More words

Okay, I gotta admit, the helmet is growing on me. But I'd still prefer if Chris Evans spent the entire movie helmet/mask/cowlless. Because he's pretty and I like pretty things. I'm not a very deep person, I don't know if you've noticed.

It occurs to me that I really ought to be writing some long, substantial blog posts. You know, something with substance and a point. I remember how I used to do that once upon a time. But I suppose you can't force quality. :-P

Truth be told if I waited for a GOOD post, I'd never post at all. Which probably explains my posting rate last year. That was pathetic.

On the plus side, my friend's loaning me the end of the Vampire-X-Men arc. Since the majority of that came out when I was in my jobless, broke, barely able to afford much of anything stage, I'd let it drop. I'm not big into vampires in general. (With a few exceptions). And well. I knew Wolverine would end up getting vampired.

But then my evil evil friend told me that Scott's an awesome bastard at the end of it. And well, I can never resist Cyclops's awesome bastardy-ness. (Bastardity?) So fuck, I'm gonna end up reading Wolverine becoming a vampire. (I kind of like the whole Jubilee as a vampire thing.) The things I do for my insane fangirl love. I am ashamed.

Wolverine makes a better werewolf anyway.

What's With the Reboots?

You know, I really don't get what's up with all these superhero movie reboots. I mean: Spider-Man, X-Men First Class (apparently without a Cyclops, which makes it not X-Men at all, in my opinion. Cyclops even made it into Wolverine Origins, damnit), Superman...

I honestly don't get it. I really don't. Okay, I mean, I get that Superman Returns kind of flopped (I actually liked it a lot, but I get why some folks didn't), and Spider-Man 3 and X-Men III were really really awful, but I don't know why an entire reboot is necessary. Couldn't they just pull a Highlander 3 and pretend the previous movies didn't exist?

I mean, I got why they rebooted Batman. Batman and Robin pretty much killed the franchise. But more importantly, Batman had never had a movie origin (or at least not one made after the 1940s.). But we've SEEN origins for Spider-Man and Superman. Do we really need more?

I mean, what's really going to change? We already know the story, after all. I liked Ed Norton's Hulk better than the Eric Bana one, but I didn't really think it added anything to the movie mythos overall.

Don't get me wrong, I think the new Spider-Man and the new Superman are pretty easy on the eyes. But I'm really hoping they avoid yet another origin story. If it's like X-Men was or the Michael Keaton Batman movie, in media res, so to speak (well, for the team if not Wolverine in the case of the former), then that's okay. At least then there's a chance for a NEW story. But if it's yet another origin story, I'll probably pass.

Unless the actor's REALLY hot in costume, of course. :-)

I should have a post today...

But sadly I don't. I have a cold and have been spending the day doing errands and then watching awful television. (Hawaii Five-0 and reality tv. For the record, I think I like Angelo best on Top Chef right now.)

So yeah. I'll try to post something better tomorrow. :-)

Okay, This is so awesome I don't think I even need a blog post.

At the very least, I can't top it.

So good night everybody!

Talk show thoughts?

You ever wonder what talk shows would be like in a comic book universe?

I mean, the Summers family alone is like worth four Maury Povich episodes. (At some point, they're just not going to run the DNA tests anymore. Everyone's a Summers, man. Everyone.)

The court shows like Judge Judy would be pretty entertaining too. "I lent him my prize kryptonian weather controller and he broke it!"

And then there's Oprah.

Mostly though, I just want to see a special where Jon Stewart interviews John Stewart. Because that would be awesome.

I'm always kind of amazed when news organizations actually report comic book deaths as though it's actually some kind of news.

I mean, comics kill characters all the time, and really, the more "shocking" a death is, the more likely they'll be back eventually. (Everyone comes back except Jason Todd and Barry Allen! Oh, wait!)

