Magen Cubed's Blog, page 33

Frequently Asked Questions

Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of questions from people about all sorts of things that I am apparently some kind of resident expert on. Like writing? I got this. Comic books? Oh, yeah. Horror? Why don’t we sit down and let the professionals handle this one, okay? So, for your own edification, here’s a few of the general questions I tend to get, as well as their answers.

Is your novel finished?

Yes. Flesh Trap is a dark fiction/psychological horror book about how emotional trauma can create wounds in the world so great as to affect reality itself. It follows insomniac Casey Way as the 20th anniversary of his father’s murder approaches, still haunted by violent nightmares and hallucinations while he tries to uncover his repressed memories of the night he watched his father die. Aided by his sister Mariska and his boyfriend Joel, Casey has to overcome his own trauma in order to solve the slew of disappearances and attacks that begin happening to those around him, the secrets of which are still buried inside his faulty, sleep-deprived mind. You could have read it for free as an online serial, but it’s since been taken down and is currently looking for a publisher. (Sucker.)

Do you have any other novels planned?

Yes. There are two Flesh Trap sequels in the works, titled White Bull (about a traumatized girl named Gemma who ends up locked in a catatonic state after losing her mother in a house fire, and pulls Casey into her complex and violent dream-world when it begins spilling over into our reality) and Nightmare Child (about a serial killer named Liza who has the same reality-bending abilities as Casey and Gemma because she thinks she was born without a soul, and steals Casey’s and Joel’s infant daughter in an effort to fix herself the way Casey has). I also have a third novel called The Diving Bell.

It’s about a clinical psychologist named Noam Patel who is working with his chemist partner Hillel Alves to develop a drug they call PKM (based on real science I learned from Morgan Freeman!), which will help PTSD sufferers by slowly neutralizing the brain’s ability to attach severe emotional reactions to traumatic memories. Hillel, who is kind of a d-bag as well as a brilliant chemist, develops a street version of the experimental drug that he begins to test on himself with his boyfriend Elliot Townshend, a recovering addict with some secrets of his own. Noam, who is still very quietly recovering from the trauma of losing his fiance Divya in a car accident (for which he feels personally responsible), establishes a relationship with Elliot behind Hillel’s back as they try to sort themselves out. Elliot backslides on Hillel’s drug and ends up pulling Noam into his addiction. What results is a bizarre love triangle fueled by memory-altering drugs, as the three of them drift into a hallucinatory abyss where their memories refuse to die and begin clawing back to the surface. Good times.

Are you working on any comics?

I have four one-off speculative fiction (Molly’s Entropy) and horror (The Doll, Eyecaps, The Widow) comics in the works right now, which will be out whenever the hell their illustrators are finished with them. I’m also working on a twelve-issue series called Black Out. It’s kind of an off-beat homage to 1970s chase and exploitation movies, about a biker named Andy who ends up embroiled in the turf war between two warring Texas crime families, as well as a skirmish in a gypsy werewolf clan when a young wolf named Stitch attempts to flee her abusive brother Lucas and takes Andy hostage in the process.

I also have a graphic novel in me called The Bagman of Schrekville. It’s a pseudo-Shakespearean crime drama about a society of vampires hiding in modern America as an orthodox religious sect, known to authorities as Schreks because of their closeness in appearance to Max Schrek’s Nosferatu. The story follows Arto, the bagman for the upper echelon of Schreck society as he navigates the complex criminal organizations that sustain their way of life, torn between his loyalties to his bosses as well as his own people. Or whatever.

Do you want to write superhero comics?

If you asked me that ten years ago, I would’ve said yes. Emphatically, yes. The only reason I ever went into writing at all was because of superhero comics. Nowadays, I’d still say yes, but I’m not very optimistic about that ever happening. The Big Two would never stoop so low as to employ me, I’m sure, even if I managed to stumble into some kind of success. Because, seriously, can you imagine me in charge of your favorite superhero book? It’d be all introspective and full of complex character drama and shit. Dangerous business, that.

Who are some of your influences?

Chuck Palahniuk, David Cronenberg, Kurt Sutter, Clive Barker, Warren Ellis, Tarsem Singh, William Gibson, Quentin Tarantino. Yeah, I know. It makes my bran hurt, too.

Can you describe your writing process?

Procrastinate until the last possible moment by watching television in my underwear, awash in a sea of guilt and shame for my inability to function like a professional. Completely overcome by this malaise, sometimes I’ll lock myself in the bathroom with my reflection for hours and stare myself down in an effort to overcome the depths of this self-loathing. Then I’ll write, like, 20,000 words one weekend while blitzed on eggnog. Also, I write my first (and sometimes second) draft in longhand and do all my polishing and editing in the word processor.

Nick Fury: A retrospective

Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strange Tales #167)

I’d like to tell you a story about a man named Nick Fury.

Fury is the creation of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the son of a World War I fighter pilot and a hero of World War II. First appearing as Sergeant Fury of The Howling Commandos back in 1963, Sgt. Fury fought alongside many iconic characters like Captain America, Bucky Barnes and Reed Richards, later known as Mister Fantastic of The Fantastic Four. In 1964, now a colonel, Fury appeared in Strange Tales issue #165 transformed from a CIA agent into a Cold War-era international man of mystery and adventure. Introducing S.H.I.E.L.D. and its nemesis HYDRA, this run solidified Fury’s place in the Marvel Universe, as did writer-penciller-colorist Jim Steranko’s legendary helm of the title. Edgy, different and always pushing the envelope on what a comic could be, this book made Nick Fury the recognizable character he is today: Fierce, uncompromising, and always one step ahead of the rest of the players on the board.

He’s gruff, he’s tough, he gets the job done. He’s not just a spy, he’s the spy. Various experiments with military science and the Infinity Formula have made him immortal, forever working in the shadows and backrooms of the Marvel Universe.

