i used to die every night, all in your honor
Sunday miscellany, comics edition:
1. cool interview with Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, the writing team on the current Young Avengers.
2. so I'm not reading the current run of Captain America, but I have thoughts about spoilers from the latest issue. HOLY CRAP, THEY FRIDGED SHARON WHAT THE FUCK. MARVEL, LOOK AT YOUR LIFE, LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES.
I - this is going to sound terrible, but I have a lot of ambivalence about Sharon Carter because while I think she's an interesting character on her own, I think her relationship with Steve is the worst thing that has ever happened to her and these spoilers only prove that point. If Sharon were a real person in a real relationship and I knew her, my relationship advice to her would be run, because I don't care if he is Captain America, that relationship is terrible for her. I love Steve, but HE is terrible for her. There is nothing about that relationship that makes me think they are two people who should be together, and most of the terrible things that happen to Sharon - and there's a litany of them, including being brainwashed into "killing" him, having a miscarriage that is kept from her, and dying (regardless of whether she's resurrected in April to tie in to CA:WS; more on this below) - are a direct result of her relationship with Steve. THAT IS A BAD RELATIONSHIP TO BE IN. WHEN YOUR ENTIRE NARRATIVE ARC IS SUBSUMED INTO YOUR BOYFRIEND'S AND ALL YOUR PAIN IS FODDER FOR HIS ANGST INSTEAD OF YOUR OWN, THAT IS A BAD RELATIONSHIP. AND IT IS TERRIBLE WRITING.
(that is why Natasha's amnesia in WS is so terrible - because up until that point, Natasha's pain is about Natasha, not Bucky, and then at the end, it's just another terrible thing done to her in order to give Bucky angst, and instead of being an adult about it and supporting her, he runs off to wallow and punch bad guys like a dumbass, and we never hear about Natasha's response to losing her memories at all.
Otoh, the resolution to Carol's arc in "The Enemy Within" doesn't bother me as much, because Carol made that sacrifice, and Carol is dealing with the fallout from it. It is HER story, not some man's.)
And every time I feel this way about Steve/Sharon, I feel terrible, because I like female characters in general and I like Sharon in particular! I enjoy and often ship canon het relationships, regardless of my other shipping preferences! And yet, I feel like I am totally letting down the side by hating Steve/Sharon but I do because IT IS TERRIBLE FOR SHARON AND SHE DESERVES BETTER. I am totally on board with
fox1013's idea in the post I link below: petition for them to bring back Sharon so that Kelly Sue DeConnick can write an entire series based on her CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE SECRET AVENGERS, where Sharon and Natasha fight crime together while Steve handles the paperwork. I would buy that book every month, no lie.
I just had to get that off my chest. Whew.
2a. as a corollary,
fox1013 has a post about the other ramifications about these spoilers, in relation to Captain America: Winter Soldier: whose genius idea was it to kill off a character who’s going to be in the movie in less than a year?
Like, if you feel the absolute necessity to fridge a female character in service of the male character’s story, (A) you have issues but (B) wouldn’t it make more sense to fridge one who DOESN’T need to be introduced to audiences in preparation for a film?
I remain baffled by the fact that Marvel and DC both still don't seem to grasp that movie fans WILL go looking for comics about their favorites, but while Marvel was smart to put out the (thoroughly excellent) new Hawkeye, they completely dropped the ball on putting out a new Black Widow book, and the fact that the new Captain Marvel has developed a vocal, loving fanbase doesn't seem to translate into adding Carol to the movies, WHICH WOULD MAKE SENSE. SYNERGY, PEOPLE. You would think DISNEY would understand this, even if the braintrust in charge of the comics doesn't. (This is also in evidence with DC, but they're so fucked up that I don't even want to go into it. I feel like there will be no hope for DC to turn things around until the current regime is gone, and I live for the day that happens.)
And the thing is, clearly they have some grasp of this because look at how they've leveraged fan-love of Coulson. And I like Coulson, I'm happy to see him on my TV in three weeks, but he's another middle-aged white dude who gets added to comics and cartoons and gets to lead a tv show, while Natasha doesn't get a solo book OR a movie. And that makes me side-eye Marvel hard.
3. I was gonna talk about how much I love legacy heroes (see the new Captain Marvel), but this post is long enough, so I won't. Maybe tomorrow.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/596861.html.
people have commented there.
