#( PRETTY AUTHORITARIAN! // MUSTACHE GIRL. )

[autumnblogs]

Day 32: Through the Looking Glass

https://homestuck.com/story/4116

So right out of the gate, we learn a few things about the Scratched version of the universe, aside from the obvious fact that the new heroes are the previous guardians. Everyone is a little more mature, and identities are a little more fully-formed.

Jane’s name is already set in stone. Notably, the definition between the audience and Jane is also a little clearer here than usual - the Narration implies a distinction between us and Jane. Could be because we’re not controlling her yet - but as we get into Act 6, we will find a lot of cases where audience participation happens as part of the mechanic of narration, and this distinction will be called to a lot more.

More after the break.

https://homestuck.com/story/4117

So let’s unpack Jane’s interests and relation to pre-established parts of the Homestuck Universe, and see if we can’t start making guesses about Jane.

First thing’s first is that while we could read Jane’s affinity for these mustachio’d funnymen as being purely an attraction, she roleplays like John does - as a bit of a prankstress herself, and one who dons a fake mustache for one of her disguises, Jane roleplays as these men immediately suggesting to us that she looks up to them, and wants to be like them, rather than that she’s attracted to them.

(Though she certainly could be.)

Second thing is that Jane’s position as the Heirress parallels her not to John, but to Feferi. Like Feferi, Jane is a sweet girl who is the heir to a position of abominable power, and because she is beholden to the shape of that power, as long as she remains wedded to that shape, she will not only struggle to do anything productive with it, but in the course of the story, be subverted into a villain, at least for a little while, and it’s clear from the way that Crockertier Jane’s situation is communicated to us that she is an accomplice to her own brainwashing, and that the actions she takes in that form are meaningfully hers.

On another note, I think it’s interesting that on this side of the scratch, the Condesce has reimagined her empire as a megacorporation.

https://homestuck.com/story/4120

What do we learn about Jake right out of the gate? He likes movies - adventure movies. Jake, like Tavros, the other page, loves to bluster about subjects that he actually has relatively little affinity for - and in both cases, their lack of affinity can largely be described as performing their culture’s ideal of public personhood - warrior virtue. While Jake has all of the outward signifiers of masculinity, and is actually a pretty brave and technically skillful fighter by the standards of the real world, up until the Hopesplosion, he is outclassed by a lot of his friends, and ultimately, the cases where he most embodies warrior-manhood, Jake is being forced into it by someone who wants to take advantage of him.

We benefit from most of this knowledge with hindsight. It’s not actually there in this opening section, but the main thrust of Jake’s interests is his love of adventure and his love of wrestling, and I’m principally interested in Jake’s physicality in addressing his interests - he’s a very physical kid.

https://homestuck.com/story/4121

We’re hot off the heels of Terezi’s fake choice, and a lot of conversation about free will and fake choices in Act 5 - and here we’re presented with one almost immediately. We can pick either option, but the outcome will be the same whatever we do.

https://homestuck.com/story/4124

I’ve always thought the Condescension’s relationship with Jane is deeply fascinating. There is something about the prospect of cultivating an heiress, someone to take over her legacy, that brings out something tender and maternal in her, I think, even if it only manifests in a twisted way. She’s a bit of an enigma to me.

https://homestuck.com/story/4126

Well, Jane is certainly interested in Foxworthy, so I rescind my earlier comment.

We’ve barely been introduced to her and she pretty much immediately starts showing off her paternalistic disdain for rural and vulgar people through the narrative’s language, and her nostalgia for Problem Sleuth characterizes her enjoyment of its sequel.

Jane has an aristocratic mentality, and conservative leanings in the media she appreciates, and the way that she appreciates it. If Andrew’s commentary that he continued to examine the themes he started with Feferi in Jane, I think what we should take away is that Feferi’s concern for the lowly comes with a heaping helping of...

Wait for it.

Wait for it...

Condescension.

B)

https://homestuck.com/story/4127

Jane’s disdain for the vulgar - low culture, low classes - also shows itself pretty quickly. In stark contrast to the other two leaders - John and Karkat - Jane isn’t much of a movie watcher at all (Jake gets that attribute in his session) and her attitude toward’s Jake’s movies is one of snobbery. Both of the other two movie watchers have a playfully self-deprecating attitude toward their own bad tastes in movies, but they still enjoy those movies sincerely.

Her relationship of passive-aggressive one-upsmanship also distinctly recalls Rose’s relationship with her mother, suggesting that Jane shares some of the underlying pessimism and mild hostility that Rose struggles with.

Also, as a symbol Swanson is a representative of the sort of anti-government animus that characterizes the politics of Trans-Mississippi America outside of the heavily populated West Coast, where the wedding of big business and state planning have created a lot of disaffection toward the distant and disinterested corporate landlords and bureaucratic apparatuses that govern huge tracts of federal land and private property in the west. Pawnee Indiana may not actually be on the other side of the Mississippi from Washington, but having grown up in Montana for at least a part of my childhood, Swanson’s politics are immediately recognizable.

