Civil War
For those of you who haven't seen it yet:
My tumblr flist exploded last night with this release. I watched it and instantly began bawling. Seriously.
Look. It's a complicated issue. There's so much to discuss. How the "so was I" comment actually makes no sense because honestly, Steve and Tony are civil to each other in MCU on a good day and the rest of the time they're bickering and posturing and Steve's all "your dad was great and you suck" which just REALLY bugs me because it's so fucking unfair to Tony.
Honestly, I feel like Howard Stark is the one good thing about MCU (okay and Peggy Carter) because I like that Tony wasn't abused as a child, just had a dad that was absent (absent=/=good, but better than comics!Howard by a MILLION). But it really pisses me off that he is then used to attack Tony.
How MCU has deliberately positioned Tony Stark as being treated like a villain so fanboys can feel good about supporting a pro-jingoistic interpretation of Captain American fans while still loving Iron Man's suits and seeming playboy ways. How the average person seeing these movies has little nuanced interpretation of the comics. How the Captain America movie is Civil War rather than an Avengers movie which instantly puts most people in Cap's corner.
How people are ignoring the implications that if Tony were on the run or defending a friend, Cap would be chasing after him and people would be rooting him on to (still) take down Tony because: FUCK YEAH CAP. (It's amazing the amount of delusion many people have: Cap is a seeming fanboys dream, skinny and weak transformed into a powerful man who gets to beat people up. But they ignore that he isn't pro-America at the expense of everything else, that he has morals and an honor code. They take the weakling into an alpha male and Tony's "playboy" ways and money and ignore the things that make these men nuanced.) Both sides to registration have points. But when it comes to Captain America fighting for ONE man, it's time to examine that viewpoint critically. If Steve took off the mantle of Cap and became Nomad or simply fought as himself, I'd be more forgiving.
And honestly, if I hadn't already been converted to StevexTony via the comics, I probably would be in love with StevexBucky. I mean, in a way, I am. I LOVE past!StevexBucky (as I also love StevexPeggy and even StevexHoward because Steve is just so shippable with all the people in Cap 1/Agent Carter). I love their friendship. I get all the canon-based reasons for shipping them. And so, I am happy for all the Stucky shippers who get to add to their shipper vaults.
But. I cannot watch that ending scene of the trailer and be happy that "Steve and Bucky are sharing the shield!" because they are teaming up against another hero, not a villain. They are teamed up against TONY. Where are the rest of their teams? Who's going to help Tony? While Tony is capable of defending himself (honestly, one repulsar beam would kill Bucky instantly), it's still an unfair fight and I don't understand the purpose. Unless Tony is being controlled by someone else, there is no reason for it. At least in the comics it was a one on one fight.
With phrases like the one above ("sharing the shield!"), even the Stucky fans who aren't anti-Tony explicitly are coming across that way and I am not able to handle it. It's amazing how defensive I am for a fake person. But I have had to savior Stucky on my tumblr because I can't handle the posts right now. There's also a significant number of posts using the fact that MCU sucks and hasn't written a decent version of the most iconic friendship in MCU to laugh at Tony's "so was I" line as idiotic and irrational. A lot of posts are flat out happy for the idea that Tony will get killed. Some are suggesting that Bucky is going after Tony so hard in the trailer because Seve may be dead (or "Dead") at that point. To them I say: TONY STARK IS NOT A VILLAIN. And just, fuck you.
I know I am emotional because of the comics. That I should be able to separate them from MCU. (That I should not feel personally attacked when Steve and Bucky are beating on Tony.) But if you're going to pull from the comics rather than creating original stories, then I am going to bring my expectations and feelings over from the comics. So, yes, I started bawling at Tony's "so was I" because YES, Tony and Steve were friends and it's devastating to me.
It kind of makes me laugh because MCU (and X-Men which are MCU but not) is what got me into the comics, but now the comics keep me from enjoying the MCU. It's amazing how the characterization of these characters has entirely escaped the writers of MCU. They started out strong with IM1&2 (the writing issues of IM2 were plot-based, not characterization IMO) and Cap1 and have just sunk since then. It's like the writers stopped caring about the original canon and just chose the vague main threats and decided to film a lot of action scenes, screw any reference to these established character's actual motivations.
This rant is undoubtedly a bit disjointed. I am honestly so bothered by the whole thing I am not too coherent in my arguments yet.
Repeat after me: TONY STARK IS NOT A VILLAIN.
