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Random Fandom
The rant/squee meme going around my flist has put me in the mood to rant. But instead of just posting the meme like a normal person, I sat down and tried to list all the things I've been meaning to talk about here. And it ended up filling an entire notebook page. So here are the ones which don't really deserve a post of their own.
First, I ventured out to the bookstore to buy textbooks today. I have five classes. I bought one textbook. Of the others, one class has no required books but the one I think I want is only available online; one has a teacher fed up with the textbook industry, as is increasingly commom, who just gave us a list of out-of-print ones to try to find online; one has a teacher who apparently forgot to give his order to the bookstore; and one, for a large lecture class, was ordered by the bookstore-- *three copies* of it, anyway.
I was halfway tempted to just blow the rest of my book money on comics (And can you imagine *how much* squee there was when I discovered that the school bookstore has an entire shelf now devoted to webcomics? *So much*.) I guess tomorrow it's the book exchange, bookholders, and the comic book store in town.
Does anyone even read this journal for the fandom content anymore? Not that there is any lately, which could be why. Anyway.
Daegaer posted about the ebil which is the clorox-colored Earthsea miniseries. And yes, it is evil. But dude, why does nobody who adores the multiracial fantasy of Earthsea ever bring up the *original* fantasy series where the red-brown people who are good, the white people are evil, or at least misguided, and worship the dark powers, the yellow people are isolationist and odd, and the black people are respected but rare?
I'm talking about Barsoom, by the way, just in case you didn't spend your high school years working out a Barsoom tarot.
So, being on this superhero kick (you did know I was still on it, right?) I started re-reading the Lucky Starr books, the first masked vigilante metahuman I ever fangirled.
And I've got to halfway through the second book, and I can't *not* say something anymore. John Jones, Martian superhero (sidekick), predates J'onn Jonzz, Martian superhero, by about two years. So the burning question is, what's the connection?
Was Dr. Erdel a Lucky Star fan (or maybe just Joe Samachson)?
Do Martian fanrmboys just love old Justice League comics?
Is J'onn J'onzz a revered name among the shapeshifting telepathic Martians of the far future, who venerate him as the last survivor, and subconsciously influence the human settlers?
Was there a Space Ranger TV series in the DC universe?
Is the Manhunter still around five thousand years in the future, masquerading as a sidekick to mentor a new era of heros?
Were they both named after John Jones y Seryddwwr, famed astronomer?
Would there be *any* readership at *all* for a DCU/Lucky Starr crossover?
Does eating Oreos with milk really make you big and strong, like it says in the commercials during Teen Titans?
Also, where do babies come from in the Lucky Starr universe? As far as I can recall, there are two (2) females with speaking lines in the entire series, and one of them is the Tragically Dead Mother, and the other is a minor villain's wife . . . do they use cloning or something? Rather trite to harp about Earth's diversity in that case.
Actually, the freakiest thing about the Lucky Starr future-- even freakier than the fact that they have no women-- is that they *have no plastics*. Everything is either metal or rubber or force-field or glass. Future shock much?
But speaking of comic books and treatment of women, I've basically been lurking the flist of dc_clocktower lately, and heard lots and lots about crossdressing for justice. Maybe I've just been reading the wrong people's lists, but why can't I think of a single instance of a female superhero who crossdresses for justice? If I was a female meta or vigilante in the DCU, *I* would dress as a male superhero, I'd have much less chance of ending up in pieces in a refrigerator, and much more chance of coming back if I died.
I mean, c'mon! It's a gimme! Why is it never done? The whole concept of superhero is based on the idea that by changing clothes, you become a more respected, more powerful, more legitimate person. Just like all the strong female characters in Shakespeare. And a superhero universe is even based on that same conceit, that an attempt at a disguise, no matter how sad, will fool everybody until the plot calls for an unveiling. So why has nobody done this with superheroes? Why is all the genderfuck in comics fandom m-t-f? Is it some PC let's-not-go-there thing? There's a significant lack of it in fandom-in-general, too, it's just more marked for me in comics because it makes so much more sense . . . and in fact the whole idea deserves a much longer discussion really, but then we'd get back into why-do-women-write-slash territory.
Actually, walking to class yesterday, I plotted out most of a fanfic in which, reacting to the events of Identity Crisis, Cissie goes back to vigilantism. In secret. As a male superhero. And shows up in Bludhaven without knowing Tim is there. And they meet. And ... yeah. Good thing I haven't actually read any significant amount of batman comics, or I'd be at risk ofwriting starting to write that.
In my private superhero city (which I have actually drawn two whole pages of yay) the main character wears a costume that doesn't make it obvious that she's female, and never talks uneccessarily, so the press just assumes she's male and she doesn't correct them. When I originally started writing it, it was before I'd taken my refresher course on superhero comics, and I just assumed that was something which had been done before ... but I can't think of any situation in which it has been.
And you know, that's actually a pretty good outline of my entry into a new fandom. I see it around and start thinking about an original story based on it, and then read/watch enough of the canon and fanfic to understand the world fairly well, and start getting ideas for crossovers into my old fandoms, and then finally start having original ideas with just the fandom characters, and then I run out of new fic to read and dip into *another* fandom (before I actually get anything significant written).
