Trying to say nice things today…
November 11th, 2009 by david brothers | Tags: brian michael bendis, dark avengers, Marvel comics, moonstoneso I’ll just let y’all judge these quotes from IGN’s The Final Days of Dark Reign interview with Brian Michael Bendis and Brian Reed yourselves:
On Ms. Marvel’s identity crisis
Bendis: “Carol Danvers is awesome. She’s another character where there’s a lot going on in her own series. But she’s in every single issue I’ve written over the last six months, so there’s a lot going on with her. But what’s interesting is if Moonstone is sleeping with all of the Dark Avengers, they might not realize later which Ms. Marvel they had been sleeping with, and there might be trouble down the line.”
On Moonstone’s secret weapon
Bendis: “Now Moonstone I’ll probably get some letters on. She’s going to be using sex as a weapon, not because that’s what I feel women do, but because that’s what I feel this mentally ill woman would do in close quarters. She started with Marvel Boy and will begin making her way through the team.”
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Even Osborne? Damn, she’s not going to take Gwen Stacy’s sloppy seconds, is she?
Something I’ve never quite understood: why would the guys sleep with her? She obviously uses sex to manipulate people… it’s not a ‘secret weapon,’ it’s a giant obvious one.
Why would any Dark Avengers member have a problem figuring out which Ms. Marvel he slept with? Caorl and Moonstone don’t have the same face. That doesn’t make any sense.
@Cheryl Lynn: Arrgh! Typos.
@Cheryl Lynn: But but but they were both called Ms. Marvel and are blondes and have the same personali-whoops.
Caorl sounds like some kinda horrible Scottish bog monster. I approve.
@Chad Nevett: Well you know, when a woman is like “Hey, I like having sex,” any man within a thirty block radius just starts frothing at the mouth instantly and can’t say no to the obviously homocidal and evil person who even mentions intercourse.
Also, since when is Moonstone mentally ill? She’s just evil (suddenly), not insane.
Hey Bendis, PROTIP: If you need to clarify that you’re having a female character do something that you’re “totally not saying that all women do that,” maybe you SHOULDN’T HAVE HER DO IT AT ALL.
Homocidal? I haven’t seen her go after Daken yet.
Okay. Bendis. *You* may not be saying that’s what women do, but comics, at this point, might be saying just that.
Moonstone is crazy and evil so she decides to bonk people.
Ravager (Rose Wilson) does the same.
Mary Marvel in DC does the same.
Terra does the same.
Cassandra Cain (huge, disappointed sigh) does the same.
David has let me know that Typhoid Mary is the one exception. Otherwise, apparently when you go crazy and evil as a woman – you can’t do it with clothes on.
Look. I don’t *care* whether he thinks women in real life do it or not. I’m sick of seeing it. Ever. Whether it’s sexist or not, it’s completely unoriginal.
This is true, Esther. But not only should comics have fewer women demonstrating their mental imbalance by sexin’ up everything in range, we should maybe have more male characters doing it, just for balance. Guys can be a little nuts and kinda slutty, but only Matt Murdock carries that flag. How funny would it be if, say, Tim Drake kept getting crazier, and that manifested not as Grim Obsession & Bad Manners, but as Fabio hair, shirts open to the navel, and tight leather pants, as he tries to pick up all the characters doomed to co-star in Gotham Girls? Yeah, not that funny. Sorry for putting that image in everyone’s head.
And I have no idea what you’re talking about with Cassandra Cain. What little exposure I’ve had to her since the decline of her solo book I’ve managed to wipe out of my brain. I live in a world of denial (and back issues), with a looming sadness jussssst out of range of consciousness.
I’ve considered picking up Ms. Marvel again — I hate how dumbass Marvel crossovers revamp her status quo/storylines every few months, but I think that underneath that, Reed is hoping to do something interesting with the character (always looming jusssst out of range). But if there’s an issue where Carol has “wacky” fight-scene banter involving “No, that was the OTHER Ms. Marvel who screwed you on the hood of a Quinjet in low orbit, stop checking out my ass,” I’ll know I’m done.
You mean like how Wolverine jr. quite literally hits on anything with a pulse?
@A.o.D.: So did Green Arrow, before he was married. (And now, so does Red Arrow.) But there’s a difference between wanting to have a lot of sex and ‘using sex as a weapon’.
@Esther Inglis-Arkell: Actually, Daken (Wolverine Jr.) does in fact use sex as a weapon. Against men and women.
@Gavok: Is he a popular character? I’m trying to figure out if anyone likes this kind of stuff.
