Philippine cartoonists and American neocolonialism

When it came to the late Gerry Alanguilan, though he’s a fine storyteller and cartoonist, it seems he has no issue with Filipinos working for American comics publishers like he does with Filipinos adopting the Japanese manga style. I feel it kind of plays into the way America still colonises Philippine culture, where Filipinos would often work for American publishers for higher pay. They could’ve done the same with any other western country like Britain, even if it wouldn’t be any better, but this shows you how and why America constantly inculcates itself into the Philippines. The Philippines is often under the shadow of American neocolonialism, but the more irrelevant and impotent America becomes the more the former should better reconcile itself to its neighbours more.

It’s not necessarily wrong to want to work for a western publishing house, but that America seems to be a constant and an ideal for the Philippines. Despite the fact that America has killed so many people here, it’s something both Filipinos and Americans don’t seem to acknowledge much. Probably because it would make America look bad and be held accountable for what it has done, even if it’s true other western countries aren’t any better either. Even if other western countries might offer a much higher pay rate, something like Britain for instance, America is a significantly more powerful country and also the Philippines got colonised by it. This wouldn’t be a good thing in the long run.

Since I believe this is what undermined the Philippine comics industry a lot, in the sense that it’s more appealing for Filipinos to work for American publishers, than it is to better the local comics industry more. JLine Publishing is probably the only Philippine publisher to offer translations of Japanese comics like Doraemon and Detective Conan, it wouldn’t hurt if both Psicom and Anvil also got in the act with other properties. But it’s easier to rely on American publishers more, even if America is increasingly less powerful as time goes by. It’s not wrong to read Japanese comics in your language, but I feel more Philippine publishers need to take risks.

Especially if America wouldn’t be around for long in its current form, to the point where it would be wiser to support the local comics industry more and incentivise Philippine publishers to translate Japanese comics more. Filipinos are no stranger to dubbing Japanese productions into Tagalog, so it shouldn’t be any different if they translated more Japanese comics into Tagalog. Not all Filipinos are good in English, so something like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure getting translated into Tagalog would reach out to them more. Though I feel what makes American neocolonialism in the Philippines so potent is that we tend to look at other Asian nations as suspect.

So even if China, Vietnam and Indonesia are flawed, so is America when you bring up how it killed people here. I even believe that the Philippines is much better off reconciling itself to its more immediate neighbours and get heavily influenced by them, especially China, because I believe it’s too westernised for its own good. It may not happen in the way I expect, at least not 100 %, but that I want western influence to be minimised here. It’s not enough to have Korean influence, it’s not enough to even have Vietnamese and Indonesian influences. I even think the Philippines is better off being more influenced by Asian countries than it does with the west.

It still wouldn’t happen exactly according to what I envisioned, but enough to minimise western influence and that western countries aren’t going to remain powerful for long. Particularly America and why the Philippines should move on with the times, the more irrelevant America becomes to the rest of the world.

Fans and the audience surrogate

The thing about fannish audience surrogates is that they tend to be stand-ins for fans of something or someone, though you’re more likely to find this in things like comic books and the like for instance. I feel these sorts of characters are meant for hardcore fans of something, to the point where a casual fan would feel just as out of the loop as a nonfan would be. Maybe not always but it seems that DC and Marvel would rather cater to dedicated fans of their brands and franchises, thus marginalising casual readers a lot, than to actively cater to a wider audience. Or even to people who aren’t big fans of superheroes and geek culture, maybe that’s what they did before but not often anymore.

I agree with this one Redditor saying that comics made outside of geek culture tend to be written by people who’re more well-read or at least have wider experiences and interests, not that geeks on average are autistic (they tend to be narcissistic), but having a lot more to say about the world we live in than the largely imaginary lives of cartoon characters like Superman and Batman. I even think comics made by non-superhero fans are and can be better-written than most superhero comics are at present, especially when it comes to something like Cold Hard Teeth. The plot involves a pop duo who go Goth-punk upon realising that they are folkloric monsters or something.

It’s even made by somebody who’s into this sort of music, so it’s kind of nice seeing somebody making the things based on what they like. Though similar things can be said with both DC and Marvel at large, for most of the part such stories are written by people who’re into superheroes and geek culture to an extent in general. There certainly are cartoon comics written by people outside of geek culture, but you’re more likely to find those in newspapers and the like. While the quality varies, they’re generally more grounded and more likely to talk about subject matters not found in comic books. It’s not hard to see and read why DC and Marvel are the way they are.

That’s why you’re more likely to get multiple Batman-related magazines, rather than comics about dog predation and feral pigs. The latter two are increasingly important to biology and the first one’s been long suspected among scientists, hunters, eyewitnesses and reporters alike, the former is well something that panders a lot to diehard Batman fans. You might say that dog predation’s a niche interest, but so is Batman and it’s just your bias getting in the way. It’s not hard to see how and why despite the public conflation of the sciences with geek subculture, there’s not much overlap between the two.

But in a way that comics could’ve been used to educate the general public about the problems with dog predation, why it’s such an issue among both scientists and hunters (it’s like that in continental Europe). Even a magazine series like Aquaman could be used to depict the problem of dogs eating sea turtle eggs and seals alike, but such potentials go unused for long. In the case with DC and Marvel, it’s much easier to pander to superhero enthusiasts than it is to reach out to readers who want something more substantial like the issue with dogs killing wild animals. That’s why we’re more likely to have self-referential stories and blatant fan surrogates.

That’s not to say there aren’t any comics about dog predation and Goth-punk music, but if they do exist they’re more often than not rather rare. Much rarer than in journalism and any nonfiction literature, which is saying. While dog predation is a far more important subject matter, especially in this day and age, both DC and Marvel would rather appeal more to fans for fear of offending certain people. It’s something they knew from experience and something they don’t want to risk repeating in any way, well for most of the part. So they usually tend to go for something safe, since they don’t want to lose the fans they’ve cultivated.

