Finding friends can be difficult and finding good friends is even more of a challenge. Friendship is one of the most important relationships in human living. From childhood we are encouraged to be friendly and befriend others, and we carry this with us our whole lives. The term friend can have a whole manner of meanings behind it. Like love, friend is more abstract in feeling than it is concrete in physicality. Friends (real friends) hold you to a level of accountability; they are honest and sacrificial. Friendship can give you comfort in your times of grief and provide you with a sense of never-ending trust and respect.
Some friends last a season while others last a lifetime, but there are also friendships that may break and the breaking of a friendship can damage a person in more ways than they realize. Broken friendships are created from betrayal, jealousy, hate, anger, lies and deceit. What is broken can be fixed, can’t it? There is an old saying that true friendship is like fine china, once broken, but made stronger with mending. That doesn’t always mean that mending is going to be painless.
The broken friendships of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, and Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr are classic examples of broken friendships. Forged from betrayal and deceit, their broken friendships can tear harder at the heart and the soul than a tragic love story. The person who once trusted with your life is now the person you can never trust at all.
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Capt. Steve Rogers & Bucky Barnes
In the case of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, there was no choice at all. Steve and Bucky were friends since childhood and grew up together. War separated them and then brought them back together making their friendship stronger than ever. Then after Bucky was killed in an accident, Steve almost went into a downward depression than only Peggy could get him out of.
Fast forward 70 years later. Steve Rogers in now living in modern times and learning to relive his life in a very different world. When suddenly he comes face to face with his former best friend, who is now the deadly assassin only known as The Winter Soldier. One could safely assume, that Steve is confused, but even more so terrified. Now, Steve must make a choice, save his friend or stop him.
On Bucky's side, he's been kidnapped, mutilated (they actually sawed off his entire left arm), abused and brainwashed. He has no idea who he is or what he is. All he knows is his duty and mission and that he must carry it out. When he comes across Steve on the bridge, certain memories are triggered ad he begins to ask questions. "Who was the man man the bridge?" or better yet, who am I and how the hell did I get here?
Although Bucky and Steve's friendship was broken through HYDRA and their diabolical plans, it was never broken by themselves. Both have been made to be enemies, but their friendship runs so strong and so deep, that not even HYDRA has been able to crush the soulful friendship that has remained intact for over half a century. When Steve refuses to kill Bucky and would rather die than give up on his friend, something in Bucky changes. His humanity is revealed and for the first time, someone sees him as a human and not a machine. Someone is here to help him and not hurt him.
After Bucky saves Steve's life, he has a choice, either report back to HYDRA or run. Either way he becomes a fugitive with no where to go to, but he takes a risk and hides, while going on his own mission of finding out who he is All because one man said that he was his friend and refused to let HYDRA or S.H.I.E.L.D. break the friendship they had forged so long ago as children.
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Charles Xavier & Erik Lensherr
They say that opposites attract and for Charles and Erik, this is an absolute truth. Both men meet in 1962 to create a CIA faction made up of mutants in case of world attack. While they had severely different childhoods, what brings them together is their desire for mutant freedom, but in very different ways. Charles wants equality between humans and mutants, while Erik wants supremacy over humans. In spite of their contrasting views, both are committed to gathering and training young mutants to control their abilities and live ordinary lives.
What Erik and Charles meet, Erik is a man who has been broken since childhood. Stripped of his dignity and hope, all Erik has is his anger that fuels him everyday to accomplish his personal vendettas. While Charles is aware of all that is happening with him, he can also see a small amount of goodness in Erik and that belief in Erik's goodness is what unites them and makes them friends. Charles sees what Erik cannot. Charles is able to bring to light all the dark paths that Erik has taken and tell him that he can be a better person.
While Erik appreciates all that Charles can see, he has known his own revenge since he was 13 and believes that to be his true ally. Choosing his own path of destruction breaks the allied friendship between him and Charles. Time and again Erik stabs Charles in the back for his naive beliefs in his soul and his humanity. Charles is not someone to give up easily and in spite of their different sides that they are, if they themselves can unite a mutants, maybe they an also unite a world. First, Erik must learn to care about the rest of the world.
As old men, Charles and Erik are still going at it with one another. Erik planning on suppressing humans and Charles spending every moment he has protecting them. So why does Charles not give up on Erik? That question can have more than one answer. First and foremost, they are still mutants and in the prejudiced and hateful society, mutants need to unite if they are ever going to survive. Charles lives his life trying to dwell on the good in others and tries to understand the human heart and nature in everyone.
Although, they are on opposing sides, Charles and Erik never really ended their friendship. It was still there holding on to a couple of threads. Although broken due to their different beliefs and allegiances, both still remembered a time when they thought they could change the world together and use their abilities to create a better life for their own kind.
Love really can change everything, at least if it’s the right kind of love. Romantic love in stories can be tricky and sometimes, downright impossible. There needs to be romance without sentimentality, there have to be characters that are real and human to be able to convincingly portray the advantages and downfalls of love. Sometimes love is written in the stars and sometimes it is hardly seen at all. There are times when you can love more than one person and times where you have to find the courage to say goodbye.
However love may be portrayed, in the superhero universe, love and the stories created by love is the most real and personable way that the reader is able to identify with the character. Everyone at one point in time has been in love with the guy or girl who never notices them, or have waited for someone for months or even years, believing them to return one day and there are those who find there lives compromised by the questions who and when and why?
Love is what can make or break a hero. It’s what heals and damages the soul. It gives peace and incites war. Love resounds strongly in words of wisdom and acts of courage. Love can turn the ordinary into extraordinary, can make a selfish prince a worthy king, turn a soldier into a legend and help the lost find their way back home.
