Marissa Reads Marvel: Part 3 - X-Men

Welcome back, Faithful Reader, to another adventure in Marvel Comics reading - in which I revisit yet more of my childhood heroes! Namely: the X-Men!

Much like Spider-Man, I loved the X-Men cartoon as a kid. I remember that one of my prized possessions back then - which, actually, I probably still have somewhere - was a little tin box with the X-Men on it, which I think I won out of a cereal box or something. I also remember that I used to pretend I was Storm, controlling the elements, whenever I jumped off my childhood swing-set. (It would only last the few seconds during which I was flying through the air, but it was awesome.)

And then - again like Spider-Man - somehow, I got away from them a bit as I got older (the occasional movie still not withstanding). I feel a little less silly on that one, though; reading these comics now, I'm kind of glad that I got into them as an adult, because they're really interesting in ways I might not have fully grasped as a child. (The cartoon was a different story; it was intended to be grasped by children.) I may not have fully appreciated what I was reading if I'd tried to branch out from the cartoon and into the comics as an 8-year-old.

I definitely appreciated it now, though - find out more below!

But before we begin, here, have some very important background music. You're welcome*.

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Some general notes:

• Wolverine!! Thank you for being exactly what I remember you to be. Spider-Man kept throwing my brain for a loop because he grew up when I wasn't looking, but you? Nope. Exactly the same. Never change, Logan; never change. :)
• That said, I apologize for being terrified of you as a child. I was certain you would try to turn me into a kebab back then, but I think I was just too young to understand you. You're gruff and snarky and rude, but you're a good person. You certainly don't stab small children for no reason. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

• Beast! You too. Thank you for being as lovely as I remember you to be. 
• And I love how you talk. So eloquent!

• I'm jumping all over the place in the X-Men timeline, and yet I still can't manage to land in a place/time where Jean Grey is alive... 

• You know who is in pretty much all of the X-Men comics I've been reading? Kitty Pryde, that's who. I knew very little about Kitty until just now - I know, I know, I'm sorry - but holy cow! I love her! I want to be her best friend.
• Also, she has a dragon. 

• Kitty Pryde has a thing was Star Lord now-ish in the comics, right? Just thinking - what is it with Kitty and people named (some form of) "Peter"? (Colossus is a "Piotr.")
• Follow up, what is it with Marvel and (forms of) "Peter"? I count four, and I'm sure I'm missing someone. (Aforementioned Star Lord/Peter Quill and Colossus/Piotr Rasputin; also Spider-Man/Peter Parker obviously, and Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff.)
• Though actually, that's kind of cool. "Peter" is a really common name. There should be more than one Peter in the universe.

From the "Schism" series (Aaron/Pacheco/Cho/Acuna/Davis/Kubert):

• Oh my God, Wolverine.

  

  THIS, THIS RIGHT HERE, IS WHY I WAS SCARED OF YOU AS A KID, LOGAN.

• Cyclops. My friend. Right now, there are Sentinels trying to kill you and everyone you ever loved, so yes, <sarcasm> naturally this is a great time to fight Wolverine over Jean Grey. </sarcasm> She's not even alive at the moment, by-the-by, so precisely what threat do you think Wolverine currently presents to you!? And moreover, how is it a bigger threat than the one presented by the giant robots of doom!? Are you kidding me right now? FIGHT THE GIANT ROBOT OF DOOM!! NOT EACH OTHER!! You're on the same team!!! 

• Does Namor actually have any redeeming qualities? I'm not sure I've ever seen them.

There is no part of me that's surprised, Namor.

From the Joss Whedon/John Cassaday "Astonishing X-Men" run: 

• Ohhhhh Emma. Ouch. I felt that.
  

• Sometimes SHIELD shows up, and it's still being run by Nick Fury right now, and he is just no fun at all. Why is he so mean to the X-Men? 
• Or is he just mean to everyone? Thinking about it, I feel like maybe he's just mean to everyone.

• Oh, wow, Abigail Brand, of SWORD, is worse than Fury. That is an achievement. 
• SWORD and SHIELD: Making Wolverine look cuddly since (whenever Brand/Fury, respectively, were put in charge).

• Beast just made fun of "the government and their acronyms," calling it "adorable" (in reference to learning of SWORD). I laugh about the overabundance of acronyms in the Marvel universe all. the. time. Thank you, Beast!

• Kitty!! This is being added to my lexicon - for all those times I have to convince myself that I'm not nervous at all, no way. 

  

  "My calm is exceeded only by my cool. Which is total."
  I love her.

• What am I looking at here?

