Carol's drinking
[Not an essay! Just some things I've been thinking about.]
The USAF has prescribed amphetamines to combat pilots off and on for decades. They're called go pills, and they're supposed to improve concentration and response time. Couple this with the large numbers of military personal abusing drugs and alcohol both overseas and at home, and there's a plausible, pre-made background for Carol having a history of drug and alcohol abuse. She spent most of her adult life with people who think it's a good idea to give speed to combat pilots, and that drinking to excess is a sign of manliness.
Why then, did Busiek not draw on this for Carol's alcoholism story? It seems like such a missed opportunity, especially since Tony later became her sponsor, because he too grew up in that culture. Carol's alcoholism just pops into existence, already fully formed, and hardly anchored to anything in her history - she's drinking because she needs to take the edge off, and she's not coping well with being back on earth. Well, why is she having so much trouble? Busiek glosses over this, because Avengers isn't Carol's book, and he's got too many other stories to tell. We get a little bit more in Iron Man (also written by Busiek at the time), but the story's still about Tony's manpain over Carol having gone off the deep end. What we're left with is that Carol is not happy about being literally grounded (being forced to leave deep space behind for earth), and her powers being reduced (going from near-goddess to powered human), and returning to the poisoned well of 'her' old life (which, remember, she has no emotional connection to).
I'm not saying that Busiek should have made Carol an alcoholic from way back. What I'm saying is that he could have easily anchored that story in a history of over-drinking with the boys, and using amphetamines and other stimulants on the job. There are hints of this in the story, I think, but it's never fully developed, probably for want of space. In the Busiek run, Carol is always depicted as trying to be a Good Soldier, but sometimes failing. She takes pride in her skills and works to improve them. She's buttoned down when it comes to real human emotion, but full of macho bluster otherwise. Faced with diminished powers, she tries to hide her 'weakness'. She sees the Avengers as an elite squad of heroes, and she wants to be a part of that, no matter what. She wants to the best of the best, and she's willing to lie to do that. And why not? The USAF, the Marine Corps and the Army talk a lot about honour, but the guys at the top spend a lot of time excusing unethical actions, hell, even encouraging them, and they're consumed with the idea of engineering better soldiers. That's what makes Captain America's origin so perfect - if military scientists in the real world could actually make super soldiers, they would be all over that shit.
[Aside: Tony then, is the perfect sponsor for her, because he had the same attitude to drugs and alcohol. He grew up in military culture: his father was a defense contractor, and he started working in the family business at a young age. Most of his friends and colleagues were other contractors, military scientists, military bureaucrats, with the odd active duty soldier. Steve makes an interesting counterpoint to both of them, because while he's equally steeped in military culture, he's able to see it for what is and identify its problematic aspects, unlike both Carol and Tony. He's a product of military engineering, but as a person and as a hero he's so much more than that. Rhodey too, now that I thinking about it.]
Carol's military record goes like this: She joins the USAF so that she can go to college. Her parents can't send all their kids to college, and her father puts her brothers first. She's smart, ambitious, and as it turns out, damn good at the job. She quickly becomes a test pilot. While flying one of Stark's designs, she's shot down, captured and tortured. After being recovered, she is obviously grounded for some time. At this point she's approached by Air Force Intelligence. Angry, bored and as frustrated as a border collie with nothing to herd, she jumps at the opportunity to do something with her skills. Once again she throws herself into her work, determined to be the best of the best. It's at this point that she starts working with the CIA and SHIELD. I don't think I have to go into depth about the CIA's attitude to drugs in the workplace (improved performance? booya! possible side effects? lol!). Finally, Carol leaves her intelligence work behind to take a position as Chief of Security at NASA. It's not clear if she did this on orders (after all, there was an alien to be spied on), or because she was looking for something new. Regardless, Carol goes from combat/test pilot, to intelligence operative, to NASA. All of these are elite, competitive results-oriented environments, where the human body is seen as something to be manipulated and improved upon. They are all cultures with some very problematic attitudes to drug and alcohol use.
Still, at the start of her career as a hero, Carol is fairly SRS BZNS and controlled. It's only after she gets a taste of being Binary (a star-fueled, cosmic entity) and then is thrust back into humanity and a life she'd gladly left behind, that she becomes a 'problem drinker'. Carol's first mega-arc as a hero was basically a long decline in agency and control. Becoming Binary, a being of almost limitless power, instantly restores her agency, and control over her destiny - Binary gets to decide who Binary is, where she goes, how she lives her life. Who can stop her? Carol though, went from an impressive military career, to an impressive debut as a superhero, to being raped and mind-controlled by a dimension hopping skeeve (Marcus), to being assaulted by a damaged teenage girl (Rogue), to being experimented on by aliens (the Brood). By the time she becomes Binary, Carol is damn tired of being Carol, and since Rogue stole her powers and memories, making her old life feel like a black and white movie she'd seen a couple of times, and not something she'd lived, there was no reason not to give Carol the finger and leave for deep space.
