Scarlet Witch #1

[history79]

"I've been talking to Jason Aaron about making sure that she isn’t just a female Doctor Strange. There are differences even between her and Doctor Strange so that her magic is different; I'm really making a point of stressing that there's a female energy that connects with a certain kind of magic. As a sort of shorthand, I'm calling it 'witchcraft,' but there are literally areas of dimensions that she can go to that Doctor Strange wouldn't be able to go to, because he's a man."

- James Robinson

Comments

[coldfury]

Here's the problem with this approach. By hanging their 'Yin' and 'Yang' on the concept of genders, it's systemically going to be *weird*. Because they're going to play up all these weird witch tropes they can to differentiate her from Dr. Strange, but it's not like they're going to have Dr. Strange go "I can do this because I'm a dude, and I have a penis." Because that'd be weird, and probably sexist.

They're doing it to make her special, which is fine, she needs that, but instead of hanging it on her type of magic, it seems like they're hanging it on her gender, which is just clunky.

Maybe I'm judging it too harshly off one issue. Marvel's magic needs a clear set of guidelines, and I'm not sure this is shaping up to be it.

[laughing_tree]

"Marvel's magic needs a clear set of guidelines"

Whereas I'd argue, as I did above, that that's the last thing it needs.

[nyadnar17]

I guess we are going to have to agree to disagree. Right now whenever I read a story about a magic character at Marvel the rules seem to be "they can do whatever they want except when they can't". I never know what the states are or if a particular obstacle in their path is a big deal or not.

I know generally what Spiderman can and can't do. Characters with easily extrapolated powersets like Magneto or Ironman are a little trickery, but in general I know if a problem they are facing is a big deal or not. With Dr. Strange and Scarlet Witch I literally have no clue what they can and can't do at any given time unless they specifically say it out loud.

IMO that kinda sucks

[laughing_tree]

Oh, I don't have an issue with rules for a specific character or even a specific title. It's rules across the board, about magic itself so that it applies to all books, that I think are too restrictive.

DC made a sort-of attempt at that some years back, when they had Michael Moorcock of all people create a bible for how magic worked in the DC Universe. But there really wasn't much effort to enforce those rules, and I think Keith Giffen was the only writer who ever bothered following them. That kind of rulebook would be the sort of thing I don't want.