I debated actually posting this reply, since it's so personal and emotional, but here goes (though I want to stress that it's not aimed at anyone in particular, and is more about my feelings than anything else).
I wasn't saying that people's opinions on real world politics were irrational, but that some fans seemed to be unable to set aside their RL anger over RL political stuff when it came to evaluating what was going on in the comics (which contained/contains some strong parallels to a variety of real life events, but isn't a direct 1:1 mapping onto them in all respects). I saw commentary on things like The Confession from people who were venting about real world politics and projecting their wrath onto Tony with a level of vitriol that made me physically ill. Here was a comic that had affected me on an emotional level so deep that it had literally changed my life, and all some people saw in it was hate, was Tony "gloating."
It sickened me, it horrified me, it saddened me, because some of these people were people I liked and respected. It was one of the things that prompted me to co-write that first Resurrection-verse fic with seanchai, and one of the things that made writing it one of the most emotionally wrenching projects I've ever undertaken. Because we weren't just writing a fic: we were writing a ship manifesto and a character defence and a Civil War manifesto, all at once, and because of my personal connection with The Confession, I kind of felt like I was defending my own relationship, too, when I defended my OTP. People would keep commenting saying "wow, I really like your reinterpretation of Tony's motivations during Civil War," and it would be a total head-desk moment, because they weren't re-interpretations, they were direct quotes from canon.
On a less personal/emotional note, well, I won't get into a political debate, since I try very hard not to ever discuss politics in fandom (especially politics that involves the military, even tangentially), but I maintained and still maintain that it's possible to see the last couple of year's run of storylines as as much a critique of the way the American population and government has handled the war on terror as an endorsement.
Continued in second post, because I over-ran the comment limit.
The people in charge of Registration blatantly do not have anyone's best interests at heart, from endorsing evil cloning projects (Initiative)to knowingly working with terrorists like the Mandarin (Secretary of Defence Koning in Iron Man, who didn't know he was dealing with the Mandarin, but did know he was working with a probably terrorist who wanted to develope biological weapons), to putting people like Bullseye and the Green Goblin back on the street. I don't think the reader is supposed to support the SHRA and the things it's led to -- I think you're supposed to look at what the government there is doing, look at the example of blind hatred that is people like Miriam Sharpe, and consider it critically. Or at least, in titles that are well done and throughtful (not touching Brand New Day with a ten foot pole, and Dan Slott's pretty hit or miss, too), like the Knauf's Iron Man: Director of SHIELD and Brubaker's Captain America and even to a certain extent Bendis's New Avengers (not Mighty Avengers, which was all Yay Genderswapped!Ultron, Yay Skrull! right from the get go), before he got carried away by the Skrull thing, I think you're supposed to do that. It certainly hasn't led to anything positive, even for the people that supported it.
Just because it happened doesn't mean the writers automatically think it was A Good Thing. Marvel's done dystopias before - they're practically a staple of X-Men plotting. I think it's very, very symbolically significant that they killed off Steve in the process of having Registration pass, because Steve represents all that is good.just/etc. in the Marvel U -- he's the lynchpin in its center, and without him, it's a universe with no hope. I have faith that when they eventually bring him back, they will fix things (and if they don't, I'll probably end up having to give up comics, because I can't read in a universe with no hope - hence having to believe that Brubaker will fix things).
Anyway, after much tl:dr: I can take out that one line if you like, but I do honestly think that some of some people's words/actions were out of line, especially on places like scans_daily.
I wasn't saying that people's opinions on real world politics were irrational, but that some fans seemed to be unable to set aside their RL anger over RL political stuff when it came to evaluating what was going on in the comics (which contained/contains some strong parallels to a variety of real life events, but isn't a direct 1:1 mapping onto them in all respects). I saw commentary on things like The Confession from people who were venting about real world politics and projecting their wrath onto Tony with a level of vitriol that made me physically ill. Here was a comic that had affected me on an emotional level so deep that it had literally changed my life, and all some people saw in it was hate, was Tony "gloating."
It sickened me, it horrified me, it saddened me, because some of these people were people I liked and respected. It was one of the things that prompted me to co-write that first Resurrection-verse fic with seanchai, and one of the things that made writing it one of the most emotionally wrenching projects I've ever undertaken. Because we weren't just writing a fic: we were writing a ship manifesto and a character defence and a Civil War manifesto, all at once, and because of my personal connection with The Confession, I kind of felt like I was defending my own relationship, too, when I defended my OTP. People would keep commenting saying "wow, I really like your reinterpretation of Tony's motivations during Civil War," and it would be a total head-desk moment, because they weren't re-interpretations, they were direct quotes from canon.
On a less personal/emotional note, well, I won't get into a political debate, since I try very hard not to ever discuss politics in fandom (especially politics that involves the military, even tangentially), but I maintained and still maintain that it's possible to see the last couple of year's run of storylines as as much a critique of the way the American population and government has handled the war on terror as an endorsement.
Continued in second post, because I over-ran the comment limit.
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Just because it happened doesn't mean the writers automatically think it was A Good Thing. Marvel's done dystopias before - they're practically a staple of X-Men plotting. I think it's very, very symbolically significant that they killed off Steve in the process of having Registration pass, because Steve represents all that is good.just/etc. in the Marvel U -- he's the lynchpin in its center, and without him, it's a universe with no hope. I have faith that when they eventually bring him back, they will fix things (and if they don't, I'll probably end up having to give up comics, because I can't read in a universe with no hope - hence having to believe that Brubaker will fix things).
Anyway, after much tl:dr: I can take out that one line if you like, but I do honestly think that some of some people's words/actions were out of line, especially on places like scans_daily.
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