Unfortunately, this anti-state animus has manifested not in the form of a renewed commitment to emancipation, but to the uniquely American, get-off-my-lawn form of Right-Wing populism practiced by the short-lived Tea Party, and smug “It’s just basic economics” Reagan-worshipping conservatives.

What I’m trying to say is, Jane would probably be a Ben Shapiro or Steven Crowder fan in the modern day.

https://homestuck.com/story/4136

Jane’s skepticism prevents her from listening to her friends when they tell her about the extraordinary things that they do, but it’s also not exactly a kind of scientific skepticism, and more of a dogmatic realism - she has a narrow vision of what the world is like, and is dismissive of ideas that are outside of her bubble.

Quick Note that while Jake makes only an off-handed remark about it here, he is sensitive to the hostile, toxic relationship between the AR and Dirk in a way that neither of the girls really is, and while that may seem uncharacteristically emotionally intelligent of Jake, I think he’s a lot more aware of his surroundings than he lets on.

https://homestuck.com/story/4142

Now as long as we’re talking about Right Wing Populism and comparing Jane to John there is an extremely potent assertion.

The USPS, and the idea of privatizing it, is as much a symbol of the war of corporatists and authoritarians against social democracy as anything is, and because of the way John is associated with Mail in general as a Hero of Breath, Jane is almost immediately setting herself up as a foil to John.

https://homestuck.com/story/4144

Calliope is so cheery that it’s easy to take everything she says in stride, and yet, with all the horrors Sburb has to offer, in terms of the way it destroys planets, and traumatizes its players, her optimism toward the game is at least disquieting.

Sure, the Null Session isn’t going to destroy the kids’ session, but her language is contrasted against both Kanaya’s and Karkat’s when they berated Aradia and Jade respectively. Both Karkat and Kanaya rue the effects of the narrative on their lives, but Calliope is a superfan.

https://homestuck.com/story/4156

I know I’m spending a lot of time ragging on her here, but like, as long as I am; Jane is sure openly hostile to her best friend, in a way that comes as kind of surprising even given the precedent that we have to work with.

https://homestuck.com/story/4160

Poirot is from Belgium.

I wonder if Andrew or Jane is the one committing that error?

https://homestuck.com/story/4168

Jake is full of little contradictions like this. Likes Adventure, terrified of monsters. Not even ambivalent about them, certainly not excited by them. It’s like the opposite of how little kids are usually super into Dinosaurs.

https://homestuck.com/story/4171

So what is the deal with Jake and his fascination with Blue Women? Aside from the metaphysical connection with Vriska and Aranea (and to a lesser extent, Jake), like... what’s the meaning of it?

I think a possible answer to the question lies in the process of the initial portraits becoming blue - leaving them out in the sun to fade - and the relationship between that, and the way in which he likes mummies and suits of armor, and so on and so forth - and even his stuffed trophies.

Maybe this suggests that Jake is, on principle, far more comfortable with the idea of a thing, than with the thing itself. Jake’s Blue Women are comfortably static. They have ceased to change a long time ago, and now exist, preserved in perpetuity, without the need to worry about adapting to suit them.

https://homestuck.com/story/4175

While a lot of Jake’s guesses are incorrect, he’s still clearly spending a lot of time pondering over the mysterious time shenanigans - he just hasn’t quite put it all together.

https://homestuck.com/story/4177

The same way that Dirk’s fastidious organization is equated to his complicated and demanding modus, and the way that John being a big impulsive himbo is equated with his inability to manage his fetch modus, constantly getting distracted from his goal by the card on the surface, Jake’s Modus has an enormous capacity, but most of it is preoccupied inefficiently.

https://homestuck.com/story/4184

The Autoresponder continues the conversation that Andrew has with the audience about the distribution of the self - Dirk does this more generally, but the particular thread the AR tugs on is the question of where a person’s self really stops - just as the question lingers in the air because of John’s disposition toward Davesprite, the question of whether the AR is really a separate person from Dirk, or a part of him, is posed continuously just by the fact that it exists.

https://homestuck.com/story/4192

To be fair to Dirk, who I will have a lot of kind-of-sympathetic-antipathy for, I had forgotten that it is, in fact, the Autoresponder who sets up this particular challenge for Dirk.

The parallels between Dirk and English are nevertheless being set up through this conversation nevertheless - by sending him the parts and getting him to assemble the robot, Dirk makes Jake complicit in his own humiliation, even as he attempts to build Jake up into an ideal partner.

https://homestuck.com/story/4196

Already we’re seeing indications that this segment of Homestuck will deal with different themes of growing up than the first half. Which is already kind of obvious, but we’ve moved decisively out of Part 1: Problems, and into Part 2: Feelings. The second half has moved out of the territory of other humans and their emotional situations as somewhat idealized problems (somewhat) and into this situation where everyone is a moving body, complicated and the characters are each others’ biggest obstacles, and their own biggest obstacles. That’s a bit of a reductive way of describing it, but I think it rings true.

https://homestuck.com/story/4256

While I am willing to concede that Dirk is not literally responsible for siccing the Brobot on Jake today, he more or less assents to AR’s sexual harassment and physical abuse of Jake.

