Saturday, December 6, 2014

The Art of Reading Character Arcs, Vol. 1 - 3: America Chavez

microphoneheartbeats:

I’m pretty much done ranting about America Chavez for the weekend. I have video games to play and novels to read and fresh air to experience. But in case any deliberately obtuse racists attempt to reduce her to a flattened sassy & violent Latina stereotype, here is a handy compilation of my posts about three of America’s fairly major character arcs, with useful screenshots and a lot of rambling.

1. Thoughts on the Fractal Structure of America’s Character Development & How That Affects How You Read Her (a.k.a. what happens when you learn the key details about a character at the end of her story)

2. Miss America Chavez & Her Amerimoms: You Keep Me Running

Was Jessie Ware’s Running on Kieron’s Young Avengers playlist? It was totally a Miss America song, wasn’t it?

3. America Chavez & What Happens When You Go Back in SpaceTime and Meet Your Depressed Metaphorical Grandfather

Part 1: America Chavez & The Protect Billy Kaplan Conspiracy

Part 2: America &*&*&&&*** Chavez. Owning It.

4. America Chavez & the Hip Young Beamslingers: What If Wings Was Better Than The Beatles? What If Babyshambles Improved on The Libertines? What If Going Solo Wasn’t an End Point?

Part 1: If We Don’t Save Each Other, We’ve Got Jack

Part 2: America Chavez Is Not Going to Make Anything Easier For You, Chico.

I can only imagine what prompted a bunch of micro-essays on Miss America, but I must note how entirely heartening it is to see people get it. Thank you.

I’ve said before, but America is pretty much the visual symbol of our run. She’s towards the front of almost all the definitive imagery. She’s our walking flag we’ve put on our beachhead. I suspect her arc, more than anyone else’s, was also the embodiment of what most of YAv2 was up to - which is primarily a near complete lack of interest in the “Middle focus” of trad superhero comics plotting. So you get this striking surface and there’s a big gap from that to what’s really going on, which is stupidly intricate and proggy fractal structure. There’s a lot of that across the whole cast, but it’s basically the vast majority of what there is to America. The style is easy to see. The substance requires attention.

(STYLE > SUBSTANCE was always us trolling, of course. It was us getting our eye-roll in advance. If a reviewer was foolish enough to actually use it as an insult, we may have had a bit of a smirk. I am awful.)

"Running" was a Kate Bishop song. Very much the mood. "Runaway" by Ladytron was an America one.

Chhhhhhheeeeeeesee.

Chhhhhhheeeeeeesee.

stephanie-hans:

I already said that I wanted to go back to traditionnal.
So, starting from Angela #2, that’s gonna be a reality. I thought that to compliment Marguerite Bennet’s work better, a more classical feel would be welcome. And here it is, thanks to CBR ^^
Pages are gonna be available for sale as soon as I decide a fair price

Friday, December 5, 2014
kierongillen:

teatime-brutality:

The ‘Great Houses’ model of the Marvel Universe.  

Interested in what people make of this.

Now that people have chipped in, my take.
It’s unfair on the Avengers. I’d go with something akin to…
"It is not our job to change the system, but to ensure its continued existence."
At least for certain readings of the X-men and the Fantastic Four, theirs seem fair enough. Tweaking the Avengers at least gives a little intellectual backbone to their position, which is “this is a democracy. We must have faith in it, and the continued possibilities of life.” As written, it’s pretty cynical.

kierongillen:

teatime-brutality:

The ‘Great Houses’ model of the Marvel Universe.  

Interested in what people make of this.

Now that people have chipped in, my take.

It’s unfair on the Avengers. I’d go with something akin to…

"It is not our job to change the system, but to ensure its continued existence."

At least for certain readings of the X-men and the Fantastic Four, theirs seem fair enough. Tweaking the Avengers at least gives a little intellectual backbone to their position, which is “this is a democracy. We must have faith in it, and the continued possibilities of life.” As written, it’s pretty cynical.

coloneldanvers-captainmarvel asked: So I got a wicdiv shirt and sticker this weekend and I noticed that that Baal's and the two mask sign places were switched in location from their position in the book. Was that intentional?

abigailbrady:

kierongillen:

It was.

Jamie thought it looked better on a T-shirt that way.

Which would tend to imply that the order is not story important.

For T-shirts.

antonyjohnston:

A twitter rant from earlier, preserved for posterity and rebloggability.
Understand, I’m 100% pro-cosplay — I also tweeted this in direct response to today’s events — I’m just trying to get to the bottom of this terrible anti-cosplay attitude that keeps surfacing, beyond the sometimes-plain misogyny of it.

antonyjohnston:

A twitter rant from earlier, preserved for posterity and rebloggability.

Understand, I’m 100% pro-cosplay — I also tweeted this in direct response to today’s events — I’m just trying to get to the bottom of this terrible anti-cosplay attitude that keeps surfacing, beyond the sometimes-plain misogyny of it.

nicklasovich:

I think these are extremely strong character designs for the Wicked+DIvine. I just had to paint them. 

Bloody hell.

nicklasovich:

I think these are extremely strong character designs for the Wicked+DIvine. I just had to paint them. 

Bloody hell.

Cosplay is an industry largely dominated by women; it opens up the world of comics—a world which has overwhelmingly felt exclusionary to girls and women—in a whole new way. It allows not only a small subset of women to make money off of their love of comics (something self-proclaimed comic fan Broderick has been doing for decades), but it also allows a large number of female comic book fans who might otherwise feel shut out of the industry to proudly proclaim their love for certain characters or comics. Strange that so many people have taken issue with something that often involves women taking control of their own image, bodies, and sexuality, and commodifying it without male permission or control. So strange.

- Another Comic Book Artist Can’t Stand Change, Competition; Writes Whiny Post About Cosplayers | The Mary Sue (via themarysue)

Sam Maggs slaying YET AGAIN

(via kateordie)

coloneldanvers-captainmarvel asked: So I got a wicdiv shirt and sticker this weekend and I noticed that that Baal's and the two mask sign places were switched in location from their position in the book. Was that intentional?

It was.

Jamie thought it looked better on a T-shirt that way.

Anonymous asked: Which 'hero' trope do you most enjoy being buthered, buried in a time capsule for forty years, rediscovered, reviled, incinerated, and then blasted into space?

Of the superhero genre? 

That old generation heroes are intrinsically better than young generation heroes, which is hit explicitly all too often in stories (THE KIDS ARE DOING IT WRONG! type of stories) and implicitly pretty much in every major superhero book.