Emeralds

Considering that this game’s kind of influenced by Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, despite being an ostensibly superhero-detective story, it seems logical to have a Kakyoin Noriaki analogue here. He’s pretty much an Estonian financial adviser going by the name of Illmar Tuglas and has some of the same abilities as Kakyoin’s stand Hierophant Green does, to further the similarities between the two Illmar often wears green (though Kakyoin himself doesn’t always wear green depending on the colour illustration). Interestingly he’s actually based on a colour illustration of Kakyoin with blond hair, but then again Araki Hirohiko isn’t always this consistent with his characters’ hair and clothing colours. Giorno’s sometimes shown as having white hair, Trish Una’s often shown with blonde hair and there are instances where Hirose Yasuho has blonde hair as well.

He could give Kakyoin blue hair and it might have happened before, but he’s also from an earlier school of thought where it wouldn’t matter what hair colour the character showed up with, readers were expected to identify them by other traits and not by hair colour. The way the Jojo characters are portrayed in both the direct to video animations and the subsequent television productions proves this point right, where it seemed with Kakyoin’s first animated appearance he actually had brown hair then. The Clamp fanfiction kind of follows this portrayal, as with a blond Jean-Pierre Polnareff. Or Abdul in yellow clothing for another matter, but it’s still telling that they’re still recognisable going by other traits. Identifying Japanese ACG characters by hair colour is actually a more recent innovation, given characters like Kakyoin do show up with contrary hair colours from time to time.

And even if some characters are designed with contrary hair colours in mind, they’re not necessarily intended to be western, especially characters like Naruto may have their Japaneseness reflected in other ways (particularly sensibility and Japanese perception of phenomena and people). Even if Uzumaki Naruto was designed with blond hair in mind, he’s not necessarily the westerner’s idea of a blond as he’s portrayed as something of a delinquent possessed by a fox spirit. In the sense that he’s very much an outsider’s outsider, whereas in American media blond characters will almost always be portrayed as one of the cool kids. Which tells you about how the Japanese see blond hair as: not necessarily unattractive, but always strange and can be kind of preternatural. In real life, this would be informed by those with albinism, white foreigners, fashionable people and delinquents.

It’s not necessarily unappealing but it is strange to the Japanese, however I’m getting really off-topic here regarding the way blond characters are portrayed in Japanese ACG media. Illmar Tuglas also represents another underrepresented character type in western ACG media: that of Baltic peoples, countries and cultures, as it is with its Japanese counterpart Estonian characters do exist. But in the case with western ACG media, this is often overshadowed by Russia which was America’s de facto rival during the Cold War, to the point where there’s a preponderance of Russians in the Marvel and DC canons. But not much attention’s paid to those coming from Georgia (the country, not the state), Armenia, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, mostly because they’d be subsumed by their Russian counterparts by then.

Ditto Romanians, Czech, Poles, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats and Serbians, which would explain why there are Transia, Sokovia and Latveria in the Marvel canon, but no Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia. Maybe I’m wrong here but it does explain why it’s kind of hard for me to name an Estonian character from either DC or Marvel when there’s practically none at all, whereas there’s no shortage of Russians coming from either publisher. Maybe I’m still wrong but there’s really no prominent Estonian character at all from either DC or Marvel, given America had bigger fish to try when contending with Russia over being one of the dominant superpowers during the Cold War. And even then an Estonian character would have to join an American team to prove that they are a good person, especially for as long as they don’t subscribe to Soviet style socialism. Otherwise they’ll be immediately suspect, given Colossus and Natalia Romanova both emerged at the height of the original Cold War.

But since we live in a world where America’s in steep decline so it’s now feasible to make a video game where the American market has grown irrelevant, if it weren’t for Donald Trump angrily issuing taxes over Chinese, European, Canadian and Russian products. This means having to target these markets more aggressively and deliberately, given America’s increasingly no longer viable as a marker of international success. So you’d have to design characters in a way that even appeases these markets from now on, sort of like how Hollywood movies have come to pander to the Chinese a lot. Now that America’s increasingly less powerful, we might as well target the game more to those international audiences instead. Not to mention with US influence being undone, stronger foreign influence is the needed alternative.

As for Illmar Tuglas himself, he’s pretty much a financial advisor to Graham Knightley’s father. Yes, the guy who’s related to the murderous salesman with the preternatural ability to explode people by touch. He’s kind of the opposite of Graham Knightley in some regards, because one of them is blond and quiet. The other is dark-haired and more talkative, Illmar’s not a particularly flamboyant man. Not that he doesn’t enjoy fun at all, but his idea of fun’s pretty much fishing, reading up on finances and business, playing football and looking after pet pigs. Despite his rather flamboyant dressing (that is green and purple), even if he’s not necessarily a man’s man, he’s still pretty much closer to the average man in some regards. Graham Knightley seems more playful and kind of childlike, even childish in some regards. As in he loves going to theme parks, partying and seems unmanly, despite not dressing in jewel tones.

Given that Graham Knightley’s based on Kira Yoshikage and his connection to cats is largely implicated, especially when it comes to his middle name being Leopold (play on leopard, he even has a leopard patch on his suit) and his mother’s maiden surname being Pussmaid (it’s a real surname), so Illmar Tuglar’s connection to Kakyoin Noriaki’s also implicated in another way because he wears a pearl and emerald choker, dresses in green (though sometimes Kakyoin himself’s shown to wear blue and black in other illustrations) and in another occasion, wear emerald-encrusted bracelets. Maybe I could change it into merely an emerald-encrusted choker because a row of pearls would be too hard to illustrate for some people, but it still keeps the connection to Kakyoin Noriaki intact. As I said before, Illmar bears a similarity to an illustration of Kakyoin with blond hair.

But given there’s a preponderance of blond-haired, blue-eyed characters in ACG media that perhaps giving him green eyes makes for a good change of pace, though it’s possible DC’s Oliver Queen has also been depicted as having green eyes before. But then again both characters tend to be blonds who wear green, so having green eyes would be a logical extension of this in a way. It’s even odder still to think that characters who’re supposed to be blond-haired and green-eyed (well at some point) end up with blue eyes eventually, as it is with DC’s Stephanie Brown before made odder by the fact that magenta and purple are the actual opposites of green, not red because if you take out green between red and blue, you get something purplish instead.

Because green is the actual middle ground between red and blue, thus making purple white minus green which is an odd scientific fact. The actual opposite of red is really closer to light blues than to greens, that if you take out red from blue and green, you get a light blue colour in its place. If something absorbs a lot of light blue light, you get something reddish instead and if something absorbs a lot of red light, you get something light bluish instead as well. It makes for a weird scientific fact that the actual opposite of red is a light blue colour, to the point that they play off each other better than red would with green. Well there’s a blond character in green from the Jojo canon and his name is Pannacotta Fugo, even if he’s not always depicted as such whenever Araki Hirohiko himself depicts him in his own illustrations. So he’s really in good company here and arguably DC’s Guy Gardner at this point just the same, especially when portrayed by Nathan Fillion in the latest Superman movie by Marvel alumnus James Gunn. Yep, two more blond guys in green.

This is also possibly why there’s not a lot of prominent dark-haired characters in green from either DC or Marvel, over at Marvel there are just Electro, Rogue and possibly a few more. DC has well Green Lanterns Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Boodika and Kyle Rayner, and then Shrinking Violet from time to time. But both publishers have no shortage of redheads in green since on the DC side, you have Jimmy Olsen (in his earlier days), Poison Ivy, Maxima (who’s a kind of DC Jean Grey), Kinetix, Cyclone, Guy Gardner as usually portrayed, Barbara Gordon (sometimes), Knockout and Micro Lad. Then on the Marvel side, you have Sean Cassidy and his daughter Theresa, Jean Grey and her daughter Rachel from time to time, Medusa in fleeting moments, Rahne Sinclair (sometimes) and possibly a few more that I may not know of.

There are some blonds in green from the Marvel side of things like its version of the Enchantress, Meggan and maybe a few more, but that’s just it and DC also has a paucity of blonds in green. The most notable one to date is Oliver Queen, maybe a few more as well but that’s all there is to them. Illmar Tuglas being a blond man who dresses in green might not change things much, whether on his own or with other characters around, but I suppose the more the merrier when it comes to seeing both green-eyed blonds and blonds in green. Also facially speaking, he’s a masculinised version of the French singer Sylvie Vartan. A blonde-haired French singer at that, just as Mylene Farmer is like a French Chappell Roan, despite predating her by decades.

