Tidbits: Mostly X-Men
Jun. 24th, 2011 02:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Tidbits (mostly X-Men):
Dreamwidth
There has been a sea change: for the first time, I'm getting more comments on DW than LJ, supporting
louderandlouder's hunch that DW will eventually be the greater fandom hub.
X-Men Soft Skills
Reading Skip Downing's On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and Life (the text for several of our college's learning communities) made me want to
(The skills list is from Downing, p. 19)
Charles:
Taking responsibility: A
Making effective decisions: A-
Setting goals: (ability to: A, quality of: A-)
Managing time: A
Prioritizing tasks: A
Persevering: A
Giving strong efforts: A
Working well in teams: A
Communicating effectively: A
Having empathy: A+
Knowing how to learn: (academics: A, life lessons: B+)
Exhibiting self-control: A-
Believing in one's own self-worth: A
Erik:
Taking responsibility: A
Making effective decisions: A
Setting goals: (ability to: A, quality of: C-)
Managing time: A
Prioritizing tasks: A-
Persevering: A+
Giving strong efforts: A
Working well in teams: B+
Communicating effectively: A-
Having empathy: B
Knowing how to learn: (academics: A, life lessons: B-)
Exhibiting self-control: B
Believing in one's own self-worth: A
Brief review of X-Men graphic novel, God Loves, Man Kills
This is early 1980s graphic novel is the principal basis for the film, X2. It concerns the machinations of William Stryker (in this version a televangelist) as he tries to a) convince the world that mutants are unholy and b) exterminate them. As in the film, the X-Men and Magneto team up to foil him while Xavier is imprisoned and telepathically manipulated. It's a good read on the whole and has some moments of philosophical depth that outstrip the movie.
(Some spoilers follow.)
I rarely read anything in the American superhero comics genre, so I experienced some genre dissonance. (There was much laughter over the "yellow spandex" and super stylized, sledgehammer dialogue: "Behold--Magneto! Most feared of a fearsome race....")
Anyway, while I chock up most of my giggly dissatisfaction to not being the intended audience, I do think some bits suffered from the heavy-handed characterization. Not Stryker: I disagree with the Amazon reviewer who felt he was too black and white. He absolutely is black and white, but he's not designed to be much of a person. He's a prop for the interpersonal dimension that centers on the uneasy alliance between the X-Men and Magneto, just as in LotR, Sauron is a prop for the personal drama surrounding Frodo, Sam, Gollum, etc. Villains do not need to be characters if they are true non-participants in the character drama.
I do think Xavier's character suffered in this volume. He seems to have been overcome very easily (as he was in the film). Even having been rescued (and contrary to the film), he is atypically demoralized. Now, as a basic sketch, I like the idea of seeing Xavier demoralized as a result of his being tortured and mind-controlled: to be overcome and manipulated in that way is a rare and traumatic experience for him; it echoes Magneto's formative experiences, and the fact this his initial response to it is to consider siding with Magneto is ironic and interesting--theoretically. However, it's more "told" than "shown" (odd criticism though that may be for a comic book). We don't get a sense of thought process or feeling, just an outline of his imprisonment, very brief subsequent funk, and being talked out of it by Scott. This is the sort of character drama that could be rewritten better in fic.
Things I liked:
* Some deeper than usual (in my experience) philosophizing about the two main ideologies. It's interesting to see Magneto answer, if imperfectly, some of criticisms of his fascism, ex. his theory of how to construct a utopia. Conversely, it's interesting to hear Scott articulate a utilitarian rationale for the X-Men's comparative pacifism (in a nutshell, that true social change must come within).
* I enjoyed the dig at Creationism; I admit it. And it was very appropriate for a story that is fundamentally predicated on belief in evolution.
* Unlike in the film, Magneto did not abandon the X-Men in the midst of peril, something that really rubbed me the wrong way in X2. In fact, there were many instances of good teamwork, clearly a theme and well executed.
Dreamwidth
There has been a sea change: for the first time, I'm getting more comments on DW than LJ, supporting
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
X-Men Soft Skills
Reading Skip Downing's On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and Life (the text for several of our college's learning communities) made me want to
(The skills list is from Downing, p. 19)
Charles:
Taking responsibility: A
Making effective decisions: A-
Setting goals: (ability to: A, quality of: A-)
Managing time: A
Prioritizing tasks: A
Persevering: A
Giving strong efforts: A
Working well in teams: A
Communicating effectively: A
Having empathy: A+
Knowing how to learn: (academics: A, life lessons: B+)
Exhibiting self-control: A-
Believing in one's own self-worth: A
Erik:
Taking responsibility: A
Making effective decisions: A
Setting goals: (ability to: A, quality of: C-)
Managing time: A
Prioritizing tasks: A-
Persevering: A+
Giving strong efforts: A
Working well in teams: B+
Communicating effectively: A-
Having empathy: B
Knowing how to learn: (academics: A, life lessons: B-)
Exhibiting self-control: B
Believing in one's own self-worth: A
Brief review of X-Men graphic novel, God Loves, Man Kills
This is early 1980s graphic novel is the principal basis for the film, X2. It concerns the machinations of William Stryker (in this version a televangelist) as he tries to a) convince the world that mutants are unholy and b) exterminate them. As in the film, the X-Men and Magneto team up to foil him while Xavier is imprisoned and telepathically manipulated. It's a good read on the whole and has some moments of philosophical depth that outstrip the movie.
(Some spoilers follow.)
I rarely read anything in the American superhero comics genre, so I experienced some genre dissonance. (There was much laughter over the "yellow spandex" and super stylized, sledgehammer dialogue: "Behold--Magneto! Most feared of a fearsome race....")
Anyway, while I chock up most of my giggly dissatisfaction to not being the intended audience, I do think some bits suffered from the heavy-handed characterization. Not Stryker: I disagree with the Amazon reviewer who felt he was too black and white. He absolutely is black and white, but he's not designed to be much of a person. He's a prop for the interpersonal dimension that centers on the uneasy alliance between the X-Men and Magneto, just as in LotR, Sauron is a prop for the personal drama surrounding Frodo, Sam, Gollum, etc. Villains do not need to be characters if they are true non-participants in the character drama.
I do think Xavier's character suffered in this volume. He seems to have been overcome very easily (as he was in the film). Even having been rescued (and contrary to the film), he is atypically demoralized. Now, as a basic sketch, I like the idea of seeing Xavier demoralized as a result of his being tortured and mind-controlled: to be overcome and manipulated in that way is a rare and traumatic experience for him; it echoes Magneto's formative experiences, and the fact this his initial response to it is to consider siding with Magneto is ironic and interesting--theoretically. However, it's more "told" than "shown" (odd criticism though that may be for a comic book). We don't get a sense of thought process or feeling, just an outline of his imprisonment, very brief subsequent funk, and being talked out of it by Scott. This is the sort of character drama that could be rewritten better in fic.
Things I liked:
* Some deeper than usual (in my experience) philosophizing about the two main ideologies. It's interesting to see Magneto answer, if imperfectly, some of criticisms of his fascism, ex. his theory of how to construct a utopia. Conversely, it's interesting to hear Scott articulate a utilitarian rationale for the X-Men's comparative pacifism (in a nutshell, that true social change must come within).
* I enjoyed the dig at Creationism; I admit it. And it was very appropriate for a story that is fundamentally predicated on belief in evolution.
* Unlike in the film, Magneto did not abandon the X-Men in the midst of peril, something that really rubbed me the wrong way in X2. In fact, there were many instances of good teamwork, clearly a theme and well executed.