In addition to his vicarious physical abuse, Dirk’s persona as the Prince of Heart calls him to suppress the uniqueness of the people who are around him, moulding them like clay into shapes that better resemble him. Jake and Jane need to be more like each other in his eyes - which is to say, they both need to be more like Dirk.

We also get some insight into Dirk’s sense of humor here - it’s not just about the irony. I think there is an extent to which at the base of the thing, Dirk’s sense of humor is about simultaneously denying and affirming a thing’s meaning - making fun of it while cherishing it. Having a thing be incredibly silly - while also being incredibly serious business. He cherishes the absurd.

I wonder if he’d like Kojima’s stuff.

https://homestuck.com/story/4257

The way that Dirk identifies with logic and reason recalls the sort of “enlightened by my own intelligence” New Atheist jerks who were known to prowl the internet in the early half of the decade, and to some extent, still do. Like Libertarians, these folks have often in the present day gotten caught up in Right Wing Populism. Maybe it’s something about the way that Right Wing movements increasingly identify as a part of counter-culture even though they advocate reactionary policies.

https://homestuck.com/story/4273

This is extremely silly, but Jake is in mortal peril all the time, and I expect even at the best of times he might be uncomfortable being touched.

https://homestuck.com/story/4284

Here we shall pause.

Sorry for the late post. Early work was quite busy, and once the rush was over, it was already quite late.

So the first Act of Act 6 has been very informative! Compared to the first Act of Homestuck, we’ve been introduced already to all our Dramatis Personae!

Tune back in tomorrow to here Cam Say,

Some variation on Alive and Not Alone.

#commentary #liveblogging

[glenngaylord]

IT’S ABOUT TIME - My Review of ANTEBELLUM ★★★

As a Jew, I had grown tired of Holocaust narratives in film.  Can anyone make anything better or more definitive than Schindler’s List?  I’d always been dubious until Son Of Saul proved me wrong.  So, with a more open mind, I approached Antebellum, the debut feature by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, hoping against hope that it could transcend the tired tropes of a similar genre, the slave narrative.  Both subjects often bring with them the noble sufferers, a plaintive symphonic score, and hiss-worthy villains. A little nuance, layered characters, and a storyline not bottled in formaldehyde seem like welcome elements at this point.  Luckily, Antebellum has an original approach and a fierce lead performance to overcome some otherwise tragic flaws.

Opening with Williams Faulkner’s quote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past” clues us into the reckoning on slavery about to unfold. As a country, we still have yet to truly face and come to terms with its repercussions.  The last four years alone spell that out pretty succinctly, with those who deny the existence of systemic racism, with those who kill unarmed black men and women, and with those who think there were “very fine people” spouting racist and Nazi rhetoric in Charlottesville.  

Faulkner’s quote resonates throughout the film, which opens on a beautiful slow motion steadicam shot as it wends its way through a slave owner’s plantation setting.  The striking score by Roman GianArthur and Nate Wonder may have symphonic elements, but it also includes a percussive drive and enough ominous notes to keep you intrigued.  We follow a little white girl for a bit as she strolls happily through the grounds until we run into regimented Confederate troops. A quick glance at a distraught woman named Eden (queer icon, Janelle Monáe) takes us right to a male slave being yoked away as a female slave begs for his life after a failed escape attempt.  

From here, we spend the next 40 minutes steeped in the atrocities of the pre- and post-Civil War south, all seen from Eden’s point of view.  Monáe has impressed me in supporting roles in Moonlight and Hidden Figures, and does so again in this, her first feature lead performance. I feel like her stunning features cause her to work a little harder than other actors to prove she has the goods, and sometimes I’ve noticed that work.  Here, she seems assured and gets nice visual character moments to prove her smarts, such as when she creatively figures out how to move around in her cabin without creaking the floor boards.  Unfortunately, the filmmakers surround her with a gallery of one dimensional characters, including the mustache twirling, abusive, sadistic Captain Jasper (Jack Huston), the mustache twirling abusive, sadistic unnamed officer (Eric Lange), the genteel, but sadistic southern belle (Jena Malone), and, you get the point.  Although they offer some wonderfully fragile moments, both Kiersey Clemons and Tongayi Chirisa have barely sketched out slave characters.  Clemons, however, has a terrific speech when she challenges Monáe on the perils of waiting and remaining silent as the horrors of their situation amass.  The filmmakers, to their credit, also sprinkle in some strange details throughout this section to keep you off balance.  