In conclusion: DEAR MARVEL:
Click to viewMy tumblr flist exploded last night with this release. I watched it and instantly began bawling. Seriously.
Look. It's a complicated issue. There's so much to discuss. How the "so was I" comment actually makes no sense because honestly, Steve and Tony are civil to each other in MCU on a good day and the rest of the time they're bickering and posturing and Steve's all "your dad was great and you suck" which just REALLY bugs me because it's so fucking unfair to Tony.
Honestly, I feel like Howard Stark is the one good thing about MCU (okay and Peggy Carter) because I like that Tony wasn't abused as a child, just had a dad that was absent (absent=/=good, but better than comics!Howard by a MILLION). But it really pisses me off that he is then used to attack Tony.
How MCU has deliberately positioned Tony Stark as being treated like a villain so fanboys can feel good about supporting a pro-jingoistic interpretation of Captain American fans while still loving Iron Man's suits and seeming playboy ways. How the average person seeing these movies has little nuanced interpretation of the comics. How the Captain America movie is Civil War rather than an Avengers movie which instantly puts most people in Cap's corner.
How people are ignoring the implications that if Tony were on the run or defending a friend, Cap would be chasing after him and people would be rooting him on to (still) take down Tony because: FUCK YEAH CAP. (It's amazing the amount of delusion many people have: Cap is a seeming fanboys dream, skinny and weak transformed into a powerful man who gets to beat people up. But they ignore that he isn't pro-America at the expense of everything else, that he has morals and an honor code. They take the weakling into an alpha male and Tony's "playboy" ways and money and ignore the things that make these men nuanced.) Both sides to registration have points. But when it comes to Captain America fighting for ONE man, it's time to examine that viewpoint critically. If Steve took off the mantle of Cap and became Nomad or simply fought as himself, I'd be more forgiving.
And honestly, if I hadn't already been converted to StevexTony via the comics, I probably would be in love with StevexBucky. I mean, in a way, I am. I LOVE past!StevexBucky (as I also love StevexPeggy and even StevexHoward because Steve is just so shippable with all the people in Cap 1/Agent Carter). I love their friendship. I get all the canon-based reasons for shipping them. And so, I am happy for all the Stucky shippers who get to add to their shipper vaults.
But. I cannot watch that ending scene of the trailer and be happy that "Steve and Bucky are sharing the shield!" because they are teaming up against another hero, not a villain. They are teamed up against TONY. Where are the rest of their teams? Who's going to help Tony? While Tony is capable of defending himself (honestly, one repulsar beam would kill Bucky instantly), it's still an unfair fight and I don't understand the purpose. Unless Tony is being controlled by someone else, there is no reason for it. At least in the comics it was a one on one fight.
With phrases like the one above ("sharing the shield!"), even the Stucky fans who aren't anti-Tony explicitly are coming across that way and I am not able to handle it. It's amazing how defensive I am for a fake person. But I have had to savior Stucky on my tumblr because I can't handle the posts right now. There's also a significant number of posts using the fact that MCU sucks and hasn't written a decent version of the most iconic friendship in MCU to laugh at Tony's "so was I" line as idiotic and irrational. A lot of posts are flat out happy for the idea that Tony will get killed. Some are suggesting that Bucky is going after Tony so hard in the trailer because Seve may be dead (or "Dead") at that point. To them I say: TONY STARK IS NOT A VILLAIN. And just, fuck you.
I know I am emotional because of the comics. That I should be able to separate them from MCU. (That I should not feel personally attacked when Steve and Bucky are beating on Tony.) But if you're going to pull from the comics rather than creating original stories, then I am going to bring my expectations and feelings over from the comics. So, yes, I started bawling at Tony's "so was I" because YES, Tony and Steve were friends and it's devastating to me.
It kind of makes me laugh because MCU (and X-Men which are MCU but not) is what got me into the comics, but now the comics keep me from enjoying the MCU. It's amazing how the characterization of these characters has entirely escaped the writers of MCU. They started out strong with IM1&2 (the writing issues of IM2 were plot-based, not characterization IMO) and Cap1 and have just sunk since then. It's like the writers stopped caring about the original canon and just chose the vague main threats and decided to film a lot of action scenes, screw any reference to these established character's actual motivations.
This rant is undoubtedly a bit disjointed. I am honestly so bothered by the whole thing I am not too coherent in my arguments yet.
Repeat after me: TONY STARK IS NOT A VILLAIN.
In conclusion: DEAR MARVEL: