Alias #28 ("Purple," Part Five)

[stolisomancer]

I was thinking about this scene over the holiday weekend, due to unrelated family drama, and I thought I'd take a moment to talk about how it impresses me.



Jessica, with the help of a telepathic suggestion from Jean Grey, has beaten the Purple Man almost to death. Part of the reason she reacted so violently is that she's just found out she's several months pregnant, and due to the timing, she knows there's only one man who could be the father. It's not Scott Lang, who she breaks up with as a result.

Afterward, she goes to see Luke.





I was talking this scene over with a buddy back when it was released, and it's a bit troubling that Luke's ascension to the Marvel A-list essentially begins when he gets a white girlfriend.

That said, I've always liked this scene because of what it says about Luke. (Jessica, too, but I'm here to talk about Luke for the moment.) He's told that he has a baby on the way, via a woman who he cares about but drives him up the wall, and look at his reaction. Gaydos does some nice work here; Luke doesn't hesitate for more than a few seconds, just long enough for Jessica to start to worry, before taking it on board and moving forward.

To my mind, that does a lot to trump the racial aspects of the scene: it's two rational adults immediately doing the right thing, regardless of the consequences. (For Jessica, who's been pretty neurotic for the entire book, this isn't unprecedented but it is a huge step forward.)

To some extent, this is the moment that Luke's modern characterization really begins: he stops being the Azzarello "thug" and starts maturing into the guy who'll eventually lead the Avengers.

Comments

[leoboiko]

As a Brazilian, I simply fail to notice this kind of racial issue Americans raise. I mean, dunno, different societies and all, but here no one would even notice it’s a, whatscalled, “interracial” couple unless you pointed. We don’t even have an expression like “interracial couple”. It’s just so… normal, you know?

But yes, Luke’s smiles in this are so warm I’ve melted.

[stolisomancer]

I wouldn't expect you guys to have our issues. We call ourselves a melting pot but in practice, it's more like a tossed salad. Brazil, on the other hand, has been happily bubbling away on the stove since it was founded and now I want soup.

[blackruzsa]

.... *snort*
You made me smile.
That is all. xD

[jogadoresesquecidos.blogspot.com]

Well, we do not tend to really have this issue here in Brazil, but it does not mean that racism does not exist here, in some form.

Besides, I see Luke Cage as a "jump-on-the-70's-blaxploitation-bandwagon" character (now I'll be maimed by his fans).

[bwhahahabeck]

It is true he started out that way, but his 70s series had surprisingly good moments and writing.

[liliaeth]

He may have started out that way, but he's grown out of that years ago.

[karthzon]

He grew out of that about five issues in. Well, not so much out of as beyond. He was still very much a blaxploitation pastiche for his 70's run, but he was also a very human and relatable character.

[blackruzsa]

Luke Cage's smile=love.

I'd like to say we are less racist here than in America, but when it comes to black people, those around me immediately say that they're 'ugly', and the only reason I notice this is that I find many black people attractive and when I say so, everyone looks at me like I'm crazy.

Good god, I blame colonial mentality.

So basically, less racist, but not by much.

[misterbug]

Colonialism is the big stone that made huge splashes in the pond of history. Literature...sociology...even the Western economy is buggered because we're not making the kind of money that heartless oppressors got back in the day.

(That's probably terribly wrong in many ways, and I'm sure some other students will be here to correct me in a moment or two. Apologies in advance.)

[leoboiko]

I’m not even sure we are less racist; it’s just a different kind. Racism is certainly deeply woven in Brazilian society in multiple ways, and anyone who denies that is… er… in denial. My point is we don’t have the kind of cultural “teams” that America seems to have, with Black-specific slang and Black music and White music and Asian gangs and whatnot. A criminal gang in Brazil would be characterized primarily by social level (poverty), not by race (though, of course, the lower classes are disproportionately black or mixed). Brazil’s counterpart to “Stuff white people like” is “Middle-class way of life”—being mid- or high-class has a lot more impact than being white. No one bats an eye at white people into samba or black people into bossa. And, there are no orkut memes about why “asian” girls like to date “white” guys. There are, however, topics on why “maria gasolina” girls will date anyone with a good car.

