Is ComicsGate Wrong? (Part 2) - NPC Marvel: Not Too Human

[Music] eat God's it does amaze me a men of such a feeble temper should so get the start at the Majestic world and bare the palm alone another general shout I do believe these applauses are for some new honours that are heaped upon Caesar why him man he doth bestride the narrow world like a colossus and we petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about to find ourselves as honorable graves men at some time are masters of their fates The Fault dear Brutus is not in Our Stars but in ourselves that we are underlings [Music] you is comics gate wrong a question no doubt by many a fan and superhero comics but also one no doubt tearing some of those same comic book fans toward one direction or the other on one side comics gate which says modern marvel has been infected by a poisonous culture of political correctness that is not only slowly killing off superhero comics but the culture as well and if the company has lost sight of what actually made superhero comics great on the other side anti comic skate which claims that the assertions made by comma skate are untrue and that they were aged over these new diversity centered comics stem not from a concern over a worrying trend infecting modern Marvel but bitterness that minorities and women especially are being handed major roles in the comic book industry so who's in the right we're coming skates comics of old better than anti comic skates new line of diversity heroes or as comma skates rebellion against the mainstream fueled by racism and rampant misogyny last time we took a look at the origins of Kamala Kahn a story which left her without a single noble trait especially when compared to her Christian counterpart Matt Murdock where Matt as a character was defined by selflessness Kamala as a character was defined by selfishness but may be expecting superhero antics to be the focus of a superhero comic was asking too much maybe the superheroing isn't the aspect that Marvel's diversity line of superhero comics has generally chosen to focus on after all as superheroes identity tends to be cut into the masked persona and the person underneath maybe these new comics are choosing to push character development over typical superhero traditions so this time let's choose a new Marvel character another New Wave Marvel superstar one that pushes character development better than Miss Marvel number one did and more importantly does so by the end of the first issue let's take a look at the origin of riri Williams [Music] also known as Iron Heart the very first black superhero Ruby Williams debut story begins with the parent professional conversation every Rick and Morty fan has wet dreams about mom dad and super dramatic psychologists so-called because the writer actually forgot to give them names are discussing rereads behavioral problems as it turns out Ruby Williams tested above genius-level intellect and cross the bar into super genius and her behavioral problems stem from boredom from the world around her Ruby's mom feels guilty about treating her daughter like a normal girl and super dramatic psychologist offers some advice which basically amounts to turning up the coddling 2/11 before RiRi gets so bored with the world that she withdraws into her own mind and never comes out fast-forward 10 years and we actually get some superhero action and unlike Kamala Khan it's real it doesn't end up being Ruiz fan fiction just the author's RiRi lands in Wyoming with her own Iron Man suit and starts fighting a monster to save a bunch of innocent civilians including Green Arrow's ginger brother though it soon becomes clear that the monster isn't the main bad guy that role goes to the supervillain who created it [Music] the battle starts to ramp up just in time for us to switch to the past two five years after her Rick and Morty meeting RiRi and her mom get into an argument about playing outside since RiRi as a super duper genius would rather stay home and work on her projects the fight gets so intense she ends up making this face and the two finally agree that RiRi can have five more minutes to work before going to the park then a new character appears named Natalie [Music] who I had assumed was rear is inquisitive best friend because of how familiar in casual their interaction is a typical setup super geniuses tend to work in duos the genius character and the Normie character who the genius can explain all their elaborate plans to which is exactly what happens here however he find out by the end that while Nathalie fits the inquisitive Normie friend role pretty well Nathalie wasn't Reba's friend you find out by the end of this whole familiar and casual interaction that they've actually never met before by the way keep this whole scene in mind I'll be coming back to it later so rebe williams a super genius so introverted that super genetic psychologist warned her parents that she might dive into her own mind that never come out again and Nathalie become insta BFFs we cut back to the super fight which lasts just long enough to give us a little backstory on the villain and set a reread to fight back then we cut back to two years ago over three years after RiRi and Nathalie met Natalie in the Williams family are spending a bright sunny day in the park I'm sure nothing dramatic will happen here RiRi tells Natalie how intimidated she thinks her stepdad is of her because as we all know a man's greatest kryptonite is a genius independent woman who don't need no man Natalie tries to step in and defend the stepdad but is cut off by bullets people get shot there's an explosion stepdad and Natalie end up dead the whole scene is pretty tragic at least until you get to the end where every breeze mom lets out a mournful Y at Darth Vader levels of melodrama so then we cut back to the fight where RiRi finds out how to defeat the villain by watching a video on YouTube uses her go-go-gadget robot arms to knock out her opponent and with the bad guy unconscious all the monsters