Kind of like how and why Tommy Heikkinen is based on Nina Hagen, mind you Finnish is also a Finno-Ugric language like Estonian. Both of them were former Russian territories, just as close to Russia as they are to Scandinavia proper. So far only one of them’s based on a woman who came from a place that was allied with Russia in the past during the height of the original Cold War, well as far as I know about it, but it’s kind of interesting that Tommy’s a suspect and a criminal whereas Illmar is merely a civilian who gets caught in the crossfire.

Some major renaming and musings on the character who inspired him

Davit Partzankian is the same character as Anatoly Sidorov/Smirnov, but with his nationality changed to Armenian and he serves the Armenian brotherhood instead. Mostly to avoid suspicion of an anti-Russian sentiment coupled with Canada disliking the United States nowadays, though it should be noted that Armenia was also part of the Soviet Union too. Considering that Jemima Szara’s based on Jemima Shore, Davit Partzankian is also based on her captor though he was Syrian in that story (this story appeared in A Woman’s Eye). Well to an extent when it comes to being put into the same role as he did, though at this point this story could be read as kind of anti-West Asian because there’s only one West Asian in the Jemima Shore canon and he’s a bad guy.

But then again Jemima Szara herself is also based on Nancy Drew and the latter was in a kind of relationship with a Russian, which could be seen as anti-Russian in a way because that story was written during the Cold War. I don’t think writers could get away with writing such a story without getting scrutinised by Russians these days, now that Russians could always vent out those feelings online if you head over to Russophone websites a lot. Admittedly it could be said that having an Armenian villain around could be seen as contributing to anti-Armenian sentiment in a sense, but I suppose if we were to find a way to make a video game like this endear to Russian audiences, you better not step on their toes lest they start protesting a lot. So making him Armenian works around this.

The original version of this character had an Armenian relative so it’s kind of there, but making him actually Armenian is another step. Albeit in not making him offend Russian audiences, if we’re aiming this game at a global audience. Given how problematic anti-Arab sentiment is, making him Armenian also skirts around it just the same. Just like the earlier incarnation, Davit Partzankian is based on Kitty Pryde. It’s there in his surname being derived from one of a handful of Armenian words meaning pride, he’s got a pet snake named Mikoyan, knows kendo, has a temper and is no stranger to killing people in a rage. Although earlier writers like Chris Claremont don’t seem to harbour an anti-Russian sentiment, I don’t think Colossus’s inclusion in his team speaks to a pro-Russian or pro-Soviet sentiment in any way.

Colossus being the resident Russian of the team, among others like his own sister. One is that if he was introduced today, he’d be portrayed as a villain right away. Two, writers like Chris Claremont seem to insinuate that a Soviet character like Colossus is only good if they join an American team like X-Men, in the sense that America wants to be seen as the hero of the world so badly it’ll do anything and everything to intervene in world affairs, even if it risks looking villainous in other places to some peoples. So much so that America’s got quite successful at continually publishing the adventures of nationalistic superheroes like Captain America and Superman, the latter who fights for truth, justice and the American way. There was also an animated programme called Liberty’s Kids, which is about the American Revolution.

It’s not that Britain hasn’t done any nationalistic stories before, but not so often at this point compared to the United States. And even then America is something of a declining superpower by now, which means that American influence could either be undone or minimised, which already is happening in some places to an extent. But it’s kind of telling that America is so jingoistic that its closest neighbour to the north Canada can’t even popularise its own nationalistic superheroes for long until now like with Captain Canuck, since its better known cartooning exports have little to do with superheroes if you factor in the likes of For Better Or For Worse, Cerebus, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World and Binky The Space Cat. Though one of their respective authors is a superhero fan, doing recurring superhero comics isn’t Canada’s strong forte.

So is Russia in some regards and this has to do with superheroes not meshing up well with both cultures’ ethics and values, the former wants to be seen as a major peacekeeper and the latter considers the use of violence to do what’s good to be kind of anti-Soviet, given how America habitually uses brute force to reinforce justice around the world so what superheroes do is really no different in some regards. Assuming if this video game this character will appear in is Canadian and knowing native-grown superheroes may not be a consistently strong suit for Canada, maybe pitching it as a superpowered detective story would help matters. It has enough of a superhero vibe to be kind of comforting to superhero fans, but different enough to be its own entity.

A world where this character, Davit Partzankian, plays a part in as one of the criminals there. A character who bears similarities to Kitty Pryde in most regards (short temper, swordsmanship, intangibility, hacking skills, being both out for blood on a really bad day, defiant and stuff), save for that Davit isn’t just male but also an Armenian criminal on the run at that. He’s also got black hair and dark eyes to boot, though there have been instances where Kitty Pryde’s portrayed just like that. An interesting counterpoint to Jemima Szara who’s more levelheaded and even-tempered, blonde-haired and blue-eyed and a worthy ally to the real detective of the story, Jean-Louis Lumiere who’s really a natural blond himself (he got a red David Bowie mullet lately).

Even the way Davit Partzankian wears is reminiscent of Kitty Pryde, albeit mediated by the influence of the late Australian singer Michael Hutchence from the band INXS. Kitty Pryde’s often shown in black and yellow clothing (the X-Men trainee colours, though at this point she’s a grown woman and it’s like seeing a 30-something woman wear a schoolgirl uniform to work, mind you I see her as being in her thirties by now*), sometimes all-black clothing and sometimes black and blue clothing (by now), the latter kind of befits her personality because she’s really eager to give somebody the black eye when enraged (she did this to somebody in God Loves, Man Kills) and she really does have a habit of throwing fits every now and then.

Perhaps outside of civilian clothing, she rarely wears anything brighter and cheerier than that. Davit Partzankian also doesn’t wear brightly coloured clothing much either, whereas somebody like Jean-Louis is not adverse to wearing red, white, light blue, yellow and peach. It’s not hard to see how and why Kitty Pryde’s deeply contrasted with Emma Frost, not just in powers and personality, but also in the way they dress as if they represent two opposing poles of femininity in X-Men comics, in some regards far moreso than it is with Jean Grey, Rogue and Dazzler with the possible exception of Betsy Braddock, who went from one pole of femininity to another. In honour of this tradition, let’s say that Davit and Jean-Louis represent two opposing poles of masculinity.

One tend to be criminal and malevolent, the other towards law enforcement and forensics. One stabs people with swords, the other kills by blowing up with lasers in hand. As it is with Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost, one is dark-haired and the other is blond (Jean-Louis is a natural blond). Even if Emma may not be a natural blonde herself, she still stands in opposition to Kitty in many regards. In some regards it’s much more drastic than it would be between her and Betsy Braddock, especially in her Psylocke days. The fact that Pryde became a ninja herself twice or thrice gives me the feeling that she could actually out-Psylocke Betsy Braddock, if not Kwannon but this would mean she’ll make both versions kind of redundant. No really, with the focused totality of her phasing skills and her willingness to kill, she could’ve replaced Psylocke as the de-facto ninja woman instead.

Just makes one wonder what’s holding writers back from having her be the resident female ninja for long instead, given she’s got the ruthlessness to go with her rather mercurial mood swings and ninja skills, she’s shown to kill people in anger and attack others in anger just the same. Making her the ninja woman permanently wouldn’t be a big stretch, though it’s shocking why writers couldn’t commit to long when she could easily fulfil the role both Psylockes did for years. It’s really puzzling, if not that some like Chris Claremont see her as a kind of authorial surrogate, even when she could be the character Betsy Braddock ended up as for long. Another is how underrepresented other ethnicities and nationalities are in both DC and Marvel canons, sort of like how and why there are practically no Yugoslavs in the Marvel canon.

At any point where both Pietro and Wanda Maximoff could’ve come from Slovenia and be Romani Slovenes, or Victor von Doom being a Croatian himself these never came to pass. They never happened, despite DC and Marvel writers’ willingness to change the characters’ backstories every now and then, same goes for how and why Tchalla never got outed as a Cameroonian Bamileke. This is also true for the DC canon where at any point where Tara Markov could’ve been Slovak herself, this never occurred and despite Marv Wolfman’s willingness to retcon Rose Wilson into being part-Vietnamese, he never bothered to retcon Tara Markov into being a Slovak herself. Flawed representation, surely. But no representation kind of means people like Wolfman would rather not get into the messy reality of the Communist Bloc.

So he and his cohorts invent proxies in their place, no need to learn about Slovakia when he could make up Markovia instead. Also it’s as if Eastern Europeans are practically exotic white people that they could make up details with, a step removed from both white North Americans and western Europeans (i.e. they’re not NATO allies, so why bother?). As of 2025, there’s still no Yugoslav representation in any way, even if there are likely some Yugoslav readers who want to see themselves represented in DC and Marvel stories, however flawed it may be. Also no Caucasian representation whatsoever, as in those coming from the Caucasus like Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. But this would mean that as a lot of DC and Marvel writers are Americans, Georgia might as well be the name of a US state and not a country and former Soviet Republic.