@Esther Inglis-Arkell: I don’t know if anyone likes him likes him, but he’s enjoyable to read about sometimes. Though using sex as a weapon isn’t his main way of operating, he’s been shown seducing people to get whatever he wants. He’s also got a pheromone ability to make people feel the way he wants them to feel, kind of like Spider-Woman.
@david brothers: Wait. Wasn’t there another guy at Marvel who had love powers? Starro. Starchild. Something like that. He got arrested for raping someone and was put on trial and defended by She-Hulk. Bastard of a guy. Got kicked in the nuts.
@Esther Inglis-Arkell: Starfox, Thanos’s brother and God of Love(?). That guy’s never been in a good story, near as I can tell.
The thing about Moonstone is that if her deal is using sex as a weapon, I’m not seeing how she’s winning anything with it. She’s not earning favors or loyalty from any of the sociopaths
at Norman Osborne’s Sausage Partyon the Dark Avengers or learning anything or getting any kind of material gain from it. At least when they were showing Daken slutting it up, they made a point out of showing him profiting by it (gaining access to confidential records, etc.); all Moonstone seems to be getting is the sex itself.Which, honestly, makes it seem like she’s using sex as a way of getting sex, and not as a weapon at all. And given that she’s also shown as a crazy and despicable sociopath in her own right, that just dredges up the whole “Nice Girls Don’t…” meme and makes the whole thing even more awful. I’m okay with not liking Moonstone — truth be told, I don’t want to find myself liking anyone on the Dark Avengers, and that includes the Sentry and Ares — but I could have easily done without the whole evil-scheming-harlot thing.
And count me among the people who just plain don’t understand the Ms. Marvel comment at all.
It is fun watching Daken make people feel uncomfortable. Especially Venom.
“Why would any Dark Avengers member have a problem figuring out which Ms. Marvel he slept with? Caorl and Moonstone don’t have the same face. That doesn’t make any sense.”
Yes they do.
Don’t you know that all women in comics have the same face and body? Men only have hair style and clothes to tell them apart.
I haven’t read a lot with Daken in it, but it seems like where everyone was expecting a Thunderstrike/USAgent-style brutish knockoff, instead we’ve got a Melrose Place manipulator. So far he’s been decently written at it.
@david brothers: I’d say that the She-Hulk bit with Starfox was alright.
What happened to the Moonstone from the Busiek/Fabian Thunderbolts? I miss her.
In fairness, Moonstone – as is the case with most of Dark Avengers – was much like she is now, only somewhat better-handled, in Ellis’ Thunderbolts.
I feel I should point out that Bendis talks a lot (A LOT) in interviews, but only about 30% of what comes out of his mouth every shows up in the comics themselves.
(Which I think is a symptom of him never quite writing the comic book he thinks he’s writing, but whatever.)
Also, the Moonstone I remember from pre-Ellis Tbolts was certainly not above using sex as a weapon. She’s always been stone cold. It wasn’t as explicit back then, because it was still thought that kids might read these books.
I guess sociopathy is a mental illness, at that…
@Alexa:
yes!
and while we’re at it, I’m tired of the joker killing, he should get a job and not do terrible things.
and Hamlet, he should have just punched a pillow.
@edc, You missed my point. IF, as a writer, you recognize that you are writing a female character in such a way that you feel the need to defend yourself against accusations of sexism BEFORE the work is even published– well, perhaps you should re-evaluate how you are writing her. Furthermore, as others have said, “Woman Uses Sex As A Weapon” is a trope– often sexist, but more importantly, it’s quite frankly a TIRED trope. If the most creative thing Bendis can think of to do with Moonstone is say “She uses sex as a weapon!” then perhaps he should take a break from writing until he comes up with a more creative idea.
“and while we’re at it, I’m tired of the joker killing, he should get a job and not do terrible things.”
I’d buy a book about Joker, CPA…
1. I don’t think that any of the Dark Avengers are the type of men who wouldn’t enjoy some “Mommy-Daddy time” with the new Ms. Marvel. In fact, Sofen’s unbreakability would probably serve as a turn-on for at least two of them (Ares, Daken)
2. Nutty sluts are boring. I like my sluts sober and emotionally coherent, like Sage. Yeah, I said it.
@Alexa: Alexa, you’re right. my bad, as the sentient robots say.
@lurkerwithout: and yes, I actually wouldn’t mind a maxi version of that astro city story called steel angel. I like that riddler more since they made him a good guy.