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Tony Stark & Pepper Potts
A Devoted Love
We all need the one person who is always going to be one step ahead of us, but in the case of Tony Stark, he needs someone that is 6 months ahead of him. In Iron Man, Pepper is introduced as Tony’s clever, no-nonsense secretary that does anything and everything her boss requires. And what Tony Stark requires is 24/7 moderating and management as well as someone to run his company, put out all his public fires, keep his ego under control as well as caring for his alter-ego, bring him coffee and sometimes take out the trash. Pepper pulls it all off, effortlessly and with no complaints. So, why does she remain in this job, working for a chauvinistic playboy whose ego is the size of the company building? Simple. She’s in love with him.
Pepper is beautiful and intelligent and could probably find a good job elsewhere, but she chooses to stay because Tony is only ever himself when he’s around her. She is only person who is able to see a good man behind the facade of arrogance. Pepper wants Tony to see that same goodness as well. Tony fears that he will always live in the shadow of his father, but Pepper believes that Tony does just fine casting his own shadow over people.
Also, Pepper is only one of two people (the other being Rhodey) that Tony really respects and listens to. When Tony gets out of line, Pepper has no problem telling him off. Tony seeks her opinion on every company issue and he trusts her with ever ounce of his convictions, believing the will always get the job done.
Because Pepper and Tony have known each other for almost seven years, their relationship line has blurred somewhat. They’re not entirely professional nor are they entirely casual. In the beginning Pepper worked for Tony, in Iron Man 2, Pepper was Tony’s equal in the company business and by The Avengers and Iron Man 3, Pepper and Tony have now created a business/personal relationship that is built on trust, hard work, a little fun from time to time, and of course love; all forgiving, unselfish, never-ending love that breaks boundaries and gives the world something to believe in.
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Thor Odinson & Jane Foster
A Fairy Tale Love
Every little girl at some point in her life has dreamt of meeting a prince. Maybe even dreamt of falling in love with a prince and maybe…just maybe…marry a prince. Jane Foster may or may not have been one of these little girls, but she probably never imagined that one day she would actually meet a prince, just not in the way the storybooks have written it.
Thor and Jane’s romance can easily be described as superhero fairy tale. Ordinary girl living an ordinary life runs into a prince (or hits him with her car), finds him to be arrogant and rude, goes off on a dangerous adventure with him where he ends up getting into trouble, she fights to save him, gets to know him as a genuinely nice guy trying to get his life under control and unexpectedly finds herself in love with him. And that is in the space of 24 hrs. Of course, between those 24 hrs. were other moments that lent to Jane and Thor’s blossoming love story. Thor getting Jane out of her comfort zone and rescuing Jane’s journal for her. Jane realizing that work isn’t always important and love isn’t so scary.
Not all fairy tales have the happy endings we all hope for. In the end of Thor, the Bifrost Bridge is broken, barring Thor from seeing Jane. In Thor: The Dark World, Thor returns to Jane where they rekindle their love for each other, but find that her mortal life is can be detrimental to his destiny as future king of Asgard. People accuse Thor and Jane of falling to quickly for each other, but after the escapade they pulled with S.H.I.E.L.D. and what Thor and Jane discovered about one another, love tends to come whether you want it to or not.
What is a fairy tale? When first impressions are proven to be wrong, taking a risk that help you to better understand who you are, courage that can be found in acts of kindness and moments of sacrifice or it could simply be when something very good can come from something very bad. For Thor and Jane, they found something very good with each other.
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Capt. Steve Rogers & Agent Peggy Carter
A Legendary Love
War can separate people, but it can also unite them as allies, companions and even love relationships. For Steve Rogers, he was the war as his opportunity to do something with his life and serve his country. For Agent Peggy Carter, it was to break the social gender boundaries and live in a world once formerly reserved for men. Neither entered this war looking for love, but they both left the war made better by it.
Steve and Peggy’s slow burning relationship that started out as strangers with an immediate respect for one another, which turned into friendship and then ended with heartbreak. There was nothing really epic or even romantic about Steve and Peggy’s love story. They were two co-workers that immediately understood one another, understood what is was like to have dreams that seemed like an impossibility to accomplish, understand being judged constantly on appearance and understand the longing to make the world a better place.
What makes their love legendary is that it remained for over seventy years. Although Peggy remarried and had a happy life, she still remembered the gawky soldier who sat next to her in the car and had no idea how he was going to change her life. Steve will always remember Peggy as the first woman he ever had a conversation with as well as the first one to try and kill him. The hardships of war and the desire for peace brought these two very different, but like minded people together and together they knew they could make a difference for the generation that followed.
Their love story is legendary because their love was real. Their love story started with breaking the rules and overcoming the impossible, but ended with pain, tears and anger. It’s real because they were soldiers. Soldiers who fought and died for their country and knew what they may have to sacrifice in the process. Legendary love isn’t always the most romantic, usually it’s the most painful, but while it was there it was also the most beautiful.
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Dr. Jean Grey & Scott Summers & Logan
A Divided Love
Quite frankly, I believe love triangles to be overrated and outdated, but we put up with them anyway. In X-Men, the most popular (and most debatable) love triangle is between Dr. Jean Gray and her fiancé, Scott Summers and mysterious Logan; two very different men who have their hearts captured by one very complex woman.
To start out, Scott Summers and Jean had known each other since they were students at the school. They grew up there, trained there, taught there and ultimately fell in love. It seemed inevitable. When you’re in a controversial and feared genetic minority it’s usually best to stay with your own kind. Scott and Jean seem perfect for one another, a match made in heaven. Jean is intelligent and beautiful with a deep love for the children and great amount of respect for Professor X and the safe world he has created. Scott is the type of guy any young girl should consider marrying. Generous, calm, clear minded and a leader who everyone believes will run the school one day; you would find it difficult not to fall in love with him.
