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demiurgent Whistling in the Dark -
wednesday eyecatch
Readercon’s Convention Committee, after taking the time to carefully examine the decision of their Board of Directors and the firestorm of controversy that followed that decision, has issued a statement detailing their response to the situation. In brief: they have admitted culpability, apologized in detail and depth, overturned the decision of the board, applied the Zero Tolerance policy in full to “Bob” (yes, I know I’m the only guy left on the internet who doesn’t name the parties involved. Allow me my indulgences), and accepted the resignations of all the board members. They have also committed to updating and improving their policies — hopefully taking out the Zero Tolerance bits while developing a means of response that protects the safety of the convention — and papering the next Readercon with notices and guides for avoiding harassment and reporting it when and if it happens. They have also offered refunds to anyone who prepaid for Readercon and doesn’t feel they can attend regardless of this response.
Go ahead and click the link above. It’s worth the read.
On the whole, this was the best response they could have had. It clearly accepts responsibility for what happened, takes steps to vindicate those who spoke up, restores the penalties as they were listed — heck, give me a second and I’ll reproduce the penalties section:
The concom has voted to overturn the board’s decision in the matter of harassment committed by [Bob], and to permanently ban him from attending or participating in Readercon in any way. He may not purchase or otherwise acquire a membership; he may not participate in the program; he may not be or work for a dealer in the bookroom; he may not join any Readercon committee; he may not volunteer. We have informed [Bob] of this ban and he has not contested it.
I am a big, big fan of unambiguous statements, and this is a doozy. It makes it clear that this is a real ban, not one that can be worked around. (I can’t imagine Bob intended to try and work around the restrictions anyway.)
Of particular note is their acceptance of responsibility and their apology. They didn’t try to mitigate their responsibility or deflect any of the blame. They simply stated their culpability and their commitment to resolving the situation.
My post on the subject was largely about how the original ruling by the Board had caused a lot more damage to everyone involved than simply banning Bob in the first place had done. So, the question now is — how does the response mitigate that damage? Is Readercon out of the woods? Are the victims? For that matter, does this allow Bob to express contrition and move on as well?
I don’t know.
I think it was the best response they could have — in part because it feels sincere, instead of feeling like damage control. (Whether or not it was sincere is beyond my capability to report, in as much as I lack clairvoyance, telepathy or magic.) However, there was a lot of reporting and damage done, and it took long enough (thanks to the realities of a ConCom’s deliberations even in the Information Age) that there was plenty of time for the poison to spread in Readercon’s well. Will their numbers be down next year? I wouldn’t be surprised.
Further, the review and redevelopment of their Harassment policies is all to the good. Lacking nuance can only lead to pain, as we’ve learned. I hope what will emerge is a policy that outlines a series of potential penalties, up to and including a permanent ban. What may work better — which is to say, erring on the side of safety and affirmation of the victim’s experience while eschewing absolutism — is to ban the perpetrator for the foreseeable future, and then list at what point the perpetrator can petition for reinstatement, as well as the criteria that will need to be shown. That puts the burden on the perpetrator to show proper contrition through action as well as words, and gives the Convention cover should they elect not to reinstate him or her. That’s just one potential way to improve the current policy, of course.
As for the victim and her supporters — the sense of vindication and justice would have to be profound. There is something to be said for the glaring spotlight of indignation being shone on the subject of Con Harassment. While Readercon is (and must) reviewing their policy and will be under a microscope during the process, this situation should be a wake-up call for every fan-run convention: no one wants this to happen again, either to an attendee or to a convention itself. With luck, there will be a lot of different reviews going on.
(An interconvention committee might be a good idea — letting experienced con-runners debate and discuss the issues openly, to help put together a model antiharassment policy for individual conventions to adopt or adapt as needed. Many eyes make for fewer bugs, et al. Of course, herding cats would be easier than fans blah blah blah aphorism.)
Finally, what does this mean for Bob?