Now, I have actually been spoiled as to which Fantastic Four member bites it (I don't mind spoilers, so I'm not complaining), but I haven't yet read the issue. I'm still not sure why it's so news-worthy. Captain America, yeah okay, maybe. This one? Doesn't seem to be such a big deal.

"Comic books continue to use same tired cliches as soap operas" never really seems like much of a headline to me.

Not much of a post, but a question!

So weird question, but have we gotten to see Cassandra Cain and Damian Wayne interact much yet? Or at all?

I just figured it'd be pretty interesting. I mean, if anyone in the Batclan or its periphery would really have an interesting understanding of what it's like to be raised by psycho assassins with delusions of grandeur, it'd be those two. And as much as I'd kind of like to firmly retcon out all the stupid League of Assassins storyline for Cassandra, it is somewhat relevant.

It just seems like there's an interesting potential dynamic there (and for some reason I don't imagine Damian being so quick to parrot his family's sexism to Cassandra as he is to certain others) that I'd like to see explored.

Sexuality and Story: When Relevance Is Arbitrary

God, you know this argument bothers me so much.

Well, okay, a lot of arguments in that post bother me but the one that's the subject of this post is one I've seen a lot of places. Basically, that producers/creators/writers/artists should only add gay characters if it's significant to the story, they shouldn't just feel obligated to add them for the sake of having gay and lesbian characters.

Which always leads me to think: well, why not?

Not every straight character in comics is straight because it's relevant to the story. Granted, a lot of straight characters' love for the opposite sex is relevant to the story. I would argue Superman, for example, has been defined as much by his relationship with Lois Lane as anything else in his life. But there are others who really aren't.

Take Cassandra Cain for example. Cassandra Cain didn't have an even remote possibility of a love interest until somewhere around issue 40 in her comic. Her story was all about her, her morality, her role in the bat clan and her place in the world. Romance and sex weren't issues for a very long time, though the character is clearly straight. (Or at least, attracted to men. That doesn't rule out bisexual, I suppose, but I haven't seen any indication that she has the same attraction to women.)

Plenty of heroes have concepts that aren't directly tied to their sexuality but still have clearly defined heterosexual traits. How about Batman? Sure, every so often there'll be a story about one of his girlfriends, such as when Sasha Bordeaux got OMAC-ed or when Vesper Fairchild was murdered, and of course it's always fun when Selina shows up to make his life interesting, but none of these relationships really have the same prominence as say Batman's role in Gotham, Batman's role as a mentor, and so on.

So why can't we have some heroes who are created specifically as gay heroes?

I'm not talking Rawhide Kid type stuff here, but how about Teddy and Billy in Young Avengers? I don't have a citation for you or anything, but I remember reading somewhere that the original idea for them was as a heterosexual couple. And really, I can't think of a Young Avenger storyline that would have been THAT different if Teddy had been a prospective Skrull Empress rather than Emperor. I think we can conclude then that Billy and Teddy were specifically created for the sake of having gay heroes in the Young Avengers.

And what's wrong with that? Teddy and Billy are great characters. They're cute, their personalities are appealing, their powers are fun, they have lots of ties across the Marvel universe. And they're gay. Works for me!

So why can't we see more of that?

The weirdest part of the whole "gay only if storyline-relevant" idea to me is that we're not talking about a book or movie here, where ultimately you're dealing with one main plot, maybe a couple of subplots, in a finite amount of space. We're talking about a shared universe involving characters created long before most of us were born!

The stories being told now in Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and so on, are not the same stories that were told in the 1940s. I'd imagine that the creators of Hal Jordan back in 1959 never anticipated the whole Parallax storyline (no matter which incarnation). Superman was around for what fifty, sixty years before he and Lois got married. There will always be new stories and just because a detail isn't particularly relevant NOW, that doesn't mean it can't be.

I mean, let's revisit Teddy and Billy for a moment. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a Young Avengers plot where their sexual orientation was particularly relevant beyond the fact that they're two boys in a romantic relationship. But if a writer wanted to write a story in which it's relevant, it wouldn't be that hard.