disappear who knew the ones secret to defeating the villain would be to punch her really hard in the face not the super genius the police arrived they tried to arrest her we get an evil trigger-happy cop scenario and even though both RiRi and the cop likely knew the bullet would do nothing to a giant suit me out of metal RiRi is pity enough to take the cop's gun with her magneto powers and crush it before flying off RiRi returns home she complains to her mom about not having an AI for her suit despite having an AI look up the YouTube video that unlocked the secret to defeating the villain and that's when a guy in a suit turns up with a box that has Tony Stark inside well Tony Stark and hollow magic I form he says fabulous a few times and ends the first issue by saying he wants to work with RiRi because well she's the protagonist who else is he going to work with now just like with Miss Marvel I think the best way to find out which side of the whole Kama skate conflict has the better case is by comparing revie's first issue with a first issue from the time kama skate claims was the great era of character story and adventure but remember Marvel's diversity line seems to be focusing more on character and their social interaction the people under the masks I could compare RiRi Williams Iron Heart to Iron Man the hero she directly emulates however well Tony Stark does undergo significant character change in his first outing his experiences are vastly different from that of RiRi Williams RiRi is a teenage super genius who decides to use her gifts to fight a villain keeping that in mind I think the better comparison would be the origin of Peter Parker our friendly neighborhood spider-man the first spider-man story introduces us to Peter Parker [Music] a teenage boy who lives in a loving home with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May [Music] keep these two panels in mind also much like RiRi he's highly intelligent for his age with a talent for the science and his will on his way to earning a scholarship however while he may be a cool cat in the lab he's not so good when it comes to interacting with his peers girls pass him up for Ethan Van Sciver and he's literally left in the dust when it comes to the choice of fitting in and his interest in science as he walks into the local radioactive science exhibit that for some reason is open to the public he's so bitter why nein pathetic that he might have ended up working for a 2019 Marvel Comics at least if it weren't for what happens next Peter goes to the demonstration of the radioactive experiment because by this point he probably figures he's not gonna need his sperm anyway where no one notices a spider hanging inside the danger zone spider gets zapped spider lands on Peters hand spider bites Peter Peter ends up with amazing spider-man powers he's super agile super strong and can climb walls so he does what any teenager would probably do he puts his superpowers to the test but not by fighting crime needless to say a super strong super agile person with spider powers could probably put on a pretty good show and Peter becomes somewhat famous for his abilities under his Spiderman persona and everything seems to be going great until one night when Peter refuses to stop an escaping criminal when he easily could have but as I mentioned earlier Peter had been so bitter from all the rejection that he adopted the mindset of a 2019 s Comics pro and says that he's done trying to connect with others and that his only concern now was for himself along with his aunt and uncle of course things continue going well for Peter until he returns home one night to a police car in front of his home and Peter learns that someone had broken into his home and his Uncle Ben was shot dead the police tell him that the killer ran but is trapped inside an old warehouse the police tried to reassure Peter that it's only a matter of time before the criminal is caught but Peter knows that the warehouse is an easily defensible place that he could hold off an army in that gloomy old place so Peter puts on his super suit and swings into action Peter finds Uncle Ben's murderer and they fight he easily overpowers the criminal and takes him down only to learn that his uncle's murderer was none other than the criminal he chose not to stop Peter gift wraps the criminal for the cops but the revelation left him stunned Peter knows that the criminal may have pulled the trigger but it was his selfishness that truly caused his uncle's death and we in spider-man's first adventure with some of the most iconic words in marvel history that with great power there must also come great responsibility there are many parallels between riri and Peter's stories and I mean besides them both being teenage super geniuses they're both presented as abnormal somewhat isolated due to their intelligence they both sort off with loved ones who are then murdered by the end and both had stories that revolve around a character going through a traumatic life-changing experience but aside from the superhero portion of each character that's where the parallels end even if we're going under the presumption that Marvel's line of diversity superheroes is focused less on the super heroics and more on the struggles of the people beneath the masks there are still quite a few notable differences and where better to begin than the most important part of any comic book the first page this is where the pressure for each writer is cranked up to 11 it's the one shot they get to snag a potential readers interest and it serves as a decent measuring tool for both skill and the quality of work to follow the first page of Ruby Williams debut story decides to spend that valuable time by telling us how bored she is because she's so smart for long panels and 13 word balloons that could have been spent telling us more about the family Ruby's past her interactions with other kids setting up the plot or at the very least telling us her parents names are instead spent making sure we know what a