Enter Logan. A broody bad boy from the other side of the tracks who has no memory of who he is or where he came from. Immediately Logan falls hard for Jean, ignoring the fact she is engaged, he wastes no time in pursuing what he wants. At first Jean (naturally) wards him off, but then his true character of strength, sacrifice and courage draws her heart closer to him. Yet, she is still faithful to Scott, the man she has loved since she was a teenager.
Jean is hardly one to be ruled by her emotion, but she finds her love divided. Scott can give her a happy and successful life with children and a home. Logan, however, is dark and confusing, never knowing where he’s been and where he’s going end up. Just because Scott is the most obvious doesn’t mean that Jean should dump him for Logan. While Jean loves Scott, her feelings for Logan become nothing more than lust for a kind of man she has never met. This doesn’t make Logan evil in any way, though. There can oftentimes be a thin line between love and lust, but Jean knows which side she’s on and will not let anyone lead her astray.
As I said in my first A&U post, The Voice of The Father, the role of the father figure is a key component in the molding of future superheroes. For the most part, MARVEL has portrayed father figures in a moral and positive light, but there is always that character or two that just loves to cause controversy amongst the fans and I’m primarily talking about Howard Stark and Odin Allfather.
Speaking from former bad-dad hate for both men, I overtime began to have a different view of who these men were as fathers, leaders and legends. Odin especially has been the source of major debate in the superhero fandom due to his (supposed) abhorrent treatment of Loki. After quite a few years of resentment, but thanks to the success of the Captain America film and ABC’s Agent Carter, Howard Stark has really found a place among the MARVEL fandom. No father is perfect, whether in fantasy or real life, but sometimes it’s the father’s imperfections that are the best lessons for the heroes to learn from.
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Howard Stark
The original genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, whose brilliant mind in physics, engineering, weapon design and business literally helped America win WWII and believed help bring down HYDRA. To the world, Howard Stark is a legacy, but to his own son, Tony, Howard is a shadow from his past.
In Iron Man 2, Tony described his father as cold and calculating who never said he loved or even liked him; a man who was a hero to everyone, but his son. For years, Tony has resented his father for his distant behavior and even after Howard’s death nothing changed Tony’s opinion of him. Then Tony watches a lost film reel where Howard relays a message to his son, telling him that his dreams for a better future were held back because of the technology of the time (the 1960s), but that Tony would find a way to finish what he had started.
All nice and sweet, but the real heartbreak comes when his father tells him that of all of his creations, his son was his greatest. Now, I remember watching this movie for the first time and thinking, “How does one simpering statement make up for almost twenty years of cold and distant behavior?” There were many other fans that thought this way as well. They blamed Howard for being the primary cause of Tony’s loneliness. Then I realized I was looking at this from a female’s POV.
Most of the time, woman want the deep and emotional heartbreaking speeches that would be the stuff of the Bronte’s writing. For men though, they simply want honesty and respect. No tears (even though Tony was about to cry), no drama, just the truth. All Tony wanted was to know that his father spared at least a thought for him, that his father believed in him and trusted him to carry on his legacy.
In the Iron Man trilogy, Howard Stark was an admired and revered inventor, but really wasn’t looked into that deeply; so it was understandable why Howard wasn’t liked that much. Captain America and ABC’s Agent Carter (as well as brilliantly casting Dominic Cooper) have thankfully redeemed the character of Howard Stark in the past couple of years. In Captain America: The First Avenger, we are given the great opportunity to see a young and handsome Howard Stark who is always looking to the future with his weapon designs and never ending drive to bring down both Hitler and HYDRA.
In ABC’s Agent Carter, Howard reveals his childhood in the lower east side in New York. He was born into a poor Jewish family where his father sold fruit and his mother sewed waistcoats. Howard was the ultimate rags to riches story, but he worked to get to where he was and believed that he had every right to be there regardless of his social background and bloodline.
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Odin Allfather
If there was anyone meant to be king, then it would have to be Odin. Shrewd, benevolent, wise and fearless, Odin Allfather has protected, guided and loved the realm of Asgard ever since he ascended to the throne. Odin’s whole life has revolved around the safekeeping of Asgard and he would sacrifice himself on the altar of his enemies than ever see his beloved realm destroyed. Although, he is also a husband and father, Odin is above all a king. That is who he was born to be, brought up to be and will ultimately die that way. Like in all history, great and powerful leaders that ruled successful kingdoms and empires, tended to be terrible fathers. It was either the throne or your children and normally that former was the preferred choice (and at times it wasn’t even a choice; think Czar Nicholas).
Odin has been on the ultimate bad-dad radar because of his treatment of his adopted son Loki. The only reason that Odin took Loki in was to establish peace between Asgard and Jotunheim. Ok, fair enough. Odin could have simply raised Loki as a ward and told him about whom and what he was, and risk Loki always being seen as different and never fitting in. Instead, he took this baby into his home, made him a prince and gave him all the advantages that his biological son, Thor, had.
In the beginning of Thor we see Odin as a genuinely loving father who adores his sons and sees great potential in both of them. Yet, Odin still thinks as a king. In royal history, kings did not have children; they had lines of succession (primarily sons) and peace negotiations (usually daughters). That was the way royal families were seen. This was how Odin thought, as a king. One son would rule Asgard and hopefully the other would rule Jotenheim and finally there would be peace between the two realms.
After Odin finally reveals to Loki his true history, then proceeds to tell him that everything he hoped for would never happen, Loki (naturally) flies into a rage. What’s not revealed in the story, however, is the fact that Loki has always been a troublemaker and Odin, by that time, was assured that he could never rule Asgard or any realm for that matter. While Odin is in his Odinsleep, Loki has the opportunity to become king, to prove to his father that he has that right. When he well and truly blows it and almost destroys everything in anger and rage, Odin knows that Loki could never be a king. He had the chance to be the king his brother might have been, but was so focused on revenge that he missed the mark of true worth. All that Odin taught him was gone.
