You know what they say: every hero has a beginning.
Okay, actually, generally in the case of continuing comics universes? Every hero probably has several beginnings, told over and over again and argued over which is the most accurate.
In the wake of the announced Batman: Arkham Origins game, as well as a discussion over Mark Waid’s Superman: Birthright for the Canvas Network’s Comics and Gender class this past week, I was forced to take a long look at myself and make a choice. And important choice, true believers.
I was forced to finally admit that I am not a fan of retellings of superhero origins.
Before we get too in-depth here, lemme go over a few things. First of all, I know that there are plenty of good reasons to retell a character’s origin and I’m not saying it should never be done. Updating an origin story can be a great way to draw in new readers or just to help smooth out timeline issues for characters who have been around for 80 years. The world has changed hugely since most major heroes hit the scene, so updated versions of origins make total sense.
Secondly, I’m not talking about retelling origins in film and television versions of heroes. With both of these scenarios, you’re dealing with a different medium and, with movies especially, very limited time to tell a story. So if Hal Jordan’s origin story as Green Lantern has to be simplified a bit in order to fit screen time, it’s understandable, and I hope they’ll keep that in mind should they ever make an actual Green Lantern movie.
Thirdly, I’m not saying my opinions here are the end-all-be-all, these are purely my own observations and thoughts. But some of these things bug me to the point that I need to bring them up, rant about them, and then move on with my life. So it’s all good.
Ready? Okay, so, here are what I like to call The Four Cardinal Sins of Retelling Superhero Origins. It’s not a catchy name, I know, I’m working on it.
SIN #1: Change Everything Or Change Nothing
To be fair, this is a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation and is a big part of why I’m generally not a fan of these sorts of things. But basically, when you revisit an origin you can keep everything the same or you can change major parts of the origin…and no matter what you can’t satisfy people.
In the first situation, you retell a very faithful version of a hero’s origin. Which seems safe: this is how it happened, this is how it has always happened, this is how it will continue to happen forever and ever until the collapse of the Multiverse (AGAIN). Problem is, you’re going to get hammered from people who wonder why you bothered. Why retell this story if it’s the same thing, why don’t you just have people read the original version of the origin story? If you’re not going to add anything, haven’t you just wasted fans’ time? (No, you haven’t, but that’s not the point here).
So, in the second situation, you make changes. Say, you take Diana of Themyscira and, rather than having her molded out of clay and brought to life by the Gods, it turns out her mom “got jiggy” with Zeus and Diana was the result. Also, Amazonian eugenics, WOOOOO! And, hey, you think, you’ve taken the character in a new direction!
Yeah, you’ll get people like me calling for your fucking head because that origin doesn’t really seem to mesh with our feelings on the character and SERIOUSLY, OKAY, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?
Is this overreacting? Yes, it is (NO IT ISN’T YOU FUCKED WITH WONDER WOMAN YOU FUCKERS). But the point is, you are screwed no matter what you do with an origin. Like it or not.
SIN #2: HEY, DID YOU GUYS NOTICE THIS IS A PREQUEL?!?!
Okay, this is listed as Sin #2 but is legitimately my pet peeve with superhero origins. We know that this is being written after years and years and years of the hero being in action and stuff will happen that will change them and alter their lives and The Universe Will Never Be the Same (TM).
So we the readers know that. But odds are, the character themselves, narrating in the present time, doesn’t. So, when you add in those cute little “shout outs” to future events, you are making things suck.
My favorite example of this is Batgirl: Year One. Throughout the series, Barbara Gordon, in her first year as Batgirl, makes several references to Cassandra, a figure in Greek Mythology who could foresee the future and was cursed with nobody believing her. There’s other mentions of seeing the future as well.
You know, LIKE AN ORACLE WOULD?
It’s like the entire Batgirl: Year One is set-up to remind us that eventually Barbara will be shot, crippled and reinvent herself as Oracle. Which I’m OKAY with, because Oracle is awesome and I wish she were still around in the DCU. But as awesome as I think she is, the narration in B:YO was far too aware of that future, and since Barbara was the narrator, well, it just gets obnoxious. WE know you’re going to be Oracle. You don’t. Because if you somehow DID and yet didn’t use these new precognitive abilities to foresee The Joker showing up at your door and shooting you in the spine, then you have wasted them OR you are asking me to assume you LET THE JOKER SHOOT YOU.
