#don’t take mutants away from marginalized communities

[aielwasteofspace]

So, it’s been a little over two years since I originally plonked this out, and I can honestly say that the MCU is not in the same place it was back then. It’s worse.

Let’s start with Captain America and the Winter Soldier, since I pinned a lot of hope on that series for setting the stage for the X-Men. To say that CAatWS perfectly exemplified my arguments about the status quo would be an understatement. The series’s main antagonist, as so often is the case in the post Thanos MCU, was on a foundational level, at least, correct. To the point they had her basically burn an orphanage to make her evil. The show had a chance to SAY something with Sam taking up the shield. To really talk about how much harder bipoc have to work to get to the same starting point as white people in this country. Sam is just as decorated as John Walker, plus he’s an established Avenger, and Steve’s pick to take up the stars and bars. And then they don’t do that. They have Sam give a “Deal With it” speech, dedicate a statue to Isaiah, and move on, Status Quo observed, hard conversations avoided.

Let’s take a side step and look at Ms Marvel, while there are a handful of problems with that particular series, I’ll leave those to your own discretion, and that of people a lot more passionate about the character than I. Ms Marvel establishes a clear and present adoration for superheroes in the community and world at large. Kamala may be a huge fan girl, and a bit on the obsessive side, but she is by far not the only fan of heroes and hero society. I enjoyed MM for the most part, but that all changed for me with the mid-credits scene for the last episode, one word, and a few notes of synth.

Making Kamala, an Inhuman in the comics, our first official MCU Mutant. I was fine with the initial change, I understand distancing yourself from a failed project (the ABC Inhuman’s tv series) to introduce something new in the form of the Djinn. But the refusal to commit, and instead co-opt a character from an as of yet unestablished MCU peoples and recode them feels halfassed and unearned. And the audacity to try to use my nostalgia for the X-Men the Animated Series toget me hyped for this unnecessary change? Rude.

That fairly organically leads me to my next MCU project, one which also played on my nostalgia in an attempt to buy my hype. Multiverse of Madness.

I could type a novel with all the problems I had with MoM, and maybe one day I will, but suffice it to say that the movie was bad. Wanda’s off screen villain arc, Stephen’s role as a prop in his own film, and America Chavez being reduced to a McGuffin in her introduction, the gratuitous cameo during which none of the characters behaved like themselves at all. But worse than all of that, beyond all of that, past the pretty colors, the one-off mention of queer characters, the lack of characterization in characters, the movie was just boring. Tedious almost.

I could go on about how the current Phase has been less than stellar but MoM encapsulates all of my writing issues with the current MCU, and the same issues apply to the rest of the phase. Wakanda Forever, Love and Thunder, the former being the last Movie I’ve watched in the universe, mostly out of sheer disappointment from flop after flop. But I’d rather stick to my point. The MCU is STILL not ready for the X-Men. And to prove my point, I want to look at a movie I actually liked, Spider-man No Way Home.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m super happy my boi Andrew is finally getting his ups, and damnit I’m so glad that NWH sparked a well deserved TASM renaissance, but goddamn if the whole movie is all about restoring the status quo. All under the disguise of subverting it. So Aunt May is the one who tells Peter “With great power there must also come great responsibility?”

And then she dies. It’s the same story we’ve seen before, just gender-swap Peter’s dead relative. And for me it falls so much flatter after Civil War already confirmed that Ben was already serving as Peter’s motivation, and that he’d already given Peter a very verbose version of that same speech. The crux of the plot hangs on Peter fighting to restore the status quo but secreting his identity once more, a feat which he accomplishes in a roundabout way, returning the character essentially to square one.

All of that to say I don’t think I want Disney fucking with my X-Men. I don’t know if I can trust them to handle respectfully Magneto’s Jewish history and how it shapes his character as a literal holocaust survivor. Or Kitty Pryde for that matter. I trust them less with Peter Rasputin, a Russian character introduced during the height of the Cold War, whose character could be especially impactful now. I don’t think Disney is prepared to touch on Wolverine, a canonically (in one universe at least) queer man practicing the least toxic foe of masculinity possible (see attached image) and make him a hyper-misogynistic pretty boy with run of the mill anger issues.

So yeah. MCU=bad, Mutants=good, MCU+Mutants= bad mutants.

Support the WGA writers strike.

The discourse on Mutants

Or Why the MCU isn’t ready for the X-Men.

I love Marvel comics. Huge fanboy, have been for a while, but it after phase one of the MCU my excitement for Marvel’s cinematic offerings took a nose dive. And it’s easy to explain why. Marvel and Disney began to sanitize their characters, stories, and the MCU at large. Iron Man 1 and 2 made a large part of Tony’s character arch revolve around trauma and the recovery from said trauma. We see Tony fall face first into alcoholism, and face the consequences of that path. Then Avengers happens, and suddenly our heroes have to be heroes full time. Suddenly Tony’s trauma is the butt of the joke. Steve’s challenges being a man out of time are played for laughs, and everyone has said all there is to say about Bro Thor. The only real Face The Consequences Of Your Actions moment came in the form of the Sokovia Accords, which actively get hand waved in later films. Unsurprisingly, it’s because of Wanda, who is pulling almost all of the weight of setting the stage for a proper X-Men universe, but I’ll get there.

The MCU bends over backwards to avoid actually challenging the status quo. It makes it difficult to get excited for the future of X-films when we’ve seen these historically revolutionary characters who’s entire premise is to push for change, status quo be damned, be reduced to brightly colored guardian sentinels of normalcy. Winter Soldier proves that Cap is right in challenging SHIELD because Nazis were pulling the strings all along. It’s not the government that’s bad, just the Nazis. Civil War says that Cap is wrong, and only cares about his buddy. Tony is right because he listens to the No Longer Nazi government. The status quo is preserved, we do not have to challenge our views.

One needs look no further than Black Panther to see just how far Disney is willing to go to avoid challenging its audience. Oh, sure, they call the white guy Colonizer, but the character who actually acknowledges a need for an overhaul in the system? The guy who vaguely implies in a general sort of way that systemic racism is very real and needs to be fought? He’s the bad guy. And the hero has to beat him up so that he can uphold the status quo then address the symptoms of the problem that he kind of acknowledges is there.

And that’s just the way the studios handle their characters. In universe is another beast all together, but that alone is enough to make me iffy on Disney’s X-Men. The characters and stories are very thinly veiled allegories for the civil rights movement, and most of the time that veil isn’t even there. They challenge the status quo and make the reader ask hard questions about the system and themselves. The X-Men and in a much larger sense Mutants are the ultimate Other and are intended to make the audience feel for them, and hopefully better themselves so that villains like Magneto are be seen as unnecessary. The goal is to make him seem wrong. Humanity can accept mutants, and does. Society can accept poc, lgbtqa+, Muslims, Jewish people, and anyone else othered by our systems and status quo. But we have to challenge those ways of thinking. One of the biggest recurring bad guy groups in the comics is an anti-mutant hate group that is literally just the KKK pallet swapped. I have a hard time believing that Disney will go there.

Now in universe I’d say the MC U has been in the wrong stat for mutants since at least Endgame. Ultron and Civil war had society facing the right direction, instilling a general fear and mistrust of “enhanced individuals”, but Endgame leaves the world in a state of relative hero worship. TFaTWS has Bucky, former assassin and Interpol most wanted basically on parole, and Sam, former Interpol most wanted, acting as free agents beholden to no government body. Sam is greeted and treated as a celebrity. Wanda starts her solo-series with the same impunity, even though she’s basically the whole reason the Sokovia accords happened. They are super heroes, and the world loves them.

But the ground work has been laid for the MCU to have an appropriate atmosphere for the X-Men. And it started with Spider-Man: Far From Home. Outing Peter, and having him framed as a menace begins to establish the framework for an end to hero worship, and starting it with Spidey is actually pretty brilliant. Spider-Man’s powers have no in universe explanation. As far as the public at large knows, Peter Parker was born with these powers. Ol’ Triple J could drop the final nail in the coffin with a single headline (or segment, seeing as he runs Info Wars in the diegetic) “Spider-Man: Mutant or Menace?”

WandaVision keeps the ball rolling by having Wanda essentially abuse her powers in a very public way to the detriment of those affected (no spoilers), sewing the seeds of fear and mistrust. Again, as far as the general public is concerned, Wanda Maximof was born with the powers she turned against others, effectively a Mutant, and no one was prepared to stop her.

Now within the first two episodes of TFaTWS, the stage is set to completely destroy society’s faith in super heroes. There’s a new Captain America on the scene, the public eye is firmly on him, and he has the makings of a spiteful bully. Sam and Bucky, who have mostly been forgiven their trespasses are playing by their own rules, oversight be damned. If they play these arch’s right, it paves the way for a lot of destruction of good will. But we’ll have to see.

In conclusion, while I don’t have high hopes for Disney’s handling of the X-Men, I do think the stage is being set for them to come in in a big way, and while the ground work is being set to introduce Disney’s shiny new toys, they have a ways to go before the Anti-Mutant sentiment they will no doubt try to make a big deal in universe makes sense.

TL;DR Disney needs to hold out on playing with their shiny new toys until they finish putting in the work for the characters and narratives to make sense, and I don’t trust Michael Mouse to handle the X-Men right.

[smokeybrandreviews]

Birthday Cake

X-Men ’97 is just over the horizon and I am mad hyped about it. I grew up on that show. It was one of the few cartoons which both my mother and I could watch together. I, being an unapologetic Marvel shill, was all over the Mutants while my mom was actually enamored with the narrative. There were a few cartoons from back that that caught her attention. The Maxx, Gargoyles, and Spawn were also favorites. Don’t ask why I was watching HBO’s Spawn as a twelve year old kid. Or reading his comics. Or even buying them.  Look, man, the Nineties were a different time. We drank out of hoses and watched ultraviolent anime because our parents thought they were “just cartoons.” We were feral, latchkey kids, back in my halcyon days. Good times. Tangent aside, X-Men inform a great deal about how I perceived Marvel Merry Mutants. It was my first exposure to characters like Apocalypse and Nimrod. While I had read The Dark Phoenix saga as a youngster, it was this show which adapted it perfectly. Live action is still chasing that high. Not only that, but it launched Marvel’s very first, and wildly successful, connected universe. Without X-Men, we wouldn’t have gotten that just-as-iconic Spider-Man cartoon, or the lesser known but equally excellent Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, and Fantastic Four shows. The Nineties X-Men cartoon was a watershed moment for Marvel and for Millennials as a whole. For us Marvels shills, it rivaled Batman: The Animated Series in popularity. So color me surprised that X-Men ’97 is being colored as controversial.

Out the box, it’s that tired ass argument that X-Men ’97 too woke. Everything is always too woke. What started out as people being frustrated they turned Rogue’s decadent, devil’s food, bunt cakes, into petite, little, tea biscuits, has spiraled into a weird fervor about who’s gay or something-something forced representation. Half-hearted kidding aside, it’s staggering to me that people are actually mad about this stupid sh*t. Do they even know what the f*ck X-Men is about? The entire concept of a marginalized part of the community, fighting just to be seen as human, is literally the wokest sh*t you can ever write and THAT’S the core of the X-Men mythos! The Uncanny X-Men started out as a very heavy handed allegory for the Civil Rights movement and, while this wasn’t Stan Lee’s initial intent, the characters of Professor X and Magneto became stand ins for the ideologies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Just, you know, with super powers. The X-Men are the epitome of Woke so to complain about that sh*t seems like you don’t even understand the f*cking point of the narrative. I miss rogue’s big fat ass just as much as the next kid, but you’re f*cking pathetic if you feel some kind of way about Morph being pansexual or non-binary (They literally can change into anything. Like Mystique). There are actual things to be outraged about, like how the creator of this revival is pretty much a scumbag, or how Marvel Studios has been suffering in the writing department for years. That’s where my concern would lie, especially considering how well written the OG show was.

Is this show going to be Woke? Absolutely. That’s the entire goddamn point of the X-Men. It’s the core of who they are. Take that away and what do you have? A bunch of Capes with random f*cking powers who live in the same house. Where’s the hook? Where’s the draw? Where’s the meat? How are they different than the Avengers at that point? The Fantastic Four? The Defenders? It’s that sprinkling of social consciousness which really gets the juices flowing, really revs up those storytelling engines. I mean, tell me how you write something as profound as God Loves, Man Kills, without it being “Woke”? You can’t. That is a gut-punch of a read and it’s pulled right out of today’s headlines, even though it was written forty years ago. The fear-mongering is real, but instead of Nightcrawler, it’s Mexicans. Same goddamn energy, same goddamn racist ass narrative. Even when they are spiraling out into a world of sci-fi, deep space, time travel misadventures, the core of their narrative is how much they are hated. This whole Krakoa saga, some of the best X-Stories told in decades, is coming to a close because of that long held hate and fear. House of M? Role reversal, mutants accepted and humans forced into being second class citizens. Decimation? Wanda kills off the powers to ninety percent of the entire Mutant population. Utopia, Operation: Zero Tolerance, Genosha, the entirety of the Ultimate run: All derivative of that social pressure and general fear toward the different. That’s what makes an X-Men story, and X-Men story. Getting mad about that sh*t after decades of that being a core aspect of their stories, is f*cking dumb. Not as dumb as Marvel excising Rouge’s cheeks, though. Rest in Power, you doubled-up, delicious, pound cakes! You will be missed.

[smokeybrand]

Birthday Cake

X-Men ’97 is just over the horizon and I am mad hyped about it. I grew up on that show. It was one of the few cartoons which both my mother and I could watch together. I, being an unapologetic Marvel shill, was all over the Mutants while my mom was actually enamored with the narrative. There were a few cartoons from back that that caught her attention. The Maxx, Gargoyles, and Spawn were also favorites. Don’t ask why I was watching HBO’s Spawn as a twelve year old kid. Or reading his comics. Or even buying them.  Look, man, the Nineties were a different time. We drank out of hoses and watched ultraviolent anime because our parents thought they were “just cartoons.” We were feral, latchkey kids, back in my halcyon days. Good times. Tangent aside, X-Men inform a great deal about how I perceived Marvel Merry Mutants. It was my first exposure to characters like Apocalypse and Nimrod. While I had read The Dark Phoenix saga as a youngster, it was this show which adapted it perfectly. Live action is still chasing that high. Not only that, but it launched Marvel’s very first, and wildly successful, connected universe. Without X-Men, we wouldn’t have gotten that just-as-iconic Spider-Man cartoon, or the lesser known but equally excellent Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, and Fantastic Four shows. The Nineties X-Men cartoon was a watershed moment for Marvel and for Millennials as a whole. For us Marvels shills, it rivaled Batman: The Animated Series in popularity. So color me surprised that X-Men ’97 is being colored as controversial.

Out the box, it’s that tired ass argument that X-Men ’97 too woke. Everything is always too woke. What started out as people being frustrated they turned Rogue’s decadent, devil’s food, bunt cakes, into petite, little, tea biscuits, has spiraled into a weird fervor about who’s gay or something-something forced representation. Half-hearted kidding aside, it’s staggering to me that people are actually mad about this stupid sh*t. Do they even know what the f*ck X-Men is about? The entire concept of a marginalized part of the community, fighting just to be seen as human, is literally the wokest sh*t you can ever write and THAT’S the core of the X-Men mythos! The Uncanny X-Men started out as a very heavy handed allegory for the Civil Rights movement and, while this wasn’t Stan Lee’s initial intent, the characters of Professor X and Magneto became stand ins for the ideologies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Just, you know, with super powers. The X-Men are the epitome of Woke so to complain about that sh*t seems like you don’t even understand the f*cking point of the narrative. I miss rogue’s big fat ass just as much as the next kid, but you’re f*cking pathetic if you feel some kind of way about Morph being pansexual or non-binary (They literally can change into anything. Like Mystique). There are actual things to be outraged about, like how the creator of this revival is pretty much a scumbag, or how Marvel Studios has been suffering in the writing department for years. That’s where my concern would lie, especially considering how well written the OG show was.