super special unique little snowflake riri Williams is and that's it that's all for the first page even miss Marvel number one despite spending their entire first page telling us how Muslim Kamala Khan was gave us more than that Ruby's first page gives us nothing I guess we should at least be grateful we get a glimpse at the back of her head by the last panel because we lowly creatures are just not worthy but again maybe this is fine remember we're focused on the personal struggles of the people enlist on super punch ups and from what we saw Peter Parker didn't actually step into his role as a superhero until the very end leaving us nearly an entire book focused on the man behind spider-man Peter Parker's first page begins by showing us his loving home complete with two loving Guardians named Uncle Ben and Aunt May we learned that he's a genius with a natural interest in science then we move into his social life and remember Parker is in high school a time when one's social life tends to take center stage Peter Parker faces constant rejection from women is constantly outclassed and demeaned by the bigger stronger boys those women choose over him none of his classmates he tries to befriend share his interest in science and Peter even faces ridicule over their interest while the very people he tries to connect with dangled their social success in his face in the last panel ends with Peter Parker walking into the science exhibit that will lead to his famous spider bite which in turn sets up the rest of our story and yes I did say the last panel because we get all of this information from the very first page we learned Peter has a good home life has two loving Guardians the names of those guardians are Uncle Ben and on May he loves science is super-smart is a social outcast because of his intellect and love of science and is about to enter a science exhibit with a big sign that says radioactive science experiments this way I mean the sign might as well read cool stuff is about to happen turn the page and find out on Reese first page we learned she's super smart super bored has a mom and dad and is SuperDuper special we learn nothing else no personality no interests and no incentive for the reader to keep reading does anyone else see a difference here I mean besides spider-man doing in one tiny panel what maybe Williams needed a whole page to do RiRi and Peter might both be socially isolated geniuses but only Peter Parker suffers for it and his suffering is significant some might argue that RiRi suffers too but we don't know that she suffers and this is one of the biggest flaws and how her character is first presented it might come as a surprise but suffering requires some flavor of pain physical emotional etc in other words suffering requires suffering Peter Parker becomes so battered and broken by the constant rejection he gets on the first page that he becomes twisted and bitter his suffering is so immense and in effect so immensely that it changes him as a person Revere Williams gets bored and ironically boredom tends to be a problem for the privileged you're so safe have so few responsibilities and have so few obstacles in your life that your biggest problems deciding how to break the monotony you poor angel baby and even then we don't see it RiRi doesn't show us how it's hurting her if it's causing her any pain at all and were only told she's bored by some super dramatic psychologist this is like trying to explain to your cousin that you're about to be homeless in him saying he understands because he just lost his Starbucks rewards card we see Peters pain and what's worse boredom seems to be the clearest motivation for RiRi Williams's turned to super heroism while Peter Parker jumped into action to bring his uncle's murderer to justice baby Williams just needed something to do but really lost to loved ones you might say yeah let's talk about that since we're working under the presumption that Marvel's diversity line is more about character development and that fighting bad guys has been pushed to an afterthought it should be reasonable to expect less meaningful superhero action but greater focus on character gives the writer new responsibilities a character arc where all you might need for a superhero story is a hero a crime and a villain without the need for the hero to undergo some kind of character growth a character-driven story requires character growth this is normally referred to as an arc a character begins a story one way and is reshaped by the end both weary and Peter undergo traumatic events events like these are meant to change the character from where they were to what they will become Luke Skywalker changing from farm boy to hero Anakin Skywalker changing from hero to villain ever needs a Scrooge changing from greedy businessmen to happy businessman who also loves Christmas Peter Parker begins as a nerd with a good home life in a terrible social life he gets powers and changes into his self-centered jerk but maybe he was always like that fair enough because the true event that truly changes Peter Parker is the murder of his uncle Ben probably one of the most character significant murders in comics for reasons I'll explain in a bit Peter takes down his uncle's murderer and by the end he realizes that his power comes with responsibility that if only he'd used his power to stop the man before his Uncle Ben might still be alive he learned that every time he refused to help or lend his strength another innocent person could die someone he could have saved another Uncle Ben he changed from self-centered jerk to a hero with his Aunt May being a constant reminder of his failure every time he sees her standing alone now let's look back at our Erie Williams she begins similar to Peter Parker and isolated genius she eventually meets a friend named Natalie whose presence led to RiRi explain to the audience that she's obsessed with creating various gadgets specifically for superhero scenarios let me repeat that by the time she meets Natalie RiRi is