And then…

I don’t want to spoil anything more.  I didn’t watch the trailer beforehand and I recommend going in as cold as possible.  Suffice it to say, the filmmakers strive to disorient the audience.  This includes new characters, chief among them the scene-stealingly hilarious Gabourey Sidibe as a woman who has never faced a micro-aggression she couldn’t extinguish. In this section, Monáe and Sidibe serve as strong counterpoints to the “noble suffering” of the previously established characters, forcing us to consider the squelched lives of an entire race of humans. Over the course of history, we have lost so many lives to slavery, the Holocaust, opposition to an authoritarian government, AIDS and more. This film drives home the point that we have missed out on so much potential.  

Antebellum, however, takes this promise and pours it into a superhero origin story of sorts.  In its last act, we witness the birth of a warrior and the over-the-top craziness of our chief villain.  On the surface, this provides us with a rousing finish, but it also waters down the messaging slightly.  They have placed a story with historic purpose into the horror/action thriller genre. It will likely excite people and lead to some provocative discussions afterwards.  After people saw The Sixth Sense, they wanted to see it again to see what they missed.  It was all about that twist.  With Antebellum, the twists only serve to deepen our feelings about this stain on history. I applaud the filmmakers desire to swing for the fences.  It’s clear they wanted to keep things moving. This film has great energy, but, for me, I felt it was too short and somewhat skimpy. It could have used some grace notes, allowing us to understand all of its characters a little bit better. Instead of ending on its twist, it could have spent some time allowing us to witness the repercussions of the trauma faced by its people.  Next time at bat, I hope they take a little more time with their characters. They have the visual smarts and great ideas, enough to get this film to almost the levels of Get Out and Us. For such rebellious spirits, I fear they’ve slipped into nobility too fast.  Shake it off, loosen up, and wow us next time!

[low-budget-korra]

The Legend Of Korra: Book 5_Legacy

Hello my readers friends, I wanted to apologize for the delay but this semester in college is being terrible and this is consulting my time and my soul

Chapter 09_The Revelation - Part II

Korra

- Surprised to see me? - says Amon staring at me. By bending one of the elements, I quickly make a fireball - You dont need all this violence. Remember that if I wanted to kill you, I would have done it while you slept. - I give up attacking him, after all, he was right. How long was I unconscious? He could have done anything he wanted to do with me, but he did not ... - Looks like you wants to talk to me, then ... Let's talk.  - he says sitting on apoltrona and motioning for me to sit on the bed. And i sit

I know I should end him after everything he's done against my friends and me, but my curiosity is greater than my resentment right now. All I want is to hear what he has to say.

-You should be dead.- i say.His lips curved around his mustache and beard made a big smile. He is completely different. Not just by the beard, but there is also a strange scar in the left eye.

-Sorry to disappoint you, Avatar. -He says at last.

- but how? I read police reports that the boat exploded and that some fishermen found bits of it.- I say, showing my surprise. How can anyone survive that?

-To be honest, I do not even know how it happened. All I remember is to wake up in a house, extremely confused ... Like you now little. -He laughs.

-I was not confused,- I say.

- Oh, of course not ...

-I was not confused. -I say again and he shrugs.

-Maybe my brother got me off the boat before it exploded,- he says, continuing his story. -Or maybe I did not want to die at that time and so I used the water bending to save my life. The fact is that I really do not know what happened at that time.

-Why did not you kill me or just let me die that night? I kinda was responsible for your brother's death ... -I regret that I said the moment the last words slip out of my mouth. It goes that he changes of idea and decides to use the blood bend with me ... I know that I can enter Avatar state and end the confrontation and with him, but still ... Blood bending is evil and hurts a lot.

-You were not responsible for his death.His actions brought to his terrible end.- He says confidently.

-If I had not gone to see him that night, things might have been different.- After I heard about their life story, I understood why Tarrlok was such an asshole. I confess I felt sorry for him ...

- What happened, as the verb conjugation itself says, is in the past, Avatar. If that mitigates your guilt, know that Tarrlok did not feel sorry for you, he just did not kill you because he had other plans in mind.

-I want to know what you were involved in and how you saved me." - I say authoritarian changing the subject.

-You should just thank me .... Some acts do not need motives, Avatar.

- To thank? -I give a sarcastic laugh. -You tried to kill my friends and you want me to thank you?

-Kill your friends? - This time he laughs. -You do not know anything, do you? I'll be a nice guy and I'll answer your questions, okay? - I look at him - I saved you because you are the Avatar and the world needs you.

This time, I can not help laughing ... Does the world need me? Does he think he'll convince me that he saved me so when he wanted to destroy me some time ago? ...

- Really. Do not laugh! - He says coolly.

- Okay! Okay! Assuming this to be true .... You wanted to destroy me a few years ago. Why did you change your mind? - I confess I feel extremely curious to hear his reply.

-I saw what you did to the world, Avatar. When I first saw you, you were just an arrogant, frightened little girl, but now ...

- Now what? -I ask impatiently. -You're a woman now. An inspiration.

- Oh really? -I let go of another sarcasm.