  

  Side note: Wolverine has really pretty eyes. They're so blue!
  (And he HATES me right now, for pointing that out.)
  (Or at least, he will, once he's himself again. Right now he's probably like, "Oh, why, thank you, miss!" Which is rather sweet, actually.)

  Also, there's more of it.
  
• Update: Basically, turns out, what we're looking at a really bad day for Wolverine, in which he became a perfect late-19th-century gentleman. (That qualifies as a "bad day," for him.) But then he got hit in the head with a can of beer, and he was all better. Because, Wolverine. (Again: never change, Logan.)

• I don't care that he's huge and made of muscle and also made of steel and could pretty definitely squish me with his pinky if he so desired: Colossus is adorable.  
• Case in point:

  

  Look at that face he's making! Giant teddy bear.

• The further I get into this run, the more fascinated I am by Emma Frost's relationship to/with Scott Summers. On the one had, I cannot fathom why she puts up with him. Not that he's all that bad of a person, really - seems a nice enough guy; I'd probably be his friend - but she could have anyone in the world that she wanted, and yet she stays with the one who still loves someone else? A dead someone else? Emma... why? But on the other hand... She explains why: she loves him. And it is a strange sort of comfort to see that even the great, powerful White Queen isn't immune to such life choices. I genuinely hope it turns out to be a good one for her. 

• So Spider-Man made a sudden guest appearance, which is awesome, but even more awesome is the fact that this means we get Spider-Man as written by Joss Whedon. Yes please. There needs to be more of this. I need this in my life. Spidey-snark + Whedon-snark = ALL THE SNARK.

• WHEDON!! MUST YOU ALWAYS MAKE ME FALL IN LOVE WITH PEOPLE AND THEN TAKE THEM AWAY FROM ME?! 
• I should have seen this coming. It's the X-Men, written by Joss Whedon. Both are really good at sad. 
• On that note: I take back what I said about wanting more Whedon-penned Spidey. I do not need Joss Whedon to literally kill my childhood.
• At least this time <shakes fist at Whedon>, it's a comic, and no one in comics stays dead. And I actually know this specific person comes back later. But, still. This person is gone right now and I'm sad right now.

• Ah, so this is where this image comes from. I've seen it around on the Internet.

  

  Except, now I know the context. He's not just being a jerk; he's truly unhappy. AND SO AM I, FOR THE SAME REASON. So now this makes me sad.

  
  

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There you have it! Another set of comics, and another blog post, done and dusted. Thanks for reading!

I hope you'll join me next time as I explore yet more Marvel comics - I believe I have Deadpool up next...

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* You're also welcome for this, which popped up on YouTube when I searched for the X-Men cartoon theme song. James McAvoy and Nicholas Hoult are the best.

Marissa Reads Marvel: Part 2 - Spider-Man

Hello there, Faithful Reader! Welcome to Part 2 of my Marvel comic-reading adventures. This time, I revisit my favorite childhood hero: Spider-Man!

When I say "favorite," I don't simply mean that 8-year-old me thought Spider-Man was the funnest of cartoons (though that was also true): she thought that Spider-Man was the very definition of superhero. If someone asked her to name the first thing that popped into her head when she heard the word "superhero," she would reply, "Spidey." (And she was watching all the superhero cartoons available in the 90s, too: the X-Men, Batman, Superman... Spider-Man still won.)

Then, for some reason, I just stopped paying attention to him for like, 15 years - the occasional Spider-Man film notwithstanding. Even when I downloaded Marvel Unlimited, I tried out a few other superheroes before finally diving into Spider-Man's catalog. I think I thought I had outgrown him.

I was very wrong, as it turned out - for a few reasons (like, plots), but not the least of which being that he'd grown up, too, at the same time I had. Peter Parker and I are the same age now, in the comics, give or take a year or two... and at first, that was so weird. I'm not even sure if I expect him to be perpetually older than me by a decade (as was the case when I was little), or if I expect him to be perpetually in high school (which I got used to from the movies)... But either way, we are not supposed to be on the same page in life.

But the more I read, the more I came to think it's actually really cool to see how someone my own age balances regular life with superheroics - and, even more so, to follow the story of a superhero who is, for once, neither considerably older nor considerably younger than me. This is someone who could very possibly be a friend of mine, and looking at it that way made reading Spidey's comics really, really fun. And, funny.

Honestly though, reading Spider-Man is the most fun I've had with this comic-reading project so far. 8-year-old me knew what was up: Spider-Man is the best. The. Best. I can't believe I basically ignored him for 15 years. I made a terrible mistake. (... Please forgive me, Spider-Man?)

So here I go, making up for lost time.

