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In which we make our Comics Alliance debut, Cyclops makes a startling discovery, Carol Danvers joins the team (sort of), Chris Claremont calls out some bullshit, Havok still has terrible taste in hats, and Peter Corbeau gets his own theme music
Content note: In this episode, we spend a lot of time talking about a rape that occurs in a previous Avengers arc, the community and narrative response thereto, and the larger landscape and ethics of portrayals of sexual violence in superhero comics.
X-Plained
- Mystique’s mercurial alliances
- Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men
- Uncanny X-Men #154-158
- Avengers Annual #10
- Bollywood Starjammers
- The dread Psi-Scream
- Shi’ar Fashion Technology
- Dr. Peter Corbeau (more) (again)
- Rogue
- Carol Danvers
- The Whole Marcus Thing
- Chris Claremont vs. rape culture
- Computers
- Gender politics of the Dark Phoenix Saga
Next week: Dracula!
Clarification, since we neglected to specify in the episode: Avengers #200 was written by James Shooter, George Pérez, Bob Layton, and David Michelinie; Avengers Annual #10 was written by Chris Claremont.
You can find a visual companion to the episode – and links to recommended reading – on our blog.
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I’m one of the new listeners who discovered the ‘cast from the recent Comics Alliance post, and now that I’ve binged my way through all the episodes, I just wanted to thank you guys for putting together a fun and entertaining experience.
Also, is there any chance a future episode might touch on X-MEN 2099? Obviously the book is really only thematically linked to the X-Men, and has had very little long-term impact, but it and Peter David’s original X-FACTOR run back in volume 1 were what really got me into comics, and both hold a special place in my heart.
Do you know if it’s true that the Avengers-creators side of Marvel were pissed off with Claremont’s take on Carol’s rape and abduction? I have a vague memory that this caused politics within Marvel and with the editorial team, as Claremont was seen as betraying the Avengers team, rather than putting right a huge wrong – but I could be making this up….
(I am pretty amazed at the hoops Avengers-fans go to trying to justify the incestuous-rape-of-Carol story-line (the Avengers must have been mind-controlled too so Claremont was unfair!!!) – even very recently, eg in some of the comments here, which I was gobsmacked at when I first read it http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2013/03/03/meta-messages-chris-claremont-sticks-up-for-ms-marvel/
Good timing–I actually just got to this bit in Sean Howe’s Marvel: The Untold Story a couple hours ago. Apparently it was a pretty controversial decision within the offices, and Howe pretty heavily implies that artist George Perez actually left Avengers because of it.
Oh wow, maybe I should look that up – but then, in general I’m pretty fascinated by the ‘backstage’ stuff – things like what writers feel about eg having to do big cross-overs. I think it’s Warren Ellis’ “Come In Alone” that has a great piece about the Marvel system and having to deal with an artist who insisted on bringing a giant dinosaur double-page – awesome to me, frustrating to writers! 🙂
Thank you for your attention to Avengers #200. It was a very difficult thing for me to read when I was trying to recover from an assault and I for years thought I was just being over sensitive.