kevinroc (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kevinroc) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
scans_daily2012-09-01 12:37 pm
kevinroc) wrote in scans_daily2012-09-01 12:37 pm
Looking back: Cassie Lang in Children's Crusade
Today I will be looking back at the role of Cassie "Stature" Lang in Children's Crusade. Spoilers and some analysis to follow. (Some of these pics have been posted here before. I'm just putting them together.)
I'll start off by saying this mini is incredibly frustrating. Because by and large, this is truly Billy's story. Cassie does at least get an arc (which is more than I can say for some characters) but her arc is seemingly also seems to be misunderstood. Cassie is accused of being wishy-washy or stringing the Vision along. That's actually not true.
There are some real problems with this mini that I'll get to later as well. And it seems that a lot of people overlook these problems because of the Billy and Teddy kiss (which is great, by the way. Good on Marvel for finally showing the boys kissing.)
So we begin with Billy freaking out and the Avengers all getting concerned that Billy is going to act like Wanda did in Avengers Disassembled and House of M. They try to quarantine him (along with Teddy) but the YA bust him out and try to find the root of the problem.
(I'll add that Cassie's character has always been consistent on one front since her introduction. She is a total daddy's girl.)
So Magneto approaches the kids and offers his assistance in helping find Wanda. Billy creates "disguises" for everyone. And Cassie has a conversation with her boyfriend, the Vision, that foreshadows the rest of the mini (which most people didn't notice at the time because this damn thing was released so slowly.)
(I'd like to add that it seems like Cassie and Vision have taken some steps back. This is because while Heinberg was clearly intending to do something with the Stature/Vision/Iron Lad set-up, it was really handled by other writers in an attempt to make it seem like the YA story was continuing. Eli and Kate suffer the same problem of their relationship going backwards but nobody notices because Eli and Kate don't really do anything in this mini.)
Cassie's subplot is put on the backburner until Iron Lad arrives a few issues later.
.
Iron Lad then takes the YA (and the amnesiac Wanda) into the timestream.
(I love Iron Lad's troll face.)
And yes, it does seem like Cassie is being really inconsiderate to the Vision's feelings. This is later shown not to be the case. But for now, Cassie sees something else that attracts all her attention.
(You would think Scott would notice that his daughter is a little older now.
And yes, it does look like Cassie is downplaying the Vision. Trust me, she actually isn't.)
Jack of Hearts shows up to fill his role in Disassembled and Cassie tells everybody to run. Scott asks what is going on and Cassie says if they don't die, she'll tell him.
So thanks to Wanda reclaiming her memory, she reverts everyone (including Scott) back to the "present." Wanda freaks out and wants to kill herself while Billy just wants a chance to talk to her (there's also a cute bit where Scott talks to his ex, Jessica Jones. But that isn't really important.)
This is at least the third reference made to Cassie dying in this mini. The first was the conversation between her and Vision in #2. She made a similar reference to this one when they all ran away from Jack of Hearts. And then there's this one. It isn't exactly subtle in retrospect, which is a real problem in Heinberg's writing and something people really would have picked up on if this damn thing didn't take so long to come out.
(I'd also like to point out that ever since they rescue Scott, Cassie is never really far from him. And when they are separated, she really doesn't do anything but watch what is going on around her. She would totally choose Scott over Iron Lad or the Vision. Total daddy's girl.)
So after a hug between Wanda and Billy, Wanda calms down. She wants to repower the mutants and Doom comes back into the plot and there's a lot of tension between the X-Men and the Avengers and "AvX" is totally happening soon and blah, blah, blah.
But we're at a rather big moment for Cassie. And this is a very important and very overlooked moment. Most of the super heroes have been momentarily knocked out, except for the YA.
Cassie actually lets Iron Lad down gently. She chooses the Vision over him. (Although I still say she'd choose her father over the both of 'em.) Still, it's a nice moment that is often overlooked (understandable with Cassie's impending demise.) And it's always nice when Vision isn't treated like a machine. (Except he totally is in the last issue.)