Strange Tales #135

Fury continued to make appearances in comics throughout the last few decades, such as Avengers and Fantastic Four, before starring in the miniseries Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1988 and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. from September 1989 – May 1993. In the 1990s he appeared in numerous miniseries and one-shots, and in the last decade has played major roles in various Marvel events from Secret War through Heroic Age. This year Fury’s “secret” African-American son Sgt. Marcus Johnson makes his appearance in the six-part mini Battle Scars, wherein he loses an eye and changes his name to Nick Fury, Jr.

Of course, by the time I was coming up in the comic world in the late 1990s and early 2000s, my impression of Nick Fury was drastically different from that of earlier readers and fans. First of all, during the 90s, Marvel hit a slump with most of its other heroes and titles. This period was fantastic for X-Men titles, however, with pretty great runs spanning nearly every branch of the mutant family tree. We had X-Cutioner’s Song, Age of Apocalypse, Onslaught, Operation: Zero Tolerance, and remember how awesome X-Force and Generation X were? I do. (I recently reread the Heroes Reborn: Iron Man trade for a bit of ’90s nostalgia. Spoilers: I probably shouldn’t have.) So a lot of people my age were a bit underwhelmed by things going on in the rest of the Marvel Universe, and my understanding of this character in particular was a bit limited. By then I just knew him as the cigar-chewing, take-no-shit, sarcastic old Nick Fury that cropped up from time to time to be crotchety and secretive, often to a campy degree.

Also, you know, we had this:

Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Possibly the worst film ever made.

The hilariously lackluster Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. movie, starring David Hasselhoff and written by David S. Goyer, currently of Nolan-verse Batman street cred. Needless to say, my appreciation of Nick Fury in the 1990s was mixed with reverence for great stories of the past, with the cheesy B-movie fondness stuff like this rouses in me. Then in August 2001, Ultimate Nick Fury arrived on the scene in Ultimate Team-Up #5, and it got kind of interesting. Part of The Ultimates universe, this Nick Fury is an African-American General who ditched the Italian-American heritage and white-walls for a freshly shaven head and a demeanor and appearance strikingly akin to that of Samuel L. Jackson, after whom the character was modeled.

Ultimate Nick Fury.

This Fury, for me at least, was a little more intriguing. The brainchild of Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Allred, this Fury is a little more duplicitous, a little more two-faced. This guy, quite frankly, does some really shady stuff. It was fascinating, too, to see a historically white character be rebooted as a PoC. Still, I can’t say I’m a huge fan. He’s entertaining to read about, sure, but not my favorite. (At this point I was still reading a lot of X-Force and Deadpool, quite preoccupied by Warren Ellis‘ repeated attempts to kill Pete Wisdom and all that.) Fast-forward a few years later to Iron Man and Iron Man 2, and later Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers, when Samuel L. Jackson took up the mantle in the Marvel Cinematic Universe of the character that had been remade in his image. Then things got even more interesting.

Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury

The Fury we see in Iron Man 2 is telling Tony Stark about his father Howard and the riddle of his heart. While still keeping up his mysterious and imposing image, he fills in some of the gaps in Tony’s understanding about his emotionally-distant father, and pushes him forward into discovering and synthesizing the element that saves his life. In Captain America and subsequently The Avengers, Fury tries to persuade Steve Rogers to come back to the fight. He does this out of a need for soldiers on the field against Loki, but also a seeming concern for Steve’s well-being, still trying to adjust to the modern world. This Fury deeply values those under his command, like fan-favorite Agent Phil Coulson, but isn’t afraid to emotionally manipulate people to get what he wants, such as using Coulson’s death to light a fire under Stark’s and Roger’s respective butts. He has no qualms with lying to those around him and defying the orders of his superiors, either, using his sense of justice and morality to rationalize his decision to rally a bunch of dangerous and emotionally volatile super-types to fight Earth’s battles.

To me this Fury is a very subtle, complex and layered character, maybe more so than his previous iterations. He’s sympathetic, and empathetic, even in a world full of crazy aliens and gods and people in spangly jumpsuits trying to blow up Manhattan. He seems almost paternal toward Tony and Steve at times, but willing to use them, their strengths and their weaknesses to his own ends. That makes him dangerous because he seems like he really does care, and he can still use, cheat and manipulate people in spite of that. Beyond that, I find myself deeply fascinated by this guy. Where did he come from? How did he get to this position? How much harder was his road, due to racial and social obstacles? Does he truly care about these men and women he’s assembled, or will he turn on them if it suits the bigger picture?

Frankly, I don’t know, but I want to. That’s what interests me about this Nick Fury. The nice thing about all of these Nicks, however, is that we can all have favorites. With so many versions, each existing separately from the rest, fans can be their preferred canon and stick with it. Getting back into comics because of the MCU has given me a lot of respect for Nick Fury as a character and a fixture in Marvel mythology. I can appreciate the cigar-chewing old spy of the comic continuity, while still enjoying his MCU counterpart.

And isn’t that what nerding is all about?

Captain America 2: Romancing the Winter Soldier

The Winter Soldier

It was announced this week that filming for Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier begins in March, set to be directed by television veterans Anthony and Joe Russo of Community fame. Chris Evans is reprising his role as Captain America, with Sebastian Stan returning as The Winter Soldier, Steve’s childhood friend Bucky now brainwashed and reprogrammed as a master assassin and covert operative. Anthony Mackie has been cast as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and Cap ally Sam Wilson/Falcon, with Samuel L. Jackson and a few other Avengers alum likely to return in the service of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The movie is being called a direct through-line from this summer’s The Avengers to the as of yet untitled sequel set for 2015, tying Steve Roger’s journey in the modern world to the larger MCU Phase Two story. It’s supposed to show how Steve is dealing with his role as both an Avenger and an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., while still coming to terms with everyone he’s lost in the fallout of World War II and the 70-year coma that S.H.I.E.L.D. revived him from. This is all very exciting to me, being that I’m a character drama junkie, and I want to see what comes of Steve’s emotional development as he finds his footing in the slowly growing pantheon of Marvel movie heroes.