Point being: unless you want me to start thinking about a Alternate Universe where Babs did see The Joker coming, killed him in order to protect herself and James Gordon, and then ended up at odds with Batman over it, don’t tease us with “TEE-HEE, THIS HAPPENS IN THE FUTURE!!!!!” It gets old, it gets distracting and it’s not as cute as you think it is.
SIN #3: Who the Hell Are You Writing This For?
This ties in with #1 and #2, but it’s an important question: when you rewrite a character’s origins, are you rewriting them for established fans or are you doing so to draw in new fans?
Because obviously it’s going to change how you approach it. Depending on the intended audience, the way you establish the character and explore the effects of their power source, childhood, etc. is going to be significantly different, I would assume.
I feel like this is slightly less problematic in something like the Ultimate Marvel Universe where you’re updating and changing things, but you’ve established that this is a new, different series meant to be friendly for newer readers but fun for established fans. Of course, then you run into the problem of letting Mark Millar touch that project, but that’s another rant ENTIRELY.
But with something like The New 52 or other stand alone origin retellings, you are possibly completely reinventing the timeline supposedly for new readers, but trying so hard to appease established fans at the same time that it just falls flat. What has or hasn’t happened in that time line, is it a complete reboot or are we accepting that things were the same until x point in time? Why is x point in time the point in time where everything altered? And why are we dealing with this when we’re just headed for #4 anyway?
SIN #4: Don’t Get Used To It
You changed that character’s origin? That’s neat!
I’m just gonna stand over here until someone else changes it again.
Look, it’s the sort of thing I’m rolling my eyes over with the New 52 Reboot: in about five years, someone’s suddenly going to go WAIT, NONE OF THIS EVER HAPPENED, THE NEW 52 WAS JUST A DREAM FLASH HAD AFTER FLASHPOINT! and everything gets mangled again. It’s hard to really buy any new origins when you know that at some point in the future you’re just getting a NEW new origin or a NEW old origin or…you get the idea.
Like I said, these are my personal gripes with new origin stories, and I don’t think ALL of them fall into these traps. I don’t think it should stop anyone from enjoying what they enjoy. Writing for the internet comes with great power and great responsibility and I’m not trying to abuse the first or ignore the second.
At least, not in this incarnation. Talk to me after they rewrite my origin and it might all be a different story.
Ashly is an IHO Geek staff writer who gained her inhuman blogging powers after being bitten by a radioactive Cory Doctrow. You can follow her on Twitter @newageamazon.
(Or: I will read comics AND watch pro-wrestling and you will DEAL WITH IT.)
This Sunday night is Wrestlemania. Yes, as in “guys in spandex pants performing choreographed, pre-determined fights while a crowd looks on.”
Look, stay with me here, I am going someplace with this.
Being a fan of pro-wrestling sports entertainment WHATEVER they are calling it these days, and also a devoted comic book fan (as regular IHO Geek readers well know), I was PUMPED to see that, as part of the build-up to Wrestlemania, Marvel’s Fighting Fanboys had interviewed WWE’s CM Punk regarding his historic match with The Undertaker taking place on Sunday and drawing comparisons between ‘Taker and Thanos.
And then I broke the first rule of the internet: I read the comments.
So many Marvel fans were literally outraged that Marvel was featuring wrestling-related content on their own site and their Facebook page. There were multiple demands to know why it was there as well as decrying pro-wrestling because it is not real.
Now, in response to this, I could point out that it’s been a long time since there was any kind of attempt to so much as pretend pro-wrestling is real. It’s an open secret. While there are people who still don’t seem to understand/believe this, there are also a great number of fans who know it isn’t “real” and watch it anyway…because we find it entertaining. I could also point out that comic books aren’t “real” either, but that doesn’t seem to bother these angry Marvel fans.