Armenia’s also underrepresented and despite some people’s sympathies for this country and its people, Armenian characters have yet to show up in either DC or Marvel. Actually they never show up at all, so this is how and why Armenia’s this underrepresented. At any point where Chris Claremont could’ve introduced an Armenian character himself, I’m afraid if they did show up in Marvel they’d either be the Soviet enemy (Natalia Romanova early on) or somebody who’s only good if they join an American team (Natalia Romanova later on, Colossus). Even if having Armenian villians like Davit Partzankian isn’t any better, there’s really no Armenian representation in both the DC and Marvel canons at all.

Maybe I could invent some Armenian good guys and the like to even things out, but it’s still telling that Armenia and its people are practically nonexistent in both DC and Marvel. Armenian characters have certainly shown up before, though mostly in Soviet fictions at most since Armenia was part of the Soviet Union before. Even if Armenia’s no longer part of the Soviet Union anymore, it seems American comics continue to ignore it. Better to have Sokovia in its place, than to have an Armenian show up in DC. Maybe they already did, but it’s very rare at all. As for Georgia, most Americans (including most DC and Marvel writers) would think of it as an American state, ditto Georgia the European country. Which says a lot about how American most DC and Marvel writers are.

No wonder why Russian characters are kind of commonplace in both the DC and Marvel canons, but not a single Armenian has ever showed up in either one of them. Not a single Georgian mutant ever joined X-Men, as in they come from Tbilisi and not from Savannah. An Avenger from Baku, Azerbaijan would be nice, but they never happened because no Marvel writer’s interested in Azerbaijan to begin with. It might as well be nonexistent to them, ditto mutants from Yerevan, Armenia or Astana, Kazakhstan. Despite cries for representation, characters from the Caucasus have yet to show up in DC and Marvel. But I suppose America’s declining stature and possible disappearance would shake things up for the better, moreso now that Canada doesn’t want to have anything to do with it at all.

Maybe allying more with Europe and if possible, Russia would be the viable, though more controversial alternatives given how unlikable America has gotten to the world over the years; it’s kind of astonishing that if Canada does ally more with Russia to the point of joining it, it would upend its longstanding relationship with its neighbour America all the more. But this results in a more Europeanised Canada, instead of the America-lite version we currently have. Perhaps an actually Russianised Canada this time and since Russia’s kind of politically incorrect, then Canada too will become a bit more politically incorrect over time due to Russian influence. Maybe not immediately but one less amenable to other strains of PC thinking, particularly when it comes to LGBT matters and the like.

Not to mention the DC and Marvel canons have a very strong America-centric worldview to the extent that otherwise European characters like Tara Markov and John Constantine gravitate to it for some reason, if because America likes to be at the centre of the planet’s attention and wants to be seen as such. Apparently it’s a country that doesn’t tolerate its rivals to the point of wanting to undermine them anytime they come close to outshining it, whether if it’s Japan or the Soviet Union in the late 20th century. It doesn’t want competition at all. Though with a growing multipolar world, it might as well learn to accept this. It would be all the more shocking if China gets all its Asia-Pacific allies or if Russia succeeds in getting all of Europe and part of North America, that America as a superpower is truly undone.

It wouldn’t be any better if both Russia and China became the new prevailing superpowers of the day, it will be a bipolar world again but where America’s totally out of the picture this time.

ACG Media After America

ACG being a shorthand for animation, comics and games but if America were to stop being a superpower for good, let’s take certain facts at present into consideration. America currently has the world’s largest publishing industry, so subsequently it’s going to have one of the world’s largest comics industry (as it’s a subset of the larger publishing industry). It’s much bigger than in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Jamaica and Armenia put together, whatever comics that do get published there in any way we’d recognise will mostly take on the form of multipanel editorial or newspaper cartoon strips. Case in point would be the cartoons at Guardian.ng, comics publishing does exist in Nigeria. But it’s not a particularly big facet of Nigeria’s publishing industry, maybe until recently, but it seems whatever publishing industry Nigeria does have in any way that can be seen as such mostly rests on either educational materials, journalism, academia, religious literature, children’s literature or sometimes nonfiction in general.

The US publishing industry is significantly bigger and more diverse, encompassing not just substantial swathes of the fiction industry but also the comics industry and the like. It’s big enough to accomodate eclectic stuff like newspaper cartoons (including Garfield and Peanuts), small press publications (zines), magazines (anything at DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse and Archie), translations of Japanese comics, original graphic novels and webcomics in print form. Nigeria doesn’t have that to the same extent America enjoys so if the US ever declines in power, so will its publishing industry that either creating or accepting substitutes is going to be the norm from then on. Whilst other countries like Denmark and Sweden fare somewhat better than those of Ghana and Nigeria, it still pales in comparison to the scale of their US counterpart. Like supposing if the US publishing industry declines together with the overall US decline, then that’s going to have some big shoes to fill.

There are some people who even say that America is Mystery Babylon, the nation-state said to corrupt the entire world as mentioned in the final book of the Bible, Revelation. That it houses so many abominations despite its start as a Christian colony makes one wonder why it took such a dark turn over a period of time that no sooner or later God will revoke it and minimise, if even undoing much of its influence all around the world. It’s already there in Canada and Europe, but more are underway that it’s going to be scary to find a world where Superman’s not just no longer published, but also obscured over time. When praying or interceding for a variety of Canadian cartoonists and writers, I wrote down prayers to help them cope with Canadian publishers translating comics from not just the former Soviet Union and Communist Bloc, but also Scandinavia as well. All of them put together wouldn’t necessarily come this close to the scope of their US counterpart.

But with America going into decline that subsequently and consequently its own publishing industry will diminish as well that seeking out substitutes would be one of the more sensible options, though the other one would be substantially growing domestic comics industries. These two used in tandem with one another would involve having to fill in big shoes left by America that this is going to be the best they can come up with to make up for what’s lost, surely people will no longer read the adventures of Batman and Deadpool but they can learn to warm up to the likes of Bamse, Rasmus Klump and Pondus eventually. Similar things can be said of the Philippines though in this case I prayed for various local cartoonists to cope with Philippine publishers translating comics from Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia and the like. Partly because the Philippines is too westernised for its own good, so losing US influence would actually enable it to reconcile itself to the east.

This would be no different with praying for others to cope with Philippine publishers translating books from China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia, but both serve to make up for a loss left by America’s decline. Not to mention a serious earthquake could potentially destroy some US publishers, even taking portions of the US comics canon with it, that if these can’t be recovered in any way publishers like that they’d have to resort to mirrors of their comics elsewhere. If not, then substitutes would do. So both Philippine and Canadian publishers are left with two options: either seriously commit to cultivating their local comics industries or to translate comics from countries other than America, but using both can help make up for a profound loss. It would take time for Filipinos to cozy up to substitutes like the Bumilangit canon, Oriental Heroes, McDull and McMug, but these would do if America’s no longer a superpower anymore.

It would take time for even Irish publishers to translate comics coming from Germany, France, Italy, Poland and Slovakia, but these would do if American comics are no longer read and enjoyed by Irish people. It would be far from ideal but it’s also going to be as good as it gets to make up for a big loss, given how America currently supplies most better-known and popular western ACG stories. One would wonder if Foxi and Fixi would even get translated in Irish at all, or for another matter things like Guardiani Italiani which is kind of reminiscent of DC and Marvel enough to not make others feel left out. Considering that America has one of the world’s largest publishing industries that if it ever does go into decline, with its influence getting revoked all over the world, that seeking out substitutes in whatever form they appear in would be the more realistic option.

It’s not the best option (given how I feel about seeking substitutes whenever something goes missing) but if the loss of US influence is going to be permanent, given America is Mystery Babylon, then we’re going to deal with the longterm loss of US influence anyways. There will be no more further adventures of Batman, Superman, Deadpool, Iron Man and Captain Marvel, though who knows if future Canadians are even going to enjoy reading the adventures of Rasmus Klump, Bamse and Pondus instead. Drawn and Quarterly has already translated Finland’s Moomin cartoon strips, so it could plausibly translate Rasmus Klump and Bamse into English eventually. Assuming if these two never got translated into English at all, though similar things can be said of other things like Jasso-kissa, which is also from Finland. But this results in a more Europeanised Canada.

Considering that Canada’s much closer to America than it is to Finland, Sweden and Poland that cultural exchanges between these two is going to be inevitable, though this doesn’t apply to the Philippines for some ironic reason as it’s closer to Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia than it is to America. In the Philippines’s case it’s got more to do with the persistent ghost of American neocolonialism where at any point where Philippine publishers could’ve translated Indonesian publications into the Philippine vernacular, this never really happened as of now even if America’s decline should enable us to get around to doing this in the future instead. Even then the loss of US influence in both Canada and the Philippines would force these two to seek alliances with other countries more, however awkward it may be when it comes to Russia and China.