Yes, Odin lied to his son, but so did Frigga and Heimdall, why don’t they get called into questioning? Odin may come off as cold and uncaring, but there is so much that one man (let alone a dying man) can carry. Asgard is Odin’s birthright and he will see that birthright is placed in the right hands. Odin has no sentiment about him; he doesn’t waste time with tears and sadness. He has a realm to rule and people to protect. That is what made Odin a true king; duty first, self second and self normally meant family. Of course, he loved Frigga dearly, but she had also been raised in the same manner of royal duty; she knew the duties and expectations of a king.
If Thor and Loki wanted to be successful kings, they would have to know the price of sacrifice. If a mortal woman (Jane Foster) was a threat to the throne, then Thor would either leave her or give up the throne. If an adopted son who had a chance and wastes that chance because he is to ungrateful for the life that was mercifully given him, then he should probably belong in jail.
“Every fairy tale needs a good, old-fashioned villain,” quotes Jim Moriarity in the season 2 finale of BBC’s Sherlock. That is an absolute truth, too. Wherever there is good in the world, there will always be evil to challenge it. In these turbulent and confusing times, we often ask, “Why do bad things happen? Why do people do bad things?” Well, for an evangelical Christian, the response is because we live in a sinful world that was created by a God that gave every human the gift of free will or the ability to choose right or wrong.
My pastor once said that instead of complaining about how there are so many terrible things in the world, maybe it’s your chance to do something good. Society whines about how God is cruel, unjust and unfair to people. Fair enough, that’s your choice to think that way. These same people also fuel their time and money into watching and supporting superhero films. So, look at it this way, if there was no evil in the world, what would we need superheroes for? Where would we get our moral inspiration? Where would get the rush of excitement when the hero finally defeats the villain?
The point of the villain is to challenge the hero, to see what they are made of, to push them to absolute limit of moral belief. No franchise does villains better than comic books. Without the villain, our heroes would have nothing to do, nothing to fight for and live in a world that doesn’t need them. In X-Men and the Avengers, there have been three villains that have molded the villain/hero complex to a whole new level, by starting their lives with one crucial step, the victim; a person who overtime turns on the people that could have been their salvation and instead become their targets of hate.
We’re all born fallen and evil, but we are not born villains; that is a decision we make on our own. One made the conscience decision to remain a personal victim as he grew into his role as a public villain, one is an anti-hero who cannot forget the past and one is a true victim that has no choice and increasingly no hope in the hell he has been forced to live in.
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Bucky Barnes//The Winter Soldier
Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes, or otherwise simply known as Bucky, had a life that was the stuff of military fairy tales, which ended in a nightmare. Born to a poor family in Brooklyn, New York; not much is known about Bucky's family life except he was the oldest of four children. Growing up, Bucky was closest to his best friend, scrawny but stubborn, Steve Rogers. Both were as different as two guys could be. Bucky was tall, handsome, charming, athletic and a born leader. Steve was short, homely, awkward, sickly and a social outcast. Yet, there was a bond between these two lonely boys that brought them together on the schoolyard playground which extended onto the battlefield.
Bucky may have come off as to good to be true, but he greatly possessed a compassionate heart that reached out to the hurt, the lost and the lonely. It’s what made him a good leader and a good second in-command. When Steve Rogers, now the world famous, Captain America, creates the Howlin’ Commandos, a special elite operation in the Strategic Science Reserve and makes Bucky his right hand man, who can say no? Together, Steve and Bucky bring down secret HYDRA factions all over Europe and they seem unstoppable. That is until a terrible accident throws Bucky down into a mountainous range, rendering him dead to his grieving best friend and the world.
Only, he didn’t die. The super serum experimentation that was done on him as a POW in Austria saved his life, but also brought him into a new life dominated by darkness, fear and terror. In the accident, Bucky’s left arm was severely damaged so HYDRA recreated a new, functional, cybernetic arm made from vibranium, the same metal Captain America’s shield is made of. They then wipe his mind and control, manipulate and abuse him until they have created the ultimate weapon against humanity, an indestructible super soldier that has no free will or choice. Simply a machine that is given orders and must carry them out, lest he gets a bullet in his head.
Bucky’s stripping of independent free will makes him the helpless victim that becomes the heartless villain. The serum takes what is good and makes it better, so if Bucky was already a good and honorable man, then the serum only heightened his humanity and HYDRA was fully aware of that when they took him underground. By consistently wiping his memory and then proceeding to tell him that his acts of terror are a gift to the world, therefore making him believe that he is performing good, Bucky by no admission of his own has become both victim and villain to mankind.
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Erik Lensherr//Magneto
An anti-hero is a person that commits the wrong actions for what they consider the right reasons. If any villain in the comic book universe is the epitome of this, then it’s Erik Lensherr. For Erik, he has been fighting for himself and in the name of others since he was a child. Born into a Jewish family in Nazi Germany, Erik faced discrimination as a Jew and then was herded into a concentration camp (probably Auschwitz) where he is separated from his loving parents.
When his mother is murdered by an insane scientists who was trying to provoke Erik’s magnetic mutation, Erik flies into an utter rage which allows his powers to manifest at an uncontrollable rate. That rage for the loss of his mother and his hatred toward the prejudice, the intolerable and the discriminatory is what creates in Erik a monster that is ruled by his passion to extract revenge in the name of justice.
