Fannish Quality

When it comes to superhero comics and actually Disney comics to an extent when it comes to Don Rosa and his positive feelings towards Carl Barks, there’s a tendency for some fans to eventually write the stories they grew up with. This is especially the case with DC and Marvel until recently to some extent, where for the last few decades you have fans writing stories featuring their favourite characters and stories.

Not that it’s a bad thing, but there’s a risk of having a strong fanfiction like quality to it. In the sense it’s full of what others call headcanons and fannish in-jokes written into the stories, a good example of this would be Stucky. That’s a fanmade pairing between Captain America (Steve Rogers) and his friend Bucky, which inspired an in-joke in one official Marvel Comics story or panel. A better example of this would be the pairing of Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn.

This started out as a fanmade pairing between two Batman characters, though one that eventually became canon in 2017 when the two characters kissed each other. In other stories, they even marry each other. This is also a good example of fan-pandering, not all Batman fans are into this pairing but when DC decides to pander to a specific sub-set of Batman fans who like this pairing very much that it feels rather incestuous to say the least.

Nonetheless, there are some cartoonists and writers doing superhero stories and even Marvel comics without having much of a big fannish background. Gabby Rivera, for instance, didn’t come from a comics background (she is a young adult writer) and her take on one Marvel character (Miss America) is rather decent. Interestingly, Peter Bagge (a man who doesn’t even like superheroes and especially Spider-Man) got to write a Spider-Man story where Spider-Man grew fat and old.

These are the two storytellers Marvel has employed that I can think of who don’t have much of a Marvel fandom background, which’s why their stories don’t have much fannish in-jokes and headcanon sentiments the way the more fannish writers do. Comes of think of it, the first generation of superhero cartoonists and storytellers weren’t fans of superheroes but rather those who stumbled upon and pioneer an emerging genre.

It’s not that they’re weren’t fans of something (I could say the same thing about Bagge and Rivera), but since they weren’t big fans of superheroes (though that’s when the genre just started) it does have a greenness that many of the fans turned writers lacked. The fans turned writers and artists emerged sometime in the mid to late 20th century, two of the earliest being Roy Thomas and Jim Shooter. The latter even got to write stories for his favourite–Legion of Superheroes.

These are the characters who brought in a fanfiction quality to the magazines they write for, while they didn’t necessarily exactly write fanfiction in their fanzine days their headcanons were written into the stories they wrote for anyways. It’s like how two Legion members, Light Lass and Element Lad, were speculated to be gay and eventually got to be written as such in some stories by two fanzine writers who went professional.

That’s a good example of fan-pandering and inserting fannish headcanons into professional stories, which’s something Rivera and Bagge would never (seem) to do and never will. It’s not necessarily wrong to be a fan of something, it’s even like that in sports where some sports fans do become athletes themselves and others go on as journalists. But having a non-fannish quality does help, especially in making something less inbred which’s a quality the fans-turned professionals lack.

Well maybe not to the same extent, but still when it comes to crafting stories that don’t reek of canonised fanfiction. Interestingly, this also exists outside of comics themselves where you can see this with Arrow. That’s one superhero programme where it was going to pair Oliver Queen with Black Canary, per comics, but ended up pandering to a certain fanbase who’re more interested in seeing him with somebody else.

I’m saying this as somebody who isn’t a fan of Arrow and Oliver Queen (I was a fan of Black Canary at some point), especially when you see this as a form of fan pandering where you have certain fans doing fanfictions of Oliver with Felicity before it got canonised. While some fans would say that it’s not fan pandering, but since I’m not a fan of Arrow it still reeks of fan pandering whether if they’re aware of it or not.

It’s not necessarily wrong to do the things you love and grew up with professionally, a good number of people in sports and music do this as well. But in the case with superhero programmes and comics (actually anything geeks like), there’s going to be a fanfiction stench to it. Especially when it comes to things that originate in fanfiction that make its way to professionally made stories and publications, that’s where it starts feeling inbred.

And that is the risk of having fans turned professionals around in superhero comics and programmes.