So when you combine a risk-averse environment with people who barely read or learn anything else outside of their comfort zone, you get stories that are full of blatant self-inserts and repetitive storylines. Like how many times Jean Grey has died? How many times has another woman substituted for her in her absence? It should also be noted that there was a time when many sidekicks were ordinary (normie, if you will) kid audience surrogates, but it’s been eclipsed by blatant fanboy/fangirl audience surrogates that feels kind of creepy to me. Like I feel these kinds of characters aren’t meant for me, a casual reader of comics at that, so I understand how Ganriki feels about the same in anime.

Blatant nerd superhero audience surrogates kind of grate on my nerves, because it’s like they exist to pander to a certain audience. They pander very much to the hardcore superhero fan, much more than they do with casual readers. People who do casually read comics aren’t going to be the audience these characters and their authors are aiming for, so they’re going to be a major afterthought to these folks. Sort of like how Rick Jones practically fell out of fashion in the Marvel world, whilst the likes of Kate Pryde and Billy Kaplan rose to the upper ranks of sorts. Makes some sense why the audience surrogate character had to change.

But it does beg the question of who are they for? Are they for casual readers who read comics sometimes, or are they for hardcore readers who read comics frequently? There has to be a reason why the idea of a casual fan exists, they like something but they’re also not too hard into it either. I feel both DC and Marvel need to wake real badly at this point, especially when it comes to a growing number of comics cartoonists not coming from a superhero comics background. Just like the author behind Cold Hard Teeth, they never seem to be this big into superhero comics and the only DC title they got into is/was Sandman. That’s really just it, they likely have read other comics, just not superhero comics.

Both DC and Marvel have published non-superhero comics before and still do to an extent, but they’re mainly tied to pre-existing franchises and brands within their parent companies. No wonder why they have difficulty earnestly reaching out to new readers, not helped by how competitive the publishing industry is.

How To Save A Life

I said somewhere in my other blog that you could intercede for someone’s salvation, especially if this is a celebrity author in mind. I’ve done this to a couple of authors before, one of whom is already writing one of her characters as a married Christian or something. A few more will get saved in due time and do something great like writing Bible comics one day, mostly from heading to church in search of his dog but where God will use this loss to get him to worshipping him more. Though he might pray for his dog to be found, he could do church service and sometimes in surprising ways like rescuing a cat and then making it stay in church, finding a stray dog in a monastery and so on.

He might do artwork that’s inspired by Catholic and Orthodox art, do art for churches and like I said, Bible comics. I said somewhere that you could pray for JK Rowling to be saved, where someone on another blog said that it’s time for the Christian community to welcome her for she’s been disowned by her LGBT fanbase. All the more a reason for her to turn to God more, now that people are coming after her due to her stance on certain matters like transgender for instance. It wouldn’t be easy at first but at least there’s going to be a surprising ally on her side, one that will have her back when the transgender community goes after her. This would be God and he’s going to be right beside her.

It wouldn’t be easy and it’s going to sound strange, but if you could pray for the salvation of a writer then they’ll be saved and will do incredible things for God. Sometimes in ways they themselves don’t expect to, like rescuing a cat and then bringing it to church when they couldn’t find his dog in the meantime. Or even finding a stray dog and making it guard the monastery or something, whilst doing Bible comics on the side. They may not get to finish their favourite story, but at least they have something greater instead.

Dreams and Nightmares

I feel in hindsight that what makes the American comics industry particularly primed for misogyny, though it’s not particularly unique to it either as other countries’ comics industries also have this to a likely degree, is that at some point between the 1980s and 1990s it didn’t have much of a separate sector for girls’ and women’s comics. Given Japan has had both girls’ comics and women’s comics for years and both of them are still around to this day that it does say something about how there really is a need to create comics for female readers in mind, something both DC and Marvel have been trying to do and are catching up to some extent.

But with sexual predators like Warren Ellis and especially Neil Gaiman onboard with rather female-friendly magazines and stories like Sandman that it makes it easier to for them to exploit such people, like they’re trophies or something similarly dehumanising even if sexual harassment isn’t particularly unique to the American comics industry either. It wouldn’t be entirely any better if more publishers outside of South Korea and Japan (to my knowledge) publish more comics for female readers in mind, but I feel the historic lack of a separate comics industry for female readers has made it harder for female readers to have any relief from sexism and other problems.

So they end up putting up more with sexist stories, fans and writers, it’s not something they wanted, needed nor asked for. It’s something they ended up with for years that they have no other choice but to be put up with sex pests and misogynists, it’s changing for the better but I feel a separate comics sector specifically for women and girls in mind is very much needed. It wouldn’t completely get rid of the problem, what it would do is to minimise the risk of it recurring. It seems for women and girls everywhere else, the most female-friendly comics that are neither manga, Archie, Vertigo nor romance would be the newspaper cartoons. It’s telling why it’s like that.

Newspaper cartoons aren’t entirely bereft of sexism and sexual harassment, but it was one of the few sectors in the comics industry that allowed women to create comics free from pandering to men a lot as it is with DC and Marvel until recently. Well, as far as I know about it, newspaper cartoons are also the same sector that makes it easier for cartoonists to appeal to a far wider audience than they would with DC and Marvel, which is saying. Not to mention I feel because such industries are so male-skewered and male-dominated for so long that it’s going to set a low bar for female representation and portrayals, especially most of the time concerning the way female characters have been written for years.

