum of people and all of a sudden because these guys say they want to help, they should be on a list. After quasi-concentration camps, and small children being taken from their parents I can't imagine the rest of the super hero world in Marvel is so blind, or so self-centered that they think somehow that they are different and any children they have won't be scrutinized all over the place.

I guess you can say I don't get it. It makes me wonder if the rest of the powered world were just sticking their thumbs up their asses when the MRA was going on. It's hard to believe in super heroes who apparently don't watch the news or read the papers further than finding a crisis to insinuate themselves into. Maybe when the trades come out and I read them, I'll feel differently. There's a lot to be said for not having to scan a mess of crossovers in order to get the point of a story arc.

On the plus side, as I said before 'Runaways'!

On the not so plus side, Marvel Zombies?!! WTF was up with that? No really? WTF? Eating Silver Surfer and Galactus? WTFizzle?



DC
I love Batman. I love WonderWoman and Catwoman and Renee Montoya, Black Canary and John Stewart is my first Green Lantern. Probably because it was less easy to confuse John with Kato assisted Green Hornet. I think I was in my mid teens before I realized that Hal was not a jackass who'd dropped his minority partner and put on a skin tight suit. I've burst into new deep love for Jason Todd, now that I've gotten to know him. And I'm happy as anything he's 'alive' for me to know more.

On my DC to buy list are Gotham Central, Vols 1 and 2. And because of them I'm waiting, and watching to find out about the new Batwoman, because I have followed Montoya from B:TAS and anything that further, better explores her life might be worth it. Please let it be worth it.

Because OYL and 52 weeks... Just from what I catch up on on the various review sites and hear friends talking about and see scans of, hasn't really impressed me so far. I end up getting confused and pissed off about things only to read more and get...confused and pissed off. So I've avoided even flipping through things at the bookstore.

And piling onto the things happening with DC that make me back away slowly are Frank Miller's All Star Batman and Robin. For the record, I don't think it has anything to do with the real Batman. My Batman would send his Batman straight to Arkham where he belongs.



Virgin Comics
Being a post colonial native, I'm eagerly hunting down anyone who might sell this online, and hoping they make it to trade. Because again, never been to a comic book shop and what I've heard online doesn't make it seem worth squishing agoraphobia.



Artists & Writers
Greg Rucka and Brian Azzarello are two artists who've won my heart; in No Man's Land and Deathblow respectively. The torch burns brightly and I'm developing a steady trust for them wherein my wallet comes out into my hand at the sight of them; sometimes the budget refuses to stretch, but the point is I'm willing. And I think I sincerely want to follow Kevin Smith because his Green Arrow arc touched me and made me see the character as more than an out of step, out of sequence 'Robin Hood' mock up.

Which is different from the fact that I fully believe that Joseph Loeb's writing set in motion the epic love saga of Batman and Superman in 'Superman/Batman'. But so far I've only been able to buy the first volume. however, as as much the middle stanzas of the song haven't been as enjoyable as the first either plotwise or artwise.

And as much as I appreciate Dennis O'Neil's creation of Ra's As Ghul and I've enjoyed his Nightwing stories I don't have the same implicit trust. I'm currently trying to read his novelization of 'Knightfall' and as of now, I keep putting it down. So far I also only seem able to enjoy the Original Characters in Devin Grayson's 'Inheritance', even though I did enjoy Rise of Sin Tzu, wonderfully. Huh, maybe it's because I did enjoy it so much I'm being so harsh on 'Knightfall' which came before but doesn't interest me in the same way even though it's a similar enough plotline. Maybe it's because Bane bores me? Something to think abut.

Brian Michael Bendis, Warren Ellis, Alan Moore (Though 'From Hell' scared and depressed me and I couldn't finish it), Bill Willingham, Peter David, J. Michael Straczynski (mostly for B5) Mark Waid (Crux rocks in ways that fricking titillate!) along with Steve Epting.

