Pretty, Fizzy Paradise

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Thursday, June 29, 2006

Damned List B Side, Progress Report

Okay, so I'm sure you guys all know about Ragnell and my little project.

Anyway, we thought now's a good time for an update. For the most part, it'll look the same as last time, I reckon. A few things changed around, a few references added, a few confirmed/rejected. But here's where we are on the guys' side right now:

(Please note that this is NOT the full list, it's a work in progress. We're still working on tracking down and confirming these instances. The complete list will use the checklists shown above, with specific citations and context information.)

Actual:

Apollo (Authority 14)
Bigby Wolf (Fables 14)
Bruce Banner (Hulk: Future Imperfect)
Clark Kent/Superman (Action 592-593)
Dick Grayson/Nightwing (Nightwing 93)
Foggy Nelson (false pretenses, ref. needed)
Gim Allon/Colossal Boy (false pretenses: ref needed)
Grant Emerson/Damage (Titans 17-19)
Guy Gardner/Warrior (Warrior 39)
Hawley Griffin/Invisible Man (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen v2 #5)
Herr Starr (Preacher #14)
Jack Knight/Starman (Starman 16)
Jo Nah/Ultra Boy (false pretences: ref needed)
John Constantine (Swamp Thing v2, 27)
Johnny Storm/The Human Torch (false pretenses, ref. needed)
Kon-El/Conner Kent/Superboy (Statuatory, Teen Titans Annual)
Mikaal Tomas/Starman ("Stars My Destination")
Namor (false pretences: ref needed)
Oliver Queen (ref needed)
Peter Parker (Spider Man/Power Pack PSA)
Simon Williams/Wonder Man (ref needed)
Swamp Thing (Swamp Thing v2 #60)
Tom Strong (#4)
Tom Strong (#23)
Vril Dox II/Brainiac (ref needed)
Wade Wilson/Deadpool (false pretenses: off panel between Deadpool Vol. 1 #12 and #13)

Attempted:

Bruce Banner/Hulk (Rampaging Hulk 23)
Jack Knight/Starman (Stars My Destination)
John Constantine (Tainted Love)
Wolverine (ref. needed)


Implied/Subtextual:

Andreas Struker/Swordsman (ref. needed)
Jason Todd/Robin (Dark Knight Returns)
Guy Gardner/Warrior (Warrior 22)
Lobo (Hitman/Lobo One-shot)
Maxwell Dillon/Electro (ref. needed)
Roy Harper/Arsenal (Outsiders 17)
Sanderson Hawkins/Sand (JSA 18)
Scott Summers/Cyclops (ref. needed)
Todd Rice/Obsidian (ref needed)

Symbolic: (violations that are not sexual in nature but still rob the victim of autonomy of mind or body, includes possession, mind control, forced transformations)

Guy Gardner/Green Lantern (GL v2 124)
Guy Gardner/Warrior (Warrior 25-referring to GL v3/JLI period)
Hal Jordan/Green Lantern (GLC 213)
Hal Jordan/Green Lantern (Parallax Storyline)
Jack Hawksmoor (ref needed)
Jason Blood (Demon #0)
Jean-Paul Barbier/Northstar (Alpha Flight, ref needed)
John Stewart/Green Lantern (Mosaic)
Kyle Rayner/Green Lantern (Green Lantern 131)
Rokk Krinn/Cosmic Boy (Legion of Super Heroes v4, 96)
Sanderson Hawkins/Sand (Creature in the Velvet Cage)
Sanderson Hawkins/Sand (DC Comics Presents 47)
Sanderson Hawkins/Sand (JSA 11-12)
Scott Summers (Apocalypse Storyline)

--

Anything you guys can add, anything I've missed, do contribute. The categories are in the links above! And Ragnell's got the women updated as well.

posted by kalinara @ 12:14 AM  

44 Comments:

  • At June 29, 2006 3:48 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I think "false pretenses" really does need its own category. That's a whole separate set of issues, on both sides.

    Otherwise, good stuff.