I could also point out that there are more than a few comic book geeks in the WWE today. CM Punk didn’t just do the interview with Marvel, he’s a documented comic fan who wrote the introduction to the Avengers Vs. X-Men trade. AJ Lee is known for being the WWE’s resident geek girl and has talked about her love of comics at length. Former superstar Shane “Hurricane” Helms sports a Green Lantern tattoo and actually performed in a superhero “gimmick” for several years. Daniel Bryan is a comic geek who wears ring gear designed by his friend Jill Thompson…as in Jill “remember how I did art for Sandman and The Invisibles and a lot of other awesome stuff” Thompson. And Cody Rhodes is a shameless fan who admitted to channeling Doctor Doom and Mr. Sinister as part of his character.
And to end it all, I could remind people that these are over the top heroes and villains fighting fake battles between good and evil. Quick, am I talking about comics or wrestling?
But, as much as I find those arguments compelling, what I really want to get down to is this: geekery is geekery is geekery and can we stop being assholes about it?
Look, you might not like pro-wrestling. Whatever, that’s cool. But trust me, truly devoted wrestling fans who can recite character history and the WWE’s history of retcons MORE than qualify for their geek merit badge.
But it’s not just that. It’s that we can’t disqualify devoted media fans from being “geeks” just because we don’t like the media they are a fan of. And here, I’mma break out the big one:
I effing hate Twilight. HATE it with a mad passion that I cannot even scrape the surface of here. But you know what? Those fans?
THEY ARE GEEKS.
No insult to Twilight fans, by the way. You should probably realize that around here “geek” is hardly a bad thing.
But seriously: they sincerely love the media, they follow it almost religiously and can probably name facts that you can’t (nor, to be fair, do you probably care about) and they do it all with a fierce and genuine passion.
Much like Trekkies. Or fans of Star Wars. Or Harry Potter. Or wrestling. Or comics.
Point being: we don’t get to gatekeep geekery based on what people geek out over. Being a geek doesn’t mean you automatically have to love EVERYTHING considered geeky, or that you even have to pay attention to it. But comic geeks are not greater than, or lesser than, wrestling geeks. There’s a lot of crossover audience there, in fact.
And, I mean, REALLY. It’s FUCKING FACEBOOK, people. SCROLL AND MOVE ON WITH YOUR FUCKING LIVES.
…oh, and by the way? Wrestlemania IS this Sunday. So I leave you with this:
20-1! BEST IN THE WORLD!
Ashly is an IHO Geek staff writer and a Paul Heyman Girl. You can follow her on Twitter @newageamazon, OR at her wrestling account, @snarkingout.
After multiple attempts to bring a new depiction of the most infamous Amazon in comics to the big or small screen, it looks like Warner Brothers and DC Comics are finally moving forward with their plans for a new Wonder Woman television series.
While previous series and pilots have depicted Wonder Woman, alias Diana Prince, as the super-powered Amazon sent on a mission to “Patriarch’s World,” this new series will actually draw from a period from the late 1960’s where Diana lost her superpowers and instead trained with a martial arts expert known as “I-Ching.”
The series already has star power attached to it, as well! The role of Diana Prince has already been cast, and the big news is that singer/actress Katy Perry (The Smurfs, The Smurfs 2) will be taking on the iconic role.
“I was, like, worried,” Katy told reporters. “Because, oh my GOSH! Wonder Woman, isn’t she like a feminist or something? I don’t want people to think I’m like THAT! But then they told me she wouldn’t have any superpowers and I think that’s good ’cause, like, that would intimidate guys!” The Trevor Project Award Winner known for songs such as “Ur So Gay” went on to say “And she already comes from this island that’s all girls and you KNOW what that means! So, like, I hope I’m able to bring a girly side to her or something.”
The series will go into production this coming summer, and rumor is the Wonder Woman comic title would be reworked to align with the show.
If you got this far and haven’t figure out this is an April Fool’s Day joke yet, I don’t know if that says more about internet gullibility or the state of comics right now, to be honest.
Ashly is an IHO Geek Staff Writer who is terrified this vision of the future may yet come to pass. You can find her on Twitter @newageamazon
My name is Ashly and I have shipped non-canon pairings.
