#marvel sexism

[salarta]

Now that I've been banned over a tame joke on CBR, I might be making more posts over here on Tumblr. This is one such post.

I usually, deliberately, do not post stuff about the current X-Factor book. Why? Because it's trash. And the current X-Men senior editor, Tom Brevoort, has previously said that he thinks being a colossal asshole is "good for business" because it gets people talking.

Of course, that's just him trying to make excuses for being an asshole, just like he tried to make excuses for why Polaris "couldn't" be Magneto's daughter. But I digress.

The reason I'm bringing it up now, though, is pretty simple.

He fucked up. Hard. And not only does he know it, but he's trying to change the subject away from his fuckup.

This past Wednesday, Marvel released X-Factor #2. If you're going to read it, do so by pirating. Or not at all. Because any purchase for any reason gives the false impression that they should keep doing what they're doing.

In this week's issue, the "Polaris" in the story wasn't just bad. Wasn't just 90s nostalgia bad. It was the most blatant display of nostalgia for regressive sexism toward Lorna in decades. It was bad enough that it would've skated on thin ice even before Lorna surviving the Genoshan genocide.

The basic summary of all I've seen is this.

Story forces Havok x Polaris trash just because of nostalgia. Lorna acts all submissive and needy around Havok, like she desperately wants his approval and involvement in her life. Havok comes with her to a Mutant Underground meeting, but only to spy on them, and Lorna somehow (brain worms tiem) doesn't notice he's wearing a button cam. Despite, you know. Her powers.

For some reason, and by some reason I mean "nostalgia for an attitude that Lorna is a nobody character," Lorna is just a rando in the Mutant Underground surrounded by other randos. Even though she's a survivor of the Genoshan genocide, and had trashed Orchis' space station basically days prior in comics time, she's treated as just a random nobody in the group. And when Mutant Underground realized Havok was wearing a camera, they took Lorna hostage - without a fight from her - with implication that they might kill her due to his actions.

.............

If you're wondering how it makes sense, it doesn't. This isn't Lorna. It's Brevoort's shitty fanfic idea of Lorna as a nobody character whose only value is to promote his favorite straight cis Aryan male, Havok.

Obviously, because we're not living in the sexist late 60s and 70s, this treatment of her has been universally panned. Even by people who want to support the book. The few people trying to defend it, do so under the guise of "lol it's a parody so it's perfectly fine," but that shit's been getting shut down fast by pointing out that parody isn't an excuse for some things. Like this.

This is where the biggest reason for my post comes in.

Yesterday, literally one day after releasing X-Factor #2, Marvel used their favorite sycophant fan site to release an "exclusive preview" of X-Factor #3... a whole ass month in advance. Unlike the last two previews that emphasized Havolaris shit, this preview didn't include the Havolaris shit. It focused on Havok and Friends.

Anyone who can read between the lines on this stuff can recognize what it means when a company rushes to release brand new teaser stuff for the next issue immediately after releasing the current one. From a marketing and buzz standpoint, if your work doesn't suck, you want to give audiences time to digest. You want them to think it through, build it up with word of mouth, convince other people to buy into the book and be on the lookout for new things before you put out a teaser. And you wait until later to publish the teaser so it's fresh in minds to go out and buy it.

Rushing out the next preview means they're desperate to change the subject with what's on hand. They can't radically change the next issue (maybe the next few) in response to criticism and complaints because they're too far along in the publishing pipeline.

They, especially Brevoort, also don't want to admit they made a mistake. Because at the end of the day? Treating Lorna like shit off of sexist nostalgia is what they want. They want people to accept it and let it pass, because they think that unlike Storm, Jean Grey, Emma Frost, etc, that they can get away with being sexist fucks about how they depict Lorna.

So with changing the next issues not an option, and offering up an apology and admitting any kind of fault isn't an option, there's only one real recourse they have.

Releasing shit stupid early and hoping people will change the subject so they can get away with the sexism.

The current X-Factor book is shit. It's based heavily on one man's sexist fantasies for a time decades too old for today. Keep that in mind when you see this stuff.

For my money's worth, this isn't even Lorna. I refuse to recognize this character as being Lorna, because it's blatant that the intent behind it isn't to acknowledge Lorna or her fandom and do right by the character. There's no actual Lorna in this. Therefore it's not Lorna. If you're jonesing for a Lorna fix, read a fanfic, because fanfics are more accurate than what Marvel's publishing.