I mean, Teddy's basically the Skrull Emperor (albeit reluctant and in hiding), right? Well, at some point someone'll want to fix him up with an Empress. Marriage alliances are important bargaining tools. I don't know if Skrulls can or would shift gender in their own species (I'm not too knowledgeable about the skrulls, but from what I remember even though Xavin took a female human form in Runaways, he/she never seemed to take a skrull female form.) But even if they can, Teddy still identifies as male (and was raised as an American human, for that matter) and is romantically attracted to boys, not girls. Well, now his sexuality is relevant to the story!

Or take Billy. His grandfather is Magneto, right? Magneto's obsessed with mutant survival. Mutants are (currently) a dying breed. His son married an alien and had a non-mutant daughter. His daughter married a robot, but ended up with offspring anyway. He has two mutant grandsons approaching adulthood. So it's not hard to imagine that Magneto, who's not likely to be an X-Man forever, might decide to take a more personal interest in the future of his family line. And one of his sons is dating a male alien. So now, his sexuality is relevant to the story!

And when those stories are over with, the characters will still be gay and will have new stories in which their sexuality may or may not be particularly relevant. Just like straight characters.

I don't have anything against creating a character with the intention of making sexuality relevant to her storyline. Kate Kane, for example, is totally awesome. But I don't think that relevance should be a prerequisite.

And, I could be wrong about this, but I think some creators actually like creating gay (or female, or non-white, or disabled, et cetera) characters because they like creating characters, not because they feel obligated. I don't see anything wrong with asking/suggesting/wanting to see more.

More Wonder Woman info

Hey look! More info on Wonder Woman.

And...it's not really looking good to me, I have to say.

The project is described as a reinvention of the iconic D.C. comic in which Wonder Woman -- aka Diana Prince -- is a vigilante crime fighter in L.A. but also a successful corporate executive and a modern woman trying to balance all of the elements of her extraordinary life. "I had a lot of fun writing it," Kelley said of the script at TCA last week when the project had just been put on hold. "It's a huge project, and it was probably a bit too much to ask anyone to try to chew on it for next season. But I'm confident it will still happen. It's a very complicated piece, which is the most fun thing about it."

I mean, it's not that I have anything against the premise of a corporate executive who is also a "modern woman" and a superhero.

But is this really Wonder Woman?

What's so hard about the idea of a chick from an island of all women, meets a cute guy and then follows his ass into modern United States where she remains badass. Kind of Xena meets Felicity.

Granted, if she keeps the Paradise Island origin and the corporate business woman thing is just a cover, that could be fun. At the very least it'll be more satisfying to see than her playing mousy secretary to Steve Trevor. (On the other hand, it loses some of the symbolism: even the mousiest, most ordinary of women has a bit of Wonder on the inside.)

And of course, while doing Dispatches from the Fridge, I encountered someone suggesting that this version was somehow less sexist than the original which made my brain literally shut off in self-protection. I mean, granted, there's nothing immediately NON-sexist about the new origin (all two words of it), but still...

I might be cynical just because I've seen David E. Kelley's idea of a modern woman in a traditionally masculine power role trying to balance the different elements of her life. I kind of think he'll be delivering something a bit closer to Ally McBeal than Lynda Carter.

But before I let myself get TOO negative, I will say that if the show didn't have "Wonder Woman" attached, I would be pretty interested in the two phrase description, so I'll wait it out.

If it sucks though, I reserve the right to bitch endlessly. :-)

So I saw Green Hornet (some spoilers)

In general, I enjoyed it. I've never seen the original show, but the movie kind of made me want to check it out, so that's a plus.

The jokes generally made me laugh and the action was gratuitously violent in a silly manner, and that's good. It kind of veered toward "so stupid that it's awesome" for me. My mom, who did like the show, actually loved it.

There were a few parts that bothered me though.

