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Current Curiosities
[Reading] Spent by Alison Bechdel [Listening] We Can Be Weirdos with Dan Schreiber [Watching] Thunderball Stumbles Are Steps, Too This morning, I finally watched The Fantastic Four: First Steps. I wanted to like the movie more than I did. On paper, what's not to like??? Pedro Pascal??? Yes. Sarah Niles??? Absolutely. Julia Garner??? Please. Natasha Lyonne??? Love. Retro 1960s futurism??? Stellar. PanAm blue supersuits??? Fabulous. And yet the stakes couldn't feel lower even as the fate of the world (and a baby) hangs in the balance. Normally, I'm just happy to vibe in the MCU and catch up with existing and new characters. So I wonder if I didn't connect with Fantastic Four because it doesn't feature an established MCU character like Black Widow or Nick Fury — yet. (I felt similarly about Eternals until Brave New World.) First Steps feels untethered from the MCU, and yes, I know it takes place on a different Earth in another universe, but this lack of connection to the broader MCU made the movie feel more like a live-action The Incredibles. The Good
The Bad
The Queer Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) is a closeted homosexual, no??? Let's look at the evidence. First, he sports a platinum blonde dye job and thick dark eyebrows. Nothing broadcasts post-break-up white gay male angst quite like abrupt and drastic hair changes. Second, little about his overcompensating performance of heterosexual masculinity reads as authentic. He talks about women like he's never been with one, but not in that shy, adorable Captain America way. Johnny does, however, scan as someone desperately trying to hide his true identity (novel for a superhero movie, I know) from those closest to him. Third, he features a seemingly impressive package in every tight-pantsed outfit — a classic gay sartorial choice. And fourth, Johnny's superpower is flaming. He's literally a flamer. Has there ever been a clearer metaphor??? I haven't read the comics, so maybe Johnny eventually comes out — or maybe he doesn't and that's his choice. I may need to give The Fantastic Four: First Steps a second chance with fresh eyes in a few weeks. Thank you very much for your time. If you have recommendations or curiosities, please fill out this nifty contact form. Sending y’all supportive, well-caffeinated vibes, Creighton Today’s Pen(cil): Ooly Fab [Fountain Pen] | Sailor Shikiori Zaza [Ink]
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My Postcolonial Brain Doesn't Have an Off-Switch
I'm hella late to this, but I'm finally watching Hulu's Shōgun, which I'm loving. I'd avoided the show for two reasons. First, I've always looked sideways at cishet white guys who fetishize Japanese culture and women. (Marvel and Star Wars have plundered Japanese culture for decades for mostly Western audiences.) Appreciation or respect is one thing, but fetishism or appropriation is another. I made assumptions about Shōgun based on experiences and observations of this particular kind of white cishet dude in high school and college and did not want to participate in their problematic aesthetics and politics. (However, I do adore Japanese stationery.) Second, after leaving academia, I found it hard to read for fun, and with Shōgun's subtitles, I was hesitant to watch, not sure I would have the focus needed. My mind now wanders to past experiences in the silence of reading. But this past week, I finally started watching Shōgun, and with two episodes left (I'm trying unsuccessfully to pace myself), I'm hooked. It's stunningly shot; the costumes are gorgeous; and the acting is brilliant! And yet, I cannot turn off my brain's need to analyze, to contextualize, to theorize about this fascinatingly complex show. While others may have already written on this (I have not checked, as this post is more reader response than researched essay), I was initially concerned Shōgun represents a sort of exoticism 2.0. The show is based on the novel by a British author. I'm generally suspicious of white men writing about the lives, experiences, and cultures of others. That one of the show runners is of Japanese descent gives me hope this is not another orientalist (in the Said sense) take on Japanese history and culture. Again, I do love this show. Anyway, Blackthorne's brutish behavior is rightly off-putting (though his behind is deeply engrossing). He's like an other-side-of-the-world John Smith to Mariko's Pocahontas. (That is truly a shit analogy.) I find Blackthorne deeply irritating. Though, perhaps as a Western audience, we need him as our in to the story and this particular period of Japan's history. I do like Blackthrone's unlikability. And in this way, he presents a more complicated, less mythic version of the prototypical English explorer. Protestant Blackthorne becomes slightly more likable when juxtaposed with the Portuguese Catholics, both faith leaders and merchants. It's not hard to turn historic Catholics into villains when for over two