Batman then and now

When it comes to physiques, there’s a marked change in the way the characters are drawn. Some of it might involve bringing in greater realism and draftsmanship to illustrations, others involve a desire to make the character look more imposing. Other times it goes with the changes in expectations for men’s physiques. Batman’s no exception to this, when he first appeared in comics he did have his trademark costume but he was portrayed as leaner than he’d come to be depicted as in later stories. It could be that Bob Kane’s drawing skills weren’t that refined yet, but it does interest me that Batman wasn’t that swole before.

The lean Batman persisted for a few decades and the earliest actors to play Batman weren’t that super-muscular then either. Not that they weren’t fit, but they weren’t exactly that ripped either. Batman wouldn’t get really ripped and big until decades later, in fact some cartoonists have a habit of portraying Batman as bulkier than other superheroes are. Not that he ought to be thin, but if Batman does martial arts yet martial artists and boxers don’t have huge muscles then it seems they want him to look more powerful than he really does.

Christian Bale, one of the more recent actors to play Batman onscreen, had to bulk up to play the character as well as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. But the surprising thing’s that Bale didn’t like working out (well at first), perhaps he would’ve been more comfortable smoking and eating but had to do it anyways to play the part. He’s not without a doubt a very dedicated actor, but the fact that Batman himself didn’t start out as that bulky suggests either changes in expectations for idealised men or a desire to make him look more powerful than he does.

Admittedly, there are some cartoonists who don’t go overboard with making Batman bulkier but it does suggest something in the way the ideal male physique has changed. Especially in comics where in tandem with improved drawing skills, the ideal male physique has changed. It’s gone from being simply fit to bulging muscles with pronounced abs, quads and traps. Not all modern cartoonists do this, but it does show you a desire to portray more visible muscularity.

It’s like the changes in bodybuilding where’s gone from being this muscular without steroids (and needing to make the pecs bigger) to bigger pecs and steroids for those who really want to take the extra mile. Not to mention when it comes to playing superheroes at all, it’s not enough to learn martial arts and sports to do the things superheroes do but also bulk up to look like them. Even then they didn’t always look like that before, it could be due to the cartoonist’s skill but it could also be that being merely fit was enough.

While Batman and Superman aren’t always portrayed as this bulky, in fact Christopher Reeves himself was merely fit rather than seriously ripped but was the most memorable Superman of his generation. It might be a sign of the times to be really ripped, but it does point out changes in idealised male bodies. That’s going from being merely fit to ridiculously ripped, it even affects cartoon characters like Batman for instance. This isn’t always the case for all cartoon characters, in fact the Jojo characters have gotten slimmer.

But I’m not going to doubt that there’s a change in the way superheroes are drawn, especially now that they’re drawn with more muscle definition than it has been in the past.

Narrow social circles

I could be projecting in here a bit, but whenever I read up on some superhero fans considering characters who are superhero fans relatable must have a narrow social circle whether offline or online. I’m not part of a superhero fan group on Facebook, but even online it’s telling that they don’t have much of a wide social circle of people who may not always share their fandom for superheroes. That might be me being part of Facebook groups centred on cats, dogs, Christianity, science, Disney, Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, sewing and fur but it’s crystal clear to me they don’t have a wider range of social circles.

I get the nagging, irking feeling they mostly socialise with fellow superhero fans at best so their knowledge of people who aren’t into these things is pretty limited. Ironically when it comes to writing, having a wider set of interests and experiences leads to different kinds of characters. To be fair, it’s not wrong to want a character who’s a lot like you, at one point I myself wanted to read up on bookworm characters myself. But when it comes to some geeks, their idea of a relatable character is a fellow geek. Like they’re incapable of relating to anybody else.

Case in point is Tim Drake from DC Comics, he’s considered to be the everyman of the Batman comics but I’m quite suspicious of him. Most young men aren’t gymnasts/acrobats and street thugs, but most young men aren’t comics fans and born into rich families either. I have two younger brothers, while they’re technically geeks neither of them are big Batman fans so this has coloured my suspicion of him. Tim Drake is some regards rather above average, so he’s really not an everyman.

I remember how somebody in a Spider-Man forum pointed out that Spider-Man himself isn’t much of an everyman but rather a reflection of superhero readers, that if true then for most of the part (perhaps exempting the newspaper comics he appears in) he may not be that relatable to most people. I can say many of the same things about Kitty Pryde, where she’s commonly considered to be one of the more normal X-Men around even though ironically she’s one of the farthest from what others call a normie.