1. Cameron Diaz. I feel incredibly hypocritical saying this, because I totally gripe about Hollywood casting women far too young to play characters like Carol Ferris (she's supposed to be the same age as Hal!) or Lois Lane. But I thought Cameron Diaz seemed too old for the role she was supposed to be playing. And really, I've never understood the attraction anyway.

2. Britt Reid. This is not a complaint about Seth Rogen's acting, or even his suitability as an action lead. I was fine with that, surprisingly. My problem is that, in the end, I never really understood what he brought to the table.

I mean, Kato and Lenore basically do everything, and his moments of redemption (the sushi drive plan, the channeling Kato martial arts bit toward the end, and that one idea for the car) didn't really accomplish anything. I mean, I suppose we're supposed to understand his importance when we see poor Kato with his resume, but really, all I thought was "Come on, you can do it under your own initiative!"

In the end, I'd much rather see Kato being awesome and figuring out he can be awesome on his own.

And the bond of friendship, which usually balances when you have an unequal partnership with one vastly more competent than the other, didn't really work for me either. They spend too much time resenting each other for me to see what really makes the partnership work. Aside from Seth Rogen enthusiastically babbling double entendres.

But in the end, I did enjoy the movie. Especially the bad guy. Chudnufsky was awesome! Best part of the whole darn thing!

Yay!!!

SCORE!

I'm not gonna lie. I still have my doubts about David E. Kelley's ability to deliver a feminist icon (I've watched Ally McBeal, after all), but I suppose I should give the guy a chance before I write it off entirely.

And really, I hated Smallville from the getgo but I can't deny that it managed to be a very popular show.

So in summation: YAY! Wonder Woman TV show! :-)

Why?

Okay, am I the only one that finds it somewhat pretentious that the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics has "seasons"?

It's not like the comic has to correspond with tv show scheduling. You can be a lot more creative with pacing.

I dunno, I guess it just kind of says to me "Look! Look! We were once a hit tv show!!!" and it doesn't seem organic to comics, you know?

That said, this is not a reflection of the quality of the comics. It's just something that seems weird.

(Hey, did anything come out of Buffy's whole lesbian storyline? I admit I was a bit interested in seeing how that turned out, but not enough to actually remember to look it up.)

Things I've Learned from Marvel Solicits

Well, the Marvel solicits are up and I have learned a few things about myself:

An immediate way to get me to read a comic: mention Captain America reverting to a 98-lb weakling.

I have no idea why, but that is my FAVORITE type of Steve story. He just looks so tiny and half-dead and somehow still manages to kick ass even when he looks like he'd break his little anorexic zombie hand trying to punch someone in the face.

An immediate way to NOT get me to read a comic: mention Daken AND X-23.

This isn't entirely fair, as it's perfectly reasonable to have Wolverine's daughter and Wolverine's son team up. But for all that I do appreciate Wolverine sometimes (usually in groups when he's not the starring role), I find little to anything appealing about his kids. I've gone into my issues with X-23 (toe claws!) and Daken, well, the bisexuality is really the ONLY thing remotely interesting about him, in my opinion.

And X-23 possibly embracing her dark side is only interesting in the sense that, well, I guess where she is currently is her fluffy bunny side? Yeah.

I vastly prefer Wolverine's surrogate daughters (Jubilee, Armor, even Kitty) to his biological one, sorry to say.

Finally: My wallet hates: that there are so many Captain America (specifically Steve-version Captain America, though I like Bucky too, my taste tends toward the original flavor) comics coming out. God, I'm glad I have a paying job right now. :-)

Well, My Interest Is Waning

Okay, so if this really is the actual cast photo for X-Men First Class, my interest is waning quite a bit.

Mostly because of no Cyclops, I admit. Or at least, apparently no Cyclops. It never really feels like X-Men to me without Scott somewhere in the mix, especially something called "First Class". Though admittedly, this might not be the entire cast.