(Subset Artists Include: Colorists: Frank D'Armata, Justin Ponsor, Caesar Rodriguez. Pencilers: Lee Bermejo, Jim Lee, Writers: Gail Simone, Brian K.Vaughan [2-3 series and counting])




Animation
CyberSix based on a Brazilian comic novel which I doubt I'll be able to afford even if I could find it and then I wouldn't understand it; was like Batman and Batgirl mixed into one. If you've never heard of it, look it up. There's intrigue, genetic experimentation, a defender of the knight and one kick ass secret identity.

Avatar the Last Airbender is a new love, but none the less good and I look forward to getting the whole of Season 1 on DVD. It's well written, well drawn, beautifully if subtly stylized and it made me care.

B:TAS is gold. 'nough said. Same for Batman Beyond. Also Kevin Conroy is Batman and Mark Hamill is the Joker and that's that for me. Those are the voices I hear when I read.

Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends is a little show that I wish would come out whole and complete on DVD. It's more than worth it and yes, it is me who set up the Wiki site for it in the first place. Which shows how much I adored it and thought it ought to have one cause I still don't know what I'm doing in Wikipedia. And I'm only too grateful Joe Pearson rounded things off for me. Still have to find out the exact proper run date. And I highly suggest following the fan discussion where the first three episodes are summarized quite beautifully by one fan.

Ikki Tousen is my unabashed echi anime love. And only a dislike of Kevin Griffen's re-imaginings of the series, plot and dialogue keep me from buying the manga.



Shock & Surprises
For me just writing this intro I've been surprised that I have so many concrete likes and dislikes. That I could remember the names of various artists, even if it was just first name and last and I had to wiki or google to pin down who it was. It's the fact that they made such an impact and that I've unconsciously drifted towards their work unlike the way I've hunted down specific writers and characters. Plus side, now I don't have to 'drift' I can research and find more of what I'm likely to like.



Journal Icons
Or who are those people you're using in your icons? In short, they're dream casting. In long... they're still dream casting. Having fallen back into comics via role playing games, I've spent a lot of time looking for inspiration for a role, something in a face, a certain photograph. Having come from a pbem past, I was more used to just having to find one image that worked. Which is a very good basis for me to use the best of my icons, (once my computer lets me find them) and continue making icons in a certain mold. So yes, to me, Michelle Pfieffer would and could possible make the most kick ass Mystique ever; purely based on my thoughts of the actresses' talent and certain imagery I've found.



Updates?
Will I update this impromptu 'in depth' Introduction? Maybe. Chances are I might just review the series I'm currently reading when they're done and they'll have posts of their own and this will be a snapshot in time. But who knows. As for essay updates, I've got that list of thirty I want to look through and who knows what else I'll think of. Right now something about 'The Unappreciated Colorist' is already swimming in my mind and it'd make '#31'.

*ETA*
Someone read this and asked me about Vertigo and I realized, whoa I hadn't even thought about Vertigo. So here's an easy update for comics I may have forgotten.

Vertigo:

* Read V for Vendetta. Adored the writing. The art was 'eh... so so'. Or maybe it was the colors that made it seem a bit more drab and depressing that it needed to be. I didn't focus on the artwork so much.
* I adore Fables.
* Have read 'Sandman' And Neil Gaiman won my love for using continuity errors are fricking plot points! Now that's writer.
* I have Lucifer on hold at the library. I'm not sure if it's for me. But the concept seemed interesting. * I've read only one Swamp Thing comic in my whole life.
* I've enjoyed Hellblazer, and hope to start hunting down more of him in my local and county library systems soon.
* I also have Y: The Last Man coming to me in time for September 2006. Vols 1-3 on reserve.


Wildstorm

* Ex Machina. As someone who spent most of her life as a New Yorker, as well as being someone who can't wear a watch, I just love this series so much.
*The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, however, I seemed to be burnt out from.