(Also, people may accuse me of being crazy but... Iron Lad didn't have a bad plan. Use the time machine and give yourself all the prep time you need to handle super giant god-mode Doom? That's just smart. The problem is that when your characters have this kind of story-breaker power, you have to find a way out. But they didn't even try. They should have had Iron Lad's time travel tech stop functioning, like when they ran into Jack of Hearts earlier, until Doom was defeated. That way he can just suggest they run and the YA can refuse, saying they won't abandon the Avengers or the X-Men.)
So Doom comes back all big and god-like and attacks Scott Lang, seemingly killing him. Cassie gets pissed.
Because Cassie distracted him, Doom is defeated by Billy and Wanda.
(At least Cassie got to throw a punch before they stuffed her into the fridge.)
(This image would be a lot more emotional if it didn't look like Scott was copping a feel of his dead teenage daughter.)
So everybody cries that Cassie is dead (and then nobody mentions it because the release schedule for this mini was so horrible and by that point everything was all "AvX") and Iron Lad wants to take Cassie into the timestream to find a doctor who can revive her. Vision tries to say it is too late and Iron Lad just freaks out on him and says Vision is a carbon copy of him and Cassie only loved Vision because he was a stand-in. Tommy, Eli and Billy try to pull Iron Lad away but he just brushes them off and fries Vision.
(Billy is a far better person than I because I would be freaking out if I just witnessed one friend murder another on top of the death of another friend.)
So Billy tries to convince Iron Lad not to go into the timestream because this is the moment he becomes Kang The Conquerer. Iron Lad states he will be better than Kang and takes off. (Cassie's death is seemingly now Kang's motivation. How unoriginal. Kang was much cooler when his origin was he was just bored and wanted to conquer for the hell of it.)
Everybody cries. Wanda turns down Avengers membership (that didn't last) and states that she wants to find some things out for herself and not be defined as Magneto's daughter or Quicksilver's sister for awhile. Then we don't see her until AvX where she was apparently living with her brother. (Okay, she beats up MODOK too and the rebuilt old Vision tells her off after Carol Danvers asks her to rejoin the Avengers.)
Back to the story. All of the Young Avengers are so despondent they just quit (and Eli moves away). Billy sinks into a deep depression until Teddy gives him a rousing speech about how he loves Billy too much to see him wallow in despair and maybe sorta "proposes" to him. They then kiss. (The one bright spot in this otherwise very bleak issue.) Then Carol Danvers, still in one of her Ms. Marvel phases, invites the boys to the mansion along with Kate and Tommy and Cap tells them that he thinks they are Avengers and shows off the memorial statues of Stature and Vision joining the Ant-Man statue with Scott Lang in attendance. (This would be really emotional if Cap hadn't already given his blessings to the kids. In stories that Heinberg himself wrote.)
So what are the odds that Cassie will actually come back? Pretty decent, I'd guess (or I could just be hoping because I liked the character).. Probably not anytime soon, unfortunately. But it's not like the first member of a team who dies never gets to come back. Still, if/when they do bring her back, it'll be a very different world than the one she knew.
.
I'll start off by saying this mini is incredibly frustrating. Because by and large, this is truly Billy's story. Cassie does at least get an arc (which is more than I can say for some characters) but her arc is seemingly also seems to be misunderstood. Cassie is accused of being wishy-washy or stringing the Vision along. That's actually not true.
There are some real problems with this mini that I'll get to later as well. And it seems that a lot of people overlook these problems because of the Billy and Teddy kiss (which is great, by the way. Good on Marvel for finally showing the boys kissing.)
So we begin with Billy freaking out and the Avengers all getting concerned that Billy is going to act like Wanda did in Avengers Disassembled and House of M. They try to quarantine him (along with Teddy) but the YA bust him out and try to find the root of the problem.
(I'll add that Cassie's character has always been consistent on one front since her introduction. She is a total daddy's girl.)
So Magneto approaches the kids and offers his assistance in helping find Wanda. Billy creates "disguises" for everyone. And Cassie has a conversation with her boyfriend, the Vision, that foreshadows the rest of the mini (which most people didn't notice at the time because this damn thing was released so slowly.)