The Sandman stories were refreshing in hindsight because as I said before, almost none of the female characters so far all into the recurring stereotypes I pointed out in American superhero comics. But the bar was already so low that Neil Gaiman’s and the Sandman’s popularity with women benefited from it anyways, I feel if both of them were to start out these days they wouldn’t get a large female fanbase anymore. If because the bar for writing female characters is higher now, there’s no way Neil Gaiman would gain a larger female fanbase if he started his career more recently. But I feel the bar for well-written female characters is going to be low in most geek circles, due to history of deep-set misogyny.

So that’s why it took so long for people to figure out what makes Joss Whedon’s stories so misogynistic, even if it’s been long suspected before and likewise with Neil Gaiman’s own to a likely extent. I kind of pointed out how and why so few objected to any possible sexism in the Saiyuki stories, even if it’s there on some level but it’s possible that some people too have a low bar for what constitutes as female-friendly. Similar things can be said of crime fiction, especially when it comes to the persistence of female murder victims With misogyny and sexualisation being so persistent in the US comics industry that the bar for writing female characters is going to be low from the get-go.

I could go on saying that the bar for women’s professional participation in the US comics industry was also similarly low, since a lot has changed since then with growing numbers of female cartoonists working on graphic novels and webcomics. Japan’s comics industry isn’t any better in other regards, but has fared better for women because it got many of them employed sometime in the mid-1970s or something. So this made it easier for them to propagate and popularise a female sensibility, it even happened earlier and more consistently than what the US comics industry got, though I could be very wrong about this when it came to Nell Brinkley and Jackie Ormes.

It may not entirely get rid of problems but it did provide a supportive outlet for both female authors and female readers to flourish, something the US comics industry consistently lacked for years until now with the rise of people like Raina Telgemeier. The persistent systemic inequality in the US comics industry made female authors get put up with both sexual predators and misogynists every time and for so long that this is how people like Neil Gaiman and Warren Ellis took advantage of this, made worse by them being rather very talented writers (in my opinion). While there are growing numbers of female authors in the US comics industry, it’s a shame they walk on the road paved by predators.

It’s particularly shameful that some of the things that got them into comics and speculative fiction, well for some people, are written by sexual predators like they got conned into their evil schemes or something like that. In all honesty there was a time that I really wanted to read the Sandman comics because the concept and characters seem interesting, particularly when I was young. But one of my cousins told my father that the Sandman comics are pretty explicit, so I ended up getting a Peanuts comic book instead. Admittedly, Charles M Schulz isn’t any better with his affair with a younger woman and that he remarried twice (I think) in his life, but I don’t think raping people is one of these things he had done.

But it’s terrible to think that the author of a rather female-friendly comic book series is the same person as the one who molested his nanny and another woman when he was much younger, a terrible irony that some have to live with in light of these upsetting revelations over his indiscretions. Coupled with the historic lack of a separate sector for girls’ comics makes it easier for sexual predators to take advantage of any woman who buys these comics and/or works with them in any way.

Predators in the comics industry

This might not be unique to the American and Anglophone comics industries, as I think Japan has this when it comes to a certain author who got jailed for soliciting sex from a teenaged girl. But the fact that the American comics industry in more recent years hasn’t had much of a separate girls’ comics industry of sorts the way Japan does exacerbates any pre-existing misogyny that exists in the former, or increases the chances of some sex pest taking advantage of having a luckily large number of female fans out there. I feel this is the case with both Warren Ellis and Neil Gaiman, both of them have attracted a substantial female audience.

In the case with the latter, his scripts are often paired with less demeaning illustrations of womenfolk which makes his tendency towards sexual harassment all the more disappointing and shocking. I feel this is the case with stories like Sandman, the very comics series that turned him into a fiction superstar, where the portrayal of women at the time felt refreshing. In a world overrun by Amazons who act a lot like men, female counterparts of pre-existing male do-gooders and sexualised viragos, characters like Death, Delirium and Despair felt like a breath of fresh air. It’s not hard to see how Gaiman gained traction among women.

But it seems his tendency to sexually exploit and harass almost any woman on sight throws this into sharp relief, though I also think it kind of highlights a persistent problem in the American comics industry ever since romance comics (with the exception of Archie and Cathy) stopped being published en masse. This would’ve coincided with a sharp decline in female readership until recently where bereft of comics specifically made for them in mind, female readers would have to share space with their male counterparts, some of whom have no real respect for them whatsoever.

The loss of a separate comics industry for girls meant that women and especially vulnerable women would have to be put up with sex pests, misogynists and the like, this might not be unique to the American comics industry as both Britain and the Philippines have undergone something similar too. With female readers and professionals being a rarity in the American comics industry until now, this makes it easier for predators to take advantage of them when they do find and then groom them at all. As if they see them as prized possessions, zoo animals or something just as dehumanising.

I neither dislike nor like Neil Gaiman a lot but I feel he seems to be one of those Anglophone comics writers who have gained a lot of traction among female readers, given the way he wrote female characters didn’t seem so demeaning compared to what’s usually churned out by other writers with the exception of Cathy Guisewite and her peers. I suppose that’s a really low bar now that he’s outed for rape and sexual harassment, but I suspect the bar for writing female characters is going to be low anyways in the world of American superhero comics.

Especially with all the rampant victimisation, demonisation and sexualisation that Gaiman’s women stand out even more, maybe until recently but this is going from a study about the alleged feminism in his stories. There has to be a reason why something like Sandman struck a chord with many female readers at the time (the 1990s to be exact), even if its feminism has aged poorly in light of Gaiman’s repeated sex crimes. Well to those of a certain generation, Julie Schwartz would be one example of a repeat sex offender working on DC Comics, but as the editor instead of writer.