1. cool interview with Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, the writing team on the current Young Avengers.
2. so I'm not reading the current run of Captain America, but I have thoughts about spoilers from the latest issue. HOLY CRAP, THEY FRIDGED SHARON WHAT THE FUCK. MARVEL, LOOK AT YOUR LIFE, LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES.
I - this is going to sound terrible, but I have a lot of ambivalence about Sharon Carter because while I think she's an interesting character on her own, I think her relationship with Steve is the worst thing that has ever happened to her and these spoilers only prove that point. If Sharon were a real person in a real relationship and I knew her, my relationship advice to her would be run, because I don't care if he is Captain America, that relationship is terrible for her. I love Steve, but HE is terrible for her. There is nothing about that relationship that makes me think they are two people who should be together, and most of the terrible things that happen to Sharon - and there's a litany of them, including being brainwashed into "killing" him, having a miscarriage that is kept from her, and dying (regardless of whether she's resurrected in April to tie in to CA:WS; more on this below) - are a direct result of her relationship with Steve. THAT IS A BAD RELATIONSHIP TO BE IN. WHEN YOUR ENTIRE NARRATIVE ARC IS SUBSUMED INTO YOUR BOYFRIEND'S AND ALL YOUR PAIN IS FODDER FOR HIS ANGST INSTEAD OF YOUR OWN, THAT IS A BAD RELATIONSHIP. AND IT IS TERRIBLE WRITING.
(that is why Natasha's amnesia in WS is so terrible - because up until that point, Natasha's pain is about Natasha, not Bucky, and then at the end, it's just another terrible thing done to her in order to give Bucky angst, and instead of being an adult about it and supporting her, he runs off to wallow and punch bad guys like a dumbass, and we never hear about Natasha's response to losing her memories at all.
Otoh, the resolution to Carol's arc in "The Enemy Within" doesn't bother me as much, because Carol made that sacrifice, and Carol is dealing with the fallout from it. It is HER story, not some man's.)
And every time I feel this way about Steve/Sharon, I feel terrible, because I like female characters in general and I like Sharon in particular! I enjoy and often ship canon het relationships, regardless of my other shipping preferences! And yet, I feel like I am totally letting down the side by hating Steve/Sharon but I do because IT IS TERRIBLE FOR SHARON AND SHE DESERVES BETTER. I am totally on board with
fox1013's idea in the post I link below: petition for them to bring back Sharon so that Kelly Sue DeConnick can write an entire series based on her CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE SECRET AVENGERS, where Sharon and Natasha fight crime together while Steve handles the paperwork. I would buy that book every month, no lie.
I just had to get that off my chest. Whew.
2a. as a corollary,
fox1013 has a post about the other ramifications about these spoilers, in relation to Captain America: Winter Soldier: whose genius idea was it to kill off a character who’s going to be in the movie in less than a year?
Like, if you feel the absolute necessity to fridge a female character in service of the male character’s story, (A) you have issues but (B) wouldn’t it make more sense to fridge one who DOESN’T need to be introduced to audiences in preparation for a film?
I remain baffled by the fact that Marvel and DC both still don't seem to grasp that movie fans WILL go looking for comics about their favorites, but while Marvel was smart to put out the (thoroughly excellent) new Hawkeye, they completely dropped the ball on putting out a new Black Widow book, and the fact that the new Captain Marvel has developed a vocal, loving fanbase doesn't seem to translate into adding Carol to the movies, WHICH WOULD MAKE SENSE. SYNERGY, PEOPLE. You would think DISNEY would understand this, even if the braintrust in charge of the comics doesn't. (This is also in evidence with DC, but they're so fucked up that I don't even want to go into it. I feel like there will be no hope for DC to turn things around until the current regime is gone, and I live for the day that happens.)
And the thing is, clearly they have some grasp of this because look at how they've leveraged fan-love of Coulson. And I like Coulson, I'm happy to see him on my TV in three weeks, but he's another middle-aged white dude who gets added to comics and cartoons and gets to lead a tv show, while Natasha doesn't get a solo book OR a movie. And that makes me side-eye Marvel hard.
3. I was gonna talk about how much I love legacy heroes (see the new Captain Marvel), but this post is long enough, so I won't. Maybe tomorrow.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/596861.html.
people have commented there.