It’s Been A Big Week

It’s been a big week for the LGBT community. There’s been some truly awful news, like the apparent hate crime killing of Mark Carson.

There’s also been some quite heartening news. A Federal Court decision took effect this past Thursday, May 16, making marriage equality the law of Brazil. Francois Hollande, the president of France, signed a marriage equality bill into law and France will have its first gay marriages on May 29. The state of Minnesota, for its part, also legalized marriage equality, with its governor signing the bill into law on Tuesday. These are big steps forward.

When compared with these things, what I’m about to tell you will seem trivial, but I’ve deemed it worth mentioning. On August 7, Archie Comics will feature its first homosexual kiss.

It’s reported that the openly gay character Kevin Keller, who first came out to Jughead, will share a kiss with his boyfriend Devon. While this is certainly not a first for comics at large, there is the sense that this will make a few waves.

When Kevin Keller was first introduced as a character in September 2010, Veronica #202 (his debut comic) was so wildly popular that Archie Comics issued its first reprint ever. Two years later, Life with Archie #16 featured Kevin’s wedding to a gay black man whom he met while serving in Iraq (the wedding was something of a flash forward. As of his high school years, he is dating Devon). One Million Moms, an arm of the non-profit hate group called the American Family Association, organized a protest, calling on Toys R’ Us to remove the issue from its shelves. Toys R’ Us did not, and the wedding issue went on to be almost as popular as the issue in which Keller first appears.

The August 7 comic, which is already making big news all over the internet, is in fact,a jab at this protest. Dan Parent, the artist for Kevin Keller #10, in which the kiss will appear, has referred to the comic as a “playful poke” at One Million Moms, with the NY Daily News reporting:

Parent said he wrote the story after efforts to remove a comic magazine showing Keller getting married drew at [sic] complaints. One Million Moms, a project of The American Family Association, asked Toys R Us not to display “Life With Archie” No. 16 near its checkout aisles. Toys R Us did not, and the issue went on to sell out its print run.

What’s exciting to me about this is that it serves as a reminder that organizations like One Million Moms seem doomed to fail. You see, for all their petty successes, their high-profile campaigns against businesses who have the audacity to treat LGBT people like human beings deserving of representation always seem to blow up in their face. Take for example, their opposition to Gay Day, an event which dares to expose children to homosexual couples “holding hands, hugging and kissing.” Or, take their widely publicized efforts against JCPenney’s employment of Ellen DeGeneres and general use of LGBT persons in advertisement. This failed, resulting in highly visible and very successful gay and lesbian Mother’s Day and Father’s Day ads. OMM continued to fight this battle throughout the year, again failing each time. It’s a losing battle for them.

Having Archie Comics in the fight for the respect and dignity of LGBT persons is heartening, if only because it’s a popular comic-printing company, with a 74-year history as a cultural institution in the United States. It’s a small victory, at least. I think the last few years (and even the last week!) have shown that we are making genuine progress toward LGBT equality in this country and around the world. So, perhaps there’s time for a little celebration of achievement.

And a moment of silence for Mark Carson, too.

Robert Lacayo/Twitter

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via USA TODAY

For more, please check out:

The Atlantic Wire | The Murder of Mark Carson: A Hate Crime Where It Wasn’t Expected
The New York TImes | Hollande Signs French Gay Marriage Law
Daily KOS | #14 – Brazil – Marriage Equality Nation Wide
Southern Poverty Law Center | Active Hate Groups
Hollywood Reporter | Archie Comics’ Gay Wedding Issue Sells Out Despite Protest
Gawker | JCPenney Responds to Homophobic Boycott Calls with Gay Father’s Day Ad
NY MAG| JCPenney Actually Benefits from One Million Moms’ Ire

Positive Representation: Beyond the Veil

You’ll be happy to hear that this post will lack any of my trademark pretension (lies!). Today, all I want to do is introduce you to a pair of very cool heroines from the Marvel Universe. I say “pair” not just because there are two of them, but because they share so many traits, all of which make them exciting characters. They’re women, they kick ass, they display remarkable loyalty and patience, and they’re both hijabi.

Let me clarify. The term hijab (which appears as حجاب in Arabic)‎ is used specifically to refer to the headscarf worn ostensibly for the sake of modesty. The term can be generalized to refer to any form of cover which conforms to a standard of Islamic modesty. These vary by region and degrees of Islamic orthodoxy—there’s a good list here. The term hijabi is used to refer to women who wear one of these kinds of veils.