Erik is forever on the balancing edge between hero and villain. In many ways he has a great deal of validations for what he does, but he when begins to punish the majority for the sins of the minority, then his actions come into questioning. What Erik cannot do is forget and move on. He believes that his rage is what controls his abilities and to harness that rage he must remember his pain, his agony and his fear. He wants to inflict on others what was inflicted on him, regardless of if they are innocent people or not. If there are not in his genetic realm, then they must be destroyed. Erik technically becomes a mutant Hitler by believing the mutant race to be superior and the humans inferior.
Like Bucky, Erik started out as one man’s victim, but overtime, became his own villain. Unlike Bucky, Erik had the choice to choose between good evil and he thought he was choosing good, but evil was always in the background of his mind, whether he was aware of it or not. He always believes that he his fighting to preserve his kind, but how can he do that when half of his kind are trying to protect those that he is trying to kill? For Erik, there is only black and white. There is good and evil, and he truly believes that evil must be served if it means to bring about good.
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Loki
In the 2011 film Thor, Tom Hiddleston took the world by storm with his characterization of the tragic villain Loki. The younger un-worthier prince that lived in his older brother’s shadow, abandoned by his biological father, rescued by Odin only to feel that he was never loved enough and somehow those reasons are all viable for Loki to create chaos and disorder. Loki’s problem is that he believed his own personal issues made him a victim, therefore were acceptable to become a villain in his own right.
Tom Hiddleston once quoted about his on screen alto ego that all villains are heroes in their own minds. For the case of Loki Laufeyson (Odinson) he sets out to accomplish the one goal he could never obtain, true greatness. Loki believes that greatness can be found in what makes you happy or successful and as the former god of mischief, Loki’s life has always been about him and no one else.
All of this stems back to one man, his adopted father, Odin and the trails of ‘if onlys’ that could have paved a different road for Loki. If only Odin had shown Loki a little more attention, if only Odin could accept Loki as a magician and not as a warrior, if only Odin had a little more compassion when he told Loki of his true parentage, if only Odin wasn’t ruler of a great realm that depended on him constantly then maybe he could be the unrealistic father rabid Loki fans want him to be (that escalated quickly). Odin made mistakes, but those mistakes did not make Loki a victim; that image only existed in Loki’s mind. That victimized image pushed him to the absolute transition of a true villain.
Loki was both villain and victim by his own choice. He ended up getting the sympathy vote because he clearly seemed to have this terrible adopted daddy that didn’t love him and so it validates the madness he generates. In by purposely and independently choosing to become both victim and villain, Loki has only become what his father was trying to protect him from, a monster that destroys anything and everything for the glory of their own selfish purpose.
Feminism. How such a word can provoke such a wide array of emotions, from pride to disdain. To be honest, feminism is probably one of the most controversial issues in today’s society.
Who is a woman meant to be?
What is her place in the world?
Who does she answer to?
How equal is she to a man?
Is there feminism to be found in domestic life?
Can a woman truly succeed and still maintain the true quality of being feminine?
Feminism has been woven throughout history since the Bible times, some of it positive, (think, Deborah the Judge and Lydia) and some of it is negative (think Jezebel and Vashti). Shortly after the Civil War ended, women started to rally for equal voting rights which started the first-wave feminist movement. All that women wanted was to be seen in the eyes of society as equals to men and to be treated as such.
In the 1960s though, values shifted and morals plummeted as the original foundations of the first-wave feminists were broadened into the female empowerment movement with the ideal of “I’m a woman, hear me roar.” They call that feminism, but it’s not true feminism. Feminism means equality and the right to make your own personal decisions. I’ve studied feminism for a long time and I will go round with people all night long to prove my validated points on it.
If the comic book world has done one thing right, they have presented women as strong, powerful and intelligent, and have coincided these qualities with beauty, compassion and loyalty. This is also known as the Princess Leia affect. She was one of the first screen heroines that was a balanced combination of strength and beauty, and really almost every female heroine I talk about today have a small piece of Princess Leia in them.
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S.H.I.E.L.D.
Agent Natasha Romanov//Black Widow
Agent Maria Hill
I don’t think true feminism has ever been more appropriately applied to two working women as Agent Natasha Romanov and Agent Maria Hill. Both women are considered the best of the best in S.H.I.E.L.D. Natasha is a brilliant spy and Maria is Fury’s second-in-command. As we saw in the Avengers films, both women are well respected and admired by everyone working within S.H.I.E.L.D. and their admiration and respect are well deserved.
Agent Natasha Romanov//Black Widow: First meeting her as an undercover agent in Iron Man 2, she is introduced at sweet natured Natalie Rushman, Pepper Potts secretarial replacement. Since then, Natasha’s storyline has slowly been revealed and developed. Orphaned at a young age in Russia, she was recruited by a special undercover KGB spy network called The Red Room. There Natasha was trained to become a ruthless spy who has created a long list of murder and destruction on what she calls ‘her ledger.’ Natasha eventually got on S.H.I.E.L.D’s radar and was suppose to die at the hands of Clint Barton (Hawkeye), but an unexpected act of mercy from her would-be assassin changes her life forever. Clint allows her to live as long as she gives up The Red Room and ally with S.H.I.E.L.D.
Afterwards, Natasha rises to the top of S.H.I.E.L.D. spy branch. She can do just about anything, from going undercover to hacking computers. Although she’s at the top, Natasha is still living in silent guilt for the sins of her past and hopes to one day wipe her ledger clean. Eventually she realizes she cannot do that; all she can do is make a better future for herself and the world she lives in.
In Age of Ultron we are given a shocking and heartbreaking flashback into Natasha’s life in the KGB and the mental abuse she was made to suffer. None of that compared to the sterilization procedure she undergoes to prevent pregnancy. In spite of her successes and victories over adversity and betrayal, all Natasha truly wants is a family and it kills her on the inside knowing that dream was stripped away from her.