Bob’s going to have a rough time of it. There isn’t a convention or fan gathering he can attend without having at least some attention focused on him for this. And I can’t say this breaks my heart — my sympathies remain with the victim. Still, what should have been specific to a single convention (though public enough to give warning to others to watch his behavior) has become fan-wide, and I don’t see Bob recovering from that anytime soon. Internet justice is the justice of chainsaw and grenade, which is why it’s a bad idea to fall back on the internet community’s response for corrective behavior.
Still, all this is resolved, in terms of this specific incident. The discussion is ongoing and will be for some time. With luck and work, this will lead to conventions having clearer, better put together policies against harassment and much greater transparency in their execution of those policies.
Nothing’s going to make this a winning situation for Bob, Carol or Readercon. Nothing could. But maybe — just maybe — this can turn into a win for fandom and fan organizations in general.
Yeah, I enjoyed this one. Well, maybe Luke Cage didn’t need to channel his inner Rayne Summers, but what can you do?
Not that. But I digress.
The whole marriage between Storm and the Black Panther seemed… just wrong to me in the first place. Maybe because the apparently predestined marriage of a Kenyan woman from what was likely a Kikuya, Ameru or Maasai tribe that was actually still organized around traditional lines (save that they abandoned the rich religious spirituality that each tribe developed individually from common roots so they could worship a mutant who could make it rain — a function normally ascribed to a sangoma)to the tribal leader of a rival tribe that was actually the ruling clan of the most technologically advanced nation on Earth managed to completely ignore the incredibly complicated multi-ethnic and multi-national situation spread across the African continent in favor of simply making them “African.” Or, let’s be blunt, “black.”
Or maybe it was because they made an admitted editorial decision to target African American women with their comics — itself a good goal — and felt the best way to do that was to ramrod and retcon a relationship between their two African characters, ignoring decades of history for the characters, an incredible and diverse backstory and web of relationships for Storm, and pretty much all of the byzantine and politically nuanced development of the Black Panther in favor of popping a rating.
Or maybe it was because in 1980 a backstory was established where a 12 year old Ororo saves the Black Panther from racists, but in the run-up to this spontaneous marriage the Black Panther saves her from them instead, because… um… I guess because otherwise it wouldn’t appeal to their target market? Heh? Oh, and then they had sex.
Stop and be skeeved, my friends. Stop and be skeeved.
Or maybe it was the fact that all of the above is racist, sexist, and reductionist when put together.
So I don’t mind this development, and I dearly hope the plan is to spend the next thirty years not mentioning this marriage ever again.
On the other hand, I have to applaud the strange groundbreaking concept of annulment for the dissolving of a comic book marriage instead of a universal cosmic retcon/reboot, one of the two being horribly killed, or the pair making some kind of pact with the devil. It’s a shocking, risky move, I know.
During SDCC DC Comics confirmed that Renee Montoya won’t be showing up in the new 52. Not surprising actually as the writer most associated with her, Greg Rucka, has said that his conversations with DC “made it very clear they had no interest in seeing Renee continue, either as the Question or…
I missed this last year. It’s freaking great — beautifully drawn (and in an idiosyncratic style most mainstream comics lack right now) with characters and situations that remind us how rich the DC Universe was before the New 52. I don’t mean to suggest the New 52 lacks richness now, but it’s not the same.
Honestly, I don’t know why DC doesn’t have selected Pre52 titles as online comics right now, but it’s something I’d like to see. I’d heartily encourage fans to keep up a Fannish Pre52 universe (even form an alliance to do so, maybe even on the old ‘Webring’ model which now just makes me sound old), but given the huge effort such a thing would take for, essentially, no money? I’ll just enjoy things like this when they come up.
Still, if itswallie wanted to continue the adventures of Pre52 Wally West, I sure as Hell wouldn’t say no….
