impressions after reading Inferno - a rant.

[salinea]

Like with other issues of sexism in comics, the problematic narratives revolving around female characters becoming dangerous and insane / evil (the insane=evil thing in itself would be very much worth the examination and could be easily seen as worse than gender issues, but I’m not sure I’m up to it) as a result of their power was something I’d heard of before I started reading comics; mostly revolving around Jean Grey, and a little bit around the Scarlet Witch with Disassembled and Decimation. Now that I’ve just read the X-Men storyline Inferno, I found it interesting to see how many characters are present in it which plays in various ways along those lines, and how really fucking bad it looks.

Now most of the characters in Inferno have more to do with a theme of corruption by evil than by insanity (though again, the two are too often seen as nearly equivalent), but power, though in not an obvious way, definitely plays a role in each one of those.

Those characters are Madelyne / Goblin Queen, Illyana / Magik, Lorna / Polaris & Warren / Angel. Two of those, Madelyne & Illyana, are placed right in the center of the story; whereas Polaris and Warren are more peripheral but still make an interesting counterpoint.

Madelyne is especially the character on whom the narrative revolve especially. Now, I suppose once they decided to bring Jean back, there was no real helping having to make do with her as a character long term wise. How they did it, on the other hand, is hardly helpful. To be honest, I have mixed feeling because I can’t say I disliked it. I love a good tragedy, and I love a good villain - and on those points this plays well. Madelyne has good reason to be hateful, and they make a big deal of her hatred in a way that is epic and cool. Even the fact that so much revolves around threatening her own baby kid isn’t something I disliked, because it’s epic and tragic in an awesome Medea way. I love that sort of shit. OTOH she goes down like a chump, which is annoying; and it reeks of getting rid of the bothsome character by making her as villainous as possible, including by playing on misogynist tones (BAD MOTHER! one of the most powerful trope that can be used to police what women do).

Power here plays in an interesting way, since Madelyne wasn’t really a superhero. However, she was an ally of the X-Men by then, even having gone as far as sacrificing her life with them to save the world not so long ago. In a way it is easy to think that if she had been a superhero - one with powers - there could have been more done to rescue the character as a positive one. But since she’s a civilian, she doesn’t matter as much to be that; even though she’d done genuinely heroic things previously. So in this case, she is only given power for the sake of being a threatening enough villain. (Obviously that’s a wide range issue with superhero stories, you’ve got to have a superpowered fight, so villains sometimes must be given a superpower regardless of how well it fits thematics or their characterisations). The narrative of Power Corrupts, though, is usually a pretty interesting one, and in this case feels introduced in a natural enough way. Again, perhaps it is only because it reminds me of Medea (a badass character if there ever was one), but the whole Goblin Queen thing is, in its way, pretty damn cool and epic (we could definitely have done without the stripperific costumes though, that… really doesn’t add anything good theme-wise). So in itself, while there are various issues with Madelyne’s handling, I could have rolled with it easily if not for the rest of the characters.

Which brings us to Illyana. Now, of course she’s a character I especially favour, so I’m going to be biased. The themes of Power Corrupts, and struggling for one’s own soul has been the very basis of her character from the beginning. But because it’s what the character’s always been based upon as a super-heroic character, up until then it was always about triumphing from those issues in a positive way. Which was awesome. Thematically, the idea that a character had undergone so much trauma can survive it, gains power from it and becomes a heroic character is something I find very powerful. And I find the way she is handled in Inferno to pretty much erase and undermine completely that narrative. Arguably this is meant to be still a positive role for her - she sacrifices herself to save the day. Arguably, this isn’t an actual death. She gets to become again her innocent self.

Arguably — I think it makes it very much worse. I’d prefer a genuine death by sacrifice to this re-youthenification bullshit, honestly. Yikes. The problem is that it conveys the idea that Illyana who did all those things, the Illyana who undergone all that trauma - is irremediably tainted and corrupted by it. That self of her does not deserve being saved, only the innocent self (in the sense of innocent of having suffered this yet) is worthy of it. She does not get to own her redemption, because her redemption is the condemnation of what she was. Metaphorically, what it means to people who could enjoy and relate to the character because they might have suffered from some trauma and struggled with them, is really fucking depressing.

Of course it also ties to power in ways that are problematic too. Innocent!child!Illyana is of course without the sorcerous powers of Magik (though I’d assume she’d eventually had her teleportation abilities), and usually so young a character isn’t given any agency in the story, she’d be merely an object for the sake of the stories of other characters - in particular, I presume, her brother (iow, a male character).

So that makes it two female characters at the centers of the story for whom holding power is irremediably a source of negative result.