I like that Moira McTaggert is maybe in it, don't get me wrong. But the rest just seem like an odd choice. (Especially if that IS Havok, like they're conjecturing at Newsarama. Really? You'll forgo Scott, and show HAVOK? I LIKE Havok, but his best claim to fame is being the less awesome/even bigger asshole of the Summers brothers. (Gabriel doesn't count in terms of the "asshole Summers brother" contest because it's like sending an Olympic triathalon champion to a day care three-legged race.)

The way it's composited looks fake to me, but fuck if I know. I hope it is, because aside from Beast, there really isn't anyone in the line up that draws me in. And while Hank's awesome, it's still not enough.

I do like Emma's costume though, so there is that...

So eventually, I'll actually get to see Green Hornet (plan is to see it with my mom.) So how is it?

Would I love it? Is Kato hot? Is there awesomeness? Is it stupid?

Fill me in, please! (and don't fear spoilers, it's all good!)

So group question...

What, in your opinion, is the worst concept for a superhero in DC or Marvel (or Indy, I suppose, but there's a lot less likelihood that I'll know what you're talking about)?

For me, I think it's still X-23. I won't say I hate the character, not like I do Gambit, and there have been times in group comics where the character has even made me chuckle a bit. And I've always thought there was an interesting element in the conflict between Cyclops and Wolverine over her role in X-Force, namely because, for all that she's Wolverine's clone/daughter, in a certain way, she's got a lot more in common with Scott than Logan. (For example: choosing to become a living weapon as an adult is a lot different than essentially being raised as one.)

But even granting that the character has potential, can be amusing, and has some good writers behind her, I still can't really get beyond the whole "female clone of Wolverine with history of prostitution and toe claws" thing.

Yeah, it's just kind of one of those things, y'know?

Placeholder

Hee. No post today, but I'm still working on getting back to my one-post a day routine, so you get this lovely placeholder.

So I'll give you something to ponder:

Captain Atom is neither a Captain or an Atom! Discuss!

Or not. :-)

Movie costumes!

Yay! Images of the new Cap Movie are up! See Chris Evans as Cap!

Happily, I like it! I'm not a huge fan of the helmet really, something about the chin strap bothers me. But I like that they kept the wings, and I like the look of the rest. Considering I sat through that entire 90s Cap movie with the inflatable muscles and fake ears? Having just a chin strap to complain about is a very very nice change. (Maybe he can ditch the helmet halfway through.)

(There's also a shot of the new Spider-Man. He looks pretty hot (Am I officially a pervert for saying that? How old is the kid?), but I've never been a huge fan of the character and I'm not really sure why they needed a reboot.)

So yeah, I'm always glad to see movie versions of comic characters that don't look incredibly stupid. :-P

Indeed.

So, am I a bad DC/Marvel fan in that the superhero movie I most want to see right now is Green Hornet?

I mean, I don't even KNOW Green Hornet very well, except as the superhero my mother keeps confusing Hal Jordan with ("Oh! He's the one with Kato, right?") I can't even comment on the casting, that's how little I know about it. (Seth Rogen seems like an odd choice for a superhero, unless you're talking Ted Kord or something and then I could kind of see it if I squint, but again, almost totally unfamiliar with the character.)

I do know however that Jay Chou is hot. And Kato is awesome*, so I am sold.

(* Kato being awesome is a conjecture I'm making on account of the "having been played by Bruce Lee" thing. I think it's a law of nature that Bruce Lee characters are awesome.)

Fan-Service?

So last post got me thinking, who's your favorite "fan-service" type character? What character would you like to see as the subject of "fan-service" more often?

And by "fan-service" I specifically mean the most immature, 12-year old, probably involves naked parts interpretation of the phrase. So yes, totally using it as a euphemism.

I think that my favorite "fan-service" character is probably Sand. Because it pretty much never makes sense when he's naked (since, well, I'm pretty sure he forms the clothes too. Or at least they're somehow made in a way to travel with him) and yet it happens often enough to be amusing.

