I had written an introduction for this piece... and then deleted it. And then rewrote it. And then deleted it again.
Look, folks, at the above image. I know it's kinda painful to look at, because the art's mostly cringe, but read that dialogue. Peter, badly done hair and all, is saying something that is so basic, so fundamental, that only low art could pull it off: perfect love drives out all fear. No, I don't know the rest of the context of this comic. I've not read it before. I don't really need to, and frankly I'm not sure I want to! Love and fear cannot coexist. This a basic fact of the universe. Love makes us less and less like animals, and more and more people. A person who has love will see the way of the animal, the way of instinct, know it is an option, but ultimately reject it... because they are not an animal. And cannot be. Now, the trick is that no one's love is perfect. There is always a line all human beings have. And that line is unique to them. But even in failure that person is still far more noble than someone who never had love to begin with.
Let us examine two things the fandoms hate and critique them with this lens, shall we? We'll do One More Day and The Last Jedi.
For those of you who are blessed to not know what One More Day is... well, I'm sorry. You're going to find out if you keep reading. I almost recommend you not read on. For the rest of you who are cursed with the knowledge that is One More Day.. well I'm sorry. For those blissfully ignorant, who wish to lose their innocence: One More Day is the story where Peter Parker and Mary-Jane sell their marriage to Mephisto, a second-rate demonic figure in Marvel lore, because he claims he can save Aunt May, when somehow no one else in the Marvel Universe can.
No, I'm not making that up.
Yes, that's stupid. Just at its base, that may be one of the dumbest things a mortal mind can conceive.
But it happened.
How did that happen? Well, in order to start, I have to introduce you to the beginning of the end of Marvel: the Civil War event. See, One More Day really starts there. The story of Civil War begins when a villain by the name of Nitro blows up an entire school of kids. In the wake of a tragedy that has assuredly never happened in Marvel history before, the mob supposedly screams out for the registration, training, and subjugation of all super-powered beings.
Let us stop, for just one second, and think about how stupid an idea this is.
You are trying to tell people who are smarter, faster, stronger, better than the normal population that somehow, some strange way hitherto not done, they're going to be contained? And that somehow it doesn't go dystopian from there? Look, we've been seeing this sorta thing talked about in X-Men comics for decades. We know where this goes. All the Marvel heroes knows where this goes. This shouldn't be a line any Marvel hero crosses, just to begin with. But somehow Iron Man, the one guy who doesn't do governmental overreach, is the one who decides that he's going to step up and be the bad guy? I could go on about Civil War and how it's actually the character assassination of every single Marvel hero, ever, particularly Bishop, who somehow is pro-registration??? That one really made no sense.
But we're not here for Iron Man and Bishop, are we? We're here for Spider-Man. See, Spider-Man went pro-registration at first. Which is a... weird... move for the guy who historically has wanted to live in the shadows and not really be noticed by anyone, if he can help it. In the main Civil War event Spider-Man publicly unmasked in support of the new totalitarian regime. It's this sudden shock move that has no substantial explanation and is barely talked about in the event itself, until suddenly Spider-Man changes his mind mid-way through with the most paper thin of explanations.
However, in the Spidey comics themselves, I personally think this move was built up to really well. J. Michael Straczynski, the writer of Amazing Spider-Man, really took his time here. He first showed Spider-Man transitioning to becoming a team player, an Avenger. Then Tony Stark helps Peter out when his house is destroyed. He takes him in. Gives him a new suit. Helps the Parkers get through the... wretchedness... that is The Other storyline. A lot of people complain/ed that Peter throwing in with Tony came out of nowhere. Nothing could be further from the truth. Tony Stark was stepping up as a mentor in Peter's life. I actually really liked it. This was actually a really good match, one that I wish Marvel had allowed Straczynski to take years to explore more. Iron Man and Spider-Man's books could have bled together a bit, with Peter having a real impact on Tony's life. It's actually a really cool idea.
So, when Tony Stark decides to become a totalitarian asshole, it is in Peter's character to at least consider it. Peter's actually a pretty simple character in this regard. He has always wanted to support his family and friends, and Tony had more than earned that much from Peter. So, Peter unmasking was an evolution of the concept of Spider-Man. Peter Parker resolved to stop hiding from people. Encouraged by Aunt May and Mary-Jane that he, himself, is someone worthy of being loved, Peter Parker takes the final step. The fundamental formula of Peter Parker as Spider-Man had changed. And it should have. While this isn't a perfect writing decision but pretending that Peter wasn't coming from a place of love, something that Straczynski had taken most of his arc to build, is just raging stupidity. And pretending that this wasn't a part of Peter Parker becoming the Uncle Ben of the Marvel Universe is just as stupid.
