If it takes something in the sky to give them hope, so be it.
Quick! When you think of characters that fly--I'm thinking superheroes here, obviously, but really anyone you can think of who doesn't have wings and doesn't use magic, who just seems to have an innate ability to defy gravity--do you assume that they are manipulating the gravitational field outside of them, or that they are flexing something extra from the inside?
Poll It's a bird, definitely a bird.
I was doing my reading for this week's Gender Through Comic Books module, Superman: Birthright, and I noted that Lex's assumption about how Superman moves through the air is that he's controlling his own gravitational field. I find this curious and telling, given that he's praised as a great inventor, but doesn't seem to have the air of fantasy that actually WOULD make him a great inventor. Lex Knows Things that the other characters don't, and because of this the rest of the world assumes he's making it up, when really he's just stealing and cobbling things together to fit his whims. I don't mean that in a derogatory way. He's obviously insanely brilliant either way. I just think it's an important distinction in the character.
Anyway, I noted this on twitter and metonymy asked me if there was a difference in controlling a gravitational field and flying. Another SuperMOOC person responded to say she hadn't thought of it that way, so now I'm curious. I mean, obviously, the stuff I know about science could fit in the ear of a dust mite. But given that these characters are usually presented within a context of fantasy, I tend to assume that their ability to fly is another muscle that they're exercising, rather than something cast iron scientific like disruption of the gravitational field, unless we're specifically told so. Tony Stark? Definitely disrupting gravity and engaging thrusters. Carol Danvers? Ummmm...just plain flying*.
All that said, I did enjoy Birthright, in spite of my hitherto complete non-interest in all things Superman. (Except for Dick Grayson's obvious doe eyed adoration of him. That I will always find amusing.) Mark Waid did more in 50 pages to make me care about Supes than pop culture had done in 30 years. A lot of it boils down to this quote:
We’ve talked about this before. Living things have a kind of glow around them. They’re surrounded in a halo of colors I’d invent names for if I weren’t the only one who could make them out. I’m not sure if that halo is a soul or an aura or what. I do know that at the end of the life cycle, it fades pretty quickly, and what’s left behind is…hard to look at. Empty in a way that leaves me empty, too. But when it’s there…my God, how it shines.
So, thoughts? Superman comic recs? Superman fic recs**? I'm not a proud person. I'll take whatever you can throw at me.
(*Disclaimer that I don't read many comics with characters who actually fly, except for how I've just started reading Captain Marvel, so if it's been addressed then OBVIOUSLY I missed it and would like to know the canon explanations if you know them.)
(**Except for you, Rachael! I still have that epic Supes/Bats fic set aside for when I have time to give it the attention it deserves.)
Poll It's a bird, definitely a bird.
I was doing my reading for this week's Gender Through Comic Books module, Superman: Birthright, and I noted that Lex's assumption about how Superman moves through the air is that he's controlling his own gravitational field. I find this curious and telling, given that he's praised as a great inventor, but doesn't seem to have the air of fantasy that actually WOULD make him a great inventor. Lex Knows Things that the other characters don't, and because of this the rest of the world assumes he's making it up, when really he's just stealing and cobbling things together to fit his whims. I don't mean that in a derogatory way. He's obviously insanely brilliant either way. I just think it's an important distinction in the character.
Anyway, I noted this on twitter and metonymy asked me if there was a difference in controlling a gravitational field and flying. Another SuperMOOC person responded to say she hadn't thought of it that way, so now I'm curious. I mean, obviously, the stuff I know about science could fit in the ear of a dust mite. But given that these characters are usually presented within a context of fantasy, I tend to assume that their ability to fly is another muscle that they're exercising, rather than something cast iron scientific like disruption of the gravitational field, unless we're specifically told so. Tony Stark? Definitely disrupting gravity and engaging thrusters. Carol Danvers? Ummmm...just plain flying*.
All that said, I did enjoy Birthright, in spite of my hitherto complete non-interest in all things Superman. (Except for Dick Grayson's obvious doe eyed adoration of him. That I will always find amusing.) Mark Waid did more in 50 pages to make me care about Supes than pop culture had done in 30 years. A lot of it boils down to this quote:
We’ve talked about this before. Living things have a kind of glow around them. They’re surrounded in a halo of colors I’d invent names for if I weren’t the only one who could make them out. I’m not sure if that halo is a soul or an aura or what. I do know that at the end of the life cycle, it fades pretty quickly, and what’s left behind is…hard to look at. Empty in a way that leaves me empty, too. But when it’s there…my God, how it shines.
So, thoughts? Superman comic recs? Superman fic recs**? I'm not a proud person. I'll take whatever you can throw at me.
(*Disclaimer that I don't read many comics with characters who actually fly, except for how I've just started reading Captain Marvel, so if it's been addressed then OBVIOUSLY I missed it and would like to know the canon explanations if you know them.)
(**Except for you, Rachael! I still have that epic Supes/Bats fic set aside for when I have time to give it the attention it deserves.)