[rhfffas]

incels trolling the marvels and trying to be objective with “the plot is bad”, DUDE, you’re watching marvel movies where captain america tried to choke a robot and iron man tried to fix ai apocalypse with another ai and hulk can only turn green when hes man paining and thor caused war just because his own stupidity and old man hawkeye can’t deal with grief so turn into a killer for hire

BUT YOU ARE TELLING ME WOMEN SAVING THE UNIVERSE IS BAD?????????

your misogyny is fucking showing

[divorce-quartet-memes]

pov i'm trying to read mcyt fanfiction

[velvet4510]

Is it just me or is Jean Grey’s entire characterization and storyline in the XMCU unbelievably sexist? I’m just so appalled by it. I have no idea if this is a hot take - I’m brand new to these films, and am totally unfamiliar with the comics - but I really can’t see this as anything other than misogynistic writing.

Between the idea that “woman can’t control her own power” and “woman who two guys are fighting over” … both of those are such dated and regressive concepts but for Jean Grey to embody BOTH of them … and literally NOTHING else? She has ZERO character development outside of these two traits. We don’t explore her friendships with Storm or Rogue or any of the other female mutants. We don’t explore her feelings toward humans, if she entirely agrees with Xavier or if she’s ever curious about Magneto’s view. We don’t get any understanding of her own wants and needs. She ONLY exists to cause pain to all the male characters.

We’re supposed to sob at the end of X2 because all the men are sad. But we are given no reason to care about her for who she is as an individual - only for her ability to make men sad.

Then after it turns out she’s alive in TLS, she goes full-on villain. No psychological complexity, no moral struggles. Just villain. Oh, no, too much power for woman!! Woman can’t possibly control a force like this!! Man must kill her - must kill the love of his life, oh, no, what a tragedy!!! There’s no hope for her; the only way is to kill her.

Then after her death, she is not framed by the narrative in memory as a great X-Man, or as a fallen hero. She is framed as the lost love of a man who she didn’t even love in return. The power that she couldn’t control caused her to kill the man she really did love - Scott - but all the remaining films frame her as no more than the source of Logan’s torment and manpain.

Even when she returns at the end of DOFP, the joy comes from Logan finally getting a second chance at resuming his rivalry with Scott over her.

I haven’t even seen Apocalypse or DP - and I don’t want to - but I already know that those films only make the exact same mistakes all over again!

I guess I should blame the comics for coming up with this BS in the first place, but the movies didn’t even try to improve upon it.

Jean Grey is the most poorly written female superhero film character I’ve ever seen.

[salarta]

The irony of this while Polaris was punished for daring to be more feminist (for her time) than other Marvel women by immediately being turned into Havok's damsel-in-distress supporting character girlfriend. And then Marvel continuing to stick by this poor treatment for decades, up to and including the present, where the current X-Men office still insists on not giving Lorna her due on anything.

Why? Because they don't want to question their negative impressions of her that were built on decades of sexist depictions of her.

Marvel, where progress is only allowed if the character is a household name, otherwise they just go "fuck her" and continue to be sexist as fuck.

Marvel’s Voices: Infinity Comic #45 (2023)

written by Andrew Wheeler art by Carola Borelli & Brittany Peer

[fixing-bad-comic-art]

Gave her thicker limbs and more realistic proportions; fixed up her costume so it doesn’t look painted on; gave her some actual shoes instead of whatever footie-pajama thing she had going on (campbell does that often); and tried to make her facial expression slightly more serious and not so cookie-cutter.

submitted by @the-beacons-of-minas-tirith

[rei-ismyname]

The O5 X-Men being fucking creeps

Look at them, like the little rascals peeping through the hole in a change room. Iceman, Beast and Angel leering at Jean while Cyclops angsts about POWER BEAMS FROM HIS EYES. Unsurprisingly, this is written as normal and acceptable behaviour. I don't really truck with 'attitude of the time' BS - Stan Lee sucked at writing women.

I do wanna hear what Christian Dior thinks about that design though.

[atlasscrumpit]

Bucky Barnes x Reader

Don't Be So Blind

(dealing with sexism and SA) 

You came back from a press meeting and sat on the couch, placing your head on your hands.

"Doll, it's okay. These things don't always go to plan. I get hate all the time." He said as you groaned and looked at him.

"You get hate because you killed people, I get hate because I was born with a fucking vagina. I am so sick of this." You grumbled as Bucky sat beside you.

"You don't get it... I know you would always do your best to understand it, but you can't understand what I have to go through. With Nat it's different you know? Well for starters she doesn't have a period cause she has no uterus but she's pretty and sexy so no one bothers her. But, me... I'm not like that so people always have something to say about it." You muttered as Bucky gently rubbed your back.

