It's Just Hair, Folks....

Mighty Avengers is a very special treat and if you're not reading it, you're missing out on some damn good reading with a lineup mostly comprised of heroes of color. If someone had told me I'd be reading a comic that builds on the Blue Marvel's story in such a compelling way, I'd have laughed right in their face. For all the fanwhining about a lack of focus on diversity and gender politics, this title (and some others) is one that breaks a lot of those rules.

One of my personal favorite things about this book (other than Luke Cage) is the addition of Monica Rambeau. Every once in a blue moon, someone finds a decent venue to bring her back and this is probably as good as premise as any. She's one of these characters that has basically had her entire history built upon being "that hero that's quietly been around for years." One major complaint has been Spectrum (as she now calls herself) now appearing with relaxed hair after most of the character's lifespan being her with either a fro or locs. One comment I read even went so far as to say that Marvel had "whitewashed" her (which, by the way, is ABSOLUTELY NOT what whitewashing means).

You know, as a nerd of color, I tend to get excited about and welcome when "our" issues are addressed in comic culture. That's an enormous part of why I signed on to work at Black Nerd Problems. However, there are a couple of issues that get way too much airtime from the Black Blogsphere I prayed would not creep into comics. Chief among them is the "natural hair vs. permed hair" wars. Extreme "natural" ideologues shout down the people who perm their hair and those who perm their chastise the "naturals", believing them to be elitist. This argument is older than many of us realize and, to my great disappointment, isn't going anywhere any time soon.

Now, we're not going to talk about that because I don't have the time or the energy this week to open myself up to yet another brand of trolling. We WILL talk about the merits of attaching such a debate to a fictional character.

Spoiler Alert: There are none.

It's the same problem as I've explained previously about Superman. Once you begin inventing values for a character (which, often times, means you're attaching your own) because they can't speak for themselves unless the writer makes it so, you start internalizing the narrative you've had a hand in creating. And it's a rather flawed narrative. I mean, as far as I can tell (and you're free to correct me if I'm wrong), I've never read a comic in which Monica Rambeau said anything that would leave me to believe she stood on either side of the natural/perm argument or that she even acknowledges it at all. I mean, Luke Cage used to have an afro, he shaved all his hair off and I don't remember there being any backlash about that.

Then again, it's best to not get me started on the strange double standard forced upon women, fictional or otherwise in nerd culture. That's a whole other post

Honestly, I think making Monica/Captain Marvel/Photon/Spectrum's hair was a fiercely bold move on Marvel's part. Because if you want to accurately depict people of color in your medium, you have to capture all sides of the spectrum realistically. Some of us stand fierce to certain hairstyles, some of us use our hair to make statements, some of us just don't give a shit. But like Monica, ALL of us can't, won't, and shouldn't be defined completely by our hair. Because it's just hair.

The Week In Geek 7/23/14

This week certainly wasn't as action packed as last week.

-Most of my week was dedicated to the Twitter drive to get BNP followers up. If you haven't done so already, please follow the collective @blknrdproblems on Twitter AND Instagram for the latest in updates, news, links to articles as soon as their available, live tweets and all manner of miscellaneous nerd fuckery.

-I'm still looking for a new name for The Blog, so tweet me (@letsgetfree13), email me (letsgetfree13@gmail.com), Facebook me if you have any ideas for a name. I want to rename this bad boy before I run away to Wordpress, so your help would be appreciated.

My comic reviews for the week are currently up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your approval...or disapproval, as it were. This week, I took a look at....

Batman Eternal: Okay, this issue wasn't quite as strong as last week's outing, but it certainly felt less cluttered and that's always a godsend to this book.

Batman: This finale to Zero Year mainly lived up to the hype brought on by all the awesomeness of the past year. Scott Snyder has a win and a half on his hands. One slightly unrelated thing it brought to light for me was one of the fundamental flaws in The Dark Knight Rises: Alfred Pennyworth would NEVER leave Batman. Ever. Granted, I understand the context Christopher Nolan was trying to create. Rises was intended to be about Batman losing EVERYTHING.