Is this show going to be Woke? Absolutely. That’s the entire goddamn point of the X-Men. It’s the core of who they are. Take that away and what do you have? A bunch of Capes with random f*cking powers who live in the same house. Where’s the hook? Where’s the draw? Where’s the meat? How are they different than the Avengers at that point? The Fantastic Four? The Defenders? It’s that sprinkling of social consciousness which really gets the juices flowing, really revs up those storytelling engines. I mean, tell me how you write something as profound as God Loves, Man Kills, without it being “Woke”? You can’t. That is a gut-punch of a read and it’s pulled right out of today’s headlines, even though it was written forty years ago. The fear-mongering is real, but instead of Nightcrawler, it’s Mexicans. Same goddamn energy, same goddamn racist ass narrative. Even when they are spiraling out into a world of sci-fi, deep space, time travel misadventures, the core of their narrative is how much they are hated. This whole Krakoa saga, some of the best X-Stories told in decades, is coming to a close because of that long held hate and fear. House of M? Role reversal, mutants accepted and humans forced into being second class citizens. Decimation? Wanda kills off the powers to ninety percent of the entire Mutant population. Utopia, Operation: Zero Tolerance, Genosha, the entirety of the Ultimate run: All derivative of that social pressure and general fear toward the different. That’s what makes an X-Men story, and X-Men story. Getting mad about that sh*t after decades of that being a core aspect of their stories, is f*cking dumb. Not as dumb as Marvel excising Rouge’s cheeks, though. Rest in Power, you doubled-up, delicious, pound cakes! You will be missed.

[scarlet--wiccan]

I received a lovely DM a the other day and I ended up providing this person with a pretty long response to their question, so I thought I would share my answer to my main page because it’s not something I’ve directly addressed before.

Also, my inbox is, for now, open to anon and regular messages. People keep sending me questions like this over DM or on my other accounts, so you can just submit asks, it keeps things simpler. Anyways, the question went like this:

I thought about Billy’s Judaism and Tommys trauma/abilities and mainly as an X-men fan, I thought about them being mutants but I often equated how Billy’s Judaism was always hidden, it seemed like it was a metaphor (to me) for him being a mutant. I also recognised Their Roma identities were also translucent/complicated throughout comic history, alot like their X-genes (complicated and hidden). So I equated both the two together. The Magnus family has suffered so much throughout retcons and I thought billy and tommy’s mutant status was practically the only thing keeping them connected towards magneto & the rest of their family besides Wanda. I’ve had my thoughts about it as well, like Billy can pass just as a witch whereas Tommy cannot and I thought I should ask a Romani person how they would feel on that. I always thought their mutant identities were important at least, to me. It represented their “complicated parts” of their history/family.

I’m not sure if you’re asking me if I think mutant identity is important to the narrative, or if it’s important to these characters as people. I’ll try to answer both, but it’s complicated either way. The short answer, which you’re probably not going to like, is no. That said, whenever I am looking back at material from before 2015, I still view the characters as mutants and analyze their experiences through that lens. It’s complicated and annoying, because this retcon never should have happened and it messes with continuity. My answer to this question is not about personal bias, I am just trying to dissect the material as objectively as possible.

Wanda and Pietro have been around for a long time and have received a lot of different character treatments. I find that in most of their stories from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, mutant identity is an extra layer that is tacked on to facilitate stories about marginalization that could not have been told explicitly during that time period. They’re not directly involved in the mutant community. Instead, they’re Avengers characters who happen to be mutants. Wanda and Pietro are written as perpetually misunderstood outsiders who are frequently discriminated against and tokenized. To me, as a Romani reader, it’s very obviously a metaphor for racism and xenophobia. I think there are a lot of readers don’t see that clearly, because they don’t understand Romani issues first-hand and they’re not as interested in learning about us or representing us as they are in fictional mutants. 

I do like their relationship with Magneto and I think it’s very valuable in terms of representation, but it’s never been the most interesting thing about them. Their early life experiences with Django and Marya, and everything that happened with Chthon and the Evolutionary are what actually drove their plot lines. Wanda’s desire to study and develop her relationship with magic is what fueled most of her development. Unfortunately, when we get to the 90s, that starts to become overshadowed by the narrative that they are Magneto’s tragic lost children who have become these ostracized, self-hating mutants. That really hit the fan with House of M, which blatantly disregarded much of their previous characterization, and kind of ruined the characters for a long time. Taking them out of that relationship with Magneto and mutantdom allowed the characters to actually return to center for the first time in decades. 

So, as much as I think the retcon was bad because it fucked with continuity, and it broke them away from their Jewish background, I think it was better for their growth and their storylines— especially Wanda. Mutant drama was not serving these characters well, and it had not been for a very long time. There is a part of me that actually likes their new backstory more than the original. In the current version, Chthon and the Evolutionary prey on the Maximoff family specifically because they are Romani and they come from a particular Romani cultural tradition. Those themes about racism and the ways in which Wanda has been exploited and ostracized are able to be more literal now, which is good because modern writers are finally interested in having her face her traumas head-on and take back her power. That never would have happened if she was still being defined as a ~crazy~ mutant reality warper. Again, that doesn’t mean I think the retcon is okay.

For the characters as people, yes, they absolutely valued their mutant identity. Pietro, as time went on, became more involved in the mutant community and felt the pressure of Magneto’s legacy more profoundly. Wanda always expressed pride and never wanted to compromise her mutant identity even though she felt distanced from that community; she spoke often about anti-mutant discrimination and she was very compassionate to Magneto after he came back into her life as a father figure. She was written as rejective of her mutant identity in the 2000s and early 2010s, but, like most things from House of M, I think that was a betrayal of her earlier characterization. For better or for worse, Trial of Magneto showed that Wanda still cares deeply about mutantkind, has gone above and beyond to make things right since the Decimation, and will continue to be an ally however she can.

Billy and Tommy get their powers from Wanda, so I think they should just match whatever she is. Their origin is tied specifically to her magical storyline, not the mutant stuff. If Wanda’s not a mutant anymore, I think it’s perfectly fine that her kids aren’t, either. These characters have never been aligned with the X-Men or any kind of mutant community. Tommy’s experience with his parents and the detention center where he was abused are derived from him being a “mutant,” but it’s not difficult to tweak the context on that. 

Obviously, Billy and Tommy have the same powers as Wanda and Pietro, and when Young Avengers was written those powers were mutant powers, so that shared genetic trait was proof of their relationship. It that sense, them being mutants was textually important. Billy being a Jewish character was also, I believe, an intentional choice that Heinberg made to further cement a connection between him and the Magnus family. Even though he was reincarnated, his heritage and ethnic background remained similar— that why I’ve always insisted that the character is also Romani. We can keep all of these identities intact because it’s magic! I’m actually surprised that you think his Jewishness was ever “hidden.” I think that it was very prominent in Young Avengers and Children’s Crusade.

In terms of powers, Billy’s chaos magic comes from Wanda and her experience with Chthon. Because his magic and his identity as a witch come from Wanda, specifically, they have to be contextualized and understood first and foremost through his Romani heritage. Again, being a mutant is like the least relevant part of that whole equation. Readers don’t see that because they don’t understand our culture and history, and they’re not invested in our representation. 

In the year 2022, I don’t think we need to rely on a metaphorical minority group to represent “complicated” multicultural and multiethnic backgrounds. We can just accept that Wanda is a Romani woman with Jewish ancestry, and her children are therefore also Jewish and Romani. They arrive at those identities differently, but that’s okay because that’s what it’s like being in a mixed immigrant family anyways. That does not erase Billy’s upbringing or his Judaism. It does not invalidate the Kaplans. This is a fantasy plot, we can just let mixed race people exist. We can let Jewish people of color exist. It’s okay.

[juneisafantasyaddict]

If LB wanted The Darkling to be pure evil, there are literally a lot of things she could have done. But giving him a sympathetic backstory that is actually a legitimate reason for him to turn out the way he did was definitely not the way to do it. If she wanted pure evil, she could’ve given him a backstory that’s just a ridiculous sob story, not “for hundreds of years my people have been hunted and killed because of prejudice and no one did anything about it until I had enough power to.” Do you even realize how easy it is to get people to be on your side when what you want more than anything is for your people to be safe from harm?? That’s literally why we don’t get mad at heroes for killing people, it’s because we know they are protecting vulnerable people.

I’ve seen people say The Darkling is like Magneto (re: his fight against what was happening to mutants), and while that comes close, I think The Darkling is even more sympathetic because at least the XMen had the good sense to have Charles Xavier there to provide a more humane/viable alternative to Magneto’s solutions, and we got to see the difference between their methods. But, in the Grishaverse, we have a monarchy in Ravka that only sees the Grisha as useful for war but also doesn’t let them own property, we have a heroine who doesn’t seem to care about anything except meadows and her childhood crush, we have the entire country of Ravka that seems to only like dead Grisha because “new saint to build a cult over,” then we have the only person who seems to prioritize the protection of these people who have no one and we’re supposed to care that he’s ruthless with anyone he perceives as a threat to his people? When you haven’t given us a viable alternative to his methods? To make matters even worse, he’s not even imagining these threats, he is literally reacting to their aggression, e.g Fjerdans come for Alina, he uses the cut, Zlatan sends an assassin to infiltrate his secure building and kill Alina, but ends up killing another Grisha under his care, he kills the assassin and does Novikribirsk, etc.

This is not a justification of his ruthless methods of punishment for those who are threats to him and his people, this is a “you cannot expect me to focus entirely on his methods when he’s literally the only reason why his people have any semblance of protection” rant. The heroine who we think is going to save the day is basically dragged through her character development and all her progress is destroyed very quickly because of this ridiculous need to pretend that the underdog is always right (Mal, power is evil, blah blah blah).

Somehow, we’re supposed to just be ok with the fact that a group of people who haven’t exactly showed that they care about Grisha suffering are going to save them from prosecution? I mean, let’s not forget that this group includes: Mal who we already know is prejudiced against Grisha, Alina who *sigh* so much potential wasted there, Nikolai who I have decided exists for comic relief because I will not be convinced that a “maybe prince who is also a Jack sparrow type pirate should be king of a country with very complex social and political situations.” Like, I’m looking at this group of supposed saviors and honestly, I would rather take my chances with the 500 year old extremely powerful Grisha who scares everyone. Let’s not even forget that we’re somehow supposed to consider Baghra one of the good guys for “warning Alina,” even though 2 episodes later, we basically see that Baghra doesn’t exactly care about the survival of the Grisha.

Give people a truly evil villain and we will act accordingly. Don’t give us a Magneto type villain with legitimate points and then expect us to treat him like Voldermot or something. You can even decide to not understand Magneto because hello, we are given real alternatives to his problem solving skills right away. But with The Darkling it’s just “he’s pure evil because I said so, but like also this is how he got here, but also he’s super evil, but like do you understand where he’s coming from? but also he’s super evil even though he has points.” That’s not a villain dear, that’s a good person doing bad things and needs to be shown a better way.

You can’t give me an antagonist with a compelling, truly tragic backstory and then be like “now that you understand why and how this character ended up in this dark place and you can see that all this was probably avoidable if so and so did/didn’t happen, let’s totally blow up their life because so what if they’ve deeply suffered?” Especially when there’s a path to redemption right there in the protagonist who you have made sure to establish has a deep bond/connection with this person.

You want to write pure evil? Give me a character that has no remorse, no capacity to care for anyone or anything else, no reason for his cruelty, etc. Don’t give me guy who uses his power to keep his people safe and then falls in love with his soulmate so deeply he can’t stop looking at her and holding her hand in front of the whole country.

Also, can we like actually address the issue that got Nina kidnapped, made the Darkling who he is, and forces all Grisha to basically only have one life plan?

It would be so much easier to believe that The Darkling is a villain if there was an actual alternative to him, but there isn’t.

And btw, in this age of social justice, the fact that LB didn’t think people will see the value in a person from a marginalized community doing whatever is necessary to free his people from oppression is just LOL.

Ok, incoherent rant over.

[ettawritesnstudies]

@writeblrfantasy gave me the excuse to ramble about history in the Laoche Chronicles (this post specifically) so I’m going to copy/paste my tags here and go from there! There’s a few spoilers but they’re marked with caps and italic, so I’ll put it under a cut too. Sorry in advance for the infodump...

#I cannot decide my favorite period of history but I love learning about catholic history and especially the early church#ancient history too I mean who are we kidding it's fascinating

OK SO in Maaren (the city state that Storge takes place in), there’s a small religious sect called the Followers of the Artist that are forced into hiding by the polytheist Daziam religion of the Atilan. There’s a LOT of dogmatic differences between the Followers and early Christianity, it’s not a direct insert and plays it’s own unique role in the story, but one thing I did seriously draw on was how marginalized communities have to stick together in order to survive.

The Roman empire was an AWFUL place for all sorts of minorities and the early Church was a haven and support structure for people who didn’t have anywhere else to turn. A ton of early converts were women, who brought their families with them! Mother Mary was really the mother to the whole church and all the other ladies who converted were just as much of a backbone to keep their communities running as anyone else. For example, Sts. Priscilla and Aquila were tent makers and friends of St. Paul who helped him in his ministry and used their home as a base for their ministry. And there are so many martyrs that died to protect their communities I can’t even name them all here.

So that was a huge influence for the Followers of the Artist! They practice in secret catacombs underneath one of their member’s homes (who I named after St. Philomena), they cover for each other, and use special code words to make sure it’s safe to discuss their beliefs without being outed. The word “Storge” which is the Greek word for familial love. It takes on it’s own meaning in the story, it’s a declaration of protection, that anyone who is a Follower is part of the family and deserves unconditional love. They take care of their own and the people most in need.

SPOILER: Luca even sacrifices himself twice to protect his family and his community, first by turning himself into Lyss which is when she steals part of his magic to create a powerful magic Staff, and then giving up his magic to defeat her once and for all and “destroy” the staff. He survives, because I love a happy ending, but he’s meant to fit that martyr archetype as a flawed person who was still willing to give it all up for his love of humanity, to save even the people who persecuted them. and it’s not just Luca being the chosen one hero that saves the day. The Avian City is destroyed, Acheran and Chara have to make hard choices too. It’s his whole family and the community agreeing to the decision and supporting each other that allows them to have that happy ending and aaaaaaaaaaaa I’m so soft about this but I can’t talk about it that much bc spoilers, so just know that I was crying while writing the climax of the book.

... moving on.

#ALSO the renaissance and industrial revolutions anytime tech takes a leap I love hearing about the history of science#marie curie my hero#and so in my wips Storge starts in the ancient history part of the world where they have and use magic#but they don't understand the fundamentals of how the world works yet#and then in the trilogy proper they've had time to develop their technology after a dark ages event set them back#so they're a little better but they lost a lot#and the events of the main trilogy send them into a magical revolution spurred on by what the characters discover and I'm so so so excited t#to write that#and so much of my worldbuilding is about the rise and fall of civilizations over time#and modeling it off patterns in history#because weather it's earth or Laoche people are still people

SPOILERS: when Luca gives up his magic during the climax, the surrounding battle and impact causes extensive damage to the Avian city and when it (and the Atilan power structure) crumble, a ton of valuable information is lost. The Staff wasn’t destroyed, rather it’s got new, scary magic properties, and so Acheran studies it, then locks it away where no one can use it to hurt anyone again.They get a happy ending where they get to set about fixing so many of the structural problems that made their life miserable, but they can only do that because they’re rebuilding from the rubble.

No Spoilers, just vague Laoche set up: 

So anyhow, there’s about a thousand years (give or take a century) of Medieval times while the avians diaspora and Maaren’s political influence declines, and there are skirmishes with Arga and they’re trying to rebuild like after the fall of the Roman Empire. There are pockets of power and succession crises and good art is made and learning is preserved through dedicated efforts in the parts of the world that aren’t currently on fire.

By the time we hit the Laoche Chronicles, things are starting to settle! The main characters are students at a magic-focused university/academy in the capital of Arga and they’re learning about what hasn’t been lost to time. New research is going on and for final projects, students are sent on field research to find more information and bring it back to the academics. It’s all heavily influenced by the politics and it has its flaws as every educational system does but that’s an infodump for another post. Anyhow this results in Stephan, Madelyn, and Alric going to Maaren to retrieve the legendary staff and bring it back for further research, instead of just leaving it alone as a relic/artifact.

Unfortunately for them, the specific dangerous property of the staff is equivalent to magical radiation. There’s a mutant forest growing in the ruins of the city in what-once-was-a-desert, and when Alric brings the staff back, it’s like delivering the secrets of nuclear energy. The ensuing trilogy deals with the aftermath, and how the new magi-science they’ve found can be used for great good and for great evil. The protagonists are trying to get back power of their kingdom before the usurpers can destroy everything, but then once they have power again, they have to DEAL with this without becoming power hungry themselves, and it launches off a whole industrial revolution. Even once their story ends, I have this world to play in and make other stories exploring all the different facets of what I’ve set up and I’m just! Very very excited to write this!

[fulokis]

Thoughts on Wandavision

Spoilers duh.