But then we got the news I was really hoping we could do without this time around: Cap has a new love interest in the next movie, and it’s likely to be Agent 13/Sharon Carter.

Don’t get me wrong: Sharon Carter is a fine enough character on her own. The niece of Cap’s WWII comrade and love interest Peggy Carter, Sharon was so inspired by her aunt’s stories of action and adventure at Cap’s side that she joined S.H.I.E.L.D. as a capable agent. She and Steve have had an on-again/off-again relationship over the years, with each of them busy doing heroic things and such, but they’ve always come back together. I just have issues with their relationship, and I really, really don’t want to see Marvel shoehorn a love story into an otherwise dense, complicated story such as The Winter Soldier. And here’s why:

Steve really doesn’t need to be dating right now.

For real. He’s only been out of his coma for, what, maybe a few months at this point? A year at most? He’s traumatized and isolated, as shown in the Avengers deleted scenes, still trying to come to terms with the modern world he’s been plunged into after everyone he’s ever known is gone or lost to time.

Before Steve goes trotting off with a girl, I would really like to see him sort himself out. Make some new friends! Read a good book! Punch some HYDRA goons! Develop that life-spanning bromance with Tony Stark! Just, you know, work on him as a character for a little bit. Rushing into a romance is both unnecessary and kind of awkward, given his state right now. It really does him a disservice as a character and makes him look like he needs to be propped up, which he doesn’t. (That A on his forehead doesn’t stand for France, or something like that.)

Steve and Sharon’s relationship is creepy.

There. I said it.

Sharon is supposed to be the spitting-image of her aunt Peggy, and, I’m sorry, that is so gross. The idea of Steve dating everything in the Carter gene pool may have had the Entitled Creeper seal of approval in the 1960s, but I’d like to think society has evolved since then. I’d also like to think that the writers could think of something better than that, because the whole situation sells both characters short. Sharon comes off as needy and weird, carrying a torch for her aunt’s hot boyfriend (or not-boyfriend, in this case), while Steve just looks like a creepy d-bag who will climb on top of anything that looks like Hayley Atwell. After all the time spent making Chris Evans’ Captain America come off as endearing, compassionate and believable, it really makes him out to be an ass and totally undermines anything he felt for Peggy in the first film. Also, you know, kind of robs Sharon of the chance to do anything but hang off of Steve in the MCU.

That doesn’t mean there’s no room for Sharon in Steve’s life. I would love to see Sharon and Steve have a platonic friendship, around their respective relationships with Peggy. Like, wouldn’t it be nice for her to be able to fill him in on Peggy’s life and how much she inspired her to join S.H.I.E.L.D., and he could tell her all about his adventures with her aunt, and they could share a beer and be bros? Wouldn’t that be a sweet scene? And nobody has to look like an asshat! It’s a win/win!

Anybody remember Bucky?

And for me, if anybody is going to be the tragic love interest in this movie, it needs to be Bucky.

Before you start sharpening your trolling spears and accusing me of letting my uterus and love of slash fanfiction cloud my professional judgment, hear me out. Bucky is Steve’s best and oldest friend, having come up together as kids. Before Steve had Tony Stark or Sam Wilson or Carol Danvers to be best-bros with, he had Bucky, and nobody else but Bucky. Bucky defended him from bullies when Steve was still a small and ailing kid, and before their roles were reversed in World War II, I think I can get away with saying somebody like Steve could’ve been a little enamored with somebody like Bucky. (Note: I mean that in a Kirk-Spock, Ours is the greatest of all the bromances in the whole of time and space and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Idea folder kind of way. But if you wanted to link me to some Steve/Bucky fanart to sway me, I’d be okay with that.)

Then Bucky died, because Steve was unable to save him, and Steve was completely crushed. As it stands in Avengers, although it wasn’t dealt with directly, I don’t think Steve’s really processed that loss. I mean, come on: Who was really Steve talking about when he was railing on Tony about not being a hero? “I know men who are worth ten of you”? He just hasn’t had time to get over losing his best friend. In a very real kind of way, Bucky is the great love of Steve’s short life (after all he’s only in his mid-20s, despite his numerous adventures and tendency to get frozen in ice), and now Bucky’s gone.

That’s the relationship I want to see in this movie: I want to see how Steve deals with his best friend coming back from the dead as a weapon against him. I want to see Steve struggle to save Bucky from himself, knowing he might have to kill him. I want to see how Bucky’s relationship with Natasha Romanov/Black Widow is addressed, especially since the MCU paints her as having a significant attachment to Clint Barton/Hawkeye right out of the gate. I want to see how Bucky becomes The Winter Soldier in this universe, how this has affected him, and how he comes back from that.

Basically, I want Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier to be about friendships and relationships, and how people deal with the bad hands they’re dealt. Yeah, action, adventure and explosions are great, too, obviously, but there’s no need to shove a love story into it where there shouldn’t be. Give me the story about who these people are to each other now, and if you still want to throw a romance in there later, fine. But give me the damn story first.

What to do when your show doesn’t love you back

I’m just going to give you a simple example that I think we can all pretty much understand, okay?

