#i just want to ask pepose whyyyyyy

[fdelopera]

Anon who asked about the comic, thanks for the info! I was already kind of suspicious when I heard about the comic, but was hoping maybe they'd get it right. I hadn't realized that was the concept they went with, and that description of Marc's "mental health" made me grimace.

Even apart from the deep ableism of refusing to write a system as a system, I think it says quite a lot about a writer's skill set that they can't manage to write three protagonists. You would think any writer would jump at the chance to write three well-rounded characters that could approach any topic from such vastly different perspectives.

The fact that they can't/won't, and don't seem to know what to do with it, says...a lot.

totally agree, Anon! any quality writer worth their salt would jump at the chance to write an engaging story about headmates in a system! authors who fixate on one headmate to the exclusion of the others demonstrate their own ableism and bias against people with DID/OSDD.

i say "quality writer" … because David Pepose has already demonstrated himself to be, well, not that.

he's written for Moon Knight before. he co-authored volume II, issue 2 of Moon Knight: Black, White and Blood, "A Hard Day's Knight".

it was .. decent. not great. certainly doesn't hold a candle to the best of Lemire or Mackay. it did feature a conversation between headmates that had a few insightful moments, especially where Marc was concerned.

but his story fell apart in the way he wrote about MK System's Judaism. these two panels in particular.

there are a few problems with this. a couple are relatively minor, but one is egregious.

first, this is a clunky, uncanny valley way to say, "this character is Jewish". no Jewish person in the history of ever has said, "well, back in Hebrew school" as as way to measure time. i was shocked to learn in his interview that Pepose was actually proud of writing that line. there are so many better ways he could have written about their Jewishness in his comic. for instance, since Mackay in his run has established Jake as being more observant, perhaps he could have mentioned needing to clean up the blood before they go to shul.

also, in the comics, the Spector family are Orthodox, so Marc and Randall wouldn't have gone to Hebrew School, which in the US is an after school program for Reform and Conservative Jewish kids. Orthodox families usually send their kids to yeshiva. Pepose is Jewish, so he should have known this.

but the worst part of these panels is that Jake compares the "punks" he dealt with in Hebrew School (i.e. Jewish kids) to a demonic rat creature called The Vermin, that … let's just say it, commits blood libel. this creature kidnaps and eats children.

it is absolutely inexcusable for a Jewish author to have written this. not to mention, the artwork makes it even worse, since the way the Vermin is drawn echoes antisemitic caricatures of Jewish people.

so … i'll buy Pepose's series for Layla, but i'm not happy that he's the one writing it.