He even sexually harassed Colleen Doran, herself no stranger to bullying and abuse, yet has never been convicted of his crimes. He may be the editor who brought out new versions of both Green Lantern and the Flash, but he’s also the same man who raped a young woman in his care. The American comics industry has had problems with sexual harassment, it didn’t begin with Julie Schwartz and it wouldn’t end up with him either, or for another matter Warren Ellis and Neil Gaiman. There might be more in the wings, some will even surpass Gaiman in controversy.

For now it’s Neil Gaiman who’s the most controversial comics writer at the moment, but I don’t think he’ll ever be the last one around either.

The misogynists we don’t notice

Neil Gaiman has been under fire for the way he treated two women, but there are others who say that he does have issues writing female characters. Somebody said that he does have a habit of writing women as rather helpless and lacking agency, though from my experience he writes women fine from time to time but other characters are idealised as to be rather otherworldly and kind of unrelatable. Sort of like the way Death is portrayed, she’s often very chipper despite being the embodiment of death. She might have her dour, sad and angry moments, but she’s portrayed as a kind of Manic Pixie Dream Girl type that risks being kind of unattainable.

Peter Milligan may not have written a character like Death, nor does he have the same renown as Gaiman enjoys, but I get the impression that from what I do recall he writes women as people. His female characters are more like the women you meet or encounter in real life, whereas Gaiman’s women (i.e. Death) are either idealised, victimised or something. The fact that Milligan never molested any woman suggests that he really does see women as people, it’s likely he treats them as people as well. That’s a better sign that a writer is not a misogynistic, especially if they tend to write women as people. Rather than being either victimised, demonised or idealised.

I pointed out similar things between Gerard Way and Nick Carter, where the former genuinely empathises with women. The latter has a record of dumping women after women, going so far to make one woman (Kaya from Pussycat Dolls) to imitate the sex acts he sees in porn which she eventually quit and broke up with him. The fact that he’s cruel towards rape victims suggest that he doesn’t see other women as people, which is more misogynistic especially if that predisposes you to demonise women who aren’t the ones you like the most. Like those you hate, you believe they deserve the worst.

It’s not just being misogynistic, but also cruel to the core. I remember listening to a sermon on the radio whilst thinking about how un-Christian the Backstreet Boys are, somebody said something relating to wickedness and wicked people or something. So it seems the Backstreet Boys’ dismissive attitude to rape victims, when coupled with enjoying the adoration they get from their fans, isn’t just compartmentalised but also risks being cruel to those who may not adore them back. It’s like an incel/MGTOW attitude to women where the only women who deserve love are those who adore them back, no real kindness to other people whatsoever.

It’s not hard to see how there’s a difference between Peter Milligan and Neil Gaiman in the way they treat women both in reality and in fiction, the former truly sees women as people and the latter tends to be more instrumental around them at all. While Neil Gaiman may not be widely known for his misogyny until now, it does make you wonder if he and Joss Whedon are as feminist as others hyped them up to be before.

Superhero stories and female fans

I remember somebody pointing out one problem with superhero stories and why they don’t resonate much with a female audience: superheroines often come off as male writers’ idea of a female power fantasy, that it’s going to be difficult making them actually interesting and relatable to female readers if only writers weren’t hampered by their desire to meet fanboy demands as well. If this is true, then it does explain a lot of things. I could go on saying that certain female characters come off as some male writers’ idea of a strong or relatable female character, but they themselves rarely come off as something a woman could’ve and would’ve come up with.

Not to mention this person goes on saying that there’s a difference between the way your usual superhero is written, as opposed to the way prose fiction characters are written. With the possible exception of some speculative writers, prose writers are expected to make their characters realistic as to be relatable, lest they lose readers along the way if they don’t. The same can’t be said of the way your average superhero is written, which would explain why the way they’re written is so outlandish as to give the impression of them being created by people out of touch with the real world. Maybe not all, but still when it comes to some.

When I think about it this way, it seems some superheroes are written by people who’re out of touch with the real world that they might as well be a true figment of their imagination. Even if it didn’t start out this way, it’s this easy to venture into utter unreality when your points of references aren’t just narrow, but also progressively out of touch with the real world. Sort of like what happened to Marvel Comics’ Kate Pryde, at any point where she was a more grounded character she became less grounded over time. It’s not enough for her to be unusually smart and athletic, but also have a pet dragon and stuff.

Compare her to Nancy Drew, who tends to have more ordinary tastes in pets. She has a dog named Togo and a cat named Snowball, that’s actually more relatable to many more people this way as well. It’s not hard to see how out of touch some superhero writers are when it comes to creating relatable characters, especially relatable female characters at that, since they all come off as their idea of what women are like and ought to be, not so much women as they really are. I even think the way they write certain characters is kind of tangential, in the sense that they’re kind of detached from the real world in some way.

Escapism is one thing, unreal characters are another. This extends to the way disabled characters and nonwhite characters are written, especially if they risk coming off as offensive stereotypes at any point. One Cassandra Cain fan intelligently pointed out the way Cassandra Cain has been written by non-Asian writers does and did risk verging on offensive racist stereotypes at various points, especially with regards to her being generally both expressionless and in a subordinate position as to be seen as submissive.

It’s not hard to see how Storm comes off as basically a white person’s idea of an exotic black person, not so much as an actual African, let alone an actual Kenyan. They’re not characters that organically come from Kenyans, if you want comics characters as created by actual Kenyans look no further than the Shujaaz characters to see something done right. The way a good number of superheroines are written over the years sometimes veers on misogynistic stereotypes and ideals as to put off female readers, it’s not surprising they’re course correcting it at this point but who knows if many more women will be drawn to superhero stories without suspicion and apprehension.

It’s not hard to see the way these stories are written don’t appeal to female readers that much, for whatever reason but the way female characters are written are off-putting for others.