The latest run of Young Justice is called “Invasion,” and while it is not in any way the same, it draws certain elements off a late 80’s comics crossover called “Invasion,” in particular focusing on the discovery and exploitation of the Metagene and ways to eliminate powers, control metahumanity and the like, as well as the use of shapeshiftes (Durlans in the original).
“Invasion,” the comics crossover was plotted largely by Keith Giffen, working with scripter Bill Mantlo. Mantlo, known more for his Marvel work, where he created and developed long runs on the Micronauts and Rom, as well as creating properties like Cloak and Dagger, was involved in an automobile hit and run in 1992, which gave him irreparable brain damage. He had some progress getting better, after institutionalization, but his insurance ran out and he ended up in the only care facility his family could afford (and that just barely). The story is heart-rending for anyone to read. For someone who grew up with his comics, it is agony to think about.
DC? Warner? You don’t owe Bill Mantlo anything, legally. He did a job for you, did it well, was paid and you both move on. I don’t mean or want to claim otherwise. (I might have choice words for Marvel in this regard, but not DC). But here you are, drawing elements off work Mantlo did for you for a storyline in a popular cartoon. This is an opportunity. An opportunity for great press. An opportunity to have a public statement — to say “we recognize that we have no financial obligation to Bill Mantlo, but we and all the modern comics industry owes a lot to this man, and as the “Invasion” storyline develops, we want to demonstrate the kind of heroism we have always stood for.”
Please. Subsidize Mantlo’s care. It might be too late to give him the kind of recovery he once could have had, but at the least you can greatly improve his quality of life. At the least what progress could be made could be made.
I don’t have much I can offer as inducement, but here’s what I can offer. I’ve been critical of the New 52. I don’t apologize for that. But if you do this… I’ll buy every issue of every comic in the New 52 produced in its first year. It will take some time — I’m not particularly flush — but as long as they remain available via Comixology I’ll do it. I’ll buy all the good ones I couldn’t get to. I’ll buy all the ones I don’t care for. Hell, I’ll buy all the ones I actively dislike. Red Hood and the Outlaws? I’ll buy every. Stinking. Issue.
Like I said, it’s not much, but it’s what I can offer. It absolutely pales in comparison to what you can offer Bill Mantlo, his family and his legacy.
Please.
After years of enduring Rayne’s sense of humor, self-centered demands, lack of attention span, and willingness to buy the two of them a house—
Hey, it’s not all bad.
—John’s heart has slowly ossified until all that remains is a calcified valve that barely allows blood to pass through. In asking John to listen to a heart that no longer speaks to him, he has reaped what he has sown. Sad eyes, Rayne. Sad eyes in-deed.
Upon hearing of the death of Gore Vidal, I had an immediate, almost visceral reaction, which I immortalized in Twitter form. That is the rhetoric of the age — immediate thoughts, put out in a form that was immediately visible for all to see. It was, in its way, the anthesis of Gore Vidal’s writing.
Still, I stand by it the next day, and will cheerfully reproduce it here:
I called the (inevitable) political cartoons of Vidal at the Pearly Gates inappropriate for two reasons: one, because Gore Vidal didn’t believe in Heaven. As with Christopher Reeve (an Atheist) and George Harrison (a Buddhist), there is something vaguely offensive of depicting Gore Vidal’s undergoing Heavenly judgment in an affectionate style. And two, because Vidal claimed Buckley was in Hell, and I have to believe if given the choice, he’d pursue him down there.
But, if there’s a Buckley knife fight. I’ll forgive them. More after the break.
I am not a Christian. I am also not a Conservative. I have opinions which are not held by neither the average Conservative Christian nor the average Christian Conservative. This is my right, even as they have the right to be Christian and Conservative.
However, I am also a writer. Right now, I’m writing a (I believe this is the term) fuck-ton of fiction.