You love something. We’ll say, for instance, a television show. The point is, you really love it. You’re a fan. You buy the merchandise and wear the t-shirts and watch regularly, because it’s well-written and wonderful and, again, you love it. It means something to you, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But then, you know, there are these moments where you just feel uncomfortable with the whole thing. Like, certain characters are written in really shallow, two-dimensional ways, like the writers just don’t know what else to do with them. Or it seems like nobody takes them seriously, or that other people feel the need to assert how powerless/useless/irrational/etc. compared to the stronger/smarter/more useful protagonist. These characters are just shells of people that need to be propped up, and it bugs you — like, really bugs you. You love this thing so much, and it’s great except for that part where it just makes you feel bad, because the people being put down happen to look like you.

Because you’re a person of color, or you’re a woman, or you’re queer, or you’re trans*, or you’re Islamic, or you’re anything that isn’t Straight, White and Male.

It’s right there in your face and you just feel frustrated, because it seems systemic, right? Like, how could so much bad, lazy, offensive writing go unchecked for so long? How could so many negative stereotypes be perpetuated without anybody giving a crap? How is that okay? Weren’t we supposed to be passed this? Well, we’re not. Apparently TV can boost the self-esteem of white boys, but negatively impact that of, you know, everybody else. Is that surprising? If you fall into the Everybody Else category, not really. It’s what we deal with every day, in all forms of media representation. If you’re going to navigate popular media, you have to become an informed consumer, and be aware of what’s around you.

As a fan (and even more so as a writer), it’s my job to be aware of problematic storytelling and portrayals, and put it into context. I have to weigh the pros of my favorite TV, movie, video game, comic or book series, versus the cons of how characters and situations are being represented — or in some cases, under-represented, or not represented at all. Ultimately, the decision we all have to make as consumers is how to deal with it, and when to call it quits. When is something so problematic, so uncomfortable, so downright infuriating that you can’t, in good conscience, support it?

That’s the question that has me reconsidering my relationship with the current iteration of Doctor Who.

Don’t get me wrong: I love Doctor Who. I have a huge remote controlled Dalek that can attest to that love. From Nine to Eleven, the last few years have been filled with hours of entertainment and wonder: Watching the Doctor and his companions traipse about time and space, getting into trouble and having warm fuzzy moments. I loved Rose and Mickey, Martha and Jack, Donna and Amy and Rory, and yes, even River. Hell, I loved Canton the most, and am still trying to start internet petitions to make him a full-time companion. (Don’t even get me started.) It’s wonderful, but, at the end of the day, I still have issues with it.

If you’re familiar with the show and fandom, you’re probably well-aware of current showrunner Steven Moffat. I bet you’re also familiar with the debates going on all over the internet about Moffat’s less-than-stellar portrayal of women, or that he has a dubious track-record with LGBT representation (Note: It’s the only comprehensive list I found, even if the title is, uh, slanted), or that he can’t handle criticism. Personally, I am a big fan of his work, not just on Doctor Who but on Sherlock as well. I think his storylines are clever and engaging (some more than others, of course), and I really do enjoy the work he produces. However, after reading numerous interviews and Twitter tirades, it gets a little hard to support the work of a guy who, you know, has me face-palming myself week after week. Because, hey, I do fall into two of those categories we’re arguing about here, and sometimes it can be uncomfortable.

Dumbing down Irene Adler, from brilliant and capable to typical damsel? The so-witty quips and one-offs about sexual orientation that are meant to pass as fair representation? Hollowing out River Song, from a potentially good and well-rounded character into an obsessive and inconsistent cardboard cut-out? Basically building Amy up and tearing her down again every five minutes, as the girl who waited, or the girl who isn’t good enough for poor poor Rory, or turning her into a walking incubator just to take her child away and never show her actually dealing with it? The numerous offhand remarks about female characters being crazy or deranged because, haha, they have lady-parts and isn’t that a funny observation? I got to say: I’m disappointed. And I’m disappointed that I’m so disappointed, because I do love these shows so much.

(It bears mentioning that Steven Moffat has recently left Twitter. Some fans theorize he was “bullied” off of it by other fans, while others seem to feel he just overreacted to criticism, but apparently he just left it because it was distracting? Who knows. He’s a grown man and a professional writer, in any case, and can do whatever he wants to with his Twitter.)

So, how do you fight back against negative media? Well, blog about it, for starters. Talk to other fans. Talk to The Powers That Be if you ever have the opportunity. If nobody listens, stop watching, and stop giving them your money and time. Stop rewarding writers for bad behavior, and then find something better. I find one of the best (and least brain-breaking) ways to deal with problematic series is to find something more positive and well-rounded, and give that your support instead. For me, one of those shows is Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time.

The weird and wonderful brainchild of Pendleton Ward, Adventure Time has this magical way of telling amazing, touching, and sometimes incredibly positive stories under the guise of a silly children’s show. This is something I’ve talked about at length here, from fair representation of women,

Sometimes adventurers and princes can even fall in love, sure. Cue flowers and first dates, and the cute romantic musical segment about true love and junk. But do you know what lesson was waiting for Fionna at the heart of it? You don’t need a relationship to validate you, because you’re fine by yourself. You don’t need a prince to make you feel special, because you’re already special. Americans live in a culture where girls are fed lines from books and magazines, and taglines from movies and on the fronts of glittery t-shirts, about needing boys’ attention twenty-four-seven in order to feel good about themselves. (We’re all familiar with Twilight, yes? Okay, just checking.) So I don’t know about you, but I think telling girls they’re fine the way they are is a damn good message to have on a kid’s show.

to relationship dynamics, and the possibility for queer relationships,

Okay, so, Finn loves Princess Bubblegum. When she was de-aged back to a thirteen year old, they had a brief but sweet little romantic sojourn, and it was all rather nice. Now PB is back to her eighteen year old self, and therefore over Finn. Even so, Finn is friends with both PB and Marceline, who PB has always seemed to dislike. Marceline’s feelings for PB have always been rather antagonistic, but it’s been played off as a rivalry. (PB is an uptight princess who loves science, Marceline is, well, the hipster queen of the underworld and such. These things just happen.) Now a lot of fans suspect that the context of PB and Marceline’s relationship is much more complicated than it first appeared. Yes, they’re former friends who now have a rocky association, drawn together again because of Finn, but might it be more?