The problem with DC and Marvel

When it comes to DC and Marvel having difficulties attracting new fans at all, or even casual fans at that, it’s got to do with the way their respective storytelling worlds are set up that make it harder for people to find a certain character they are or are curious about. In fact, I even think the shared universe set-up is highly inconvenient when it comes to finding said character, especially if that character doesn’t have their own magazine series of their own or their own book volume to star in that makes it harder to keep track of them at all. While both DC and Marvel’s search engines are likely getting better at making others find that character in mind, it’s too inconvenient for them to find that character especially if they’re not dedicated nor veteran readers of their stories.

While self-contained stories aren’t any better to an extent, at least you know where and when to find said character in said storyline. Especially if it’s self-contained within that story’s universe that if you’re going to find say Trish Una in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, you’ll most likely find her in the Golden Wind stories. Philippine comic strip collection volumes make it easier to find said character by grouping whatever appearances said character makes in their own namesake chapters, as it is with my Pupung and Simo and Friends books, maybe not all the time but still. The way DC and Marvel is set up unintentionally deters both casual and new readers from checking out those stories, where you’d really have to keep up with their appearances to find those stories at all.

To the point where any aspiring superhero franchise is better off without it, given it’s going to be a hassle finding said character in said story. Especially if that character doesn’t have their own magazine series or tend to be supporting characters and villains for long that inconveniences things even further, particularly if readers are curious about them at all. So the real issue with DC and Marvel isn’t so much about continuity (well sometimes), but rather how the shared universe setup inconveniences a lot of things because some readers are interested in certain characters who aren’t particularly that popular, but can’t easily find them in any way they like. To the point where it would be this easy to give up on them, as it is with me speaking from personal experience.

Combined that with ever-changing reader tastes and interests where it’s not surprising why DC and Marvel have so much difficulty catching up with them at all, if they can’t catch up with the characters they like then it’ll be an uphill battle for these two to get not only a new readership, but also a casual readership as well.

The loss of America as a superpower and what it means for ACG/geek culture

I suspect if America were to stop being a superpower at any point in time, perhaps much sooner than expected, it would have odd ramifications for other countries because no sooner or later they’ll seek any alternative to find. To give you how much of a superpower America is, much of its video games, comics and animations are globally popular and renowned. While British video games, comics and animations are also popular, they’re nowhere near the same extent their American counterparts tend to enjoy.

Maybe until now but this is to give you an idea of how much of a superpower America currently is, that much of American entertainment is globally mainstream and popular in a way Japanese entertainment isn’t is saying. At some point when America became the world’s only superpower, well sometime in the 1990s and early 2000s, it became something of a hyperpower. A singular power influencing the global stage, which would’ve further popularised American culture a lot even if British pop culture has come close.

If America does cease to be a superpower for good and if you believe certain people, may even decline in importance so drastically as to become a footnote, if nature abhors a vacuum then alternatives from anywhere else will arise. Countries will turn to their enemies and rivals more when America declines so much as a superpower, if because those supposed enemies turn out to be the ones who’ll have their backs. China’s already shaping up to be a superpower and some of its entertainment products have found international audiences.

Russia could be next if it does become a superpower again but one with the most surprising future: if you believe somebody like Celestial, not only will Russia become a superpower again it will also take over much of the western world. Many western countries will become its protectorates of sorts, mostly to avoid the fate that awaits America. America will end up as a colony in the technical sense of the word, a terrible twist of fate for a country that was at loggerheads with Russia during the Cold War. For a country that prides in its independence from Britain, it will become a colony again.

Maybe under a different country but it’s terribly ironic that it’s going to be its Cold War rival Russia this time, if Russia does become a superpower again one would wonder if its version of Winnie the Pooh will become more widely recognised and beloved the world over while Disney’s version becomes utterly forgotten to time. It would be interesting to think that a duo like Tatu would turn out to be very ahead of its time, since it used to be popular in the early 2000s. Not only that but there’s a good possibility that ACG/geek culture will get its western entertainment fix from a new Soviet Union.

A new incarnation of the Soviet Union and what could arguably be the third incarnation of the Russian Empire that includes not just France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands but also Britain, Canada and Ireland that the entertainment they’ll all produce would be Sovietish. As in attributable to the Soviet Union in some way, whatever that’s produced in say Britain and Ireland will be attributed to a new incarnation of the Soviet Union, just like how animation that got produced in Ukraine was attributable to the original Soviet Union.

Then again this could also be precisely applied to any other form of art and entertainment, any comic book or video game that gets produced in future Canada or Italy will be attributable to this new Soviet Union should these two also become Russian protectorates for long. So much so that western and Russian will become highly synonymous with one another, which is what will happen if Russia were to take over much of the western world. Not only that but Russia will fund and support future Canadian and European projects too, to the point of getting its actors into their productions.

China already did this to US productions before, Russia would be no different with British and Canadian productions. But with Russia becoming a superpower again that inevitably you’d also have Canadian and British actors working on Russian productions and co-productions one day, especially with America gone in some way that Russia will be around to have their backs. If there’s ever a North American Hollywood that will really last for ages or in the future, it would be Hollywood North (Canada’s own Hollywood). The loss of America would lead to something else for its twin.

I could imagine that the Canadian school of acting would end up becoming more heavily influenced by its Russian counterpart, if the American school of acting were to go away in the future. I suspect there’s something of a showbiz industry in Russia as it would be in America, but I get the impression that with the latter there’s a stronger emphasis on celebrity charisma over acting as an art. Not that this doesn’t exist in Russia at all, it does to an extent but not as much as it would be in America. Consequently, the Canadian school of film-making will also become more heavily influenced by its Russian counterpart.

While I don’t think film, comics and game franchises are ever going away in the west if Russia becomes a superpower the third time, but with much of the western world under its grip they will take on a different character by becoming more influenced by Russia in some way. Russia may not have that many well-known pop culture exports at this point, well that’s about to change in the future when it becomes a superpower the third time. It’s even conceivable that in order to remain relevant, western video game companies wouldn’t just be inspired by whatever Russia produces but also cater to Russia a lot.