At the end of the day, what it all means is that we, as a society, don’t care much for the race of your partner, so I find it surprising to characterize something like Luke/Jessica in terms of race. That does not mean there’s no racism here, or even less racism. We’re all in the same stew, but people still pick apart certain vegetables.

[blackruzsa]

Same.
Since we're pretty much in awe of any race that isn't Filipino, we judge by economic standing.

[proteus_lives]

I was once in a relationship with a woman who was half-Filipino and half-German.

She intensely disliked her father's Filipino side, said they never accepted her while her mother's German family never treated her badly. She grew-up in Manila and disliked it intensely.

I think colonial mentality works both ways.

[blackruzsa]

There's also the conservatism. Too bad....

[misterbug]

Do you have a housing brochure I could look over? I'm in the UK, and every time I see Dave Cameron's inane babyface or George Osborne's hideous smug smirk I want to make like a rat on a sinking ship.

Also, I'm tired of being asked by passers-by what country I'm from. Apparently no-one with slightly brown skin can be British anymore.

[sabra_n]

Apparently no-one with slightly brown skin can be British anymore.

*blink* I know that the whole Whitechapel/Banglatown area I frequented when I was in London doesn't represent the whole of Britain, racially speaking, but still. Dude. It wasn't uncommon for me to be the only white girl on the bus.

[misterbug]

Sorry, I've been having a bitterness day...living in Canterbury currently while at Uni, and getting tired of having to tell people that I'm British, of Sri Lankan descent, on our first meeting. The day before yesterday a suburbanite 12-year-old in a tracksuit walked up to me with a brain-dead grin, shook my hand and said 'Gracias!'.

[sabra_n]

Don't blame you a bit. I have Asian-American friends who get asked what country they're from all the time, and it's just utter hurtful BS.

Then there's the privilege on the other side - no one suspects I'm an immigrant until I tell them. Which I highly enjoy doing in front of xenophobes just to see them scrambling to explain why no, they totally weren't aiming their bigotry at me, too. Douchenozzles, the lot of them.

[misterbug]

It's getting to the point where I know a true friend by the fact that I had to TELL them late into our friendship - that they never asked 'Where are you from?', and better yet, never asked after I gave the answer, 'I mean, where are you from ORIGINALLY?'. Spanish is a common one, as is Italian, though I don't get much Indian. Never had anyone call me a Paki, which is a blessing.

I've only ever once gotten to play the guilt card on a bastard, and boy, is it sweet.

Not to be hypocritical, but out of curiosity, what ARE your ethnic origins?

[sabra_n]

I'm Israeli, half Ashkenazi and half Sephardi. Which, ironically, is its own ethnic kettle of fish back in Israel itself, but where I am in the U.S. just sometimes gets me mistaken for Hispanic. Or Jordanian. Or Indian. Oh, and Korean that one time, but to be fair, the person who did the mistaking was looking at me from behind. :P

[misterbug]

Gad, people. Can't live with 'em, would be hard pressed to live without 'em.

On that note...I always like to spread this vid around when discussing tolerance issues on the 'net.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xjPODksI08

[bruinsfan]

The proper response to this, of course, is to reply with "Pa-zhal-sta!" in your best Russian accent.

[misterbug]

I just lit up with a smile (it was nighttime), said "You know, that was INCREDIBLY racist!" and laughed at him. He slunk away, embarrassed. Turns out Mister J. was right, laughter IS the best weapon medicine.

[bwhahahabeck]

I love Luke. He's my main man.

[polarisnorth]

I'm really not a fan of the art here, but this is still adorable.

[taggerung301]

I loved Alias so much - this was a fantastic scene

[mullon]

It's the same panels over and over again.

[icon_uk]

And ugly, ugly panels at that.

*points up*

[jazzypom]

What they both said. The art is truly the only thing that stops me from buying the trades. It's ugly and repetitive and lazy.