already making James Bond as gadgets and is obsessed with superheroes so then we go to the dramatic event where Natalie and RiRi stepdad are killed and at the end Ruby looks traumatized as if the event had changed her and then we go back to RiRi in the present and she's gone from genius introverted girl who's obsessed with creating gadgets and fawning over superheroes to genius introverted girl who's obsessed with creating gadgets and being a superhero to put it another way while both characters become superheroes after their respective traumatic events Peter Parker's dive into the superhero world was a huge change it completely altered the direction of his life RiRi was robbed from her character change because the scene with Natalie showed us that she was already on course to enter the superhero world it's like having a kid obsessed with being a fireman then after losing his best friend in a fire grows up to be a fireman no real change and the most tragic thing of all was that this mistake robs the reader of seeing RiRi change while remaining so easy to fix how they could have had really obsessed with supervillains before the events at the park and then switch her obsession to superheroes after those events small tweak huge change pre murder and post murder nothing significant changes about her character at all Peter Parker was self-centered before Uncle Ben's death and after Uncle Ben's death had learned the error of his ways he was visibly changed RiRi had a somewhat quirky awkward personality before she met Natalie and after Natalie died still had the same quirky awkward personality she's not any angrier any colder any more or less motivated and she doesn't struggle with her emotions been fighting a super villain had Natalie's murder truly become Ruby's motivation those powerful emotions motivating her would manifest themselves even slightly when she's confronted by his super villain who's attacking a location filled with innocent people especially in a teenager who's new to the superhero scene but she doesn't not even a little bit instead she still spouts casual quirky millennial dialogue with all the intensity of a kid playing a video game she just knocks the villain out and goes home to make her Iron Man suit better not once do we feel any tension there's nothing at stake RiRi has no connection to the villain and never do we get the sense that RiRi or anyone really cares about is ever in any real danger there's no struggle and therefore no personal accomplishment no growth that the audience can see she just easily wins without being pushed and given everything we've seen up to this point it's less likely that her newfound identity as a superhero is motivated by any sense of justice or revenge and more likely that as the psychologist spent the whole first page hammering into us she's doing this out of boredom but that isn't surprising because RiRi Williams is missing one key ingredient for a character focused story a tragic flaw and one punished by consequences one key element of character growth involves overcoming one's flaws and by doing so a character changes and matures they might go from arrogant to being humbled or from self-conscious too confident but the only way a character can overcome these flaws is by facing the consequences you stick to science son we'll take the chicks ouch see you around bookworm one second there we go anyway let's go back to how Peter and RiRi are treated by the writers RiRi doesn't get any blowback from her lack of social skills in fact her parents are told to crank up the coddling and special treatment so she won't get as bored no one bullies her no one opposes her in any way a term which he refers to a person or author obstacle which stands in the way of rewease goal and since her goal is to be a superhero her battle with anna max is actually advancing revie's progress toward that goal rather than hindering it the only example of real opposition is when a police officer tries to keep her from going home which RiRi solves by just going home and she gets a big box of stuff to tinker with the biggest social obstacle RiRi encounters is the occasional fight with her mom because all work and oak makes RiRi a dull girl she's even sent a friend by what I can only assume are the mighty gods of comics because Natalie seems to arrive on cue RiRi is just handed a friend we never see her face rejection we never see her try to make friends by showing off her gadgets only to be laughed at and we never see her make a mistake that has major consequences later in the issue peter parker's superhero career is defined by his biggest mistake I had asked you to remember the first two panels of Amazing Spiderman and with good reason Parker became self-centered after getting his powers so self-centered that he refused to step in and stop a criminal when he easily could have that turned out to be a mistake that causes Uncle Ben's death but the price for his mistake is actually much higher than it might appear from what we learned Peter Parker only has two good things in his life his interest in science and his home life after Peter ended another day of ridicule and rejection home was his refuge he didn't have to feel isolated at home he wasn't an outcast there even at his most selfish Peter wanted to take care of his aunt and uncle when his selfishness ultimately caused the death of Uncle Ben it destroyed the safety of his refuge forever suddenly the real world had reached in and shattered the best thing in his life his last bastion of innocence gone and Peter ends the story by learning that this new power comes with new responsibilities Uncle Ben's death is very similar to the crossing of the Guardian threshold or the Pointer hero begins their transformation in the famous heroes journey formula just like when Frodo fled the Shire in Lord of the Rings to avoid the minions of Sauron or Luke Skywalker had to escape Tatooine to outrun the Empire Peter's choices had outed him from his old life and his journey from spider-man the entertainer to