Great Moments in Comic Book Discrimation #4: Avengers 200 and Later Fall Out

Well. Avengers 200.

Imagine you woke up one morning and you were pregnant. This is exactly what happened to Carol Danvers (Ms. Marvel) in Avengers 200, a comic specifically designed to exit her off the team. The baby that she has from an unknown source grows up to be Marcus, the person who created the pregnancy. As the fine folks over at Fortune City.com say:

An issue later, in the not-classic Avengers #200, all became known when Ms. Marvel gave birth to "Marcus," an extradimensional being who appropriated Ms. Marvel's reproductive apparatus in order to free himself from the doldrums of some limbo-place where he lived. In the process, he decided he wanted also to mind-control Ms. Marvel so that she became his lover; and, as the Avengers nodded and winked at this harmless little bit of nonconsensual sexuality (sometimes called "rape" in modern parlance), Marcus took her away to limbo with him.

Well, things were different in a less enlightened time, right? And comics aren't realistic anyway.

***

Shift to Avengers Annual 10. Again, from Fortunecity.com. This is after Spider-Woman rescues the unconscious Danvers. Her back story in getting to the annual is revealed.

Ms. Marvel, in limbo, under Marcus' control, got to watch as Marcus' misalignment with the time stream caused him to age rapidly and die, leaving her stranded. Somehow she returned to our dimension, but upon her return Rogue stole her powers and memories, leaving her a miserable, empty, friendless shell. Therefore she attempted to throw herself off the Brooklyn Bridge and would have died but for Spider-Woman's intervention.

She confronts the Avengers for standing around nudging and winking and making ogling noises as Marcus dragged her into limbo to serve as her sex slave. This scene must cause the reader pain for its unfairness, because Carol slaps Thor instead of bringing up her knee into the dangly parts of the writers who did this to her

***

Where does Carol Danvers go from here? She acquires new super powers for a while and is Binary, and hangs out with an intergalactic pirate crew. Because that crew hangs out with the X-Men, and the X-Men let Rogue onto their team (I didn't mention that Rogue takes all of Danvers' powers and memories in the annual), she decides she can't be with the pirates.

She lost her Binary powers through the usual comic book contrivance, and regained her identity as Ms. Marvel. Kurt Busiek decided she needed to be poignant in an alcoholism story. And I'm guessing with some serious trauma like that in her background, I can understand her tendency toward chemical dependence.

That's 4 really awful instances. You might be wondering if comics ever work in regard to discrimination. Well, yes, although being a member of privilege, I can only say what I think did. So, my next entry, I'm going to talk a little bit about Dwayne Duffie.

Mirrored from Writer Tamago.

Writing Year in Review So Far

We pause to do a little planning.

It's August! School starts next week, and I'm actually looking forward to it, because it means more writing time. That's right...more. Up through Friday, my days at work are 8 am - 4 pm solid. Since I went back to work in July, I've been trying to get my writing in during the evenings, with limited success. This, coupled with a busy July, are the reasons I'm behind on my expertise hours. Not REALLY behind. It's a matter of 8 hours or so, which I should be able to make up with a few extra hours once I get that time I have built into the semester to write.

What have I done this year? Successes?

Crystal Vision has come out in Swill 5.
Turtle of the Earth will come out in Cucurbital 2. (and I've seen the author copies.)
O-Taga-San is scheduled to come out some time from Flyleaf Press (an imprint of Drollerie)

Completions?
I finished The Winter the Troll Danced with Old Nick in October (which is technically last year, but you know...)
I began The Were-humans, originally intending to make it a novella.
I plotted the five books of the Klarion Series.
I began the heavy-duty revision of The Substance of Shadows.
I began a short story I'm tentatively calling End over End.

Circulations?
Only two things at this point
Mark Twain's Daughter at Tor.com
Empress Dark at Space Squid (just couldn't say no to a name like that!)

What do I do with the time that remains in this bright, shiny year?

Read the rest of this entry »

Mirrored from Writer Tamago.