#no shading or lighting because there's none of that in the MV so why should she have it

[hyperkitten224]

Manager Gangle reminds me of someone a little... hmm...

[genderqueer-miharu]

Don't really have a lot to say about mahiru's mv right now but i want to point out something regarding the boyfriend and his corpse: What the fuck is that stain near the armpit area in his jacket?

Because it sure as hell isn't shading, the shading on the jacket is a different color and it isn't that. Not only that but it can also be seen during the caroussel scene where the lighting is clearer so it's not because of the light either. The stain also wasn't there in any of the previous shots before they started walking the forest

And the stain didn't even appear first when mahiru started feeding him, it was already there seconds prior not only on the armpit area but on the sleeve as well

And it's easier to see here that the shading and the stain don't match with one another, so again this is NOT shading.

But then what the fuck is it? Is it blood? But how could it be blood if he died by hanging himself? Though i guess he's not dead yet in these scenes but still why would he be bleeding? Could it be stains of water since the body we see at the beggining is soaked?

No actually because the boyfriend is not dripping like this during those scenes. Actually isn't it also weird that the body is dripping here but none of his clothes are wet? Maybe those spots near the holes are because of the water but they look more like burned stains to me and considering where they are it might be this

And speaking of the body hanging, it does appear again at the end but uhh

Is it just me or is the stain gone? I tried raising the lighting and i could not see anything so is it just not there? But it was there before hand so why is it gone now? And what even was that stain? Was it blood? If it was blood then why was he bleeding? Did he just hurt himself or did mahiru do something to him? Also why is he not dripping with water here? If this is the same body that we see at the beggining then why is he not wet like the first time?

I just think these things should be pointed out more. I may want mahiru to get an innocent veredict this time but i don't want to just dismiss and ignore details like this. I already had details that i dismissed as insignificant in the past that had a more relevant role when i looked at them closely. It might be hard but i want to have a more unbiased view on mahiru which seems hard considering how little we still know about her.

Oh also i forgot to mention, the final lyric at the very end of the song is "DIE!", right as we see the guy's dead body, and mahiru is singing this whole thing so...you know

[bikenesmith]

thoughts on marvel's voices: pride

copy pasted from twitter lmao

tbh i was not super hype for this (maybe bc the characters i read as queer the most have not been confirmed as such elsewhere and therefore would not be in this collection). i also don't expect much of marvel in general when it comes to ~radical storytelling~ especially against the backdrop of abandoned queer breadcrumbs spread throughout krakoa run that would be more appropriate for 1980s claremont era coding than the writing about queerness we should be getting in 2021.

i read this comicsxf article the day before its release. it reflects the ways i, as a marvel fan, want so much more but i also can't help but eat up the crumbs? and the self-congratulatory air despite how difficult for readers + creators its been to get this rep

mv: pride's metatext makes it seem like marvel is at the forefront of queer superhero representation when the bulk of the queer characters in the issue are rarely if ever in major stories, much less major characters in them. (or aren't even existing characters).

all of these stories would improve so much just from being longer. i get it's a collection, but considering all that marvel's put queer readers + creators through, i'd think we deserve more, at least enough to make these stories feel less rushed and by extension, shallow

anyway the stories themselves! i LOVED early thaw - it made me so, so happy. uncannily (lmao) full use was made of the length constraints. maybe part of it is bc bobby (& erik) are such big characters with such rich histories that SO MUCH can be inferred from just a few lines

i tweeted about that in this short thread.

1 thing that twinges a bit is the deniability on eriks part ("not like..."), which reminds me of ~coding~. but

1) this is *bobbys* Gay Story

2) this awkward way of speaking abt self id, espec in this unlikely convo between villain & teen hero makes sense

but it also about how none of these stories are (or are allowed to) "make" anyone queer. "reveal" anyone as queer. this is okay here, and would be okay generally which if marvel as a whole were different, but its awkward when you consider how marvel Queer Reveals....work

before i move on, i've seen criticism that eriks characterization in early thaw is out-of-character, and all i have to say to that is

silver age characterization should be left in the garbage. im perfectly fine with pretending claremont magneto existed from the beginning. thats not realistic? neither is erik being a raving maniac for 20 years and then turning into a real human being like a light was switched on

anyway about the Marvel Queerification Method: characters will be revealed as queer and will never get in relationships with existent characters that they've spent forever being suggestive with because we cant have TWO GAYS!!! which brings me to karma's story.