I started this out as a boredom watch as in eh why not. I was not really invested until Evan Peters showed up. Evan Peters aka the guy who played quicksilver in the X-men fox universe. With DoFP being my favorite partially because of quicksilver. So naturally I became way more invested in the show, not only that but I became hyper-fixated on X-men as a result.

So marvel brings in this actor and all the fans of the X-men are like yeah duh that makes sense, especially considering Wanda is heavily involved with MoM, the movie about the freakin multiverse. So fans of X-men and doctor strange (of which I am both) become exited for the possibilities that this opens up. Excitement builds and as a result people end up watching more content on Disney+ whether it be the movies shows ect.

And then they go and say nope it’s not. And even if they do retcon it it’s still a really crappy thing to have done. And what do I mean, this is part of marvel trying to surprise fans through subverting expectations. And yes sometimes it’s nice, but other times you end up with a mess that leaves more questions than answers.

Take Endgame and Infinity war. Now I knew that Thanos was going to win in infinity war. It was a matter of how he would win. But part of my issue with infinity war is that it felt like it barely spent time exploring how the different characters would interact with each other because there were too many and it would have blocked the narrative from moving forward. Endgame had a similar issue but on top of that they were so focused on keeping everything locked up that it didn’t exactly feel like a cohesive movie. And as a result the character interactions and relationships fell quite short. Not only that but some of them made no sense, but taking a look at endgames flaws has happened enough.

So taking a look at wandavision I’m not upset that my therory is incorrect. I’m upset that one they literally did this to subvert expectations because they hate when their shows are predictable, and two people are rubbing it in our faces that we were wrong and we shouldn’t be upset because it was a theory. And what’s more is that they had an example of fans being correct and it was still surprising.

My mouth still dropped at the reveal that it was Agatha. I still was surprised even though I knew it was coming. I know a lot of people were. And I can say it was because of the fact that we got it right that we knew where it was going and it was executed in a way that still made it feel like a big reveal. So why then are they trying to surprise the fans with well it was Ralph duh haha got you.

Because for some reason marvel hates when people can predict something. Which makes me wonder why they went with the infinity war storyline and are seemingly going with the Skrull storyline if they don’t want fans to predict what’s happening? Why are they going with well known storylines from the comics if they don’t want anyone to guess what is happening? Especially if the fans know the storylines and end up becoming disappointed if you don’t include this one specific moment.

And this is an issue because it sets up fans to know how something will play out, then turning around to subvert expectations ending up with something that doesn’t quite make sense with the narrative they had set up and teased and the characters. It doesn’t work to take pre established stories and adapt them to the screen while trying to subvert expectations. You need to pick one or the other, you simply can not do both.

There’s a reason that people are so finicky when adaptations of books are brought to the screen. It’s because they enjoy those stories and they want to see it as close up on the screen as possible. They want to see how they imagine it. And yes it’s tricky because people imagine it many different ways, but with comics honestly you have a story board right there. And yes you will need to change certain things especially to fit in the budget and physics of real life. Not to mention erase some of the problematic social injustices found in the earlier comics.

And yes wandavision isn’t based on one comic story line. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to be predictable. Take a look at some other examples that I can think of that either were predictable and good or subverted expectations in a positive way that didn’t confuse people.

Mandalorian: Luke Skywalker being brought in was a surprise. We knew that a Jedi might come, in fact it seemed quite likely that a Jedi would come to train Grogu. But the thing was we didn’t know who, we didn’t know if it would be Luke or another Jedi. Potentially it could have been one we hadn’t met, but we knew that one was coming and that still didn’t stop us from being surprised. And if it wasn’t Luke people wouldn’t have been mad because they left it ambiguous who the Jedi was until he was onscreen (unlike deliberately casting an actor that is known for a role then saying nope not him).

Mandalorian: This one is short but it’s a way to do both predictability and subverting expectations. The first episode of the second season was legitimately the plot from the 2003 game Knights of the Old Republic or Kotor for short. Fans of the game knew exactly how it would turn out, or at least how they would attempt to kill the dragon. They did do that, but unlike expected it didn’t work. So they tried a different tactic that paid off. As a kotor fan I expected this, I also expected the pearl at the end of the episode, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it, and honestly I rather enjoyed it and it was fun. And I think most kotor fans would agree.

A series of Unfortunate Events: The Netflix show not the movie. In the books Olaf’s bench people get killed off, in the show they made it so that these people survive. I didn’t expect that, and it was good. The writers were still able to make something that fans of the book knew exactly what was going to happen and the general way that things were going to happen. But they adjusted things so that there were some surprises to viewers who read the books. And none of the changes were done specifically to subvert expectations they were done to enhance the story in certain ways. And they do even if they weren’t completely expected. And it still allows me to enjoy the show.

Kotor: yes I’m talking about the game and yes I’m still obsessed with it despite it being so old but also spoilers for it follow so skip if you don’t wish to know.

Kotor follows the story of a human being, they discover slowly that they were once feared across the galaxy known as the Sith Lord Darth Revan. Now can you figure out the twist through context clues absolutely. But it was not only revolutionary for the time but also knowing it still doesn’t take away the surprise feeling for a lot of players (I’m still surprised pikachu face no matter how many times I play or rewatch the cut scene).

There are many more examples but these are the ones off the top of my head.

I’m not angry at the fact that they were trying to make it surprising. I’m angry at the fact that marvel knowingly did this, and there’s no resolution at all. It’s a throwaway scene for a throwaway character played by a known actor who is known for his role as quicksilver. If it was someone else and they did this it would not be as upsetting. But the fact that marvel did this and knew exactly who they were casting to just mislead the fans is inexcusable. And maybe this isn’t the end of the storyline, but right now it is. 12 hours after the finale it absolutely seems like the end of the storyline. And that’s why people are upset because it was such a clear this is what is happening, then they develop it into just this dude. They led on it was quicksilver and we don’t even get to see the rest of the conversation that Monica has with him. We get no resolution whatsoever. And that’s what hurts the most, if they had explained hey Agatha did this and managed to somehow do X Y or Z to have this random person have powers and these memories. Now it would be cheep and people would still be upset but not as much with the incomplete explanation and the throwing it in there because they had to.

If they really wanted to subvert expectations they one shouldn’t have brought Evan Peters in to play a quicksilver (I hate saying this because I was so exited). Two shouldn’t have gone with anything to do with Agatha or even Mephisto. And a lot of people would probably wonder who they could have gone with and Tbh I don’t remember who I saw said it but Mojo would make sense. Or hell they could have brought in Evan Peters and an alternate version of Wanda who is causing this to happen and stir the pot. Either way the way they executed it was extremely poorly done and that’s why people are upset.

So please consider that for people this would have made a huge statement for. X-men fans are drawn to the X-men for many reasons. And I would say that some of those reasons are that they belong to a minority group and feel represented in the X-men. Me I’m LGBT+ and despite having grown up in a very progressive area, there are people I interact with where I don’t feel like I can be myself or even feel comfortable coming out to. And that’s why I personally am attached to the X-men. And I’ve seen other people say similar things.

For people the X-men and mutants aren’t just characters. They’re characters that marginalized groups can relate to. They’re characters that they can see themselves in. This goes much more deep than my fan theory wasn’t correct. It’s a combination of crappy writing and Marvel attempting to be surprising and the fact that they had the perfect opportunity to introduce a cast of characters that represent struggles of marginalized communities and recognize that yes the world isn’t just filled with hero’s that are cis straight abled men and women. And even if it was people from another universe it still was a step in the right direction.

So please if you’re fine with this and took the time to read this don’t make fun of the people who are quite upset with the developments of the episode. A lot of us are upset for a deeper reason and seeing people go “haha you’re wrong you idiots.” Makes this feel that much more upsetting.

[girlactionfigure]

"Magneto’s Jewishness is central to his character

His experience as a Jew – as a survivor of the Nazi death camps and a member of one of the most despised ethnic groups on Earth (not just in the United States, but in the entire world) – is the main impetus for Magneto’s actions. It’s why he is who he is." - Dani Ishai Behan

According to recent rumors, Marvel intends to give Magneto – the iconic Jewish supervillain – a fresh coat of paint. But what exactly is meant by “fresh coat of paint” here?

Put simply, it is alleged that they intend to cast a “POC” actor – or actors – as Magneto in any future appearances.

Why is this a bad thing? Well, it’s not. Or at least, it shouldn’t be. So what’s the problem?

The problem is that Magneto is a Jewish Holocaust survivor. He is already a POC, at least insofar as indigenous Middle Eastern populations are considered to be such (which Marvel undoubtedly does), and they arguably should have been using Jewish (or other Middle Eastern) actors from the get-go. However, since it’s highly unlikely that Marvel actually considers diaspora Jews like Magneto to be Middle Eastern (even though they are Middle Eastern, by definition), and since there are no other notable anti-Jewish genocides in the past 50 years to draw inspiration from, the implications of this rumor could not be more clear: they may very well end up erasing Magneto’s Jewish origins.

I’m deeply bothered that Marvel is even considering this – that the thought of it has even entered their heads, let alone their board room discussions. And I’m even more bothered that it’s being framed as a bid for “diversity”, as if this is really “no different” than changing Ariel’s race. It absolutely is different. In fact, these scenarios couldn’t be any more different if they tried to be.

There are many reasons why changing Magneto’s origins would be damaging and oppressive to Jews, especially in light of anti-Semitism’s meteoric rise and resurgence in mainstream culture. For starters…

Magneto’s Jewishness is central to his character

His experience as a Jew – as a survivor of the Nazi death camps and a member of one of the most despised ethnic groups on Earth (not just in the United States, but in the entire world) – is the main impetus for Magneto’s actions. It’s why he is who he is. Magneto is an extremist because he sees the way mutants are treated as parallel to the way Jews are treated. His realization that humans will never accept mutants also parallels Herzl’s realization that Europeans would never accept Jews. And Magneto’s proposed solution, while certainly 100x more extreme than Herzl’s (whose solution was to repatriate Jewish exiles to their indigenous homeland, to liberate it from foreign rule, and to regain sovereignty therein), is borne of a similar distrust and cynicism towards those who hate his kind.

Magneto is a Jew. That’s who he is to most fans, especially to Jewish fans who grew up with him and identified with him for much of their lives. Why take that away from us? Especially now?

Magneto embodies Jewish anger, fear, trauma, and pain like no other character, before or since. You can’t just treat that as if it’s some trivial thing, or if it’s just “white” people crying about their “privilege” (which, it must be emphasized, Jews do not have). Changing him now would be horrifically insensitive and immensely disrespectful to Jewish fans, especially to children/grandchildren of Holocaust survivors.

If it’s Magneto’s age people are worried about, I’m certain Marvel could come up with something. If they can prolong Wolverine’s life for as long as they have, there’s no reason why they can’t do so for Magneto.

And if there’s another minority out there whom they feel is “more deserving” of representation, they can simply create a new character. Problem solved.

Jews deserve representation too

Like it or not, we’re minorities too. And we don’t exactly have stellar representation, contrary to common belief.

We’re all but invisible outside of some very stereotypical characters. I mean, what else do we have besides lonely nerds, gold diggers, terrorists, bankers, and eccentric rabbis?

We have this…

Yup, that’s right. Gargamel, the main villain of the Smurfs, is supposed to be Jewish. And if his Levantine features didn’t make that painfully obvious, he also had a mezuzah in his house in his first few appearances.

There are exceptions to this rule (e.g. Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman), but that’s all they really are: exceptions.

I know what people are going to say next… “But what about these Jewish actors who’ve done characters like Indiana Jones and Jackie Kennedy? They even did blackface back in the day.” Well, here’s the thing: they weren’t Jewish actors playing Jewish characters. They were white-passing Jewish actors (and usually only half or even 1/4 Jewish, like myself) playing white characters. That’s not representation, and referring to it as such is essentially tantamount to whitewashing. It is every bit as absurd as saying Indians are “white”/”well-represented” because Ben Kingsley played Adolf Eichmann (yes, that Adolf Eichmann), or that Arabs* are because Lebanese actor Danny Thomas (to name one example) did blackface and other white roles, or that Latinos are because Cesar Romero did The Joker.

*Speaking of Arabs, Jewish actors who are more obviously/visibly Jewish (particularly those who aren’t half or 3/4 non-Jewish) are very frequently cast in Arab roles. And no one even notices. Why is that?

It’s because…

Ashkenazi Jews are not white people

Non-Ashkenazi Jews exist, of course. That is undeniable. But since Magneto was born in the Jewish diaspora communities of Central Europe, it is quite obvious that he is Ashkenazi.

And Marvel’s assertion that they intend to rebrand Magneto as a “POC” is a pretty clear indication that they have a piss-poor understanding of (if not utter contempt for) who Jews are.

Magneto isn’t white. He’s a Jewish Holocaust survivor. Jews are an indigenous ethnic group and nation of the Levant, so it makes little sense to refer to Magneto as white unless A ) he is a convert (which he’s not) or B ) one views all indigenous Levantines as white, which is highly unlikely (at least in Marvel’s case). Ergo, Magneto has always been a POC.

However, all of his live-action portrayals were done by white actors, and this suggests that whoever was responsible for their casting sees Jews as nothing more than a religion. And for someone whose view is that Magneto is an “ethnic Pole” or “ethnic German” whose family “just so happened to practice Judaism”, it’s not too far of a leap (or even a leap at all) to cast white actors in that role. This view is, of course, patently absurd.

This popular narrative that Ashkenazim are “white”, and that we are therefore already “over-represented” and don’t “need” characters like Magneto, is the reason why things like this keep happening. Were it not for that, the idea of replacing Erik Lensherr with a “real” minority would have never entered their heads.

Just because we’re not black, doesn’t mean we’re white. And you can’t treat this as if it’s somehow akin to rebranding Ariel as a black woman. It’s just not comparable.

It indicates that Marvel does not see Jews as a “real” minority group

Marvel is a politically progressive company. And the progressive left has been infected with its own form of Jew-hate – distinct from its right-wing counterpart, but similar in many ways. One thing they both have in common is that they both feel Jews are “hyper-powerful” and absolutely swimming in “privilege”, and are therefore not oppressed or marginalized in any meaningful way – and that if anything, we’re the oppressors. And for this reason, it is argued that we do not “deserve” the same respect or consideration that other oppressed outgroups do, and this argument naturally extends to representation in media. After all, this isn’t the first time Marvel whitewashed a character’s Jewishness (Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver), and it likely won’t be the last.

And it is precisely this line of thinking that facilitates antisemitism and contributes to its growth.

Bottom line: Magneto is Jewish. He is a Holocaust survivor. He is an ethnic Middle Easterner. And despite his (typically) villainous portrayal, he has done more to give Jews a human face than any other character. And if there’s anything we need right now, it’s for people to see our humanity.

Source

[narwhallove]

Behind the Curtain: Interview with Romy Writer Ludi-Ling

House of Cards actually started out as a random smut scene that burgeoned into something far, far more.

@ludi-ling goes meta in our final interview about her writing process; how the Romy fandom’s changed over the years; alternate universes (AU); and the role of smut for Romy fans. (Spoiler alert, our heroes are hot.)

No surprise that it’s a pleasure interviewing Ludi. I kept sending her more questions (25 total!) because her responses fascinated me and inspired me to ask more. It’s a rare person who writes visceral, startling prose and can also talk about her work with clarity, intelligence, and an affection for her characters that doesn’t occlude good writerly judgment.

The superlatives don’t end there. Anyone who knows the community knows that Ludi is a friend to her readers and to her fellow writers. As we all enter a heady 2019, reading Mr. and Mrs. X together, Ludi is someone to cherish.

If you haven’t read our other interviews, please check out: Part 1 of interviews: X-men Origins Part 2 of interviews: Going Dark

As a scholar of fan studies, do you believe Romy fanfiction fulfills needs that Marvel never can? What needs might those be, for Romy fans?

Certainly I think that fanfic is built on the premise of filling in the gaps, scribbling in the margins (to quote the seminal fan studies scholar, Henry Jenkins!) and fixing perceived wrongs. Comics are unique in that regard because the characters and stories within them continue for years and even decades. Comics continuities are convoluted and complicated, and there is a constant churn of writers working on them. Many fans have followed characters for far longer than the writers, and may know the characters more intimately than the professionals. Comics are full of retcons and contradictory takes on the characters. And I think fanfic is an important medium for allowing fans to “fix” that, to negotiate it. Because of the ongoing nature of comics, and because the futures of the characters are always going to be nebulous and subject to the whims of Marvel and the writers indefinitely, I think it’s going to continue to be important. Romy may be married in the comics, but there will still be plenty to write about—kids, divorce, a reconciliation . . . who knows? ;) 

What do you think Romy readers seek out when they read fanfiction? If it’s wish fulfillment, what kinds of wishes are being fulfilled? If it’s looking for “gaps” that the comics skip over, what have you found to be the most common sorts of gaps?