The character I'd like to see subjected to fanservice more often...probably Superman. Because, well, he's Superman! :-P

(edited to fix an egregious freudian slip. fanfiction =/= fan service :-))

Demon!

Ooo! As like the only person I know of who actually liked Blood of the Demon, I'm thrilled about a new Demon miniseries.

Though I always get a little concerned when the writers only talk about Etrigan. Etrigan's great, but he's only half of the whole, you know? And without Jason Blood, it's very hard to have a real story.

Of the Demon series/minis over the years, I always thought the strongest were the ones that focused on both, not just Etrigan wreaking havoc. I hope this one follows suit.

Also, I hope Jason Blood gets naked again, because I'm a very easily amused pervert. :-)

Now This Is Useful!

Now here is some useful, if belated news!

DC is bringing back the letter columns.

This is more reason than ever to continue to write in to DC! Make voices heard and all that stuff. Go for it!

Addendum to last post...

Related to my previous post, what I'd really like to see them do with Cassandra is to make her into the modern version of Richard Dragon.

Just, you know, the go-to person for badass martial arts.

There's so much you could do with it. You could go the Ronin/Errant Knight route. You could go espionage. You could go more black ops/A-Team type stuff (that's honestly where I'd hoped they'd take her after Batgirl #72, before they brought her back OYL.) She could appear out of nowhere in any book, in any plot, in disguise or what-not, and aid in some much welcomed ass-kickery.

Picture it: Green Arrow's in like China. Or Brazil. Some place cool like that and gets into a fight. And then suddenly, the old woman in the corner throws off her hat and it's Cassandra Cain! She'd be there for her own reasons of course, and Green Arrow could decide to help or not. But either way, awesome fight scenes commence!

She could be DC's answer to Daughters of the Dragon. She wouldn't even need a codename. She could just be "Cain." It's snappy. And could totally be used for Kung-Fu/Kung-Fu the Legend Continues type homages.

I'd read it.

Thoughts about a Steph-Cass teamup.

Okay, so Ragnell made a post about the idea of two batgirls which made me think. And surprisingly considering I'm usually a giant sycophant, I actually somewhat disagree with her.

As full disclosure, I like Cass. A lot. For a long time I didn't (and I still think her origin is remarkably contrived) but over the past few years I gave her another chance and found out that...surprise! She's actually one of the few characters in the Batclan that I can actually stand. I actually suspect that she is my favorite now. And that's very hard to admit.

I also don't like Steph Brown at all. Her origin is, if anything, more contrived in my opinion. And I don't think she's grown a lot as a character and I think she's pretty much incompetent.

And I do think the two are not really compatible as mutual Batgirls. But it's for an opposite reason. I actually think that Cass will completely overpower Steph as a lead character.

Cass has better dramatic potential. Her backstory is darker. She's more competent and more badass. While both girls have villain fathers, Cain is a credible threat to Batman. The Cluemaster never broke even with Robin. If you're going with a "superheroes juggling superheroics and school" type plot, well, let's be honest. It'd be a lot more interesting seeing quiet, socially maladjusted Cass trying to deal with it than Steph.

Steph's incompetence will be in stark relief as well. If they're using the same name? It's not going to work.

But, I do think they could actually work as partners. One as Batgirl (I'd actually let Steph keep the title) and one as...I dunno, Lady Shiva? Some other identity?

Thing is, they totally fit the time-honored pattern of the buddy cop set-up, which we see over and over again in action tv and movies.

1) Dark haired, extremely competent, nearly superhuman, more conventionally beautiful/attractive, socially inept lead character.

2) Blondish, smart-mouthed, snarky, cute in a quirky way, socially experienced, klutzy, comic relief and general voice of sanity.

We see the pattern a lot because it generally leads pretty good results. As examples:

Benton Fraser and Ray V/Ray K from Due South. (Steph is more Kowalski than Vecchio, IMO.)

