|
Visit the original place where these letters of comment appeared ar the Avengers Message Board See Ian's parody fan fiction from Baron Zemo's Lair at The Hooded Hood's Homepage of Doom
Why Justice and Firestar are Different There are three kinds of Avengers. There are those who have their own regular comics, and whose major plot developments usually happen in those books. The best an Avengers writer can do is chronicle how these heroes react in a team situation, interact with other team members, and perhaps occasionally make reference to the events in the character's own title. Next there are those who don't have their own books and whose only real supporting cast comes from other members of the team, or at least other "super" characters. I'd include characters like the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and the Vision in this category, for example. Characters they regularly associate with, like Agatha Harkness or the Inhumans are all part of the same genre, which is one step removed from "everyday" life. Then there are those who still have important links with supporting characters who are not superheroes. This third type is relatively rare in the Avengers' book. Monica Rambeau's sustained subplots with her parents is probably the best example, and I'm hard pressed to think of another off the top of my head. Taylor Madison almost made it but then turned out to be a Zeus-created simulacrum. There are good reasons for the dearth of non-super supporting cast members, of course. With so many characters to juggle it's more economical to have them interacting with each other than dragging their own independent supporting casts along. With a predilection to epic continued stories there are usually only opportunities at the beginning or end of a story arc to show individual members with supporting cast they can't drag into battle with them. And unless more than one cast member has links with a supporting character it's difficult to find a permanent plot to keep them involved in a team book. But Justice and Firestar have been imported from the New Warriors, a book which did make use of non-super supporting cast more than any other team book of the '90's. We have been introduced to Firestar's father, to sub-plots regarding his redundancy, and to issues around his protectiveness and his pride in his daughter. Angel has a girl-friend who she has often confided in (who name just eludes me for the moment). She's been trying with little success to pass her driving test. Justice has a mother whom he widowed but who still forgave him. He had a college place until he was convicted for manslaughter. It has been interesting to see these Avengers rookies interacting with the big boys and girls, but I wouldn't like them to be detached from their roots. I'd like to see Angel's dad's reaction to her moving into Avengers Mansion, for example. Or perhaps Vance should discuss his feelings of inadequacy in the team with his mom. By seeing these two interact with their peers and their families we get a different perspective on their personalities and their reactions to being Avengers. This sort of approach might alleviate some of my discomfort at Vance's apparent regression to the character he was as of New Warriors #1. In actual fact I'd like to see more of the Avengers from category two gaining personal lives away from the team if possible. I'd like to see the Vision playing his regular chess game against the grumpy old guy in Central Park, or Wanda teaching her philosophy class at Metro U. and fielding the problems of her students, or Simon's rematch with Uncle Elmer. We've seen Wanda use her hex powers a million times in combat; we've never seen what she says to a young girl who asks her opinion about whether to get an abortion. Oh, two rules on supporting cast: they should be used as hostages sparingly, and they should not gain super powers or be revealed as the secret archenemy. Does anyone else want to see some non-team-related personal lives for the Avengers, or would that dilute the pleasure of seeing them interact with each other?
|