New Comics Wednesday
New comics today! I haven't read much yet (Adjectiveless X-Men, Wolverine, Jack of Fables, Iron Man, and Wonder Man are all still in my "to read" pile), but I have read the three comics I was most excited about. Or, rather, the two comics I was most excited about and the one I was dreading but needed to read. There be spoilers in them thar hills.
1. X-Factor #16
Oh, PAD. Never stop rocking. The Jamie plotline was good - predictable (I doubt anyone thought he would really absorb that dupe), but well-written. It touched on the human consequences of mutation, and whenever PAD does that, it's never bad. I also loved the Siryn/Monet plot, though I was horrified that Monet actually crucified that guy. Also, PAD? Please to stop stealing my brain, k? I mean, did I honestly just read about two bickering superheroes of the same gender picking up a small child whose parents were killed in some sort of attack and kind of illegally adopting her? Next we'll find out that Nicole's real name is Sally.
2. Runaways #24
I'm still incoherent on this one. Molly and Victor Fastball Special! Chase! Gibborrim! Karolina! Nico! Xavin! And, OMG, ALEX!! Honestly, this was perfect. I'm sad to see BKV go (excited as I am about Whedon), but this was a lovely sendoff. The team feels cohesive again for the first time since Gert's death, Alex has finally found his redemption, and the one dangling loose end (the Runaways being the only unregistered American superhero team left, other than the New Avengers) presumably tied up with that Tony appearance at the end. I could not have loved this issue more.
3. Civil War: Frontline #11
Ok. I... I liked Frontline at first. I did. I like "man on the street" accounts. I like journalists (I considered being one for a few years, after all). I like supplementary material. And though those 2-page "Look, Civil War is every war ever in the history of the world!" stories were pretentious and nonsensical, I generally enjoyed the book. But, after a few issues, it started to fall off a pretty steep cliff. And with this conslusion, it's officially gone splat on the cavern floor.
I won't get into the ridiculousness of the Tony thing. I won't get into how he's magically viewed as a hero for sending a supervillain to kill a whole warehouse full of Atlanteans. I won't get into the atrociousness of the "only American deaths count" mentality that that expresses, as likeadeuce put it. I think anyone who read that knows it's ridiculous. And, in some ways, it's at least interesting, characterization-wise. I liked those last few pages of angsty!Tony.
But what I really want to talk about is the Cap part. First, we'll ignore the fact that he's apparently been moved from the stone cell we saw him in in Civil War 7 and allowed to change back into costume from his orange jumpsuit. At this point, artistic inconsistency across books in this crossover is par for the course. No, what I want to talk about is the reasoning that Sally Floyd used against Captain America to try to prove that he was "out of touch" with America. I'm going to talk about that, because Sally Floyd has been presented as the "every person." In fact, if the writers' shared sentiments about the pro-registration forces being the real heroes in this war are to be believed, she's been presented as the person the readers should be - the person who idealistically followed the anti-reg side but realized the "superiority" of the pro-reg opinion. So I'd like to write a little letter to this Sally Floyd person. Or perhaps it's just a letter to Paul Jenkins himself, since she's his mouthpiece.
Dear Mr. Jenkins,
I am an American citizen. I have a MySpace account, but I never use it because I pretty much despise the website. I could tell you who won the last World Series and the last season of American Idol, but I can't say I actually care about either of those things. At all. I play around with YouTube often, but I have never attended a NASCAR race. I hate Paris Hilton and the Simpsons and couldn't possibly care less what goes on with either. In short, I have some things in common with the American stereotype you employed, but there are many other things we don't have in common. And you know what? That's ok. Because part of being an American is the right to choose what you like and don't like about American culture.
There are Americans who love American Idol. There are Americans who would like to burn Simon Cowell's face off. And there are Americans who have never even heard of the show. But they are all Americans. And no matter what category they fall into, their opinions count. Their ideas, their thoughts and sensibilities, count. Because they were raised in a country that believes that individual differences should be respected. Because they were raised in a country where freedom is the watchword, where liberty is held dear above all else. The beauty of America is that we are not forced to be the same. The beauty of America is that we can disagree with, or even, yes, not even be aware of, the fact that celebrities, high cholesterol, and scheming for success are the topics of the day. The beauty of America is that some of us can still see it as a land of mom and apple pie. And as long as a person understands these core principles - the principles of freedom, equality, choice, and mutual respect - then he or she understands America.
To say that Captain America is out of touch with the country he loves is essentially the equivalent of telling everyone who has never watched an episode of American Idol that they, too, don't love their country. It's telling them that they "don't count," simply because they don't fit in the mainstream. Don't you see how absurd that statement is?
Should Cap really bow to the sensibilities of the so-called "majority," simply because they're more salient? Should he spend his time on MySpace instead of going out and defeating Kang the Conqueror, just because that's what the "average American" does with his time? Or should he simply continue to represent the ideals upon which this country was founded? With such a colorful, multilayered nation full of clashing opinions and tastes, isn't that the only thing he can do, if he really wants to represent all Americans?
I'm not defending Captain America's actions during the Civil War, necessarily. I think he definitely made mistakes, and a valid criticism would make perfect sense. You could criticize his tactics, or his shortsightedness, or even, yes, his opinion on the whole ordeal. But what you cannot do is try to claim that his attention to ideals above pop culture is somehow a fatal flaw. You cannot try to claim that, by defending the ideals common to all Americans instead of focusing on the passing whims of a fraction, he has somehow failed his country. Captain America, Mr. Jenkins, knows what America is. He knows that America, despite all of its problems, is still about liberty and equality and hope and all those other great ideals, not Britney Spears and YouTube. And if Sally can't understand that, she is the one who should reconsider how much she really loves her country.