to gender equality,

Sure, gender-swapping turns up in film and fiction, but usually as the butt of a joke or as the plot of a formulaic body-swap comedy. It’s not taken very seriously in mainstream popular culture, where we still argue about gender roles and cliches, over-muscled male heroes and half-naked women trying to fight crime in lingerie. Even for it, this children’s show is the first that I’ve seen in a long time to throw the rule book out the window and have some fun with their characters. It may not be deep or particularly thought-provoking, but it is refreshing. A girl adventurer with a silly hat, her cat Cake, a pervy ice queen and a prince in need of saving. Oh, and some hipster vampires and anthropomorphic candy-people. It’s Adventure Time, but in a new light. What’s not to love?

Remember Princess Cookie? Remember all he wanted was to be a princess so he could bring joy to the children of the orphanage? Remember how I cried ugly tears? Yeah, okay, so now you see how serious this is. Because, honestly, I can go on for days about this show, but I chose to spare you.

As consumers of media, the best way to combat bad writing is to show how positive media can thrive. Show TPTB that they can make a buck off something with a diverse cast and a decent message just as easily as something exploitative or negative. I’m not saying there’s no hope for shows like Doctor Who, or that you need to burn all your DVDs and t-shirts. (I am very proud of that remote controlled Dalek, by the way; I’ve chased many cats with it.) Just be aware that there are problems in your media, and be prepared to confront them.

And sometimes, just be prepared to walk away, for your own sake, and find something better to spend your time and money on. You’re the consumers here, guys. Make it count.

(Disclaimer: The first person to comment with “If you don’t like it, stop watching!” gets thrown out the airlock for missing the point entirely.)

Diversity in DC Comics: The first Arab-American Green Lantern

The latest Green Lantern, Simon Baz

This month DC Comics announced its newest Green Lantern, Simon Baz, and made history by featuring the first Arab-American superhero. As a Lantern, Simon upholds a fairly progressive tradition among The Green Lantern Corp, featuring heroes such as the African-American John Stewart and Alan Scott, the Golden Age Lantern who was recently reintroduced as gay. To all the good ol’ boys out there — still clutching their pearls over Miles Morales becoming Spider-Man or Carol Danvers getting pants as part of being promoted to Captain Marvel — who may be confused by this very important distinction between Regular American and Arab-American, let me reiterate why this is important.

Simon Baz is very much an American character: Raised in Dearborn, Michigan, the home of Ford Motors and America’s largest Arab-American population center, Simon grew up under the very long shadow of 9/11. As a child, he and his family were subject to the violence and stigmatization that Muslims and Arab-Americans suffered in the years after the attacks. Now in his 20s, Simon is an out-of-work automotive engineer, facing poverty in the fall-out of the automotive industry crisis. In order to survive Simon becomes a car thief, until inadvertently stumbling into the middle of a terrorism probe, when he ends up chosen by the Lantern Corp to take on the mantle.

Granted, as a hero, he comes from darker beginnings. Simon isn’t perfect, by far. As creator and DC’s chief creative officer Geoff Johns explains,

He’s not a perfect character. He’s obviously made some mistakes in his life, but that makes him more compelling and relatable. Hopefully (it’s) a compelling character regardless of culture or ethnic background. … But I think it’s great to have an Arab-American superhero. This was opportunity and a chance to really go for it.

Simon isn’t the first Muslim or Arab comic book character, either. DC already has Nightrunner and Marvel Comics has Dust, while Naif Al-Mutawa has worked to bring Islamic heroes to the mainstream with The 99. But, historically, these characters have largely been portrayed as villains, terrorists and other menaces to the very white world of superheroes, while post-9/11 racism and Islamophobia still affects the lives of Arab-Americans across the country. Frank Miller, for instance, in his graphic novel Holy Terror, purposefully fueled the flames of jingoism and Islamophobia in comics.

This is why having an Arab-American hero in the forefront is so important. As the readership of comics continues to grow and expand into all walks of life, cultural inclusion is becoming more and more crucial to not only reaching people, but keeping a firm grasp on both their attention and their wallets. Simon Baz is no different than many of his contemporaries: He comes from humble middle-American beginnings, and has overcome hardship and adversity in order to find his true potential. He just, you know, happens to be Arab-American. As Johns goes on to say,

[Being Arab-American] doesn’t completely define the character but it shapes the character. My biggest hope is that people embrace it and understand what we’re trying to do.

If you’re still clutching your pearls, I’m sorry? Meanwhile, the rest of us will be giving this comic a shot. Also, he has a pretty cool-looking action figure, so.

New fiction: Super, Not Nova

I present to you for your reading pleasure issue thirty-four of Jersey Devil Press, stuffed full of twelve new very short stories about existentialism, jet-packs, paradoxes, and more. It also features my own very short story, Super, Not Nova. The last story to be published under my old writing name, it chronicles the adventures of Greg and Jimmy, art school burn-outs pondering the mysteries of life, the universe, and the food service industry. Also, Jimmy is a star about to go nova. Just thought I would mention that.

Jimmy felt like a star some days, he said, always burning under his skin. Sometimes light shined from behind his teeth when he’d get to drinking, licking his lips with syrup in his eyes and laughing like he was about to fall out of his shoes. Jimmy always said things like that as long as I’d known him. That there was a nuclear bomb locked up inside him, ready to burn. Set the whole world on fire and melt people’s faces off like when you put Playmobil toys in the microwave, or like some spinning Fourth of July firework from hell. Everything but me, he always said, because at least I was still pretty cool. I never believed Jimmy, not really, but I never corrected him either. There was no point to it. Jimmy was just like that.