Or for a more current example: Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams from the 2010 version of Hawaii Five-0.

And there's the quintessential girl-power example: Xena and Gabrielle.

It would work very well. Cass is the action girl, Steph as the spunky sidekick. Steph fans might consider it a demotion, but the pattern doesn't really work the other way around. And honestly, the sidekicks usually end up with the bigger fanbases anyway. :-)

We already know from previous examples that the characters vibe well together, and this set up would actually get me to buy a Stephanie Brown book. Which is why I don't think it'd ever happen. But I'd enjoy it.

Rambling

Okay, I gotta admit this looks cool.

Really, I'm a sucker for all these live action type shows. Injuries aside, the Spider-Man musical sounded pretty awesome to me. Even though I'm thinking it's cursed now, of course. Mostly because I love acrobatics.

Not a fan of clowns though. I'm not afraid of them, but I've never been much for slapstick. Also, the ones at the Shriner's Circus when I was a little kid used to mime hurting each other while popping balloons and that made me cry.

I was a wimpy kid. I admit it. But I definitely remember crying during the Shriner's Circus because I thought the clowns were hurting each other. And therefore I don't like clowns. Vicious bastards.

For the record, my list of loathed things goes: Earthworms > deer > clowns.

But I like acrobatics, and musicals (except Glee, sorry) and so this sort of thing looks like a lot of fun. Too bad about the curse.

:-)

Why didn't anyone tell me that the 2010 version of Steve McGarrett on Hawaii Five-O is a violent raging lunatic?

No seriously, he's so my favorite type of character it's awesome. He's like Shane Gooseman and 4th Season John Sheppard had a kid.

The homoerotic undertones are nice too, and I love the other leads, but really, I'm addicted for the rampant violence. This show is wonderful!

Odd thought

You ever wonder about weird talents comic book characters might have? You know, the stuff that doesn't tend to come up in an action type story.

Like, who do you think can knit? Ballroom dance? Cook, Gourmet style? Sing opera? Play piano?

Who makes balloon animals? Plays hacky sack (do people still play hacky sack anymore?)

Needlepoint?

For example, for no reason what so ever, I always thought Guy Gardner could make a mean quiche. And Hal Jordan totally learned how to knit to impress some girl.

Got any suggestions?

An Aimless Gambit Hate Post

I'm sure by now it's not a shock to readers of my blog that I pretty much hate Gambit.

Truth is, it's kind of hard for me to pinpoint why. I mean, sure, he's done a lot of assholish things, but let's be honest here, my favorite X-Man is Cyclops. My favorite DC characters are Sandy Hawkins and Guy Gardner. Assholishness is not a deal breaker to me.

I could claim it has to do with his skeevy backstory and how I think he unfairly gets a pass for that whole Belladonna mess when Scott (unfairly, IMO) gets Maddie and Jean thrown into his face every chance he gets. But that's not really GAMBIT's fault. He didn't ask for that double standard, and to be fair, I don't really recall a whole lot of glaring hypocrisy on his part in the comics (though I may just be forgetting/haven't read something.)

I don't like his relationship with Rogue at all. I find it unhealthy and skeevy. But I don't think that's it either. Though I maintain that Rogue could totally do better.

Part of it is just his character design. He always looks like he needs a shower to me and I hated the magenta body-armor trenchcoat combination from the 90s. I have a high tolerance for awful costumes (I still love Cyclops's stupid condom-head suit) but that didn't work for me.

I suppose ultimately, my biggest problem is that, IMO, he's all style and no substance. All talk and no show. He's a cool concept (mutant thief in the bayou) that barring a miniseries or two never really went anywhere. His angst was never particularly notable to me, Mr. Sinister's presence aside (I do love me some demented Victorian geneticist) and always struck me as more a set of cool shit thrown together than a cohesive persona. Trenchcoat! Bo-staff! Cards! Black-on-red eyes!