(I'd like to add that it seems like Cassie and Vision have taken some steps back. This is because while Heinberg was clearly intending to do something with the Stature/Vision/Iron Lad set-up, it was really handled by other writers in an attempt to make it seem like the YA story was continuing. Eli and Kate suffer the same problem of their relationship going backwards but nobody notices because Eli and Kate don't really do anything in this mini.)
Cassie's subplot is put on the backburner until Iron Lad arrives a few issues later.
.
Iron Lad then takes the YA (and the amnesiac Wanda) into the timestream.
(I love Iron Lad's troll face.)
And yes, it does seem like Cassie is being really inconsiderate to the Vision's feelings. This is later shown not to be the case. But for now, Cassie sees something else that attracts all her attention.
(You would think Scott would notice that his daughter is a little older now.
And yes, it does look like Cassie is downplaying the Vision. Trust me, she actually isn't.)
Jack of Hearts shows up to fill his role in Disassembled and Cassie tells everybody to run. Scott asks what is going on and Cassie says if they don't die, she'll tell him.
So thanks to Wanda reclaiming her memory, she reverts everyone (including Scott) back to the "present." Wanda freaks out and wants to kill herself while Billy just wants a chance to talk to her (there's also a cute bit where Scott talks to his ex, Jessica Jones. But that isn't really important.)
This is at least the third reference made to Cassie dying in this mini. The first was the conversation between her and Vision in #2. She made a similar reference to this one when they all ran away from Jack of Hearts. And then there's this one. It isn't exactly subtle in retrospect, which is a real problem in Heinberg's writing and something people really would have picked up on if this damn thing didn't take so long to come out.
(I'd also like to point out that ever since they rescue Scott, Cassie is never really far from him. And when they are separated, she really doesn't do anything but watch what is going on around her. She would totally choose Scott over Iron Lad or the Vision. Total daddy's girl.)
So after a hug between Wanda and Billy, Wanda calms down. She wants to repower the mutants and Doom comes back into the plot and there's a lot of tension between the X-Men and the Avengers and "AvX" is totally happening soon and blah, blah, blah.
But we're at a rather big moment for Cassie. And this is a very important and very overlooked moment. Most of the super heroes have been momentarily knocked out, except for the YA.
Cassie actually lets Iron Lad down gently. She chooses the Vision over him. (Although I still say she'd choose her father over the both of 'em.) Still, it's a nice moment that is often overlooked (understandable with Cassie's impending demise.) And it's always nice when Vision isn't treated like a machine. (Except he totally is in the last issue.)
(Also, people may accuse me of being crazy but... Iron Lad didn't have a bad plan. Use the time machine and give yourself all the prep time you need to handle super giant god-mode Doom? That's just smart. The problem is that when your characters have this kind of story-breaker power, you have to find a way out. But they didn't even try. They should have had Iron Lad's time travel tech stop functioning, like when they ran into Jack of Hearts earlier, until Doom was defeated. That way he can just suggest they run and the YA can refuse, saying they won't abandon the Avengers or the X-Men.)
So Doom comes back all big and god-like and attacks Scott Lang, seemingly killing him. Cassie gets pissed.
Because Cassie distracted him, Doom is defeated by Billy and Wanda.
(At least Cassie got to throw a punch before they stuffed her into the fridge.)
(This image would be a lot more emotional if it didn't look like Scott was copping a feel of his dead teenage daughter.)
So everybody cries that Cassie is dead (and then nobody mentions it because the release schedule for this mini was so horrible and by that point everything was all "AvX") and Iron Lad wants to take Cassie into the timestream to find a doctor who can revive her. Vision tries to say it is too late and Iron Lad just freaks out on him and says Vision is a carbon copy of him and Cassie only loved Vision because he was a stand-in. Tommy, Eli and Billy try to pull Iron Lad away but he just brushes them off and fries Vision.
(Billy is a far better person than I because I would be freaking out if I just witnessed one friend murder another on top of the death of another friend.)