-The Korra I met that night on Memorial Island would fire a ball of fire in my head without hesitating the moment she realized that the mysterious fellow who helped her is actually the guy who tried to destroy her, but the Current Korra did not do this .... No! The present Korra knows how to sit and listen to what I have to say. - his words make me feel like a trained doggie that goes to follow all the orders of his master. Amon definitely does not serve to praise.

-Maybe all this is a plan for me to tie you up here with my metal bending and call the police .- I respond

- Oh really? The moment you think about doing this, i bending your blood and shoot your bendings again.-  He snaps back, bluntly opening the mocking smile that had once been on my face.

-At least this time you would not be cowering behind a mask. - I say and a brief moment of silence is between him and me.-"Now tell me, what is your involvement in the bombing?"

-Try to demand something from me again, and I promise I'll do pretty bad things with your friends.- He threatens. What a psycho i hate him.And I cant even fight him, I mean, I can, but I dont know what he's been doing all these years. He may well have further improved his skills, better not risk it. At least not now

- Touch my friends and i will do very bad things with you .- I return in the same tone and he laughs.

-Well, enough of that, I'll get right to the point. I will not reveal everything to you. -He gets up.

- What? People died in that suicide bomb! - I get up - You're going to tell me everything you know right now, or ...

- People die every day, Avatar. It is not always your responsibility. - he walks and directs the exit - Just one piece of advice: Be careful going back to Republic City. There are people out there who still follow my idea and different from before, now they have powers.- He turns his back on me.

-Hey, you can not go out like that!-I run in your direction and when I touch your shoulder, my body tightens and I cant move. He throws me against the wall, bending my blood and runs away. I get up as fast as I can and run towards him, but he disappears as before ... Like a ghost.

As I leave the building, I feel the night breeze touch my face. What time will it be? Everyone should be worried. You better go home as soon as you can.

***

Upon arriving at Wu's house, I am astonished by the news that Asami and Mako came looking for me. I knew at that time they would be worried, but would they come looking for me when they should be safe here? That seemed quite wrong. Almost as wrong as the fact that Amon was alive and saved my life. "Amon is alive! "- I need to get used to these words ...

Wu directs me to wait for their return, since according to the same, the two left a few hours ago and soon they would return.

-Where have you been?- Wu asks.

-Long story ...- I think of starting to tell parts of what happened when Asami enters in exasperation.

- Wu, we did not find her, Mako thinks we should call the .... KORRA! -She gives me a serious look and then walks toward me. I dont know if she wanted to hug me or give me some punch, the two options seemed very plausible at the moment. My doubt ends when she hugs me.

- Where have you been?- I was worried.

-So were we, too.- Mako speaks .

-You would not believe me,- I say, and everyone looks at me curiously.

- How about trying? -Says Wu, sitting on one of the sofas in the room.

-I was with Amon ...- I begin.

-Korra, Amon's been dead for years. We read the reports, remember? -Mako says approaching.

- With Amon? Are you sure, my dear? - Asami asks, and I nod.

- Hm .. The guy came back from the dead. That's really interesting. How about telling the details? - Wu talks and everyone agrees.

In the next few minutes I tell them everything that has happened. From the encounter with the subject moments before the attack, until Amon hurled me against the wall and fled.

Everyone listens attentively to the story from start to finish and when I finish, I get confused stares.

-Guys, I know it sounds crazy, but trust me. That bastard is alive.

-We trust you, babes. - Asami says - Dont you, boys? - the boys shake their heads positively and then Mako gets up and walks toward the stairs.

-I think everyone's going to bed.  Tomorrow Su and Bolin came to town bringing the suspect. We'd better be rested.  And Korra, do not worry, we believe you, okay?" - Mako goes up the stairs and Wu goes next.

-Do you think I should tell Tenzin?- I ask Asami.

- I think we should sleep. Your day was full of surprises and so you deserve a rest, right?- I nod positively and stand up.

I better leave it to worry about it another time. Asami is right, the day was tiring and full of surprises. I need a shower and a good night's rest. Tomorrow I decide if I should tell anyone else.

wtf Amon help Korra? What is he up to? No spoiler, but there's so much bizarre to come

#the legend of korra #korrasami #korra #korra x asami #asami sato #mako #amon #fanfic #like wtf #avatar: tlok #tlok

[minttearoom]

Nick Spencer’s Captain America is Bad, but in these ways

OK  ... I made this blog so I could dump my bad opinions on it, so call me out on this if anyone needs to.

-- This isn’t something I care about too much, but I feel like I need to start off by saying that Hydra doesn’t and shouldn’t always have a 1:1 equivalent with Nazis or the political specifics of fascism. In their first appearance, they were a generic mustache-twirling, world-domineering evil enterprise. Although that’s changed because Nazi leaders were retconned in to match the WWII backgrounds of Marvel’s heroes, it’s always been story-dependent as to whether that element really mattered. Sometimes, Madame Hydra trying to take over the world was just Madame Hydra trying to take over the world so that superheroes could have fistfights. There’s a usefulness to a generic SPECTRE-type evil organization for when comics that need a villain to punch. Although it’s important for stories and readers to criticize what that evil entails, there’s a messiness that’s involved when it comes to shared universes and different tools serving different functions in different contexts. This is an issue that mostly irks me when it comes to how the conversations about Captain America are framed, and how they’re framed solely in terms of Hydra, when there’s a little more going on there; this was especially bad after Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 came out.  *HOWEVER, this is kind of irrelevant to the rest of what I want to talk about.*

-- I’m not sure if a story about an altered-reality Captain America being evil, or even being a Nazi is off-limits. I’m not a Jonathan Chait “protect malevolent free speech” type, but I do think that you might be able to tell a somewhat meaningful (and possibly respectful) story under these conditions. I understand that WWII is highly sensitive and emotional, and I also understand the situation surrounding Captain America’s creation. However, it’s not like similar stories (or story beats) haven’t been done before -- even one drawn by Jack Kirby. I hate Nick Spencer’s Captain America for a variety of reasons, but part of the reason why is that I think you might actually be able to publish a story like this, even (or especially) in these times, and have it be salient and productive and well thought-out.

-- The problem with Nick Spencer’s Captain America goes back to the beginning of his run. From the beginning, he set out to do a run that broached extremely topical political issues, but keep his comics from making too strong of a stance in any given direction, while insisting that it did have a stance. For example: since the KOBIK/Cosmic Cube plotline, he’s been paying lip service to the idea that there needs to be a discussion about the growth of the security state and what it means to create unimaginable and invasive authority and power when you don’t know who will be in control next. ... Except whenever someone does have anything to say about it,it’s usually only a couple words, or a weak sketch of their stance. You might think this is fine, as long as the conflicts that Spencer brings up are carried through the plot to create meaning. After all, you don’t want to buy comics just to see talking heads debate politics. However, this doesn’t carry through for a few reasons!

-- The first way, most commonly seen in Sam Wilson, is that he’ll bring in some way for the critical/left-leaning position to be criticized. Though this is mostly like to preserve some sort of apolitical company line, it ultimately amounts to centrism, which is a political stance in and of itself, defined by the extremes of political climate in which you’re speaking. You see it first with Rick Jones -- he was a whistleblower hacktivist in the early issues of Captain America: Sam Wilson. The characters in Spencer’s book seem sympathetic to him when he gets caught, but Rick did BREAK THE LAW :( so his rightful course of action is to join SHIELD to help the security state keep on doing everything he despised! 

Then came the infamous issue where a Tomi Lahren-type character was inciting hate against a specific undocumented teen -- the new Falcon, Joaquin Torres. Joaquin, understandably, was about to go give her a piece of his mind, but he gets derailed by the appearance of a group of teens who obviously serve as an in-universe warning of the dangers of what he was about to do. These teens, the new Bombshells, not only spouts awkward online academia-derived lingo about safe spaces and trigger warnings but they also advocate violence against racists! They come and fight Falcon and Rage as if to, say “Look out! Don’t become like them!” 

You see it when Sam goes to stop Rage from getting in a confrontation with the AmeriCops (Spencer’s convenient robotic representations of racist police brutality). There’s no real strong reason for Rage to have not gotten into a confrontation, as the AmeriCops were ridiculously over-the-cop brutal and terrible, except for concerns about optics and (this is a recurring theme which obviously clashes with some of the issues Spencer wants to bring up) respect for authority.

You also see it when the only true far-left voice in the entire run, Flag Smasher, is the only the only one to fully articulate his issues with corporate influence over politics, the security state, and the no-fly list, and ends up being not only a violent terrorist assassin, but also (amazingly) a plant by Steve Rogers. I can’t begin to say how ridiculous that was.

-- The other way that Spencer undermines the political claims in his run is in how the villains are made overly sympathetic. So much of Captain America: Steve Rogers is about the ideological purity and clarity in Steve’s heart. He is destined to lead Hydra because he is still a great man in the way that Dr. Erskine recognized. (This bears out in the most disgusting of ways in the FCBD issue of Secret Empire, where Steve is still worthy to lift Mjolnir.) 

Steve is part of a faction of Hydra lead by some horrorterror old god/sweet old lady named Elisa who becomes Steve’s doting mother figure. She gets in close with his mother, and then dotes on Steve day and night about how he’s good and pure and destined for greatness -- and there isn’t much to undercut this as fascist BS. Elisa goes on and on, essentially dogwhistling what might as well be soliloquy about Steve’s Aryan purity and good heart, yet she never really gets a strong villain moment to underscore the idea that what she’s saying is wrong. The one truly evil thing she she was supposed to have (kill his mother offpanel) apparently never happened! She appears unharmed in later issues of CA: Steve Rogers.

