Q&A #99: What comic book character would make a good boyfriend?

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In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

What comic book character would make a good boyfriend?


Anika

Chiba Mamoru aka Tuxedo Mask

1. He regularly wears a tuxedo (and looks dashing in it).
2. He is never without a rose.
3. He is secretly a Prince.
4. He is romantic, faithful, reliable and loves deeply.
5. His superpower is “girlfriend pep talk”. Seriously.

Mamo-chan. He’s my comic book boyfriend FOREVER.


Caroline

Warren Worthington III, also known as Angel of the X-Men, would be an excellent person to date for his looks and money. Now, don’t get me wrong, Warren is (providing you caught him in between supernatural possessions that made him crazy and evil) a stand-up guy with a real sense of honor and responsibility. But he’s mostly distinguished by being the rich hottie superhero who is least likely to, for instance, be secretly saving your DNA in case he had to clone you. (I’m looking at you, Tony Stark). Also, his superhero identity has been public for years, and you wouldn’t have to deal with all that paranoid Bruce Wayne nonsense.

Of course, he’d ultimately dump you in a fit of angst about how you would never be as perfect together as Scott and Jean. (It’s a thing he does. Ask Betsy Braddock). Still, if you’re talking about a short-term fling, Warren would be pretty hard to beat.


Jennifer

I recently reread all of Thom Zahler’s Love & Capes to prepare for the release of the new miniseries, and I was reminded all over again of how much I would love to date Mark Spencer, a.k.a. The Crusader.

He’s a geek. He loves girls who love books. He can do your taxes for you. He’s a physically perfect specimen. And he’s also a superhero, willing to use his powers of flight to whisk you across the world at the drop of a hat for lunch in Paris — when he’s not making the world safer for everyone in it. He’s Superman without the drama, or the high-stress, competitive day job. Really, I can’t blame Amazonia for pining after him long after their breakup — if I lived in that universe, and wasn’t so invested in his relationship with Abby, I’d be doing some pining of my own.


Sigrid

Hank McCoy.

That Abigail Brand, she’s got a good thing going. Hank is wicked smart, funny, empathetic, thoughtful, secure in his masculinity, self-knowledge, and place in the world. He makes mistakes, sure, but then apologizes for them. He copes with stress by making jokes, but doesn’t make jokes in moments of true grief and anger. He is imaginative, with a knack for problem-solving, yet manages to keep an eye on the real world.

Sure, when he’s guilty or angry he withdraws. But as an introvert, I get that. The response makes sense to me. And I know his life is terrifically dangerous, but he’s a male flagship legacy character for Marvel. If they ever did kill him, he’d come back within a year or two.

So What about you? What comic book character would make a good boyfriend?

Fangirl Friday: Sarah

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Posted by Anika

It’s another Friday and another Fangirl! I like to call Sarah my fashion twin on the West Coast; we once had a Shoe Closet Twitpic exchange that sealed the deal. Besides being fabulously fashionable, Sarah sometimes gets to make her living being a fangirl. She’s been our collaborator through Alert Nerd and someday we are all going to write a MARVEL GIRL movie together. Fantastic Fans, meet Sarah:


Name: Sarah Kuhn
Where do you live? Los Angeles

What is your job? Education? I have a B.A. in Communication (with an Ethnic Studies minor) from Mills College. And I’m a full-time writer — I’ve worked mostly in entertainment and geek-centric journalism for the past 12 years, though I’ve also taken weird detours into writing, like, articles for swimming pool magazines and encyclopedia definitions for the official Star Trek website. In other words, I can expound at length about both on-ground pool accessories and the Jem’Hadar. I know you are impressed.

Is there a geek-centric article you are most proud of? Or one that’s particularly interesting? Let’s see…well, I’ve done pieces on stuff like when it’s appropriate to sub in nerd curse words (frak, frell, etc.) for real ones. And I’ve had the opportunity to profile quite a few of my own geek heroes, like Joss Whedon and Nana Visitor. But I think one of the most flat-out fun things I’ve ever done was a series of articles about actors who parlayed small roles on TV shows into something more — like, they were just supposed to be a guest star and then ended up being so popular, they became series regulars or recurring players. I talked to folks like Sean Gunn from Gilmore Girls and Vik Sahay from Chuck and David H. Lawrence XVII from Heroes and it may not have been the most obviously nerdy story I’ve ever done, but it did delve quite a bit into TV minutiae and what makes characters resonate for audiences.

How long have you been reading comics? Since I was a wee child. I started with Archies (I only remember the most randomly random of stories, like the issue wherein Jughead created his own sub sandwich-esque hamburger and named it “The Jughead Burgerino.” Or the Veronica spin-off series, wherein she jet-setted to a different country every issue and had fabulous adventures). But my deep hunger for complicated, near-incomprehensible continuity eventually led me to the X-Men and other pockets of the Marvel U.

Do you have a favorite comic of all time? A favorite character? Oh, gosh. The “OF ALL TIME” questions make me all nervous, cause I will surely forget something. I guess I’ll be a big ol’ nerd cliche and say “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” because it blew my tiny mind at a very young age and has stayed with me ever since and sort of contains everything I think a powerful superhero story should have: massive stakes, gut-churning emotions, dizzying plot spins, and swoony romance. I also adore Brian Michael Bendis’/Michael Gaydos’ Alias, because it blew my mind in a completely different way. And Chynna Clugston’s Blue Monday, Jen Van Meter’s Hopeless Savages, and Javier Grillo-Marxuach’s The Middleman all have that special quality where I feel like they were created JUST FOR ME.

As far as characters go, gotta give it up for Jean Grey and Jessica Jones.

And Jenny Sparks. And Jimmy Woo. And Emma Frost. And Jen Walters. And Lydia Park. And I will keep going unless I stop right now.