So, when I introduce Faiza Hussain (Excalibur) and Sooraya Qadir (Dust) to you, you’ll understand that they wear the veil. What I love best about these characters is that their Islam is not incidental or inconsequential to their heroism. They are proud hijabi heroes.

On Marvel’s Mega Minds and Missing Women

Marvel’s 2010 crossover storyline Fall of the Hulks, which occurs sort of concurrently with the events of the Siege storyline, details among other things the plot of a cabal of evil, brainy superheroes to kidnap the world’s eight smartest people. The Intelligencia [sic], as they call themselves, arouse the ire of various Hulks in the process, leading to all sorts of hijinks and craziness, as well as the World War Hulk story and its two issue miniseries, Hulked Out Heroes.

Try not to imagine the kind of mindboggling destruction that an entity equal parts Hulk and Deadpool would wreak. Instead, let’s go back and talk about the fact that Marvel has offered up a list of its terrestrial supergeniuses. This is great! I really want to know who the smartest people on Earth-616 are, don’t you? Let’s take a look at who was worth capturing (in no particular order):

On Geek Gatekeeping and Inheriting The Earth

[This is chiptune rock, which might not be your thing. The lyrics sort of make the point, and you can just look them up.]

It’s always scary, seeing a ghost. Not a literal ghost, as I’ve never seen one, but something you thought was dead and gone away. You see, I thought we had put the “fake geek girl” problem to rest. I assumed that it was broken down, dismissed, and relegated to the darkest corners of the places for which I have no time. Even Cracked tore this one to shreds, and this was some six months ago. So I had assumed that we were collectively over it.

I am not, however, over the Too Late To RuPaulogize video. Look it up.

It turns out that this was nothing more than a egocentric dream, the folly of a mind that occasionally assumes that everyone is a feminist, or that everyone knows that President Bartlet would be the best president ever. Of all time.

Back in November 2012, comic book artist Tony Harris wrote a rant (read: vomit-inducing, misogynistic tripe) on Facebook. This seemed to be the culmination of a season where what even Forbes Magazine called “Geek Gatekeeping” was on everybody’s lips (including Lady Bacula‘s). Then, in an effort to spread his sexist, body-policing brain diarrhea, Harris asked his twitter followers to read and retweet it. We were talking about this fake geek girl bs all through the winter, according to my extremely scientific research method of checking Google Trends for “fake geek girl” and “fake nerd girl.” By March, It had sort of faded from my view. It had been discredited all over the internet, and I figured that was enough.

Oh My Pop-Culture Jesus: Knows Two Gods, Still a Christian

After The Avengers came out, many people discussed Captain America’s famous line about God and Thor.

Some people were surprised that Joss Whedon, an atheist, included the line in the movie. Others were either pleasently surprised or dismayed at the inclusion of religion in the Marvel Movie Universe, but the most interesting response, and the one I’m going to address here, is: How can Captain America still be a monotheist when he knows two gods personally? People also pointed out that characters like Iron Man, who is typically written as atheist, would also have issues coming to terms meeting two gods.

In the comics in general, a variety of religions are often included or referenced. In the Marvel universe there are mentions of Christianity, Norse Mythology, Greek mythology, Judaism, Islam, and other forms of Paganism and Wicca. However, despite all these religions being referenced, it is usually the pagan religions that are “proven” when characters actually meet the gods they learned about. For today I will just address religion in the Marvel Universe since each comic book universe deals with religion a little differently.

Fanfiction Fridays: A Villain State of Mind by Mikkeneko

Hey, have any of you wondered what would happen if, after the events in The Avengers, some sort of shenanigans ensued, in which Loki is somehow ejected from Asgard and left in the capable yet frustrated hands of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Well, considering just how many fics there are about Loki being taken in by the Avengers and becoming friends with them, chances are that some of you have.

I don’t want to say that those stories are bad—they’re more numerous than anything—so much as they’re a little repetitive. Though each of these fics give a different take on going about Loki’s reformation and can be very insightful, they can get old really fast. Because there’s just that many of them. Mikkeneko, however, puts a really different spin on it, and her story A Villain State of Mind is by far one of the best character studies I’ve read about Loki. The summary goes as follows:

To no one’s pleasure, Loki ends up stranded in SHIELD custody after the events of The Avengers. Wary of Loki’s dangerous abilities, Nick Fury calls in the favor of an old friend to help him keep this new threat under control—but can even the formidable Professor X save Loki from himself?