At this point, western video game companies are influenced by American entertainment and will do anything to cater to American tastes if they’re ever going to consider international markets at all. Maybe this isn’t always nor exactly the case but you should get this by now, because America is such a superpower in recent memory that inevitably it will influence European markets and tastes a lot. If Russia becomes a superpower again, it will do the same thing to the west too. Just as America begat and popularised the superhero genre to the world, Russia will beget and popularise a new fiction school to the globe.

Whatever it may be, it could be something else altogether. It will start out as a fiction school unique to Russia that will spread to the world, just as the superhero school started out as something unique to America that has been popularised to the world to varying degrees. While there are some countries out there with a successful homegrown superhero industry and company, most notably Indonesia’s Bumilangit, there’s something about America that easily lends itself to at least two successful superhero publishers and many successful superhero franchises.

I can’t put a ring around it but I suspect it’s got to do with a history of vigilantism in America that lends itself to the way the typical superhero is written and portrayed: both take justice into their own hands regardless if it breaks the law, not even the amateur detective school of writing comes close to this. America has made such an impact on video games and the like that this is the reason why PEGI exists, if it weren’t for Mortal Kombat shocking people with gore we wouldn’t get video game age rating boards to begin with.

Similar things can be said about comics, animation and the like where if it weren’t for DC and Marvel, other countries would have never attempted at coming up with their own shared superhero universe stories. Therefore we wouldn’t get Indonesia’s Bumilangit nor Canada’s Lev Gleason if it weren’t for America’s DC and Marvel, but the loss of America would necessitate genuinely new approaches to the superhero school. New approaches to animation, comics and everything else as well that without America to anchor themselves in, they’d have to accept any alternative that either comes to them or if they deliberately seek it.

It could even happen beforehand but the loss of America as a superpower involves the loss of popularity for brands like DC, Marvel, Mortal Kombat, The Sims, Dungeons and Dragons, Overwatch and so on, nature abhors a vacuum so something else from somewhere else will take their place. This not only leads to a stronger reliance on Japanese imports and brands like the Super Mario Bros, Tekken and Resident Evil, but also a stronger reliance on imports and brands from any other country in general. Take Canada for instance.

It’s never going to be a superpower like its identical twin America is, but if somebody Canadian were to come up with a superhero sleuth mobile game it would satiate the enthusiasm and sympathy of many DC and Marvel fans. It wouldn’t exactly be like DC and Marvel, especially given its stronger emphasis on mystery, but it does have enough superhero trappings to draw in those people. If successful enough, it’ll become a long-lasting franchise. It could even spawn media adaptations like comics and the like if really successful, look no further than what both Pokemon and Super Mario Bros got.

But the loss of America would complicate matters, especially if Nintendo has a film deal with Universal, that to save face (and profits) Nintendo would have to seek a new partner to carry out film adaptations for its brands like Super Mario Bros and Pokemon. The loss of America as a superpower, as I said before, would necessitate a substitute in its place. When it comes to the loss of popularity for brands like DC and Marvel, one substitute would be Japan’s own. While Japan needn’t to be the only replacement, it would be an immediate one because it begat many beloved franchises and brands.

Things like Street Fighter and Tekken are popular enough to withstand the loss of America, popular enough to last further into the future. Similar things can be said of other games like Guilty Gear, Super Mario Bros, Pokemon, Metroid, Resident Evil and Silent Hill because Canadian, Filipino, Korean and British fans will still have their back (and backing). But it’s not just Japan that’s going to fill in big, empty shoes since China’s also shaping up to be a major superpower. It’s even the country behind things like Genshin Impact and one such company, Tencent, even owns Valorant.

They could easily stay buoyant in times of America’s economic troubles, though in order to remain relevant for long Valorant’s settings would have to be moved elsewhere if America were to disappear in the public consciousness. The loss of America as a superpower would have ramifications for its former protectorate/colony the Philippines because that would mean we would have to seek alternatives from not just those we sympathise with (Canada, Japan) but also our former enemy China. China will be the country to have our back and sympathy when America fails.

The growing easternisation of Philippine culture and thus Philippine pop culture would really take place in the wake of America’s fall, not just because I feel the Philippines is too westernised for its own good but that it will have to rely a lot more on its immediate neighbours now that America’s going away. The Philippines wouldn’t just develop stronger multilateral relations with its neighbours, but also become so strongly influenced by them that whatever sells in Japan and China will also sell here too. Not just video games and comics, but also television, music and film.

I also honestly prayed for something like those to happen, the better to further dewesternise the Philippines with. It’s something that will happen in my lifetime that with the loss of America, the Philippines will grow more reliant on its neighbours for trade and ideas. Of all the countries in the Asia-Pacific region, it’s China that will come to heavily influence this country a lot. Not just economically and politically but also socially and culturally, especially as God will undo nearly any trace of America influence here as to be forgotten over time. We’re never going to celebrate Halloween again, but rather Hungry Ghost Festival and Harvest Moon Festival instead.

We’re never going to watch American movies again, rather we’ll watch Chinese movies dubbed in Tagalog. We’ll read Chinese comics in Tagalog, we’ll play Chinese video games. We even come to celebrate the same holidays as China does, that the future of the Philippines and thus, Philippine pop culture, is Sinic. As in denoting the Sinosphere, which doesn’t just include China proper and Taiwan but also Japan, Korea and Vietnam. If China does become a superpower and get to include all of East Asia and Southeast Asia in a union, then the Sinosphere will get larger.

