Axel Alonso spoils Avengers Academy

[brooms]

Axel Alonso’s comment in a recent interview on CBR, talking about diversity in Marvel characters:

“Also, Striker just came out of the closet in “Avengers Academy,” and Wiccan and Hulkling continue to play a huge role in “Young Avengers/Avengers: Children’s Crusade.” I feel like I’m just getting started.”

“Just came out?” Or… about to come out? Christos Gage has been tweeting:

“Regarding Striker: Make sure to pick up AVENGERS ACADEMY #23 in a couple weeks. I’ll have a lot more to say when the story’s out!”




Source is Bleeding Cool.

Comments

[drmcninja]

My thought process:

"Oh, cool, another gay character! About time we had another open one who actually gets real facetime. But why is he fighting OH JESUS WHAT HAPPENED TO HER ARM."

[thanekos]

She hit him so hard, he's got proptosis now!

[nezchan]

That's some bad plotting right there, holy crap. It's almost impossible to tell what's going on, people (and apparently bugs) that are close to the guy in the close shots are missing in the long shots, the equipment structure appears and vanishes, how he winds up with his right but fires with his left, and where the hell does the big bug come from anyway?

And that's not even counting the awkward posing and anatomy issues.

[brooms]

This was my interpretation -

Julie walking away toward equipment (you can see gray thingie at the right bottom of top panel). Striker goes after her, but she flies, he calls her back with his left hand. Enormous bug bites/does something with his right. He's startled and zaps her with the hand he was using to call her back. Julie comes back from equipment zone and punches him.

[long_silence]

Wasn't Striker the one who was being molested by a Hollywood type producer when his powers kicked in?

[icon_uk]

I'm not sure it's fair to blame the plotting when looking at the art alone since the word balloons will presumably add context and explanation.

With you on the posing and anatomy problem.

[salinea]

Yes.

[nezchan]

Relying on dialogue to carry a scene means the art isn't good enough to do its job. It's largely an action scene, the art should have primacy here.

I could see if it were a heart-to-heart talk or something similarly intimate, but that's not what this is.

[brooms]

Yes. And it's one of the reasons why I'm not a fan of this development, tbh.

[nezchan]

Oh, I should have added lazy as hell backgrounds and one BAD tangent where Striker is getting decapitated by the horizon line. Seriously, that's a beginner mistake, it's not something we should be seeing on a mainstream title.

[icon_uk]

But the actions are perfectly clear; she walks away from him, takes off, he zaps her, she flies back and punches him. That's the action.

The WHY and the WHAT are what the writing will cover, and that's perfectly fair.

[lieut_kettch]

A bad case case of Pseudo-Kirby-perspectivitis, I think.

[lieut_kettch]

OMG, she punched him in the thyroid!

[lieut_kettch]

You don't suppose he was Anne McCaffrey'd?

Rest in Peace, Anne. You were a great writer and a legend in the world of Science Fiction, but you had some waaaaay out there theories regarding sexual orientation formation.

[nezchan]

There's probably less than a second between frames 1 and 2, the same between 2 and 3 the way it's laid out here (a little more between 3 and 4, I'm guessing). Somehow the bug appears out of nowhere (it's not in the medium shot that shows Striker's full surroundings), and then both the bug and the people in panel 1 vanish in a long shot that should have all of them. Where'd they go?

Julie's flight path is radically different in panels 2 and 3, even though they both seem to be for the same action. The lack of her turning to go punch Striker isn't too big a problem, but it makes the action harder to read.

Panel 2 he's leaning back, getting his right ready (this is called an "antic", and is meant to alert the audience something will happen with that hand), then in panel three he's running and firing with the opposite hand. The antic is wasted.

The structure isn't consistent either, the ring is on the wrong side in panel 3. Unless more of the structure popped into being on the far side of the ring that wasn't shown in panel 2, but that would just mean a different mistake.

In short, continuity is a mess, and undercuts the already awkward posing and anatomy, making the page harder to read. Dialogue can't save these things, and an artist shouldn't use it as a crutch in scenes where the art is supposed to be dominant.

[flidgetjerome]

This. Seriously.

[shadowpsykie]

It's ify, but I know one person who has had a similar experience some what... Just because action a happens, doesn't mean b is the result. Some times a and b are independent. The writer might be trying to say (yeah this happened, but it didn't make me this way)

[shadowpsykie]

Hmmm I'm actually kinda excited for this

[turtlefu]

Are we supposed to be happy about this? I mean, I stopped reading Avengers Academy a while ago, but Striker was a horrible person. Isn't he a borderline psychopath obsessed with fame who sicced Whirlwind on his team just to get press?

Yeah, he's a real prick

[blue_bolt]

1. He set up a fight with Whirlwind so the team would get publicly acknowledged.
2. He was the only person who didn't help in the fight against Korvac.
3. He's hit on Finesse, Veil and made stared at Tigra's boobs, well to be fair she does teach class and fight in a bikini - maybe he's guy and a furry?

P.S: I'd actually like to see a character come out as a furry. That would be awesome. Has that happened yet in Marvel or DC?

[jlbarnett]

everything about her in that pick looks off center to me. Not just her arms, take a look at her nose and eyes.

Re: Yeah, he's a real prick

[jlbarnett]

though as the story's been built Finesse and that guy who refused to join the team make him look pleasant in comparison

Re: Yeah, he's a real prick

[long_silence]

I don't even like Striker but to be fair he did help in the fight against Korvac, he just died. It was in a body that wasn't his and he immediately got better, but I can't blame him for running after experiencing death.

[auggie18]

In all fairness, pretty much half the team in Avengers Academy are horrible people. The other half are boring.


Then there's Mettle, who's actually pretty cool.

[dorksidefiker]

... wait what?