You can read it here.

Coming soon: The Widow

A few people have asked for proof that I’m actually working on comic scripts and not just running my mouth on the internet. (You know who you are, you vicious bastards.) In the spirit of full-disclosure, here: Have the first four pages of a comic in the works called The Widow. A slice from my admitted Tales From The Crypt phase, it’s the story of a young widow whose budding romance with a handsome stranger could prove to be the death of her, to be illustrated by John David Brown. You might remember him from his work on our comic Ain’t No Grave.

Sound good?

Good.

PAGE 1

PANEL

1. A city sidewalk on a stormy night. KAREN is standing in the rain under an umbrella outside of FORTUNE TELLER’S SHOP. Karen is small and slender, in her early 30s, with shoulder-length dark hair, a round face and large, guileless eyes.

2. CLOSE-UP of Karen under umbrella, looking up at sign.

3. CLOSE-UP of store sign.

4. Overhead view of shop interior. Cluttered, claustrophobic little store with stuff nearly falling from the overstuffed shelves. Lots of thick books, human bones and weird trinkets. Karen is sitting at a table across from FORTUNE TELLER, having her palm read.

5. CLOSE-UP of Fortune Teller. Middle-aged woman in a long dress and shawl with heavy jewelry. Lots of laughter lines and long, loosely curled hair. She carefully studies Karen’s hand.

FORTUNE TELLER: You’re very worried about something. It’s keeping you up at night, making you distracted and distant from those around you. Is it your work? Your family?

6. Karen looks down at the table, meek, her shoulders bunched.

KAREN: It’s what you told me before, it’s happening. Just as you said it would.

FORTUNE TELLER (off-panel): Oh?

KAREN: Yeah. I met someone else.

PAGE 2

PANEL

1. FLASHBACK. At a quiet city park, Karen is sitting on a bench by a pond. She’s feeding scraps of bread to the ducks swimming nearby.

2. CLOSE-UP of Karen. A man-shaped shadow falls over her.

3. Same shot, Karen looking up to see who is standing so close.

4. A MAN (JAKE) is standing against the sun, mostly blacked out.

5. Same shot, except this time it’s a CLOSE-UP of CRAIG, Karen’s husband. Craig is good-looking, square-jawed, light hair, very clean-cut. He’s looking down on Karen, smiling in a quirk of his mouth.

6. Same shot again, this time of Jake speaking.

JAKE: I see you’re back again.

PAGE 3

PANEL

1. Karen holds up hand to block out the sun, squinting a little.

KAREN: I-I’m sorry, do I know you?

2. Jake sits down beside Karen on the bench. He’s tall and broad with neat dark hair and fine features.

JAKE: No, but I see you here a lot, while I’m out jogging. Sorry, I don’t mean to scare you.

3. Jake smiles softly, extending hand.

JAKE: I’m Jake, by the way.

4. Karen looks at the hand, hesitant.

5. Karen finally smiles, taking his hand to shake it.

KAREN: I’m Karen.

PAGE 4

PANEL

1. Real time again. An interior shot of Karen’s bedroom later that night. Small, comfortable, lots of knick-knacks and photos on the dresser and walls.

2. Karen sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, her back to the viewer. The floor rug is pushed back and she’s lifting a trap door.

3. Karen’s pulling out a steamer trunk from underneath the floor.

4. CLOSE-UP of Karen hugging herself to the trunk’s side, looking peaceful and contented.

KAREN: He’ll never replace you.

Coming soon to your face.

Comic review: Captain Marvel #3

Issue #3 of Captain Marvel picks up where we last left off, with Carol leading the Banshee Squad into battle against the Prowlers. Immediately this issue starts off big: Dexter Soy’s artwork is absolutely gorgeous here, setting a frenetic pace for the action. The color palettes can be bold and energetic one moment and soft and intimate the next, creating a nice balance between the action and the quieter moments of the story, and underscoring Kelly Sue DeConnick’s storytelling. After a successful campaign against the alien squadron, Carol and the Banshees capture the Japanese pilot of a downed Prowler, telling him to be ready for a fight the next time his squad comes for them. They then set about to rebuilding the downed Prowler, preparing themselves for the coming battle. Carol confirms that the ships are of Kree origin, but just how they ended up in a Japanese outpost off the coast of Peru in 1943 is still unknown.

That night Carol and the rest of the Banshees set up camp. We get to know a little bit more about the Banshee Squad in a campfire scene between Carol, Daisy and Bijoux, opening up about her origins and finding out more about these women she’s fighting alongside. These quiet moments are inviting and well-written, creating a little downtime in an otherwise very action-packed issue. As soon as morning comes Prowlers appear on the horizon and Carol again leads the charge, in what proves to be the issue’s big closing fight scene. Carol’s narration during the fight does a good job of orienting the reader in Carol’s head-space, downing a few more ships before she is alarmed to realize the Prowlers are merging in a single mechanical monstrosity. “I guess,” she remarks, “now it’s a fair fight.”

The issue closes on a flashback sequence to NASA headquarters in 1961, showing Helen Cobb’s bid to enter the jet program with several other female pilots. When they’re turned away by General Howard, Helen strikes a deal with him over artifacts she recovered from the Peruvian general that had attempted to ground her after returning his plane to him (as referenced in issue #2). This extra little bit of mystery sets up the next chapter of Carol’s time-traveling adventures, paralleled by Helen’s story, and provides an intriguing ending to an overall solid issue.

I really enjoyed this issue, even more so than the previous two. It seems like DeConnick is now completely comfortable with this character and this story; it’s reflected in the tone of the book, which can be both adventurous and introspective, fun and reserved, in fair measures. Her characterizations feel very fleshed out and genuine, and make me want to really root for these women every time they do battle. It’s a very different book, in terms of tone and the kind of stories that are being told. I find that refreshing, and as always, I can’t say enough about Soy’s interiors, which really pull the whole thing together. While I was admittedly a little skeptical about where this book was going after the first two issues, every month seems to building up a steady momentum, and I think overall the book’s heading for very stories in the future.