1. X-Factor #16
Oh, PAD. Never stop rocking. The Jamie plotline was good - predictable (I doubt anyone thought he would really absorb that dupe), but well-written. It touched on the human consequences of mutation, and whenever PAD does that, it's never bad. I also loved the Siryn/Monet plot, though I was horrified that Monet actually crucified that guy. Also, PAD? Please to stop stealing my brain, k? I mean, did I honestly just read about two bickering superheroes of the same gender picking up a small child whose parents were killed in some sort of attack and kind of illegally adopting her? Next we'll find out that Nicole's real name is Sally.
2. Runaways #24
I'm still incoherent on this one. Molly and Victor Fastball Special! Chase! Gibborrim! Karolina! Nico! Xavin! And, OMG, ALEX!! Honestly, this was perfect. I'm sad to see BKV go (excited as I am about Whedon), but this was a lovely sendoff. The team feels cohesive again for the first time since Gert's death, Alex has finally found his redemption, and the one dangling loose end (the Runaways being the only unregistered American superhero team left, other than the New Avengers) presumably tied up with that Tony appearance at the end. I could not have loved this issue more.
3. Civil War: Frontline #11
Ok. I... I liked Frontline at first. I did. I like "man on the street" accounts. I like journalists (I considered being one for a few years, after all). I like supplementary material. And though those 2-page "Look, Civil War is every war ever in the history of the world!" stories were pretentious and nonsensical, I generally enjoyed the book. But, after a few issues, it started to fall off a pretty steep cliff. And with this conslusion, it's officially gone splat on the cavern floor.
I won't get into the ridiculousness of the Tony thing. I won't get into how he's magically viewed as a hero for sending a supervillain to kill a whole warehouse full of Atlanteans. I won't get into the atrociousness of the "only American deaths count" mentality that that expresses, as likeadeuce put it. I think anyone who read that knows it's ridiculous. And, in some ways, it's at least interesting, characterization-wise. I liked those last few pages of angsty!Tony.
But what I really want to talk about is the Cap part. First, we'll ignore the fact that he's apparently been moved from the stone cell we saw him in in Civil War 7 and allowed to change back into costume from his orange jumpsuit. At this point, artistic inconsistency across books in this crossover is par for the course. No, what I want to talk about is the reasoning that Sally Floyd used against Captain America to try to prove that he was "out of touch" with America. I'm going to talk about that, because Sally Floyd has been presented as the "every person." In fact, if the writers' shared sentiments about the pro-registration forces being the real heroes in this war are to be believed, she's been presented as the person the readers should be - the person who idealistically followed the anti-reg side but realized the "superiority" of the pro-reg opinion. So I'd like to write a little letter to this Sally Floyd person. Or perhaps it's just a letter to Paul Jenkins himself, since she's his mouthpiece.
Dear Mr. Jenkins,
I am an American citizen. I have a MySpace account, but I never use it because I pretty much despise the website. I could tell you who won the last World Series and the last season of American Idol, but I can't say I actually care about either of those things. At all. I play around with YouTube often, but I have never attended a NASCAR race. I hate Paris Hilton and the Simpsons and couldn't possibly care less what goes on with either. In short, I have some things in common with the American stereotype you employed, but there are many other things we don't have in common. And you know what? That's ok. Because part of being an American is the right to choose what you like and don't like about American culture.
There are Americans who love American Idol. There are Americans who would like to burn Simon Cowell's face off. And there are Americans who have never even heard of the show. But they are all Americans. And no matter what category they fall into, their opinions count. Their ideas, their thoughts and sensibilities, count. Because they were raised in a country that believes that individual differences should be respected. Because they were raised in a country where freedom is the watchword, where liberty is held dear above all else. The beauty of America is that we are not forced to be the same. The beauty of America is that we can disagree with, or even, yes, not even be aware of, the fact that celebrities, high cholesterol, and scheming for success are the topics of the day. The beauty of America is that some of us can still see it as a land of mom and apple pie. And as long as a person understands these core principles - the principles of freedom, equality, choice, and mutual respect - then he or she understands America.
To say that Captain America is out of touch with the country he loves is essentially the equivalent of telling everyone who has never watched an episode of American Idol that they, too, don't love their country. It's telling them that they "don't count," simply because they don't fit in the mainstream. Don't you see how absurd that statement is?
Should Cap really bow to the sensibilities of the so-called "majority," simply because they're more salient? Should he spend his time on MySpace instead of going out and defeating Kang the Conqueror, just because that's what the "average American" does with his time? Or should he simply continue to represent the ideals upon which this country was founded? With such a colorful, multilayered nation full of clashing opinions and tastes, isn't that the only thing he can do, if he really wants to represent all Americans?
I'm not defending Captain America's actions during the Civil War, necessarily. I think he definitely made mistakes, and a valid criticism would make perfect sense. You could criticize his tactics, or his shortsightedness, or even, yes, his opinion on the whole ordeal. But what you cannot do is try to claim that his attention to ideals above pop culture is somehow a fatal flaw. You cannot try to claim that, by defending the ideals common to all Americans instead of focusing on the passing whims of a fraction, he has somehow failed his country. Captain America, Mr. Jenkins, knows what America is. He knows that America, despite all of its problems, is still about liberty and equality and hope and all those other great ideals, not Britney Spears and YouTube. And if Sally can't understand that, she is the one who should reconsider how much she really loves her country.