Ha ha, you suck, Marvel
Apr. 22nd, 2008 05:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficI thought about one of my problems with NuMarvel (are we still calling it that?) and it's basically that it's impossible for them to depict the "loyal opposition". Magneto was a full-tilt baddie in Morrison's New X-Men, then a good guy... gone, the nuanced bad guy that the fans craved.
Now, generally Marvel is pretty suck at the notion that just because people disagree, they're not enemies. I've covered before how the fact that "anti-mutant" sentiment might have a point is always glossed over for HALP HALP I'M BEING OPPRESSED. Which is fair. The first and most lasting metaphor for the mutant condition was being a teenager, where comics provided a fine outlet by making it so that the average teen's oppressors (real or imagined) were not just overworked, underpaid, having a bad day, menstrating, or what have you... but actively and expressly ee-vil. As the mutant condition spread to include minority status, this made further sense. Would anyone say that a bigot or homophobe had a point?
But once that spreads into other politics, then we've got trouble. Like Civil War. Not only is it disconcerting and grevious to see Iron Man and his fellows reduced to purest evil, but then they win and Marvel wants them to be the good guys (having a movie coming out is the ultimate moral high ground, dontchaknow)... so it turns out that they were right all along and the rebels are the fucktards. Even more weird than having a black and white take on a complex issue is to then flip-flop the sides!
Oh, and ending Peter's marriage to Mary-Jane was a boneheaded, spiteful move. This has nothing to do with the content, but with a title like the one this post has, I just thought I'd mention it.
Now, generally Marvel is pretty suck at the notion that just because people disagree, they're not enemies. I've covered before how the fact that "anti-mutant" sentiment might have a point is always glossed over for HALP HALP I'M BEING OPPRESSED. Which is fair. The first and most lasting metaphor for the mutant condition was being a teenager, where comics provided a fine outlet by making it so that the average teen's oppressors (real or imagined) were not just overworked, underpaid, having a bad day, menstrating, or what have you... but actively and expressly ee-vil. As the mutant condition spread to include minority status, this made further sense. Would anyone say that a bigot or homophobe had a point?
But once that spreads into other politics, then we've got trouble. Like Civil War. Not only is it disconcerting and grevious to see Iron Man and his fellows reduced to purest evil, but then they win and Marvel wants them to be the good guys (having a movie coming out is the ultimate moral high ground, dontchaknow)... so it turns out that they were right all along and the rebels are the fucktards. Even more weird than having a black and white take on a complex issue is to then flip-flop the sides!
Oh, and ending Peter's marriage to Mary-Jane was a boneheaded, spiteful move. This has nothing to do with the content, but with a title like the one this post has, I just thought I'd mention it.