I think Romy is a very interesting example of the “wish fulfillment” function of fanfiction. Because part of the mystique of that ship (no pun intended) is that they can’t touch, they can’t consummate their relationship . . . And fanfic is a way that fans can get them to touch, to work out that angst. I think that one of the staples of Romy fic is the sexual tension between the two, and how they resolve that; the push and pull between them. Sometimes these take place in epic, superheroic backdrops, sometimes in AUs, where they have no mutant powers and where the tension between them is born from other factors (such as already having significant others, or being enemies, or in illicit lines of work).

What draws you to AUs? Your stories aren’t a case of fanfiction filling what’s “between panels”; you tend to shift characters and relationships to entirely different settings, whether it’s a Strange Days–like world or another genre, like a Southern gothic procedural. Can you talk about AUs and how they play out in your imagination?

What I’ve always liked is world-building. One of my first large-scale writing projects was a fantasy trilogy called The Legend of Elu. Most of the fun I got from that was actually building the world, the kingdoms, the mythology, the theology, the languages, the history of that story. That definitely bled into my fanfic.

Now I tend to write canon stuff as one-shots, and novel-length stuff as AUs, because they give me more space to play with world-building. That was something I realised I enjoyed more when I wrote Threads. Writing all those little worlds in a series of one-shots felt too “small.” HoC was originally an expansion of the Threads tale Touch and Go, but it grew into something else, and since then, I’ve preferred to go the AU route for the longer-form stories. :)

We’re living in peak Romy times—I think we’re still reeling from the wedding! Let’s say you had the power to go back in time and drop a pin into an earlier moment in the Romy timeline that you felt truly represents what Romy means to you (which isn’t the same as when they’re happiest!). When and in what universe? Why this choice?

There are so many iconic moments from Romy’s past, but, for me personally, I always go back to their time in Valle Soleada (in X-Treme X-Men). That’s not because they’re happy per se, but because I think that that period was the perfect example of how great they worked together on every level, and was proof positive that they were a good match. I often say it, but I will say it again here, because it’s the truth, and y’all can fight me to the death over it—if there was a time they would’ve got married and I would’ve bought it 100%, it would’ve been in Valle Soleada.

On Tumblr, it seems a large contingent of Romy fans are women in their 30s who discovered Romy at a tender age, thanks to the animated series. This includes you and me! There are exceptions, of course. What’s it like for you to have been in the fandom from the early aughts? What changes in the fandom have you noticed between 2003 and 2018?

I really joined the fandom at an exciting time for Romy—they’d just got back together properly after all the turmoil of the Trial of Gambit. X-Treme X-Men was a treat for Romy fans, and Claremont wrote such a great dynamic between them. As fans we were all excited and happy and well-fed on all that Romy goodness.

So it was weird (not to mention disappointing) when the 2004 reboot happened, and Marvel did everything they could to tank Romy. Which is one thing, and I can stomach it if [it were] logically and well written, but it was just so terribly done that I think many of us just tapped out of the fandom completely. I’d say 2005–2018 were fallow years for the Romy fandom. Most (if not all) of the fan friends I made at that time completely left the fandom. For myself, as someone who enjoys writing AUs, it was the perfect time to branch out from writing in canon and fitting Romy into my own world.

Who are your influences? What writers do you feel a particular affinity for? Are there writers whom we might be surprised to discover informed your work, but you feel have, despite appearances?

I was heavily influenced by the dark, modern fairytales of Angela Carter about the time that I was writing Queen of Diamonds and Threads. She had a really magical way with words—her prose was lyrical, sensual, and unbelievably rich. She was a huge inspiration, but later I moved away from her tone, firstly because I felt I was doing a poor imitation of her, secondly because it wasn’t really appropriate for the direction I wanted to move my fics in, and lastly because I was becoming self-conscious of my insane verbosity and wanted to pare down my prose. That’s something I’m still working on!

At some point during the writing of House of Cards, I finally got round to reading Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and I think it was Douglas Adams who convinced me to move away from Carter’s beautiful but too-flowery prose. I loved the way his narrative just sizzled. I’m bad at capturing that energy—but I do think that from HoC onwards, I’ve tried to learn to be more economical with my words—which is hard for a florid soul like mine. 

Threads—structurally at least—was influenced by Italo Calvino’s If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller, and later, by David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. 

Let’s say you can pair your fiction with other works of art—of all forms, films, paintings, music, etc.—as if you were pairing wines to foods. What other pieces of art might you say go along with yours?

Wow! OK—that’s hard. Threads I’d probably pair with Cloud Atlas (the book, not the film, which I haven’t yet watched). HoC—I don’t know that there’s any one thing I would pair it with, but you can bet a load of post-apocalyptic stuff was thrown into that stew, along with a bit of The Matrix and probably some Inception.

52 Pickup was influenced a lot by Asmus’s Gambit run, cos I really wanted to write a heist fic with Remy and Rogue rather than Remy and Joelle (who I freely admit kicked ass). But if I had to pair it with a piece of media, it’d be with the video game Remember Me, which dealt a lot with themes of how memories inform our identities, and the ethical concerns of having memories essentially become “documents” that are uploaded and shared digitally through the cloud.

This is a good segue to talk about high-low culture. We may not want to believe in a hierarchy of culture, but we can certainly talk about the differences between fanfiction and “regular fiction.” When you read fanfiction, do you approach it differently than you would regular fiction? Are your expectations for form, reading pleasure, or anything else different? If so, how so?

Interesting question! I don’t know whether I approach it differently per se, but I think that readers have different expectations of fanfic. Hopefully we all read “regular fiction” for the same reason we read fanfic—for pleasure. But I don’t think there’s really a binary between regular and fanfiction. I think both exist on a continuum. There is a lot of “regular fiction” (I prefer to call it “profic” or “professional fiction,” because I think that’s where the binary between the two exists) that is actually very close to fanfic, and vice versa. By that I mean that there is plenty of fanfic that is epic in scope, deals with serious themes, and might be considered “classics” if they weren’t fanfiction.

And there is also profic, like romance, that is more similar to fanfic in terms of the kind of functions that it serves. There is an illicit pleasure to reading romance—for example, it’s not the kind of thing you’d openly read in public! There’s a similarity between that and fanfic, and I think, as readers of fanfic, we anticipate some level of illicitness when we approach it—even if the illicitness is only in the format (i.e., it’s fanfiction!), not in the content.

Fun question: What role do you think explicit smut functions in a fic? How do you deal with smut in your work? There’s an interesting moment that’s not in HoC, in which you write about Gambit and Rogue’s first time having sex in his point of view. It’s a separate chapter that exists as its own entity on your fanfiction.net page. Notably, it is much more explicit than the scene in Rogue’s perspective. Can you talk a little bit about this decision?

Well, I do think that fanfic is a safe space for writers to explore their sexuality (and I think that’s a huge part of the reason why fic is looked down upon), and smut plays a significant role in that. And smut certainly plays a part in my own fics. HoC actually started out as a random smut scene that burgeoned into something far, far more. Generally, I do try to make the sex scenes have a purpose in the plot (’cos I’m kind of anal about plot structure!), but in the particular case of Slow Burn and the other HoC vignettes, those are more self-contained one-shots where I could explore things that I couldn’t explore in the main story. So I could indulge in the smut a bit more! And let’s be honest—Gambit’s dark sexuality makes it thrilling to write smut from his perspective—of course his “thoughts” are going to be more explicit! ;)

But I also think that it’s interesting to write their individual perspectives on their sexual encounters, because of that tension between their characters. Rogue is the quintessential virginal Southern Baptist gal who’s inexperienced; whereas Gambit is the sexually aggressive alpha male who’s probably never had a woman turn him down in his life. That makes for a very combustive love affair between the two, and makes it fun to write that love affair (and all the smut in-between) from both their points of view.

[djinmer4]

Heart to Heart (Misnamed Soulmates AU)

Amanda doesn’t know what’s up with Kurt right now but she wishes she’d never started dating him in the first place.  Despite the fact he broke up with her weeks ago, he seems to have taken an inordinate interest in her life.  First, it was helping her fill out all her college applications, then offering to chauffeur her to and from school then finally it was that disastrous blind date he arranged for her and Bobby when he decided to spy on them all evening.  Bobby had actually seemed pretty nice and possibly her type . . . except they’d pretty much both been rendered complete nervous wrecks by Kurt’s heavy-handed monitoring of their date.  Amanda considered giving Bobby another chance . . . after she figured out a way to get Kurt off her back.  This behavior was downright creepy.  He’d been less concerned about her when they were dating; in hindsight, half his mind had always been on Kitty Pryde the whole time.  Maybe she had turned him down and he was trying to get back into Amanda’s graces?  Well, fat chance of that happening.

Amanda had stayed late tonight, half to finish writing her application essay, half to have an excuse not to let Kurt drive her home.  She needed some time to think for herself and that wouldn’t happen in the car with his constant chatter.  Although that might not have been the best idea.

“Well, look who’s walkin’ alone at night.  The mutie-lover.”

God damn Duncan and his loser friends.  The jock had kept quiet about what had happened, but everyone in Bayville knew the former Homecoming King had somehow managed to lose his scholarship and been expelled from college.  He tried to play it off as him taking a gap year before transferring but rumor had it that whatever had happened had pretty much killed his prospects of joining any reputable institution.  Of course, there were plenty of others who’d gladly take an American All-Star even with a ruined reputation.  Whatever took Duncan, Amanda was going to avoid like the plague.

“If you must Duncan, you should know that Wagner and I broke up months ago.”

“Yeah, but everyone says he broke up with you, not the other way around.”  He circled her like a starving wolf.  “Not sure I wanna taint myself with the rat’s sloppy seconds, but you are easy on the eyes.  Let me-”

Amanda didn’t wait for him to finish talking.  She swung her bag to the side, cold-cocking one of them straight away.  Unfortunately, there were five of them and only one of her, so even getting one of them out didn’t improve her odds significantly.  Soon enough, they had her pinned down and were ripping her clothes off while Duncan unzipped his jeans.  Then suddenly he stopped, and the leer fell off his face.

“You feel that?  One good squeeze, and it’s all over for you Duncan.”  Amanda couldn’t tilt her head the right way to see but that sounded like Kitty Pryde.  “Now, unless the rest of you want to see him die, I suggest you all back off and leave.”  The ones holding her down didn’t seem inclined to follow but Kitty must have done something because Duncan ordered them to grab the downed guy and bring him to the hospital in a high-pitched squeal.  “They’re gone already!  Let the fuck go of my heart!”

Kitty stepped out from behind the blond.  “Bitch!”  He turned and tried to hit her but he just passed through her . . . and hit the tree instead.  There was the distinct cracking of bones breaking and Duncan howled.  Kitty didn’t seem at all sympathetic and she boxed him in the ears, knocking him out.  Then she came over to Amanda and held her hand out.  Gratefully, the black teenager took her hand and let her rival pull her up.

They walked in silence for a while before Amanda cleared her throat.  “I didn’t think the Professor allowed you to use your powers like that.”

“Yeah, well, the Professor’s not the one who’s walking into a warzone every day on his way to school.  As long as I don’t actually maim or kill anyone, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.  And if he does find out, it means he invaded my mind without my permission, making him a hypocrite.”

She side-eyed the younger girl.  “And you’re not worried about Duncan running off and turning his friends against you?”

“Duncan’s already gone and poisoned all of Bayville against us.  If the choice is between getting raped and killed today versus it happening sometime in the future, then I make the choice that will let me live a little longer.  I mean sure, if there were other people who’d get hurt if I didn’t back down right then, I’d reconsider.  But if I hadn’t done anything, all that would happen is you’d get hurt instead and I don’t think that’s the better option.”

“Thanks, then.”  There was a lull in the conversation then it was Kitty’s turn to break the silence.  “Hey, um, I don’t know if this would be your jam or not.  But if you like, I could give you some self-defense lessons.  I mean, I’m no Logan but wouldn’t you feel better if you had some way to defend yourself against jerks like that?”

Amanda was skeptical.  “Self-defense just for Duncan?” she asked dryly.

“Not just Duncan.  People like him.  Guys in general.  The police, maybe.”  And abruptly Amanda was reminded of the article one of her classmates had brought in that day for homework.  About the young black mother who had just been fatally shot in what should have been a routine speeding stop.

“You know,” her voice dropped to just above a whisper.  “Self-defense isn’t going to do much good against a bullet.”

“Unless you can phase through them or can move them with kinesis, mutant power isn’t much good against a bullet.  If Scott or Ms. Monroe get shot, they’d be in just as much trouble as a normal person.”  Kitty took a deep breath and braced herself.  “As Kurt pointed out, I can pass and walk away from all this any time I want to.  No one just looking at me can tell I’m a Jew or a mutant or even an X-Woman.  So the least I can do for people like you who don’t have that choice, I can teach you enough to get away or stall them so you can call for help.”

Amanda hated to admit it but it was surprisingly refreshing to hear someone like Kitty actually acknowledge her privilege.  Most white people seemed to think if they acted color-blind, it was enough.  “I accept.  First lesson this Saturday morning?”

The brunette groaned.  “Saturday afternoon, please!  I don’t want to get up early on the weekend if I don’t have to.”

Kitty was a good teacher if nothing else.  She hadn’t even made a fuss when Amanda had showed up in high heels and a miniskirt for the first lesson.  “Barefoot today and you’ll probably want your gym clothes next time.  But it’s good to practice in your every day wear too.”

Amanda had pulled out the ballet flats and sweats she’d packed.  She wasn’t an idiot after all.  But she did ask, “So, you’d be okay with me fighting like that?”

Kitty had answered dryly.  “It’s not like a bunch of gangbangers or white terrorists are going to wait for you to change clothes.  Work out clothes are good for learning basics and building up your stamina.  But you haven’t really learned anything until you can use it out in the real world and not just a dojo.”

“Do you think I should buy some mace?”

“Every woman should buy mace if possible.”  Amanda arched an eyebrow at that.  “Or else what?  It’s the woman’s fault if she ends up dead in a ditch?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.  Of course, it isn’t her fault.  But if we lived in a perfect world, neither of us would have to learn self-defense in the first place.  If you’re going to choose not to use a certain defense that’s fine but make sure it’s your decision and not something that other people force on you.”

“Does that apply to guns as well?”

“Oh, uh . . . “

Kitty and Amanda shared no classes in school.  Until Amanda had started dating Kurt, they hadn’t even known the other girl existed.  But honestly?  It was a relief to talk to someone she could relate with.  Both of them were from upper-middle-class families, were only children with no other relatives nearby (in age or location) and both came from marginalized communities (Kitty was Jewish and a mutant while, Amanda was black).  They didn’t share many interests (Kitty liked computer science and fashion while Amanda was more interested in history and literature) but it was such a relief to just vent to someone on occasion without having to explain why each little microaggression stung.  Sure, the other Insitutue kids got the big picture when someone tried to attack her physically or blatant slurs were muttered in their presence but most of them missed the whole cultural insensitivity or erasure that also occurred.  Kitty got it and could empathize with her.

The two of them had just finished up a session in the Danger Room and were cooling down, lying on the floor.  Kitty had done some of her techno-mojo and there was a beautiful starscape above their heads.  “Hey, can I ask you a favor?”

Kitty rolled over to look at Amanda.  “You can always ask.  Can’t always promise that I’ll do or follow what you want.”

“It’s about . . . “ the older girl hesitated for a second.  “It’s about Kurt.”  Kitty didn’t seem the least bit disturbed and gestured that she should go on.  “Do you think you could get him to back off a little?”

“What do you mean?”

“Kurt.  He was less involved with my life when we were dating than he is now.  It’s like I can’t do anything without him hovering over my shoulder.”

“I wondered why I was seeing less of him lately.”

“He didn’t talk about it to you?”

“I, um . . . “

Amanda ignored Kitty’s discomfort.  “You know, I should have realized from the very beginning, that it was always going to be you.”

“What makes you say that?”

“No, seriously.  Even our first date at the Sadie Hawkins dance, he spent the entire time staring at you until the dinosaurs showed up.”

“He did?  I didn’t even notice.”