What comics are you currently reading? I read everything in trade at this point, so I’m not totally current on anything. I’m always eagerly awaiting new trades of Fables, Terry Moore’s Echo, Invincible Iron Man, Buffy, anything Agents of Atlas-related, and Secret Six, and am looking forward to reading the conclusions of recently-ended series like Air, Madame Xanadu, Unknown Soldier, and the iteration of New Avengers that wrapped up last year. I’ve dipped in and out of various X-Men and Avengers books in recent years, but the stuff I’ve enjoyed most lately has either been in the miniseries vein (like Kathryn Immonen’s Pixie Strikes Back) or sadly short-lived (S.W.O.R.D.). I also dig various webcomics, like Kevin Church’s/Benjamin Birdie’s just-finished The Rack, Max Riffner’s Drunk Elephant, Paul Horn’s Cool Jerk, Chris Haley’s/Curt Franklin’s Let’s Be Friends Again, and Faith Erin Hicks’ The Adventures of Superhero Girl.

What’s your favorite thing about comics? Why do you read them? Well, this will probably sound hopelessly dopey, but I love the way comics combine something so visual with the written word: you can tell a story in such a unique way. Comics provide me with characters I invest in fully and…oh, hell, can I just link to Sigrid’s amazing response to this question? I love what she said and I completely agree. And actually, that relates to something else I love about reading comics: there’s a communal aspect to it, a heightened passion within the fandom. Connecting with other fans on Twitter, geeking out over plot twists at cons, getting into heated debates about which ‘ship you ‘ship: sometimes that’s just as fun as, you know…reading the actual comics.

So, what kind of fangirl activities do you do? Oh, you know — the usual. I tweet, obsess over who they’re going to cast in the Hunger Games movies, get needlessly enraged at people who diss The Vampire Diaries. I wrote a geek novella, One Con Glory, that’s all about a fangirl who enjoys doing similar things. I love going to cons — I was on a panel at San Diego Comic-Con last year called “Geek Girls Exist.” I have a little gang that plays D&D semi-regularly. I’m also part of a couple of nerd collectives. One is Alert Nerd, a small press/website dedicated to fiction, essays, and other writings about geek culture. The other is something called The League of Extraordinary Ladies, and I can’t say too much about it yet…but watch this space: http://thelxl.com/

Tell me more about your own writing. I have three projects I’m working on right now. One’s a TV pilot I wrote with a friend, one’s a novel that will hopefully take me pretty far out of my comfort zone, and one’s an adaptation of Glory for another medium. All three have superhero and/or comic booky elements. I know I sound awfully vague, but I’m always afraid to talk about a thing in-depth before it is A Thing with a capital T. I am hopeful that marvelousness will happen with all of them, of course, but we’ll see.

What’s been the response to One Con Glory? It’s been beyond my wildest expectations — though I guess I’m not sure what I expected, exactly? Outrage at my possibly inaccurate depiction of Dance Dance Revolution? I don’t know. In all seriousness, my heart is warmed by the fact that so many fellow fangirls — and some fandudes, even — have told me they connect with the main character, Julie. She’s grouchy, wildly opinionated, and extremely resistant to change — I don’t think she’s easy to like, so whenever someone tells me they were rooting for her, it brings a small tear to my eye. Also, a few folks that I’m a big, huge fan of have read and claimed to enjoy the book and that makes me all giddy and stuff. I’ve always wanted to read a con-set romantic comedy, so it’s nice to know that other folks apparently wanted to read that as well!

Do you think there is a comparable difference between Geek Culture and Girl Geek Culture? I think big picture geek culture still treats women differently, despite the heightened visibility of lady nerds in recent years. I think the girl geek is still often greeted with either suspicion (are you a real nerd?) or astonishment (hello, girl nerd, do you realize that you are a UNICORN?). But I also think — thanks to the heightened visibility I mentioned — that is finally starting to change. For me, it’s been very inspiring to see geek girl culture become its own thing. There are tons of women who blog about comics now, there are a fair number of strong geek girl characters showing up in various mediums, and there’s a whole convention dedicated to the female geek. None of those things were really happening when I first got involved with fandom. I don’t know if all that really answers your question. Is there a difference between the two? I guess in geek girl culture, it’s a given that a wide range of lady nerds exists. In big picture geek culture, I think it still feels like you have to prove yourself a bit — and that’s lame, cause why do I want to expend valuable time and energy doing that? But like I said, hopefully things are changing.

twitter: sarahkuhn
–

Thanks for talking with me, Sarah, and I for one am SUPER excited for all your projects. Good luck!

Posted by Anika
email: anika@fantasticfangirls.org
twitter: magnetgirl

Finder: Voice, by Carla Speed McNeil

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by Sigrid

The blurb on Voice’s back cover says that “Finder is, bar none, the best SF comics being published today.” I completely agree.

Carla Speed McNeil has been writing Finder for a number of years now. There are now nine volumes collected in print, but you can read the current story, “Torch,” on the Lightspeed Press website. You can start, if you like, by going to the Dark Horse Comics webpage for Finder. It will give you a tour of the places, people, and stories of the city of Anvard. You can go read the wiki, if you like. But that won’t explain the power of Finder’s stories. My favorite without question is Talisman, the story of Marcie Grosvenor as she tells it. It’s the story of growing up liminal in a society that values firm definition above all things. But it is also the story of the power of storytelling — a liminal act in and of itself.

This is the kind of thing that makes Finder nearly impossible to describe or explain. I am reminded of all the people who tried to get me to watch Firefly when it was on the air. “It’s a western, in space,” they would say and I would wrinkle my nose in disgust. If someone had said Firefly is the redemption arc of a failed soldier and his found family, in a world where developed communities are marginalizing honor, I would have watched it in a heartbeat. But nobody did.

So here I am, trying to find the right thing to say to get you, dear reader, to read Finder: Voice.