"I think I get four days a month where I'm okay, and that is it. It's always ovulation, or periods or bloating, pain, bleeding, moods, hormones... There is so much I have to fucking deal with. Yet, I still do all the same training and missions as all of you guys. Everything is so much fucking harder for women, and what do we get? Hate and sexism. Sometimes I don't blame Wanda for going evil." You muttered as Bucky looked at you in shock.

"Y/N, don't say stuff like that." He said as you chuckled dryly.

"Can you fucking blame her? You killed so many people! And you got let off with a fucking slap on the wrist. Wanda controlled a few people and they wanted to burn her at the fucking stake!" You shouted as you stood up and began to pace.

"Buck, I get it, okay? You've been through hell, with Hydra and everything. You were hated because of something you did, but I am hated because I was born. I just need to fucking get this out because I am so sick of it!" You shouted, grabbing a vase and throwing it a wall.

"The constant comments from people, fucking kills me." You grumbled, sitting back down.

"You just need to not listen to it." He said as you laughed and shook your head.

"Buck, I've been fucking try to not listen since I was three years old. The first time someone fucking sexualised me." You replied, harshly.

"I get that it's hard, Y/N. But, it's hard for all of us. I mean, Peggy rose through the ranks and she never had episodes like this." He said as you slowly turned to face him.

"Because she would've been fucking fired, or killed, or fucking raped if she spoke up. Sometimes I forget when you were fucking born." You growl standing up before Bucky grabbed your wrist.

"You know I've been sexually abused too? It's not just women." He said before you slapped him hard across the face.

"Shut the fuck up! Oh my god, Bucky. I fucking know okay? And I am here for you one hundred percent, but the only time you bring up your assault is to fucking silence me! The only time you bring it up is when I talk about sexism. I'm sick of it, just leave me alone before I fucking stab you." You growled storming away and getting in the elevator.

Steve entered and looked at Bucky.

"I heard some of that..." Steve muttered as Bucky kicked the coffee table in anger.

"She's fucking infuriating!" Bucky said before he sat down.

Steve sighed and sat across from him.

"Bucky, Y/N sat down, upset and tried to explain how she felt and you basically invalidated her and told her she shouldn't be upset. How is that supposed to be good for her?" Steve asked as Bucky looked at him, still seething.

"Women were never like this, back in the day. They were fine, happy even." Bucky said making Steve groan and rub his head.

"Bucky... You need to take off the rose coloured glasses. The time we lived in was horrible. I saw first hand what Peggy went through. The countless abuses and assaults. I saw what my mother went through. Buck, they didn't have a choice and if they dared speak up their entire life was ruined. When Y/N talks about this stuff she isn't blaming you for being a man, she is asking for understanding and maybe some protection." Steve explained as Bucky sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

"Have I really been that blind?" Bucky muttered as Steve chuckled softly.

"Yeah, Buck. You've been very blind to all of this. We all get paid from Shield to keep up this superhero work, Y/N and Natasha were getting a lot less then all of us. And they still do from shield, but Tony uses his own money to close that gap. Did you know Natasha tried to make super hero suits specifically designed for women's bodies and shield said no? Do you even see what happens at these press meetings? Did you see the man grope Y/N? Did you hear the man who called her a slut?" He asked as Bucky looked at him in confusion.

"What...? Did that happen?" He asked making Steve sigh and shake his head.

"Yes, Bucky it happens all the time. The public barely accepts Sam as a superhero because he isn't white. There is a lot of work to do and you need to help." Steve said as Bucky nodded a little.

"Fucking hell... I've been such a dumbass." He grumbled before he got up to chase after you.

He found you up on the roof crying, you turned around and shook your head.

"Just fucking leave me alone." You muttered through your tears as Bucky gently hugged you.

"Fuck, I am so sorry Y/N. Steve spoke to me and I saw it from another perspective. I haven't even noticed the stuff you go through, I'm such an idiot." He whispered as you slowly cuddled into him.

"I've been really fucking blind, doll. And I am so sorry. I'm kind of glad I was blind at the meeting today otherwise I would've killed every man in there." He joked as you laughed softly.

"I want to learn about all of this. I'll do my best to understand it all, okay?" He said as you nodded a little.

"I just want you on my side." You whispered in response as he kissed your forehead.

"I'll always be on your side, I just need to do a better job."

