[a normal sort of superhero]

[reenka]

I'm reading Alias (the comic!), which is written by Brian Michael Bendis, same guy who does Daredevil right now. And it's good. I mean, it's seriously good-- not amazing or top-10, but solid. And I mean, I realized how much I miss that sort of solid work when I don't read professional stuff and just read slash.

I mean, I love fandom as a concept-- and amateur stuff as a concept. I love the idea of creative freedom, sharing memes and stories, doing whatever the hell you want with both stories & media and screw the market demands. I love all that. But. It's slush-pile reading a lot of times if you want to read a lot. And while I -enjoy- that, at the same time... seeing quality inspires me. Makes me... I don't know, makes me want to create things.

More than satisfying my yen for pretty boys in compromising positions, more than reading exactly what the summary and the warnings promise, I just want something good. Something that's both professional and worthwhile -and- fun. Something that embodies the -good- side of 'professionalism' the way some of the best fic embodies the best about being amateur-- meaning, the work is polished, cut-- the dialogue is on the money, the art is mesmerizing and unique and holds your attention, the story is unpredictable and fun. It's satisfying in a unique way that amateur stuff never quite touches, it feels like. I dunno.

More specifically, it's the het. Being in fandom makes me feel like het can't be interesting-- I mean, I know it can and I even know how to write it that way and what pairings to look for if I want to read, but-- still, my instinct is that slash or yaoi is just more interesting. The dynamics are more equal, the drama's more intense, it's more risque sexually-- all that. I mean, bottom line, in fandom-think I just think gay = cooler because misfits & outsiders = cooler than the 'normal' people, that's what it comes down to, at least for me. I mean, I think of reading those Mary Sue-type fics where pretty sparkly girls get pretty sparkly boys to stare at their tits and it's just-- it feels like objectifying boys is 'better' somehow. Messed up, but. Yeah.
    And I know most fangirls just think two cocks are better than one or whatever-- all I know is that -I- love slash because it breaks barriers and makes otherwise stagnant characters do interesting, unlikely things (though admittedly this is much more extreme in pairings like H/D). But. the truth is, it's just harder to do that with het, that's all. It can still be done by a good writer.

So. It's just nice to read this comic and be like-- hey. Het is pretty damn interesting (and it's not even a romance comic), especially when it's between messed-up yet surprisingly normal former superheroes in a crazy world of mutants and weirdo basically normal people. It just gives me perspective-- this feeling like hey.

Hey.

Straight or gay or muddled, mutant or not-- it's the story that makes that character someone you can identify with. Just another person the way we all are. And no matter how 'special' they are, it just underscores how terribly ordinary they are, somehow, and I needed that. And I think it takes a tight-- a professionally tight-- writer to show that well.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

That's nearly exactly what I said after reading ... yeah, those were comics too, I guess, Perfect Girl and Y-TheLastMan and such. Although I always thought so, most novels no longer meet the standard of good tight writing, but with good stories I don't even notice if it's het or gay, scifi or "realistic".

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Haha yeah, I 'wasn't noticing' it so much I actually noticed :D Like, shouldn't I be wishing this was slash?? Nope, doesn't matter :D Really... doesn't matter. It's like a feeling of freedom, I swear. So nice not to care :D

[triestine.livejournal.com]

Why should they be motivated by sex at all?

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

In slash or most amateur or lowbrow het romance type stuff, probably because the writers are, or because they're writing romance and/or erotica and think that comes with the territory.

In theory, of course... in theory, things are more complex & subtle than that. Though people who aren't motivated by sex at all tend to be a little... um, too cerebral or distant in terms of being sympathetic characters... though there's always Snape :D :D :D

[triestine.livejournal.com]

Cerebral? Distant? What books are those? Must not be very good if the author needs sex to make characters even a little involving. I could list you pages of titles whose very real and sympathetic characters have a host of other motivations. Passion would be very poor if it were limited to sexual attraction.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I think we got a little off track... I didn't mean to imply that if there isn't sexuality, there's no passion-- I mean, clearly that's not true. It's just that if there's utterly no sexuality, people tend to be a little cerebral or white-washed, maybe, merely because sexuality is a part of life & a full picture, that's all. Certainly, fanfic over-focuses on sexuality as a motivator and that gets tiring, but then they're very specific kinds of stories (like, erotica, really).

SO it's a little confusing mixing up Alias (the comic book) and books with characters that are motivated by non-sexual passion and specific fandoms and stuff. :> Generally, if it's a passionate character they will -sometimes- be sexually motivated, because no one is so two-dimensional as to have only one passion. I think in fanfic, there's too much of a focus on sexual passion 'cause the stories are all about the pairing, whereas a more general story will have other subjects. But it's also nice to have a story where human motivations are put in perspective, I guess? A professional story tends to be more like that, anyway. :>

Er, in any case, I just meant that if a character's totally asexual they probably come off as cerebral, whereas if a character seems passionate they tend to 'exude' sexuality even if they never do anything sexual-- in the way that the old Catwoman from the 60s TV series was 'sexual' merely from existing. But that's a different thing than what pairing-centric fanfics do, of course....

[notrafficlights.livejournal.com]

Is Alias that one about Jessica Jones and the old Spider-Woman or something? Bendis writes the best Jessica J. ever.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Yeah!! Though it's more than the one about Spider-Woman 'cause is has several little plots, but the old Spider-Woman comes at the end-- but the art is so great and David Mack did the covers (AIIEEE DAVID MACK!!1) and I really really enjoyed it (though I didn't know anything about Jessica Jones before). Supposedly, 'The Pulse' is the sequel but I've read/skimmed 4 issues and it's sorta totally different and doesn't really focus on her anyway so I don't like it :(

[notrafficlights.livejournal.com]

Bleh, I'm not too crash hot on David Mack. His work is too cliched for me.

The Pulse isn't bad, but it isn't as good as Alias, and the art is dodgy. Jessica is brilliant in it, but the art drags it too far down for me. Also it's set in that whole Secret War arc, which really is a low point in Marvel's meta-history. I can't wait until they retcon it out of existence and fix S.H.I.E.L.D. Damnit, where's Nick Fury when you need him?

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Yeah, 'The Pulse' art was sort of driving me insane :/ It's funny, 'cause I can really tolerate a lot ('Basara', anyone?), but... I just like sketchy-loose-bleh more than overwrought-inky-bleh, if that makes sense :> The art is a lot of why I enjoyed 'Alias', and that sort of textbook-comic style The Pulse has really annoys me. And with David Mack... what can I say, man, I'm a huge sucker-- plus I think he was unique when he started out painting that way -and- he's just really -good- at watercolor + it's a medium that's not used in comics nearly enough. I've got such a hard-on for watercolor, I swear :)) I think I read several graphic novels of Kabuki mostly for the inking/watercolor techniques, haha. To me, average watercolor is already 100000x better than anything non-painted, y'know? It's irrational, I know :>

[notrafficlights.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of Western sketchy loose bleh art is harder on the eyes than Japanese sketchy loose bleh stuff because Western comics don't use negative space the way manga does. I mean, some US sketchy loose bleh stuff does use negative space properly (Ever read Immonen & Busiek's Secret Identity?) but it's a rarity.

Alex Ross has kind of killed any favouritism towards water colours in US comics for me. Just... *shudders*