Re: *points up*

[stolisomancer]

Gaydos coasts on conversations like this one, where they're just two people talking on a stoop. There are few ways to enliven this without using constant and bizarre camera angles.

I find he's not quite to my taste, but he's a good storyteller, and Bendis is the draw here anyway.

[bradhanon]

One of the things that's always been part of Luke's character, and one that gets overlooked in favor of Iron Fist and money and "Sweet Christmas!" and so on, is his very deep sense of responsibility. That would be one of the things we're looking at in this scene. :)

[selke]

Eee! I just ordered the second volume of "Alias" tonight. Thanks for reminding me why. :)

[psychopathicus_rex]

I'm not sure whether his joining the Avengers is exactly an 'ascension' - Cage has been a pretty steady presence in the MU since he was created. True, he's not exactly a household word in the same way, say, Spider-Man or Captain America is, but I wouldn't have said he was a 'minor Marvel character' or anything. Blackwulf? Nighthawk? Jack of Hearts? Those are minor. Luke Cage has played with most of the big boys in his time, and now he's getting to join them, that's all. Sure, it's a step up, but it's not exactly a huge one.
And frankly, I think the whole 'white girlfriend' issue is only really troubling if you look at the two of them strictly as a black man and a white woman, rather than as characters. As characters, they're both nice enough people, with no particularly huge hang-ups - why shouldn't they be together? They're PEOPLE - people of different ethnic backgrounds get together all the time. It WOULD be a bit unfortunate if his girlfriend were a huge, huge name in the MU, and he only got accepted or noticed by the cream of the crop after they hooked up - that would smack of him riding on her coattails and only being a reflection of her glory, which would NOT be a good thing - but as it is, they're both B-listers, and he, in fact, is better known than her, so I wouldn't say it's a problem.

[stolisomancer]

I was thinking rather specifically of the common perception, as articulated by people like Charles Barkley, of a white wife or girlfriend as a "reward" for a black man who's succeeded. It was a topic I saw coming up rather frequently back at the time of Alias's publication, and thought it was a case of bad timing here.

(Of course, interracial dating/marriage is apparently grist for the mill in science fiction in general: it occurred to me at the time that between "Angel," the Marvel Universe, "Battlestar Galactica," "Star Trek," and the occasional anime, sf/fantasy mixed marriages were surprisingly common.)

However, what racial implications there are, to my mind, are balanced out by the fact that the beginning of their actual relationship is a major step forward for Jessica and a moment of truly great characterization for Luke. It has little to nothing to do with either of their race, although it's always there (i.e. Victor's comment to Luke in Shadowland: Power Man).

[psychopathicus_rex]

I would add to that list Zoe and Wash from 'Firefly', who made for a very sweet couple in the Scott/Barda vein.
That's a rather shallow comment by Mr. Barkley, in my opinion. One of the closest couples I can think of having witnessed offhand were a black man-white woman couple at the college I went to, notable because he was rather tall, and she was quite petite, so they made for quite a visually distinct couple. I didn't actually know either of them personally, mind you, but they were one of those couples that were ALWAYS seen together, and seemed quite smitten with each other.

[stolisomancer]

While your anecdotal evidence may predispose you towards interracial couples, are you at least aware that a relationship between a black man and a white woman faces a significant number of societal hurdles even today, from both sides of that particular aisle?

[psychopathicus_rex]

Oh, yes, of course - I'm not saying that it's not a situation fraught with difficulties, I'm just saying that I really don't get where some people are coming from when they talk about it being somehow morally objectionable for someone to date outside their own ethnicity. It makes no sense to me.

[stolisomancer]

I can understand their point of view, but do not subscribe to it.

My larger point was that Bendis neatly managed to leapfrog the issue entirely here; it's present but not overpowering, which is a pretty deft little trick.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, yes, it is a pretty nice trick. I'd imagine he simply doesn't focus on it - his readers know it's there, so he has no need to address it directly; it'll emerge as subtext without him doing a thing.

[proteus_lives]

Meh. The relationship between JJ and LC always struck me as forced. And it killed Jone's character in the mainstream MU.