Of course, the (said) feminists threw a tantrum, saying that Natasha was weak for mourning the loss of her ability to have children. All I can say is, how dare you accuse her of being weak?? All because she was acting on true female emotion. Women are born to be women and with that comes the deep maternal instinct, otherwise known as, a mother’s love. There is nothing more heartbreaking for most women than the knowing that they will never have children, because they have been created with that natural maternal instinct that the world and female empowerment can never take away. To portray Natasha in that very vulnerable light was a stroke of genius and gave a more real and personable persona as a character and a woman.
After that dissertation, what do I say about Maria?
Agent Maria Hill: Nick Fury’s right-hand-woman who is every bit as tough and intelligent as the man she answers to. We first see Maria in The Avengers as a level headed woman and agent who may question the motives of her boss from time to time, but always accomplishes whatever he asks. Maria knows how to take orders, how to fight and how to survive. Her calm nature is her greatest strength and is really what defines her as an agent. Never once in the time that Maria Hill has been in the MCU has she ever lost her temper or go into a state of confusion.
When she’s off the clock, she’s lively and fun; just genuinely someone you would want to be friends with. After S.H.I.E.L.D. collapses in Captain America: The Winter Solider, Maria takes a position at Stark Industrial and eventually works on the home base for the independent Avenger’s Initiative; only now, her boss is Steve Rogers (I wouldn’t complain). Maria doesn’t mind having to answer to men, as long as men see her as their equal and trust her to do her job well.
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Women of X-Men
Raven Darkholme//Mystique
Dr. Jean Grey//Phoenix & Ororo Munroe//Storm
In a world that hates and fears you and your kind, one can hardly be a mutant and a shrinking violet. In the X-Men universe, women are steel magnolias who know how to hold their own against a prejudiced world that is primarily run by men. The government is run by men, the Brotherhood and the X-Men are both run by men. Women do a play a vital role as just being women who have natural gifts and abilities that they use for fighting, protecting, learning and, above all, loving deeply, passionately and fiercely.
Raven Darkholme//Mystique: Depending on which X-Men franchise you watch, the first trilogy or the prequel trilogy, Raven is multifaceted character (they’re also played by two different women). In the first trilogy, she is known only as Mystique and is Magneto’s assistant who does whatever he asks of her. Mystique is utterly loyal to Magneto and will maim, torment and kill to ensure that his diabolical plans are fulfilled.
In the prequel trilogy, we are given the opportunity to see Mystique’s beginnings as Raven, a young abandoned child with an unusual blue form and the ability to shape shift, scavenging around in Charles Xavier’s kitchen. She is taken in by Charles’ family and together they grow up as close as any real brother and sister. Charles’ as the overprotective older brother who expects too much from his sibling and Raven as the independent sister who wants to break free from her brother’s shadow.
In First Class Raven struggles with her odd blue form and believes that she can never be accepted. One night in bed with Magneto and all doubts and fears are gone (don’t you wish that self-acceptance was that easy?); Raven has a new pride in her blue form as well as being a mutant, but comes to odds with her brother about where mutants lives should be heading.
Raven is strong-willed, but that doesn’t mean she has strength of character. Because she was over-protected by Charles for 18 years and then utilized for almost 40 years by Magneto, Raven’s life has always been at the mercy of men. This is why I loved Days of Future Past, because we were finally able to see the conflicting areas in Raven’s life and how she was torn between the brother she loved and abandoned and the lover that eventually abandoned her. In the end though (of both trilogies), Charles belief in his sister’s humanity always wins out and Raven or Mystique gets her justice and validation every time.
Dr. Jean Grey//Phoenix and Ororo Munroe//Storm: Two of Charles Xavier’s first students to join the X-Men as a doctor and a teacher. Jean and Storm epitomize the ideal of strength in deep love. Storm especially, with her job as a teacher, loves the children of Xavier’s School dearly and will fight to protect them at any cost. Storm was orphaned at a young age and understands the loneliness that many of these children face and makes it her primary duty to know that every child is loved, wanted and accepted.
Jean herself has had a hard time trying to find her place with in the X-Men faction. Quiet and reserved by nature, Jean is hardly one to let her feelings be made public (harder still when she finds herself caught between two amazing men). Her deep telepathic and telekinetic powers can be hard to control and dangerous to others around her if she cannot learn to control them. All Jean has ever wanted was a place to belong, a reason to belong and Jean really represents the people who struggle with their introverted personalities and the longing to better understand themselves.
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Everyday Women
Peggy Carter, Pepper Potts, Jane Foster
Feminism is defined as equality between men and women. All well and good, but now we can only accept and admire female heroines if they either know how to throw a punch or hack into a computer; well we all can’t be Natasha Romanov or Felicity Smoak. Peggy Carter is revered because she was in the military (sort of) and she knew how to shoot a gun, so femmi points for Peggy. Yet, somehow it’s a given that to have an ordinary woman who has an ordinary job such as a CEO or an astrophysicist isn’t considered feminist. So now it’s not enough to be equal to men on levels of education and careers, now we have to be the men themselves and forgo any thought of femininity; the lie of female empowerment at its finest.
Agent Peggy Carter: An English recon. worker in the Strategic Science Reserve during WWII, Agent Carter may seem somewhat out of place in a military world, but she holds her own, due to her quick mind and wit. A true definition of beauty, brains and brawn, it’s easy to understand how Howard Stark and Steve Rogers were both crazy about her. Peggy is only one of two people who see the potential in Steve Rogers before he becomes Captain America and encourages him to find his true potential afterwards.
While Peggy may love her job, doing the right thing will always come first; even if it means sacrificing everything you worked hard for. Peggy is willing to go through gunfire and blazes to assist Steve Rogers in his mission to end WWII. She stands firm in her beliefs and will not let any man (especially her boss) tell her that she is only led by her feelings.
