Monday, November 2, 2015

Modern Day Heroes...

The following is a direct response to what was written here...

http://www.nicolavincent-abnett.com/2015/11/avengers-age-of-ultron-and-bechdel.html

I feel a little weird admitting this but I didn't actually watch the Avengers movies, either of them.  I tried watching the first one but it was long, I didn't like what I saw in the beginning and assumed the end would be more of the same.
But I should throw out my disclaimer..!
I grew up with a grandparent named Stan Lee, he's like the godfather of the Marvel universe.  I watched the cartoons on Saturday mornings, I borrowed my dad's comic books and read every Avengers starting from numero uno, I read every XMen and everything else I could get my sweaty hands on.
I loved the characters, I loved the art, the stories, the conflicts, you name it, I lived, breathed and died, Marvel.
On occasion, when I wasn't a little boy in a winter jacket for Halloween, I was Captain America with my cardboard shield or Spiderman with the fake web stuff.
No one could claim they loved Marvel more than I, how's that for a disclaimer..!

But a funny thing happened a bit ago.
Marvel started making movies about the characters that I had grown up with, that I had cherished.
I can clearly remember the first X-Men movie from way back in the triple zeros (that's the year two thousand for you old peeps).  I can remember loving it and thinking what an honor it was, to have lived this long, in this world, to be able to watch my favorite heroes come to life.
I remember loving Wolverine and his look, loving the way my son watched with fascination, 'twas a glorious time for all.
I couldn't wait for a sequel but there was a couple of niggling things in the back of my brain and I tired to shut them out but, there they were.
Little details about what I thought "should" have been, should have happened in the movie, that didn't.  I dismissed them and said hey, beggars can't be choosers and if I didn't like the whole movie, well I should get busy making my own, making a better one right.

But the sequel came and I watched with glee once again.  Except, there were even more discrepancies, even more flaws.
Iceman was an original "founding" member of the Xmen and here he is, supposed to be a new kid that came after Wolverine (and Rogue and Storm).
It stung, it really did.  It hurt my special place inside and I wanted to call my mommy and cry.
Why did they do this to these characters I love..?

And the best answer I could come up with, was that they did their best.  They were pressured by "somebody" who said hey, we can't do it this way and we need to change some things.
I chalked it up eventually, to them "trying too hard" to be liked by the new generation.
If the new kids don't care about stories and they just want to see big explosions, give it to 'em right.  They're the ones with the big wads of cash in their hands and hey, I don't have big wads of cash now do I...
So I forgave the makers, I claimed I understood and that was enough for the time being.
But it didn't stop there.
The monster money machine kept rumbling forward, the movies kept coming and the atrocities in my mind, kept doubling.

You can look anywhere on the big bad web for criticisms of the Marvel movies by "the old fans".  It's easy to criticize when it's not your paycheck on the line.
But do I want to watch these movies, do I feel I need them to teach me how to be a good guy, a hero, because they certainly try to hammer that lesson home huh.

Nopers.  I don't want to watch 'em anymore, possibs I'm old.
I'll hang on to the Jean Grey Phoenix I know and remember.  I'll savor Deadpool before he becomes Ryan Reynolds (who was also Green Lantern).
But I can't stop the movies from being made, I can't stop the new generation from liking them and begging for more.

All I can really control is my viewing habits and those of my kids.  When they ask why I don't watch the Avengers, I tell them that I've already watched the Avengers and that I don't want to tarnish that memory with "the new version".
I believe that in their "trying too hard" mode, they will slowly lose fans as more and more of the population understand that the makers of these movies don't really care about your favorite characters.  They don't care about the legacies of those who have come before them.
All they care about is your money and how they can get it from you, and into their pockets.  I explain this to my kids and hopefully they'll explain it to their kids someday.

Everybody with half a brain knows that Disney and (present day) Marvel are not the good role models that they should be.
We can all see how they could be making a positive difference in the world today but they're not because they choose to collect money instead of respect.
If you find that these movies have offended you, for any and all reasons, don't watch 'em anymore.  They're not going to "get any better", they're not going to up and change their positions one day.
They are going to continue their war against you and your money and the only way you can "win", is to not participate and to teach your children, instead of letting Marvel do it.

I fully support you Nik, I agree with your words and your stance on big budget movies slamming women.
But to attack them and to think that they'll ever change, hah, we might as well try to attack the porn industry while we're in "attempting to change things that will never change" mode.
The intelligent people from my generation and younger, well we don't look to Disney or Marvel to learn about how we should treat our women, we have our Dan Abnetts for that.
For all those kids out there that don't have intelligent parents, that don't have someone to teach them about right and wrong and how to treat women, well I wish I could help them, change some things for them but again, I might as well try to extinguish the porn industry or shoot webs from my wrists after being bitten by a spider.

Hey I had never heard of the Bechdel Wallace test, I had to look that one up so I feel like I learned something new today, genuine thanks huh.

1 comment:

  1. Trust me when I tell you that I have no expectation that I can change anything at all. I do enjoy having the conversation, though. Smiles.

    ReplyDelete