And that's probably enough random rantage for now. Yes. See, I have lots of fandom thoughts all the time, but don't post them here either because a) I truly believe I'm going to write that fic someday, or b) I don't feel up to doing the work that properly essaying it would deserve.
First, I ventured out to the bookstore to buy textbooks today. I have five classes. I bought one textbook. Of the others, one class has no required books but the one I think I want is only available online; one has a teacher fed up with the textbook industry, as is increasingly commom, who just gave us a list of out-of-print ones to try to find online; one has a teacher who apparently forgot to give his order to the bookstore; and one, for a large lecture class, was ordered by the bookstore-- *three copies* of it, anyway.
I was halfway tempted to just blow the rest of my book money on comics (And can you imagine *how much* squee there was when I discovered that the school bookstore has an entire shelf now devoted to webcomics? *So much*.) I guess tomorrow it's the book exchange, bookholders, and the comic book store in town.
Does anyone even read this journal for the fandom content anymore? Not that there is any lately, which could be why. Anyway.
Daegaer posted about the ebil which is the clorox-colored Earthsea miniseries. And yes, it is evil. But dude, why does nobody who adores the multiracial fantasy of Earthsea ever bring up the *original* fantasy series where the red-brown people who are good, the white people are evil, or at least misguided, and worship the dark powers, the yellow people are isolationist and odd, and the black people are respected but rare?
I'm talking about Barsoom, by the way, just in case you didn't spend your high school years working out a Barsoom tarot.
So, being on this superhero kick (you did know I was still on it, right?) I started re-reading the Lucky Starr books, the first masked vigilante metahuman I ever fangirled.
And I've got to halfway through the second book, and I can't *not* say something anymore. John Jones, Martian superhero (sidekick), predates J'onn Jonzz, Martian superhero, by about two years. So the burning question is, what's the connection?
Was Dr. Erdel a Lucky Star fan (or maybe just Joe Samachson)?
Do Martian fa
Is J'onn J'onzz a revered name among the shapeshifting telepathic Martians of the far future, who venerate him as the last survivor, and subconsciously influence the human settlers?
Was there a Space Ranger TV series in the DC universe?
Is the Manhunter still around five thousand years in the future, masquerading as a sidekick to mentor a new era of heros?
Were they both named after John Jones y Seryddwwr, famed astronomer?
Would there be *any* readership at *all* for a DCU/Lucky Starr crossover?
Does eating Oreos with milk really make you big and strong, like it says in the commercials during Teen Titans?
Also, where do babies come from in the Lucky Starr universe? As far as I can recall, there are two (2) females with speaking lines in the entire series, and one of them is the Tragically Dead Mother, and the other is a minor villain's wife . . . do they use cloning or something? Rather trite to harp about Earth's diversity in that case.
Actually, the freakiest thing about the Lucky Starr future-- even freakier than the fact that they have no women-- is that they *have no plastics*. Everything is either metal or rubber or force-field or glass. Future shock much?
But speaking of comic books and treatment of women, I've basically been lurking the flist of dc_clocktower lately, and heard lots and lots about crossdressing for justice. Maybe I've just been reading the wrong people's lists, but why can't I think of a single instance of a female superhero who crossdresses for justice? If I was a female meta or vigilante in the DCU, *I* would dress as a male superhero, I'd have much less chance of ending up in pieces in a refrigerator, and much more chance of coming back if I died.
I mean, c'mon! It's a gimme! Why is it never done? The whole concept of superhero is based on the idea that by changing clothes, you become a more respected, more powerful, more legitimate person. Just like all the strong female characters in Shakespeare. And a superhero universe is even based on that same conceit, that an attempt at a disguise, no matter how sad, will fool everybody until the plot calls for an unveiling. So why has nobody done this with superheroes? Why is all the genderfuck in comics fandom m-t-f? Is it some PC let's-not-go-there thing? There's a significant lack of it in fandom-in-general, too, it's just more marked for me in comics because it makes so much more sense . . . and in fact the whole idea deserves a much longer discussion really, but then we'd get back into why-do-women-write-slash territory.
Actually, walking to class yesterday, I plotted out most of a fanfic in which, reacting to the events of Identity Crisis, Cissie goes back to vigilantism. In secret. As a male superhero. And shows up in Bludhaven without knowing Tim is there. And they meet. And ... yeah. Good thing I haven't actually read any significant amount of batman comics, or I'd be at risk of
In my private superhero city (which I have actually drawn two whole pages of yay) the main character wears a costume that doesn't make it obvious that she's female, and never talks uneccessarily, so the press just assumes she's male and she doesn't correct them. When I originally started writing it, it was before I'd taken my refresher course on superhero comics, and I just assumed that was something which had been done before ... but I can't think of any situation in which it has been.
And you know, that's actually a pretty good outline of my entry into a new fandom. I see it around and start thinking about an original story based on it, and then read/watch enough of the canon and fanfic to understand the world fairly well, and start getting ideas for crossovers into my old fandoms, and then finally start having original ideas with just the fandom characters, and then I run out of new fic to read and dip into *another* fandom (before I actually get anything significant written).
And that's probably enough random rantage for now. Yes. See, I have lots of fandom thoughts all the time, but don't post them here either because a) I truly believe I'm going to write that fic someday, or b) I don't feel up to doing the work that properly essaying it would deserve.