Worth a read: This book is fun to read and just plain beautiful to look at, and I would definitely recommend it.

Why we shouldn’t see Civil War any time soon

With the release of Marvel’s The Avengers this summer, there has been an abundance of rumor, speculation, and fandom in-fighting about the possibility of Marvel’s Civil War event coming to the big screen in the next few years. Some are for it, some are against it, and, not unlike the event itself, it’s a topic that people are likely going to be arguing about for many days to come. That powers that be certainly like to fan the flames from time to time, it seems. But as a film, I don’t think it has a place in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, and certainly not in Joss Whedon’s current incarnation of Avengers. And here’s just a few reasons why.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is too new.

MCU’S Phase One films, including the Avengers, was just the origin story. It was the beginning. As it stands today, there are only six heroes in the MCU. They have all just met and established alliances, and the world is still getting used to the idea of super-types running around. While Marvel plans to expand their universe with the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man movies, they hardly have an entire pantheon to work with yet. Rumor has it Marvel’s getting close to getting the film rights for Daredevil and Ghost Rider back (although I haven’t been able to confirm that), but they still don’t have Fantastic Four or Spider-Man, all of whom were crucial to the Civil War story. And what about New Warriors? Luke Cage? Spider-Woman? Namor? What about the dozens of other characters, super-powered or not, that played a role in the event?

There just aren’t enough pieces on the board to justify the undertaking, especially when, in canon terms, superheroes haven’t been around long enough to really present themselves as a threat to national security or the American people.

Civil War was really complicated. Really, really complicated.

There were numerous social and political factors leading in the event, particularly the Avengers Disassembled, House of M, Decimation and Secret War storylines that preceded it. Which, uh, we just haven’t seen in the MCU, and likely won’t, because all of these actors are squishy mortals and don’t have time to film the fourteen movies it would take to make Civil War happen in any logical capacity. And to completely short-cut the event and make a super-simple, streamlined version? Well, why even bother calling it Civil War anymore?

There’s no risk, and ultimately, no pay-off.

Civil War had several decades’ worth of backstory to rely on. These are people we’ve come to know and love over generations, from comic books to cartoons to action figures to lunch boxes. All of these heroes have rich pasts and complicated relationships with one another, all of which helped weave the complex, multi-perspective narrative of Civil War. That was what made the drama in the first place: Watching lifelong friends and comrades destroy each other, embattled over political division. With the MCU as it stands now, we barely know these guys, and as characters, they barely know each other. What’s the point in watching people beat up their acquaintances? Where’s the pay-off? If there’s no emotional stake for the characters, there’s none for the viewer, and that’s just boring.

Uh, what about Thanos?

I thought we were all in agreement that the tone of Whedon’s Avengers films would be more…galactic in nature? And after the announcement of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, I figured that was kind of a given. To completely switch gears in time for Avengers 3 seems rushed and stupid. (I want my date with Death, damnit!)

Remember: MCU’s Tony Stark privatized world peace. (You’re welcome.)

And he’s been pretty proud of that fact. I sincerely doubt he’s going to kowtow to Congress when, up to this point, he’s been kind of anti-government about all of this superhero business. Beyond that, I feel that his characterization in the MCU has skipped ahead a bit of where he was at the start of Civil War to where he ended up in later storylines. To me he feels more like Matt Fraction‘s Tony Stark, giving up on making weapons to pursue clean energy initiatives, and trying to redeem himself. This Tony, while he has dark days coming in Iron Man 3, doesn’t seem like the same guy who manipulated Spider-Man, took over SHIELD, and screwed over most of the Marvel Universe at large just because he felt the ends justified the means. MCU’s Tony Stark is in the middle of his own character arc outside of the comic continuity, and I’d like to see where that goes, instead of taking big steps back to the person he was before Civil War.

But but, Winter Soldier! That’s a contemporary storyline! If they can do that in Captain America 2, why can’t they do Civil War?

Bringing Bucky back, giving Steve more reason to stand in the corner looking sad, and butting into the Clint/Natasha fanfiction we’ve been writing all summer is a much smaller undertaking that is directly tied to both Steve’s and Natasha’s storylines. See? That would be character development. What did I just say about strangers punching each other?

I didn’t give Marvel all of my time and money just to watch Captain America and Iron Man punch each other on the big screen.

Any attempt at Civil War right now would just be a cheap Captain America vs. Iron Man movie, and that is so pointless. I happen to be a sucker for their friendship, and despite fanboy cries for blood in the streets, I really don’t want to see it shafted for the sake of a big budget spectacle. Obviously I’m not going to get my forty years of bromance on-screen between Chris Evans and Robert Downey, Jr., but if they’re just going to try to beat each others’ faces in (and they do have such nice faces!), I quit. Because, seriously, if Captain America is assassinated and Iron Man just shrugs and goes out for burgers? I will personally throw my laptop at somebody.

I happen to have a lot of feelings about this, okay?

Can Civil War be done one day? Maybe, with enough time and build-up. Is it really necessary? I personally don’t think so. The MCU is just now moving into Phase 2, using classic stories to create a world for contemporary fans and viewers to enjoy. I would really like to see where these Avengers end up in this universe, without having to smash each others’ faces in because Marvel/Disney want to keep making money off Civil War. They have the trades and the novelization, and if they’re still desperate to do it, hey — take a page out of DC’s playbook and make a big animated film instead. Just let us have our movies, man.

Why comics had to happen

I’m in a chemistry classroom in September, 2010. Somebody is saying to me, You should be writing comic books. I think you’d be good at it. I tell this person, What do you think I’ve been trying to do every day since I was thirteen?