When it comes to the animation side of things (which also includes video games to an extent), much of the former Soviet Union fares better there. Surely it wouldn’t exactly equal the quantity of animated franchises coming from the United States but it’s going to be a bit better than with the comics wing of the ACG industry, though who knows if Nelvana’s ever going to dub Soviet era productions like the Winnie the Pooh series and both Treasure Island films into indigenous Canadian languages like Cree, Ojibwe and the like. As for the Philippines that without American influence getting in the way in the future that it’s actually going to get Asianised for real, not just dubbing Japanese animations and translating Japanese comics. But also doing the same things to their Malaysian, Indonesian, Chinese, Thai, Burmese and Cambodian counterparts, that the Philippines finally gets real cultural exchanges with the rest of the east.

I even said before that despite the Philippines’s Koreaphilia, not a single Philippine publisher bothered to translate Korean comics and books into Tagalog. They could get a better idea of what else is going on in South Korea and to learn more about South Korea in a way relying on US publishers’ accounts of it wouldn’t do because it’s coming straight from actual Koreans themselves, albeit potentially translated into the Philippine vernacular. Surely you could say that Filipinos aren’t avid readers but this hasn’t stopped the Philippines from importing books and publications directly from the US itself, so whatever Korean influence that currently exists in the Philippines is a distant second to its US counterpart. Translating a lot of Korean books and comics into Tagalog results in a stronger Korean influence here, since at present it’s confined to live action productions, food and music.

And even with music it practically begins and ends with K-Pop, with not much attention paid to K-Ballads, Trot and K-Rap. Meanwhile the Philippines is exposed to the full spectrum of American music, not just American pop and rock but also US rap, ragtime music, CCM and jazz. The loss of US influence here would upend things and for Filipinos other than myself who want a less westernised Philippines, this could be the moment for the Philippines to actually be influenced by the rest of East Asia a lot more. This could also result in a bigger Korean influence here than at present because Philippine publishers would actually get to translate Korean publications into Tagalog, but it doesn’t have to be the only Asian influence around. Japanese influence is also really limited here, since it’s practically confined to ACG (mostly animation with comics and games trailing behind).

Though there are some Filipinos who do watch live action Japanese productions and listen to Japanese music, it’s really not that popular compared to many more Filipinos enjoying their US counterparts more. You’re more likely to find Filipinos vibing to the likes of Missy Elliot, Lizzo, Eminem and Chappell Roan, than they would with say Hikaru Utada, Malice Mizer, Bucktick and Gackt. You’re more likely to find American publications like National Geographic and Discovery in Philippine shelves, than you would with say Tagalog translations of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and Fist of the North Star. There are practically no Philippine editions of Japanese magazines like Weekly Shonen Jump, Nakayoshi and Ultra Jump, whereas you easily find Philippine editions of Vogue, Marie Claire and Esquire. It might not be entirely this comparable, but it’s telling which country the Philippines is more biased towards.

Even if the Philippines isn’t particularly so antagonistic to Japan at this point, Japanese influence is really limited which explains why there’s a near paucity of Tagalog translations of things like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and Nana. Philippine radio stations don’t play this much Japanese music either, in fact I don’t think they even play the likes of Hikaru Utada and Hamasaki Ayumi that often compared to say Taylor Swift and Beyonce. Even if not all Filipinos use radio to listen to music, the sort of foreign musicians they’re much likelier to listen to (if they’re not Korean) are more likely to be American. There are Filipinos who listen to British bands and musicians, but I don’t think there are Filipinos who listen to musicians from non-Anglophone, non-Korean bands this much other than their own. Not that OPM is bad, but it’s rare to find Filipinos who listen to the likes of Fabri Fibra and Mina Mazzini.

It’s possible similar things can be said of Canada to the point where it practically struggles to have a identity truly distinct from America, it’s not uncommon to find Canadians enjoying American publications, listening to American musicians, watching American productions and playing American games. There are Canadians who do listen to European bands and musicians, but most of them are going to be Anglophone even when they’re not from Anglophone countries (something like Roxette and Ace of Base). Maybe Francophone musicians and bands to some extent, but it’s pretty rare for Canadians to listen to a lot more music from Germany, Greece, Italy, Russia and the Netherlands, let alone that’s not in the English language. Comes to think of it this way, there are really no Canadian editions of specifically European publications like Spirou.

Maybe I’m wrong about this one but it’s kind of telling that it’s far more common to find Canadian cartoonists working for US publishers than they would with their French, Italian and Dutch counterparts, speaking from my own observations, not helped by that Canada’s this close to the United States that Canada will always risk coming off as America lite to everybody else in the world. Losing American influence in Canada might enable it to stand out from its shadow more, but alternately speaking Canada might end up as the biggest reminder of any residual American influence left in the world if America’s set to disappear from the planet forever. This is particularly evident when it comes to certain facets like accents, holidays and sports that even if American influence does get revoked from Canada, it could still wound up as a kind of backup America.

Maybe not entirely a backup America but reminiscent of America enough to stand out when America proper is gone forever, even if it does get Europeanised over time. Supposing if Canadian publishers ever commit to and suceed at translating a lot of Russian, Czech, Polish, Slovak, Romanian, Hungarian, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and Danish comics, especially once where there’s a serious paucity of US comics out there in the future, Canada could get Europeanised along the way anyways. Even if some US influence resides in Canada, admittedly this is going to be the most frightening part of what would happen if there’s really no more America in the world, regarding what’s going to happen to Canada. But at best it’s a really awkward Schrodinger type situation where Canada’s both more Europeanised, yet also a reminder of any American influence left in the world.

In the sense where future Canadians have grown up on Soyuzmultfilm’s versions of Winnie the Pooh and Snow Queen as lovingly dubbed by Nelvana, Ukraine’s Treasure Island and Alice as loving dubbed by Nelvana just the same and so on. But where there are still cowboys (if possible), the rhotic North American accent, gridiron football, basketball and so on, another awkward situation that Canada finds itself in but one where it’s the biggest instance of any surviving American influence left on the planet. There are even some people who say that America is Mystery Babylon, the nation-state said to corrupt the entire planet with its filth and abominations, to the point where even America’s surrounded by multiple waters and is a superpower.

It’s even going to get drunk on the blood of saints (Christians) that it’s going to persecute them for real, you might even say that it’s already happening but the worst is yet to come. The loss of American influence could even be a blessing in disguise that for those who dislike America a lot, this would be a reprieve now their own countries could get more strongly influenced by their neighbours. Or even Russia and China if some are biased towards either one or both of them, but this is going to be a future where even if America remains, it’s a post-American future either way where America is no longer a superpower. At worst, American influence is largely erased for good, thus leaving behind a strongly Europeanised Canada and a strongly Asianised Philippines.

It would be really awkward having to make up for a big loss left by America’s passing, but substitutes would need to do because these are going to be gone forever. Even if some American influence remains in the world, that will be all there is to it. Centuries after Babylon’s passing, there are still both mathematics and astronomy, along with Babylonian contributions. But aside from being a substrate to both Aramaic and Arabic in Iraq, that’s all there is to it as of now. There is growing franchise fatigue for US media properties like Lucasfilm and Marvel, whereas the Ukrainian Treasure Island blew up online regarding memes like the Doctor Livesay walk. It shows you that you needn’t extensive advertising to draw in audiences, all it has to do is to be interesting outside of its intended audience.

That’s actually even more astonishing as these films were intended for a specifically Soviet audience, but drew in a crowd outside of it in a way Star Wars couldn’t even do in China or Marvel in Japan. But one would wonder if global audiences may in fact be sincerely interested in stories coming from outside of America, even from its rivals like Russia and China of all things, like there’s a possibility that these two are capable of churning out admirable entertainment products that draw in audiences outside of their own. In fact without even trying if Ukraine’s Treasure Island films are any indication, something Disney couldn’t and would never succeed at doing when it comes to aiming the Star Wars canon at Chinese audiences. America might have peaked at this point, so it has to let China and Russia take the spotlight instead.

He looks drab

Somebody on Reddit postulated that DC’s Poison Ivy/Pamela Isley might not be that good-looking but still manages to seduce men well due to something in her arsenal: the ability to manipulate pheromones, but since it can’t be conveyed well in cartooning as people can’t smell cartoons unless if they have synesthesia, she had to be portrayed as attractive as possible. Though it seems fairly reasonable in the DC Comics canon, barring ongoing sexualisation, but I feel similar things about Nick Carter at this point. I actually had a crush on him when I was younger, but upon getting more exposed to certain bands and musicians that made me realise how plain he dresses.