     

  • At June 29, 2006 3:58 AM, Blogger kalinara said…

    It will. This is just a basic, unsorted list. Everything'll be properly sorted for the final list.

    Statuatory instances will also have their own categories. :-)

     

  • At June 29, 2006 4:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Ah, excellent!

    One other thing I noticed, though; the Peter Parker PSA one definitely went into molestation, but there wasn't enough detail (thank goodness) to tell wether any actual sexual stuff took place. I'd probably put it under "implied", but that's just me.

     

  • At June 29, 2006 4:56 AM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Hmm, well, it was definitely an attempt, which either way puts it into actual rather than implied.

    I'll reread it though. I'd gotten the impression that it'd gone farther, but that's why this is only a progress report. :-)

    Thanks!

     

  • At June 29, 2006 6:55 AM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Ooo, that's one I missed. Thanks!

     

  • At June 29, 2006 11:59 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Citation for Vril Dox II:

    The assault begins in L.E.G.I.O.N. '89 #7 but the rape itself happens off panel between #7 and #8. It's not referred to as rape until #16 but it's established before then that the attack resulted in pregnancy so it's fairly obvious what happened.

     

  • At June 29, 2006 12:24 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Has anyone mentioned that Nightwing's rape by Tarantula was the *second* time he'd been sexually assaulted? Back during the New Titans era (around issues 90-93), Mirage slept with him while posing as Starfire. That counts as false pretenses, at least.

    Granted it was a terrible story in an awful downward spiral of Titans stories, but there you go.

     

  • At June 29, 2006 12:32 PM, Blogger Jeff R. said…

    I still think that Mirage/Nightwing (the real Nightwing, not the evil alternate Nightwing, which is on the other side) belongs here on the false pretenses list.

    Oh, and John Constantine has another Actual in Hellblazer #152-#155/Good Intentions (drugged and fellated by a dog on camera, no less.)

     

  • At June 29, 2006 12:33 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    kerithwyn and jeff: Thanks! I thought I remembered something of that sort but couldn't recall any of the details.

    ...wow, Constantine's not very lucky is he?

     

  • At June 29, 2006 4:32 PM, Blogger Seth T. Hahne said…

    So are you only counting stuff from the Big Two? 'Cuz Stray Bullets has more depravity than you can shake a stick at. At the least there is a hectic child kidnap/rape/torture in which the male child comes off worse (at least physically) than the female child.

    There's definitely some statuatory in Palomar. And that poor guy in the shower in Powers who got pretty much raped to death. Yorick from Y: The Last Man was sexually abused as a child by and older child while chained to a tree. David from Strangers in Paradise is constantly emasculated by Katchoo (though I'm not sure it counts) and then there's the strange bit where he saves his life by making love to Katchoo's sister (who had a gun to his head).

     

  • At June 29, 2006 4:47 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    dane: Right now we're sticking with Big Two. (and specifically major characters: heroes, villains, sidekicks, love interest types) But thanks! I'll keep those in mind for a later expansion.

    blake: Hmm, well...that's tricky. I guess I'll think about it and get back to you. :-)

     

  • At June 29, 2006 6:23 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Here's another one for the "Attempted" category: Warren Worthington III (Angel), in Uncanny X-Men 169-170. I'll quote from the UncannyXMen.net website, which has summaries of the issues: "Callisto stands on a train wagon. Beside her is the unconscious Angel, almost naked, propped up on some pillows which stand in painful contrast to the fact that he is not only bound, but also his wings have been pierced with a spike on each side....She’s in… love, Colossus states incredulously. No, lust, Storm silently corrects him. She remembers. She was twelve when a man looked at her like that and she had to flee." (There's a screenshot of this at the UXM.net website. Look under Archangel spotlight, p 3 of his biography.) In the summary for issue 170, there's "Callisto, wearing a mockery of a bridal gown, is coming on to the barely conscious Angel, who’s dressed only in underpants and some fetish wear and is still tied up. Callisto tells him how much she is looking forward to their wedding night. Storm stands up urging Callisto to stop. Angel is not a pet or toy."

