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Tweak says, "You make me randy baby! YEAH!"

runespoor7 (runespoor7) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-09-21 22:41:00

Entry tags:

char: robin/red hood/jason todd, char: speedy/mia dearden, creator: judd winick, publisher: dc comics, title: green arrow

Request: Jason-Mia interaction
Context: Red Hood has teamed up with a local villain to distract Green Arrow and a visiting Batman, and has kidnapped Speedy. Due to scan limits, I can't post the pure gold that is Bruce and Ollie's dialogue as they follow.

They're in her highschool gym, where he's freed her, given her back her bow and arrows, and is giving her all the motivation in the world to want to kick his ass. He's already taunted her that she can only attack from afar as long as she's got arrows, and when she runs out she knows he'll come for her. She replies that no, it can be over when she puts an arrow in his eye. He reminds that she's not even gonna try that. Non-lethal shots only, right? (Jason's info is good because it's recent.)

title: green arrow, char: speedy/mia dearden, char: robin/red hood/jason todd, creator: judd winick

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	Re: A Lonely Place of Dying lynxara 2009-09-22 06:11 am UTC (link)
	Superhero comics tend to observe a lot of deeply conservative and elitist social values. The point at which this seriously bothers you is often the point at which it's time to move on to other things. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: A Lonely Place of Dying

runespoor7
2009-09-22 04:28 pm UTC (link)

I'm trying to answer this without being inflammatory. Okay, first, you have no idea how seriously the points I'm describing bother me or otherwise. Second... Well, I'm reminded of arguments around shonen manga and female characters, but I'm sure other example can be found in comics. This isn't a private club. If I notice a story-telling trend, whether or not I like the original material, I'm going to comment on it.

For the record, what bothers me is not the class issues in the Batfamily. I think they're fascinating. I'm bothered by claims that they don't exist.

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Re: A Lonely Place of Dying

lynxara
2009-09-22 04:50 pm UTC (link)

Fans are always going to claim that class issues-- and to some extent race and gender issues-- aren't present in mainstream superhero comics. Reading superhero comics in light of real-world issues like that generally makes the material feel loathesome and sickening.

In particular, confronting the class issues at work in the Batman stuff is impossible without coming to the conclusion that most of the characters involved are selfish monsters so steeped in white privilege that they've lost all grasp of reality. Batman's behaviors and the world around him in fact bear no true relationship to real experiences. They are best allegorical.

Batman is escapist wish-fulfillment entertainment to most people so they want the problems there to be, basically, the sort of problems you wished you had. Melodramatic problems that are at best symbolic representations of actual pain and conflict. Class is an intractable life-destroying problem that requires very sophisticated writing to explore adequately. Even the most sophisticated Batman stories would not really be capable of it.

No, superheroes aren't a private club, but they are an element of a genre that trends toward stupidity. Extraordinary creators can invest superheroes with real meaning but this does not happen on a regular basis. If I see someone who appears intellectually dissatisfied by superhero crud, I'm going to suggest going elsewhere because I sincerely believe doing so would make that person happier. There are comics that can talk about class issues-- and they also don't feature fanciful assholes in capes. This is not coincidental.

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