[imjustasmalltowngirl]

“We need more emotionally complex female characters!” y’all couldn’t even handle captain marvel, Woman Who Smiles Less

[fleursfairies]

all im saying is that if a woman character said all the things deadpool says people would be up in flames

[salarta]

Okay so I was thinking about how I hate the whole Rogue and Magneto relationship and then thought hypothetically, would Lorna's powers also cancel out Rogue's ? Because to me that's the only interesting aspect of the Rogneto relationship and just imagine how much more fun it would be if it was Lorna and Rogue

I just feel like that would have so many more possibilities and wouldn't icky

I'm personally indifferent to Rogue and Magneto having a relationship. If that's where they wanna go with it, and the majority of fans in the fandoms of both characters feel it's appropriate for them, then they can go for it.

I can see why it comes off squicky though. Not just because of an age gap (age gaps can be fine under right conditions), but also because the instances I've seen of it*, there's an element of manipulation to it. Rogue can't touch, Magneto makes it possible to touch, ergo it puts Rogue in a place where she's wholly dependent on Magneto for a basic human need. Would Rogue have actually wanted to be with this guy if the touch issue didn't exist for her?

Ironically, just yesterday I saw the new My Hero Academia movie, where the lead heroine is basically MHA's own take on Rogue. Except in the movie's case, the lead heroine CAN touch certain people she's compatible with, not just one person. Catch is, her touch in those cases amps up their powers, so she ends up kidnapped and exploited by bad actors whose touching her brings her closer to her own power going out of control (which causes seizures and other problems for her). There's just a couple people who can neutralize her power - within the film itself mind you, cause within the broader MHA universe there's actually many who could.

Without much in the way of spoilers for that movie, the character who can neutralize powers is actually in a more submissive position in their dynamic, both by circumstances and by choice. And the circumstances of the movie put their relationship to the test.

There's... not really much testing Magneto's hold over Rogue. He can negate her powers, he's this dominant figure in the entire mutant echelon, the whole concept of their relationship is basically like a rock star in any industry who holds all the keys for a promising young woman to make any headway in it.

I'm sure someone who loves it to pieces can argue against what I've said. And truthfully, I don't know the full picture of the Magneto and Rogue relationship concept. I haven't gone into all its representative materials, and I'm not going to, cause I don't care. It's not like I'm working for Marvel and making something where it's important.

Though on that last point, let's be honest, Marvel wouldn't give a shit either if I were working for them and had to make something involving it. Just look at how poorly they tend to treat Polaris, pretending she's not a survivor of the Genoshan genocide cause they think what really matters is indulging their nostalgia for sexism toward her.

So with all of that above said, Lorna and Rogue.

My bottom line take is that anything Magneto can do, Polaris has the technical capability of doing too, and vice versa. There's absolutely no good reason for any take that says Lorna isn't capable of doing something Magneto can. When you get down to it, the real reason for holding a view that Lorna can't do something Magneto can is sexism.

So can Lorna cancel out Rogue's powers just like Magneto can? Absolutely.

The only question that matters when it comes to how Lorna and Magneto use their powers is if they would think to use it a certain way based on their past experiences and expertise.

I'm of the strong opinion that Lorna and Magneto might recognize different applications for their powers, and the "fling cars around" concept is just a common baseline.

Magneto torturing someone using paper clips under the skin, as he did in Bunn's Magneto solo, is an application that I see as distinctly Magneto. Is Lorna capable of doing the same thing? Of course. Is she willing to use violence when she feels it's necessary? Of course. But torturing someone like that is something I think she would not consider, compared to Magneto's much longer lifetime of darkness like living through the Holocaust.

By contrast, Lorna's much younger. For her, computers are a whole world unto themselves. They're not her dad's offline vacuum tube machinery. What I'm typing right this second wouldn't be possible without the very same electromagnetic principles that Lorna has at her command. She doesn't actually need a computer. She can connect to the internet with her mind. She can create her own deepfakes from scratch if she wanted, and make them as convincing as she can imagine them, far surpassing anything that programming can do. Things that I really don't think Magneto would reasonably think to do, coming from a time before the internet.

The prospect of canceling out Rogue's powers is one that I do not think can be cordoned off with generational differences like this. I think it's a common ground case. Something both would think to do if either of them has the capability to do it.