    What I find fascinating is that it looks like Claremont deliberately switched the genders - the rapist is a woman, the rescuer and hero is a woman (Storm.) Nice reversal (I really like Claremont's Storm,) except he didn't bother to update the third part of the stereotype; Angel is as helpless and without agency as the most WIR female. I don't think he's even conscious in either issue, he certainly doesn't participate in his own rescue, and when he sees Callisto again in an issue of Excaliber (written by Claremont) it's played mostly as a joke, with Callisto and another villainous woman (Viper) fighting over him while Angel tries to ignore them both and continue whatever the plot mission was. Later there's a scene with Angel & his current girlfriend where she asks if she needs to be jealous. I found it rather tasteless, but then (as an admitted Warren fan) I've never liked the way Claremont writes him; I don't think he likes or gets the character.

    It's also very reminiscent of the Ollie/Shado/Dinah scenes, IIRC. Dinah treats Shado's rape of Ollie as deliberate infidelity, not as a woman drugging a man and sleeping with him by force. (I love Dinah to bits, but I honestly can't tell if this is a character note or just authorial prejudice.)

    Now that I read this over, I should note in Ragnell's list that Storm gets another entry - fighting off a rapist in childhood. Poor Ororo.

    Tuppence

     

  • At June 29, 2006 6:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    For Cyclops - Scott's a weird situation. I'm pretty sure that he spends at least a little time on the streets in all of his origin stories, but I think the amount varies. In his original story he grows up in an orphanage, runs away & hooks up with Jack Winters, but I'm not sure how long he's with Jack or how Jack treats him before the robbery attempt. In the update of his origin story, in Joe Casey's "Children of the Atom," Jack is abusive. He beats Scott up and abuses him verbally repeatedly on panel. There's a rather disturbing shot of Scott on his back with Jack straddling him and pulling at clothes. Scott's trying to push him off. Then there's the dialogue; here are some lines of Jack: "I OWN you. And if I FEEL like it, I'll KICK YER FACE IN!....Maybe I should have 'Jack Winters' branded on yer FOREHEAD, huh?!....You think I'm DONE with you, Scotty?! Yer friend's GONE -- and I ain't even STARTED yet!" Scott cringes when Jack touches him.

    It's all very disturbing. And it doesn't need sexual subtext to be upsetting - the physical and mental abuse is enough. The question then is, are we supposed to read it there? I honestly don't know. And even if we're not, Scott's a shrimpy, very vulnerable kid who's a runaway for an indeterminate period before he falls in with Jack. Realistically, I suspect it would be surprising if someone *didn't* try to sexually assault him in this time period. I don't know the stats exactly, but I imagine that runaway kids aren't the mostly likely to report an attack.

    FWIW, Scott screams "Don't touch me!" at Xavier during the robbery scene, but I think that should be ascribed to mutant/telepath fear. He does however say sarcastically to him "Guess if I need some 'guidance' I'll know where to come." Guidance in quotes - very sarcastic, and I suspect we're meant to think Scott's ascribing ulterior sexual motives to Xavier.

    (This is somewhat synthesized from discussions I've seen of Scott's background in other fan places, and again some info is taken from www.uncannyxmen.net. Yes, I have done some academic writing, why do you ask? :) But most of it is from the copy of Joe Casey's book that's sitting on my desk.)

    Tuppence

     

  • At June 29, 2006 8:06 PM, Blogger Katherine said…

    Cites for Northstar (courtesy of Uncannyxmen.net): in Alpha Flight v1, issues 41 he was mind-controlled and abducted by the Purple Girl, who had just come into her powers (inherited from her father the Purple Man). She doesn't actually do anything nasty with it -- she's too conscious of the things her father did -- but she comes close, and Northstar is distinctly displeased.

     

  • At June 29, 2006 9:38 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Think I can help you with some of the issues required...

    Foggy Nelson (false pretenses, ref. needed) - Daredevil Vol. 2, Issue #3.