Voice is about finding your place. Your place in the world, your place in a family. It’s about that first major act of a young adult, the frightening act where, after this, you won’t be your parents’ responsibility anymore. You’ll be your own. That act varies from person to person. College, graduate school, joining the military, getting an important job, getting married. In Voice Rachel Grosvenor-Lockhart is attempting to be accepted by her mother’s clan. If she makes it she will have the power and money and prestige to provide for her siblings — power enough to mitigate the selfish mistake their parents made by marrying across clan lines. If you want a story about burgeoning adulthood, this is a story for you.

In the early moments of the story Rachel loses something of value to her quest for clan acceptance. Recovering it leads her on a search for Jaeger, the outcast man who has been drifting in and out of her family’s life for forever. This takes Rachel through parts of the city of Anvard which are not hers, takes to to places and people she never knew existed. If you like fish out of water stories, or unsettling quest stories in which the protagonist is confronted with strange tribes and oracles, then this is a story for you.

Throughout Rachel’s quest she moves through and in the rich, mad, complex city and peoples of Anvard. If you like your sf worlds complicated, fully realized, and explained through context and immersion, this is a story for you.

Over and over Rachel must confront the Llaverac clan leaders. Her half-breed origin is an obvious handicap, but it may also prove to be a hidden strength. if you like stories about class differences, about Jane-Austen-esque conversations about money and place and affiliation, this is a story for you.

Voice is about so many things. That is McNeil’s constant, amazing strength. If you read the end notes — and, oh my goodness, you really should read the end notes — you will see that there is even more happening on every page than you realized. There are throw-aways on every page which have entire stories about them, somewhere, still inside McNeil’s head. Stories which will come out someday, maybe. It all rather fills me with the urge to bring a digital recorder and a supply of tea, booze, and chocolate (I don’t know which, if any, she likes) to some convention and sit down at her table and beg/bribe/pay her to start talking. To tell me the stories, dangitall. Please.

The collected graphic novel of Voice was at my local comics retailer yesterday, so I picked it up. You can order the Finder books from Lightspeed Press, from Dark Horse, from Amazon, from a lot of places. You can read them in order, I suppose. I didn’t. It didn’t seem to matter. Each book is its own story in the world McNeil has created. Events happen, and sometimes they are more explained in one book than in another. But each story is an act of voyeurism onto another world — you will have to work a bit to keep up, no matter which volume is your first. Try Sin-Eater if you like battered roguish anti-heroes. Or Talisman if books saved your life. Or pick up The Rescuers if you like police procedurals. There is something in Finder for any reader willing to accept a science fictional universe.

There is nothing in comics like this. Nothing as imaginatively and fully realized, nothing as complex and layered. As a cartoonist Carla Speed McNeil is one of the best; as a storyteller she is one of the very best.

Email: sigrid @ fantasticfangirls.org
Twitter: sigridellis

Q&A #98: It’s karaoke night! Who is singing, and what are they singing?

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In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

It’s karaoke night! Who is singing, and what are they singing?


Anika

Laura Kinney, Mindy McCready, Mia Deardon, Cass Cain, and Anya Corazon were recommended to intensive psychological therapy. Surrounded by death and destruction, expected to risk their lives daily, constantly measuring themselves against the older, stronger, more powerful and more experienced adults they run with — really, it’s a wonder they aren’t completely psychotic. But there aren’t that many therapists with the required level of specialized understanding to deal with these kinds of issues. Not to mention the security clearance. The Powers That Be are “working on it”. In the meantime, they’ve got group therapy with Jess Jones and Dinah Lance. And today is Group Karaoke Therapy.

The ground rules are simple: sing a song to express something personal. And the song list is simpler: it has to play on Radio Disney.

Jess and Dinah kick it off with Aly and AJ’s Rush. Jess is more into it and Dinah has a better voice. The girls watch with varying degrees of interest and anxiety. Cass and Laura count the beats silently and Anya wishes she was allowed to have her smartphone.

Ready to get this whole ridiculous exercise over with Mia volunteers to go next. She sings Taylor Swift’s Better Than Revenge and secretly enjoys it.

Anya chooses Selena Gomez and the Scene’s hit Naturally mainly to sing something “in the style of Selena Gomez and the Scene” (Best Name Ever) but when pressed she admits she loves the chorus.

Cass starts singing Avril Lavigne’s Alice (Underground) so softly the group aren’t sure she is singing at all — but by the end she gains some quiet confidence and ends with a measured strength.

Laura surprises everyone with her uncanny Miley Cyrus impression singing Robot. It’s the best performance of the night.

And Mindy brings it home with Ke$ha’s We R Who We R. She is oddly but incredibly charming and by the second chorus the whole group is up dancing, arms in the air and singing along. The girls leave closer and more buoyant than ever before.

Jess says it went really well. Dinah says maybe, but next time she’s in charge of limiting song selection.


Caroline

Brunettes are fine, man,
blondes are fun,
but when it comes to getting a dirty job done
it takes a red-headed woman

Maybe by the standards of the Springsteen catalogue*, “Red-Headed Woman” is just a bit of rockabilly fluff. On the other hand, it’s got to be one of the most cheerfully filthy odes to married love and/or cunnilingus ever put to tape by a major recording star, and that has to count for something.

If you lived in the Marvel Universe, of course, the song would have slightly different connotations, because every third woman would be a redhead. What was with that, colorists of the sixties? Nonetheless. Some Marvel redheads are more defined by their red-headedness than others, and, after Mary Jane Watson, the reddest of the reds has to be Jean Grey.

Now, MJ is certainly enough of a free spirit that she would belt this one out without much provocation. Still, sophisticated New York City model that she is, one suspects the Boss might not be quite her thing. Jean on the other hand, despite her good girl reputation, has her wild side. Get a few drinks in her and she’s belting it out in the direction of her husband, Scott Summers, and Wolverine, at the same time. They’re both simultaneously embarrassed, and loving it — for different reasons, which is exactly what she has in mind.