–

New York City, April 2012. Everywhere I go, everybody’s asking me about comic books. I’m staying up late on my friend’s sofa in Brooklyn to explain how Captain America subverts his own patriotic iconography as a radically anti-government  figure in established superhero mythology. On a street corner in St. Mark’s I’m passionately explaining why Civil War can’t and shouldn’t be breached in the Marvel Cinematic Universe because they haven’t done enough to develop Tony Stark’s (sometimes infuriating) moral ambiguity. At Desert Island Comics I’m loitering around with Melissa and Anna, talking about comics I’m sorta-kinda-maybe writing, and feeling intensely jealous of each and every writer with comics on the racks.

Before I leave for home, I’m pondering making my move once and for all.

–

It’s been coming up a lot lately, the same question: Why comic books? Why now? I’ve been publishing short stories and flash fiction (and soon, novels, if I’m lucky) for the better part of three years now, carving out a tiny name for myself in the fish bowl world of Horror and Bizzaro. Sometimes painful, sometimes funny, sometimes completely off-putting, I take a very particular joy in making other people as uncomfortable as I possibly can with my writing. As any of my publishers and editors will tell you, I’m weird like that.

The truth is, though, writing literature (if you can call it that; I don’t) is a consolation prize. It’s my participation ribbon or my little A+ For Effort gold foil sticker. My heart’s never been in it. I know that sounds stupid to anybody out there struggling to get their short stories published, or finish their first (or second, or third) novel. I wish I could say something to make me look less like a jackass, but it’s true. Writing proper fiction was never on the table for me; it was just something that I stumbled into. I taught myself do it by writing novels that would never get off the ground and creating supplemental material for comics that I would never actually put together.

Comic books were always the goal. Now, finally, I’m in a place to try to make that happen.

–

I grew up under the shadows of superheroes. Most girls my age had Spice Girls. I had X-Men, Avengers and a well-defined stance on Spider-Man’s Clone Saga storyline. (Spoiler: Not a fan.) As I got older I moved into broader, stranger genres populated by indie writers and artists. Horror comics, spy comics, love comics, kitschy little personal dramas. English comics, Korean comics, French and Spanish comics, too. I even started reading Warrior Nun. Have you ever heard of Warrior Nun? That’s okay. (Looking back, I’m not entirely sure I’d recommend it.) Comics were how I taught myself to write and tell stories. In middle and high school I wanted to write superheroes; in college and after it was horror. In any case, it was always comics.

Then I was told girls didn’t write comics, and I’d better sit this one out. So I started writing fiction instead.

–

July 2009. I’m sitting in a crowded hall at the San Diego Convention Center for Comic Con. I scored front-row seats, eagerly awaiting the Venture Brothers panel later that afternoon, admiring the cosplayers in the crowd behind me. The program said Gerard Way was the next speaker, talking about something called Umbrella Academy. I had no idea what Umbrella Academy was, or why he was supposed to be talking about it. Wasn’t he in some douchey band with his brother or something?

I sat there for an hour, completely mesmerized by his views on the industry, on his love of post-modernism in comics, and his story of wanting to write comics so bad he was about to burst. After getting home to Texas, I bought the first volume of Umbrella Academy — Apocalypse Suite — and I fell in love. Then I bought Dallas and I knew this was why I had to start writing comics again, somehow.

(I’m still waiting on Hotel Oblivion, Gerard. You know. Just saying.)

–

Sometime in the summer of 2010, I get a message from John David Brown. He did some illustration work for my story The Aquarium on Fiction Circus, and I really loved his style. He really liked my style, too, and said he wanted to do comics. I had no idea what to send; I’d been writing short stories and working on my novel. Scripting had been furthest from my mind and, honestly, I was pretty rusty. For a while I sat on his offer, digging through my unfinished drafts, trying to find something to send. Eventually, in a bout of desperation and malaise, I sent him a weird little zombie story I hadn’t been able to get published, based on a Johnny Cash song.

You might know that comic book as Ain’t No Grave.

Yeah, I write comic books.

Ain’t No Grave, page one by John David Brown

–

It’s August. I’m working on a draft of the first arc of my comic, Black Out. It’s an action story about a down-and-out biker named Andy who’s tossed out of his MC for the crime of being with the wrong person. Andy has to get a job working for the other side to make the money he needs to get out of town, dodging fights and retribution threats from his former brothers along the way. One last big score, he tells himself, then he’s gone — up north, to freedom, to the lover who got him kicked out of the only family he’s ever known. Just a run to North Dakota to sell guns to a band of travelers known as The Wolves, thieves and conmen who wear wolf-pelts and cover themselves in Nordic runes. There he encounters a woman known only to him as Stitch, the kid sister of the Wolf-King’s right hand man Lucas, who’s desperate to escape her life as a Wolf at any cost to herself.

What ensues lands Andy in the middle of waring Texas crime families and feuding werewolves, taken hostage by Stitch to get her across the border and out from under her possessive brother’s thumb. It’s a chase story. It’s a comedy. It’s a drama. It’s an exploitation movie with werewolves and bikers and strippers with guns. I have no idea how I’m going to pitch this but it’s what I’ve got, and I’ve got more on the back-burner. I have The Bagman of Shrekville, a pseudo-Shakespearean drama about a subculture of modern-day vampires, hailing from a primitive species of cave-dwelling predators, and the life of a foot-soldier in the middle of warring criminal aristocracies. I also have a story loosely titled Dust-Bowl Apocalypse, following a lowly G-Man in the early days of the FBI who finds himself following the destructive paths of The Four Horsemen through the American heartland and across Eastern Europe, culminating in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Hell, maybe one day I’ll actually get to write superhero comics. Won’t that be something?