    Foggy is slipped a drugged drink while meeting a client at her hotel room. While it is implied that things became heated between them, there was no discussion of sex being initiated IIRC. He hallucinates her turning into a demon and jumping out the window. He calls the police and is charged with the woman's murder. It is revealed later (issue #7) that his drink was drugged and that the woman was an actress.

    Unless there is an incident I don't know about, I think this one better goes under Symbolic, given that I don't recall that there was actual sex in this issue.

    John Constantine (false pretenses)Hellblazer #200 - John was essentially raped by a demoness, the daughter of John's old demon enemy Negral, who made him hallucinate three nightmarish alternate realities where he was married with children to some woman in his past. She gave birth to three children dedicated to John's destruction as a result of this.

    Oliver Queen - Green Arrow Vol. 1, Issue #11 -While drugged and recovering from an arrow wound to the heart, Oliver Queen was raped by the Japanese archer Shado, who had fallen in love with him but knew a relationship was impossible. She claimed later (Green Arrow #37) that she wanted to give him a legacy in the form of a child, knowing that his then lover Black Canary did not want children.

     

  • At June 29, 2006 11:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    If I'm not mistaken, Dick Grayson was also sexually assaulted by Mirage in New Teen Titans #87-89. Mirage used her powers to impersonate Starfire.

     

  • At June 30, 2006 5:30 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    anon: Wow, thanks. I vaguely remember those issues. I'll have to check them out!

    Gender shift is always interesting in that dynamic. Warrior had a less overt (no bondage) version as well. Female aggressor, female rescuer.

    anon: That's a good point. I'll have to check it out. :-) Fortunately, I have that one at my parents' house so I can check it out.

    katherine: Thanks! I'll add it and (when I can) check it out!

    starman matt: Thanks! Now that I have the issue numbers I can check it out and move him accordingly. :-)

    anon: :-) I'll be sure to add it.

     

  • At June 30, 2006 9:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Not sure if this counts, but when the Alien Spider suit took over Peter Parker, he took over his body while he slept.

     

  • At July 01, 2006 5:54 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Thor, at least once, got mind-controlled/love-potioned by Lorelei (the Enchantress's sister) - and then later in the same storyline Lorelei got mind-zapped by the Enchantress to fall in love with Loki. This was during Simonson's run on Thor, not sure which issues. I think Odin was dead at the time, and it was not-long-after the Beta Ray Bill story.

    In the Teen Titans (early in the Wolfman-Perez run, I think the reveal came in issue #3 or 4, although it might have been substantially later), Raven used her empath powers to make Kid Flash (Wally West) fall in love with her. After he realizes/is told this, he quits the team briefly, but still can't get over her and comes back. Or something like that.

     

  • At July 01, 2006 1:22 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I don't think mind control would count as rape because while, in the real world, it would count, in comics a person like the Martian Manhunter can read anyone thoughts unwillingly but that doesn't count as voyuerism. I think mind control would count as rape if it's something like what happened to Jessica Jones in Alias but not the usual villain controls heroes' minds and uses them for evil.

     

  • At July 01, 2006 3:27 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Psivage: Hmm, I'll consider that. Do you have issue numbers?

    Tom, thanks! I'll check those out.

    anonymous: Well, the key word is that in the real world it would count. Thus it's on the list. And J'onn's reading everyone's thoughts without knowing better early on was a big issue. He doesn't invade privacy now unless there's a necessity. But there *is* an ethics system in place, and as such, the comparison between reading minds/voyeurism stands.

    Thus, the mind control/possession/rape symbolism stands.

    However, it'll be in its own category and marked so the reader can discount if they wish.

    That's why we intend to add some context notes for all of them. With context supplied, the reader can decide for themselves if the situation counts for them.

     

  • At July 01, 2006 11:47 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Ok I know of two instances:

    WetWorks #31 I think: The Vampire Queen had Jackson Dane in her thrall; she had fun with him in more ways than one.

    An Issue of DV8. I don't know if she was really going to do it but Bliss was on the verge of doing something "questionable" to her brother Threshold. And Copycat was trying to use her gen-active powers to make Frostbite "be nice to her". But he told her he was hestitant because his first time was with Bliss and she made him "doing things" that he didn't want to talk about.

    trence5
    williamstorrence@hotmail.com

     

  • At July 01, 2006 11:48 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Thanks! I'll check those out!