That said, I was pretty amused by Claremont's The End, where he turned out to be a clone made from Scott and Sinister's DNA (presumably hyperaged since he's visibly older than Scott). Mostly because while the narrative kept insisting he's a brother, I'm pretty sure he counts as the closest thing to mpreg (male pregnancy fanfic) that the X-Men will hit in a long time. God willing. (Though I still vote that Scott's next kid from the future should be Wolverine's. Just for shits and giggles.)

I really don't understand the fangirl love for Gambit. I mean, he's got the accent. But let's be honest, the accent in the comics is about as far from actual cajun as you can get. His voice actor had panache in the awful 90s cartoon, but even then what I remember most about the 90s cartoon is where his incompetence almost got Cyclops killed in the Danger Room. And even then he was creepy in the way he kept pushing his attention onto Rogue. Back off a little, dickwad.

I don't get the appeal. I mean, sure he's got the dashing renegade thing. But Wolverine plays his "honorable renegade" thing much better, even if I think he's vastly overrated. He's rarely drawn particularly attractive, even making allowances for ...less aesthetically pleasing actors. And, while this is definitely a Your Mileage May Vary thing, I can't really think of any point in any story where I was like "I totally appreciate what value Gambit adds to this particular storyline."

Except maybe that one time in X-Men #1 where he hit on Jean and she turned out to be an exploding robot. And that's again, more to add to my internal "why I love Cyclops" thing because dude, he made an exploding robot of his girlfriend/fiancee/whatever they were at the time. That's just awesome.

Heck, I can't even think of any situations where I read a story and got immense satisfaction out of hating him/being horrified by him like I am with Professor X. I'd never want Professor X gone because he provides me with such great ranting material. Gambit doesn't even do that. When he's gone I do not feel his lack.

And Rogue still deserves better.

Hee

I do still intend to do my Gambit hate post, but I'm lazy, so instead I decided to post a picture of what's been distracting me from the depths of my irrational loathing.



This is my cat! Her name is Sam! She's pretty much unbearably cute and likes to lick my forehead (I have no idea why, but I suspect it's because she has a taste for human flesh.)

CAT!

In Search for a Blog Post

I was trying to build up the energy for a good hate post, because nothing is more fun to me than spewing vitriol at people who don't exist, but oddly I haven't been able to.

I can't really think of any character at this moment that I particularly hate right now. Dick Grayson, much as I hate to admit it, has been downright likeable for a long time. (I credit Damian for this, because Dick is, I think, at his best when he's concerned with taking care of someone else. It's when he's alone and self-focused that his wangsty tendencies shine.)

There are characters that irritate me a bit. For example, Stephanie Brown. I mean, I get the appeal, but I've always preferred a higher level of competence in my superheroes. But I do like that she owns her inabilities and works hard to improve. So I find it hard to spew forth hate on her. She's the little engine that could. (That said, I still liked Cass Cain a lot more as Batgirl.)

I suppose there's Professor Xavier, but I've never really felt the need for a full on hate post for him when there are countless examples in the comics of him either yelling at his foster son for not wanting to go on a mission so he can be with his convalescent fiancee, accusing Scott of being a terrible leader, or leaving a kid in an abuse situation because he isn't useful at the time. (Yes, all these examples are Scott centered. I'm a fangirl) It's hard to make a good hate post when really, Xavier does everything for me.

Oh wait. I do hate Gambit. I hate Gambit a lot.

Okay, well, there's tomorrow's post then. Gambit hate! Yay!

Happy New Year!

I had a good year, myself! I graduated law school, took the NY bar, passed it, and even got a job! And a cat!

Anyway, I suppose it's a good time for New Year's Resolutions. I think mine is to start posting every day again. I did for a long time, a couple of years even, but have faltered in the past few. No more! Now I don't care how crap it is, I resolve to post SOMETHING every day!

Happy New Year, everyone!