The blogger Kalinara pointed out that she panders a lot to a narrow audience, so much so that explains why she never became a big icon the way Wolverine is. It does make one wonder who’d be more relatable to a wider audience, that’s if most adults don’t regularly read comic books. Not to mention that there are more people who own dogs (regardless of how you feel about them, it’s a fact) which gets reflected with some comics characters (Captain Haddock, Charlie Brown, Dilbert, Obelix, Batman, Superman, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck).

If dragons are supposed to be reptiles, then not a lot of people own reptiles themselves and when real life Jewish people like Michelle Hanson and Jon Bernthal own dogs themselves this makes Kitty Pryde a minority within a minority. This goes back to my point that these people have rather narrow social circles, in that they mostly socialise with fellow superhero fans and not with anybody else who share other interests with. If true, it does have damning implications for them.

It’s not all equal

Regarding the tendency to racebend or reimagine Tim Drake as Asian or Asian American, it does play into racist stereotypes about Asians and Asian Americans whether if these fans are aware of it or not as it got brought up by the blogger LanternWisp. There’s one racebent take of Tim Drake as black but that’s so far the only one I can remember though in Titans it does portray him as half black, this is the only official racebent take on him so far. But it does make you wonder if the tendency to portray him as Asian American unfortunately plays into racist stereotypes.

It’s like wanting Iron Fist to be Asian, even though that makes him one of many Asian martial artist characters around in fiction. Not that Asians can’t do martial arts, but it seems like the tendency to associate them with martial arts disregards the other sports Asians take and do like say football/soccer or tennis. (My father and uncle partake in running and one of them has played badminton before.) Likewise, there are probably black people who do and have done martial arts as well as one Native American who does.

There’s hardly ever a racebent take on say Valentina Vostok which portrays her as a Yakut who loves Motown music even though the Yakut people are an actual ethnic minority in Russia, it could be unfamiliarity but that’s also something of a missed opportunity in that it does show you not all Russians are racially/ethnically white. If Helena Bertinelli’s proof that not all Italians are white, it’s only fair that a Yakut Valentina Vostok would show you the same thing about Russians.

(The Yakut people are very much Russian citizens as their white counterparts are.)

Oddly enough, there’s not a lot of people portraying Felicity Smoak as an Indian seamstress. You might say it goes against her character, but then again outside of Indian media Indian garment workers aren’t that commonly portrayed and possibly less so than say portraying Jews as geeky. That says a lot about one’s racist preconceptions that one has to fight in order to overcome it.

The complicated nature of racebending

When it comes to reimagining a white character as a character of colour, the need for representation is understandable but in some cases (especially among some fans) it risks running into racist stereotypes. Take Tim Drake for instance, he’s a white person in most media but he’s sometimes reimagined as Asian which goes hand in hand with him being a nerd or made more feminine both of which have negatively impacted Asian Americans. It’s surprising why nobody ever reimagines him as Native American, even though Native American geeks do exist and are a thing.

But it does go hand in hand with their racism, whether if they’re aware of it or not. So far in Titans, Tim Drake is black or at least part black. This is the only official racebent version of him that’s around, though there were some fans who imagine him as black before just not as popular as imagining him to be Asian which goes hand in hand with Asian stereotypes. On the other hand, why nobody has ever reimagined say Valentina Vostok to be Yakut (an actual ethnic minority in Russia) or Felicity Smoak to be an Indian seamstress is something not a lot of fans I know from experience ever bothered doing.

An Indian seamstress is unheard of outside of Indian media and is in some regards less stereotypical than say a Jewish geek, but there goes the problem with some fans who can’t let go of their identification with and projection onto her. Felicity Smoak could be Anglo-Indian at least, these do exist in India but an Anglo-Indian Felicity Smoak who works in the garment/fashion industry is too left field even if these people do exist. (Unconsciously because despite the prevalence of Asian Americans in the garment industry, people unconsciously stereotype them as either nerdy, feminine or good for sex if female.)

Unconscious racist stereotypes may be why you don’t see that many ‘headcanons’ of Tim Drake as Native American even if Native American geeks exist or for another matter reinventing Felicity Smoak as an Indian seamstress. I could be the only one who sees Felicity as Indian, Valentina as Russian Yakut or Tim Drake as Native American but this goes to show you that even if some fans do racebend they’re still affected by racist stereotypes on some level. Perhaps more deeply than they’d realise.