     

  • At July 02, 2006 2:07 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I believe Bruce Wayne was sexually assaulted by Poison Ivy in :the long halloween" when she was controlling him. I remember Catwoman thinking something to the effect of " Bruce she's making you do things you normally wouldnt.....or shouldnt.

     

  • At July 02, 2006 2:08 AM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Huh, I don't remember that. I'll have to go look it up. :-) Thanks!

     

  • At July 04, 2006 3:51 AM, Blogger notintheface said…

    Here's a new "ATTEMPTED": A recent FLASH issue (a few months before Identity Crisis) spotlighting the Mirror Master II had MM recalling his first kill. He was in an orphanage and an older boy named Georgie took him into the woods, pinned him down, and tried to molest/rape him. Before Georgie could follow through, young MM grabbed a nearby rock and bashed Georgie's skull, killing him.

    Also, in New Teen Titans 1-4, Raven manipulated Kid Flash (Wally West) into joining the new Titans group by using her powers to make Wally fall in love with her. As far as I know, she did not manipulate him into any romantic/sexual acts while he was in this state. So I'm not sure of the category here.

     

  • At July 04, 2006 3:53 AM, Blogger notintheface said…

    Oops! somebody mentioned Wally and I overlooked it! Sorry

     

  • At July 04, 2006 3:54 AM, Blogger kalinara said…

    It happens. Certainly nothing wrong with listing something twice. Better than missing it! :-)

     

  • At July 05, 2006 8:37 PM, Blogger Michael said…

    Not sure if this is Superboy or the girl... Jor-el's robot teacher came to Earth to teach Superboy. In one episode (DC Superstars #12), he hypnotized a girl into being Clark's dream girl so that it was impossible for him not to fall for her. They had strongly implied consensual sex. See Dial B for Blog for more details.

     

  • At July 05, 2006 8:41 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Interesting! I'll check it out!

     

  • At July 06, 2006 6:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hello, I found your page while looking for the debates on Nightwing's rape. The reference for Max/Electro is in Marvel Knights: Spider-man, issue 2, where as he's talking to a mutant call-girl about what their "date" for that night was going to be, he says "Those little role-plays all sound great, but my last ocuple of times up at Riker's really opened up a whole new side of myself I didn't even know exsisted until lately." I hope this helps.

     

  • At July 06, 2006 6:18 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Thank you! If you're interested, I do have my perspective on the Nightwing-Tarantula rape on this blog here.

    :-)

     

  • At July 31, 2006 2:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Interesting list. Some of these I was aware of, but wouldn't count because of how they were handled by the writers. About half of the "actual rapes" were just passed over in the books, as if they either didn't happen or weren't real rapes. Most often they failed to have any impact on the characters.Kind of sad, but not unexpected. It's considered a non-issue and a joke.

    Also, I noticed your list is mostly DC. The current Punisher series slipped my mind before. There are two instances of male rape in #20 (Nick Cavella) and #31 (Stephens Mewling). Female rape is implied and committed off panel in #25-32 (#25-30 is the "Slavers" storyline about female sex trafficking). I think there are a couple more instances in Marvel, but I'll have to run through my books to find them

     

  • At July 31, 2006 3:24 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Thank you.

    And you've hit on the reason for the contextual information right there, really. We know that many people define portrayals of sexual assaults the same way. We're going by the most literal expression.

    We're avoiding value judgements in the lists because it's the matter of how the sexual assaults are played that make for the most interesting comparison.

    I suppose part of it's simply that saying "Sexual assault is not portrayed as personally devastating to a male character as it is to a female character" is far less effective than having lists of: "And so and so was forced into sexual activity in issue 2, it was never mentioned again."

    One of the purposes of the lists is to create a resource that people can use when arguing about the portrayals of sexual assaults in comics.

    And thank you, I admit, Marvel's not my strong suit, thus I'm very likely to miss a lot of applicable occasions.