Like it’s really shocking to realise that the guys at Bauhaus and Duran Duran as well as David Bowie consistently dress much better than he does, that you get the impression that Nick Carter’s rather sartorially drab. He does wear suits but they’re not too fitted to his body, even when he made the means to show it off in another way on a good day. Contrast that to Bauhaus’s David J who not only wears suits from time to time, but that they fit his thin frame well. David Bowie may not be famous for having a wonderful physique, but that’s really nothing compared to his fashion game which is often impeccable. Or for another matter, Prince Nelson for most of the part.

Given how some women appreciate it when men dress well that it makes for a painful irony that barring Duran Duran and Tokio Hotel, western boy band members like those coming from Backstreet Boys dress boring despite that they were heavily marketed to young lasses in their prime, whereas bands like Interpol have members who’re closer to what women want in a man. It’s as if Backstreet Boys are a whole team of Pamela Isleys, rather drab-looking people who manage to seduce folks just fine due to something in their arsenal. Though in their case it’s got to do with marketing that makes them more attractive than they really are at times, coupled with nostalgia that sometimes blinds them to reality at present.

Still they manage to rig things in their favour just the same, no need for supernatural abilities to do the job. One would wonder if bands like Duran Duran, Bauhaus and Interpol could be analogised to any other DC cartoon superheroine, they could easily be whole teams of legitimate glamourpusses instead. People who do care about the way they dress well enough to bother consistently and constantly dressing well on any basis, far moreso than the Backstreet Boys would despite them being constantly marketed to young girls in their youthful heyday, maybe save for DD. It really makes for a painful irony that somebody who’s actually attractive would be overlooked and ends up desexualised by many, despite fitting the criteria in many regards.

Or how somebody could be technically ugly manages to arouse the libidos of others, something in the lines of Adam Driver and frankly, he’s rather a little drab looking yet he’s a good example of how hyping up something or someone makes them more attractive than they should be. It’s like the things with Marvel’s She-Hulk and also the hype around female bodybuilders that marketing and advertising can make them more attractive to certain people in a way they normally wouldn’t do, given female bodybuilders illicit a strong love it or hate it due to their unusual appearances.

It’s like how having considerable amount of muscle tone is appropriate for men to be point of being normalised and expected, yet it’s really unusual if expressed on women. Or for another the Backstreet Boys given the way they dress, especially for themselves, is usually drab and kind of indescripit but due to years of marketing to girls and coupled with the latter’s nostalgia that they come off as more attractive than one would actually find them to be, especially if bands like Interpol may actually fit women’s preferences for well-dressed men more consistently than the Backstreet Boys ever would.

It makes for a weird irony to think that even if Interpol might actually fit women’s preferences much better since its members don’t just dress stylishly, but also constantly so and on their own volition in a way it’s not with the Backstreet Boys, but it’s the Backstreet Boys that have been marketed as pinup idols to teenage girls for so long that it doesn’t feel the way it should. It’s not just Nick Carter who gives me these vibes as I get older from being exposed to more stylish men these days, given one could say similar things about AJ McLean and also Harry Styles, especially regarding one of their hobbies giving others a bad impression.

Since some women feel terrible around crossdressing men that if it weren’t for years of hyping both the Backstreet Boys and One Direction as hotter than they really are, that they’d actually be more repulsed by a crossdressing AJ McLean or Harry Styles than they would with Sam Fogarino (who doesn’t do this thing at all and like everybody else in Interpol, he often wears a suit, to my knowledge). It’s kind of disturbingly ironic that due to years of marketing the Backstreet Boys to teen lasses that they come off as more attractive than they actually are, since their usual fashion sense is way plainer than those of Duran Duran, Bauhaus and Interpol put together.

For every Duran Duran (a band that actually fulfills women’s other requirements for attractive men without even trying), there’s a Backstreet Boys as in it’s got people women wouldn’t normally find attractive, but rigs the game in their favour to pull it off well. Especially when it comes to years of marketing them to kids who’d become nostalgic broads that it went well as expected, despite going against certain women’s expectations for what attractive men should be and do, since the Backstreet Boys don’t normally go about dressing as formally as Interpol’s members do. It’s odd because despite women’s penchant for liking men in suits, it’s the Backstreet Boys that are marketed as hearthrobs for years.

Despite not consistently fulfilling this criteria in their entire lives, but everybody in Interpol does this yet aren’t marketed as hearthrobs for girls. It’s weirdly ironic but this goes to show you the power of marketing, to the point of influencing people’s tastes in idealised men and women.

Ideas about someone

There’s somebody on Tumblr who pointed out that usually whenever redheads show up in fiction, they’re almost always somebody else’s idea of them (especially if these authors don’t have red hair themselves). They don’t necessarily nor fully have the lived experiences of most redheads, since many of them have a mutation that pairs red hair with not only paler skin, but also freckles and higher sensitivity to pain. So with the average redhead, they get blotchy skin whenever they get strong emotions of any sort, or among other things. The fact that the average fictional redhead doesn’t have these experiences means they’re essentially blonds and brunets with (dyed) red hair, so they inevitably reflect an outsider’s view of redheadedness.

So inevitably the way characters based around other things reflect someone else’s view of such things, in the case with Latin American characters like Fire in DC Comics they often reflect North American views of South Americans. They’re not necessarily how Brazilians actually see themselves as, to the point where if you want a Brazilian view of Brazil and Brazilians themselves consume Brazilian media instead. Something like Turma da Monica and the like, very much how Brazilians perceive themselves to be and live their lives. Or logically her best friend Ice but in the opposite direction regarding how Americans perceive Norwegians to be, which isn’t always how Norwegians perceive themselves to be and live their lives just the same.

This could explain why despite DC’s penchant for alternate universe stories as seen with Imaginary Stories and Elseworlds, not a single DC writer has ever come up with both a Scandinavian Fire and a South American Ice, in light of how and why a Scandinavian country like Iceland has a lot of volcanoes and a South American country like Chile has a plethora of glaciers. This is very much a combination of presumptions about these cultures and countries as well as ignorance about them in some manner, that leads to stereotypical characters as with the way Fire and Ice are presented. Or for another matter, Marvel when it comes to the paucity of an Icelandic character with a volcanic ability.

Especially since it has at least two characters with this skill and both of them are women (Magma and Volcana), it’s pretty odd why neither publisher condones the existence of an Icelandic character with this ability, despite the fact that Iceland has a lot of volcanoes itself. But it still ties into stereotypes about Scandinavians, especially Norwegians regarding how one character (Pieter Cross) kind of manipulates darkness in some manner, tying into Norway’s long wintry nights and Ice manipulating the cold herself. It’s not that Norway’s neither of those things, but similar things could be said of Chile as well.

Nights get longer and colder every June, July and August there, but it’s easier to think of those as having nearly unlimited sunshine and heat instead. Whilst this would be true for say Mexico and Brazil, it’s not the same with Chile since it’s really close to Antarctica. But such portrayals still ties into American preconceptions about certain ethnicities and nationalities, they’re not how Chileans, Mexicans and Brazilians actually see themselves as, or for another matter Norwegians regarding the same. Similar things can be said about the way African countries are portrayed, with very few DC and Marvel characters coming from real African nations.

Fewer still are well-known to the public in any way, with Storm being practically alone in the entire Marvel canon, since she comes from Kenya herself. The Nigerian Tempest/Temper could count, but she’s neither famous nor popular. One would wonder why given DC and Marvel’s habit of retconning or altering a character’s backstory, nobody bothered retroactively turning Vixen into a Zimbabwean or Black Panther into a Cameroonian. You could actually go to Yaounde and Bamenda, if you’re willing to take the extra mile going there at all. There are even radio stations and websites in Cameroon, or any other African country like Ghana and Kenya.

You could livestream stuff from Ghana and Uganda by the way, it’s not that hard but it’s not hard to see how and why western media and especially American media reinforces views of certain demographics, that eventually gets inculcated onto other people. If African diaspora communities in Britain were to seek further representation, they’d have to seek African American media a lot. Or for another matter, Asian diaspora communities in both Britain and France regarding the same. The way American publications portray certain ethnicities and nationalities kind of inculcates and popularises ideas of these peoples and cultures, that it’s practically evident with even a handful of characters.

Until recently the character of Rose Wilson (who’s a Cambodian American of Hmong descent) was shown to be portrayed as rather white-passing, not helped by her own name though it turned out to be an alias all along but her mother’s portrayed as having a stronger East Asian appearance. Also her own background seems to tie into the Cambodian Genocide at the time as well as its consequences, but it’s also brought up by America’s own interventionist attitude to Cambodia beforehand as a way to beat communist North Vietnam. Regardless which part of the former Indochina she came from, she’s very much a byproduct of American interventionism there as with Marvel’s Karma.