It will include countries that historically weren’t part of the Sinosphere, pardon if it sounds like I’m paraphrasing what Celestial said about Russia taking over the west, where this will include Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and whether if we like it or not, the Philippines too. Our tastes will become so sinicised that we come to eagerly accept and enjoy what’s also popular in China, Japan and Korea or anywhere else in the new Sinosphere, western influence isn’t going away but would decrease significantly in those years. That’s if the East Asian Union becomes more isolationist for awhile.

The Philippines is too westernised for its own good that I’ve known some Filipinos who scoff at Japanese influences in Philippine comics, yet don’t care about Filipinos working for American publications or that they work on American publications themselves. The loss of America necessitates not only a growing acceptance of Japanese influences in Philippine media, but also working on both local and non-American publications and brands a lot more. It’s if American comics were to get less popular because America has declined so much, that us Filipinos would learn to content ourselves with Japanese and Chinese alternatives more.

American comics will no longer exported to the Philippines, they’ll no longer be widely read in the Philippines either. Instead we’ll be translating and publishing Chinese, Japanese and Korean comics into Tagalog, in fact we already have with just two stories (Detective Conan and Doraemon), scratch that we’ll also be translating and publishing Chinese, Japanese and Korean books into Tagalog. It’s not just those three from Northeast Asia, but also from Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and Thailand. We’ll even be playing Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese programmes a lot on Philippine telly.

We’ll end up listening to a lot of Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Malaysian and Hong Kong music on Philippine radio, get fabric from those countries and also a lot of philosophies and ideologies too. Not only that but Chinese philosophies like Taoism and Confucianism will become really popular in the Philippines, so much so it’s come to influence our approach to video games as well. They will even influence the way we approach other things, like clothing and fabric where our element system will be directly adopted from China.

The Chinese five element system wouldn’t just become a major fixture of Philippine culture and society, it will also become a major fixture of Philippine pop culture and literature as well. Not just that but also something like Bagua becoming really popular among Filipinos, that something like the Book of Changes would also come to influence subsequent Philippine fictional stories as well. Philippine comics will come to take cues from any Taoist and Confucian text, if these two philosophies come to heavily influence the Philippines a lot.

Same thing goes for Philippine video games that it’s possible some Philippine game developers will take cues from the Book of Changes to do a video game with, just as wuxing will come to influence Philippine fantasy works a lot. But a more interesting change to come is that meng aesthetics will be more widely accepted by and adopted into Philippine ACG/geek culture, far more than it did before now that America as a superpower is either gone or has diminished a lot.

As I said before that the loss of America necessitates countries to seek any alternative they can find, it needn’t to be Canada and Japan but also something like Russia and China (both of them are America’s current rivals). The decline of America also means less American influence in Philippine culture, though it would be used in China’s favour now that it has the opportunity to heavily influence us a lot.

It wouldn’t just be China that’ll heavily influence the Philippines a lot, but also Japan and Korea among others. I actually come to think brands coming from our immediate neighbours would also act as adequate and even acceptable substitutes for their American counterparts, once America declines as a superpower, something like Sanrio would be a good substitute for Disney just as Bumilangit would be a good substitute for Marvel. It will take time accepting some of these new alternatives/substitutes, but things like Sanrio are already popular in the Philippines.

So it would be business as usual if a Sanrio store replaces a Disney store in SM Mall of Asia, because Filipinos are already familiar with the former on some level. Because Sanrio also churns out animated adaptations of their characters that it will fill the same role Disney did for Filipinos when it comes to quality family entertainment, if not Sanrio then things like Mashimaro and Pororo will do. I guess when it comes to Japanese entertainment, while it already has something of a following here, some of it’s harder to earn the trust from other people for objectionable content.

While it still wouldn’t be any better if America declines in stature, but with a lot of American entertainment (even family entertainment at that) come from a poisoned well, spiritually speaking, that in reality we’re much better off without those. So without a Disney for Filipinos to get their family entertainment fix from, we wouldn’t just learn to prioritise local brands more but also Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Hong Kong brands too. Something like McDull could prove to be a hit among Filipinos, especially in search of more Asian family entertainment.

While things like McDull, Sanrio, Pororo, Doraemon and even something like Mashimaro could satiate Philippine appetites for family and kid entertainment, there’s been some talk of Disney being an enabler and doer of American imperialism. This was discussed in a book called How To Read Donald Duck/Para Leer Al Pato Donald where Disney comics serve to impose and normalise American values, it needn’t to be Disney comics to do the job when Radio Disney’s continued popularity and persistence in Latin America does similar things, but with American music instead.

You could also hear American music on Ghanaian, Philippine and Kenyan radio stations by the way, speaking from my experience listening to the radio. Disney even localised programmes like Good Luck Charlie, The Suite Life With Zack and Cody and a few others for the Indian market, so it’s not hard to see how Disney not only contributes to the US economy but also helps popularise American worldviews and tastes a lot. In fact it could be said that due to Disney’s contributions to the American economy that its productions and products help impose American tastes and values onto everybody else.

The Philippines included that many Filipinos commonly associate Disney with family entertainment, it may not be the sole source of family entertainment but rather the first thing to come to mind. The loss of America as a superpower would mean not only is it too late to open a Disney Store in the Philippines, but that we will come to accept and enjoy whatever alternative we seek or is offered to us. It’s going to take time for more Filipinos to trust and enjoy things like Bumlangit, Mashimaro and what else, these brands will surely grow on them when America’s gone.

But I feel the loss of America’s popularity would necessitate an alternative or substitute in its place, something that is similar enough to make others feel at home in some way. Sanrio could work for Filipinos seeking their family entertainment fix, Bumilangit could work for Filipinos seeking their superhero fix. But it could also be something like McDull and Pororo, well for the former since they could work just as fine.