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Some general notes:

• WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOUR COSTUME IS IN TWO PARTS, SPIDEY!? IT'S A SHIRT AND PANTS!? ... Everything I've ever known is wrong; my life is a lie. I thought it was a one-piece jumpsuit thing! Why can't we see the edge of the shirt, or the waistline of the pants!? How does the shirt never fly up, even when you're fighting bad guys?! (I mean, yes, I can see that it's skin-tight, but still.) What sorcery is this?!
• Whatever sorcery it is, bottle it. You'll revolutionize the fashion industry. Goodbye, double-sided dress tape! Hello, whatever-Spidey-invented! 
• Wait. ... Does it stay still because you can make yourself sticky? ... Maybe don't bottle it?

• On the subject of your suit, by the way, I've always wondered - how the heck does the mask work? It moves with your face! You can make facial expressions, through the mask, and it's glorious, but I want to know how it works.

• THERE ARE CLONES OF PETER PARKER?!? 
• ... ... ? ... imeanwhatisthis?idonteven-icant-i-areyouserious? ... ... ?!
• Apologies. My mind has blue screened and it is unavailable to make intelligent comments at the moment. Please hold. Your music today will be No Doubt.
• Sorry, I'm not home right now, I'm walking into spiderwebs - so leave a message and I'll call you back...

• Why can't Spider-Man ever swing past the F train while I'm on it? 

  

  This would make my day. No - my life.

• How - seriously, how - is J. Jonah Jameson so wrong about everything!? Is he trying!? It can't be possible to be that wrong, that often, by accident. Oh, my God, he's awful. (Yeah, yeah, he's funny, sure. But he's also awful.)
• Wait. No, back up. New York City elected him as mayor!?!? Who was he running against!? Because unless it was, I don't know, Dr. Doom - or I suppose, a more likely candidate would be Wilson Fisk - I fail to see how JJJ could possibly have been the lesser of two evils. *sigh* Seriously, New York!? I expect better from you. Up your game.

• Peter Parker's apartment building has a doorman. ... I hate him, too. (Yet more #NYCproblems)

• Mary Jane Watson in the comics, is so much more awesome than I ever remember her being in anything I've watched.

• I keep jumping around in Spider-Man's timeline, because I just picked story lines that looked interesting with no regard to where they fell chronologically. Now I know what it feels like to be River Song.

• I want to be best friends with Peter Parker. 
• Does Spider-Man have a sidekick? Does he need one? Because I volunteer as tribute.

• But whyyyyyy doesn't Spider-Man Peter Parker realize how great he is!? (I mean, I know why, from a writing standpoint: that's one of the main tenets of his character. But. Like. Why?) It makes me so sad. And frustrated. I want to reach in there and shake him by the shoulders - or maybe give him a hug - actually, why not both? - and make him see how much good he's done, instead of focusing on the one person he wasn't able to help, or the one thing that didn't go to plan.
• Though it is possible that if he knew how great he was, he'd become insufferable, and that would suck.
• Still. I wish he knew. At least a little.
• Peter!! Hey there. You're awesome. You are so so so special. You are the definition of "superhero" - 8-year-old me knew that, and 26-year-old me hasn't seen anything that would change my mind. Chin up, sweetheart - you're doing just fine. :)

From unknown series (I didn't always write it down at first):

• You have Captain America boxers. That's wonderful. All the cool people are Cap fans, obviously. :)
• I didn't note what issue this came from, but I did take a screenshot. Which doesn't make me seem creepy at all. 

  

  I'm just gonna gloss over the massive amount of trouble you've stumbled into here, Peter. You're welcome.

• Peter's co-worker, Uatu Jackson, is wearing a sweatshirt that reads, "Big Damn Hero." Ahhh! A fellow Browncoat! (Both Uatu and the artist, I assume.)

  

  Shiny!
  Peter, I hope you appreciate how cool this kid is.

From the "Spider Island" run (Slott/Caselli):

• So, your girlfriend, Carli, has what appears to be a tattoo of Spider-Man's face on her hip. ... Does that ever get awkward? I'd think it'd get awkward.
• I don't actually want you to answer that question. Please don't.

• I'm beginning to think it's a theme that Peter's girlfriends/ex-girlfriends all make really cool Spider-Heroines. (A la Spider-Gwen.) Look at MJ go!! (Carli was great, too. But, my goodness, MJ.)

• This is one of my favorite panels ever.
  

  

  No such thing as too many quips from Spider-Man. No such thing.