It should be noted that sometime in the past, both DC and Marvel seemed to be in the habit of introducing somewhat antagonistic communists in the form of KGBeast, Natalia Romanova and possibly a few others, but with Natalia having become good once she joins the all-American Avengers. Because she often hangs out a lot in America that she’s only good if she assimilates into capitalist American society, same goes for fellow Russians Peter Rasputin and his sister Illyana. Or for another matter, Karma since Vietnam’s a socialist country. It’s not hard to see how and why DC and Marvel writers seem to insinuate that socialist characters only become good if they hang out a lot in capitalist America.

Which implies that socialism is deeply antithetical to American culture, whereas Beatriz’s Brazilianness is used to communicate her distance from anglophone American norms. Characters like Vixen and Bwana Beast exist to convey American ideas about exotic black people, but this insinuates that black Africans are practically contrary to the prototypical black person in the America, who’s more often than not African American. The fact that these two come from made-up African nations only furthers the view of black Africans as exotic black people, one would wonder why nobody bothered retconning Vixen into a Zimbabwean given DC and Marvel writers change the characters’ backstories all the time.

Storm is pretty much the best known example of an exotic black character in the US cartooning canon, the way she’s written (especially by Chris Claremont) is used to communicate certain ideas about Africanness. That Claremont never found black people particularly relatable could explain why she’s written the way she is while he was at it, a black woman whose ways are so strange that she has to assimilate into American society in order to not weird out people. I even felt some of the issues with the way Storm’s written isn’t just to do with America’s vexed attitude to black women, but also more specifically reveals the American tendency to see black Africans as exotic black people.

Especially when the protypical black people in the American mind tend to be African Americans, and it’s been this way for a long time there. The way these characters are portrayed reflect American ideas about their peoples, cultures and nationalities, how they intersect with American history at various points or another (Karma came from wartorn Vietnam, both Sweet Lili and Rose come from wartorn Cambodia) and so on. America had something of a good neighbour policy towards Brazil, but if characters like Beatriz da Costa and Roberto da Costa are any indication, Latin America might as well be home to unlimited sunshine and warmth. There’s never been a Chilean character in both the DC and Marvel canons who manipulates ice themselves.

If characters like Pieter Cross and Ice insinuate that Norway gets cold and dark, but I suspect that even if it were true, there’s never been an Icelandic character who manipulates volcanism. The closest would be the Swedish Sunburst, who manipulates fire and is from the Wildstorm canon. It’s a missed opportunity as Iceland actually has a plethora of volcanoes, but no such character exists in the DC and Marvel stories. It’s even more telling that Marvel has a number of pyrokinetic Latino characters like Firebird and Inferno, like as if Latinos are so hot-tempered they might as well burst into flames at any point. It really does write itself but in a way that tells you about how gringos see Latin Americans as.

Considering that Firebird is explicitly of Mexican descent, there is a difference between the way Anglo-Americans portray Mexicans as opposed to Mexicans doing their own. This isn’t the case for all characters like Kyle Rayne and possibly Jessica Cruz, but it seems one of the most well-known superheroes in the Mexican comics canon is Kalimán, who’s frankly an Orientalist character to boot who also returned to publication just recently. Whilst he does show that Mexicans are also similarly guilty of Orientalism, yet he’s also very much a byproduct of the Mexican imagination, far moreso than Firebird is to the same and she’s a byproduct of American authors like Bill Mantlo.

He’s very much a product of Latin American imagination in a way most Latino DC and Marvel characters aren’t. But given DC and Marvel’s greater popularity that they’ll always succeed in popularising American ideas about these people, even when it shouldn’t be.

Nancy Drew and the superheroines

When it comes to Nancy Drew, she’s created by Mr Stratmeyer and his associates but under the name Carolyn Keene, she’s portrayed as having an inquisitive mind, recurring friends in the form of George and Bess, and sometimes a boyfriend named Ned. In the earlier stories she’s described as having plain blonde hair, in later stories she’d come to be characterised as having reddish blonde hair instead. She’s often in her late teens and also blue-eyed to boot, sort of like you’d expect Supergirl to be and Nancy’s the character that I suspected may’ve influenced earlier writers to depict their Supergirl. It’s not just that both Supergirl and Nancy Drew were generally around the same age range, Supergirl’s sometimes shown as having a similar number of friends too, but also having a pet cat (Nancy’s own cat is Snowball, Supergirl has Streaky) and being college/university students.

Whilst Nancy Drew may not be largely relevant to a lot of people these days, it should be noted that she was a popular enough character back in the day to star in not only a couple of movies, but also receive her own televised series twice (the most recent one happened sometime between the 2010s and the 2020s) and her video game. In this regard she’s really a good example of a famous YA fiction character before the Harry Potter days, but one might wonder if she’s really bigger than one realises and much moreso in the past. She would’ve been famous enough for some writers to draw upon, unconsciously or not as it would be with the Supergirl writers of yore. She’s also the sort of character who would’ve been a gateway drug to crime fiction, much like how Harry Potter is a gateway drug to fantasy fiction for some people.

Another noteworthy mention would be Spider-Woman/Jessica Drew, who not only sports the same surname as she does, but also at some point the same hair colour even. She’s dyed it black since then, but it still makes one wonder how influential Nancy Drew really was in those days, to the point where Jessica Drew was going to be refashioned as a detective, much like her. There were Nancy Drew stories written and published sometime between the 1980s and the 2000s, so she was still relevant enough for others to keep using her in stories in those days. Although she’s not a popular character these days, she was popular enough to be influential to subsequent writers and their characters, whether if it’s DC’s Supergirl or Marvel’s Spider-Woman.

One other mention would be Antonia Fraser’s Jemima Shore and though I recall that she’s actually inspired by a historical figure, but since Nancy’s fame loomed large so her influence on her’s going to be there in some form. Most notably having a set of female friends in their lives, having pet cats and being inquistive, Nancy would come to attract other boyfriends sometime in the 1980s whereas Jemima kind of did before her. A sort of trans-Atlantic osmosis between similar-looking characters, since Jemima’s also described similarly as she is and she’s the reason why I really got into Nancy Drew, believe it or not. Even then I still think that Nancy Drew’s a much more influential character than one realises, moreso in the twentieth century than today.

Combinations

Believe it or not there was an attempt to combine both DC and Marvel characters into one back in the 1990s, with people coming up with their own combinations years later and this is known as Amalgam Comics. It’s kind of influential in its own right, inspiring fans to create their own versions of it in some way. Here are my attempts at creating my own Amalgam comics, some combinations may even be strange for some. Dark Claw is one official attempt at mashing up Wolverine with Batman, with Jubilation Lee being analogised to Tim Drake. There was somebody at a forum who suggested Shadow Bat (combination of Kitty Pryde and Cassandra Cain) but I don’t think it’s a good or even creative combination, given how Cassandra Cain regrets killing people whereas Kitty Pryde doesn’t hesitate to do the same, especially at this point.

She’s killed somebody in anger before, she’s beaten up people in anger a couple of times, she’s even killed Emma Frost at some point, she habitually throws fits, frequently gets angry at Professor Xavier (and Emma Frost), she threatened to kill somebody, landed in therapy for anger management and as of 2023, she has massacred an entire group of people. So analogising her to Jason Todd would be more suitable, since he’s also got a temper and doesn’t hesitate to kill people too. Cassandra Cain’s way too much of a goody two shoes to pull off the things Kitty Pryde has no shame in doing, whereas Jason Todd would do just that despite not having superpowers himself. So this amalgam would be Alley Cat (hood is also an abbreviation of neighbourhood), in real life his name would be Jason Pryde because Jason Todd takes pride in killing people.

Imagine a gunman who goes through walls, looking for people to shoot or murder in some way. Since Kitty Pryde pointed a gun at somebody before, Jason Pryde would do the same thing because he’s really more of the same thing too. Remember cats have nine lives, so Jason Pryde phasing out of his coffin fits. Analogising Cassandra Cain to Jubilee is suitable because considering how fireworks can injure or kill somebody, Cassandra Lee would be very judicious and cautious with how she uses this ability for fear of repeating the same thing again and again. Despite or rather because of having a more lethal ability, Cassandra Lee would never be as ruthless as Jason Pryde is when dealing with enemies. So it’s something this poster didn’t consider regarding Cass Cain’s own conduct.

