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In which Warpath and Colossus should start a support group; X-Force gets a new HQ; we make an unprecedently large number of musical-theater references; Cable is a highly qualified individual; tranq darts don’t work like that; Emma Frost gives fairly decent advice; the malls of Boston will never be the same again; and we need mutant body diversity now.
CONTENT WARNING: This episode involves discussion of child sexual abuse, murder, and cruelty to animals. If you want to skip that part, head to 34:42 for happier times!
X-PLAINED:
- An early adventures of the brothers Proudstar
- The new New Mutants trailer
- Starlight Express
- X-Force #40-42
- Feral (Maria Callasantos) (more) (again)
- X-Force’s new digs
- Little Shop of X-Force
- Thornn (Lucia Callasantos)
- Code Blue
- Cable’s law degree
- How tranq darts (don’t) work
- A lot of murder
- Several family reunions
- A terrifying team-up
- Body diversity and fat representation in X-books
- Feral’s Jellicle name
- Cats, kind of, I guess
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The Feral arc were the first non-crossover issues of X-Force I read and they left a strong impression on me. I very quickly became a big fan of Thornn, and I’ve always been disappointed that she never really did anything of note after this story.
As a side note, for a story that shows her at her absolute worst, Feral’s hair never looks better than it does here. I have very strong feelings about this.
Re: Body diversity and fat representation in X-books and just diversity: We need a bear in the X-comics. You know, a bear, a GAY man (doesn’t have to be white) (or cis) with a big body, proud of that big sexy body and with a beard (because beard representation matters).
As someone who is a fat person who loves the X-Men i always find Blob apperances such as in Episode 4 “Mutant Crush” of X-Men Evolution or his first Apperance in X-Men #3 from back in the Silver Age usually because he’s mostly been portrayed as a Villan due to his weight and he is constantly the butt of fat jokes. And as for a character who should be written as a positive fat charcter is Beast my favorite X-Men charcter because especially in his early apperances was shown to basically be a shaved Gorrilla aka a fate person and was of course his smart and agile self. And then especially after the blue and furry transformation he has constantly been drawn less as a fat person and more of a typical superhero which bugged me beacause his size was part of why i related to him. But honestly i just really want well written and not the but of every fat joke i can think of cause the character is Fat Person. And as for female characters who could be written that way any of them especially Kitty Storm or Jean
I understand that *major* congratulations are in order for Jay Edidin.
I’m sure that all us listeners are looking forward to the moment, perhaps a decade or so from now, when the podcast will be up to 2020, and Miles will be enthusiastic about how great X-Men: Marvels Snapshot #1 is and Jay will then say, “I have mixed feelings about this…” 🙂
But seriously, it was very nice to hear, and I’m just a listener. Congratulations, and I’m looking forward to buying a physical Marvel comic when it comes out for the first time in many years.
Honestly, that’s already how our conversations about it are going.
(Seriously, though, thank you!! I hope it lives up to expectations.)
Fat-wise: I would love to see a fat Storm. She’s always been so confident in her body and attractive either when she’s conforming or not conforming to patriarchal beauty standards. She’d be happy as fat and look great too.
I’m not sure though there’s too much positive fat male characters in comics. Like, yeah, there’s Mondo and Goldballs, but sadly when I think of fat characters, it’s too often portrayed as a sign that a superhero has failed/given up (Earth X Spider-Man, Mr. Incredible, Nite Owl, Peter B Parker, etc.). (or you have Fat Sidekicks like Foggy Nelson) My personal hobby horse was why don’t the older guys have tummies (Old Man Logan, original Cable, etc.)? Like, even most in-shape men in their 40s and above are going to have fat on them.
Also, shoutout to Steven Universe for having great fat characters (Amethyst, Steven)
That’s one of the reasons I like Alex Ross muscle folks. A realistic style means they don’t have concave abs.
It’s actually partially why I’ve grown to love Dick Sprang over the years. He’s helped me become more comfortable with my body type (I’ve realized no matter what I’ll do, I’ll never look like modern Batman…but I can look like Dick Sprang Batman).
Re: fat characters and body diversity: representation is not a zero sum game if it’s done well. Anti-fatness is inextricably wrapped up in anti-Blackness, especially misogynoir, and overlaps so, so much with ableism. If we don’t have time for body diversity in our conversation about diversity, we need to seriously rethink the conversation. We’re missing so much about discrimination in general if we choose not to talk about anti-fatness. Plus, it really sends an unfortunate message when people who are marginalized in multiple ways only get to see one or maybe two aspects represented at a time, like maybe it’s okay to be different, but only if you’re not too much.
It’s not an imposition on diversity to ask for more good fat representation. It doesn’t detract from other axes of marginalization to ask that this one be addressed. It’s all part of the same tangle. We’re in this together because it’s all related discrimination that all needs to be seen and unpicked if we want a better society. Fat people belong in this conversation and deserve to see themselves represented. You are not too much.