*apologies for being the kind of fan who invokes the standards of the Springsteen catalog


Jennifer

The era: roughly 1975-1980
The place: Iron Man’s private karaoke room
The team: Captain America, Iron Man, Beast, Wonder Man, Scarlet Witch, and the Vision

This is one of the greatest Avengers lineups, and one of the most likely to participate in group karaoke. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that Tony managed to invent a karaoke machine in the late 70s, I envision a party where each member of the team sings a Billboard top-100 hit from one of the years of their tenure as a team.

Tony Stark, being the host, opens the party with a totally shameless, rocking, off-key rendition of Bachman Turner Overdrive’s 1975 classic “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.” Steve, Wanda, and Vision are far too polite to say anything, but Hank and Simon get in their fair share of ribbing. Tony shoots back that they need to put their money where their mouth is, and passes along the microphone.

Hank, always the life of the party, happily volunteers to go next, and proceeds to do exactly what the title of Peaches and Herb’s 1979 “Shake Your Groove Thing” says. A giant blue gorilla man shaking his groove thing is a sight to behold, and it emboldens the rest of the group.

Steve, after pouring over the song list for some time, looking for anything he might be familiar with or at least not totally mortified by, settles on Stevie Wonder’s 1977 “Sir Duke,” a tribute to the big band leaders of Steve’s own youth. His singing voice, like every other part of him, is the peak of human perfection. Tony seethes in envy.

Simon goes next, leaping into a passionate and completely unironic performance of Irene Cara’s “Fame,” from 1980. No one is particularly surprised.

Wanda, shy by nature, has been sitting on the sidelines for awhile, unsure of her ability to perform in front of her teammates. To bolster her confidence, the Vision displays uncharacteristic levels of self-deprecating humor and sings 1976′s “Love Machine” by The Miracles. He’s just a love machine, and he won’t work for nobody but Wanda.

Utterly charmed, Wanda repays Vision’s sweet gesture with a low, quiet, heartfelt “You Light Up My Life,” Debby Boone’s 1978 hit. Everyone is smiling by the time she’s finished, and she and Vision curl up together in a corner, utterly besotted.

Finally, to round out the night, Beast and Wonder Man take the stage for a finale performance — a duet to Elton John and Kiki Dee’s “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” from 1976. In between the peals of laughter, some of their teammates can’t help wondering if they’re entirely joking.

Then, of course, Kang attacks, and karaoke night comes to an abrupt close. Time-travelling despots, strangely enough, aren’t overly fond of amateur cover songs from the late 1970s. It’s one of the many reasons they’re so evil. But Tony’s karaoke machine remains intact after the ensuing battle, foreshadowing many more nights of musical fun to come.


Sigrid

They’re stuck out in space, sure, and nobody at Marvel seems to know or care what they’re doing, but I care, and I know. The Starjammer’s crew is getting a little R&R singing karaoke in an intergalactic dive bar.

Rachel Grey: Rock Star by Rihanna. She sings it with enthusiasm, like she means it, and it makes her uncle Alex a little bit nervous. It sounds faintly self-destructive to him — but, really, he hasn’t got a leg to stand on in the avuncular advice department, so he lets it go.

Lorna Dane: Drumming Song by Florence and the Machine. Lorna couldn’t tell you who the “you” in the song is. Sometimes, it’s Alex, sometimes it’s herself, sometimes it’s Scott. And mostly it’s her father, but she wouldn’t tell Alex that.

Alex Summers: We Were Born for This by Paramore. Actually, Alex thinks that Scott is born for this, whatever “this” is, but he’s not going to tell Lorna and Rachel that.

So What about you? Who is singing, and what are they singing?

Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger: Race in Roger Stern’s Forever Allies

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Posted by Jennifer

Next Wednesday, the trade paperback collection of Roger Stern’s Captain America: Forever Allies hits stores. The story features fantastic art by Nick Dragotta and Marco Santucci and does some great things with the original Young Allies, a group of unpowered Golden Age characters who teamed up with Bucky and Toro to fight in World War II. It even manages to rehabilitate the astounding racism of the characters’ 1940s depictions, and for that reason alone I would love to be able to recommend it wholeheartedly. But its villain plot is so full of uncritical replications of Yellow Peril tropes that the miniseries mostly serves as case study in how to get things both incredibly right and incredibly wrong when it comes to racial representation in comics.

Golden Age characters can be tricky to use in modern times, particularly those who were created with racial stereotypes firmly in mind. Such is the case with the Young Allies, a briefly-appearing, multi-ethnic group of non-powered characters (much like DC’s Newsboy Legion, also created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby) whose entire characterizations could be summed up as “the prissy rich kid,” “the fat Jewish kid,” “the angry Irish kid” and “the black kid.” Of these, “Whitewash Jones,” Marvel’s first black character, suffered the worst, depicted as an ape-like racist caricature in his 1940s appearances. He didn’t even get a real name.

But Roger Stern, with Forever Allies (and his earlier “Young Allies” oneshot for the Timely 70th anniversary celebration) sought to cleverly retcon the characters’ early appearances, finding ways to subvert the racism without pretending it never happened. In this new, updated tale, all of the characters have more realistic names and characterizations and are drawn to look like real human beings, and Jones in particular – now Washington Carver Jones – is reconceptualized as a Tuskegee Airman and later Civil Rights crusader. But the original caricatures do not disappear. Instead, Stern posits that the comics on the shelves in the real world 1940s were also the comics on the shelves within the Marvel U – unauthorized, offensive depictions of the “real” people. By reframing this history, Stern manages to acknowledge the problematic discourses in 1940s mass media while raising his actual characters above it, allowing them to be outraged by the injustice. When Toro burns down a blown-up poster of one of the offensive Young Allies covers, it’s a victory for the characters and readers alike and a strong statement for Marvel’s desire to rise above some of the more questionable parts of its past without denying them.