While an Indian seamstress Felicity is interesting, it’s something you don’t really see that often in Western media and fandom where if they do depict South Asians it’s going to be a stereotype. Maybe it’s not true for all of them, but it does exist on some level why you don’t see that much portrayals of Indians and South Asians as anything other than stereotypes. Or for another matter, why nobody ever bothered portraying Valentina Vostok as a Russian Yakut who’s also a fan of Motown music.

The Yakut are an actual ethnicity minority in the Russian East and nonblack-nonwhite people can enjoy Motown music (myself for instance but I’m generally a fan of oldies), so it’s something that’s barely ever considered either in canon or among fans. Racebending existing characters can bring diversity to the story, sometimes it happens canonically. But other times, especially when it comes to Tim Drake and canonically to Elizabeth Braddock racebending can risk running into racism.

Elizabeth Braddock should be regarded as a poster child for the problems with racebending in that she only became a ninja when she got bodyswapped with one. (That’s also poorly thought out and badly aged now that she’s back to being white again.) Likewise making Tim Drake Asian only to make him more feminine risks running into the stereotype that Asian men are feminine. (Sometimes it’s even at the expense of canon Asian characters.) There’s not a lot of people reimagining him to be Native American or Mexican American, I still think because they have racist stereotypes about them.

Racist stereotypes is the barrier to taking down stereotypes and seeing nonwhites as people, I know somebody who’s been around blacks and still has racist ideas about them. That involves othering people, even if they turn out to be not much different from us in some regards and aspects whether in bed or chaste. In the case with Tim Drake, while portraying him as Asian is noble it also others Asians a lot especially if it’s caught up in racist stereotypes that such a portrayal turns out to be demeaning.

A less racist version would have say Jason Todd be Asian in that his parentage is uncertain and Asian thugs do exist, even in the earlier Robin stories. There’s one fan reimagining of Helena Bertinelli as Korean, but it does make you wonder why there aren’t a lot of portrayals like this. Again it’s got to do with racist preconceptions no matter if that person spent time with nonwhites they still regard them as something other. That’s what othering does, even if you spend time with blacks (in my case) people still have racist ideas of them even if not all of them are like this.

It’s like saying all black people are into hip hop, regardless of the black people who like other things like rock music (I know one black Goth guy who admitted he’s not into hip hop) and there are black people who play guitars and violins. Or for another matter, thinking all Asians are good in math regardless of some who aren’t good at it (such as myself for instance). This othering is a barrier to taking down racist preconceptions of them, regardless if you spend time with them it still portrayals them as something else or other.

This is also why you don’t see that many headcanons of Tim Drake as Native American or Mexican even if geeky Mexicans and Native Americans exist, people still have racist preconceptions of certain people and other them in some way or another. Racebending characters is complicated, it can bring diversity and destroy stereotypes but it can also reinforce them. Especially if people have racist preconceptions of certain characters that others ethnicities in some way or another.

Remembering the controversy

When it came to Batman: Damned, the major point of controversy was Batman’s penis and that got me thinking about how there are female readers who do raise alarms over female characters’ nipples and genitals being revealed in their costumes, as if the cartoonists are actively sexualising them. It’s possible to not sexualise those things, but to have them appear in a concealed costume makes them they’re being sexualised.

There were also male readers, often of the straight variety, who do complain about Nightwing being sexualised and I think it’s very rare for superhero male characters to be sexualised let alone outside of porn comics. Something like whatever Patrick Fillion does which sexualises the characters a lot, I swear he even exaggerates male genitals for sexual objectification in the same way some cartoonists exaggerate female anatomy.

Not all gay cartoonists do this as Joe Phillips to my knowledge doesn’t do this often, but there are gay cartoonists who do objectify and exaggerate male anatomy in the same way some straight male cartoonists do to female characters. There was even somebody on Twitter who said that she and her sister preferred the nonsexualised Supergirl (especially at the time when written by the writer Peter David) over the more sexualised Catwoman.

That says a lot about the way female characters are portrayed in the media, and why it’s that rare for male characters to be objectified and sexualised let alone outside of gay porn.