I’ve probably been doing it since before you were in fandom. I know I’ve been doing it since before talking about fandom was a thing you did without the safety of hiding behind a fake username. I’ve discussed “wouldn’t it be great/hot if…” scenarios and, yeah, let’s just go all out here, I’ve written fanfic involving couples who were never, ever, ever getting together. Ever.
I am here to prove to you that I have survived. And that, somehow, you will as well.
Shipping non-canon couples is fine. I wanna make sure you know that. If you wanted to see Kirk and Spock all over each other, that’s your call and I’m not gonna judge you. Though, to be fair, I did at one point pretty heavily judge anyone in the Final Fantasy X fandom who shipped Auron/Rikku because he is a) too old for her and b) DEAD, OKAY? SPOILER ALERT.
It’s not like something not actually coming true in the source media somehow invalidates what you’d like to see. When a creator puts something out there, they are at the whims of their audience, and a large portion of the fun of fanworks is exploring “what if” scenarios, so if you wondered what it would be like if Barbara Gordon and Dinah Lance were more than just friends, then FANWORKS ARE YOUR FRIEND. And there is likely someone out there who has had the same thought and will want to talk about it with you and compare notes and it can be so. damn. much. fun.
But for some reason that I will never quite understand, some people seem to feel that if their pairing isn’t approved in the source material, you have somehow managed to time travel into the future and take a huge shit on their grave.
The most infamous incident I can think of was while the Harry Potter series was still being released. Notably, it was when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out.
So much happens in Half-Blood Prince. There was a lot to get emotional over and things that were sure to cause a ton of fan outrage. And do you know what I saw the most outrageous anger over?
Dumbledor’s death? Psh, no, old dude gets killed whatever.
Snape turning traitor? WHO CARES?
No. No, the most terrible thing JK Rowling did in Half-Blood Prince, according to a very vocal section of the internet, was this:
THAT’S RIGHT. HARRY/GINNY. ROWLING, YOU UTTER BITCH.
See, there was this expectation that Harry was going to end up with HERMIONE and Ginny…let’s just not go there regarding their opinions of Ginny.
So, why do I bring this up now? Because, I have to confess, I’ve been sucked into the whirlpool that is Teen Wolf. Why, you ask? Well…
…for the plot. Totally for the plot.
Anyway, the most popular pairing in Teen Wolf is that of Stiles Stilinski (human best friend of the lead character) and Derek Hale (mysterious failure of a werewolf). The pairing is commonly known as “Sterek.” For the record, in a world where Final Fantasy 8 fandom gave us the namesmush “Squinoa,” I cannot laugh at “Sterek” as much as I want to.
Anyway, as for the pairing, I don’t get it, but I’ve gotta give them this: it is very pretty.
Please remember, I told you: I watch it for the plot.
Anyway, recently there was word that, sadly, Sterek will NOT become canon on the show. And from the internet there was a moment of silence.
And then? FIRE.
Okay, okay, exaggerating, but seriously. I can see why there was a certain amount of hope that it COULD happen: Teen Wolf has been pretty cool about normalizing homosexuality on the show, in fact we’ve been promised that the openly gay character of Danny will be getting a werewolf boyfriend and some on-screen loving in Season 3. Besides that, the show has done things such as holding a slash-friendly fanfiction contest where the winner got to meet members of the cast and the creator and, well, stuff like this.
FOR. THE. PLOT.
I SWEAR.
OH GOD.
WHAT WAS I TALKING ABOUT?
Right, anyway. Sterek no happen.
Disappointment I can get. Especially in a case where you saw hope for it.
But the battle cry of STEREK EXISTS? Oh, folks.
Look, yes. Sterek exists and can continue to exist in fanart and fanfic and whatever else you wanna make. Obviously the cast and creator are COOL with it, in fact cast members may ship it (or they may be trolling, I don’t know, either way it is awesome). But it’s just NOT the direction the show is going.
That doesn’t mean you can’t still ship Sterek. You are TOTALLY allowed to. I’m sure most of the fandom would prefer you did (though there may be some people who would like to see a little more Stiles/Scott/Allison stuff. I mean, I assume so). But really, let’s all remember that it’s all in good fun, that life goes on, and we should pay attention to the important things.