millennia the Church has pillaged and raped, enslaved and genocided all over the New World. And while English Protestants were equally as barbaric in their imperial enterprises, there's something more sinister about the Catholic Church actively participating in these practices, without atoning, to enrich its own coffers in the name of God, whatever that means. (This critique may sound harsh, but as a queer person, I have little patience for the Church's anti-LGBTQ+ practices and policies and the harms the Church has committed on generations of queer and trans people, again, without atonement.) The women of Shōgun are the most fascinating to me. For example, Mariko is caught between an abusive husband and Blackthorne as well as Toranaga and the remaining four regents. Mariko shows wisdom and strength and calmness in the eye of this powerful storm. As interpreter for Blackthorne and Toranaga, Mariko neutralizes aggressive sentiments, creating stability for this new shaky East-West alliance. Lady Ochiba's revenge-fueled rise to power confounds the patriarchal regents as she works to ensure her son remains the heir of the deceased Taikō. There's Usami Fuji, Blackthorne's consort, who overcomes the death of both her husband and infant. And there's Gin, the enterprising madam of the tea house, who argues in favor of the unionization and professionalization of courtesans to protect and lift up women. While the men tear each other apart, the women scheme for a better existence, a different world. Surprisingly, Yabushige became one of my favorite characters. I was ready for him to die after the first episode, but man, has he won me over. Did he boil a man alive??? Yes. Was it hella gross??? Also, yes. But is he funny as he attempts to survive the political power struggle??? Absolutely. I'm curious what's in store for him, Mariko, and the rest of Toranaga's clan in the remaining two episodes. And I'm happy to learn two more seasons are in the works! UPDATE: I finished the season. A little shellshocked. Uff da. Thank you very much for your time. If you have recommendations or curiosities, please fill out this nifty contact form. Sending y’all supportive, well-caffeinated vibes, Creighton Today’s Pen(cil): Lanbitou 3088 [Fountain Pen] | Monteverde Horizon Blue [Ink] Current Curiosities
[Reading] Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson by Tourmaline [Listening] Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter [Watching] Bravo's The Valley Natasha "Ariadne" Romanoff Outside of taking a group of Indians into Medicine campers to see the midnight showing of The Avengers (2012), I had never seen a Marvel movie. I tend to be very picky about science fiction and fantasy — as in, if it's Star Wars, I'm not interested. Fast-forward to 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic (and lots of free time). In August 2020, I accepted a position in the Center for Community & Civic Engagement at Carleton College and moved to hella rural Northfield, Minnesota. (The slogan for Northfield is Cows, Colleges, and Community. Uff da.) I didn't know anyone in town, save a handful of my new colleagues. Carleton, to its credit, was navigating the pandemic cautiously, so when I started my new position as Student Experience Manager, I worked from my kitchen table in my one-bedroom apartment in an old Arts and Crafts style house on the St. Olaf College side of town. (Scandinavian Sharks and Jets, baby!) When not Zooming into team meetings or one-on-one virtual coffees, I searched for activities to complement long walks with Diego Dog through our neighborhood. During one of these walks, I remembered laughing uncontrollably with my grad school friend and fellow camp counselor Maggie (a truly stellar human) at the scene where the Hulk picks up Loki, swinging him side to side into the cement floor of Stark Tower near the end of The Avengers. In fact, Maggie and I used to send each other this GIF back and forth for years when students at our respective universities asked silly questions. (Sometimes educators need gallows humor in order to reach the end of the semester.) Reflecting on the Hulk GIF, I decided to watch everything the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) had to offer. All I needed was the internet and Disney+. Luckily, I had both. So on a cloudy afternoon after my last virtual meeting of the day, I began working my way through the MCU in order of theatrical release, starting with Iron Man (2008). I've never been a comic book reader, so each character and every plot was new to me. While I find Tony Stark insufferable, I powered through Iron Man II, where I found my curiosity piqued by Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow). She started a through line, acted as a kind of MCU guide for me. Aside from Captain America (and! that! ass!), I had not found any of the other Avengers particularly interesting, but Black Widow deeply fascinated me — her darkness just below the surface, her sense of justice, her loyalty. As I worked my way