-- This links into the other major problem in Spencer’s run: his depiction of Hydra. From the get-go, he plays up Hydra as not only a fascist neo-nazi organization, but specifically one that parallels modern ethnonationalist movements, all being propagated by the Red Skull. He further links Hydra to literal European nationalist militant movements by having Hydra take over Sokovia (#moviesynergy). Linking back to what I talked about at the beginning, this is all fine, so far; Spencer is making the specific choice in this story to use Hydra as an analogy for Nazism and its connection to the modern day, and this is a story that is obviously just as much about the Red Skull. EXCEPT, over the course of Spencer’s flashbacks to Steve’s altered past, we see that Steve is a member of a faction of Hydra that has always opposed not just the Red Skull, but Hydra joining the Nazis in general!

-- It’s an insanely weird choice to decode: does Spencer want to tell a story about Steve Rogers being allied with the Nazis ... or not? He certainly shows him helping the Nazis in WWII. What’s the point of saying he was secretly opposed to them and the Red Skull this whole time? What is he trying to do with Hydra?

-- For that matter, how much less fascist is Steve supposed to be? He rails out against Red Skull’s cheap inflammatory tactics, yet by the time his Secret Empire is set up, he’s already created an authoritarian state that rounds up Inhumans and puts them into camps! CAMPS!

-- There’s a lot of other, little, infinitely frustrating things. The FCBD issue explained that Wanda joining the HYDRA-vengers probably wasn’t of her own will, but having the Romani girl on the Nazi team is still unsettling, especially if they don’t end up giving her any space to react to it. Spencer’s writing is way lacking in nuance -- whereas Ales Kot gave a thoughtful look at the paranoia that must feed the drive to do crazier and crazier things in the name of security when he wrote Maria Hill in Secret Avengers, Spencer’s Maria Hill shrugs off each evil thing she does in the name of the state with a joke and a condescending comment. Spencer sucks at writing spies and spy stuff in general (there’s no reason he should have gotten two tries at Secret Avengers!), so seeing him try to handle SHIELD in general in the context of this run has been annoying. Also, ... why can Steve lift Mjolnir WHEN HE JUST HELPED KILL BUCKY, jfc.

-- Again, this is partially upsetting because some parts of this aren’t terrible. Sam Wilson is the most effortlessly diverse Captain America book ever, with somewhat decent stories about things like police brutality and immigration when they aren’t being undercut by other elements Spencer sticks in to ~balance things out. Seeing the Champions fight HYDRA in Secret Empire is also pretty unobjectionable. It’s the context and the handling that’s made this all atrocious -- even the publicity of blowing this Nazism thing up to a huge event is pretty dubious.

[kenyedoesfiction]

The Boys Are Back In Town, Pt. 2

OKAY FINALLY continuing the reunion fic! WOO! 

Luis and Rodrigo sat out on a patio sipping mixed drinks and an upscale hotel in the Dominican Republic.

“So how do we know he’ll even show up anytime soon?” Luis sighed. He was wearing a black t-shirt, khaki shorts, and flip-flops.

“Well, his lovely young wife and Satan spawn infant child are here, so you’d think he’d eventually blow in.” Rodrigo lifted his sunglasses and winked at his friend. He was wearing a colorful Hawaiian shirt, white shorts, and leather sandals.

 “I do think he will be here today.” A very curvy young woman with long black hair, tanned skin, dark striking eyes, and big lips holding a baby with black hair and a devilish look on his young face. Her breasts seemed to shake and jiggle with her every move.

“Has anyone ever told you that they wished they were your son?”

“If you mean do men wish they could squeeze and suck on my boobs all day, yes they do.” The young woman laughed.

“So, you and Manuel both worked in porn together?”

“Yes, that’s how we met. He’d already been working for some years when I came onto the scene. The moment I stepped into the same room as him, I was under a spell. I mean, how can you ignore such a tall and handsome older man with a huge cock? We had such good chemistry and got casted into many movies together and we just… got close and he asked me to marry him! And here we are with little Sergi.”

“Raaawr!” The baby growled as he planted his face into his mother’s large chest.

“To think Manuel would ever be the sort to have a family!” Luis shook his head and smiled.

“We are an unconventional family. He’s older, we’re in an open marriage. I mean, both of us still have our freedom. I don’t think either of us could take being conventional though.”

 At that moment, they heard a commotion inside the hotel lobby.

“And there is my beloved husband!”

“Indeed. I’d recognize a Manuel commotion anywhere!” Rodrigo’s smile stretched from ear to ear.

 All three of them (with the baby) walked into the hotel to see a tall man with black hair and a mustache with his hands behind his head while a little girl was clinging to his leg and a teenage girl had her arms around him. A grown man had a pistol and was pointing it at him.

“Señor please! Put your gun away! You are both paying customers of my establishment and I will not have senseless violence!” The hotel owner pleaded.

“This puto was hitting on my underage daughters!”

“Who said I was hitting on the little one?” Manuel raised an eyebrow.

“But you said that judging by me and her mother, she was gonna have a nice rack when she hit puberty.” The teen girl butted in.