It could also be a local product filling in the void, whatever those are but America’s loss could be another country’s gain. It could also offer an opportunity for some countries like the Philippines and Canada to break free of America’s grip, the former to be truly dewesternised for good when it gets heavily influenced by China and the latter to break away from America’s shadow.

The loss of America would potentially have the Philippines warming up to China a lot more, or at least just more than it does today, but as a viable and practical alternative. Further trade relations would result in a more sinicised Philippines, though the full extent of sinicisation has yet to be played out. But if God can remove almost anything American as to be forgotten because much of it’s no good, then there’s a good probability of the Philippines becoming really sinicised. Only this girl could dream but it’s something to minimise any degree of westernisation here in the Philippines.

Canada still wouldn’t become a superpower and may never become one at all, though by the virtue of being a Russian protectorate it could paradoxically forge a more distinctive personality. It would become one of the three Anglophone Russian protectorates (the other two are Britain and Ireland), but also the sole North American protectorate Russia will ever have. A Russified Canada would be born from developing stronger ties to Russia, one with big ramifications for the Arctic and a more terrible irony for Americans is that one day Russia will give Alaska to Canada as a gift.

Whatever happens will happen and America’s fall from grace will happen anyways, so people will seek any substitute or alternative or turn to one by chance and necessity.

Los Angeles Blues

There are prophecies about parts of America drowning into the ocean forever and this one comes from Elizabeth Marie, much like what Celestial said on her own blog, parts of America and especially California will disappear by drowning. From the outset, states like California seem cool and appealing. Appealing enough to draw Britons in, be it musicians like Felix and David J or actors like Elizabeth Taylor. Perhaps because as what David J’s brother Kevin puts it, it’s different from Britain (the Pacific Northwest would be too similar as to be too close for comfort, climate wise.)

Another reason why parts of California will disappear forever is that it’s one of those states that produces the most filth in the world, not just because people defecate in the open but also because it produces and exports porn and other regrettable, shameful stuff. That you have Satanists in Hollywood consecrating films to the Devil would explain why they’re getting morally and theologically worse by the minute, even if some producers and directors can get saved in time but God can only spare so much if they repent or turn to him in some way.

Celestial also had a prophecy where Los Angeles will be burnt real badly, worse than what San Francisco got that it’s really going to destroy celebrity homes when it does. Somebody else had a prophecy of California being hit real badly by a 10.3 earthquake, a superquake if there ever was one at all which doesn’t help when you realise that California and the Pacific Northwest are in the Ring of Fire that no sooner or later they’re going to disappear from sight. Disappearing into the ocean and sea, some places will be nuked and some will be razed to the ground.

For some fans of brands and companies like Disney, Activision Blizzard and the like if some of them are going to disappear into the ocean due to not only producing filth themselves, but also in close proximity to the filthier industries in California that we might as well have to say goodbye to them. It’s going to be hard and tough given our emotional attachment to those brands and franchises, be it Overwatch or DC Comics but spiritually speaking they’ve got to go. It would be real tough letting go of these brands, especially if there’s not a substitute they can anchor themselves to.

To the point where I think if America does decline a lot in power and stature that a country like the Philippines would have to turn to viable alternatives instead, preferably from the East since I feel this country’s too westernised for its own good. I think Sanrio, McDull and Mashimaro are good substitutes for Disney and Warner Bros (especially Looney Tunes) because the former two scratch the itch for wholesome, kid-friendly entertainment and the latter for cartoony whackiness, though it’s going to take some time for them to grow on people. It’s also going to take time for people to warm up to Bumilangit too.

For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, McDull’s about the day to day life of a pig boy while Mashimaro’s about the antics of a white rabbit. Bumilangit is an Indonesian brand and company behind characters like Si Bulan (though she’s not a superhero, just a kid cook), Gundala (manipulates electricity), Virgo (manipulates fire) and Pangeran Mlaar (can elongate himself to preternatural lengths). Sanrio needs no extensive introduction as it’s already popular enough to spawn a lot of merchandise like fabric, pad paper and notebooks, speaking from personal experience.

But they all act as good substitutes for their American counterparts, especially if they can be marketed to Filipinos seeking something similar to latch onto. It would be a little trickier for western countries like Britain and Canada, especially if their own homegrown superhero franchises aren’t particularly big and that they enjoy DC and Marvel more that a hugely successful franchise would have to be invented to get their attention. France’s Miraculous Ladybug has come close though not all European countries have a successful homegrown superhero industry to fall back on, should America ever decline in some way or another.

As for Disney itself, currently it’s a very popular brand in the Philippines. But because of both prophecies involving America’s imminent decline and America’s growing debt that it would actually be too late to start a Disney Store here, it would also be too late to start a Radio Disney here whereas it had all the time to do it in Latin America. As a corporation, it was able to beat the clock by franchising Radio Disney in Latin America and in the Mexican branch’s case, it was able to beat the clock enough to return to Mexican airwaves.

But it’s not going to work here in the Philippines for reasons I said before, not to mention Philippine radio stations will air a lot of East and Southeast Asian music instead. One could expect one’s favourite radio station in the Philippines to play more older OPM (original Pinoy music), more older Korean music, more older Chinese music and so on though this depends on the individual station to a variable degree. However it’s going to happen anyways due to my intercession, especially given my nagging suspicions of an American decline and disdain for westernisation.

Even if it were possible for these corporations to persist in some form in the future, Celestial had a prophecy where America will become a Russian colony one day. So if these corporations were to survive in the future, they will all become Russian companies by default when this happens. With Russia set to take over much of the western world, that’s by making them into protectorates (her wording) that inevitably the words Russian and western will become highly synonymous with one another.

That America is Mystery Babylon and eventually forgotten to time, with God undoing any trace of American influence anywhere and everywhere in the world is frighteningly telling.