Another combination would be mashing up the other X-Man Cannonball with Firestorm to get something like Warhead, but since the other half is a scientist so the latter could be mashed up with Roberto Da Costa to yield Robert Stein. Mashing up Tabitha with Plastique would be easy, ability wise but she’d be willing to kill lives this time. Mashing up Rahne Sinclair with Killer Frost yields Snowdrop because wolfsbane’s also the name of a plant, assuming if the latter also becomes a werewolf then it would be too seamless. Mashing up Thinker with Dani Moonstar would be interesting in that Clifford Moonstar has issues with Warhead for tinkering with his reservation’s territory, considering the problem with nuclear colonialism onto indigenous lands. I could be wrong about certain things, so bear with me.

Now as for Mystique, there’s a missed opportunity in mashing her up with either the Joker or even Harley Quinn to get something like Brighella. Both the harlequin and the brighella come from Italian street theatre (commedia dell’arte) but the brighella is clad in mostly white. Mystique also usually wears white clothing, so mashing her up with Harley Quinn to get Brighella is something not many have considered. Even if this is a very interesting combination that if Sabretooth’s analogised to the Joker, shouldn’t Mystique be analogised to Harley Quinn by then? One would only wonder why nobody bothered to analogise Catwoman to Sabretooth, if because they’re both cat-themed in some way or another.

Considering that the sabretooth is also a felid, one could mashup Catwoman with Sabretooth to get Smilodon. Mashing up Wolverine with Batman has already happened before, but I feel calling this combination ‘Dark Claw’ sounds really stupid in my opinion. Renaming him to something like Lynx works in that it’s a predator that hunts at the wee hours of the morning, it also has retractile claws so it kind of does sum up the things he does. Much like the wolverine, Canada does have at least a handful of lynx species but most notably both the Canada lynx and the bobcat. Apparently we’ve got three felids around in the forms of Smilodon, Lynx and Alley Cat.

I’m at a loss to give Cassandra Lee a codename, whereas analogising Harley Quinn to Mystique to get Brighella is an interesting combination. Now as for X23 who’s a proper female counterpart to Wolverine, even when Kitty Pryde could’ve easily be her and at some point did come close to it a couple of times before in the X-Men canon, mashing up her with Spoiler to get something like Polecat. Polecats hunt by stealth and surprise, a spoiler is something or someone that spoils. Also polecats, like wolverines, are mustelids despite the name. Polecats were also used to hunt mice before the introduction of cats to Europe, much like how dogs were used to hunt mice and rats in China before the same thing happened.

Whilst mashing up Wolverine’s son Daken with Damien Wayne is nice, one would wonder why nobody bothered to mashup Forge with Tim Drake since both tend to be tech-orientated, though mashing him up with Barbara Gordon would work just as fine. Though I think an indigenous woman working in tech would be really interesting to consider, given how underrepresented this is and especially so in fiction. I actually know two Native American women (who are also white-passing) who have an affinity with video games, but only one of them knows her way around technologies meant to do drawing with. Also both Forge and Barbara Gordon are/were disabled, though in their own respective ways.

Whilst mashing up Barbara Gordon with Charles Xavier would be the more predictable conclusion, but I don’t think Charles is really this technology-orientated. Forge would be a more interesting and suitable character to mash her up with, if because indigenous women working in STEM are ridiculously underrepresented. Now that’s something not many have considered or contemplated, even moreso considering that there are Native American women who do know their way around high-tech devices. It’s something that does deserve more creativity and thought put into it, because these characters are practically absent in superhero media (well, as far as I know about it).

Mashing up Rogue with Tim Drake to get something like Carrion Crow or even Magpie is another combination that not many considered, even if some birds have a habit of stealing things from others (aka kleptoparasitism). Combining Rogue’s ability to absorb others’ abilities with Tim Drake’s high intelligence would lead to interesting ways of undermining opponents, something like Hunter x Hunter’s Chrollo Lucilfer who kind of does the same thing really. An interesting combination that wasn’t considered or done in the original version of the Amalgam stories, even if this would be interesting to portray really.

I don’t read comics that often, and even then a good number of them leave much to be desired. Especially the Marvel and DC Comics wherein if they make a lot of comics, they’ll also make a lot of stuff that’s kind of mediocre or bland. But amalgamating characters seem to be an interesting exercise and one that’s even accomplished in the real world, especially when it came to both DC and Marvel back in the 1990s. More recently both DC and Marvel have done some crossovers this year, though it remains to be seen if there’ll ever be another batch of Amalgam Comics but modernised for 2020s sensibilities.

The biggest elephant in the superhero room

I said before that superhero stories and their ilk operate on a rather strange logic wherein characters with extraordinary abilities are often compelled to fight one another, even when they could’ve pooled their abilities into something useful for everyday life. Why do they even have to fight to begin with? If you have a character who secretes silk, they could just work in textile making instead. That’s even the case with silk making for centuries where people would set up silkworm farms to harvest silk cocoons from those caterpillars, but sometimes they spare those critters’ lives and use their cocoon afterwards. Silk secretion has been found in a number of animals before like spiders, silk moths and even crickets, so it’s really not much of a stretch to even come up with a human being who does this.

But the fact that people turn silk threads into fabric says a lot about the road that’s rarely, if ever, taken by many writers of this school, which means they likely barely had either any experience in this activity or no interest in it to begin with. Even if it’s far more plausible for a silk-secreting character to weave for a living than it is for them to fight bad guys with this ability, or sew for a living with this power since some people do sew with silk threads. It goes back to my suspicion that these writers neither weaved and sewed, nor do they have an interest in textiles enough to do something like this. One would only wonder if it might be possible to pull off a light manipulating detective who hunts in his spare time, which means such an ability would be really useful outside of combat. This is very much the case with one of my creations, Jean-Louis Lumiere.

He’s been shown to manipulate light as to uncover criminal clues and activities, whether in the form of strobes, lasers or making something invisible, though he’s also shown to make himself invisible as well as casting holographic illusions to sneak upon somebody and also to go undetected by criminals. The one thing he can’t do with this ability is to fly, since it seems for a number of light-manipulating characters they have to fly for some reason. This may not be true for all of them like Dazzler and Dagger, who are also both blonde and wear white, or more rarely the Ray who’s a redhead, but it’s like this with Dr Light and Orion’s brother (I forgot his name). Even if my knowledge of physics is meagre, it doesn’t make sense to me why would a light-manipulating character have to fly.

Though I suppose it’s there to make it showier than it should be, even if manipulating light could easily lend itself to investigation and even hunting. It’s even odder still why does a light-making character have to make solid light constructs, that unless if they’re actually plasma (which also radiates light), it’s something that most likely started with the Green Lantern stories over at Marvel’s rival. But a light-manipulating detective-cum-hunter would be kind of interesting to depict and portray, since it’s something that could easily lend itself to such activities and in ways that are far more creative than is usually shown in Marvel and DC Comics.

Speaking of hunting, Jean-Louis could make himself mostly invisible to sneakily hunt game animals with, it’s not that hard if you have some knowledge of hunting in some way or another. He could also blind game animals just the same, practically taking the bull by its horns. He could even cut meat with lasers, or kill an animal with a laser. He could literally shed light on areas to find game animals with, which makes the activity more convenient without weaponry. It still plays into the love of feats thing you find in some threads pertaining to DC and Marvel stories, but in a very novel way because these are actually used outside of combat and used for something as unexpected as hunting and investigating. Since he also reads books, he could always glow when brownouts happen.

Unless if somebody like Cyril Rabeholm disables him by absorbing his light, since he transduces energy into darkness, which means he has to resort to other means to undermine him. But even then this goes to show you how useful such abilities are when taken outside of combat, though this is far more succinct with Jemima Szara, who’s an investigative journalist with an uncanny sense of direction. As such she’s often the one who reports criminal cases for news media, though this means she’d run into people like Jean-Louis who even relies on her for finding criminals and criminal activity at all. She’s also good at finding victims, which Jean-Louis also also relies on. Unless if it’s presented as a familiar ala the stands in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (since she’s based on Yasuho Hirose, as she also has the same ability), it may not be convenient for combat but it’s convenient for finding criminals and criminal cases wherever they may be.

This goes to show you that supposedly useless abilities may actually turn out to be useful in some other way, like if you have an uncanny radar sense of direction you could be good at investigating cases. Or at least assisting others find out where the criminals are up to, if you’re an investigative reporter reporting on criminal cases. But I kind of think a number of superhero writers are pretty creatively bankrupt, in that they often think of depicting such abilities mostly in combat situations. Not so much on making characters do something truly useful, like investigating criminal cases, hunting game animals, cooking food, weaving and sewing, among other things. Such depictions already do exist, but very rarely. Even if you could have characters who have no inclination to fight, that it’s only fair for a superpowered character to just be a useful civilian as we already have many nonpowered fighters.