• "Sharing a toothbrush." <sass> You've got to be kidding me, Peter. You are an adult - a full-fledged, gainfully-employed, living-on-his-own adult - and you can't say, in actual words, that you've slept with your (equally adult) girlfriend?? Seriously?? Peter. Get it together.
• Okay, okay. I understand that maybe you had to put it that way because some of your readers may actually be like, twelve years old. Fair enough. I forgive you. 
• I'm still laughing at you a little though :P 
• But, admittedly, I do kind of want to add this euphemism into my lexicon. 
• </sass>

• J. Jonah Jameson just lit up the Empire State Building in Spidey-themed red and blue, to say thank you. To Spider-Man. ... I think I might cry.

From the "I Killed Tomorrow" couple of issues (Slott/Ramos):
(In which I freak out about "Doctor Who," actually.)

• I'm disappointed in Spider-Man for not watching "Doctor Who." (But his co-worker, Grady Scrapps - the blue text - does, so, go Grady!)

  

  "Is the Doctor on the Defenders," oh, for crying out loud. (... Though now I want to see that crossover.)
  Also, Peter: between Grady and Uatu, your workplace is awesome.

• I solved the problem using "Doctor Who" logic!! (Sure, MJ solved it, too, accidentally, without any knowledge of "Doctor Who" - or even, indeed, any knowledge that there was a problem to solve in the first place - but, still.) It's a looooong story - which funnily enough only took 2 issues to tell - but it boils down to: Spider-Man wasn't needed to save the world; Peter Parker was. Which is "Doctor Who" logic at its finest: sometimes, an "ordinary" person can do the most extraordinary things.
• Obviously Peter Parker is not the standard definition of "ordinary" -  I mean, he's Spider-Man - but Spider-Man wasn't needed here at all. In fact, bringing in Spider-Man made things worse. All that was needed was the very human Peter.
• But I cannot stress enough how excited I am that I solved the problem - before Mary Jane did, mind you, so I had no help from her - literally by thinking, "This is a time travel problem! What would the Doctor do?"

From the "Ends of the Earth" run (Slott/Caselli):

• This was written well before Agent Melinda May became a character, but we can retcon her in here anyway, right?

  

  But now Agent May hates you, Spider-Man. She hates that nickname.

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Okay. We're at the end of this post now, and thinking back on everything I read/wrote, I have a question.

I understand that the whole thing with Spider-Man is that Peter Parker is shy and awkward and generally uncool, but then he puts on the superhero suit and gets to be all witty and charming and generally cool. I comprehend that that's the intended story. 

But I'm over here, reading the comics, and wondering where this "uncool" Peter Parker is? I don't think he's uncool at all! He's great! He's funny, and smart, and - and this list could go on for a while, so let's just say, he's totally cool! Sure, he lacks the swagger of, say, Tony Stark or Johnny Storm, but, so does Steve Rogers, and no one calls him uncool. (... They don't, right?)

I'm confused, people. Where is everyone getting "uncool" from? Do I have to go back to the 1960s or something? Because present-day Peter Parker is awesome.

... Is it just me?

... It's just me, isn't it?

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* Real-world side-note: I recently attended the same "Doctor Who" panel as Dan Slott did, at a Wizard World con in Philadelphia. I would never have realized it - mainly because I have no idea what Dan Slott looks like - but a guy in the front row of the audience yelled out some factoid the moderator had forgotten, and after thanking him, the moderator said, "That was Dan Slott, by the way, of Spider-Man fame." So, that was cool.

Marissa Reads Marvel: Part 1

Hello, Faithful Reader, and welcome to the first (official) Marissa Reads Marvel installment!

This will cover the first few series I read when I started using Marvel Unlimited: Daredevil, Hawkeye, and a few other bits and bobs and limited-run series. (Though, a note: Not everything I read will wind up in these blog posts. It depends on whether or not had "interesting"-enough reactions to things, really.)

Enjoy!

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Daredevil 

I started with Daredevil comics because, around the time I signed up for Marvel Unlimited, I also finished the Netflix "Daredevil" series - and immediately sniffled, "But why is there no more Daredevil??" I remedied that with comics! (Well played, Marvel.)

This is all from the recent Waid/Rivera and Waid/Samnee run.

• Matt's hair is sooooooo red, holy moly. (And by "red," I mean "orange." We're talking Weasley family levels, here.) Why hasn't this translated to screen yet?

• Matt owns his townhouse?!? ... But. It's so pretty. And nice. And spacious. ... I hate him. (#NYCproblems)

• Apparently, Matt's former wife, Milla, never could figure out how to make "hospital corners" when making the bed. Which means I need to apologize to my mom, because, when I was a kid, I was so certain she was making that term up when teaching me how to make my own bed. Sorry, Mom.
• Also: Daredevil and I make our beds the same way - hospital corners and all. We even have the same number of pillows, laid out the same way.