Probably one of the reasons A Villain State of Mind is so insightful is because it’s literally about a telepath helping Loki deal with his issues. My biggest complaint about this is that because Loki doesn’t consent to Xavier reading his mind, the story does have mind rape. At the very least, Loki is not happy about such a violation, but that’s all the more credit I can give the fic on that issue.

Throughout the course of the nine chapters, Loki starts to form a bond with Xavier and even begins to regard him as a father figure, going so far to wish that Xavier had been the one to find him as an infant. Xavier, in turn, is reminded by his own failings with Mystique when confronted with Loki’s issues. This comes to light when Xavier sees Loki in his true Frost Giant form and remarks on how similar the two look. Xavier tells Loki about how it was wrong that he acted ashamed of Mystique’s true form and that she is beautiful. He uses this analogy to tell Loki that he doesn’t think being a Frost Giant automatically makes Loki a monster.

Xavier only has around a week or so of helping Loki overcome his internal conflict and attempt to rehabilitate him. As such, when the story concludes, we never find out whether or not Loki changes his ways. It ends with a very possible chance of redemption for Loki, but as Xavier says, he and the Trickster only knew each other for about a week and that the threat of a relapse is nowhere near gone.

While the story does have a plot and many subplots going on, the majority of it is just Loki and Xavier sitting in a room talking to each other. That said, it is still a fascinating read. Be sure to check it out on ff.net here or on AO3 here.

Adventures in Geekdom or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Comics

xkcd knows what’s up.

In my fifteen or so years of participation in geekdom, I’ve learned that there are two universal truths.

1. There are infinite shades of nerdity on the geek spectrum.
2. There are many people out there who still don’t get it.

Being a nerd was always part of my core identity, though I took pride in calling myself a “nerd” over “geek.” Geeks were socially awkward, not smart, like me (doesn’t that sentence just radiate hypocrisy?). I prided myself on being some kind of upper echelon of social outcast, defining myself through criticizing others. It didn’t matter that I never actually envisioned who that social outcast was who sat on the lower rung of the social ladder. I wasn’t like “those” weirdos, whoever they were.

So it really wasn’t a surprise when similar feelings resurfaced when I was invited to go check out Free Comic Book Day.

Robert Morales, Truth & Reconciliation

“Think of the American lives you will save… Do not consider what we did to you.”

Content note: spoilers, graphic content

Two weeks ago Wednesday, news came that Robert Morales, Marvel Comics author and entertainment journalist, passed away at the age of 55. Samuel Delany, author of too many science fiction novels to name, broke the news on Facebook:

Robert Morales was one of my closest friends—and had been since he was seventeen years old. He died at his home in Brooklyn this morning, leaving his father and mother. He was fifty-four. We spoke on the phone for many years, at least once a week and often more. I am shattered. His many friends will miss him deeply. He had agreed to be my literary executor, and the idea that he would pre-decease me never entered my head. For me and many others he was an indispensable friend. To say he will be deeply missed is an incredible understatement.

My comment on his passing is not timely. It is a fortnight late and the story of his death has been covered by at least ten other websites. All I can say is that Morales was a creative powerhouse and he, his inspiration, and his passion will be missed.

Morales’ legacy, however, lives on. His work with artist Kyle Baker, Truth: Red, White & Black, is one of Marvel Comics’ most compelling ventures into the subject of race in America. Truth reveals a backstory for the Captain America mythos in which the Super Soldier Serum was tested on black soldiers in secret, resulting in the death and mutilation of all but a few.

You Know What Keeps Going Through My Head? Iron Man 3.

Author’s note: I wrote this last night at 4am. My dedication to this blog is a terrifying thing.

So, my darlings, I’ve just arrived home from the midnight screening of Iron Man 3, and I am here to ply you with my thoughts. Let’s see if we can keep this coherent. All in all? This was a hell of a movie, filled with stuff I never saw coming. I’ll be a little more specific after the jump. Spoilers for everything ahead.

So You Want To Read Comic Books 2.0: Go To Free Comic Book Day!

Say you, perchance, want to read comic books. But maybe you don’t have the cash to spend on them. If only there were some sort of day where comic books were given away for free? Well, you are in luck, dear reader, because tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day.