*pokes gingerly at topic*

[jazzypom]

I was talking this scene over with a buddy back when it was released, and it's a bit troubling that Luke's ascension to the Marvel A-list essentially begins when he gets a white girlfriend.

Hmmm. I must say, I'm kinda leery re: this comment (because like you said further down post, how their characters pretty much overshadow their racial outlook) because from my pov, there's something a bit iffy in throwing two monoracial characters together who probably have no chemistry, no history with other or whatever, or just because.

For me Storm and T'challa came from left field because they knew each other from Africa? Are you kidding me, comic book writers, it's a continent, not a village, but yet the latter is what I got out of the stories I read about them hooking up, and when there was the wedding during The Civil War I still found myself going, "Really?"

Then again, I'm a card carrying Storm/Forge shipper from 1993 so don't mind me. If Bendis had thrown Misty Knight with Luke Cage I'd have blinked, because I always saw her being thrown together with Danny or Colleen. But then again, I'm hard pressed to think about monoracial pairings in Marvel when it comes to non whites. I'm talking main characters, not background characters like parental figures or the rest. Until T'challa, Storm pretty much hooked up with men and women from other races.

On the other hand though, I get what you're saying. Especially since Bendis created Jessica Jones, and made her hook up with Luke, and in the story that he tells about them, they pretty much get to the A list team together. Given the relative dearth of characters of colour on the A list superhero teams, it would have been nice if it Jess had been a woman of colour (quick, how many women of colour are on Marvel's A list teams vs how many blondes?), but in a weird way, if I have to take this, I'm just glad that there's one more woman on the team.

I think the reasons why the Luke/Jess pairing didn't strike me as odd, or Luke's ascension to the A list tied to him hooking up with Jess were the following:

1. The fact that white women with black men (and biracial babies) are so common place in my neck of the woods, I pretty much just shrug and keep it moving. The couples that get together and last, do get ahead in their lives, so good luck to them. In the next thirty years or so, mixed race children are projected to be the fastest growing minority in the UK.

2. Luke and Jess were - up to then- B list heroes. I didn't get the feeling that Jess was 'less' than Luke in terms of say, smarts, or her own moral code, and if she'd fallen short of what he was looking for in his mind, he'd have moved on. In my real life neck of the woods, it hasn't necessarily been the case. For instance, some guys of colour will date a white woman who isn't necessarily up to scratch considering the poc's background (in terms of education, character, etc), but wouldn't accept that from a fellow woman of colour.¹ But with Luke and Jess, they seemed pretty equal (at the time, B-list status) and got each other where it mattered, the rest was just noise.

So, from my pov, I gave a knowing nod when I saw the pairing and moved on.

I think I'd be unhappy if Luke's being with Jess changed his outlook totally, but he still thinks about himself as being a minority in the US (granted, more explored in other books than say under Bendis' pen) and loves his wife and kid.

D'aww for Luke and Jess, I do like the pairing, I think it's one of the more positive in comic books. They've survived through the loss (although yeah, the baby came back) of a child, they've stuck together through the worst, and celebrated the best of each other. So I'm all gooey and d'aww.

But I hear you, I do.


¹ _{Sad, but true. There's a reason why Kanye West has that line in the song, "An' when he get on, he'll leave yah ass for a white girl}

[stolisomancer]

To be absolutely, 100% fair to Marvel on the topic, Storm knowing T'Challa from their childhoods in Africa was a twenty-year-old story beat from Marvel Team-Up. Priest touched upon it in his BP run, complete with the possibility of mutual attraction. Hudlin built upon it, but in a perfect world, the arc would've taken years before culminating in the wedding.

And yeah, actual heroic characters of character in the MU are much more likely to date interracially than anything else. Danny and Misty sort of broke that ground and it's been like that ever since; in modern Marvel, it's them, Kate and Eli, Luke and Jess, the Blue Marvel and his (late) wife...

Mostly I brought this up because Bendis managed to make what could've been a questionable scene a really great moment for Luke, and it's one of the most deft scenes he's written in his career at Marvel.