• I had no idea Daredevil and Spider-Man work together sometimes. I mean, I know that everyone in the Marvel universe eventually works with everyone else at some point, but Daredevil and Spider-Man actually seem to be friends? Neat!
• Also, any time Spider-Man shows up in Daredevil's comic, he steals the comic right out from under Matt's feet, which really is quite impressive.
• Example:

  

  Spider-Man!! I love everything about this panel. Including you. You're the best. 

  But wait. You're upset that Black Cat is flirting with Daredevil? Isn't she a criminal? I realize - belatedly - that you two dated and all, and maybe Felicia is cool, but... Isn't Black Cat a criminal? I think you can do better than that, right? Right.

  ... Good talk, Spidey.

• I want to take a minute to appreciate Kirsten McDuffie. She's fabulous. Put her in the Netflix show please and thank you?
• ... But wait until I'm cool enough to play her? Just, like, another season or two? Please and thank you again?
• She legit saved Daredevil's butt a couple of times, putting her own life in danger to do so - and she did it without any superpowers, or training, or anything like that. Just quick thinking and courage. She's so cool.
• And in case being an everyday badass wasn't enough, she's also cheeky and hilarious. You go, Kirsten - you mischievous, dastardly genius, you.

I love that she was like, "Okay, I see your wacky Christmas sweater, and raise you a bra. What else have you got?"

• Speaking of that "I'm not Daredevil" Christmas sweater: everyone on the Internet has already made note of this, but it is truly a thing of beauty.
• As is his candy-cane-cane - with mistletoe hanging off the top, of course. As you do. At least, as he does. 

Foggy, meanwhile, looks so utterly nonplussed.

• I've been kind of silly about things so far, but, I have to say.... Matt. Oh man. You have a rough life. I don't know what kind of vengeance demon you angered, but dang. But - at least in this run, where you're coming out the other side of much of the worst of it (until more bad stuff happens, naturally, I'm sure) - you handle it all really, really well. And, mostly, alone, which sucks, but you do it anyway. Frankly, you're kind of amazing. And not enough people tell you that, I don't think. (Certainly not in this run, they don't.) So, I'm telling you that. You're amazing. :)

Okay, now that I've finished 3-dozen-odd Daredevil comics and another dozen episodes of his Netflix show... Dear "Daredevil" movie people from back in 2003: Look at this guy (Matt Murdock). If this guy is anything, he is charming. So, I ask you, how did you manage to make him so forgettable?! I remember nothing of your movie - but look at what you had to work with! How did you fail to make him memorable?! How!? You were handed gold - how did you turn it into poop!? What kind of wacky reverse-alchemy were you using!?

Hawkeye

And then I went to Hawkeye - the recent Fraction/Aja run, specifically - because everyone has been saying it was amazing. Everyone was right.

• Nooooo I totally didn't Google Map the intersection Clint gave the cab driver to get him back to his apartment in Brooklyn, nooooo not at all. And I totally didn't learn that it's a real place where two real streets, really intersect. Why would I be curious as to how much of my neighbor Hawkeye is? That would be silly. Heh. Heh. Silly.
• I'm lying. That's exactly what I did. He's not as much of my neighbor as I'd hoped. :(

• I want to live in the apartment building Clint Barton owns. Not only does it seem like a really cool place, with really cool fellow tenants - but also, bonus: when something goes wrong in my apartment, and I need to call the landlord, it's Hawkeye who comes by to fix the problem. How great is that!? (I mean, it's off-duty Hawkeye - so, just Clint Barton - but still.) 
• Bonus bonus: I might be able to convince him to bring his dog with him! (Pizza Dog is so precious. Clint, since we're almost-kinda neighbors, please call me if you ever need a dog sitter!)
• Downside: This building is in the middle of nowhere. So far away from the subway! Why, Hawkeye? Do you never need to leave Brooklyn?? (More #NYCproblems)

• Once, just once, I want MCU-Hawkeye to say, "Okay... This looks bad." And/or to wince when someone says, "Bro." 
• Seriously. Bro. Bro. Seriously.

• The more I read, the more I like Kate Bishop. She's great! I want to be her when I grow up, and she's younger than me.
• Also, this. I don't know why it made me laugh so much, but it did. I do think it does a good job of capturing her irreverent, snarky sense of humor, though.

  

  He was shirtless a panel ago. She's chastising him.

Miscellaneous:

• In the "Marvel: 1602" series (Gaiman/Kubert - Neil Gaiman, guys!!), Matt Murdock is a bard from Ireland, with floppy bright-red hair and a very impressive beard. So, to recap: he sings, in an Irish brogue to boot, one would assume. Everyone who is not Matt Murdock can go home now. He wins the game.