Character-wise, I also think there would be less squick to a Lorna and Rogue relationship as compared to a Rogue and Magneto one. Aside from little to no age gap, Lorna also doesn't have being perceived as a juggernaut icon of mutanthood to place her in a dominant position. If anything, the ludicrously long history of Lorna getting treated poorly by Marvel actually makes her more likely to operate in an equal partner kind of light. She knows what it's like to have people try to control and use her, to have people try to box her in and isolate her. She's less likely to want to inflict that kind of treatment on someone else. And with both being women, there's the common ground between them of what it's like to live in the world as women. Even with best of intentions, Magneto could go about things all wrong as a product of his time and only really knowing what it's like to be a man.

I say this as a dude myself. :P

And that wraps up my post here.

*I haven't watched X-Men 97 and I fuckin refuse to unless they rectify poor treatment of Polaris, which includes how they completely excluded Lorna in telling the Genoshan genocide.

[rhfffas]

and this is so slay for her🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

(x)

[evilwickedme]

It's very frustrating to talk about fridging bc the original point of it was like a very specific criticism of how minorities are treated in comic books in particular and it's now been universalized so much people think it means "killing a woman off because she's a woman" or "killing any character to motivate another character" (the definition according to tvtropes fyi, kill it with fire kill kill kill kill). Fridging isn't bad because you're killing a character as motivation, and it's not bad because you're killing a minority off, it's bad because it's a pattern of behavior from an industry overrun by white men writing and drawing and editing those stories. You're allowed to kill a woman off if it suits your story, but the issue was that women are constantly getting hurt or depowered or raped or killed off to motivate other, non-coincidentally male characters.

The problem that stood behind the original women in refrigerators website was that the narrative that the comic book industry at large was telling was that the purpose of female characters was to get hurt in order to motivate some other guy. Kyle Rayner's girlfriend gets stuffed in a fridge, we're not sad because her life got taken from her too soon, we're sad because Kyle Rayner just lost his girlfriend. Gwen Stacy gets killed by the Green Goblin, we're not sad because she didn't get to live a full happy life, we're sad because she didn't get to live a full happy life with Peter Parker. That is not to say that the story doesn't still get told. Peter going after the Green Goblin is horrific and terrible and amazing and leads to some great plot and character development. But the choice was not to hurt Peter himself, not even to threaten his loved ones but not actually harm them, the choice - CHOICE! - the writers in the comic book industry consistently made was to hurt a character who was already part of a marginalized group, and to do that for the benefit of a (presumably) white male cishet able bodied main character's narrative.

I speak mostly in past tense because once fridging took hold in the collective popular consciousness it didn't disappear completely, but it did fall out of favor in being used so blatantly. It became isolated cases rather than the main feature of one of the best selling batman books of all time. Characters get killed off occasionally, and those characters are even sometimes members of minority groups, and biases still inform those writing choices, but I'm struggling to remember reading a comic in the last couple of years that specifically fulfills the criteria for fridging.

Anyway if you're reading this in context, you know that at the end of this month (may 2023) Marvel is planning to celebrate the most famous fridging of all time by absolutely not learning their lesson and fridging another character. They're being lazy about it, too - they've decided to do it to Kamala Khan in Peter Parker's book, two characters that mean close to nothing to each other, and being extra awful by making it a Pakistani Muslim woman being killed off during AAPI month, and so far the information we have doesn't even involve Kamala's own friends and family and superhero team mourning her at all. It's supposed to motivate Peter, because it's part of his book, and it's also supposed to parallel Gwen Stacy, and they chose to do... This. Kamala is a wildly popular and beloved character who deserves better, and frankly Peter deserves better too. If you're going to fridge, at least do it well.

But I'm also already seeing white men, who supposedly agree with me and think this is bad, saying, well it's for MCU synergy, not "because she's a female" or "because she's not a white character" (direct quotes don't @ me). And firstly, ok, way to assume the rest of us didn't also catch up to the obvious conclusion that marvel comics is doing MCU synergy, AGAIN. The thing is that those aren't separate concepts at all? Or well, they are, but they don't negate each other. They're trying to do MCU synergy and make Kamala into a mutant, but they could've done that a million other ways, just as cheap and not as offensive - a simple retcon would've sufficed, they just did that a few years ago with Franklin Richards.

They chose to do it by killing her off, and they chose to kill her off in somebody else's book to motivate him rather than tell a story about her, and they chose to do it while celebrating Gwen's fridging for some fucking reason. This is context that, when removed from the situation, makes the whole thing meaningless. And you can say a lot about Gail Simone, but that she didn't have a Goddamn point is not one of them.