Like the plot.
THE PLOT, DAMMIT.
- Ashly was a Sub Cultured contributing writer and, apparently, a creeper who is hoping you don’t kill her for saying any of this. She is glad to discuss the plot of Teen Wolf on her Twitter @newageamazon.
You hear about it, every now and then. About rising rates of depression among 18-30 year olds. About how many people in my own generation are being medicated for depression. And they have a lot of theories.
But those theories are wrong. Because I know why we are so messed up.
We more than likely have a shared childhood trauma.
Because we were the first generation that would have had the opportunity to see the movie The Never Ending Story at an impressionable age.
In case you haven’t seen the movie, or for whatever reason have repressed this trauma, and don’t know what I’m talking about, let me explain. See, in the movie, the hero, Atreyu, starts off his journey to save a magical land along with his horse, Artax.
Atreyu and Artax are best friends.
And this is awesome, right? This kid has a horse and it is an awesome horse and the boy and his horse are going to save their entire world! LIFE IS GOOD!
Right, so. Spoiler alert:
THEN THEY KILL THE FUCKING HORSE.
And we are not talking “Horse dies noble death saving Atreyu.” No. NO. You know how the horse dies? YOU KNOW HOW THE HORSE DIES?
THE HORSE DIES BECAUSE IT GETS TOO SAD.
Seriously, Atreyu and Artax are traveling through The Swamps of Sadness and it’s all “The sadness can get to you!” But it’s just SADNESS, right? Yeah, being sad sucks, but it’s not like being sad is dangerous.
UNTIL YOUR HORSE GETS SO SAD THAT IT DIES.
I MEAN, YOUR HORSE JUST FUCKING STANDS THERE AND SINKS INTO THE SWAMP BECAUSE IT IS REALLY REALLY SAD.
THE HORSE. IS SAD. SAD HORSE. HORSE IS SADDED TO DEATH.
HERE IS THE SCENE RECREATED IN LEGO FORM FOR YOUR BENEFIT:
You’re a kid, you don’t believe anything bad can happen to that horse. This was before The Lion King and at least then there’s someone to blame for Mufasa’s death and, hey, your brother isn’t actually going to toss you off a cliff into a stampede and kill you.
But oh no! Never Ending Story teaches you that something you love is probably going to die, with no way to save it, because it was just too damn sad to keep going.
And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is why our generation is fucked up. BECAUSE WE WATCHED A HORSE DIE OF SADNESS.
YOU STUPID HORSE!
Our NeverEnding Story coverage never ends. Check out our Halloween Costumes From Your Closet post to replicate the fairest garb in Fantasia!
For those of you unaware, Michael Bay has cast the role of April O’Neil in his upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, where the namesake characters will not actually be teenagers or mutants as far as we can tell. But, one hoped, he would accurately and responsibly cast the role of O’Neil, a formative heroine for many young women of my generation.
Instead, he cast Megan Fox.
Allow me to respond in the most rational and calm manner possible:
FUCK YOU MICHAEL BAY! FUCK YOU SO HARD MICHAEL BAY! YOU DOUCHEBAG LOOKING FUCKER! FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU!
FUCK YOU, MEGAN FOX! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! DIDN’T YOU CALL THIS GUY “HITLER” ONCE AND NOW YOU’RE MAKING ANOTHER FUCKING MOVIE TOGETHER? FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU, MEGAN FOX!
ONCE AGAIN: FUCK YOU MICHAEL BAY. HERE, LET ME PUT MY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS INTO A FORM YOU WILL FUCKING UNDERSTAND, MICHAEL BAY:
FUCK YOU, FUCK YOUR EXPLOSIONS, FUCK MEGAN FOX, FUCK YOUR “ALIEN” NINJA TURTLES, FUCK EVERY FUCKING PIECE OF MEDIA YOU FUCKING GET NEAR, FUCK YOU MICHAEL FUCKING BAY.
–Ashly is an IHO Geek writer and FUCK YOU MICHAEL BAY FUCKING FUCK FUCK MICHAEL BAY on Twitter at @newageamazon