• From the "Battle Scars" series (Yost/Bunn/Fraction/Eaton): Coulson!! You showed up! That's cool. Hi! But... Why are you like, 6 inches taller than usual? Have you since shrunk? (... You're not that old...) Why are you suddenly, like, 6 inches wider than usual? Is your hair a different color? Most importantly, why is your nickname suddenly "Cheese"?? ... I just have so many questions. Most of them start with "why."
• "You met Captain America!? (censored). Did you get his autograph?" Hah. Well, at least that hasn't changed! (Woooo #TeamCap!)
• But really, what is this? 

  

  I don't care how gigantic you are - you cannot possibly expect me to take you seriously when your name is "Cheese." Not gonna happen, Coulson.

• Why, oh why, did I think it was a good idea to read some post-"Civil War" comics on the subway?? (I'd read the main "Civil War" series a while ago, but never the aftermath.) ... I'm fine. I'm fine. It was just... uh... onions. Onion ninjas! Yeah, that's it. The Hand stopped by, armed with onions. On the subway. Nefarious plot, really.
• Sad Spider-Man is the hardest thing to read, guys. I just want to give him a hug.
• "It wasn't worth it." Oh, Tony.
• Also, YOU'RE (very censored) RIGHT IT WASN'T WORTH IT.
• Cleary I'm not sure if I want to punch Tony or hug him right about here. Which, actually, is not very different to how I usually how I feel about Tony Stark.
• Side-note: Did you know that Tony Stark once met King Arthur? Because apparently that's a thing.

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Well, Faithful Reader, you've made it to the end of Part 1! Congratulations! Stay tuned for Part 2, at some point in the not-too-distant future - join me as I revisit my childhood by reading Spider-Man comics!

Marissa Reads Marvel: Introduction

(Well... It's been a while... Hi there!)
(And I've changed my design and font preferences to make things look new and shiny!)
(We now return to your scheduled blog post!)

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Fun fact about me: When I become a fan of something, I have a sudden and overwhelming need to consume everything I possibly can, that is in any way related to that something of which I became a fan. Watch all the episodes; read all the books; watch all the other projects the creators/authors/stars have been involved in; read all the interviews... You get it.

And hey, you know what I've somewhat-recently become a fan of (after leaving it behind in my childhood for a while)? Comic books. Specifically, those which have been created by Marvel Comics.

And you know what has an absurdly, terrifyingly large amount of stuff for interested parties to catch up on and read about? Comics. Specifically, those which have been created by Marvel Comics.

You can see where that's going, right?

Conveniently, Marvel has an app/service, called Marvel Unlimited*, for just such an education. So, naturally, I signed up. Because I'm a new (well, returning/new) fan and now I need to learn all the things, as is my wont.

So, over the past couple of months, I have been devouring Marvel's back catalog. And all along, I have been texting my boyfriend with my reactions what I'm reading and learning, because a lot of it is surprising, or funny, or heartbreaking, or infuriating, or -- well, basically, if there's an emotion one can feel, I'm pretty sure these comics have made me feel it -- and I can't be alone with this. At one point, I apologized to my boyfriend for sending so many texts in ALL CAPS TO DISPLAY THE INTENSITY OF MY FEELINGS, saying, "I should just start a blog for these, so I can stop texting you." He replied, "Don't you have a blog?"

... Indeed.

So, here we are! I'll be posting a series of entries in which I freak out about Marvel's back catalog. (I freak out a lot and putting it all in one post would be unwieldy.) The first one is upcoming, just as soon as I finish posting this introduction.

Enjoy, Faithful Readers!**

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* If you aren't aware, Marvel Unlimited is a service that lets you read digital copies of pretty much every comic Marvel has ever published - up through 6-ish months ago, anyway. The app itself is... finicky, at best. But the service is great.

** I haven't written nearly enough blog posts - nor been at this for nearly long enough - to have "faithful readers." I know that :P But, the cast/crew of "Doctor Who" (back in seasons 2, 3, and 4) used to refer to the people watching/listening to their DVD commentaries as "faithful viewers" all the time - "Hello, Faithful Viewers! Welcome back to our commentary! Today we'll be watching episode..." and so on - and I thought it was cute, so I wanted to re-purpose it here. 

Why Captain America Should Not Be a Jerk (or, Why Captain America Should Stay Just as He Is)

I love Captain America. I never thought I would, but I do.

I didn't grow up reading his comics or watching him on TV (was he even on TV in the 90s?), and quite honestly, when "Captain America: The First Avenger" was being released, I thought he sounded cheesy and ridiculous (not in a good way, either). I went to see the film out of nothing more than sheer curiosity - how silly could he really be? - and because I wanted to see Richard Armitage on the big screen in the US*. (He wasn't Thorin Oakenshield yet, see.)