     

  • At August 04, 2006 9:12 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Re: Andreas von Strucker/Swordsman, from Thunderbolts

    Well, first he was groped by Helmut Zemo, who was posing as Citizen V. Then later, after Zemo had murdered Andreas' twin sister, he turned Andreas over to Zebediah Kilgrave, aka the Purple Man, for "re-education". The most blatant evidence of sexual abuse is from TBolts 102, but earlier in the series Kilgrave mentions that Zemo punished him when he found out that Kilgrave had "taken liberties" with Andreas. There's also a reference to Kilgrave forcing Andreas to clean his shoes with his tongue.

    Writer Fabian Nicieza confirmed on the TBolts forum over at comicboards.com that he intended for there to be a sexual abuse subtext between Kilgrave and Andreas. Quote from Nicieza in response to a fan question: "It was stated before that Zemo actually punished Purple Man a few times for the... liberties... he took with Andreas, so no, Zemo did not condone any physical/sexual abuse that Killgrave performed. (since Andreas would not necessarily have known this, and the issue was from his POV, he couldn't comment on that)"

     

  • At August 04, 2006 9:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Re: Namor, in Namor #49-50, the Lemurian queen Llyra disguises herself as the Invisible Woman and tricks Namor into having sex with her.

     

  • At August 05, 2006 1:29 AM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Thanks! That'll help a lot!

     

  • At August 12, 2006 11:31 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Max Dillon/Electro mentions his prison experiences in Marvel Knights Spider-Man, but there's nothing to suggest they were nonconsensual.

    If the "false pretenses" for Wolverine is a reference to his encounter with Mystique, she had disguised herself, but thanks to his enhanced senses he knew it was her all along and still chose to sleep with her.

     

  • At August 12, 2006 11:52 AM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Thanks! I admit, the list is very tentative until I can track down and confirm instances myself. That helps though! Thank you!

     

  • At August 12, 2006 3:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    YMMV on this one, but I think it may be important to note that Peter Parker's molestation incident was completely noncanonical and almost certainly would never have been proposed as a canonical idea. Unlike ununilium, though, I do agree it should be in actual rather than implied - the lack of detail was from a "fade to black," not to make it a subtextual implication that the reader could choose to interpret as they preferred.

    Interestingly, if it were retconned in now it wouldn't change his origin or motivation for superheroics very much at all, whereas that's almost never true of female rape retcons (eg Black Cat and possibly She-Hulk, most recently). But that's just me musing.

     

  • At August 13, 2006 6:06 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    You can see scans of the Electro scene here. The reference he makes to his prison experiences suggests to me more of bisexual exploration than noncensensual rape.

     

  • At August 28, 2006 5:56 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    If it hasn't been mentioned yet, Batman would probably qualify under section A2.0, with Batman 656's retcon of the 'Son of the Demon' story. Appearantly the new version is that Talia and her father drugged batman, then used him to impregnate Talia while he was in the resultant stupor.

    By the same light, Ra's would probably fall under a perpetrator category, if you ever put one together, for helping to come up with the plan.

     

  • At August 03, 2007 1:33 AM, Blogger Orange said…

    I just found this list in a very roundabout way, and wanted to add a few instances.

    - Apollo was raped (or attempted) twice in the first run of authority... I can't remember the issues, but once is by the evil captian america-type villain, and again by teuton, his replacement, in the "transfer of power" arc

    - a villain called the Queen attempts to mind control and mate with Spider-man in spectacular spider-man #15&16, which is all very blatant.

    - in the first Secret Wars, the alien healer lady has love powers which she uses on many heroes, including Colossus. I haven't read the issue, however, but it is stated later in x-men series that they had sex.

    I'd have to argue for keeping northstar on the sexual assult list at least. It's left quite unclear as to exactly what Purple Girl gets up to with him, but it is hardly harmless.

    tis all I can think of atm, hope this helps

     

  • At July 19, 2011 7:42 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Add Conan to the rape list. I forget which issue or trade but he was raped by a female sorcerer while on an adventure with Red Sonja.

     

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