This sort of rehabilitation of Golden Age racism is important in an industry that thrives on nostalgia. Characters created in the past gain cultural cachet through their longevity, cachet that newer characters can never hope to match. Therefore, as a step toward a more diverse modern comic book landscape, highlighting and revitalizing the few characters of color who existed in the Golden Age is incredibly important, even if their origins are problematic. Given all of this, Stern’s willingness to highlight Jones in particular within the ensemble of the Young Allies is laudable.

Unfortunately, racism did not disappear after World War II, and traces of 1940s attitudes remain in the present day. Such is the case with Lady Lotus, a villain created in 1979 by Don Glut as part of the Invaders series. Lady Lotus is a Dragon Lady in every conceivable way, a sexy, psychic World War II-era Japanese agent with mind-control powers and racist attitudes who formed a Nazi alliance called the “Super-Axis.” That such a character was created, and retconned into Marvel’s history, less than 35 years ago is disappointing in itself, but that she appears unaltered in Stern’s 2010 comic is completely indefensible.

For the most part, Forever Allies follows Bucky, artificially youthful in the present day, as he remembers his past with the Young Allies and attends the funeral of the elderly Jones, the last surviving member of the group. Among his memories is the group’s encounter with Lady Lotus, and Bucky soon discovers that Lotus is still around, still evil, still racist toward African-Americans, and still attempting to use her sex appeal (she, too, has been kept artificially young) and mind-control powers to wreak havoc. What’s worse, though Nick Dragotta, artist of the 1940s sequences, goes to great pains to use his 1940s-inflected style in a way that renders the Young Allies themselves as full-fledged human beings, the Lady Lotus (and her male sidekick) in the 1940s scenes look just like 1940s Asian caricatures – even though they didn’t even exist in real 1940s comics.

Given what a great job Stern did with Washington Jones, I continued to read the miniseries in the hope that it would somehow subvert the Dragon Lady/Yellow Peril tropes. But, beyond a brief reference to the struggles faced during the war by Golden Girl, a 1970s-created Japanese-American character similarly retconned into the past, the plot and the stereotypes on which it relied remained straightforward and predictable, with none of the nuance present in the depiction of the Young Allies characters. If anything, the depiction of Lady Lotus only got worse. In addition to being a stereotype in and of herself, Lady Lotus – the only other person of color in the book, beyond a brief appearance by the Falcon near the end – became the primary racist force toward Jones, and, as the only woman in the book, an example of sexism as well, with her “terrifying” powers of control over men. By the end of the series, as Lady Lotus met her defeat, I found myself demoralized, empty of all the joy I’d found in Stern’s initial representational subversions.

Other writers have more successfully redeemed Yellow Peril characters and stories, most notably Jeff Parker in his Agents of Atlas. And the most recent team to take on the name “Young Allies,” Sean McKeever’s excellent short-lived series, featured a multi-ethnic, gender balanced cast with nary a stereotype in sight. If you’re looking to expand your horizons with a comic book purchase this month, I highly recommend picking up the trade collections of either or both of those. But Forever Allies, whatever its achievements, is a series I can’t in good conscience recommend to others. Stern’s keen attention to the problem of African-American stereotypes is equaled by his blindness to the problem of Asian stereotypes, ultimately tainting the series. But its few shining moments leave me hopeful that another writer might take up the call, creating more past adventures for the smartly reconceptualized Young Allies – and perhaps finding a way to redeem the Asian characters of the 1940s at the same time.

By Jennifer Smith
E-mail: Jennifer@fantasticfangirls.org
Twitter: throughthebrush

Q&A #97: Describe a movie that should exist in a comic book universe.

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In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

Describe a movie that should exist in a comic book universe! What movies would your favorite comic book universes contain?


Anika

[Movie Preview Voice] In a world without superheroes. . . ordinary people have to save the day.

See, there would be all the same movies we have here in the “real world” but the superhero ones would be “based on the amazing true story” and get Oscars, and the Popcorn Cinema Action Blockbusters (now in 3D) with trailers during the Superbowl would be — well. Die Hard.

Anyway, doesn’t Annie here (from Batman the Animated Series) look like Mathilda in Leon (The Professional)?


Caroline

Cable Explains the Economic Crisis: A Documentary.

I have certainly mentioned that my favorite version of the X-Men character Cable is the one presented by writer Fabian Nicieza in the much lamented series Cable & Deadpool.

In this incarnation, Cable went from being a time-traveling supersoldier who confronted people with giant guns to a time-traveling supersoldier who confronted them with knowledge. I like to think this involved buying a lot of TV time and presenting the people of the world with important statistical information via pie charts. Like H. Ross Perot with a metal arm.

As time goes on, more and more things occur to me that a time-traveling policy wonk could help people learn about. Specifically, I like to think he was able to take time from fighting Apocalypse to gain a notion of what mortgage-backed securities were going to do to the economy around 2008. Enter Cable Explains the Financial Crisis, a pie-chart intensive bit of documentary film that Cable made and had sent (back through time) to the CEO’s of the major Wall Street banks as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission.

I would guess it did about as much good in the Marvel Universe as similar warnings from a handful of prescient economists did in our own. Give him credit for trying though.

(This is what happens when you absorb too many Marvel comics and too much Planet Money at the same time. It still kind of makes sense to me, though).


Jennifer

There’s an X-Men tie-in novel called X-Men: Dr. Doom: The Chaos Engine: Book 1 by Steven A. Roman that opens up with Psylocke and Angel on a date at a movie premiere. The movie, it just so happens, stars Simon Williams, the actor/superhero known as Wonder Man. As Psylocke describes him, Wonder Man has “Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body, Kevin Sorbo’s face, and Antonio Banderas’ hair.” It’s an absurd description, perfectly fitting an absolutely absurd character. But if there’s one thing Wonder Man is good for, it’s mockery.