I still have this feeling that a lot of these writers aren’t that well-read in a lot of stuff, or don’t have experiences in other things, that for them it’s easier to write stories where characters find ways to beat up somebody, instead of having them parlay these abilities into something truly useful for everyday life. If you could manipulate fire, you could make a living from cooking. This was the cases for years when it comes to oven fires and gas stoves, this could’ve been attempted before but not very often. There’s a character called Fahrenheit who did use this power to rescue people and even heal them, but these activities were the exceptions to what she usually does: fight bad guys. So it still speaks to how creatively bankrupt a number of superhero stories are, especially when they’re often predicated on fighting whoever causes a ruckus, but not making themselves actually useful for everyday work.

Photokinesis could be really useful for hunting animals and criminals alike, just as a radar sense is good for investigative journalism. It’s really a matter of being interested in and doing other things to pull these off, otherwise we’d get another superpowered fist fight all over again.

Commercialised Cartoons And Spiritual Compromises

Bill Watterson is kind of well-known for not extensively licencing his own cartoon strip, Calvin and Hobbes, for merchandising and while it’s not nonexistent, it’s pretty sparse at best. Compare this to what Charles Schulz’s own Peanuts has, which got licenced a lot to a wide variety of merchandise, ranging from toys and video games, to fabric and clothing. It made Charles Schulz rich but one would wonder if his indulgence of the world would’ve lead to certain problems, whether if it’s his affair with another woman, him losing faith in God over time or whatever those are, that I feel would’ve compromised the messages found in the Peanuts cartoons even further. Bill Watterson is definitely not a saint, but he’s never known for having an extramarital affair, he’s secular enough to live in ignorant bliss.

Maybe it’s not blissful but I guess he never was religious enough to backslide eventually, the same way it did for Charles Schulz and the more Sparky indulged in the world, the more he lost touch of God eventually. When it comes to licencing products for merchandising, it’s not wrong to do this in theory and to some extent in practise, though I feel there needs some boundaries in what can be sold and made into merchandising. Not just to avoid or minimise the dilution of the story’s message, but also to preclude or further contributing to certain problems like idolatry (which I also struggle with), which Schulz may’ve unwittingly played a hand into, the more successful the Peanuts cartoons got. Like supposing I created a cartoon strip called Clive and it involves a civet named Clive and his friends, this cartoon gets popular but I wouldn’t want further merchandising to happen.

One is to keep readers from making idols out of the characters and stories, two the Bible doesn’t have a high opinion of both consumerism and materialism (wisely seeing how material goods fade or disappear over time), three if any merchandise were to occur it would have to be restricted to a handful of items. Something like just fabric, notebooks, video games, toys, books and piggy banks, which is just about it for any Clive merchandise that I can think of. Also four, I don’t want small kids to choke on something by accident, so there’s going to be no Clive nendoroids. All the Clive toys are just plush or soft toys, big enough to not be swallowed by a child by accident, or a dog for another matter. No Clive keychains and whatsoever of this kind, to preclude any possible choking accidents from happening. So whatever Clive merchandise that exists is going to be paltry by design for these reasons.

It’s pretty much in the middle between the extensive merchandising of Peanuts and the sparse merchandising of Calvin and Hobbes, but I feel the way Peanuts turned out for Schulz became something of a curse in disguise for him. Like the more successful Schulz got with the Peanuts cartoons and the associated merchandising, the more he did things that are unacceptable. Whether if it’s him being okay with one of his children converting to a heretical denomination, himself having an affair with another woman, or backsliding over time that perhaps Peanuts’s own success trapped him into a web of sin. Commercial success seemed to lead to spiritual compromises for Schulz, leading to certain consequences like dying from cancer or something. Death may not always be a weapon against God, since it’s sometimes something he uses to draw others closer to him.

But in the case with Schulz and Peanuts, despite starting out strong in God, it seemed Schulz lacked any spiritual integrity to minimise the problems that arose from his cartoons’ success at the very least. If the love of money is the root of all evil, then it shouldn’t be surprising why Sparky turned out the way he did. He was okay with his cartoons being endlessly mined for merchandising, but his spiritual life faltered over time that he declared himself to be a secular humanist towards the end of his life. What good is it for somebody like Charles M Schulz to gain commercial success, yet forfeit his spiritual integrity for this? It would be horrifying to think of Sparky as suffering in hell, tormented by his demons, but that’s unfortunately where he is in eternity. A man so spiritually compromised as to go further in his sins, he certainly wasn’t that abusive to his wife and family, but he did things he shouldn’t have done.

Moreso that he created stories that constitute a chunk of people’s formative years, that perhaps doing a Watterson would’ve proved better for his spiritual health. Charles M Schulz sunk into a sunk cost fallacy when his comic strips got really successful, at any point where he could’ve bothered to limit the merchandising to things that really matter spiritually speaking, the spiritual message in those cartoons got diluted over time. We don’t have frequent stories of Peanuts dealing with the End Times, consequences of sin and others, even when these could’ve just as a Peanuts film openly retold the story of the birth of Jesus Christ on Earth. There are nary this much Peanuts cartoons about the problems with witchcraft and the like, so it seemed the spirituality of the Peanuts cartoons was on its way to getting emptied and vacated.

Spirituality might as well be an afterthought, compared to the extensive merchandising it got. If there’s something to learn from Charles M Schulz is to unlearn his bad habits that lead to his backsliding towards the end of his life, never prioritise the love of the world over the love for God, forsake the love of money to be closer to him. This mistake led to more mistakes, leading to a gradual dilution of the cartoons’ spiritual messages. Peanuts may have gotten more commercially successful, but at the expense of Schulz’s soul and closeness to God.

More than a female counterpart

When it comes to the character of Supergirl, she’s generally the female counterpart to her cousin Superman. Admittedly I don’t read much comics but there certainly are versions of her that portray her as either already adult or reaching adulthood later on within the DC canon, the Supergirl who appeared in the 1970s and 1980s comics is most definitely an adult and arguably an emerging adult in that she not only graduated from college, but is also often in search of work. Supergirl may not exactly resemble her cousin but it’s kind of hard to make her more than a female version of him without losing that connection, that you’d have to put more effort into differentiating these two regarding hobbies and interests.

If I were to come up with a comparable example but from my own life, it’s my relationship with one of my cousins. We’re generally friends who share similar interests and habits, but over time I’m the one who’s more into fashion, faith and trying to set up a business to earn money whilst he works as a writer or something. Whilst we do have some similar interests, they still diverge in some regards because I’m more into real world things, whilst he’s more into fantasy stories and the like. Assuming if Clark Kent’s far more into the humanities and writing than she is, and Kara Danvers is far more into the sciences and learning about wildlife than he does, there’s an idea that they’re different enough to not be made interchangeable with one another.

It’s not impossible since I’m using my relationship with one of my cousins as an example of how this could be done. This cousin’s much more into weaponry and martial arts more consistently than I am as well, whereas I lean towards something less combative at times (football from time to time, as well as parkour). Even our musical preferences differ like how he’s consistently more into classical than I am, but I’m open to OPM, Christian music, country, electronica, rock, Celtic folk music and some pop. But it does bring up the question whether or not some writers have any opposite sex, younger relatives whom they’re close to that they can draw inspiration from. The only one who kind of opened up about this is Geoff Johns because he lost his sister to an accident, but it does make it more convenient to differentiate Supergirl from Superman.

Like if you have a younger, opposite sex relative that you’re close to you that you could see both similarities and differences, which is no different between Superman and Supergirl in this regard. Maybe this has happened a couple of times before, but I don’t think other writers are committed to this for long. Even if it helps to make Supergirl more than a female Superman if readers are treated to not just her own habits and mannerisms, but also her hobbies and interests and how they differ from those of Superman. Like they both share similar ethics, abilities and some interests, but they still differ in other regards like how Supergirl seems more curious about Earth wildlife than he is and she’s more into stargazing than him too.

I’m pretty much projecting here, but that’s to give an idea of how she can differ from him without substantially reinventing her a lot. Like if Supergirl’s much more into learning about foreign cultures and wildlife on her own accord, which predictably makes sense as she’s less used to Earth than Clark Kent is, you could get a better idea of how she differs from him in terms of life experiences and interests. Not just in terms of age but also how she’s practically a newcomer to the planet Earth who’s out and about to learn about its ways and peoples, wanting to know and understand new beliefs, philosophies and customs. She wouldn’t completely stop being a female Superman, but there’s a sense that she is different from Superman in small but important ways.

Which includes a burning desire to learn about Earth biota and cultures, which Clark doesn’t seem to do often from my experience, so to speak.