i already talked about how i found this from hearing about it from articles. reading it myself i feel its less egregious bc the character doesn't look TOO much like dani, but the similarities compared w dani's conspicuous absence makes up for it, unfortunately

im just going to reiterate basically: the fact that its xi'an kissing a girl that looks like dani but is NOT dani, as vita sows the seeds for xi'an/dani in NM. it seems obvious to me that that was meant to be a xi'an/dani story, but it got veto'd

its very reminiscent of kitty kissing a random tattooist who looks suspiciously like illyana (a character who was present 1 or 2 pages earlier and left for seemingly no reason). at first glance i sound like a conspiracy theorist, but its just a logical assumption

why can't (more) queer characters be with characters that arent "out"? that didn't have a big coming out issue? characters that are big, on active teams with each other. you don't HAVE to make a new random/throwaway character, or push an a-lister together w an f-list stranger?

+ those designations are NOT meant to shade, its just a pattern - rather than putting their big queer characters w the other big characters theyve been playing house w for ages, they make a new random character, or put them w an unknown for a single issue &/or chaste kiss

its part of what annoys me so much about "give [character] a girlfriend/boyfriend". i know its jokes, but that's what they DO. just "a girlfriend". "a boyfriend". not a real character that exists or has had a chance to exist INDEPENDENT of them. not a real relationship

and that brings me to northstar lmao. this is the biggest example of the length problem. the whole issue tells us we dont know northstar like kyle does, but it doesn't get to actually tell us who northstar is. it doesn't get to tell us who kyle is. its frustrating, because

i'm desperate to know what northstar and kyle's dynamic even is, what their relationship is besides a symbol of progress for marvel.

and the trans stuff. i think the she-hulk one was sweet, but why wasn't it not about like, an existent trans character. like, say, LOKI??????? 🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨 that said i think it handled the usage of flashback quite well tho i wish we could move beyond that in trans narratives

charlene having to randomly throw out trans 101 instagram infographic-level corrections was cringey/exhausting though i found the final beat to be very funny LMAO

jessie drake! i think its super interesting that this story had a trans character having a romantic encounter with someone else, bc SO OFTEN trans stories in things like mv: pride are just oohggg my gender, & not like. hey. we experience relationships too, we have sexualities too

i think its also super important that this is a representation of a sapphic trans woman. there is so much transmisogyny + lesbo/biphobia directed towards sapphic trans women and seeing a story on this scale is important. that said - where IS the transness in this story?

jessies transness is mentioned once in tiny text in mv:pride's establishing text. & shes appeared in like 2 stories? how many are going to read this, & not know who jessie is, not know she's the first trans marvel character, & think shes just a random love interest for black cat?

as the first trans marvel character where is jessie's fanfare? she and northstar should be side by side in terms of importance in mv: pride's extra space. but she's not. yes, she has two stories. but this is the chance to give her more, and promise her more

2ndly, why was this written by a cis woman? ENOUGH. we - trans creators - and in this instance transfem creators specifically - are literally banging on your windows to be let in. theres NO EXCUSE

also (not) sorry for shaking the table, but i'd literally never heard of jessie drake til very recently, thanks to dani kinney's influence. & im sure many in the x-office have the same experience. google jessie drake right now, it's dani all the way down. why werent they hired 🤨

now about that raven/irene though!!!!!! THAT is what i wanted to see from this collection and what i want to see from marvel in general. i neeeed a full run of just raven and irene doing gay mutant crimes in victorian times and being in love.

coming out stories are not the entire scope of gay stories. do we need /some/? absolutely. but we need to be able to have MORE than that. we need to see what's outside the closet. and i want that outside to be gay mutant crimes!

i want it to be dancing with the girl you're finally ready to pursue in high fashion. i want it to be cheating death and kissing your demon girlfriend. i want it to be an old bisexual terrorist comforting the gay kid you were lowkey about to terrorize with missiles

anyway final comments billy and teddy are obviously eternally good and i love them, i feel weird about the somnus thing but lets see where that goes, hire more trans people, thank you and goodnight