So if I’m imagining movies within the Marvel U, I want the long list of embarrassing films that Simon Williams has found himself a part of. Did he provide a voice for the Marvel U version of Beverly Hills Chihuahua? Did he make a semi-autobiographical film that was the artistic equivalent of Mariah Carey’s Glitter? Or did he have a bit part in a superhero film in which he wasn’t dubbed talented enough to score the role of himself? These are the questions that need answers. I want to see Simon Williams’ IMDB page, and I want to laugh my head off.


Sigrid

I love film noir. It’s a not un-mixed love, as I frequently find things I dislike in the very same movies that I love. I love the blend of cynicism and hope, I love the dialog with an unholy passion, I love the agency of the femme fatale — yet I detest the frequent use of women as props and punching bags.

So it’s fitting that I want to see the noir films that exist in Frank Miller’s Sin City.

But I think I want to see whatever passes for a romantic comedy even more.

So What about you? Describe a movie that should exist in a comic book universe!

Fangirl Friday: Sam

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Posted by Anika

Hello all, it’s another Fangirl Friday. Today I have a sit down with a good friend of the site who actually facilitated the first face to face meet up of all four Fantastic Fangirls in Baltimore two years ago. Sam drove me down to the comic con she wasn’t even attending. In addition to comics she’s big into gaming, sword and sorcery (she’s working on a Women With Swords Tumblr), and sci-fi (I don’t know a bigger Dr. Who fan and that’s saying a lot). Fantastic Fans, meet my friend, Sam.

Name: Sam (or retconning if you follow me on twitter)

Age: 30

Where do you live? Boston, MA.

What is your job? Education? I’m in between full-time jobs right now, doing some low-pressure temp work at an insurance company. I have a B.A. in Women’s Studies and a law degree.

What kind of fangirl activities do you do? I tweet, I blog (less than I should), I roleplay and console game, I day dream and occasionally write, and II ingest massive amounts of geek culture…

“Ingest massive amounts of geek culture”… Can you expand on that? I spend a lot of time on tumblr checking out fanart and things related to the fandoms I enjoy (highlights are: Mass Effect, Xena, Doctor Who, Assassin’s Creed, DC Comics). I also get into big long conversations (I consider a debate to be an ingestion of knowledge from another point of view) and watch a lot of movies which I like to dissect afterwards. I also have google alerts set up for things I like – Tron, DC Comics, Doctor Who, etc. and every once in awhile I go to conventions. Sometimes I just troll the internet looking for things at random.

How long have you been reading comics? I picked up my first comic (an issue of the Flash) when I was six or seven. So, on and off, about 23 years.

What’s your favorite thing about comics? Why do you read them? I love comics because I love the visual storytelling. Growing up, comics had an edge over movies and television, because they could show us the stories that we couldn’t really see anywhere else. Even with CGI, comics still come out on top in a lot of ways because of cost and casting and such (cough Green Lantern cough). I read comics because I like the archetypal stories. I like heroes and antiheroes (especially), and I like the costumes and the worlds they live in. My favorite genre has always been the close-to-our-time science fiction, and that’s what comics are.

Do you have a favorite comic of all time? A favorite character? My favorite comic of all time is V for Vendetta followed by Y: The Last Man. Favorite ongoing of all time… probably Young Justice. My favorite character, wow. How can I choose. Ollie Queen, Bart Allen (especially during his Impulse and Flash years) and I’ll always love Superman. But the Elseworlds Superman characterizations are my favorite (especially Red Son and Secret Identity).

How about favorite creators? Alan Moore, Brian K. Vaughn, Frank Miller, Gail Simone, Paul Cornell, and Greg Rucka. On the art end, I love Alex Ross, Frank Quietly, and JH Williams III.

What comics are you currently reading? Sadly, nothing in an ongoing sense. I just don’t have the money. But if I hear something is good, usually via twitter, I’ll try to pick it up. That said, Batgirl is basically my favorite thing ever at the moment (I love Steph Brown). I’ve also been reading the Mass Effect and Tron tie-in comics.

Do you think tie-ins like that work better one way or another (for example Game to Comic versus Comic to Game)? So far I’ve enjoyed game-to-comic tie-ins more than vice versa. Comic-to-games tend to have the same issues that all licensed video games have… they suck and they’re disappointing from the fan’s point of view. If we’re going to interact with our favorite worlds, they should have strong scripts and tight pacing… like a comic. But with the game-to-comic, they tend to be fleshed out backstory or stories on our favorite characters. Probably why they work better.

So you’re a gamer. I’m a big gamer. Huge. I think gaming takes up the majority of my free time, whether it’s on my XBox or iPhone.

What do you think is the connection between comics and video games? Both are visual fields, and both allow you to immerse yourself in worlds that are parallel to our own but slightly (or massively) fantastic. Games are becoming more and more immersive every day, and I kinda love it. There are a lot of warning-tale movies, books, and comics about getting too caught up in the fictional reality that technology offers (Strange Days, eXistenZ, Fahrenheit 451, and so on) but I’m a weird person that thinks of those visions as Utopias, not Dystopias. Maybe I have more faith in humanity to adapt to connecting across digital divides without losing their love for what’s around them.

What’s your favorite game adapted from a comic book character or story? Wow, that’s a hard question. Most licensed games suck. It’s kind of common knowledge that they’re just awful. I don’t know why there’s a disconnect between comics and games, because you’d think they’d be a great fit, but… not so much.

The game I have had the most fun playing was Spider-Man for the Nintendo GameCube. It was a very large open world, and I liked swinging around New York for fun. I don’t really remember the plot, which probably had something to do with the first movie, and I’m pretty sure I never beat it. But I had a lot of fun with it.

Your favorite game of all? The Mass Effect games. These games epitomize (nearly) everything I want in a game. It’s set in the future, takes place in space, has a massive in-game world you can explore freely while also completing the main objectives (and side objectives, if you so choose), and gives you relative freedom with morality and character creation. You can make your character female and that female character has some of the same romantic options as the male character… and ALL of the same dialogue, equipment, and moral options as the male character.

