I think my major disgruntlement about the use of Mjolnir in the MCU and often the comics for characters other than Thor, is that it’s used in-text as a short cut to just skip to the writer/directors saying Trust Us You Might Not Have Seen This in Actual Characterization OnScreen, but this person is Narratively Validated(TM). This is especially obvious for Vision in AoU and still there with Steve in Endgame. It’s a lazy shortcut and it uses Thor’s central touchstone primarily as a benchmark for other characters.
And fandom, being fandom, uses it as a dick measuring benchmark.
honestly fuck marvel. fuck them. they don't get to act like these nazi sympathizers claiming captain goddamn america is anything other than their fault. they published that garbage, they promoted it, they refused to apologize for it so they don't get to act righteously indignant now. they're garbage and i care exactly zero that nick spencer's run is over and i feel like i'm gonna get real tired real fast of everybody hopping back up their butts and pretending like this never happened.
negative comics nattering under the cut, specifically of the Big Companies Competition variety (or sorry i guess if on mobile)
while i do objectively like the early mcu origin movies particularly thor and captain america (let’s not talk about phase two or whedon), i can’t help but be so annoyed every time i see someone talking about mixing the wonder woman dceu mythos with the mcu, either in quirky fish-out-of-water thor comparisons or in some convoluted early-days establishment of s.h.i.e.l.d.
because really??
my annoyance has less to do with my general dislike of most of the mcu, because whatever, to each their own, and i really don’t care too much about keeping the two properties distinct and separate from one another. in fact, i’m a big fan of the headcanon that marvel comics exist within the dc universe as, y'know, comics, and vice versa. but every time i see these ‘fusions’ or ‘crossovers’ done for the sake of lighthearted fun, i can’t help but remember how everyone, everyone, continuously shit on the dceu before wonder woman. and yeah, i know the people making these ‘fun’ posts are probably not the same ones that used to revel in marvel’s success and would take every opportunity they could to cut down any joy fans took from the dceu and shove their ‘superiority’ in fans’ faces.
but while a huge part of me is glad wonder woman is so popular and resonating deeply with all sorts of fans, i hate being constantly reminded that some people prefer wonder woman outside of her own world, outside her universe, her home, and would prefer to stick her in the marvel playground—the popular one, the one they like—than have her explore the place she’s already in, which is deeply complicated and beautiful and has mythos on par and greater than what has been filtered through the mcu. it’s a feeling almost as if diana is being taken, commodified, and yeah, i realize it’s all in good fun: “diana was a mentor figure to peggy carter,” “she and thor are childhood friends because *wavy hand motion*,” “steve trevor was an inspiration for steve rogers,” etc. but what about themyscira? what about gotham or metropolis? the friends she made on the battle field, or the friends she would make in the future? what about the very real implication that diana hung up her shield and armor after WWI? what then? how did she feel during WWII? was the world safe from monsters and gods during all that time? how did she fall into a job as curator at the louvre?
there is a rich fountain of information about diana’s world, given to us from her movie and all the others before. yet where is the excitement for diana in her own damn universe? why must she be beholden to the mcu?
I love this scene so much. It’s honestly one of my faves of their friendship
It's so good. I think fandom (and lbr more recent comics writers) have a tendency to see Steve and Tony's friendship as more asymmetrical than vol 1 comics in particular where there's more reciprocity and mutual respect and a little less emphasis on hero worship. Tony can both tell Steve how important he is and also tell him that he is wallowing and it comes off as someone who is absolutely comfortable in that friendship knowing he can support his friend and give him a bit of a needed kick in the ass.
I think the last decade and a half has toggled more toward melodrama and bombast in character interactions than actual emotional engagement/intimacy for so many writers, and not just in these characters' dynamics.
cut for rambling about the state of comics
This is why most discussions about feelings happen in the absence of one of the relevant parties, or belted out in the middle of conflict/battle, or as a sort of forlorn futile whimper when relationships are broken, rendering the feelings sort of moot and mournful.
The representation of emotions, especially between men, as anything other than stemming from trauma seems to be lost in the hypermasculine characterization foregrounded since the late 90s and it's a real loss to the writing in general and characterizations in particular. As a result, bombastic plot developments then have do all the heavy emotional lifting, and when the characters' relationships have been so flattened, that's an ever more shallow well, which is why the events keep getting more and more dramatic to pick up the slack, and why we keep having the writers and companies practically have to beg us to care that everything is falling apart every couple of years.
It’s exhausting and not all that effective, which is, I suspect, why Marvel has moved toward the bait and switch shock and gimmick PR approach to attempt to spur emotional engagement from their audience in the past 4-5 years. If nothing else, outrage tends to demand a statement of loyalty from fans to the product/characters/intellectual property in their ‘proper’ form, and how many people do we know who read/buy out of loyalty to their platonic ideal of who the character is to them or who they ‘used’ to be rather than out of pleasure for current storylines and characterizations?
tl;dr I love this interaction too, and I miss a comics context where moments like this littered the books and made us feel that there was an emotional tapestry between all of these characters rich and dense enough that even a snag in it made us care, rather than the writers feeling they had to tear the whole thing apart to get any kind of reaction out of us.
Also @ that marvel thing I just reblogged, they're now doing yet ANOTHER event but this time it's title wide nazi!steve. Who the fuck wants to buy/order that??? If marvel has any saving grace it'll be the new xmen titles which won't surprise me because the x-men are always saving their asses even tho they treat them like shit
@wattstheproblem TELL IT!!! dc has what? 5 female solo titles? and 2 that star non white people? most of the diversity~ dc does have is usually in team books and/or they're monthlys. they're not getting the same amount of exposure for those who are. also again they're a lot of bat/super titles but why not more flash or ga titles? they've got a huge enough roster/universe for them to have their own books! and yet a whole bunch of these series went in for MULTIPLE reprints. why can't marvel realize what's working for them?! they kinda got it when they launched black panther, then world of wakanda and now they're bringing back the crew. they hyped up riri & champions for a minute. kamala and miles are always their go to staples and idk how far they'll go with america, but das about it?? and like that's their biggest weakness. they've been trying to appeal to those movie watchers because of all the success but the comics still aren't platable for them! and for the people who are dedicated buyers/readers, they're ruining stories and losing interest. something has to give with them like they can't keep doing this and think that it's someone else's fault? the nerve!
Me: Man, I need to stop checking on comics fandom when new releases/spoilers come out, they're always reacting so negatively and acting like the sky is falling before the story arc is even finished.
*Me sees that the writer for Kon El obviously only knows the YJ cartoon version and that DC has changed Power Girl's name from Karen to Paige because of course they fucking did*: Oh, Fuck me
b*ndis’ last issue preview is like 10 different types of “bleh” what are you planning to make me read with my own two eyes, what “canon forming” bullshit are you trying to leave behind for other authors to deal with
