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I don't really feel like doing an Iron Man reaction post. Maybe after I've seen it a second time, which was supposed to be last night, but the rain and PMS drove me back inside.

Instead I want to talk about Steve/America/Tony, the unspoken OT3 of the Steve/Tony ship. And by that I mean friendship, working relationship, romantic relationship - however you read them, my comments are (mostly) general enough to apply. However, I’m not sure how interesting they will be to people who aren’t me. Fair warning: extreme TL;DR.

Captain America and Iron Man, (and Steve and Tony), represent two different clusters of American ideals. Within the Marvel Universe, more than most heroes, they are representatives of America, and of the American military industrial complex. Captain America is the one they* chose. Iron Man is the one they earned. Neither has been exactly what they'd like - neither has been quite as good for business as hoped. ( Read more... )

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Found this via majingojira at SD. Animated ASX #1. It's actually pretty good, though the voice acting is a bit flat.

( sticking it behind a cut because it's gigantic )

Continuing from my anti-Joss screed - it's not that I hate Joss Whedon. He's one of my fav creators and I enjoy the vast majority of his work. It's that I hate what he did with the X-Men, and a lot of it starts right there in ASX #1, with his characterization of Kitty. "Everything's the same. Nothing's changed." That's basically Joss' mantra in regards to X-Men.

It doesn't help that imo, he gets Kitty wrong, right from the start. He's writing 80's Kitty. New Mutants Kitty. She shouldn't be surprised at being asked to join the main X-team or the school's teaching staff and she definitely shouldn't question her status as 'a fighter'. She's not a junior X-person. She's lead her own team. She's paid her dues. On that team she's second only to Logan in fighting ability, and Hank in smarts. Kitty is not cute, youthful, comic relief.

To be fair, I appreciated that he picked up on her previous relationship with Emma, and had Kitty remain doubtful about her hero-ness. That's as it should be. Kitty should carry a lot of resentment about Emma's usurpation of Jean and Ororo's place in the X mansion. That's natural. It started to grate on me when I realized that the only one who was really going to question Emma, was Kitty. A little too cat-fight-y for my tastes.

In general, the feel of ASX was right. I liked the jokes, the pacing in terms of issues (though not in terms of arcs), and the sense of history he imbued everything with. Joss gets that the X world is rich one, and he does a good job of exploiting some of it. And I have to admit that Agent Brand gave me endless entertainment.

If there's one other thing that really put me off of ASX, aside from it just not working for me, it's Danger. I'm not a member of the Church of Saint Xavier of Westchester, but that arc didn't work for me at all. I found Danger herself to be thinly characterized and Xavier's motives insufficiently explored. It's not enough for me to just say he did it for his students. The whole Vulcan/Krakoa hoohaw I've heard about, but not yet read, has the same problem - if you're going to tell me that Xavier will commit crimes against sentience? You have to do more than say it was for his students.

ymmv but my Xavier isn't evil.

Anyway, here's the thing - I think that Joss is wrong for the main X-team. According to the sales figures, this is an unusual opinion. *g* But I think he's at his strongest writing youths and outcasts. What Morrison left behind was not a situation that played to Joss' strengths.

What drives it home for me, is how often he used Kitty as his focal character. And how often his plots involved the X-Men being out of their depth.

***

Now, on a related topic, I certainly didn't mean to personally offend anyone with yesterday's post. (Except Joss, who will probably be put off, should he happen to read it. Sorry dude, I love you but Kitty - what the HELL man?) Although rereading it, I can sort of see how it might, possibly, ok probably annoy someone who really liked ASX.

Mea maxima culpa - I didn't mean to harsh anyone's squee by getting my hate on.