133 – Feisty Little Fellow from the Stars (Judgment War, Part 2)

I agree that Jay’s radio voice was terrifyingly accurate and may in fact haunt my dreams.

I also have to share some housecanon: I read this story when it came it but didn’t hang on to the comics. With the mental anguish of 90’s Marvel, my memory of this issue was distorted and I remembered it as “and Cyclops fired an optic blast that turned Arishem’s thumb upward, and the Celestials were forced to spare the planet on a double jeopardy technicality.”

This is how I explained it to my better half, so even now that we know that no, that’s not how it went, it kind of is for us. Dammit, that’s how Excalibur would have done it, right?

By the way, as yet another non-straight person, I appreciate the time taken to discuss the terminology you use. I especially appreciate that you gave it as much time as seemed necessary without digressing endlessly on it.

This is a weird arc, but it is pretty fun. Scott shooting the Celestials with love is one of those utterly ridiculous ideas that you can’t help but love.

So, ‘Um…actually…’ this isn’t the first time Jean and Scott used love-beam to drive off destroyers from space. They did this in issue 65 of the original series, under Professor X’s direction, the same issue he did his first reveal of ‘Surprise! I’m not dead!’ It’s almost a minor continuity fail for me that they don’t reference it.

First time commenting on this podcast. I love what you guys do and sing your praises too all geeks within ear/screenshot, particularly because it combines two things I love very deeply: the X-verse and discussions on social issues, particularly those concerning sexual, racial, and/or economic minorities.

I took a lot of issue with Jay’s comments on the use of the term “Queer” in this episode. I used to use this term widely, as it’s an academic term and seems to be the most inclusive. But, when one of my attempts to explain how great Queer is as a word reduced a pair of lesbian grandmothers I was interviewing to tears, I changed my tune. Using that word was like physically striking them. And they aren’t the only people that feel that way. I’ve met many people over the years that had the same reaction to the word Queer. I can accept that we’re trying to reclaim that word and it’s not a new thing, but using a term that actively causes people pain is really shitty, in my opinion.

No one is taking away anyone’s right to use that word, but I think it’s important to acknowledge that using that word comes at the price of other people’s feelings. It may feel more right or accurate to use Queer, but in using that word, it prioritizes the user’s personal feelings over those of people actively affected by that word. In essence it’s a situation of I’m going to make myself feel comfortable at the expense of actively making others feel shitty. In private, that’s one thing, but in a public forum I think the choice to ignore that active suffering inflicted on one’s listeners in favor of one’s personal preferences is unfortunate to say the least. Especially in what is otherwise such a fantastic safe space for those that are different (come on Xavier school realness!).

Also, as a term, Queer is quite ambiguous, in my opinion, with tinges of internalized hompohobia. I don’t want to restrict how anyone self identifies (just take responsibility for how their word choices may or may not affect their community), but why are terms such as bisexual or pansexual not good enough as descriptors? I’ve met a number of people that have an aversion to identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or pansexual, largely due to the stigma attached to those terms, which in turn adds to invisibility for those already marginalized groups and furthers the stigma.

Finally, the justification for using the term Queer because the term “Gay” can be used pejoratively strikes me as a false equivalency of epic proportions (but not anywhere near as epic as The Brood Saga). Gay meant happy originally. Now it means homosexual. Queer meant odd originally, then was used as a slur. Now it’s trying to be reclaimed. But it was still used as a slur. Yes identities can be weaponized, and I really like what was said about that, but the whole point of the discussion, in my opinion, is that Queer was/is a slur. That’s why it causes people harm. There are a number of other slurs I can think of that have similar issues where some folks reclaim it and others still feel the pain that comes from the word’s previous intention.

Thank you very much for putting out such a wonderful podcast. I can’t express enough how much I love your work, and I hope you continue doing so for years. And thanks for reading if you indeed read this far.

I’m disappointed you guys didn’t get into Apocalypse’s rant about how the Acts of Vengeance affair was an annoyance and everyone was acting bizarre and out of character. I loved how Simonson handled tree whole thing.