Once her connection to the star that's fueling her cosmic powers is broken, she's reduced to something like her original power levels, and returns to earth. And that's when she starts drinking. This is the story as Busiek told it: girl gets powers; girl loses powers; girl starts drinking to cope with the loss. But I think there's another story here. While Carol lost her emotional connection to her old life, she didn't stop being Carol. There's no noticeable difference in how she's characterized; in how she reacts to situations and personalities. She doesn't remember the feeling of liking Wanda Maximoff, but she quickly becomes friends with her again. She doesn't know what it's like to care about Hank McCoy, but she starts doing it again as soon as they've spent some time together. The learned behaviours are still there. She likes (and hates) all the same people. She has the same morals and ethics. She's still a semper fi, go go gadget, A team, Good Soldier. It's just a matter of relearning what those things mean, and who she is.
Carol didn't have to develop a drinking problem in her post-Binary days. I've read a lot of complaints about the story, mostly to the effect that it didn't make sense for the character, and that it came without buildup. The latter is true but the former is not - not really. Carol didn't have to develop a drinking problem, but she did, because she spent her adult life in a culture that makes light of drug and alcohol abuse. Because she was primed for some kind of breakdown, and she was taught to see alcohol as a safe way to 'take the edge off'. Because she's wired that way. All the background is there, for any writer who wants to take advantage of it. Carol's entire life has been about proving herself, demonstrating her fitness and her machismo. She's always been about control, but in her post-Binary days, control, machismo, and her ability to play with the big dogs, have become an obsession. She needs it. Busiek failed to make it clear why that is, but it absolutely makes good character sense.
This is why I want more stories from Carol's childhood, and her time in the military, and why I want the story of Carol's drinking, reread through the lens of her family history and military career. There's a lot to be said about Carol, about machismo, gender politics, and about the military. There's a story about PTSD, and a story about survival and recovery there. It's about more than losing her powers - it's about her entire history.
Alternate: http://schmevil.dreamwidth.org/218769.html.
The USAF has prescribed amphetamines to combat pilots off and on for decades. They're called go pills, and they're supposed to improve concentration and response time. Couple this with the large numbers of military personal abusing drugs and alcohol both overseas and at home, and there's a plausible, pre-made background for Carol having a history of drug and alcohol abuse. She spent most of her adult life with people who think it's a good idea to give speed to combat pilots, and that drinking to excess is a sign of manliness.
Why then, did Busiek not draw on this for Carol's alcoholism story? It seems like such a missed opportunity, especially since Tony later became her sponsor, because he too grew up in that culture. Carol's alcoholism just pops into existence, already fully formed, and hardly anchored to anything in her history - she's drinking because she needs to take the edge off, and she's not coping well with being back on earth. Well, why is she having so much trouble? Busiek glosses over this, because Avengers isn't Carol's book, and he's got too many other stories to tell. We get a little bit more in Iron Man (also written by Busiek at the time), but the story's still about Tony's manpain over Carol having gone off the deep end. What we're left with is that Carol is not happy about being literally grounded (being forced to leave deep space behind for earth), and her powers being reduced (going from near-goddess to powered human), and returning to the poisoned well of 'her' old life (which, remember, she has no emotional connection to).
I'm not saying that Busiek should have made Carol an alcoholic from way back. What I'm saying is that he could have easily anchored that story in a history of over-drinking with the boys, and using amphetamines and other stimulants on the job. There are hints of this in the story, I think, but it's never fully developed, probably for want of space. In the Busiek run, Carol is always depicted as trying to be a Good Soldier, but sometimes failing. She takes pride in her skills and works to improve them. She's buttoned down when it comes to real human emotion, but full of macho bluster otherwise. Faced with diminished powers, she tries to hide her 'weakness'. She sees the Avengers as an elite squad of heroes, and she wants to be a part of that, no matter what. She wants to the best of the best, and she's willing to lie to do that. And why not? The USAF, the Marine Corps and the Army talk a lot about honour, but the guys at the top spend a lot of time excusing unethical actions, hell, even encouraging them, and they're consumed with the idea of engineering better soldiers. That's what makes Captain America's origin so perfect - if military scientists in the real world could actually make super soldiers, they would be all over that shit.