Pepper Potts: Tony Stark’s former secretary and CEO of Stark Industries, Pepper Potts defines the ultimate working, successful woman. Having to deal with Tony and his self-absorbed attitude is a fulltime job in itself and then he dumps the failing company in her lap and somehow expects her to do something about it. The great thing about Pepper is that she is not someone to complain. She picks herself up and gets the job done and usually does it better than anyone else. Pepper’s success has not made her arrogant in any way. She is fiercely protective of Tony and Stark Industries and always has the company’s best interests in mind.
Jane Foster: A brilliant scientist who is also the least-liked of all the MARVEL female heroines. Why? Still trying to figure that out. Jane is different from other MARVEL heroines because she’s usually part of the comic relief, which I thought was great. People say that Jane isn’t a feminist because she fell in love with Thor so quickly. Ok….but Pepper was in love with Tony for years and only stayed for so long because of him? And didn’t Peggy almost kill Steve because she was crazy about him? Is there some kind of feminist love timeline that I’ve been completely unaware of? So Jane isn’t a computer whiz and she may be a dingbat from time to time, but she is also just the girl next door character who is successful in her career and got a lucky break with a god from above. It’s MARVEL fairy-tale. Get over it, wannabe feminists.
Of the many attributes that is emphasized in the comic book universe, one of the greatest is the role of fathers; from Dr. Erskine and Steve Rogers to Professor Xavier and Logan. Fathers are an immensely important role in the shaping of up and coming superheroes. They are the voices of reason, discipline, understanding and courage. Many of these father figures are well loved and admired and there are some that are very misunderstood and heavily misinterpreted.
I really hadn’t grasped this remarkable concept until I was writing my movie review for Captain America: The First Avenger. Once I came to that realization, I noticed that the father figure is present in every single comic book story. Mothers also play an important role (such as Martha Kent and Aunt May), but it is truly the father that calls out the hero in the ordinary man; the father’s words that becomes the hero’s actions; the father’s sacrifice that becomes the hero’s salvation.
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Capt. Steve Rogers// Captain America
Dr. Abraham Erksine & Colonel Chester Phillips
Before Captain America was even a recruit, he was just a kid from Brooklyn. His father died in the First World War (one of the reasons he is anxious to enlist) and chances are Steve never knew him (Steve is born in 1918, the year WWI ended). His mother was left to raise him on her own, but she must have given him a good childhood filled with memories and stories of a father only known in old pictures.
Dr. Abraham Erksine
Flash forward roughly 25 years later and Steve Rogers, a scrawny, sickly, asthmatic guy has failed to enlist in the U.S. army for the fifth time. In spite of his outward flaws, Steve has intense bravery, fortitude and the desire to fight back. By fate or by luck, he is seen by a soft-spoken German scientist, Dr. Abraham Erksine who views him as a potential candidate for a special serum that can turn a man into a weapon. No one else sees this potential, especially the overbearing Colonel Chester Phillips, but Erksine succeeds in turning the kid from Brooklyn into the greatest solider for the war and the world.
Before the procedure, Steve asks Erksine why he chose him of all people. Erksine answers, it was because of the goodness he saw in Steve. It may not seem a good reason, but for Erksine, who has dealt with life in Nazi Germany, he is searching for a good heart and a good soul, for through true goodness, can true courage abound.
Erksine called out the hero in Steve Rogers, before Steve even knew he possessed it. When Erksine is shot by HYDRA, he dies in Steve’s arms, his last words, “A good man.” His sacrifice for his belief in Steve Rogers became the foundation for Captain America of which the salvation for humanity was finally built.
Colonel Chester Phillips
The father role may seem to be lost, but it is surprisingly replaced by Colonel Phillips, the grouchy creator of the Strategic Science Reserve. He is as opposite from Erksine as one can get. Erksine was a scientist who works alone, Phillips is a soldier who commands an army. Erksine sees the internal, where Phillips only sees the external. When Steve asks to join the SSR, Phillips cuts him off by saying the one man cannot win a war.
When Steve finds out that his best friend and most of his unit (the same unit his own father was in) has been taken prisoner by HYDRA, Steve defies Phillips orders to stay there and do nothing. Phillips may seem heartless at the decision of telling Steve to stay, but the man is a soldier who must learn to make hard sacrifices. After Steve’s successful return, Phillips finally realizes his full potential and gives him a place in the SSR.
Colonel Phillips may not be the warm, generous type the Erksine was, but he gave Steve a real sense of duty, hard work, and responsibility. He was a disciplinarian who didn’t marvel and wonder at Captain America, but rather saw him as a kid who got a lucky break. Phillips brought out in Steve a sense of rebelliousness that can be useful in times of desperation and afterwards, that rebel heart in Steve Rogers never died.
~ ~ ~
Tony Stark//Iron Man
Dr. Yinsen & Howard Stark
“So, you are the man that has everything and nothing,” quotes Dr. Yinsen when he and billionaire, Tony Stark, are trapped in the Middle East and forced to build weapons for the enemy. For Tony, this seems to be the story of his life. Born into a wealthy family, his father, Howard Stark was a genius inventor whose weapons helped win WWII. Now his son has followed in his steps, expanding the business to an international level. Yes, Tony has money, privilege, cars and jets; access to anywhere he wants, Tony has everything, but happiness.
His parents died when he was young, but the damning part wasn’t their death; for Tony it was the fact that he felt that his father never loved him. The lack of parental and especially paternal love in Tony’s life caused him to wear an invisible mask that hid his anger and resentment for the father who chose work over his child. Tony works, but only when it brings him a profit. When he’s off the clock, he’s out partying and well, wasting his life.