“Yeah, you were talking to Lance.  To be fair, he did try to hide it but every time his mask slipped, he looked pretty devastated.”

“That jerk!  We’d agreed a month before then that he should try and get over me.”  Kitty frowned, her heart-shaped face and plush lips turning it into a little girl pout.  “Going on a date and spending the entire date staring at someone else doesn’t count as getting over anyone.”

“Hey, be nice,” admonished the black girl.  “He’d only had a month to try to come to terms and the Sadie Hawkins was probably like rubbing salt into the wound.  I don’t like the fact I was the rebound but I don’t think he meant to hurt me.”

“I don’t think Kurt really means to hurt anyone.  It’s just not him.  But he can be freakin’ insensitive at times.”

“I’m sure we all can be.”  A pause while the two of them digested that statement, reflecting on their own peccadilloes.  Amanda restarted the conversation.  “But no, really, could he stop?  Sometimes it’s helpful but the time he spied on my date with Bobby?  That was downright creepy.”

“Ugh, yeah, I’ll tell him that.  I think he’s trying to get you to forgive him but if he was spying on your date that goes a little too far.”

“I think I’d like to try again with Bobby, but only without the furry, blue chaperone.  Seriously, what was he thinking?  Why is he going so far anyway?”

Kitty shifted uncomfortably.  “That . . . might be my fault.”

“How so?”

“Well . . . I told him I didn’t want to date him until you’d forgiven him.”  Amanda sat up to look down at her teacher.

“Why’d you do something like that?”

“Because what he did was pretty terrible.  Because he should do something to make up for what he had done to you.  And finally, because it just wouldn’t feel right to start a relationship with him when you were still hurting from the break-up.  Wouldn’t feel clean.”

“You’re not . . .  you didn’t decide to help me to make up for what Kurt did, did you?”

Kitty narrowed crystal blue eyes at her.  “Of course not, that would be silly.  Kurt’s responsible for his own stupid actions.  I helped because a bunch of retarded jocks decided to attack you.”  She then reluctantly admitted.  “On the other hand, if I hadn’t known you through Kurt I might not have offered to teach you self-defense.  I would have escorted you home and that would have been the end of it.”

Amanda sat in silence for a few minutes while Kitty watched her.  “I forgive him,” she said abruptly.

“What?”

“I said, I forgive him.  I forgive Kurt for what he did to me.”

“You do?  But why?  He hasn’t really done anything to deserve forgiveness.”

“It’s not about what he’s done, it’s about the way I feel.  And I don’t want to think that our friendship is contingent on me being mad at him.  That would suck.”

“But-”

“You don’t think starting a relationship while I’m still upset is good.  Well, I don’t think the X-Men only becoming friends with me because one of their friends screwed up and the rest of them need to make amends for him is any better.  I want to think that our relationship is clean, that it’s based on liking each other and shared interests.  Not you just putting up a friendly facade to make me feel better.”

“I guess.  But are you sure about it?”

“Yes.”  The black girl nodded her head, first hesitantly then did it again with more certainty.  “I mean, I’m not going to forget what he’s done anytime soon.  But he can stop trying to make up for it or whatever he thinks he’s been doing the past few months.  You have my blessing or permission or whatever it is you need to start dating.”

“Thank you, Amanda.”

[navpike]

it’s that time of year yet again folks! time for me to round up the lot of everything i wrote this year and throw it at you all like a proud parent! this year i managed to publish 217,613 words across 22 fics, with an untold number more unpublished (some of which belong to an original novel i started at the beginning of the year, and an autobiography i dipped my toes into as well!) let’s dive in! 

(a ** denotes some personal favorites!)

DC FICS:

Time And Again (28303 words) [batfam, bg dickwally, jayroy, superbat]:

Dick Grayson comes to live with Bruce Wayne on a Tuesday afternoon when he’s nine years old. It’s a Tuesday like any other, so Bruce settles the boy in and leaves him in Alfred’s capable hands after dinner and heads out for patrol. Gotham’s underworld does not take a day off, and therefore Batman cannot either. Dick awakes in the middle of the night and Bruce isn’t there. Alfred calms Dick down and sits with him and assures him that Bruce would have been there if he could and Dick believes him. Alfred's words can only maintain that belief for so long. Or, the one where Bruce doesn't tell Dick that he's Batman at first and things spiral out of control until people start communicating like adults.

Gold-Plated (1279 words) [batfam]:

It starts like this. Dick follows Jason into the cave, shouting at his brother’s back, while Jason roughly tugs at the release for his helmet. “I mean, I know you’re not going to stop dealing with all of your problems by shooting at them, but could you at least have the decency to not do that while I’m around? Could you at least pretend you still follow some sort of-” “Shut up!” Jason roars, whipping around to hurl his helmet at Dick’s head.

**Every Fiber of My Being (21376 words) [dickwally, batfam, bg timkon]:

As much as Dick and his siblings have argued, Bruce has never budged on his "Keeping Secrets Policy". There's not a person alive outside of the family that knows the secret identity of any of the Bats. Not even Dick's boyfriend. Dick understands the need for some secrets, knows that keeping their identities safe keeps them and their loved ones safe, but when he takes up the cowl, team dynamics aren't the only things that begin to change.

Tremble, Tremor, Shake (2118 words) [batfam]:

Tim doesn’t answer. He lurches like he’s going to go for the toilet again, but he doesn’t quite make it, instead dry heaving once, twice and then slumping against the wall again. Dick thinks that’s the end of it. He’s wrong. Tim slumps against the wall and immediately starts seizing.

**My Brain Occasionally Malfunctions (2243 words) [batfam]:

Dick was shot in the head. Such a serious injury is not without consequence. In which Dick's gunshot wound causes him to develop epilepsy and Jason has some thoughts on the fact that Dick tried to hide it from them.

Teenagers (1280 words) [dickwally]:

Dick and Wally have just found out that their twins have abilities and Damian's been training the twins behind their backs. Looks like everyone's revealing a secret tonight.

**Sign Your Life Away (23927 words)[timkon, batfam, bg dickwally, batcat, clois]:

The Wayne family is a good one, well known, well off, charitable, likable, politically unaffiliated. So when a treaty with Krypton is hinging on an arranged marriage, the Wayne boys are some of the first they approach. Tim is very, very aware that the name right underneath 'Wayne' on the UN's list is 'Luthor'. He can't allow some poor stranger to be forcibly bound to Luthor for the rest of their lives. So when they ask him, he says yes, before he can stop to think if this is actually a good idea.

MARVEL FICS:

**Project: Light (54526 words) [stucky]:

When Steve and Sam finally track down the Winter Soldier, the last thing they’re expecting is to find Bucky with a girl who’s calling him ‘Dad’. Steve doesn’t quite know how to handle that. The others know how to handle it only marginally better. Or, how to win over children and influence monsters: how Bucky’s surprise daughter helps the Avengers help Bucky find himself again, and how he finds Steve again along the way.

Always So Certain You're Fine (2252 words) [gen]:

They're grieving, sure, but they have a war to win, still, and by some miracle, they do it. Or, the Infinity War fix-it that no one asked for.

Suffer in Silence (6416 words) [thundershield]:

Five times Steve Rogers was in pain, and one time he finally wasn't.

**A Hero, Like Spiderman and Better Hawkeye (4286 words) [gen]:

If pressed to answer how he’d gotten to the top of the Avengers’ list of preferred babysitters/dog watchers, Peter’s not too sure he’d know what to say. In which MJ, Ned and Kate Bishop get roped into helping Peter babysit/dog watch, and things spiral wildly out of hand in a Starbucks.

Unexpecting (1893 words) [thruce, valsif]:

When they find themselves largely alone on Earth, tasked with preserving Asgard’s history and her people and working with Earth’s governments to settle political issues, and it seems like battle in another form, Thor and Brunnhilde find themselves seeking comfort in each other. It is harmless, (mostly) innocent fun, until they find themselves staring down at a little indicator, telling them that Brunnhilde is pregnant. In which Thor, Brunnhilde, Bruce and Sif raise a child together, and grow a little themselves in the process.

**What the Desert Will Let Him (5471 words) [samsteve]:

There’s an itch at the back of Sam's mind, that tells him to stay in DC and he thinks maybe this has something to do with The Voice and why he was thrown ass over tea kettle back into this world when he desperately didn't want to come back. In which Sam dies with his wing-man, but something sends him back to live out the rest of his life, because he's not done. There are people who need him, even if he doesn't know it yet.

**Wake Up Calls (4379 words) [gen, bg stucky]:

Bucky Barnes wakes up in Wakanda, the first time, and the second, and the third and fourth and twenty-eighth and sixty-first... Shuri starts out as an ally, and becomes a friend, and then might as well be his kid sister. Bucky and Shuri's relationship told through a few wake-up calls.

Dead Men Walking (16629 words) [gen]:

They don't always show it, but they've each got their own demons to battle. Peter keeps happening upon these battles. OR a bunch of times that Peter was there for the Avengers in a moment of need, and one time they were all there for him.

LGBTQIA(vengers) (3656 words) [stucky, natpepper]:

Steve Rogers comes out on a Tuesday afternoon. By Wednesday morning, it's hit every major news outlet. Twitter has some opinions, and Pepper Potts is taking no prisoners.

**Impact (6087 words) [winterhawk]:

Clint Barton is not born with wings. He is not a mutant, though he doubts that would have helped his case. He is an ordinary boy, until he, one day, is very suddenly not. Or: the wingfic nobody asked for, in which Clint's wings have brought him nothing but trouble until one day, they suddenly don't.

Perfect Men and Other Crimes (2069 words) [stucky]:

Bucky Barnes knows that he is lucky. He still cannot help but feel decidedly unlucky when he hears the New York Police Department’s new policy on partnering regular cops with enhanced ones. Bucky doesn’t have anything against enhanced individuals. He really doesn’t. But he is still profoundly uncomfortable around people who could snap him like a twig. Detective Steven Grant Rogers is exactly that.

Same Monster (2610 words) [gen, bg thruce]:

After returning to Earth, Bruce goes to visit his cousin when a case brings her to New York City. It doesn't go as planned. Or, the one where Jennifer Walters becomes She-Hulk, Bruce feels guilty, and Thor is a good boyfriend.

HAWAII FIVE-0 FICS

Can't Help DNA (5146 words) [mcdanno]:

The first time that Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams meet, Danny Williams is not holding a weapon. He has his hands in fists and Steve’s skin is singing in that way it does whenever he’s around someone else with the SuperGene. Steve, for his part, is pointing a gun at Danny’s chest and screaming at him which probably isn’t helping the situation, but he’s not going to admit that. He’s shouting, and then Williams is shouting and they eventually get their IDs out without Steve shooting anyone and without Danny’s Gene flaring up. It’s a win in Steve’s book.

Situational Awareness (6461 words) [mcdanno]:

Steve McGarrett has a soulmark from the moment he’s born. He has a mark that his dad covers up when he’s a baby, an ugly black thing in the shape of knuckles splayed across his cheekbone. Danny Williams gets his mark a few months after he’s born. There’s a black smear across the back of his hand and down two fingers and Danny dreams of the day his soulmate will touch him for the first time and set the mark alight with color. Steve McGarrett grows up hating his soulmark, Danny Williams dreams of the day he'll meet his soulmate. Somehow, against all odds, they find each other.

Things Unseen (15206 words) [mcdanno, bg konocat]:

Steve's known almost his whole life that his anchor was going to be one of the Kelly-Kalakaua family, the only ones strong enough to tie him to the Seen when he needed to talk to a spirit. What he did not know was how important a cop from Jersey who doesn't believe in ghosts would end up being. In which Steve and Kono are peak mlm/wlw solidarity, Danny is a wreck, Chin is tired and there are some ghosts.

[antialiasis]

Be More Chill

Well, some people seemed game!

So Be More Chill is a musical, based (kind of loosely, as I understand it) on a YA novel by Ned Vizzini. It was originally staged in 2015, but its soundtrack and audio bootleg went on to be rediscovered by Tumblr a couple years later, amassed a disproportionately large fandom, and eventually the show got restaged and is now headed to Broadway next year. I listened to the soundtrack and audio bootleg after just generally getting curious with how much it was being talked about while I was obsessing over Groundhog Day. A bunch of the songs were very catchy, so I listened to the soundtrack a fair bit.

This musical is about a high school boy, Jeremy Heere, who is an unpopular loser at school but wishes he weren't. He has one best friend, Michael (and they're pretty cute and I friendship it), and they spend their time playing video games, smoking pot and looking forward to college, when guys like them will be cool (or, at least, that’s what Michael is trying to convince Jeremy of). One day, one of the school bullies, Rich, takes Jeremy aside and explains to him that he used to be a loser, too - but everything turned around when he got a "Squip". The Squip is an illegal super-advanced Japanese nanotechnology quantum supercomputer (surprise science fiction in this high school drama) in the form of a pill that implants itself in your brain and will communicate with you and instruct you on what to do to be cool. Despite his skepticism, Jeremy shells out $400 for a Squip of his own, which at first makes him supernaturally successful at social interactions but eventually, unsurprisingly, turns out to be evil and planning to implant Squips in the entire school.

This may be one of very few works of fiction that I actually like better when regarded as a metaphor for real-world issues than when taken literally. Usually, while I obviously acknowledge the presence of metaphor and am fine with stories that have a metaphorical layer to them, I'm just personally not very interested in fiction as metaphor. The main reason I care about fiction is because I care about the actual imaginary people being presented and their imaginary lives and thoughts and relationships and the imaginary worlds they live in; I don't particularly care about how it maps onto the real world. Part of the issue is also that I think very often fictional metaphors for real-world issues just aren't very good metaphors; a lot of the time they create false analogies that are misleading if you try to apply the logic of the story to the real-world issue. (For instance, the mutants in X-Men are a metaphor for marginalized groups such as the LGBTQ+ community - but because mutants have actual superpowers that often do literally make them a danger to others, the anti-mutant villains in X-Men kind of have a point, in a way that anti-LGBTQ+ people in the real world don't.) They might be great stories about grappling with serious issues in fascinating hypothetical scenarios, but these hypothetical scenarios tend to not actually be directly analogous to the real-world issues, and ultimately I just usually find the exploration of the hypothetical scenarios themselves more interesting than the kludgy effort to map the story's logic onto something in the real world that's similar but not quite the same.

On the literal level the plot of Be More Chill is pretty clichéd, the characters are fairly stereotypical, and there's nothing terribly compelling about evil supercomputers wanting to take over the world. I like Jeremy and Michael's friendship, and it's pretty funny, and a lot of the songs are great. But I found as I listened to the soundtrack repeatedly that I enjoyed it more if I pretty much just thought of it as a story about teenage insecurities, which I’m presuming is intended as the metaphor behind it. The Squip is unpleasant and mean-spirited from the start, breaking Jeremy down: Everything about you is so terrible, he sings; Everything about you makes me wanna die. Later, Jeremy repeats it after him, quiet, small, defeated: Everything about me is just terrible. Everything about me makes me wanna die. As an evil supercomputer, the Squip is kind of boring, obviously evil from the beginning and has boring evil takeover plans. But the Squip is really a metaphor for insecurity and self-loathing, that insidious voice in your head that tells you everything about you is terrible and nobody will like you unless you change who you are, and while that's nothing new or unprecedented, I think this musical does a nice job of portraying that voice as the toxic, abusive force that it is, maintaining it's just helping you and being realistic while systematically tearing you down in the most insidious way. It's obviously not a perfect analogy: the Squip can predict future happenings, it's a separate malicious entity with an agenda hard to analogize to any internal voice, and the entire thing about being able to drink Mountain Dew Red to turn it off obviously doesn't apply. But the inner voice that tells you Everything about you is so terrible? It's evil, and that should always have been a red flag, and maybe you shouldn't listen to any analogous voice either.

(Also, you can temporarily disable it with alcohol but that doesn’t solve anything in the long term, which does slot pretty nicely into the metaphor.)

At the end, Jeremy realizes the Squip is evil, reconciles with Michael and decides to be himself; in the final song of the show, he admits he's still got voices in his head, the voices of everyone around him telling him what to do, and even the voice of the Squip is still there despite the Squip having been deactivated (because self-doubt never entirely goes away)... but now, Of the voices in my head, the loudest one is mine. Being able to ignore the still-lurking Squip is fine, I guess, but there's a lot more poignancy to that line when it's about the sorts of voices that are in everyone's heads, the looming expectations and doubts and self-criticism, which should always be drowned out by the voice that is simply you, your own will and beliefs and feelings.

(It's definitely to some extent just the bit about how I'm not that interested in the sci-fi hypothetical part here, though.)