Sorry we couldn’t get the rights to

If I’m not mistaken, Arrow came about because the producers couldn’t secure the rights to Batman so they ended up with Green Arrow instead. Oddly enough Green Arrow started out as a Batman copy, complete with his Arrowmobile. So much so you could say he returned to his roots.

I wouldn’t be surprised if writers generally tried to differentiate the two, whatever they can do about it. And good enough for most of the part. But bear in mind that sometimes not every adaptation goes as expected. Be it departures, copyright issues and the like.

So that’s how Arrow came to be.

Something from the former forums

I do remember something from the former Comic Book Resources forum (as it’s been replaced by a new one) that somebody assumed both Barbara Gordon and Barry Allen to be of Scottish descent. At some point I’d prefer the latter to be of Dutch descent (Van Allen/Van Halen) but ended up becoming Irish. (Actually I’d blame my then love of Sinead O’Connor on that.)

So far if The Scottish Connection’s any indication (admittedly I seldom read comics), the only confirmed superhero of Scottish descent’s Batman. Though I could make a good argument for Donald Duck, who despite being an anthropomorphic duck, his uncle and relatives obviously hail directly from Scotland (actually they’re immigrants or expatriates).

Therefore he’s Scottish American. Though for most of the part, it’s not that well-explored so.

The thing about telly adaptations of superhero media

Whilst this isn’t always the case for almost any media (it’s possible to do faithful adaptations of things like Peanuts and probably Little Women as it was in the past), it seems with superhero media the continuity’s often so convoluted that writers have no other choice but to take liberties with the source material. Practically and nearly impossible to get a faithful superhero adaptation these days.

It doesn’t necessarily help that a lot of superhero comics tend to change writers that in all likelihood there wouldn’t be much of a clear consensus over the characters’ actual personalities. It’s likely Disney and Star Wars have similar issues to some extent, but it’s still clear when you keep changing writers there’s not going to be a clear vision of the character’s personality or fate.

At any rate, usually the televised or cinematic adaptation’s often the most accessible interpretation of the same character or story. Moreso with superhero comics for reasons I said before. It doesn’t help that DC and Marvel seemingly treat superhero comics as if they’re research and development that it’s probably why we’re never going to get a faithful superhero adaptation.

To make matters worse, even if the comics are like the canonical version those in more accessible media adaptations are often the first things to come to mind for outsiders. I.e. it’s like if almost every non-comics medium makes Barbara Gordon Batgirl, it’s going to influence people’s ideas and preconceptions of her that it’s going to have a big say in the comics later on.

In fact superhero adaptations are practically more influential and successful than the source materials are. It’s parsimonious to say that both the Joaquin Phoenix and Heath Ledger takes on the Joker more or less influence people’s preconceptions of him in recent memory. Likewise the Teen Titans programmes are far more accessible and popular than the comics are and will be.

So much so that the recent Titans programme’s practically based on the 2000s cartoon version. Logically the 1960s Batman programme more or less influences subsequent Batman productions. Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman’s obviously based on the Julie Newmarr version with Eartha Kitt’s take paving way for Halle Berry and a future Batman adaptation.

It’s safe to say that the telly and cinematic adaptations are far more influential than the comics are by sheer accessibility that it’s going to inform people’s preconceptions of such a character, unconsciously or not.

The man in the refrigerator

Considering that superhero media tries hard not to be racist and sexist these days, the website Women in Refrigerators likely had a big influence. It’s not wrong to have characters be unable to save people or show how bad the villain is. But the reverse rarely if ever occurs to whatever degree, let alone without controversy. The only example of a woman avenging her dead boyfriend is probably Golden Glider who’s even a villain.

Batman himself could qualify in that he’s seemingly attacked by a villain and his girlfriend Catwoman comes to his rescue. Though that’s showing how devoted Selina is to Batman, it’s also something less insecure male fans might not enjoy. In the sense where they’re not used to Catwoman or any other woman rescuing Batman from a villain. Let alone an actual heroine or reformed one.

Jason Todd might be the most well known man in the refrigerator in that his demise was used to anger Batman and eventually have him get another Robin. Admittedly there aren’t that much men in the refrigerator so even if Uncle Ben counts, he’s just one of the few examples that I can think of.