Marvel's Voices: Identity #1

[cyberghostface]

“I’m thrilled to be writing Silk again for this anthology highlighting AAPI Super Hero voices! It’s timely, yes, but also representation we could use all the time." -- Maurene Goo





"And you forgot one thing..."

Comments

Born angry?

[blue_bolt]

I don't know half as much as I would like about other countries.
Is there a cultural association with anger in Korea? I know North Korea is a terrible 1984-esque dictatorship, but I thought South Korea was a fairly advanced state with mandatory military service. I'd heard about some sexism there from my step-sister who worked as an English teacher there for a year, but other than that she quite liked the country. She did warn me that when they said something was spicy, they meant SPICY.

Re: Born angry?

[mastermahan]

Actually, yes. It's called han, which sort of translates as "resentful sorrow". The history is complex and I'm not the right person to explain it delicately, but it's linked to decades of brutal rule by Imperial Japan.

There's even a Korean cultural-bound syndrome named hwa-byung associated with unexpressed anger.

You might notice revenge is a common theme in Korean media.

Re: Born angry?

[cyberghostface]

Interesting. I’ve definitely noticed the latter.

Re: Born angry?

[mastermahan]

As I understand it, it started with the Imperial Japanese stereotyping Koreans as naturally angry and sorrowful. Historically, they weren't - that was due to the circumstances of occupation. After World War II, though, the idea became popular in Korea that this was part of their national identity. There's even a nihilistic view among a lot of Koreans that their history is basically 5,000 years of constant invasions and occupations (it's not).

Intergenerational trauma is related to my real-life work, but that's with indigenous populations.

[cainofdreaming]

How did Scarecrow come back from, you know, being turned into a demon?

[cyberghostface]

He hasn’t been demonic for a while.

[cainofdreaming]

Yeah, but did they ever actually explain it?

[agent8]

Better question; what's Scarecrow doing in a Marvel comic? Did the two companies make some kind of cross over deal?

[mastermahan]

Assuming you're not joshing, this is Marvel's (much shittier) Scarecrow. He's a contortionist with a flock of trained crows, and later on he developed fear powers. He started as an Iron Man villain, but it turns out flexibility and birds weren't effective there.

Johnathan Crane appeared a couple times in the Golden Age, but didn't get revived as a villain until three years after this Scarecrow appeared.

The two also teamed up in DC vs. Marvel.

[agent8]

Thanks I Never knew there was a Marvel Scarecrow. I have DC vs Marvel - must have missed that bit, or forgotten about it.

It sounds like DC's version came first (Golden Age) . Seems incredible that DC let this get past them without a whopping huge copyright infringement lawsuit.

[cyberghostface]

It would be tough to copyright something like that.

[mastermahan]

Johnathan Crane came first, sure, but at the time Marvel's Scarecrow was created, Crane wasn't the valuable intellectual property used in movies, video games, and television shows. Crane was a character who had appeared exactly twice, and not in over 20 years. It wouldn't have been worth fighting over even if DC had a legal leg to stand on.

[tinygaylaura]

He's definitely more comitted to the Scarecrow theme

[cainofdreaming]

Marvel's actually had two. The second one's name was changed to Straw Man, though. Probably time to change it again, if he ever makes a reappearance.

[lordultimus]

Little on the nose, but then, kind of the point of this special.

[shakalooloo]

All of these specials have been like that - given the messages they're trying to get across and low page count, it sounds louder than it should be.

[lordultimus]

I guess that's why it's so hard to make a good PSA that doesn't make you cringe.

(Also cigarette companies intentionally financing bad ones, or something.)

[bruinsfan]

I'll give credit to Gene Luen Yang, Christina Strain, and Jeremy Holt, their stories felt like good stories in addition to having a message on theme.

[tinygaylaura]

I've got absolutely no problem at all with the way these specials have been written. I think they're fantastic myself

[leahandillyana]

It honestly would be more interesting if they encountered a minority villain. I'd love the irony of a white queer villain complaining about lack of recognition to Korean-American heroes. If the villain was a person of color, that would make for similarity of experiences and would require a longer story, I guess.

[shadur]

That '... sir, please' expression in the third panel is just perfect.

[tinygaylaura]

I loved that as well :)