Marauders #20: Windriders

[superboyprime]

Comments

[silverhammerman]

That really is the elephant in the room wrt to Krakoa, isn't it? Personally, I do think that Hickman at least absolutely drew on Israel for inspiration in conceiving the shape of Krakoa.

The problem to me is that either 1) the other writers don't get that and instead just being totally uncritical, writing something that ultimately amounts to a predominately white, American vision of utopia romping around the world and putting "less enlightened" people in their place. Or 2) that because of the painfully slow burn of the Krakoan era that they're all dragging their feet about having anyone textually point out how fucked up some of this stuff is.

I'm increasingly fascinated by the gaps in the Krakoan era from a writing standpoint.

[tinygaylaura]

I don't think there is anything "fucked up" about what mutantkind is doing. And I am absolutely all for heroes being perfectly willing to put slave owners, fascist gutter trash and bigots in their place as the Marauders are doing here

And I don't believe that heroes should stand by and do nothing just because "Oh it's not our country where it's happening and OVER THERE has to STAND FOR ITSELF"

Also I don't know how to break this to you but there is NOTHING out of the ordinary about what the X-men are doing here. I can think of half a dozen other superheroes at DC and Marvel just off the top of my head who have done stuff like what Storm has done. Sometimes in real countries and sometimes in fictional ones. Believe it or not "Stopping slave trading" is actually something most superheroes consider the right thing to do

[silverhammerman]

I want to be extremely clear here, in the story itself, the character are not in the wrong. Beating up racists and fascists is very much a cool thing, and it can be very cathartic to see in a story. That catharsis is clearly very resonant for you, and I don't mean to be an asshole and try to take that away. My issue is not that the characters are in the wrong, but that the creative decisions by the writers are questionable at best.

What I am pointing out is that from a creative standpoint it's deeply uncomfortable to have stories in which non-western countries are frequently and seemingly only portrayed as being full of beleaguered locals who need the big, brave mutants (who are all written by Western writers, through a Western lens, whatever nominal representation the characters display) to come in and save them with their enlightened Western ways from the small-minded local villains.

For example, in the pages above featuring Angola, there's little, if any difference between Bishop's bluff and any old adventure story where the hero convinces the primitive and superstitious locals that he has magic powers. And, strictly from the pages above, we get nothing to suggest that there is anything to Angola but gullible, heavily armed men who need to be outwitted by our wily Western heroes.

The pages above in India show only a girl having to be freed from slavery, is there a corresponding page where we get a glimpse of the good in India? Her saying goodbye to her family for whoever long she might choose to go to Krakoan? Any indication whatsoever that India is anything but a 200-foot square patch of land containing girls who need to be rescued from slavery?

That is the issue that I'm raising. When we see these kinds of plots lines repeatedly played out with non-western countries the only difference between this and, say, a ton of American narratives around "liberating" the Middle East is that these star mutants.

[tinygaylaura]

"The pages above in India show only a girl having to be freed from slavery, is there a corresponding page where we get a glimpse of the good in India? Her saying goodbye to her family for whoever long she might choose to go to Krakoan? Any indication whatsoever that India is anything but a 200-foot square patch of land containing girls who need to be rescued from slavery?"

I take your meaning here and I agree that it would have been good to have this in the story.

[mastermahan]

Backing up your point, let's look at how Brazil looked in the first issue of X-Corp. Angel is in the state of Rio de Janeiro and in trouble, but Brazil rejects Krakoa and doesn't have any gates. Fortunately, the protagonists are able to use the gate in Nova Roma - a community of white people. The hidden city in the "heart of the Amazon rainforest" also turns out to be visible from Rio de Janeiro - in our world, Rio is about 3,000 km away.

Meanwhile, Excalibur depicts Britain as full of xenophobes and cape-wearing wizards, but it never questions why Betsy would even want to be Captain Britain.

(To be fair, both are written by Tini Howard, thus low-hanging fruit.)

[deh_tommy]

Heck, why WAS Betsy so adamant on being Captain Britain? Not only has she shown time and again why she’s unqualified to be Captain Britain, she clearly favours Krakoa and hasn’t done squat for Britain since like #5.

[akodo_rokku]

If Opal Luna Saturnyne doesn't like it, you are morally obligated to do it.

[tinygaylaura]

So your saying it depicts Britain accurately then