Nobody Has To Like Your Favorite Hero

Fuck Carol Danvers, Hal Jordan, Bruce Wayne Tony Stark and whoever. I just needed to get that out of the way. With the popularity of the Captain Marvel film tempers are flaring and opinions are flying. The main one seems to be that you aren't allowed to dislike Carol Danvers now, unless you're a misogynist. Well throw a fedora on me and call me Uncle Luke because it's been fuck Carol Danvers since 2006's Civil War, but if you don't read comics, you don't know about that, and it's going to stay that way. It's not just Carol Danvers either, other people go to war for other stupid characters.

I know you may think your favorite hero is the best, unless you're a Namor fan, you're just happy to be acknowledged. You know better. However, at the end of the day, nobody owes your fictional favorite anything. They aren't obligated to only say nice things about them or even watch their TV shows and movies. Nobody owes you anything as a real person, nobody has to like you, but we're supposed to just love Tony Stark?

The other divide is people who only watch the movies or tv shows and then try to argue with people over decades of comic history not mattering. Tony Stark is an admirable man in the films. In the comics, he dated Mary Jane Watson just to piss off Peter Parker. Superman killed Zod in Man of Steel and didn't prevent the alien attack from causing damage. Metropolis gets destroyed at least once a year in the comics and he's racked up no less than 50 kills I'm guessing, he ripped out Cybor Superman's heart once so to some people, killing Zod is just a regular occurrence for Superman.

There's a lot of differences between the screen and print versions of these characters. You can't just tell someone they're wrong for disliking them based on seeing their behavior in print. On the opposite end, I find some characters likeable on screen and I would never read their comics again. The Punisher is great on screen, actually has a heart, tries to keep bystanders from harm, and only goes after people that really deserve it. In the comics, he shot Blade for being on his "turf," repeated threw a woman against a bulletproof window until she died, shot Captain America, and Spider-Man. Fuck him, but I'll watch his show.

In the name of fairness, Oliver Queen, The Green Arrow, has been one of my favorite heroes since I was a child watching Justice League on TV. I'll be honest, to most people he's probably boring as hell, his villains are mostly trash and his show is more Batman than Green Arrow at times, a lot of the time. I'm not going to threaten people or summon the Arrow Clan to harass them. Now if you ask me why Green Arrow is great I'll tell you he beat Deathstroke before Batman and stopped Superman with an arrow, told Superman to get lost then sacrificed himself to save the world. He's not afraid to kill a villains so those that survive are pretty good.

The point is, nobody owes your hero a like. Nobody needs to respect your favorite hero. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely a lot of misogynist out there. However, every person who dislikes Carol Danvers isn't a misogynist. That is simply a cheap excuse to ignore the fact that she has a long history of doing fucked up things in the comics. She's curb stomped a woman in front of her child in 2006, she spent most of 2018 trying to lock up black male heroes on the grounds of possible future crimes. Most of 2017 was spent telling Spider-Woman she wasn't fit to be a mother. There's her longstanding history of fuckery, we don't have to like her now because of a movie.

The same goes for any other rabid fan bases of heroes, or villains. I don't care what you say, Batman is a great ninja, fighter and detective but smartest man in DC? Whatever, not even top five, can't even build his own gadgets. No matter what you say, Hal Jordan is the second worst Green Lantern, only because Guy Gardner is a Green Lantern. I say it proudly, fuck your favorite hero.

You can download a free copy of my book Phantasmagorical. Also check out some of my work for or hear me on the Powerbomb Jutsu podcast.
Nobody Has To Like Your Favorite Hero Nobody Has To Like Your Favorite Hero Reviewed by Darrell S. on Monday, April 08, 2019 Rating: 5

No comments:

Powered by Blogger.