Money- Wayne Enterprises goes broke.

Love- The idea that Bruce lost his one chance at a normal lie was taken from him with the revelation that Rachel was going to choose Harvey Dent instead of him.

The Power to Scare The Living Shit Out of Evil- "Ohhh, you think darkness is your ally..."

Gadgets- "You're precious armory, gratefully accepted. We will need it."

You get the picture. Batman was broken down to his most base components and forced to find his way back to everything he had and everyone he loved....including Alfred. But this is awkward not only because Bruce and Alfred have some of the best exchanges of the entire trilogy and having Michael Caine in 75% of your movie is simply a bad idea, but because Alfred is the ONE real constant in his life. This is what Zero Year does well: We know full well that Bruce Wayne will be Batman for as long as his body will allow it and maybe even some time after that. But Alfred will always be standing beside him to remind him of what the life he could always aspire to some day. He's not just his conscience. He's his humanity. That's why it's almost an unspoken rule that he would never abandon Batman.

The Week in Geek 7/16/14

A few things this week....

If you're interested and not already tired of hearing about the new Thor, I wrote an article about why some of the outrage is....well, stupid. It hasn't even been a week since the news got out and I've already talked about Thor enough to last a lifetime. I honestly believe the trolls were only rubbed the wrong way because Marvel made a big deal in the press about it. If this had just been a par-for-the-course part of Jason Aaron's story arc, I'm pretty sure it would have gone unmarked or at least been a lot more low key in making its rounds in the press. But if you really want to talk about Marvel and making statements about gender or, according to some, "forcing them down our throats"....I think this would be a good way to go about it. If you really want to appear open minded about women in superhero comics, sure, you could make "that" statement quietly and create an alternative "that" audience can pick up over here in "that" little subsection where it won't bother your primary demographic. OR you can take a character who (let's face it), despite his corresponding movies basically being romcoms, is the quintessential avatar of all things stereotypically "manly", move him to the side and (this part is pure conjecture because we haven't read it yet) give all of those qualities to a woman. Why? Because making sociopolitical statements are only truly effective when you've shoved it in someone's face and made them uncomfortable. Otherwise, why even open your mouth? But I could be wrong.

I also wrote an op-ed on the treatment of women in Nerd Culture. By the way, let me just thank the trolls for giving me a break on that one. As I'm writing this, the Thor article has been out for barely 24 hours now and you're already going to work. I can't combat the ignorance on two fronts.

In addition, my reviews for the week are up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure as well as your scorn and derision. Whatever comes first. This week, I took a look at....

Ms. Marvel: I genuinely don't understand the whole "Instead of changing a popular characters' gender, just make better female centric books" complaint when you have a book like this on the shelves (or Black Widow or the all female X-Men book or the Mighty Avengers book where women on the team outnumber men, etc.). This is easily one of the BEST books in comics this year without question. Teaming the perpetually hopeful Kamala Khan up with curmudgeonly ass Wolverine was a brilliant move on G. Willow Wilson's part. I'm more excited to see if Wilson facilitates the inevitable team up with Captain Marvel, her favorite her.

Batman Eternal: Not much to say outside of the review this week, but this was mainly a fantastic way to start a new volume of the series. And bringing in Dustin Nguyen is always a plus. I'd pretty much call him one of the quintessential Batman artists of the 2000s. His use of shadow and anime-esque art deco type lines have always stuck out to me and made for a dynamic read.

Uncanny X-Men: Now, THIS is how you bounce back after a lackluster issue. Brian Bendis and Kris Anka make such a good creative team, I hardly recognized this book from the previous run. I was really impressed with the clean, drastically different style employed here. As much as I love Chris Bachalo, the "Vs. SHIELD" story had a lot of chaotic moments that made it easy to get lost in the action. Anka's clean, straightforward panels are reminiscent of Chris Samnee's work on Daredevil....which is always a compliment.

