Wednesday...
Feb. 6th, 2013 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
On the whole: what a good day.
Yoga. Coffee with
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(1) The pick of the pack, for story and art and sheer fun, was All-New X-Men vol. 1 #7 by Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez. This comic has been consistently delightful; amazing characterization, and a story with fascinating twists and turns, and wonderful contrasts between the young, untried X-Men and their jaded, experienced adult counterparts. Ahead of time, I thought the notion of having the original X-Men, at a young age, come into the present continuity of the Marvel universe was a terrible idea. But I also had faith in Brian Michael Bendis' writing, and I was justified. This comic has charm and suspense and now I'm eager to see what will happen. Ther are some lovely bits of dialogue, such as the younger Cyclops going into a bank:
Teller: Oh my God. You -- you look a lot older on TV.
Cyclops: I am older on TV.

This particular issue is primarily a mind-game between Mystique and young Cyclops. It's hard to tell what Mystique wants, but it's clear she's using the truth to manipulate Scott. As with so many villainous characters, I love Mystique best when she's sympathetic and more good than bad.
(2) Avengers Assemble Annual vol. 1 #1 set up a situation that's been a long time coming for us Young Avengers fans. An ongoing theme has been the parentage of Billy and Tommy - a theme that was explored in Avengers: The Children's Crusade when Billy went on a search for his mother - the Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff, daughter of Magneto. But what about his father, the Vision?
Back in the 1970s I was a huge fan of the Vision. I was horrified when this Android fell in love and married Wanda - it has taken decades, and the good stories of the last decade, to reconcile me to that marriage, which has long since come and gone. But we're dealing still with its aftermath, and this story at last present the Vision's perspective on things: his return to life, and the knowledge that he has - in a magical sense, at least - two sons.
(3) Fearless Defenders #1 by Cullen Bunn and Will Sliney had another treat in store. I knew this new series was going to have female protagonists - which makes me cheer. But Defenders has traditionally been a mediocre book, and I was somewhat worried: I want female superheroes, but I want good female superheroes and in the past Valkyrie and Misty Knight have not exactly set the world of Marvel on fire.
The good news: the first issue was fun. Not a very sophisticated story, but fun. And that's not why I'm commenting on it.
No, I'm commenting on it because we get a rather delicious girl-girl kiss. I was saying a while back that although I have been very happy with the high-profile gay characters at Marvel - notably Northstar and his husband Kyle - most of them seemed to be male, and the few female exceptions I could think of don't appear often and don't have girlfriends. Then we got a kiss between Rogue and Black Widow a few months ago, and one between Valkyrie and Dr. Annabelle Riggs this time. "Swooning and kissing," Misty calls it. Makes me a very happy comics reader. Very happy indeed. You can see the page with the kiss here.
Now, X-Men had brilliant female characters for years, especially in stories written by Chris Clarmont. Then things got murkier... comics seemed again to be veering towards sexism, marginalizing the female characters. And now - by, I suppose, a deliberate turn-around - there seem to be more female characters in more comics, better written than ever, and with an avoidance of what is referred to as "the male gaze" - and it's evil twin, objectification.
And it seems these great characters are not all straight either. I am delighted.
(5) There was a new issue of Scarlet for the first time in two years. Two years! The story and art are as brilliant as ever, but two years is an awfully long time to wait in the middle of a story.
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Then we watched the first half of the movie Cloud Atlas. It's a beautifully made movie; I'm not sure yet what I think of the story. I tend to like things with more narrative cohesion, but I'll wait till I've seen it all to pass judgement.