I work very hard, both in terms of necessary research and in building writing skills, in making realistic, sympathetic Christians, Conservatives, Conservative Christians and Christian Conservatives in my stories. I have been dismissive before, and been rightly called on it. And I try to learn from my experiences. And, when I’m writing, I’m trying to reflect the world and nation I live in — in particular, a nation where forty percent describe themselves as conservative or very conservative and (as of 2008) seventy-six percent describe themselves under the very broad rubric of Christian.
I have very little interest in making forty percent of the characters in my stories one dimensional strawmen. I have even less interest in making seventy-six percent of the characters in my book intolerant ideologues. And when I write about those forty or seventy-six percent, I would like to do so accurately.
Why? Well, one seminal Christian principle, which is common to many other religions, is summed up in two verses. Matthew 7:12 (Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets) and Luke 6:31: (And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.) I would like my own philosophy, ethics, beliefs and principles to be represented well in the fiction of others. Further, I would like a character modeled on myself to have nuance and depth, being more than a mouthpiece for an overly simplistic interpretation of what someone on the other side of the aisle thinks about Liberals or Agnostics. The only way I know to encourage that is to live by it.
And if it doesn’t happen? If my ilk are characterized… well, as ideologues of any political or philosophical bent often characterize those different than themselves? Hey, at least one of the two of us will write with the empathy and compassion mandated by Scripture, right?
I’m actually building up a longer article about Sinfest, because it’s doing some really interesting stuff with a lot of nuance, and it deserves deeper analysis.
But, sometimes, things don’t wait for the 5000 word essay.
In this case… there’s really nothing that says “we’re a 30+ year old submovement within the basic struggle for equal and civil rights for women that has debated and discussed the meanings of sexual identity and the reclamation of personal sexuality and sexual decisions as the ineffable right of the individual versus their political and cultural overtones” like a man telling you that you’re all wrong.
Let’s open with a link, shall we?
http://blog.bcholmes.org/the-readercon-thing/#more-169
So. The link above is to a really well done roundup of all the debate surrounding a case of harassment at Readercon 23, held from July 12-15 in Burlington, Massachusetts. I’m not going to rehash it in any depth. In particular, I’m not going to directly name names of the people involved. They’re readily available. The source material in that post above has them. You can find them. But I don’t particularly want to mention the perpetrator’s name and I can’t imagine the victim needs her name brought up again. I’ll go into some basic explanation after the break, but really you should go up to that link and get lots of detail and perspective.
dvandom Asks:
websnark Said:
Though it was the Snarkoleptics group, and that remains cool, it wasn’t ever actually my group for such matters. I’m not sure if I’m listed as a moderator or not — last I knew, it was McKenzee’s project. I’ll have a look later and see what can be done.
I talk a lot of smack about Hazel, because… well, because in a comic strip full of fleshed out, well realized, flawed but not defined by their flaws characters — one of my favorites, I would add — Hazel stands out as a shallow, selfish hopeless alcoholic lacking empathy and sympathy for those around her.
Seriously. She’s a better human being than Candy, but only just. And Candy is used as a foil most of the time, not a protagonist.
So… I’m liking this. Granted, we opened with hopeless alcoholism (because that’s our Hazel! Hee!) But… like she said in yesterday’s strip, she’s being forced to have feelings, and maybe — just maybe — that’ll give us some depth.
Until the next time, anyway.
YOU GUYS
LIGHTNING HIT THE SALOON
WHERE WE GONNA GET OUR SARSAPARILLAS
Damn it, Billy Batson — you’re a son of a bitch when you’re drunk.
…what the Hell with Webcomics Nation? Did it go dark?
Man, I hope I have a coherent backup of the General.
EDIT: As per @joeymanley, the site is back up, after the team worked on it. Sounds like a technical glitch.