And then Captain America turned out to be the most awesome combination of totally badass and almost painfully adorable, that he became my favorite.

So when I saw a Vulture article, shared on Facebook by a friend of mine, entitled "Why Captain America is Only Interesting if He's a Prick," my initial reaction was surprise, to say the least. But I was also intrigued, so I clicked on the article and read through it. I thought it might present an interesting differing opinion from my own.

Which it did - so interesting, in fact, that what was originally going to be just a reply to my friend's Facebook post, has turned (months later, because I take forever to write these things) into this blog entry. My response was getting a bit longer than is socially acceptable on a Facebook wall...

The argument in the article, as I read it, is that the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), specifically, is bland. Captain America, as a concept, can be interesting, and there's nothing terribly wrong with his plot lines (in fact, the author writes that "there have been countless great comic stories either starring or featuring" Captain America and calls The Winter Soldier film "decent") - but the way he is characterized in the films, is boring.

And honestly, that's totally fine. I take no issue with that. As much as I love Captain America, I'm not going to argue here about whether or not he actually is an interesting character. That's a quality completely in the eye of the beholder, and any opinion on the matter is equally valid.

My issue with this article, instead, is the author's claim that "Captain America has the potential to be much more interesting - but only if he's a jerk," and his suggestion that a "flawlessly nice" character provides no "artistic good" to a story for today's world. I entirely disagree that Captain America "should" be a jerk; in fact, from both an in-universe/plot-based standpoint and from the outside perspective of a viewer/reader, I believe quite the opposite.

The author writes that, "Being a bit of a prick fits perfectly with the Captain America origin story," but I think it completely contradicts his origin story - especially the one we see in the MCU (which is the author's focus, and so will be mine here as well). Steve Rogers is chosen for the super soldier program precisely because he is through-and-through a good man; they needed someone who "knows the value of strength, and knows compassion," as the serum's creator, Dr. Erskine, said. Wouldn't writing Captain America as a jerk then erase the exact qualities that made Steve the perfect candidate - really, the only viable candidate shown in the first Captain America film - to begin with?

It's not that I don't think a scrawny kid like Steve Rogers, when suddenly granted superpowers, may very well turn into a bully, simply because he now has the ability to do so. Actually, I think that's a perfectly logical character progression; power corrupts, and all that. And I'm sure that the Ultimates comics - which, from what I understand, take Cap down that path (I've never read them, myself), and which the author uses in this article as an example of Cap-as-jerk - are a fascinating look into a "What if...?" alternate reality. But I think it's an alternate reality for a reason. Dr. Erskine chose Steve specifically because he felt Steve wouldn't be corrupted; writing post-serum Steve Rogers as a jerk, instead, would make all of that a moot point - Dr. Erskine was wrong, and Steve was not special after all - so I have trouble seeing how a rude Captain America would "fit perfectly" with his origin story.

Still, I think it's perfectly valid for someone to find Captain America to be a "boring" character. It's a matter of personal interests, and I can even understand the arguments against him. He's a sweetheart, but in a universe as full of huge personalities as the MCU is, that simple quality can fade into the background. (I think that's a shame, but it's true.) But I absolutely don't think that's a reason why he needs to be a jerk instead - on the contrary, I think it's a reason why he needs to stay the sweet-natured character that he is. Genuinely kind characters like Steve Rogers/Captain America are, in my opinion, extremely important, for so many reasons.

At the very least, the "artistic good [of] a flawlessly nice" character like him, which the author of this article questions, is to provide contrast. Not to say that the rest of the MCU characters aren't perfectly nice people (the Good Guys, anyway), but humility, warmth, etc, aren't really the strong suits of any of the major players. If Captain America were to be the jerk the author of this article says he should be, he'd be just another cocky superhero, too. His quiet kindness may make him less conspicuous than the others, but it also sets him apart from them; it helps him serve as a foil to the world around him.

But Steve Rogers' demeanor isn't solely a breath of fresh air in a universe chock-full of big egos. Much more significantly, he demonstrates that awesomeness doesn't need to go hand-in-hand with arrogance, and proves that kindness should not be mistaken for weakness - or for a weakness. After all, anyone can slide down the slippery slope to becoming a bully (or even just to becoming a master of snark and sarcasm like Tony Stark) when they're the most powerful person in the room. Plenty of people have, both in fiction and in our own real world. It takes a special kind of person - a special kind of inner strength that all the super solider serum in the world can't provide - to resist that outcome; to remain gentle and kind despite the power to treat others as if they're somehow lesser than you. Steve Rogers has that inner strength, and that's important. To have an unabashedly, unashamedly kind character like Steve at the forefront of his own film franchise (and of course the comics, well before that) shows that being powerful and being nice are not at all mutually exclusive.