spider-man the hero had begun really Williams lost both her stepdad and her best friend and his shootout but neither of the deaths were her fault it was just a chance occurrence a twist of fate and that isn't to say every hero has to cause deaths of their own loved ones but if Marvel's new mandate is to focus on character growth as they grow into new heroes they need to have flaws and make mistakes the shootout was the issues best chance to make a meaningful impact to the story I mean besides something bad happening something bad that doesn't seem to affect RiRi in the slightest as far as we can tell she still the same she never had to leave the Shire but what might that look like you ask what if RiRi had become so obsessed with getting a part for her latest invention that she dragged Natalie along to help her steal a part that happened to be in the hands of some gangbangers they succeed but then days later the gangbangers Feiner in the park and opened fire of course killing Natalie and her stepdad as a result RiRi would learn to be more aware of the world around her as opposed to being absorbed inside her own mind all the time like the psychologist mentioned at the beginning in other words just like Peter Parker RiRi would have matured top it off with the Williams family no longer being able to afford the current home after stepdad dies so they had to downgrade to a low-rent apartment and you have the perfect literal example of RiRi leaving her old life behind it would also give her a very human drive to become a superhero to repent repent for getting her stepdad and Natalie killed or at the very least the trauma of their murders could have made her emotionally unstable enough to where she loses control when fighting the super villain later on endangering both enemy and innocent civilian alike showing the audience that she was deeply affected by the loss and has her own demons to overcome but that doesn't happen and that hurts the story even more because as a result we don't really have one Peter Parker loves science his love for science mix in a social outcast his inability to make friends lead him to attend his science exhibit where he gets powers social outcast status and powers caused him to become bitter and selfish his selfishness leads to Uncle Ben's death Uncle Ben's death leads Peter to learning the importance of his new power which ultimately leads him to becoming a hero RiRi meets Natalie Natalie gets killed RiRi fights a super villain then Tony Stark's hologram shows up none of these things are tied together let's take a moment to expand on our earlier hypothetical what if the part of RiRi decided to steal was a rare material which is why she resorted to stealing in the first place and what if those gangbangers were going to sell that rare material to his certain super villain named anna max but instead of the gangbangers killing Natalie in the park it's anna max reread now driven devotes the next two years to the construction of an Iron Man suit to finally take Anna max down and then does an impressive feat and that would give an understandable reason within the first issue for Tony's to choose RiRi as the one he sends his hologram to instead we're left with an assortment of puzzle pieces that don't connect because there's nothing to connect to the story just like RiRi herself feels like nothing more than a hollowed shell Peter Parker's greatest strength is his relatability most people have felt like an outsider at one point in their lives and most have felt the painful sting of failure in the empty hopelessness of rejection many have felt the lashings of ridicule for one aspect or another whether it be an unpopular interest in science or a childish hobby we keep following to adulthood all of us have flaws and more importantly every one of us knows how it feels to make a mistake that has terrible lasting consequences Peter Parker might be a genius but his problems aren't exclusive to geniuses his problems are universal of course some might argue that baby's main flaw is her social awkwardness the same thing that keeps her isolated from the rest of the world and with very few friends in fact Peter Parker has the same flaw and I even counted it as one so why is it different for RiRi because like most traits social awkwardness only becomes a flaw when a character suffers for it when it keeps them from having something they need or want like when Peter warns a date or to make friends it was his social mistakes that turn people away from him so in the end Peter Parker's social issues left him rejected and mocked his awkwardness prevented him from achieving social goals that he was clearly desperate to reach rebe Williams on the other hand never expressed any desire to meet any kind of social goal there was never a boy she wanted to date who was too weirded out by her behavior there wasn't a group of girls who befriended her just to exploit her genius she never endured ridicule for the sake of staying friends with her ridicule errs out of some desperate need for connection nothing every redoes not suffer for being socially awkward then it isn't a story relevant flaw revie's faults are not in her stars but they're not within herself either instead it's the world that's wrong and one might find it difficult to have character growth or even relatability without major vital flaws and mistakes because after all to error as human isn't it [Music]

Channel: Literature Devil

Views: 116,773

Rating: 4.9573226 out of 5

Keywords: #ComicsGate, Anti-#ComicGate, #ComicsHate, SJW Marvel, NPC Marvel, Comics, Marvel Comics, Ms. Marvel, RiRi Williams, Ironheart, Comic review, SJW Comic Review, Marvel Comics Review, Spiderman, Peter Parker, With great power comes great responsibility, characterization, Mary Sue, creative writing, superhero comics, superhero stories, Diversity, Tony Stark, Ironman, New Ironman, Kamala Khan, Character Development, Character arc

Id: YLmaIQ6baDM

Length: 28min 49sec (1729 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 20 2019