For decades Marvel has been trying to come out with their own version of Superman. Some might say the Hulk is it, some might say Thor, but neither of them really fit the bill in terms of Marvel having an iconic strongman “truth, justice,” and blah blah character like DC has with the Man of Steel. They have tried tons of times to create this mcguffin and have failed, sometimes miserably so. The most recent and infamous example of one of these failed attempts would be this guy:
The Sentry make his debut back in 2000 in a miniseries after a little hoax put out by Marvel trying to establish some long forgotten super character into the histories of some of their other creations. He was basically a blond Superman with schizophrenia and some serious drug addiction issues.
He started out okay but unfortunately he eventually fell under the pens of writers who didn’t have a clue what to do with him. Fans hated him…and I mean REAL HATRED. If you are feeling very, very brave sometime go on any comicbook discussion website, message forum, or whatever and start a thread on discussion of this guy. Have a bottle of something very strong handy. I’m serious the only other characters I have ever seen generate so much fanboy rage and vitriol directed towards them and the people who like the character and generate so much controversy are Batman, Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Hal Jordan.
To be fair though Marvel really, really shagged the pooch with this one and eventually things got so bad that they were forced to kill him off. That seemed like the end of Marvel’s little experiment with creating their much desired Superman character.
What took Marvel so long to realize was that they already had one. They’ve had one for years. It just took them a few decades to come to this realization because their Superman character is a woman.
Ms. Marvel was created back in the 70s as a sort of female version of Captain Marvel, at the time the Kree superhero known as Mar-Vell…and back then HE was the Superman character for Marvel, an alien soldier from another galaxy who came to Earth and eventually became a superhero. Through some freak accident during a battle between Mar-Vell and one of his enemies Carol was exposed to some radiation that somehow altered her DNA to resemble Mar-Vell’s since he was holding her at the time. As a result she got all of his powers.
Years later she was stripped of those powers but then got some new powers when she was experimented by Marvel’s little villainous aliens the Brood. She became Binary, spent some years flying around the galaxy with space pirates, and then became slightly depowered again and went to calling herself Warbird.
In the early 2000s Marvel decided to have her start calling herself Ms. Marvel again and Bendis took her on in his Might Avengers book. He made her the leader and of course since he’s Brian Michael Bendis and Ms. Marvel’s first name isn’t Jessica (*ahem*) he proceeded to do nothing with that except have Doctor Doom call her a “fat cow” at one point, and have Ares mistake her threatening him with physical harm for flirting.
Marvel tried to have a solo series for her but it was canceled after 50 issues…not a bad run for a typical Marvel owned female solo title since it actually lasted longer than many others, but the way it ended and why wasn’t so great.
Anyway Marvel was trying to establish Carol as their “premiere superheroine”, their version of Wonder Woman, with Sentry as their Superman, and Moon Knight as their ripoff of Batman. It didn’t go over too well since as I said Sentry was pretty much universally loathed, no one knew who Moon Knight was, and Carol…well, about the only thing that she and Diana have in common is that they’re both women and they’re both really, really strong.
See when I said that Marvel already had a Superman character, I wasn’t just referring to the surface commonalties like the fact that they are both super strong. To make my point I’m just going to list their attributes in bullet points below.
First up is the big guy himself.
—stands for Truth, Justice, and the American Way
—alien born on another planet
—absorbs energy from the sun, allowing him his powers
—powers include flight, super strength, super-speed, super-senses, about a gazillion different types of vision, and energy projection (mostly via heat beams from his eyes)
—works at a newspaper
—invulnerable to most forms of harm
—can survive in space
Just a few there that immediately come to mind.
Carol:
—she was a U.S. Airforce colonel. Doesn’t get much more American than that.
—powers derived from alien DNA
—can absorb all sorts of energy, including solar (also nuclear, sonic, electricity, and others). The more energy she absorbs the more powerful she gets.
—powerset includes superstrength (even the Avengers: Earth Mightest Heroes cartoon stated that she was as strong as the Hulk), flight, superspeed, and energy projection (mostly in the form of photon blasts from her hands). In extreme situations she has the capability to go back to her full Binary powers.
For awhile there back in the 70s she possessed a sort of “seventh sense” allowing her to know when danger was coming. It hasn’t really made an appearance in recent years.
—worked at a newspaper (same one Peter Parker did in fact) writing some column/magazine
—invulnerable to most forms of harm
—can survive in space
Now let’s look at Diana:
—big on Love, Compassion, and only resorting to violence when necessary
—pre-new 52: made of clay and blessed by Greek Gods
—post new 52: daughter of Zeus
—has a mother she doesn’t always see eye-to-eye on (most times in fact)
—came to “Man’s World” on a mission of peace and has become Earth’s defender.
Beyond the powerset and the gender she really doesn’t have much in common with Carol Danvers. In fact I can’t say Marvel really has anyone who would fit the bill as their version of Wonder Woman. I mean created by pagan gods/is a pagan god, has a parental figure they don’t get along with, and has been humbled by some time on Earth and has become it’s protector? Can’t think of anyone who would even come close….
Alright, alright, I’ll admit I’m probably stretching it a bit there.
Anyway point is that Carol has long fit the bill for Marvel’s long-sought after Superman character. Before her there was Captain Mar-vell, whose return from the dead has been teased…and teased…and teased….and….teased….over the years ever since the graphic novel “Death of Captain Marvel” came out, but let’s face it: They aren’t ever going to bring him back and if they ever do it’s been teased so much that by now people are sick of it and they would react with a big ole “Meh”.
Captain Marvel #1 comes out next week but Carol made her debut as Captain Marvel in an issue of Avenging Spider-Man today. I look forward to reading it.
The costume is actually growing on me. I wasn’t too crazy about it at first but now…eh, it’s cool. But the HAIR…
Marvel, the 1980s called. They want their hairstyle back. Seriously…..the costume I can live with and as I said it’s growing on me. But a fucking mullet?! Really?
I have little to add to this, save that I’m entirely in agreement.
In a world where DC is only beginning to figure out maybe, just maybe, they made a tactical error in alienating half the human population… Marvel has discarded the female-centric element of Carol Danvers’s name — the ‘Ms.’ that, disingenuously given the feminist origins of the pronoun, relegated her to being “Woman” instead of plain “Hero” — and instead christened her with one of the oldest and most legendary hero names on the landscape.
And with DC’s rather… ridiculous… decision to just call the original Big Red Cheese ‘Shazam,’ she is the only Captain Marvel.
If they ever do another Marvel vs. DC comic, forget fighting the Hulk. I want Supes taking on the Captain. And I’m not going to swear he’ll win.
EDIT: I meant to make mention of Monica Rambeau, who was Captain Marvel first, before she had the first of two codenames taken away by… well, the same guy. And we should acknowledge that before editorial fiat decided to wreck her for no real reason, Mary Batson was technically one of “the Captains Marvel” in her modern incarnation — but everyone everywhere just called her Mary Marvel anyway, so….
Just a fast note to say that some of the Mythology of the Modern World myth suggestions I’ve been getting are fantastic, and I’m really looking forward to answering them. The process of getting the answers done is actually really long (in part because I want to do this right by the stories, in part because I want a really long buffer before I start posting anything anywhere), but I wanted to say “wow — thank you!”
Here are just a few of the questions I’ve gotten. There are (quite a few) more I’m looking forward to answering, but this is a nice sample:
- Why do there seem to be a handful of a few chosen people who seem to always be able to find to spot on the subway platform to stand do that when the train arrives, the doors open right in front of them ?
- Why are so many internet commentators barely literate people with anger issues? (Admittedly, that one might have had a buried second meaning.)
- Why is it so much easier to find a lost or misplaced book after you buy a replacement?
- Why does it take me the same length of time to get somewhere no matter how which mode of transport I take? e.g. London to Edinburgh: Car = Short flight, but long security = Fast train, but slow buses from station at either end.
Got a burning question about the hidden nature of the world? Ask it here!