Frankly, with all the messages out there about "nice guys (and girls) finishing last," about the only path to success being a ruthless drive to the top, about frenemies and cheating spouses and political corruption... I think we, as viewers (and readers), need to see a superhero like Captain America. We need to see a gentleman winning the day; we need to see a man whose kindness is one of his defining features - and that it doesn't hold him back. I love that we can admire and look up to Captain America not only because he's brave and strong and fast and all of the other things a superhero should be - but also because Steve Rogers is a good man, and that's the very best reason to look up to someone. He is genuinely, through-and-through, nice, without looking for anything in return for that kindness. That's all too rare - in fiction and real life - and that's exactly why Captain America matters, "even" in 2014.

Actually, that's why he's always mattered, and why he always will: he's not just a comic book superhero, he's a real superhero. (Bear with me here.) There is no super soldier serum in the real world; no gamma radiation, no radioactive spiders, no... anything. But there is kindness. In the real world, heroes are those who do good, who do the right thing, simply out of the goodness of their hearts. (Some say that to truly be considered a "hero," there has to be some level of self-sacrifice or self-endangerment involved - think firefighters, rescue workers, etc - but I respectfully disagree; a person can save a life with a kind word, or even just a smile, if it's delivered at the right moment, and I bet that person looks like a hero to the person they affected.) We all have that kindness in us - and if that was enough to make scrawny little Steve Rogers a hero, it ought to be enough for us. And we really ought to try.

So yes, maybe Captain America can sometimes fade into the background when compared to his fellow Marvel Cinematic Universe residents. Sure, he lacks the rock-star swagger of Iron Man, the regal might of Thor, the brazen resourcefulness of Black Widow. But that's who Captain America is: he's a good man, a humble man; one who goes in and gets the job done without pomp and circumstance, because that isn't the point, is it? The point is helping people, so that's what he does. He's powerful without being pompous; skilled without being smug; confident without being cocky. He's no less effective than the other Avengers, he just didn't let his abilities affect his personality quite as much.

To write Captain America as a jerk, then, is not a simple, minor adjustment. It would completely overhaul his character and undo his origin story. Beyond even the canon of the story, though, writing Cap as a jerk would rob him of his most important job of all: reminding us, his viewers (and readers), that goodness and kindness can make a hero long before any superpowers come into play. Just ask Dr. Erskine about Steve Rogers.






*Spoilery side note, for those who care how that particular point of interest played out: Mr. Armitage was in "The First Avenger" as that guy who pretends to be a reporter covering the super soldier serum procedure, but is actually a Hydra operative. So he's there for about 10 minutes, then he's caught by the newly-empowered Steve Rogers (not even Captain America yet!), eats some poison, and dies. ... Hail Hydra.

My blog has a direction!?

Because I am so determined not to fail at my New Year’s Resolution to write here once a month (at least), I've been working on three different entries simultaneously, in an attempt to catch up on the posts I've missed. (... This one makes four, actually.) All three of those entries are related to geekiness, in some way, as are the entries I've previously posted.

There’s that old saying/cliche, “Write what you know” - and I probably should have guessed, when I decided I wanted to keep a blog, that geeky topics would be “what I know.” But at the time, I didn't want to limit my blog to just one topic; I was wary of needing everything I would write to fit the “this is me talking about geeky things!” mold. Not only did I want more room to maneuver than that would afford, I honestly didn't think that there would be that much for me to say on the subject. Geekiness seemed to be entering the mainstream - as much as it ever can/will - and plenty of other people were handling any reviews, commentary, etc that I could think of to write.

But lately, as I think about what I've been writing for this blog now that I’m, you know, actually writing for it (... a bit), it seems that my blog has developed a direction on its own, whether I wanted one or not. And the more I think about it, if I keep feeling as if I have something to say on the subject of All Things Geeky - which apparently I do, since that’s what I keep sitting down to write! - and if I keep having the most fun writing on those kinds of topics… maybe it isn't as limiting as I feared, after all. Maybe there’s more for me to say than I thought!

I imagine there may well still be the occasional posts that have nothing to do with geekery - say, if I want to write about somewhere I've traveled recently, or about something I've read that wouldn't “qualify” as a geeky piece of literature, or… etc. I’m just not going to go out of my way to write about anything and everything. I have fun writing about life as a geek - probably because I have fun living life as a geek - and life as a geek is what I know best.

So that’s what you can come to expect from this blog, regardless of anything I may have said in my first entries. (I will update the “About this blog” section, though.) I hope you’ll still come along for the ride!