through the MCU, I loved watching Black Widow pop into individual Avenger's movies and every team movie. What I realized is Black Widow, while not having her own standalone movie until after her death in Avengers: Endgame (2019), was stitching together the individual stories of her fellow Avengers. Natasha brings Iron Man and Hawkeye into Nick Fury's fold. She works closely with Captain America in his original trilogy. And she learns how to manage and care for Bruce Banner and his alter-ego the Hulk. As she collects allies, Black Widow leads viewers (or at least this one) through the complicated, labyrinthine plots that when woven together construct the MCU much like Ariadne and her red thread lead Theseus through King Minos's labyrinth (created by Daedalus) to save the Athenian sacrifices from the monstrous Minotaur. Sidequest: Growing Up Greek-ish My whole life I've loved Greek mythology, which I suppose is not all that different from comic books and superheroes. My family comes from the island of Corfu. According to legend, the original inhabitants of the island, the Phaeacians, sprung out of the blood and sea foam, the result of Cronus gelding his father Uranus with a sickle. The sickle is said to be buried under the island, which is why it's sickle-shaped. With such primordial ancestry, I often joke about being the descendant of Titans. As a child, my favorite myths were Daedalus and Icarus (I really wanted to fly), Heracles (what's not to love — muscles and queerness???), Medusa (I'm with her!), and of course, Theseus and the Minotaur. (This was before I realized what a dick Theseus actually is.) As a child with anxiety, the labyrinth represented the unknown, with the prospect of danger lurking around every turn, the potential to be lost forever. Knowing that Ariadne provided Theseus a red thread, a guide to navigate the labyrinth safely, provided a small sense of security — if Theseus could manage navigating the unknown, then so could I. Ariadne's thread, along with Daedalus's ingenuity and Heracles's grit, lessened my anxiety and instilled in me a drive to face challenges with creative problem solving. Focus! Find the Thread! In Iron Man 2, Natasha Romanoff joins Stark Industries on orders from Nick Fury as Pepper Pots' assistant. Fury reveals Natasha works for S.H.I.E.L.D. (so many periods!) and Romanoff and Happy Hogan team up to find Vanko, the Big Bad funded by a squirrelly Justin Hammer. (While I love Sam Rockwell, even his smooth dance moves can't save Iron Man II for me.) Natasha outperforms Happy (obvi) as she topples goon after goon and hacks into Hammer's system to aid Iron Man's final battle with Vanko. This is our MCU introduction to the Black Widow. She works from the fringes, supporting her teammates as they fight bullish Big Bads to win the day. Next in The Avengers, Black Widow, again on orders from Nick Fury, locates and recruits Bruce Banner to join the newly reactivated Avengers Initiative. Captain America, Iron Man, and Bruce Banner join her on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s cloaked sky fortress. (Sometimes, I cannot believe I'm typing words and phrases like sky fortress. It all sounds so silly.) Natasha interrogates and outsmarts Loki and saves her old friend Hawkeye from Loki's mind control. During the final battle over New York City (renters insurance must be astronomical!), Natasha again uses her brilliance and badassery to reprogram the portal to stop Loki's army, allowing Iron Man to redirect a nuclear missile, seemingly sacrificing himself [eye roll]. In these first two Black Widow outings, not only do we see Natasha fighting alongside her male colleagues to save the planet, but we also witness Natasha guiding her male colleagues through the chaos, supporting the collective defeat of their monsters. Then in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Natasha initiates events by speeding up to Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson (another favorite character) in a sports car. Later while rescuing hostages held on a ship, she yet again hacks into the system, another web of information needed to move the plot forward. (I realize I'm conflating spiders and webs and threads and the MCU with labyrinth, but this slippage is interesting.) Natasha uses her ability to see, to sense the world around her (like a spider feeling silk vibrations) in order to guide Steve through a maze-like shopping mall, secret military installation, and compromised S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. She deftly detangles recursive webs of secret identities and misinformation to, again, win the day against Hydra's Alexander Pierce and Fascism 2.0. (Uff da, The Winter Soldier feels very 2025.) And the team gains an Icarus of sorts in the form of Sam Wilson's Falcon! (Yes, I know there's already an Ikaris in The Eternals.) Admittedly, I don't care for Avengers: Age of Ultron. It's hella bleak. (Is this our AI future???) In an interesting move, Natasha is captured and her Ariadne is replaced