So Billy tries to convince Iron Lad not to go into the timestream because this is the moment he becomes Kang The Conquerer. Iron Lad states he will be better than Kang and takes off. (Cassie's death is seemingly now Kang's motivation. How unoriginal. Kang was much cooler when his origin was he was just bored and wanted to conquer for the hell of it.)
Everybody cries. Wanda turns down Avengers membership (that didn't last) and states that she wants to find some things out for herself and not be defined as Magneto's daughter or Quicksilver's sister for awhile. Then we don't see her until AvX where she was apparently living with her brother. (Okay, she beats up MODOK too and the rebuilt old Vision tells her off after Carol Danvers asks her to rejoin the Avengers.)
Back to the story. All of the Young Avengers are so despondent they just quit (and Eli moves away). Billy sinks into a deep depression until Teddy gives him a rousing speech about how he loves Billy too much to see him wallow in despair and maybe sorta "proposes" to him. They then kiss. (The one bright spot in this otherwise very bleak issue.) Then Carol Danvers, still in one of her Ms. Marvel phases, invites the boys to the mansion along with Kate and Tommy and Cap tells them that he thinks they are Avengers and shows off the memorial statues of Stature and Vision joining the Ant-Man statue with Scott Lang in attendance. (This would be really emotional if Cap hadn't already given his blessings to the kids. In stories that Heinberg himself wrote.)
So what are the odds that Cassie will actually come back? Pretty decent, I'd guess (or I could just be hoping because I liked the character).. Probably not anytime soon, unfortunately. But it's not like the first member of a team who dies never gets to come back. Still, if/when they do bring her back, it'll be a very different world than the one she knew.
.
no subject
A woman whose died does not equal stuffed in a fridge. Dehm.
Anyway, I liked this story, cause it was really pretty and nice to read. BUT, its bad, because it's moral is horrible.
The Scarlet Witch doesn't have to pay for her crimes because nothing you do will turn back time.
WHAT?! That is not the point of punishment. EVERYTHING that woman did created her own demise. She isn't very responsible and caused her own insanity >> she should be punished, not killed, and there are a lot of creative, fitting and fair punishments for her.
no subject
A woman whose died does not equal stuffed in a fridge. Dehm.
No, but a woman who dies so that a male character can use her death as a start of evil origin story and so that her father can angst about it and decide to avenger her is.
no subject
I'll give you this -- the women in the fridge, happens when it's simply done poorly, and completely out of the blue. Very subjective yes, but the term is incredibly subjective to begin with.
Cassie seemed nice, but this story would be weird if they all got out alive to be honest, her father dying in front of her again, and being the daddy's girl she is, reacting with pure rage -- against a charge up Doom of all people - that seems like fair reason for her to die in the out come.
It wasn't done purely for the men to have something to do. No one called out fridge when Ultimate Peter Parker died, (now that i think of it - in the heat of battle, like her) are women only allowed this title?
no subject
Well, it is called 'WOMEN in refrigerators.'
no subject
Nope. That's not part of the definition. If you wanna redefine the term for your own sake, go ahead, but don't complain about people for applying the original definition.
No one called out fridge when Ultimate Peter Parker died
It's funny I've had this discussion before. I'm not very interested in having it again actually. They get tiresome those discussions.
Ultimate Peter Parker is neither female nor minority, he died in a story called "The Death of Spider-man". It's was all about HIM and how it was tragic and terrible for HIM to die. It least from what I've seen of it in scans. Yeah, they use it to launch Miles after that, but the focus is still very different.
no subject
no subject
The new FF series is almost entirely focused on Scott going after Doctor Doom for killing his daughter.
no subject
So.. Standard fridging for Cassie, then. Because that's living up to the definition of the trope quite specifically, albeit with the slight variation it's her father.
no subject
no subject
no subject
Now it's silly that they traded a daughter for a father, but if they can lead it to an interesting conclusion, or result, then I don't want to be mad yet.
It could've been anyone and I wouldn't have been to annoyed. Yeah, Cassie was a nice character and she'll be missed. But the death is offensive to me.