[scarletwitching]

On Not Being Trendy or Hip Or Diverse Enough

This is the first part in a series of posts where I examine the ways Wanda is typical and atypical of the superhero genre. This post is a repurposed outtake from another part of this series. That post is taking way too long (and has transformed into an Erik Killmonger think piece), and I realized that this section works well as an introduction to the series as a whole. At the very least, it gives me something to publish while I'm still working on the other one. All the other metas from this series (when I post some more) can be found in this tag.

Wanda has a recurring problem: she doesn't fit the times. In the letter columns of the 90's, you'll find comments saying she wasn't "trendy or hip" enough. Wanda is a decidedly Silver Age character, and the 90's was the era of pouches and muscles and x-treme edge. It was a time for Bloodstrike and Cable and Settlers of Catan.

The post-9/11 period saw more militarized superheroes. Suddenly, everything was SHIELD. If a story wasn't about the ethics of invading other countries, it was about the Patriot Act. Wanda didn't fit in there either. It's hard to imagine her in jackboots and stealth apparel, on a secret mission to further destabilize the Middle East. She's too weird, too powerful, too far removed from gritty realism.

The trend in reimaginings (both official and fan-made) has been to position her as a radical leftist, usually of the Mutant Rights variety. This makes more sense than Wanda Maximoff: Agent of SHIELD, but it has issues. At some point, Wanda should transition into the role of hero. How do you handle that when she stands in opposition to the heroes ideologically? Do you erase those ideological convictions? Do you frame her heel-face turn as a purely pragmatic decision? No one has managed to navigate the transition well. Wolverine and the X-Men might have done it, but it got cancelled.

Recently, Marvel comics have been focused on diversity, both in terms of characters and the kinds of books they publish. There is a certain cynical reading of Marvel's push for more diverse characters (I.e., that Disney is using Marvel as an IP factory and wants new characters to use in the MCU) that I more or less agree with, but it is also part of a broader cultural trend towards more representation. This would be happening on some level even if The Mouse wasn't looking for a new Iron Man.

You would think Wanda would be well-suited to the era of diversity. She's a woman and a minority. She lends herself to the kind of experimentation with the genre that Marvel has been embracing. There's a problem: Wanda's not the right kind of "diverse."

This argument goes back a long way. There's a storyline in Avengers volume 3 where the Avengers are being criticized for their lack of diversity. Wanda was on the team at the time, and one of the anti-Avengers protesters had this sign:

Avengers Vol. 3 #24

No, your eyes do not deceive you. The words that are partially obscured say, "Aren't Enough."

There’s a lot to unpack here.

The point this panel is trying to make is not simply that having one Romani character doesn't make a team diverse. It's that the Romani don't qualify as "diverse" in the first place. At least not in the USA-centered context of superhero comics. This is partly caused by ignorance and partly caused by the limitations of American racial discourse. It results in an environment where the way people talk about the Romani, when they bother to talk about them at all, is so. fucking. weird. Not just terrible (though it is that), but strange. Like they're space aliens or something. To the point where “(marginalized ethnic group) is not enough” seems, to some, like a valid way to make the case for including other marginalized ethnic groups. “They don’t count. Give us a real minority.”

Everything must be viewed from the same American perspective that has continually erased the Romani from existence. Wanda can never be elevated to the level of "diverse character" because Marvel is not going to get credit from the general American public for including her. Romani characters don't get you articles in USA Today and so they have no value in the world of corporate-driven diversity. This kind of ignorance is cultural. It isn't limited to comics fandom, and it isn't going away because I wrote this essay.

There's a sorta similar situation with Ashkenazi Jews. They only count as "diverse" when it's in the context of a list. For example, "this team has a Latinx character, a lesbian character, a Jewish character, etc." Is acceptable. But one Jewish character on their own? Ehhhhhhhhhh, maybe not.

It’s not that increased attempts at representing minority groups are bad, even in the context of giant multimedia companies. It’s that those initiatives can be self-serving and often leave out whole groups of people.

People seem to be confused by the very idea that Romani people should be included in the discussion about representation. When they are discussed, it's not about them as a group and their concerns. It's about a laser focus on one of two characters: Wanda or Dick Grayson. Doctor Doom is not a part of this. Most of the time, Quicksilver is not a part of it, even though he's Wanda's brother.

The focus on individual characters transforms this from an issue of representation to a question of characterization, how this or that character should be handled. This is how progressive voices in the comics community (like the now defunct Comics Alliance) can act like Romani representation doesn't matter. Because it's about Wanda and we don't really care for Wanda now do we?

The problem of Romani representation cannot begin and end with Wanda Maximoff: Controversial Character.

This is what RomaPop has been trying to explain to people. This is not about one or two fictional characters. It's not about whether or not you think Wanda "deserves better." She doesn't deserve anything. She doesn't exist. Actual, flesh and blood Romani people are who matter. They are the ones who deserve better. Yes, Wanda is a part of that because she's one of the most famous Romani characters and she gets subjected to every terrible trope imaginable. That Marvel, while claiming to be invested in better representation, has no problem treating her so poorly is a symptom of the erasure of the Romani from the greater discourse. It can't be the only way we think about that problem because 1) that's a kind of erasure in and of itself and 2) then it becomes about whether or not people care enough about Wanda to get mad.

And most of the established, think piece-writing comics journalists don't. In fact, some of them won't shut up about how much they hate her. Not that I have a list of names or anything. There's a view – and this is another reason Wanda doesn't get to be a "diverse character" -- that Wanda is the wrong kind of female character. She isn't Empowering the Kids the way that Carol Danvers is. Even the ones who don't like Carol admit she's a positive character, but they can't figure out what in Wanda's history (which is full of struggles -- with racism and abuse and trauma -- and perseverance and complexity) is worth caring about. She's just not a positive role model. This isn't the fault of writers (the real human beings in charge of her actions). It isn't the fault of editors who only ever assign white male writers to write her. It's Wanda's fault for being a bad character.  

When that's the tone of the argument, it's no mystery why we can't get these people to relate the problems with how Wanda is written to greater issues of representation.

[bigskydreaming]

You will never catch me saying a single positive thing about some ‘progressive move’ Marvel editorial makes in an X-Men comic until every single decision maker of the past ten years is out of those offices.

Individual writers, yes. Editorial, the ones handing down the creative mandates? Hell no.

This means Northstar and Kyle’s wedding, Bobby, Rictor and Shatterstar’s outings, Storm’s solo series, etc, etc.

Because Marvel editorial does not actually give a single fuck about any of the messages embodied by the X-Franchise, and spent the last ten years proving it.

Marvel as a company was happy to profit off the X-Men movies after they sold the rights to save themselves from bankruptcy. But from the second Iron Man became a success and the movies they churned out featuring characters they still had all the rights to started making profits they got to keep fully, they actively torpedoed the X-Men franchise both in the comics and outside of them. Because now the X-Men were technically competition, at least in the arena of movies, which is where the real money was being made.

Like, it seriously pains me to remember how HUGE X-Men fandom was in the eighties, nineties and early 2000s. Across the comics, various cartoons and the movies, X-Men was one of THE biggest fandoms, back when the fandom juggernauts of today like SPN, HP and the like were still wee baby fandoms. 

And Marvel actively, deliberately killed it. Because they didn’t want people focusing on X-Men characters and reading X-Men stories and buying X-Men action figures instead of Avengers ones. It’s why they made no effort to resolve the issues blocking Wolverine & the X-Men from getting a second season. Even though the first season got ratings that more than justified a followup that would be guaranteed to be profitable for them. And why there hasn’t been another X-Men cartoon since. Even though Marvel always held the rights to make more cartoons while Fox held the movie rights.

It’s why Marvel editorial set out to do House of M and Decimation...those storylines aimed at essentially ending the possibility of new mutant characters were created specifically to do that. They literally did not want new mutant characters that might end up being breakout hits that fans wanted more of in place of more Iron Man, Captain America or Avengers-related properties like Young Avengers. Quesada, the EIC at the time, said it was because writers were getting too lazy with their origin stories as long as they had the concept of mutants to fall back on. All they had to do with a new character was say ‘oh they’re a mutant’ instead of coming up with a unique angle for where they got their powers.

Except then Marvel turned around and reconfigured Inhumans into the new mutants, tweaking their decades old concept to make it so suddenly there was no limit to how many new Inhumans could be created, unlike the limit they’d imposed on new mutant characters. And suddenly you had dozens of new characters with electricity powers and flight and super strength and shapeshifting and who looked no different in any meaningful way from any new mutant character introduced ten, fifteen years prior...except now, all of those dozens of new characters ‘unique angle for where they got their powers’ was oh, they’re Inhumans instead of oh they’re mutants. 

And it wasn’t even like Marvel made Inhumans the new mutants because they had active, important plans to incorporate their concept into their live action universe....again, it LITERALLY was done simply to make the X-Men franchise less necessary. They pushed the Inhumans movie back year by year by year until finally scrapping it altogether, and put barely any effort into the TV show they made of it instead. The only evidence of Inhumans in the MCU is still just in Agents of SHIELD, the show they barely do any promo for and honestly don’t care all that much about. The Inhumans’ sole purpose over the past ten years has basically just been to be an alternative to mutants, should anyone want one....not even BECAUSE the MCU actually wanted one.

And then you had shitty events like Avengers vs X-Men where it was never in question that it was going to be at the X-Franchise’s expense. And in the aftermath of that, they claimed to be making a big push to incorporate the X-Men more into the Marvel universe, do stories showing that the other heroes cared about mutant issues.....all by folding the X-Men into Avengers titles. Books like Uncanny Avengers were launched, with X-Men on lineups with Avengers and calling themselves Avengers....but no new X-books were launched with Avengers in their stories. Because that was never the point. The point was that it basically got X-readers who didn’t give a shit about Avengers comics to pick up Avenger titles in order to read about Storm and Rogue and other favorites....without marketing having to acknowledge the X-brand label in any actual way. Literally just to use X-characters to sell Avengers books, without actually doing anything for the X-franchise.

Not to mention the way the X-franchise’s direction has dramatically shifted every one, two years over the past decade, with no clear oversight or shepherding of it....because it basically became the place for writers to do whatever the hell they wanted, because Marvel as a company DID NOT CARE what happened with the X-books. All the terribly thought out storylines to appear in X-titles of the last decade happened because pretty much any pet project a writer Marvel valued wanted to try out got the green light for them to do in the X-books, because they didn’t have anything they wanted out of the X-brand, other than for it to not siphon fans away from their preferred properties. So you had things going one way one year and then pull a complete 180 the next year when a hot new writer at Marvel wanted to do something completely different. 

Not to mention the way Marvel’s consistently funneled their low-selling writers into writing X-books, except for when high profile writers wanted on an X-title. The X-books became a testing ground for new and unproven writers, which occasionally did result in some good stories, yes, but I don’t really think Marvel deserves props for the efforts of those writers when they only got to do those stories because Marvel didn’t actually care. 

And the most obnoxious thing about all of this is....they were still making money off the X-Men the whole time. From their comics, from repeated viewings of their older cartoons, from toy sales, etc. The X-Men have continued to turn a profit for Marvel even as Marvel actively drove them into the ground....because as long as it wasn’t ever going to be AS MUCH profit as Marvel could make off the movies of characters they had all the rights to....they didn’t want the X-Men ever even potentially overshadowing the Avengers in current readers’ eyes.

So it honestly pains me to see Marvel given any credit whatsoever for various progressive moves they’ve made with X-characters over the past decade. Because while all companies are in it to make money and I don’t expect otherwise, I can’t think of any other occasion where I’ve so clearly watched a company spit on one of its most profitable and iconic properties and all its fans, for the crime of....making money. They literally crashed and burned the franchise with full knowledge of what they were doing, and actively drove away one of the biggest fandoms out there, turning it into a wasteland compared to what it was, because the well established success and visibility of the X-franchise and fandom was in their eyes a threat to the MCU franchise and fandom they were trying to cultivate instead.

And given that on a meta level, the X-Franchise has always appealed more than most to readers from marginalized communities because of the allegories inherent in its core concept....its honestly kinda insulting whenever I’d see mainstream headlines and news stories giving Marvel editorial kudos for a high-profile gay wedding or making a founding X-Man gay or other well-received moves over the last decade....knowing full well how little regard they actually have for the readers those moves mean so much to, given that pretty much every other decision they make around it is meant to keep the X-Franchise from overtaking the Avengers in popularity again.

Like, don’t get me wrong because Bobby Drake has been one of my three favorite superheroes of all time for most of my life, in part BECAUSE I always read him as gay or bi.....so I love love LOVE that he’s officially a mlm in canon and has gotten his own solo series. But at the same time, its obnoxious as hell to be aware that people have been speculating about his sexuality for decades and making references in canon even, and outing him only actually happened BECAUSE he’s an X-character. You notice that for all the positive praise Northstar’s wedding and Bobby’s coming out garnered Marvel, they haven’t been in any rush to make a high profile Avenger gay, have they? Like....yes, the X-franchise has always been the franchise to make social commentary in, but that doesn’t mean that’s the only reason big creative alterations like making one of the oldest Marvel characters gay was only happening in the franchise Marvel didn’t give a fuck about.

So it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the comics now that the X-Men movie rights are back with Marvel and under the Disney umbrella. And I do hope and think that means the comic books will start to get a more cohesive direction again with the X-Men taking more pivotal roles in the comics and getting higher profile treatment again.

But fuck ever giving any of the current Marvel editorial staff credit or recognition for any progressive stories in the X-books. Because they very much do not care about the concept of the X-Men or the messages the X-Franchise is capable of sending with its stories. You can’t dedicate ten years to actively minimizing the franchise that means so much to marginalized readers and still claim to actually give a crap about any of the representation that franchise provides for those readers. Like, lol, you just can’t. 

[stereogeekspodcast]

[Transcript] Season 1, Episode 16. We've Been Busy With... HoX/PoX, Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts, Snapdragon, and more

We've been busy listening to podcasts, reading comics, and watching shows. Ron's enjoyed The Good, the Bad, the Basic podcast, when she isn't marathon-watching Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts, and reading the delightful graphic novel, Snapdragon. Mon's been reading X-Men: House of X/ Powers of X and Avengers comics about Scarlet Witch and Vision in the run-up to WandaVision. And we've been enjoying Netflix's Best Leftovers Ever.

Here are the books Mon's been reading for WandaVision, if you want to check them out.

1. Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch

2. Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch: A Year in the Life

3. Avengers: Disassembled

4. House of M

Listen to the episode on Anchor.

[Continuum by Audionautix plays]

Ron: Hello and welcome to another episode of Stereo Geeks, where we’re talking about what we’ve been busy with this month. I’m Ron.

Mon: And I’m Mon.

Ron: We’ve been listening to podcasts, reading comic books, catching up on animated TV shows, as well as some food-related programs.

Mon: Let's kick off with something that you've been listening to.

Ron: I'm always on the lookout for a new podcast and I'm always excited when I find one that I just can't stop listening to—The Good, the Bad, the Basic, a podcast for millennials by millennials. This podcast, hosted by Alex and Em, does weekly deep dives into the most popular TV shows of our time. But what made these shows so special, and so memorable that we're still talking about them, years later? Alex and Em tackle shows like Mad Men, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The OC, Dawson's Creek, and examine how they changed the pop culture landscape, so much so that we're still seeing repercussions even now.

I love me a good podcast with lots of conversation, and that's exactly what I get with Alex and Em. The Good, the Bad, the Basic is kind of like a grading podcast, but the way they give context to everything that they're talking about, that's what makes it so fun. And I just could not stop listening to these episodes.

And when I'm talking about deep dives, they really do deep dives. Some of the episodes continue on for an hour, maybe more, and are broken up into two or three installments. That's a lot of information, but then, we’re talking about shows that went on for seven-eight seasons. So, there's a lot to cover.

What makes The Good, the Bad, the Basic such an engrossing podcast is that most of the shows that they're talking about, everybody loves them. But I never really felt the need to watch them. Now, I can listen to what Alex and Em have to say about it and feel informed without actually having to sift through endless seasons of something that I know I'm not going to enjoy. Mad Men, for example, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals. These are shows that have become part of the cultural Zeitgeist, but I just don't want to watch them. Now I know exactly what people love about them and why some people have a lot of issues with them.