Malice-possessed-Polaris only makes an appearance in the story, and her narrative isn’t done yet, which makes it harder to judge overall (for me, at least, until I read it the outcome ). Since I know in current days comics she’s still around, obviously she eventually goes back from it as a heroic character.The ties to power is also a bit more flimsy - it is suggested that the reason Malice bonded with her permanently is because of the interaction with her magnetic superpowers - but are still there. It’s mostly problematic in that it makes it a third female character who has been corrupted by evil in the middle of the story. Gee, thanks.

Which is all the more riling when you contrast it with Warren. At this point of his story, Warren has gone through most of the corruption effect already, and mostly in a positive way. Oh, he’s still a bit alienated from the other characters and acts all angsty and gloom because of it, but in Inferno he is unreservedly a heroic character. He even receives his new superhero name “Archangel” through the course of the story, as a validation that even after having undergone the influence of a corruptive power - one which made him a much more dangerous, and badass character as well as compensating with the previous loss of his native superpower (which lasted - what, five issues?) - he is still very much a positive one.

More than twenty years from then, I know there is an ungoing storyline which makes use of this as a starting point which appears much more radical (I would see very little potential for redemption from the story Rememder is telling, but perhaps I should not underestimate comics); and perhaps there has been other stories in the between that did things in a more nuanced way as well.

But as of Inferno, as it stands in this story, Power Corrupts narrative is an opportunity for female characters to be villains, to be righteously (if tragically) killed, or close enough to - whereas for male characters it is an opportunity for them to be more bad-ass and angsty characters. Joy.

Comments

[imadra-blue.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I like Jubilee's BAMF development, at least, but wish they'd left her with her mutant powers. However, there is one thing they could drop, and that's Jubilee's 90s costume. XDDD

Why don't you like Psylocke? Poor girl did have some issues, certainly, but it seemed she was becoming stronger when I left, more independent. Did they undo that, too?

Maybe all of us just like the status quo of how things were during our entry points, who knows? We'll find out in a few years. ;)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

My issues with Betsy:
- She's a ninja. I dislike most ninja on principles.
- Errr, the whole extremely awkward racial thing with her being a white, Brittish woman permanently using the body of an Asian woman? It's just icky.

I actually rather like the Betsy in the 80's era stuff!! But in modern stuff I feel rather meh about her.


LOL, yes.

[imadra-blue.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha, I like ninja okay. I agree the racial thing is icky, but I also find it extremely confusing. I don't even know what to think about it. As a child, it never phased me, but I will admit as an adult, I dislike the idea of a white woman taking over the body of an Asian woman. It might bother me less if they left Kwannon alive to deal with the reverse situation.

Betsy in the 80s era was good, and I liked some of her storyline in the 90s, bits and pieces here and there. The Crimson Dawn developments were intriguing, but then I recall that they then subsequently put her on a bus to nowhere. XD I always felt Betsy had potential, but sadly, nobody ever wrote her living up to it.

I confess that my favorite X-Men storyline is the Age of Apocalypse. >.> Don't judge me.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

but I will admit as an adult, I dislike the idea of a white woman taking over the body of an Asian woman. It might bother me less if they left Kwannon alive to deal with the reverse situation.
Yes, and yes.

I always felt Betsy had potential, but sadly, nobody ever wrote her living up to it.
TBH, I don't find her written badly currently either. She's one of the strongest character in UXF for example, asides for the whole deal with Fantomex crushing on her which annoys me (because Fantomex is who I usually list as least favourite X-Men character)/


I confess that my favorite X-Men storyline is the Age of Apocalypse. >.> Don't judge me.
I'll need to... read it first before I start judging you on that account? I'm sure you'll be useful to me once I start asking for recs for 90's stuff though!!

[imadra-blue.livejournal.com]

I don't know what UXF is? I know in my time, I kept waiting for this great, awesome thing for Betsy to come about, and it never quite did, but she had some interesting turns. And I admit that I adore Kwannon's character design.

Ahahaha, let me know what you think of Age of Apocalypse. I thought it was awesome, because the writers, in the space of this little AU storyline, felt free to cut loose and shake up the status quo in a good way. And that made it awesome to me. They built this whole history and society for it, and it was just great.

I have plenty of recs for the 90s. Some people found the desire to shake things up every year or so with some big storyline, like the Rise of the Phalanx, tiresome, but I often found those storylines fun. And it has the best of the Jean/Scott (Jean's name deliberately first ;)) era.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

UXF = Uncanny X-Force, the title which is exploring Angel actually going evil due to the Death persona which i was referring to in my OP, and which I'm mainly reading because it features Deadpool and actually has good characterisation of him (be still my hearts!). Incidentally it also addresses a lot of AoA things which leave me thoroughly confused XD

Oh, I intent on continuing posting my reactions to stuff I read, so I undoubtedly will for AoA as well.

I still have all those 80's stuff to read before I get there! gimme a minute!! :)