temporarily by Agent Maria Hill (and Fury), as Hill traces Ultron's movements and directs the team to Sokovia to destroy Ultron and his AI goons. It seems Black Widow's narrative thread is to be present, as she negotiates her feelings and culpability in what has occurred in the past and what's currently happening in Sokovia. Her relationship with the Hulk continues to grow, well, before you know what happens. Age of Ultron represents the midpoint in Natasha's narrative trajectory, bringing her low before the events of Civil War, Infinity War, and Endgame. Black Widow's presence is our thread. Next in Captain America: Civil War, Natasha tries to keep her team stitched together through the fraught Sokovia Accords, at first siding with the politicians and a shellshocked and reactionary Iron Man, but then aiding Captain America and Bucky Barnes (double swoon) to escape the Berlin airport in order to unravel Zemo's plan to frame the Winter Solider for killing the King of Wakanda and destroy the Avenger's team unity in to avenge his family's accidental deaths in Zokovia. I love this movie so much. (And Spider-Man's lil tukhus could challenge Captain America's bum for superherioc bottom supreme.) Then in Avengers: Infinity War, Black Widow arrives with Captain America nearly an hour into the movie. These two make such a great team! In a brief yet touching moment, Natasha reunites with Bruce Banner for the first time since the end of Age of Ultron. Black Widow fights alongside the other Earth-bound Avengers in Wakanda to protect Vision, as the Mind Stone is removed from his forehead. In a pre-Barbie-esque scene, Natasha fights alongside Okoye and Wanda Maximoff to take out Proxima Midnight (an image echoed and expanded in Endgame's final battle, though with Black Widow notably absent). In the words of my beloved Spice Girls, GIRL POWER! And finally in Endgame, Natasha leads what's left of the Avengers after Nick Fury and others vanish when Thanos snaps his Infinity Stone-encrusted fingers. It's worth noting, Black Widow leads, while many of the surviving male Avengers on Earth are either MIA or crumbling under the weight of the Blip's aftermath. Natasha and Steve Rogers coordinate the plan of attack to bring back half the universe and destroy Thanos and the stones. In one of the most moving scenes in the Infinity Saga, Black Widow and Hawkeye wrestle over who will sacrifice themselves to secure the Soul Stone from its guardian, a spectral Red Skull. Clint and Natasha hang from a repelling rope. Again, here's an image of a spider hanging from silk, though Clint is the one attached to the rope with Black Widow hanging onto him. Natasha lets go, saving Hawkeye for his family, obtaining the Soul Stone for the Avengers, and irrevocably sacrificing herself in the process. Natasha's sacrifice in Endgame is arguably more meaningful than Tony's snap of his fingers. (Fight me.) Black Widow pays Red Skull's price for the Soul Stone in the hope that her death leads to an Avengers' victory, resurrecting trillions of beings. Rebellions are built on hope after all. (I know, wrong franchise.) Tony, on the other hand, knows (with a nod from Doctor Strange) his bejeweled gauntlet will return half of the universe to life and eliminate Thanos, his henchmen and army of death. Tony knows. Natasha hopes. I realize my analogy is probably (definitely) forced. But for me, Black Widow acts as a kind of MCU pedagogy. Natasha gives structure to this unwieldy franchise by leading viewers (okay, me) from movie to movie, creating a web of growing superheroic connections. Natasha is a steadfast presence, and often she's the calm, level-headed Avenger while the men measure their, umm, powers. Finally, in her solo movie, Black Widow, we witness Natasha hand off her MCU thread to Yelena, who plays a similar narrative role, as she dips in and out of movies and series stitching together a new Avengers team. Only a family of Widows could achieve such a feat! Twice. And I'm looking forward to this new maze of entangled MCU stories led by Florence Pugh. Curiously, as of writing this post, Disney+ does not feature Black Widow in their MCU character collections. I'm fully caught up on everything MCU, except The Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. I enjoyed Captain America: Brave New World, as I'm just happy to revisit characters and exist in this universe. (This is also my approach to Star Wars.) And so far, Ironheart's first three episodes are stellar! For what it's worth, here are my favorite parts of the MCU:
If you're interested in Greek mythology, check out Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! and Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics. Thank you very much for your time. If you have recommendations or curiosities, please fill out this nifty contact form. Sending y’all supportive, well-caffeinated vibes, Creighton Today’s Pen(cil): TWSBI Go [Fountain Pen] | Colorverse Cat Ink (No. 22) Glistening [Ink] |
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