[myobsessionsspace]

[oflgtfol]

MarvelDC anon x5 sorry im back again I just wanted to say I agree 100% with everything you say and don’t rly have anything to add there that isnt just recycling your points. It’s genuinely fucking crazy how the entire point of the superhero in 90% of cases is that they are vigilantes who operate outside of the legal system and yet so many of them are given plot lines about how the cops or the military are Awesome. Or like will show them buddy buddy with cops or the government. LIKE STOP ITTTT. STOP ITTTTT. And most of the time too it’s for characters where them being hyper connected with the government etc makes their overall story Worse. Ill use flash as an example bc You Know that guy but I LOVE flash I love him as a disabled character struggling w addiction issues for personal reasons BUT HIM LOSING HIS LEGS LIKE SHOOTING PEOPLE IN THE SWANA REGION AND THEN BECOMING A GOVERNMENT GUY IS SO FUCKING ASSSSSSS IT MAKES HIM WORSE AS A CHARACTER AND A PERSON IN A WAY THAT ISNT INTERESTING BECAUSE THEY NEVER SAY ANYTHING INTERESTING ABOUT IT!!!!! Like why the fuck did Flash even become disabled in regard to Going To Commit Imperialism For The U. S. A like NYC gets destroyed on the daily!!!! Have him lose his legs by a building falling on top of him!!!! Im spitballing ideas here but why wasn’t Venom Flash uhhhhhh Him Losing his legs in an event like that, in conjunction with him saving someone else, since this is the era of Symby and Eddie's breakup Symby is slithering along + sees this and helps him out, bc you know they can make their own choices and do what they want and maybe they wanna be a hero too even for a moment, then like maybe a few months later or whatever They Meet again and Symby is like hey….. I felt something when we bonded for that brief time. Im going through something rough too right now (The Divorce) so why don’t we try something new together. AND NOW BOOM. you can have Flash as Venom. Now without the stupid venom as addiction metaphor too! Like if you really fucking want you can include stuff about the government trying to manipulate them or whatever but as a whole this would have been so much better of an angle to start venom flash with but NO that we DIDNT GET Because Of The Military Complex meaning We Cant Ever Have Good Things

i know this is so controversial among the venom fans but like i'm really not that attached to flash lmfao i know nothing about him he's just some guy to me i just know he's so much better than mac gargan cuz by god that was a dark time for venom comics.

so now i'm the one nodding along with you and not adding anything lol. i trust you to come up with a better backstory for him because i literally don't know anything about him beyond the vaguest outline. i don't even know what war he fought in that he lost his legs to i dont know Anything. eddie some little absolute freak to me but flash is just some guy

Like if you really fucking want you can include stuff about the government trying to manipulate them or whatever but as a whole this would have been so much better of an angle to start venom flash with but NO that we DIDNT GET Because Of The Military Complex meaning We Cant Ever Have Good Things

i do have to say though that this is totally how i thought venom 2011 was going to go. the first like, four-ish issues got my hopes up so much. i really honestly thought it was going to be drawing parallels between symby and flash how they are ultimately just tools of the government, just weapons that can be discarded in pushing the military's agenda.

this whole page drove me insane at the time and it still kinda does. the way flash is lying directly to his superior to stay with symby longer despite how much he's been drilled that being with the symbiote too long is a danger. they aren't friends yet this early but there's still this impulse to stick with it. and it's because they're parallels!!! the symbiote is quite literally being treated as a mindless tool by the government - it's deprived of all rights that a sentient, sapient being requires. it's trapped and it's being forced into serving and fighting on behalf of a government that doesn't even care for it. likewise, flash is being given the illusion of choice, and to some extent he still does have a choice, but he's being so manipulated by the government here that really he is also just a mindless tool for them - or at least, they want him to be mindless about it. the final fucking panel at the bottom of the final page is crazy.

it was such a strong start to a run that i was very apprehensive about due to aforementioned lack of knowledge of flash as a character, and my general fed-up-ness with the way the comics had been handling venom and eddie in general during that irl time period. so i was so so hoping that it would be taking a blatant and staunch anti-military stance, or even at the bare minimum if it was even still done in a liberal way, as long as there was still SOME criticism of the military complex i would be jumping for joy. and the idea of flash and symby then also bonding during all that?!! crazy. but then it just kinda. goes off the fucking rails halfway through that run/??? like demons and hell and satan kinda off the rails. absolute bonkers. i need to reread venom 2011 actually i barely remember it it was like a fever dream to me. could have been because i descended into madness shortly after i read it but i digress

[shamster]

These men understand consent very well when they're around gay men