Are The Mass Effect comics your favorite adaptation?
It’s hard to say. Only two issues are out. I like them because they’re backstory on a character we don’t know much about (he is literally called the Illusive Man), but the art isn’t my favorite ever, and art is something I’ve been paying more attention to since I got back into comics as an adult. I think my favorite adaptation so far would probably be Buffy. It’s another one I’m waaaaaaaaaay behind on, but it helps that the series writers have been involved, and everyone seems so into continuing the characters’ stories.

twitter: retconning
blog: Retconning My Brain

–

Thanks for chatting with me, Sam!

Posted by Anika
email: anika@fantasticfangirls.org
twitter: magnetgirl

Q&A #96: Bring a comic character to work day!

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In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

Bring a comic character to work day! What character would you bring to your place of employment?


Anika

I work at a university, in the department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, and just yesterday I helped put together a job notice for an open position. We’re looking for a visiting professor, a Molecular Cell Biologist to teach one upper level course for one semester. The requirements are a PhD, an interest in teaching and research, and an ability to get along with crazy people. Er, I mean, academics.

Bobbi Morse, PhD, would love to get lost in my university’s ages old science complex. And you know you want to take her class.


Caroline

The thing I could really use at work is a pair of fresh eyes. I’ve been doing my current job for several years now, and it isn’t that I dislike it, but that I come in some mornings and think -

“Really? This? Again?”

That’s never a problem for Stephanie Brown. As the star of the wonderful Batgirl ongoing series, Stephanie brings enthusiasm and creative thinking to a job (superhero!) that other Gothamites have been doing so long that they’ve started to feel jaded. That’s not to say that I am casting myself in the role of Barbara Gordon, Steph’s fiercely competent mentor and predecessor as Batgirl. But I do think that Babs gets as much out of helping Steph as Steph gets from being helped. Thinking of it that way, we would make a good team.


Jennifer

My job right now is being a grad student, so this is more a “bring a comic character to school day” question for me. And in that case, I think I choose Jamie Madrox, X-Factor’s Multiple Man. He’s a pop culture maven just in his natural state, always dropping references and self-consciously trying to live his life as film noir, and I’m sure some of his dupes have taken grad-level classes in media and cultural studies, so he’d be able to follow and contribute to the discussion, likely with some unique and enlightening observations. He’d liven up the classroom, especially when the rest of the class might be flagging — if all else failed, he could debate with himself! And as a bonus, he’d get along smashingly with one of my colleagues, who is the biggest Jamie Madrox fan I know.


Sigrid

Scott Summers.

I’m an air traffic controller, right? Scott is gifted with the ability to visualize three-dimensional space almost perfectly; it’s what enables him to make all those wacky bank shots with his optic blasts. (Let’s not ponder the physics of what is doing the bouncing or reflecting, shall we? Let alone how his optic blasts know which thing is a bounce and which to destroy. Presumably they read the script.)

ANYWAY.

Scott would get my job. He would totally grok it. Moreover, the man is a complete dork and would like all the technical aspects of how the system works. And he would be presentable and wouldn’t cause any trouble. Though I might have trouble getting him past the gate guards, depending on the current outlaw/pardon status of the X-Men.

I expect that he would be taking notes on the weaknesses of the national air traffic system, but that’s actually fine with me. Maybe if an unregistered Blackbird goes cruising around restricted areas some of our radar sites will get updated and replaced.

So What about you? What comic book character would you bring to work?

Awesomed by Comics Podcast

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Over the weekend, Caroline got a chance to fill in as co-host of the Awesomed by Comics Podcast. ABCP is a show that honors the best of each week’s new comics (and a few instances of not-so-best, but the focus is on positivity, an approach that’s always good to see.)

You can download and listen to Caroline’s episode here; she chats with Aaron while co-host Evie is away. They talk about new titles New York Five and Twilight Guardian, along with the Fantastic Four (spoilers!), a whole lot of Bendis books, and why exactly it is that Caroline hates Fantomex.

You can also use RSS or itunes to subscribe to the show, where Aaron and Evie do a great job week in and week out. Thanks to the ABCP gang for including Fantastic Fangirls!

The 2nd Annual Fantastic Comic Book Awards Nominees

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It’s time again for our very own Fantastic Comic Book Awards! To announce this year’s nominations, we have a special guest most recently seen in Thunderbolts, and a nominee last year. Please welcome the beautiful and talented — Karla Sofen:

Hello.

So we have five awards for four individuals and a team. Winners will be announced by Selina Kyle and Harry Os — what, really? That’s an odd twosome. Hm, where was I… Winners will be announced by Selina Kyle and Harry Osborn on March 1. So you have a month to vote. Okay? Right, here are the nominees.

In the category Best Character in a Supporting Role, Male the nominees are:

Rick Bradbury in Ex Machina
Ben Grimm/The Thing in New Avengers
Hank McCoy/Beast in S.W.O.R.D.
Peter Merkel, Jr./Ragdoll in Secret Six
Damian Wayne/Robin in Batman and Robin

Wow, what a group of weirdos. Oh, I mean. Congrats to you lot. My category’s next —

I was robbed last year, you know. Public can’t see past Perfect Pepper Potts being up on the big screen. I’d be better in film, too. Anyway.

In the category Best Character in a Supporting Role, Female the nominees are:

Atlee/Terra in Power Girl
Rikki Barnes in Young Allies
Barbara Gordon/Oracle in Batgirl
Jessica Jones in New Avengers
Robot Lois Lane in Action Comics

. . .

I’m not even nominated? I was shut out by a robot and a — What is this —

Fine.

Good luck ladies! At least fat Ms. Marvel didn’t make it either. On with the show —

In the category Best Character in a Leading Role, Male the nominees are:

Clint Barton/Hawkeye in Hawkeye & Mockingbird
Luke Cage in New Avengers
Michael Carter/Booster Gold in Booster Gold
Dick Grayson/Batman in Batman and Robin
Thor in Thor: The Mighty Avenger

Ooooooh. Hot, hot, hotter, and hottest. And Clint.