I'm One Step Closer to Being A Supervillain

So, I've decided to move The Blog to Wordpress sometime soon because Blogger and I don't always get along (sometimes, I tell it to do things and it has a nasty habit of not doing what I tell it). The only trouble is that if I'm going to have a new start, The Blog needs a new name. After all, it's bad luck to captain a new boat without a name. I mean, that was the whole moral of Forrest Gump, right? That's what I took from it. Well, that and maybe "True unconditional love is when you love someone despite the 70s."

Have I ever told you people how hard it is to name things? I mean, honestly, I didn't realize how hard it is to figure out what to call something when you're actually TRYING to name it. The first time I saw Avatar: The Last Airbender, I immediately knew...."Hey, that's Kung Fu Jesus." When I watched James Cameron's Avatar...you know, the Great Epic Space Opera About Tree Gods And Cat People That We've Never Seen Before Except When It Was A Disney Movie Called Pocahontas....I immediately knew to call it Pocahontas In Space. I'm just trying to come a name...Just A Fucking Name....and I got nothing. It's a little aggravating.

On my better days when I'm not doing the day job, this blog or writing for Black Nerd Problems, I moonlight as a blog consultant and I have this friend, a fellow blogger who is, more or less, MY unofficial consultant (by that, I mean there's all kinds of crazy shit on the internet and she's usually there to tell me when the crazy shit I discover has been there for years). I was talking out the whole "It's a little weird that I can't name something" thing the other day and.....

Me: I need to step up The Blog content. It's looking more and more like that's going to be the new name because I can't come up with a better one.

Friend: Well, that's cool.

Me: Amazingly enough, it's not taken as far as I can tell.

Friend: Wait....really?

Me: I shit you not. I typed in theblog.com and came up with nothing.

Friend: You typed it in...where?

Me: The first thing I do with random domain names I joke about is open up a new browser tab and type "whatever".com.

Friend: Nah, Oz, you need to go to a registrar. Go to GoDaddy. Aren't you a blog consultant?

Me: Hey, that doesn't have anything to do with this. I'm a blog consultant. Not a name consultant.

Friend: **sigh**

Me: Well, I'll be damned. It IS taken. Now, I want to find out who owns this name and troll the shit out of them.

Friend: For that, you go to whois.com.

Me: Oh, you REALLY shouldn't have shown me this.

Friend: Ha! Sorry.

Me: Are you?

Friend: No, I'm not.

Me: This is the sort of shit Morgan Freeman quit his job over in Dark Knight. #NoOneManShouldHaveAllThisPower

Friend: Bwahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

Stuff I Read This Week 7/2/14

My reviews for the week are finished and available on Black Nerd Problems for enjoyment alongside your barbecue and the drinks your uncle tells you not to watch him make. Smell that shit before you drink it. You never know. This week I took a look at.....

Batman Eternal: This was an awesome week because it furthers Scott Snyder and the conspiracy to make Jim Gordon an awesome character. I'm of the mind that a hero is only as great as the villains who test them. What better test is there to keep throwing in a hero's path than his sociopathic serial killer son? Also, Jason Bard is growing on me. His team-up with Harvey Bullock and Maggie Sawyer has been a great read and is evidence that we need a GCPD book soon. Mikel Janin is easily one of the best artists we've seen on this book yet. He really seems to get the kind of atmosphere this book should have, but isn't shy with using a very definitive color palette to get his point across and separate the "freaks" from the "straights."

Iron Fist, The Living Weapon

: This book has not hesitated to get better with each issue and I'm totally okay with this. When you create a genre based superhero, I believe the idea is to make a character that would make the most skilled, revered real life figures of that genre shit themselves. Having said that, Iron Fist would render Bruce Lee unconscious just by cracking his knuckles.