The whole Gretchen Felker-Martin situation has gotten me thinking a lot about comics and comic writers verus people who write comics and the way fandom acts about them.
A lot of the online controversy was over GFM saying she hasn't read Red Hood comics. Now, ignoring that was she was clearly being tongue in cheek when she said "I've never read anything ever", a lot of people were mad about this, and the more I've been thinking about it the more I just find this perspective so... hollow? The idea that only diehard comic fans can contribute to big two comics is a deeply flawed concept in of itself, but especially when we're talking about people who aren't comic writers first.
GFM is an established horror writer, who is a transgender woman with major themes of gender and sexuality in her works. I frankly think her contributions and her perspective and the themes and style she has in her writing is more interesting than her having read every Red Hood comic, because her knowledge of comics isn't ultimately what I think is (or would've) going to be interesting in her work.
Also, when I search "Red Hood comic", the first three results are Red Hood and the Outlaws by Scott Lobdell. I would not wish a Scott Lobdell comic on anyone I respect, and the idea that GFM should have been studying Scott Lobdell's work before she took on that assignment is frankly ludicrous.
Okay, to use another example. Spencer Ackerman is not a comic writer by trade. He is a Pulitzer prize winner for his work in journalism. He also wrote an Iron Man run, which full disclosure, I only read the first couple of issues of before I remembered I don't like Iron Man, but while I am sure that he does have a passion in comics, I don't really care if he's read every issue of the characters he's writing, because I think his contributions as a political journalist are far more interesting to explore in his work than if he's giving you a comprehensive overview of Iron Man's history. If he can do both, great, but I think one is a lot more worthwhile to explore than the other.
When speculative fiction and horror writer Victor LaValle was writing Sabretooth and Sabretooh and the Exiles for Marvel, some Sabretooth fans complained it wasn't in character. Maybe it wasn't, I dunno, but I don't actually care, because I think LaValle as a black horror writer using Sabretooth as a window into exploring incareration, nationality, how laws are enforced is far more interesting, a far more necessary story than telling the most in-character tale about Sabretooth that's ever been written.
I've seen people criticise the comic event "One World Under Doom" by Ryan North for not being good characterisation of Doctor Doom. Now, I'm willing to accept some people find the event poorly paced, or struggling to find answers that are satisfying for it's own questions (as of writing this post, this event is still ongoing and has yet to be concluded), but I find this perspective to be incredibly limited. Maybe it isn't in character with 1989's Triumph and Torment, but I don't think it needs to be. I don't actually care if Victor doesn't care about the citizens of Latveria in this comic, because I'm a lot more interested in North using this event to say that the average Western person is more than fine with ignoring atrocities in "undeveloped" countries if it helps maintain their quality of life. That story and that narrative is more interesting and worthwhile to tell in my opiniom than offering an intense character study after reading every Doctor Doom comic ever.
If we are more concerned with keeping things "in-character" than we are with telling interesting stories that are important to tell, we are holding this genre back as a story-telling format. If we demand this genre only be written by the hardcore fans, the people who have been breathing comics all their life, we are making this genre ever more insular and we are ultimately pigeon-holding it.
This isn't to say I think things should be ignored, to be clear. I absolutely have gotten annoyed with things not being in character before and I'm not gonna pretend I'm too good for that. I'm not gonna lie and say I'm above that. But ultimately I am willing to forgo the most ""correct"" characterisation if the storytelling is important. John Ney Rieber's Captain America is not the most in character Steve I've ever read. I'd say he's pretty far from how he usually is. But I am more interested in John Ney Rieber grappling with being the first Captain America writer post 9/11 and how that effected the industry and American culture than I am with Steve Rogers being the most in character he's ever been. Steve as a character is ultimately inconsequential. It's the story that matters. Similarly, neither Steve Rogers nor Sam Wilson are particularly close to how Stan Lee wrote them in Christopher Priest's Captain America and Falcon, but I am ultimately more interested in Priest's perspective as a black American man post 9/11 than I am with him replicating Stan Lee's dialogue, or whatever.
And obviously, it's more frustrating when it's a minor character who will be permanently changed by such a choice as opposed to a major character like Steve Rogers who will endure a nuclear blast of bad writing (Secret Empire), but I feel really frustrated with how people sometimes seem point blank unwilling to allow fresh perspectives into the comics genre just because it isn't "in character", as if that's the only merit to this genre.
You might say, "Well, indie comics exist", and to be clear I do wish Tom King would move to them permanently (he is one whose perspective I am not interested in and could not care less about being given on characters or concepts he has no understanding of), I also feel like most of the people who say this also don't read indie comics and see them as a containment zone more than they do an actual space to better explore what interests them, which also frustrates me.
Ultimately, as big two comic readers, we are naturally going to care more about characterisation than the comic writer, because we are reading a story as opposed to writing one, and we are sometimes judging it by a different merit than they are often written. That's okay. Many comic creators, in fact most of them, are comic readers and fans themselves, and in that regard I don't think wishing they shared your reading list or drew the same conclusions from a story you did is wrong–but having the expectation that every comic writer be a comic book fan is a perspective I think is shortsighted.
Okay, Gerry Duggan is a writer I don't like. He is clearly a comic reader and has been since a young age, and his full time career is being a comic writer. When he writes things that are bafflingly out of character for whoever, it is annoying, because it's well within Gerry Duggan's tastes as a creator to learn otherwise. But Gerry Duggan isn't exactly telling intellectual stories about culture or politics, and when he does try to make his stories about something, they're... simple. But if, for example, NK Jemisin tomorrow was announced as the new writer for *checking notes* Longshots instead of Duggan, I would instantly stop caring about characterisation because I'm a lot more interested in Jemisin's perspective as a writer and artist than I am in her reading every Wonder Man or Hellcat comic ever. That isn't what I think is worthwhile about her work, what I think her contributions to the medium should be. And I think more people in this community should open themselves more to interesting stories first, as opposed to raising hell because a woman said no, I Have Not Read Scott Lobdell Comics, which as I said, are the first thing google spits out at me when I search Red Hood comic.
Jim Steranko is one of the most influencial comic artists and writers of all time. He also completely reworked the character of Nick Fury, and almost entirely departed from every previous depiction of him to create a completely new take, which is the version we know today. Well, not since 2012, but up until then. If you read his work on Strange Tales and on Captain America, you will be able to tangibly see his influence across different comic creators today. Comic artist Tradd Moore in particular is clearly a disciple of Steranko. I leave you with a quote by him, on the forward of Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury, Agent of Shield Vol 2.
It is puzzling and often discouraging to realize how little comicbook readers–and pros, for that matter–have no regard or interest in other art forms and movements, especially considering how relevant and imaginative they often are. I saw them as the means by which stories could be told with more insight, impact and even humor.
origamiaround
2087
prguitarman
titsay
gummygunk
turnnoffyourmind
theartofmadeline
