[comics] where have you gone, Mary Marvel?
I think there's a lot that I could say about legacy characters' difficult integration into other narrative universes, and gratuitous character arcs where interesting=bartending in the dark, not to mention a feminist observation about power making women into dominatrices. Instead, I'll just offer a couple scans.
In Countdown, which we refer to around here as WTFF?!, Mary got Black Adam's power. And, apparently, went shopping at Northbound Leather. (The alternate version of her in I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League was way cooler on this score.)
...she said ass-kicking. This can't be good.
Setting aside the fact that -- unless I missed something -- we just don't know *how* Black Adam got his powers back, it's also *annoying*, to put it mildly, that his power is associated with corruption and/or evil. It's the same as Billy's! He's just lived longer and been subject to more distress! ...Anyway. There's also a point to be made here, based on something nostalgia_lj observed of Whedon's heroines: they're always subject to an *infusion* of power, rather than empowering themselves.
In her original iteration, however, while Mary was infused with external power, it was *cool*. It was composed of six goddesses, analogues to Billy's gods, but distinct. (And, okay, maybe gender segregation isn't great, but go with me here.)
The Fawcett Comics Mary Marvel is wonderful. Sweet and fierce, feisty and fair, she just flat-out rocks.
Here's just one example:
I'll pause and boggle, *again*, at the 1940s love of spanking and physical abuse. But what I love here is that she *stops* it, gives the villain a taste of his own medicine, and she's *happy* about it.
Generally, when they appear in main DC titles, the Marvels are a subject of fun -- think of Freddy offering muffins he baked himself in the grim reality of Titans of Tomorrow. I think this is due, at least in part, to the fact that their sunny *goodness* just doesn't fit comfortably within a post-Miller et al. universe.
I really hope this isn't coming off as entitled fannish "don't evah change mah pretties!" bitching.
After all, Giffen and DeMatteis did *really* well by Mary in the Superbuddies minis, and Winick's doing interesting things with Freddy in Trials, and, though I hate to say this, the Mr. Mind subplot in 52 was pretty neat. It just strikes me as a shame that Mary's getting transformed on shaky narrative, and politically questionable, grounds.
So where's my Mary girlslash, anyway?
In Countdown, which we refer to around here as WTFF?!, Mary got Black Adam's power. And, apparently, went shopping at Northbound Leather. (The alternate version of her in I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League was way cooler on this score.)
...she said ass-kicking. This can't be good.
Setting aside the fact that -- unless I missed something -- we just don't know *how* Black Adam got his powers back, it's also *annoying*, to put it mildly, that his power is associated with corruption and/or evil. It's the same as Billy's! He's just lived longer and been subject to more distress! ...Anyway. There's also a point to be made here, based on something nostalgia_lj observed of Whedon's heroines: they're always subject to an *infusion* of power, rather than empowering themselves.
In her original iteration, however, while Mary was infused with external power, it was *cool*. It was composed of six goddesses, analogues to Billy's gods, but distinct. (And, okay, maybe gender segregation isn't great, but go with me here.)
The Fawcett Comics Mary Marvel is wonderful. Sweet and fierce, feisty and fair, she just flat-out rocks.
Here's just one example:
I'll pause and boggle, *again*, at the 1940s love of spanking and physical abuse. But what I love here is that she *stops* it, gives the villain a taste of his own medicine, and she's *happy* about it.
Generally, when they appear in main DC titles, the Marvels are a subject of fun -- think of Freddy offering muffins he baked himself in the grim reality of Titans of Tomorrow. I think this is due, at least in part, to the fact that their sunny *goodness* just doesn't fit comfortably within a post-Miller et al. universe.
I really hope this isn't coming off as entitled fannish "don't evah change mah pretties!" bitching.
After all, Giffen and DeMatteis did *really* well by Mary in the Superbuddies minis, and Winick's doing interesting things with Freddy in Trials, and, though I hate to say this, the Mr. Mind subplot in 52 was pretty neat. It just strikes me as a shame that Mary's getting transformed on shaky narrative, and politically questionable, grounds.
So where's my Mary girlslash, anyway?