Just kidding, Clint. Call me.

Okay, this is boring.

In the category Best Character in a Leading Role, Female the nominees are:

Stephanie Brown/Batgirl in Batgirl
Anya Corazon/Spider-Girl in Spider-Girl
Bobbi Morse/Mockingbird in Hawkeye and Mockingbird
Pepper Potts/Rescue in Invincible Iron Man/Rescue
Karen Starr/Power Girl in Power Girl

Oh, now she’s a lead is she? Huff! Seriously, what do these women have on me?

Last one.

In the category Best Ensemble the nominees are:

Avengers Academy
Batgirl
Hawkeye & Mockingbird
New Avengers
Teen Titans
The Thanos Imperative
Tiny Titans
Young Allies

Yay.

So, I guess you vote now. Write-ins are entirely acceptable. It’s spelled M-O-O-N-S-T-O-N-E. See you in March.

For this entirely made up Award, over one hundred individuals and 20 teams (all mentions listed below) were nominated by a committee consisting of the four Fantastic Fangirls and ten guests. Everyone is invited to vote for the final winners. To vote send an email to anika@fantasticfangirls.org with the Subject Line Comic Book Award Ballot. Vote for ONE individual character or team in each category. You may vote in any combination of categories but only one ballot per person will be counted so please do not email until you are ready and please send only one email. You will receive a confirmation email when your vote is counted. Please be patient and give me 2 days before emailing that you have not received the confirmation. Votes will be accepted through Sunday February 27. We will tweet reminders!

Anyone and everyone is encouraged to vote; invite your friends and readers and feel free to campaign on your own blog (remember to link back) and Twitter. Do not feel you have to have read all these comics in order to participate, though we encourage everyone to pick up the books. This is a popularity contest, a fun way to honor some of our favorite characters. Please remember it is all for fun and save the drama for the movies! Comment or email with any questions. Thank you!

Honorable Mentions

Supporting, Male: Bart Allen (Various Titles), Deadman (Brightest Day), Dead Shot (Secret Six), Bobby Drake (Ultimate Spider-Man), Dominic Fortune (Hawkeye & Mockingbird), Ghost (Thunderbolts), Ken Hale/Gorilla Man (Atlas), Gavril Inanovich/Rocket Red (Justice League: Generation Lost), Jack (Joe the Barbarian), Jules Verne’s Brain (in a Steampunk Robot) (Mystery Society), Erik Lensherr/Magneto (Avengers Children’s Crusade), Humberto Lopez/Reptil (Avengers Academy), Peter Parker (New Avengers), Hank Pym/Wasp (Avengers Academy),Jamie Reyes/Blue Beetle (Justice League: Generation Lost), Julio Richter/Rictor (X-Factor), Rocket Racoon (Thanos Imperative/Guardians of the Galaxy ), Skeets (Booster Gold), Dr. Stephen Strange (New Avengers), Twitch (Hawkeye & Mockingbird), Johnny Storm (Ultimate Spider-Man), Sam Wilson/Falcon (Captain America), Wong (New Avengers)

Supporting, Female: Bambi Arbogast (Invincible Iron Man), Maddie Berry (Avengers Academy), Helena Bertinelli/Huntress (Birds of Prey), Danielle Cage (New Avengers), Etta Candy (Wonder Woman), Knives Chau (Scott Pilgrim), Xi’an Coy Mahn/Karrna (New Mutants), Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel (New Avengers), Ramona V. Flowers (Scott Pilgrim), Cat Grant (Supergirl), Wendy Harris/Proxy (Batgirl), Lizzie Hexam (Unwritten)(, Maria Hill (Invincible Iron Man), Angelica Jones/Firestar (Young Allies), Lana Lang (Supergirl), Lyra (She-Hulk), Gosalyn Mallard (Darkwing Duck), Kim Pine (Scott Pilgrim), Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat, Ivy Raven (Echo), Rogue (X-Men Legacy), Squire (Knight and Squire), Squirrel Girl (New Avengers), Norah Winters (Amazing Spider-Man), Lori Zechner/Black Alice (Secret Six), Zinda (Birds of Prey)

Lead, Male: Barry Allen (Various Titles), Bane (Secret Six), Chip (Chip and Chip: 2nd Crack), Daken (Dark Wolverine), Brás de Oliva Domingos (Daytripper), Tim Drake/Red Robin (Red Robin), Kon-El/Superboy (Superboy), Mitchell Hundred (Ex Machina), Billy Kaplan/Wiccan (Avengers Children’s Crusade), Lex Luthor (Action Comics), Drake Mallard/Darkwing Duck (Darkwing Duck), Norman Osborn (Osborn), Peter Parker/Spider-Man (The Amazing Spider-Man), Peter Quill/Starlord (Thanos Imperative/Guardians of the Galaxy), Steve Rogers (Various Titles), Drake Sinclair (The Sixth Gun), Tony Stark/Iron Man (Invincible Iron Man)

Lead, Female: Abigail Brand (S.W.O.R.D.), Gwen Dylan (iZombie), Pearl Jones (American Vampire), Lieutenant Anna Kharkova (Battlefields: Motherland), Dinah Lance (Birds of Prey), Jubilation Lee (X-Men Curse of the Mutants), Scandal Savage (Secret Six), Dex Parios (Stuptown), Mary Raven (Ignition City), Natasha Romanova/Black Widow (Black Widow), Tex/”Cout 5 or 6″(CBGB), Janet Van Dyne (Her-Oes), Kara Zor-El/Linda Lang/Supergirl (Supergirl)

Ensemble: Birds of Prey, Darkwing Duck, Invincible Iron Man, Justice League: Generation Lost, Mystery Society, Secret Six, Stumptown, S.W.O.R.D., Ultimate Spider-Man, X-Factor, X-Men Legacy, Young Avengers