“Hey, not helping my case, darling.”

“Trash like you deserves to eat lead!”

“I have actually. I ate some lead paint when I was a kid. Fun stuff.”

“Daddy, don’t hurt our boyfriend!” The little girl cried.

“Wow, you move fast. I like that.” Manuel patted her head cautiously, noticing the father sigh in defeat.

“I just don’t wanna see your creepy face around my little girls again, you hear me?”

“Yes, yes, I get it.” Manuel nodded and the girls let go. He then secretly slipped a piece of paper in the teen girl’s pocket and the father and his daughters left.

 “My little boy!” Manuel instantly grabbed Sergi and lifted the baby above his head.

“Papi fuck!”The little boy barked smiling.

“Exactly!”

“Is one of that boy’s first words really fuck?” Luis smiled, not shocked.

“Well, it’s his third. Mama, Papi, and then fuck.” Manuel’s wife smiled.

“Boy is starting out just right! Eh, Luis, Rodri? Wait… Luis? Rodri???” Manuel handed his son back to his wife and hugged the other two men tightly. “It’s so nice to see you guys!”

 Manuel was wearing a dark blue t-shirt with a mermaid on it, a pair of cut-off jean shorts, and a pair of slip-on sandals.

“What are you guys doing here?”

“We… want to get the band back together.” Luis got a nervous look on his face.

“That would be awesome. Honestly. I mean, I’m retired from porn now. Might as well go back to music. Especially if my guys are with me again! How does that sound, Dani?” Manuel nearly jumped for joy, and then turned his wife.

“That would awesome! I was too young to see any of it the first time!”

“That’s code for pretty much not even born yet!” Manuel winked at his friends.

“Wait, how old are you, Dani?” Luis cocked his head.

“I’m…twenty three? Yeah.”

Manuel shook his head and sighed.

“Honey, you’re twenty. It’s okay, we can trust the guys.”

“Wait, didn’t you say you started working in porn in 2003? If you’re twenty then that made you…”

“I was fifteen! Yes! You can say it!” She groaned.

“Wow, okay Traci Lords. Anyways,” Luis shrugged.

“I ran away from my stupid ass family and slept with a government official and got my records changed to say I was eighteen, then I went off to find some kind of sex work because that’s all I really knew. Chemanu was one of the first people I met I felt I could trust so I told him the truth and he didn’t care. He understood my situation and was always there for me when I needed it.”

“I just realized what that means! You guys bucked the law system! I mean, there’s all these movies that would technically be classified as child porn and yet… no one knows! It’s the awesomest fuck you to the man! I love you, Dani!” Luis planted a big kiss on her cheek.

 “So wait, you’re both retired now, right?” Rodrigo scratched his head.

“Yes! As odd as this sounds, we have plenty of money saved up! Not to mention that while I did seem to splurge back in the days, I had set money aside just in case back then as well. And a few years ago I found out I have a high up position in a couple of off-shore businesses.”

“How do you find out you have positions at off-shore companies?” Luis seemed confused.

“You see, before my father died, he and my brother apparently agreed to take me on in a couple of the off-shore business they owned. Not even needing me to really do anything. Just have my name on there. So after our father died, I was fucking high off my ass on something one day and my brother came at me and had me sign some papers. A few years ago, someone came at me online and notified that there actually was some actions I needed to take every so often in these businesses. And then when I asked they explained to me these businesses and what my jobs were. I go to my brother, he confirms it. I go and meet with people, blah blah and so between all of this and some off-shore bank accounts, Dani and I and the little guy are fine as far as money goes.”

 Then everyone stared at Luis.

 “What, is something wrong with me?” He looked at his body in a worried fashion.

“No, but you don’t have a problem with me having off-shore interests?”

“No! Oh, that anarcho-commie bit? Well, I mean, until a revolution happens, who am I to tell my own old best friend he is wrong. I don’t know if that makes me bad… I just want to chill for now. Say, if we have a revolution someday, I still can’t help but think you’d be on the right side of history.”

“It’s all good. I fancy myself an agorist, so I’m still against a lot of what you are against, really. Differences can be sorted out, I’m sure. At the core, you’re my brother. We’ve been through too much together. Though I gotta say, if revolution happens, we should install dictatorship of the proletariat first. Utopia can’t just happen overnight. I feel that’s when any anarchist side in me might go away, logically. I mean, as much as I like to rebel to the system, if we were to implement our own system, I’d have to be a bit more authoritarian to make sure—“

“Eh, we’ll figure it out when that time comes.”

“Right, anyways, bourgeoisie scum here to avoid political conflict and just get on to discuss getting to the others!” Rodrigo stopped them.

“Right… who are we getting next? … You both left tense band mates behind when you left…” Luis sighed as he stared at Manuel and Rodrigo.

“We’re going for Mariano. I left him hanging… I want to go back to him now.” Manuel got a very serious expression on his face. And so it was settled. Mariano was next.

#ojos dulces fics