Dr. Yinsen
Life gets a massive wake up call when he is taken hostage while in the Middle East and is told to use his own weapons to break down and create a master weapon. His only companion is a practical scientist, Dr. Yinsen who saves his life by helping him make an arc reactor for his heart and assists him in building the first Iron Man suit. During their imprisonment, Yinsen asks Tony if he has a family, when he answers that he has no one, Yinsen sums the man’s whole life in ten words. Tony is surprised at his bluntness, but says nothing.
On the day of their escape, Yinsen is struck down and lies dying. Tony tries to save him, but even he knows it’s too late. Before Yinsen dies, he says in his last breath, “Go home and don’t waste your life.” The death of the man who has been the only real friend and father compels Tony to fight for his life and return home, but not as the same man. Tony goes home and starts working on the new Iron Man suit in plans to return and protect the refugee people and gain justice for his mentor’s death. Yinsen called out the hero in Tony and told him that his happiness was for him to make, not for others to make it for him.
Howard Stark
Although there is a change in Tony due to Yinsen, he still harbors resentment against his emotionally absent father. In the second movie, Tony falls off the deep end due to his failing health, but is brought face-to-face with the reality of his overworked father in old film reels; a frustrated man who had the genius to change the world, but was held back by the technology of his time. In the last reel, Tony is surprised when his father has left a message for him, telling him that he, his own son, was his greatest creation and left behind for him a pattern to decipher that would change his son’s destiny and give him a new chance at life.
For the first time, Tony finally hears what he has longed to hear his whole life; that he had always meant something to his father. It may not have been a lot, but it was enough for him to pick himself up and live. If Yensin helped Tony discover his destiny, then Howard Stark helped Tony continue his legacy. Sometimes it takes a walk through the dark for a person to find their own light and at times, we must look to the past to find our future.
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Thor, the God of Thunder
Dr. Erik Selvig & Odin Allfather
Sometimes to understand who you are, you must leave everything you know. For Thor Odinson, that way of thinking becomes his ultimate salvation. A great prince who is powerful but arrogant gets a crash course in reality when he pushes the limits of his father to far and is banished to earth.
Now alone with no powers and no use of his mighty hammer, Mjelnor, Thor must learn to survive on his own. Except he may not be entirely alone. When he comes across brainy astrophysicist, Jane Foster and her mentor Dr. Erik Selvig, he finds an unexpected familial foundation.
Dr. Erik Selvig
In Jane, a woman who isn’t to different from his own strong and independent mother as well as his childhood friend, Sif. In Erik he finds an unusual father figure who finally gets through Thor what his father has spent centuries trying to teach him. Erik himself is skeptical of this stranger who reminds him of the great hero in stories he grew up with up in Scandinavia.
Erik was a close friend to Jane’s father and keeps a close eye on her. When he becomes concerned about Jane’s wellbeing after she and Thor get into trouble with the government, he believes that Thor is nothing but bad news. One night in the bar changes that. Thor tells Erik about his mistakes that led him to where he is and wonders where he is meant to go in life. For Erik, who seems to lonely most of the time, he may see a lot of himself in Thor and realizes that Thor wants to atone for whatever mistakes he makes.
Sometimes the best thing you can do for someone is just be there. Erik realizes that this guy has a great amount of potential and understands that he has learned a great deal about life in his short time in New Mexico. For Thor, Erik is a kindly man who already possesses a father’s heart, due to his relationship with Jane and he finally sees that his father’s lessons are universal. Erik’s is a mortal with no strength or superhuman abilities, but believes as deeply in moral responsibility as Odin does, as well as the position of loving and caring for others.
Odin Allfather
After Thor succeeds in fulfilling his father’s desire for him to be a worthy man, he returns to Asgard with a different perspective. Odin is beyond proud for his son and believes him to be a better and wiser king than him.
In the second film, Thor goes above and beyond his father’s expectations in bringing peace to the Nine Realms and Odin believes it’s not long before his son takes the throne of Asgard. All that he has taught his son, reinforced by Erik Selvig, have become the cornerstones of Thor’s life. Odin is a powerful warrior, a great king and a good father whose hard decision of banishing Thor to earth made personal inward war for his son that forged a warrior whose worth was the stuff of legends.
When Odin’s wife is murdered, he goes into an intense state of grief and despair and his judgment becomes clouded with anger and revenge. Thor must make the hard decision of whether to go against the law of his grieving father and bring justice to Asgard or to remain the obedient son he has finally become. Unlike the first film where Thor’s betrayal of his father’s trust was made for adventure, now Thor betrays that trust again to protect his father, the realm and the throne.
~ ~ ~
Professor Charles Xavier
Founder of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
and creator of the X-Men
For someone who grew up with an abusive step-father, Charles Xavier has the inner gift of paternal love and devotion that seems stronger than his own mutant abilities. It’s the primary reason he started the school back in 1962 with his adopted sister, Raven (Mystique), Erik Lensherr (Magneto) and a small hand selected group of young mutants all desperate to be accepted without bearing the shame of who they are.
Charles is a man on a multi-fold mission, help young mutants, train them to live successful lives, and have them use their abilities to protect humanity. It has been his bedrock principle since he was commissioned to find other mutants. Although he has extraordinary mutant abilities with his mind, his greatest ability is truly in his heart, the ability to see the potential in others, to be non-judgmental, to live everyday with the mentality that life is about others, not just yourself and above all, there is always hope.
In Days of Future Past, Charles falls off the deep end, due to the war in Vietnam and the loss of his students and teachers he had planned on training. In one last desperate attempt, Logan demands that Charles' read his mind and sends him to talk to his future self. Never has Charles Xavier been better explained than in this one scene.
If you don't read anything in this post, then at least, please watch this video!!! It has the most beautiful universal message that society needs today.