Well, this had predictable results, once Spider-Man decided that totalitarianism, surprise of surprises, wasn't something to back.
Peter handles that well.
Yes, he's throwing a Jeep at the sniper. A whole Jeep. Man, I miss competent Spider-Man writing that's not the current Ultimate Spider-Man run.
Peter goes on a rampage. Sure, this part makes sense. Putting on the black costume is stupid, sure, but the concept of Peter Parker having enough and burning the whole world down because Aunt May was shot is... well... yes. Peter, like all of us, gets tired and eventually the animal is going to win out. Fine with that. So far Peter is acting like someone for whom love has transformed, but not all the way. Because nobody ever is totally transformed by love, not in this life.
And then One More Day. Where somehow in a land of mysticism and tech that's so advanced that it is magic, no one can save Aunt May. Except Mephisto, a second-rate demon that has been knocked around by more than a few heroes in the Marvel Universe. Somehow this dude is able to save Aunt May... if Peter Parker and Mary Jane sell their marriage. Suddenly, the man who has been slowly transformed by the love of his wife and aunt is afraid. Going on a revenge tour for Aunt May getting shot is one thing, but to undo the thing that she created because of her love? There's a whole host of problems with this decision, but the biggest one is simply that it wouldn't occur to Peter or Mary-Jane as an option. It's almost like there's a totally different writer here!
Oh wait!
See, Quesada, the editor-in-chief of Marvel at the time, basically wrote this issue, using Straczynski's far greater talent to at least attempt profundity. But... I mean... the shift is so profound that everyone caught it. Immediately. Because low art has only one thing going for it: heart. That's what makes it work. It's not technically proficient the way high art is, but it hits something so true so fervently and honestly that you can't help but love it anyways. And One More Day reeks of a total lack of sincerity, in only the way an editor-in-chief hijacking and crapping on a writer's story can stink.
Now, here's where we get to where it gets complicated. Because the public, the mob, is always wrong. Always. The mob doesn't think in terms of truth, but in terms of comfort and power, which are the eternal enemies of truth. Even when they are right, they are right for the worst reasons. In fact, one of the best ways to see if your own thoughts are wrong is to ask what the popular opinion is. And if your opinion matches up to what seems to be popularly said you are in deep trouble and need to change your mind as quickly as possible. The quickest way to figure out if someone who is popular is a charlatan or not is to ask if they repeat the mob's lines back at them and profit from it.
So, folks who hated One More Day (and there are still a lot of them) couldn't articulate it well, for the most part. Most of the outcry at the time was "Peter wouldn't do that!" or "Mephisto couldn't even provide that sort of thing!" and all sorts of things that are correct but are not right. One More Day's storyline was deeply uncomfortable, so the mob was never going to like it. That's not a guarantee of the story's worth or lack of worth. The mob was ruffled and had some good scapegoats for why it was ruffled. Quesada had invalidated the fundamental law of love, which is that it drives out fear. But mobs don't think, they react.
Now we're going to get to the really offensive spot: The Last Jedi.
See, Lucasfilm had made a fundamental mistake, way back in the day: they allowed books to be published in the Star Wars universe that could be construed as being in the same continuity as the movies. Nevermind that some of the media released was pure excrement and shouldn't be anywhere near Star Wars. Some of it was more than good enough to be considered in the same canon as the movies. Lucasfilm then made another mistake: they kept doing it. Even though some of it is outright character assassination. Then George Lucas made another mistake: he decided he wanted to make the sequel trilogy. And we know, from the plans that have been discussed, that he had every intention on throwing out pretty much all the previously established work in the books, comics, and videogames. Lucas, realizing that his rabid mob of a fandom would eat him alive, but still wanting the sequels made, sold Lucasfilm to Disney.
So now Disney is facing the same problem Lucas did: most of the EU is crap. The good does not outweigh the bad. They don't want to be weighed down by something that's the definition of a mixed bag. Nothing Disney was ever going to do was going to placate the mob, not if they wanted Lucasfilm to actually make something of some notable quality. And, regardless of how cutthroat Disney is, some of them do actually care about making good content, if not art. So, they wiped the EU out, definitively and openly. It had already been done, more or less, by Lucas, but Disney did what Lucas didn't have the courage to do and openly pulled the plug. They then released the safest thing they could in the form of The Force Awakens. And sure, this kept the mob off them for a little while.
But eventually Lucasfilm had to actually do something fully consonant with what Star Wars has always been about. Which meant something doing something both child-like in its fantasy and uncompromising in its examination of human nature. And they found the director to do it, Rian Johnson. They handed him the reigns, and it went about as well as one could expect: the backlash of the mob, who were still clutching their pearls, wasn't actually as hard as it could have been.
Because, surprise of surprises, Johnson actually made a really good movie!
See, the thing is that Johnson had correctly identified who Luke was. Luke, at his core, has always been a man who wants to run away. From the Tosche station joke, to running away from Obi-Wan to find the burning corpses of his aunt and uncle, to just up and leaving to go find Yoda, to running away from Yoda to help his friends, to isolating Jabba so he could take him out more easily, to leaving his friends in the middle of a freaking stealth infiltration mission so he could face Vader (and then giving up midway in the mission and just resolving to die while taking out the Emperor as quickly as possible)... just that there's a pattern here, folks. Luke is also deeply concerned about the welfare of others. Luke is also easily prone to rage.
All three of these are true.
So, Johnson had Luke do the one thing an older Luke would do: almost fly off the handle at his nephew but then stop himself. Luke almost went back from person to animal, stopped himself, and resolved to try better. And he did it much more quickly than he did as a younger man. That's because Luke has grown as a person, but the line back to animal never goes away. It's just something you learn how to handle. And Luke handled it as well as anyone could.
And then his thirteen foster-children were either burned alive or betrayed him.
Now, I don't know if any of you have had the misfortune of watching a woman go through a miscarriage. Something inside the mother dies with the child. But what most people do not track is that the same thing happens to the father too. When the child dies something happens in both parents. Something in them dries up. They can't quite summon the same energy they did before. A great weight is placed on their shoulders. It never leaves.
Ever.
And if this senseless tragedy happens multiple times, you get the exquisitely awful "privilege" of watching someone basically collapse under their own weight. No matter what happens afterwards, no matter how happy they get, their smile is dulled. It will never come back, and you will have the wonderfully terrible experience of remembering that their smile used to be so much brighter before all this. Each of these deaths can take months, years, maybe decades, to accept. It takes everything to do this. I have watched it five times. Each of them piled up on top of the last, until the person was almost unrecognizable due to a back log of the worst tragedy imaginable: the death of five little microcosms that you wanted to protect with all your might but couldn't.
Now imagine if over a dozen of those happens to you, at once, and it was your fault. Directly. How far away from suicide are you? Answer honestly now.
That is a deeply uncomfortable scenario. Anyone who thinks that the mob is going to react to such a thing with compassion has never met people. Or they forgot about 2020. Or they just didn't pay attention. Everyone's going to go "That doesn't make me feel good!" And they shouldn't feel good. But because they're a part of a mob, they're not going to reflect on why they may actually feel badly. They're just going to find the cheapest and quickest explanation to justify why they don't feel good.
Oh, wait, Lucasfilm finally disavowed the EU? Where Luke somehow gets married and has a kid, in the most unlikely and idiotic series of events ever written?
Yup, let's pin it on that.
It's certainly easier than realizing that the death of multiple children under your charge would break you too, isn't it? That requires thinking for yourself. And trying to actually think through things, which means automatically rejecting whatever the mob says, while trying to figure out why the mob is wrong.
Or, you know, you could be one of these charlatans that just feeds whatever the mob spews back at them and call it "reporting" or "commentary".
There are so many ways I could close out this blog that would be less messy. I don't claim, and I don't hope I have never claimed, to be correct in anything. I do claim to be some level of genuine. One could argue that my misanthropy is all that's on display in my blog. As of late I've wondered about that myself. I have never not claimed to be a misanthrope. But, as I continue to go along in my life, I have begun to notice that whatever you may mistake for misanthropy is rooted in something actually quite sane. I have made very wrong decisions with those thoughts. But I am not wrong.
I don't know if anyone reading this agrees or not. I know barely anyone does read. But if you are reading and still see something, thank you.