I like how Alex and Em give a lot of context to what is happening in the shows. It's not just the fact that these shows were enjoyable for fans. It's more about when and how they were released, and what made them stand out amongst all the other entertainment that was available. The thing is, for us, coming from India, a lot of these cultural references passed us by. Things were different for us at the other end of the world. So, these were just TV shows, but here, they were phenomena. It's great to find out how that came to be and the effects it had on the cultural landscape, especially in entertainment.

If you're looking for a podcast that's interesting, fun, sometimes sarcastic, but very, very honest about what makes pop culture memorable, but also sometimes problematic, The Good, the Bad, the Basic is definitely for you. What have you been up to, Mon?

Mon: Well, we recently rejoined our comic book club, which is now taking place completely online. And the book to reel us back in was HoX/ PoX, House of X, and Powers of X, by Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, and RB Silva. Now, this is basically the X-Men rebooted, because they had really gone out of control in the comic universe. And every time it seemed like the Marvel editors had found a way to reel them in, they didn't. So, Jonathan Hickman had a plan, and the plan was HoX/ PoX.

I have to say, it is compelling! Because it's such a different tone from what we're used to with the X-Men universe, and it is a nice jumping-on point because for far too long the X-Men universe has been impenetrable, like the Krakoan wall. But with this book, you feel like, yes, I know these characters. They’re in a completely different world and thought process, but at least I can get back in there.

It's tough to really understand whether I like this book or not, because, as much as I like being with these characters, they just don't feel like the X-Men. There’s something so dark and sinister about everything that's happening. It just doesn't feel right. What about you? What did you think about this book?

Ron: I agree that it was nice to actually read an X-Men book and understand where I was. It's been a really long time since I felt that way. The moment we left the X-Men a few years ago, that was it, there was no way back in. I’m glad, in a way, that we've got HoX/ PoX because otherwise we wouldn't be able to reconnect with these characters, and we really do love the X-Men. I don't like the fact that the X-Men come across as untrustworthy in this book. For me, these characters look familiar; they don't feel familiar. And that made me really uncomfortable.

And the other issue that I had with it was that the X-Men has always stood for marginalized communities, but this book seemed to be ignoring the actual marginalized X-Men. So, Storm hardly has anything to do in this book. We get to see, what, one glimpse of Iceman? it's very straight, white, male and I thought we were well past that.

Mon: Yeah, I think one of the things that most of us have realized with the X-Men comics is that as much as they want to represent marginalized community experiences, they don't seem to want to represent marginalized communities. Story-wise, I felt like there was a very distinct divide between HoX and PoX. With the House of X, you really get to know how Professor X is trying to build this safe space for the mutants within the Krakoan landscape. With the Powers of X, it seemed to be all over the place, with different timelines and trying to explain to us how they all fit in, why it's important for us to know these things, and who the central figure is who ties all these timelines together. But I felt like there was more cohesion within the House of X story, and not with Powers of X, which was trying to build this immersive, expansive world, but kinda constantly got lost in it.

Ron: I didn't feel like there was a huge disconnect between the two books. In fact, I couldn't actually tell the difference. But yes, I found myself drawn towards the X-Men’s present storyline, whereas the future storylines or the alternate storylines, I found them to be rather dull. They didn't add anything to the story as a whole. And I felt like I had to wait till the very end of the book to realize why they were relevant. So that kind of took away my enjoyment of reading the book because, honestly, I don't care about these random characters from the future. I care about the X-Men now.

Mon: Yeah, I completely agree with you on that. The art, though, really brings the book alive, doesn't it?

Ron: Pepe Larraz and RB Silva’s art is exactly how I see the X-Men in my head.

Mon: And the colors by Marte Gracia, so spectacular, it was popping off the page. What I feel with this book is that it is exactly what you need to get back into the X-Men universe, but I don't think it's a perfect introduction.

Ron: I think it tries too hard. But at the end of it, you do want more. I see myself picking up the new X-Men series so that I can see what they're doing.

Mon: Yep. Can't wait to get into it.

Ron: If you heard our Detective Mode episode this month, you'll know that animated TV shows and films have definitely become a source of comfort for us during the pandemic. One animated show that I've heard a lot about and finally caught up with this month was Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts. This was such a fun show! I started with the first episode and I ended up watching all 30! No regrets. That was a really good weekend for me. The show follows Kipo Oak, a teenage girl who has spent her entire life living underground. When an earthquake damages her home, she finds herself above ground for the first time, and there are people up here—very interesting people, very strange people, and very large beasts. Kipo makes new friends, shares her knowledge, expands her skill sets, and ends up making a whole new kind of family. This is a very, very fun show. It is so colorful. The music is so good. I just could not stop watching it.

Mon: I started watching it after you wouldn't stop talking about it. And I have to say, it is a delight. The characters are so vivacious, especially Kipo, you cannot take your eyes off the screen because she is just so full of energy and life. And she has this really positive outlook, even though her circumstances should really get her down. But she doesn't. And one of the things that everybody loves about most of these pop culture properties is found-families. Kipo can't connect with her own family because she’s stuck above ground and she doesn't know where they are, so she finds a new family with her friends. Yes, it's a bit difficult for them to all be on board with each other, they don't trust each other, they don't understand each other, but in the end, they're all trying to fight the same fight and reach the same goals.

Ron: And the one thing I love about these new TV shows for basically, young adults and children—they are so diverse.

Mon: And effortlessly so.

Ron: Our protagonist Kipo is half black and half Asian. First up, it's really good to see biracial characters who aren't half white. And also, Kipo has a connection with both her heritages, and that's really great to see. There are queer characters, queer storylines and there's a plethora of intersectionally diverse characters here that makes the show so reflective of our society as it is now, and so much fun to watch. If you're looking for a light, but energetic and very colorful TV show to watch, you could not do worse than people.

Mon: Sticking with Netflix, we have Best Leftovers Ever. If it's not obvious yet, Ron and I happen to love watching food programs and Best Leftovers Ever sounded like something which was slightly different from the usual. The competitors are given leftover dishes which they need to transform into delectable, fancy meals. This is quite different from the usual fair. They don't have a giant pantry; they don't have the best ingredients to work with. It's actually the worst of the worst, but the premise of the show is basically to make people understand that what they've got in front of them, including leftovers. can be turned into something quite special.

Sometimes you can tell that this show is not as polished as the others, because there are times when you're listening to the judges, and there's so much noise in the background that you can't actually hear. The same thing with some of the contestants. For some reason they didn't ADR that or they didn't use a different mic. So that's a little bit distracting.

I will say that whatever we see on-screen seems to suggest that there's a lot less waste, because the contestants are given very limited leftovers to work with. And given that those are the only ingredients they can use, it's not like they can chuck a whole bunch of food if something goes wrong, which is a huge departure from the usual shows where it's like, oh we forgot to put some salt, let's just dump it in the trash. I quite enjoyed it. It is a lot of fun. It’s definitely got the most diverse cast of competitors from all the cooking shows that we've seen so far.

I just think that they have these rules that they don't always follow through. Like, they reiterate in every episode that you should use as many leftovers as you can, but nobody really gets penalized for it. The judges are also really lenient with the competitors. I mean, there's an episode where the judges pretty much eat three different kinds of raw egg, because none of the contestants cooked it properly. That should be an immediate fail, but somehow, that isn't.

Aside from that, the gimmick for ‘Takeout Takedown’? I just don't know. I feel like there's so much work put in to adorn this fridge, according to some kind of theme that we can't see. Us, as the audience, will get one glimpse of some pictures on the fridge or some magnets and that's it. So have they done so much hard work?

Also, with the set—I do love the judge's table, which is three takeaway boxes. It's so cute. But the rest of it? Why is there a giant milk carton there? I don't get it. I feel like they've done a lot of hard work but it's really lost in the execution. And the main host, while she’s great and fun, I just don't get why she keeps singing at the end of each episode. I understand that it may be her schtick but it is just so uncomfortable to watch. So yeah, there's a lot of gimmicks in this series. It is a cute little watch, but I think it needs to be pared down. Lots of editing.

Ron: I agree with all of those points. I do love the set. I love the huge Chinese takeaway box, but it's just there for them to stand in while the final judging is taking place. I feel that there's plenty of room for adding interactive elements, they just haven't done it yet. I'd like to know whether this was actually shot during the pandemic because it seems like we've got a kind of pared down version of whatever they were actually hoping for. But it's fun, nonetheless.

And I do like the diversity of the competitors. And I feel like the technical aspect of how they're transforming the meals was probably the best part of each episode. I do think that they could tone down some of the conversations. We don't need that much sound. We really just want to watch them make the food.

Mon: Yeah, I hope there's another season coming up.

Ron: Though, I am surprised that we need to be talking about not throwing leftovers away. Is that a thing?

Mon: Apparently it is, since this concept is there.

Ron: I'm shocked!

Ron: We've also been participating in our local library’s reading challenge for the year. There are lots of different categories and some of them are driving me a little bit nuts. But one category that I'm glad to say I've managed to complete was ‘somebody else's favorite book’. And I think I may have just found my favorite book. One of our librarians suggested Snapdragon by Kat Leyh. I thought, why not give it a shot? I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this graphic novel, but what I got was some of the best writing I have seen this year.

Snapdragon follows a youngish teenager, the titular Snapdragon. She's looking for the witch in her town, but the witch turns out to be quite different from what she expects. And eventually she starts working with the witch, and it opens up a whole new world for her from the past, the present, and the future. Snapdragon learns so much about herself, her family, and about people in general.

This book is sweet. It is delightfully sweet. It made me smile, and kind of gave me the warm and fuzzies. There were some really emotional moments, as well, which I felt really deeply, but it just made the sweet moments even more powerful. There are queer characters; there's lots of diversity. This is the kind of book that I'm glad I'm getting to read now, but man, I would have killed to have got this book when I was a kid. It was really, really good.

If you can get your hands on it, and it is available in libraries, do read it. It was such a good, warm, full-hearted read.

Mon: Now I can't wait to read that!

Mon: So, like every other comic book fan on the planet, we are diligently watching WandaVision. So, in preparation for this show, I decided to deep dive into some Vision and Scarlet Witch comics.

Here's what I've been reading in the run up to WandaVision. Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch: A Year in the Life, Avengers: Disassembled and House of M.

These are all varied takes on these two characters. The first two Avengers collections are from the 80s. So, the writing is very different from what you will be used to in the comics that you read now.

As you can imagine, back in the 80s, it was very copy heavy, because the text would be describing the world, it would be describing the thoughts of the characters. Half the time the dialogue was the action that the character was taking, instead of leaving it to the reader's imagination. We also have to take into account that even in the 80s, the medium of comics as a storytelling tool was quite different, which is why the approach to how you told the story was very verbose.

So, going into Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch, and Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch: A Year in the Life, take into account that there is a lot of turgid writing that you have to go through. It is a slog. Also, there are a lot of asides and subplots to do with other characters which are atrocious. Oh my god, especially Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch. It's an experience.

A lot of the first part of the book has to deal with Mantis and Moondragon and their history of becoming these magical creatures. And the only reason they're in here is because at one point Mantis was making moves on Vision, and that's when he realized that there was only one woman in this world for him, that was the Scarlet Witch. That one moment—which is, by the way not in this book, it is just alluded to in this book—that is the reason why Mantis is playing such a huge role in these pages. And you're like, ‘why?’ I'd rather just read about Vision and Scarlet Witch, but no. It's a lot to take in and it becomes so obvious that the writers are desperately trying to pad up the page count by putting in all these other subplots.

When you read these two collections back-to-back, you actually won't see much of a difference in the art style, but the writing, definitely. Bill Mantlo, who wrote the first collection, and Steve Englehart, who wrote the second one, have completely different approaches to the two characters.

Essentially, both books are about the love story between Vision and Scarlet Witch. It’s very cute. They are so besotted with each other and they really see each other as human beings—as people—whereas everybody else looks at them like oddities.

Vision being a synthezoid and having a mechanical voice, he just never seems to fit in. Scarlet Witch, for loving Vision and being a magical mutant, also doesn't fit in, but they've found each other, and they stick by each other. And it's adorable. It really is adorable.

With Bill Mantlo’s work, it's very action heavy. With Steve Englehart he purposely wanted to make a domestic drama. He decided to move away from the regular themes of bigotry that was a part of X-Men comics. He seemed to want to write more of an optimistic vibe. But also, he really wanted to delve into the domestic life of Scarlet Witch and Vision. And honestly, a A Year in the Life is so much better for it.

The soap opera part really works. Like, I dig it! I'm not even joking, I'm not the kind of person who is into soap operas, but it really worked in this book. In fact, every time they moved away and there was some action, I was like ‘no, please!’, because the domestic drama is so compelling.

And it's within this universe where people are married to Inhumans who live on the moon. People believe that some superhero is their father, turns out he isn't. In fact, their father is a supervillain. One man seems to find not only a brother, but he finds a mother, and he has another brother who is trying to kill him. It's amazing. It is really a lot of fun.

Just keep in mind that when you're using these older books, Scarlet Witch doesn't do very much. She has minimal page time. She's a damsel in distress a lot, but A Year in the Life has these moments where she will suddenly use her powers to save the day, and it’s great.

And in A Year in the Life, along with all this other soap opera drama, Vision and Scarlet Witch not only get married but they also decided to start a family. And it delves into how their life revolves around this new change.

You know what I like about it? They’re so happy to be starting a family. It's not like there's a lot of strife or ‘oh my god!’. No, none of that. Vision is really happy. Scarlet Witch is really excited. It’s really cute.

So imagine going from all this lovey-dovey drama on to Avengers: Disassembled, which is all action, all pessimism, all darkness and bleakness. Let's just think about the title—Avengers: Disassembled. Just ponder that for a second.

So, this book and House of M are both written by Brian Michael Bendis. I read them in the wrong order, which, in a way, did me a favor because House of M is not half as accomplished as Disassembled.

For the most part, Disassembled seemed to be just action. The Avengers are having the worst day of their lives—every possible bad guy seems to have returned from the dead, or has come back in droves. They are being kicked when they are down and then kicked again. What is going on? They do not know, they do not understand. And then suddenly the ball drops, and they cannot believe what is happening to them and who's behind it all.

Somehow, this book gets these weird emotional beats so right. I was just gobsmacked. There is this one character death that is less than a page, but it really made me stop. It t actually made me wonder why more comics don't have this kind of heft when creating these game changing moments. But I won't get into too much, don't want to spoil it for you in case you haven't read it.

This book precedes House of M. That deals with the fallout of what has occurred within this timeline. The concept of House of M is brilliant. Reading it so many years later, I can really get behind what they were trying to do. The execution, on the other hand, is very flawed.

When you have a character like Scarlet Witch, who can wield so much power, and you insist on making her emotionally unstable, mentally unstable and really under the thumb of either her brother, or her father, it doesn't make for the best kind of read.

The moment people try and examine alternate realities, or fantasy worlds, it has to make some modicum of sense. It needs to be plausible.

I feel like with X-Men comics, this is often an issue. There was a time when X-Men: Age of Apocalypse took place—and I’m not saying that was the most accomplished book in the world—but I can imagine what it was like to go straight from reading your X-Men, and then the very next issue, they are unrecognizable versions of themselves.

There have been so many attempts after that, to create a world which is about the X-Men, but not placed in this world. It is a fantasy, it is somebody else’s version of perfection, of reaching the ideal goal, and House of M really tries hard to create this alternate, fantasy world, but it's so silly that it doesn't make sense.

And the best part of this book takes place in the last part of the last act, and that's it. It ends. So, to find out the replications of what happened here, you need to go and find yet another collection. It’s a bit frustrating.

Ron: But the question is, has it given you a better understanding of what we can expect in WandaVision.

Mon: I feel like there are a lot of elements of these books, and probably a whole load of other books, which are informing how WandaVision is creating its own world. What I will say is that it seems like the creators of WandaVision are doing their best not to fall into the trap of recreating any of these, especially not House of M. What I like about comic book adaptations, especially the ones that we've had in the MCU, they've taken these comics, they've taken the central concepts and premises of these properties that we love, and really run with it and made them something better.

I feel like WandaVision is trying to do the same thing. We know that Wanda is super powerful, and we can see just how powerful she is in every episode of the show, but how unstable is she? Is she unstable at all? And can we understand this character, despite any of her actions.

That's one of the things that I feel like House of M may not have tried hard enough to do—to make her sympathetic. In Disassembled, they did do that with the central bad guy in that book, they tried to humanize them, they try to understand them. So, I think the show will do the same thing, but it is its own beast.

But I feel like a lot of people have addressed the fact that in the MCU, Wanda and Vision don't have that much screen time. Their love story doesn't come across as that epic because people who are watching only the films may not understand the volume of history that comes with creating these characters, to bring their love story to life.