[Aside: Tony then, is the perfect sponsor for her, because he had the same attitude to drugs and alcohol. He grew up in military culture: his father was a defense contractor, and he started working in the family business at a young age. Most of his friends and colleagues were other contractors, military scientists, military bureaucrats, with the odd active duty soldier. Steve makes an interesting counterpoint to both of them, because while he's equally steeped in military culture, he's able to see it for what is and identify its problematic aspects, unlike both Carol and Tony. He's a product of military engineering, but as a person and as a hero he's so much more than that. Rhodey too, now that I thinking about it.]
Carol's military record goes like this: She joins the USAF so that she can go to college. Her parents can't send all their kids to college, and her father puts her brothers first. She's smart, ambitious, and as it turns out, damn good at the job. She quickly becomes a test pilot. While flying one of Stark's designs, she's shot down, captured and tortured. After being recovered, she is obviously grounded for some time. At this point she's approached by Air Force Intelligence. Angry, bored and as frustrated as a border collie with nothing to herd, she jumps at the opportunity to do something with her skills. Once again she throws herself into her work, determined to be the best of the best. It's at this point that she starts working with the CIA and SHIELD. I don't think I have to go into depth about the CIA's attitude to drugs in the workplace (improved performance? booya! possible side effects? lol!). Finally, Carol leaves her intelligence work behind to take a position as Chief of Security at NASA. It's not clear if she did this on orders (after all, there was an alien to be spied on), or because she was looking for something new. Regardless, Carol goes from combat/test pilot, to intelligence operative, to NASA. All of these are elite, competitive results-oriented environments, where the human body is seen as something to be manipulated and improved upon. They are all cultures with some very problematic attitudes to drug and alcohol use.
Still, at the start of her career as a hero, Carol is fairly SRS BZNS and controlled. It's only after she gets a taste of being Binary (a star-fueled, cosmic entity) and then is thrust back into humanity and a life she'd gladly left behind, that she becomes a 'problem drinker'. Carol's first mega-arc as a hero was basically a long decline in agency and control. Becoming Binary, a being of almost limitless power, instantly restores her agency, and control over her destiny - Binary gets to decide who Binary is, where she goes, how she lives her life. Who can stop her? Carol though, went from an impressive military career, to an impressive debut as a superhero, to being raped and mind-controlled by a dimension hopping skeeve (Marcus), to being assaulted by a damaged teenage girl (Rogue), to being experimented on by aliens (the Brood). By the time she becomes Binary, Carol is damn tired of being Carol, and since Rogue stole her powers and memories, making her old life feel like a black and white movie she'd seen a couple of times, and not something she'd lived, there was no reason not to give Carol the finger and leave for deep space.
Once her connection to the star that's fueling her cosmic powers is broken, she's reduced to something like her original power levels, and returns to earth. And that's when she starts drinking. This is the story as Busiek told it: girl gets powers; girl loses powers; girl starts drinking to cope with the loss. But I think there's another story here. While Carol lost her emotional connection to her old life, she didn't stop being Carol. There's no noticeable difference in how she's characterized; in how she reacts to situations and personalities. She doesn't remember the feeling of liking Wanda Maximoff, but she quickly becomes friends with her again. She doesn't know what it's like to care about Hank McCoy, but she starts doing it again as soon as they've spent some time together. The learned behaviours are still there. She likes (and hates) all the same people. She has the same morals and ethics. She's still a semper fi, go go gadget, A team, Good Soldier. It's just a matter of relearning what those things mean, and who she is.
Carol didn't have to develop a drinking problem in her post-Binary days. I've read a lot of complaints about the story, mostly to the effect that it didn't make sense for the character, and that it came without buildup. The latter is true but the former is not - not really. Carol didn't have to develop a drinking problem, but she did, because she spent her adult life in a culture that makes light of drug and alcohol abuse. Because she was primed for some kind of breakdown, and she was taught to see alcohol as a safe way to 'take the edge off'. Because she's wired that way. All the background is there, for any writer who wants to take advantage of it. Carol's entire life has been about proving herself, demonstrating her fitness and her machismo. She's always been about control, but in her post-Binary days, control, machismo, and her ability to play with the big dogs, have become an obsession. She needs it. Busiek failed to make it clear why that is, but it absolutely makes good character sense.
This is why I want more stories from Carol's childhood, and her time in the military, and why I want the story of Carol's drinking, reread through the lens of her family history and military career. There's a lot to be said about Carol, about machismo, gender politics, and about the military. There's a story about PTSD, and a story about survival and recovery there. It's about more than losing her powers - it's about her entire history.
Alternate: http://schmevil.dreamwidth.org/218769.html.