You and I, of course, have read off it and read some of the comics. When you read some of these collections in total, you really get it. You feel that sense of devotion, of longing, of understanding each other, and the TV show is really coasting off of that knowledge.

Even if you haven't read these books page by page, just your understanding of how committed these two characters were to each other, and how challenging it is that, in the comics, they constantly were torn apart. It gives you a new understanding when you go into watching the show.

Ron: That's quite a lot of dedication to the craft, Mon.

Mon: Thank you. I should be commended for reading those.

Ron: It sounds like quite the exercise!

Ron: Well, that's what we've been doing this month. What have you been busy with? We'd love to hear from you.

You can find us on Twitter @Stereo_Geeks. Or send us an email stereogeekspodcast@gmail.com. We hope you enjoyed this episode. And see you next week!

Mon: The Stereo Geeks logo was created using Canva. The music for our podcast comes courtesy Audionautix.

[Continuum by Audionautix plays]

Transcription by Otter.ai, Ron, and Mon.

[asctx]

T*H*E I*M*A*G*I*N*A*L R*A*V*E

This is not so much about what raves are or aren't, than about what they MIGHT be.

So don't bother looking here for a rehash of the obvious: that raves are the latest thing in underground dance parties/about having fun/feeling good/Peace/Energy/Unity ... all of which IS true, needless to say, but there remains so much more to be said, so much more to BE!

CUT through the clouds of trendism and commercialization that attach themselves to any major new mutation in culture. What wants to be invoked (what I want to invoke--what I hope YOU want to invoke) is that imaginal, incandescent core out of which all the smoke & noise is generated; what a rave truly can be, for some people in some situations--what it could BECOME; and then, peeling away at the sides, ... falling off one by one, duller, flatter, greyer ... and ever so much more TAME ... all those would-be and almost-raves, unavoidable byproducts of anything too real.

An old Sufi saying has it that: "where there's counterfeit, there's true gold."

So next time you go to something that calls itself a rave but isn't, don't just write it all off; the real ones do exist, and why SHOULD they be so easy to find? And, after all, it's up to YOU to make them real.

Allright, we already know that raves are THE space-age tribal youth ritual, the return of the dionysian energy that first emerged in 50's rock 'n' roll and erupted in full force in the late 60's with the intertwining of music and psychedelic drugs. But the rave-current is itself only the more visible crest of something broader and deeper.It's no coincidence that it hits the States at the same time as a major resurgence of psychedelic usage.

You can take the toying with neo'60's motifs--day-glo, flowers, smiley faces, flares--as mere fashion recycling by a generation born largely post-Summer of Love. Or you can see these themes as the instinctual recovery of a project left hanging, next breath after a two decade-long lull. Or you can go ever furthur--and why not!?--and see "the 60's" as only one recent intrusion within the Flatland of (take a deep breath now) Gravity-Bound-Domesticated-HumanoidIndustrial Civilization (got that?) of a future that is already happening, a future that beckons us towards itself and sends its echoes spiralling back through the dark and narrow tunnels of terrestrial time to make itself come true...

But only with your help, of course!

Picture a wave forming on the horizon, a big one (talking late 50's, early 60's): the psychick surfers coasting out there, beatniks, nonconformists, oddball academics bored with the small town life at the shore and all its dismal soap-opera games, looking for something to carry them away into a wilder, richer world; the first swells of energy carry with them a tide of psycho-active algaes...

HOFFMAN/HUXLEY/BURROUGHS/GINSBURG/WATTS/LEARY/ALPERT/KE SEY & CO., issue their first reports and manifestoes; munching on the junk food of the gods, our proto-mutants are initiated into the mysteries of the Vortex; they come back to the cardboard facades of Main Street with their evocations of kaleidoscopic infinity, eyes lit with the light of alien suns. Their news answers a gnawing hunger among so many trapped within the greypastelboxroutines of the industrial-consumer-democratic hive; More, they activate dormant circuits of the hive's nervous system, and spawn a burst of deviance: forms of rebellion less interested in disputing what varieties of greypastelboxroutines are preferable and what's right and wrong for everybody, than in setting up scouting parties for heading out to sea...

Underline the word parties.

Dosed to the gills, beatniks in existential black mutate into rainbow-hued hippiedom. Up with the Flower Children, hedonistic and 'escapist'--so called because they withdrew from the arena of domesticated primate aggro-sports known as 'politics' in favor of actually learning about the infinite kingdoms within their own body and nervous system. Drop into the Haight, turn off powertrips, tune out conformism and competition.

Meltdown ensues. All the accelerated bondings through Be-Ins, LoveIns, communes. Awash in the incense of oriental exoticism and occultist bric-a-brac, a renaissance of the spirit decks itself out in raiments of psychic kitsch. And how much can we fault them, really, if their Love&Peace trip undercut itself by becoming a denial of the Darkness; after all, they are there for us to learn from.

But just as everyone is tumbling about in the cosmic froth, anticipating revolution or millenium tomorrow afternoon at the latest, the Wave suddenly evaporates beneath them. No, the Earth Egg didn't quite hatch yet, ...just some initial stirrings. And so the children of the Vortex find themselves hurtling through the air like Wil E. Coyote, wrapped up in all their newfound lifestyles, but the vital juice is gone, and it all becomes so tame and lame so quickly, and in any case, a lot of people couldn't handle the intensity so it comes time to settle back into a safe routine, in some cases lay the ground for those who come after; & all around are the Mr. Jones' of many guises, panicked at the imminent collapse of Normalville; some however take their chance to cash in on what they can of it, a lot of others are wholly freaked, and thus begins a Counter-Reformation. One the one hand, a retreat from direct encounter with the Abyss crystallizes into the New Age, and on the other, it's back to the Bible, dumb drugs, white-bread, and Family Values. And all the hipsters left posing without a clue, all the burnouts/fuckups/addicts & victims of some invisible multidimensional boogeying elephant; over there in the ivy towers, the blind men scribble their learned tomes, dissecting some stray paisley footprints; but something far stranger has happened, and its awfully hard to make out just what till the next, bigger cousin of that wave starts to surface offshore.

Meanwhile even many devotees of the Vortex ascribe it to the decline in quality of their psychoactive goodies, mistaking the portal for the vista beyond (but how do you enter the vista without the portal? hmmm...BE THY VISION! a distant curl of the Vortex whispers back).

Credit it all to upsurges of the Gaian mind, long-schemed scams of the giggling DNA-consciousness, or the flotsam & jetsam cast down by That Transcendental Novelty Item at the End of Time; choose your metapors--the more the merrier; but there's a mystery-in-process that all the nice rationalistic analyses will never get at: here I'll echo a point once made by Mr. Leary: the most subtle form of conservatism is that which views the present only through the prism of the past!

And yes, (to those for whom it's not patently obvious), IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN.

***

At the heart of the rave is a modern, technologically clad form of non-verbal, ecstatic communion. The ethos of openness, sharing, intimacy, touch and empathy--not to mention the pure intensities of trance itself--facilitated by the use of LSD & MDMA (hey, the fact that you have to take these things to loosen up is a sign of just how far down & lost we all are!!), in tandem with the all-night long pulsation of bodies to the same sound source, can and does create a context where layers of armoring and conditioning are shed, where those willing can find the joyful and mysterious realm of their bodies free of oh-so many enculturated ego-trips and bullshit, ... while also opening the "post-terrestrial" circuits of their psyches. (Whew! Pause, return to beginning of paragraph, read again slowly.)

In other words, a safe space where we can be as weird as we want to be.

A collective molting ritual for the new species.

***

Or take it from another angle: compare the rave-thing to a chemical reaction: a half-dozen ingredients (make your own list), inert & ordinary in the normal course of things; but combine them in right proportions, at the right time and place, apply the CATALYST (& what what THAT be?) and BOOM!, you've set off an explosion, a chain reaction producing ENERGY, LOTS OF IT, and in that process a dynamic that continues to transform many of the starting ingredients into new & unknown qualities. No question, of course, that bystanders can look in from the skeptically, and reduce it all back to something familiar: escapism, consumerism, fashion parade, whatever. But we'll leave them to their nervous calculations...

***

OK, so you want a schoolbook definition of TECHNO-SHAMANISM, that catchphrase everybody likes to invoke but no one seems to be able to actually explain? Prepare to jump levels: As the individual shaman/ess evicts demons and excises magical darts from the sick person through a mixture of magickal sound & motion, so on the level of the diseased and crisisridden 'global village' raves aim to heal the collective body by shaking it loose of its neurotic fixations and death-fetishes.

EXORCISM THROUGH DANCE.

Unhooking the talons and shadowy webs of control. A physical unlearning of a few thousand years worth of BAD HABITS.

Learning to be at once a little more human and a little more alien.

Healer, leader, visionary, outcast: the shaman/ess' role is multifaceted, both at the center but also relegated to the margins of the community; the use of sound and/or psychoactive compounds are central to shamanism. The shaman/ess chants, hums, drums and dances as a way of programming hir voyage into the "spirit realms" (aka hyperspace), as well as of healing the mind and body of others, ... all on a more face-to-face, way lo-tech scale, of course.

So there, chew on that for a while.

***

It's a pretty sad but predictable fact that self-professed "radicals" have been oblivious to this phenomenon, just because it seems to emanate out of NITEKLUBLAND; too bad--when will they figure out that all social alienation is ultimately grounded in an alienation from the body--that realm of nature closest to us but oh-so far away. Their heroine Emma Goldman once proclaimed to the grim socialist militants of her day: "If I can't dance in your revolution I want no part of it."

And what if dance could be a modality of social change?

A heretical thought, no doubt. "Free your ass and your mind will follow," so said George Clinton. But hey, he was just another crass capitalistic rock star, right?

Not to rescusitate, however, that burdensome word, Revolution. Scratch the R, hilite the E. Quote an obscure graffito from a wall in Paris, May 1968: "This is not a Revolution but a Mutation." And say rather, TAZ. Temporary Autonomous Zone.

Like the TAZ, the rave is wild, nomadic, outside the maps of Power. At its best, the rave opens onto a realm of free-form behavior and perception, one in which there is no hierarchy, no leaders or followers, at most the dj and the light-show artists. (Hopefully benign--be careful who you leave your sensorium with!)

...Not unlike the Situationist International's notion of the "situation" (sorry, I just had to drag them in here!), a space of liberated interactions... but where the participants are the art and the show, the synergy between them all the event (or event horizon?). If the insurrection was supposed to realize itself in a festival, we might ask, why shouldn't the festival turn into an insurrection--an insurrection of Love?

Anyone who has been part of a REAL rave, if only once, briefly, knows that its insane, insanely beautiful ferocity is something that exceeds all the contrived parlour-games that pass for alternatives, social or political. The mere fact of this ferocious hedonism is, without words or slogans, A REFUTATION OF DOMESTICATED EXISTENCE.

So FUCK IT if most of this California rave-scene is still ensnared in niteklubbism. Invade the pseudo-raves, instigate roving micro-raves. Doesn't take more than a ghetto blaster and a handful of courageous revellers to start a rave on any streetcorner or park, see how long it takes to catch..., or to be shut down...

THIS is OUR form of protest--our style of dance is angry and combative as well as loving and celebratory; to free our bodies first from the rotting carcass of history,,,

...and from there, ... who knows where we'll go?

***

Prediction: a few years down the road, the rave-scene will be looked back on as the primary networking mechanism for the tribes of starfarers.

But if ravers can't clean up after themselves, how are they going to clean up the planet?

***

DANCE

If you had to have JUST ONE metaphor for it all to live by and through, wouldn't that just be it. The spiral dance of life...so it sounds cliched, but cliched only in words, in words...

DANCE

but (& rave-friends can detour here for a sec, these are words for those who've never raved and long stopped going out to

DANCE

DANCE, --this kind of dance--is FREEING MOTION. Not just moving to the beat but letting the beat help you throw off all the constricted robotic movements that have been imprinted into your heart, your eyes, your ears, your arms, your ass, your dreams, by all the tricks, traumas & seductions of society; and find the REAL YOU; dancing with the world, but dancing off the consensus-trance, that narrow greyout rightangle robotic updown freezeframe pseudoreality.

Raves signal the return to Western culture of sacred dance. A dance that balances discipline with excess, ecstasy with focus. Look at the three great Monotheisms that have pretty much defined our psychosomatic matrix: Judaism, Christianity, Islam: none of them possess any tradition of Sacred movement; they have all been scared shitless of the Body, and have instituted its repression in a thousand and one subtle ways. How appropriate that the advent of a spiritualized form of movement to the center of Civilization should present itself in a totally decadent, seemingly profane form. And people wonder why raves are actively suppressed back in the UK? Raves represent the primal life-force suppressed so long ago it remains only a dim but real memory.

And let's get this out of the way too: dancing on a decent dose of a psychedelic is something else again: communing with the animal spirits encoded into the depths of your skin, letting them out of their millenial cages. Learning how you can be each of them when you need to be; and its also about learning how to fly, how to turn yourself inside out into a spinning glowing disc, though that's a little harder ... and then, once we've got that under our belts, we can do it TOGETHER.

It's been said before, but not clearly enough: UFOS R US.

***

So what if all this prepacked ravitis costs too much. Don't leave it to them and whine about how commercialized it all is: THROW YOUR OWN! AND MUTATE IT WHILE YOU'RE AT IT!

So some of the dinosaurs may not be happy seeing their way of life superseded and want to stamp out those noisy critters scampering between their feet; more intelligence and greater manoueverability will be our response. Haven't we gotten sick enough of the EnemyProduction Line?

Social transmutation can be fun too, right? There's fun, safe vapid alcoholic-nicoteine hedonism, letting off steam so you can return to Monday; and then there's fun that aims high, fun allied with Will. The path of disciplined excess (??).

But watch this--all those scouting parties of the future will be known by their capacity to throw great parties--and pioneer partying as a way of throwing off the legacy of the miserable Dominator culture we've all had to grow up in.

***

RAVERS, look a little ways forward: have you wondered yet what happens once you're burnt out after a year or two of intensive raving, once you've lost half your hearing, the beats become stale, and the Energy has leaked away. Where, what then?

Define the rave for me.

What does the verb TO RAVE really mean to you?

But first let's list all the stuff that seems to go with it: Acid/techno/deep house music; dancing from dusk to dawn; hi-tech light shows; lollipops, floppyhats, dayglo pendants, smart drinks; $15-20 tickets; zillion gigagawatts sound-systems; X,a cid, nitrous and 2CB; goofy outfits, sexy bodies; so many inane and beatific smiles...

SHALL we ask together: just what is the essence of a rave?

Suppose, just for a second that we subtract one by one each of the above accessories. Stretch your imagination to the limit, and take away even, yes, even THE MUSIC; till all we have left are the people, all those people who have found each other in this beat, in these hidden gatherings, but without the beat, just heartbeat, pulserate, breath, ... AND THE EXCHANGE OF LOVE-ENERGIES (isn't that what sex is, ultimately?) and each other's presence ... Radiant and revelling in our unearthly beauty ... so here we are: much as we adore it, do we really need the dance music to affirm our commonality, the patent fact that we are siblings of the the same spiritual family who through the raves have managed to find one another and in that finding remember who each of us truly is, orphan child of eternity. Do we need to confuse the rave with the quality of our common presence, our moving-loving together; can't we take the essence of the rave, freed of all the externals we associate with it, transfer and apply that energy elsehwere, to just about anything...?

It comes down to a challenge, a challenge posed in that leap from normal space to hyperspace that kicks in when the 'rave' really starts to rave: those altered moments when each of us in being truest to our uniqueness enters into a harmonious whole; elusive as this may be, it calls out, and asks to be realized in every moment of our lives; it asks for creation, CREATION OF LIFE, for the nurturing of real communities that last deeper & longer than a few hours on the dancefloor.

That creative energy, apply it not just to your style of dress but to your style of BEING. Free eros & intimacy from the shackles socially-inherited sexualities (gay vs, straight, male vs. female), from monogamy and the neurotic fixation on genital sexuality:

YES, CELEBRATE your arrival here at last after a long trek, but don't forget, this is only the point of departure. These parties are our loading docks and shipyards. (And there is Work to be done: enough healing & cleaning for us all.) Here is where we will build not just a House, but a ship of dreams, a starship. Woven out of LOVE. CHAOS. LAUGHTER.IMAGINATION. WILL.

And embark; post-nuclear families setting sail out along the unwinding multi-dimensional origami strands of alternity...

Our motto:

UTOPIA OR BUST.