Meme: Posting This Again...
Jan. 25th, 2013 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kiffieBecause, why not?
Post with a character from a fandom I follow, and I'll respond with...
* How I FEEEEEL about this character
* All the people I ship romantically with this character
* My non-romantic OTP for this character
* My unpopular opinion about this character
* One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.
Also: After a trip to LA tomorrow, expect an art update within the coming week or so. :3
Post with a character from a fandom I follow, and I'll respond with...
* How I FEEEEEL about this character
* All the people I ship romantically with this character
* My non-romantic OTP for this character
* My unpopular opinion about this character
* One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.
Also: After a trip to LA tomorrow, expect an art update within the coming week or so. :3
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-01-26 11:07 am (UTC)Pt. 1
Date: 2013-01-29 07:13 am (UTC)Oh, lord. Prepare yourself for FIREBUG FEELS.
* How I FEEEEEL about this character:
So, it's no secret that Jim is my favorite comic book character. Ever.
I do a little happy dance whenever he shows up in a new book (with the exception of Secret Avengers, but we'll get to that in a bit), I will actively seek out issues that I'd missed due to, y'know, not being born, and probably spend more time working out headcanons for him than for any other character. I just find him fascinating in a way that I rarely do with other characters. Some of that is because he's just not used that often. So the excitement is fresh whenever he does show up in a book. I've joked that I'd happily read an entire series about him filing paperwork, if it meant he'd get more screentime, and I was only half kidding.
So... why? Why does a kiff cling to a flammable robot who only shows up twice a decade and gets killed more often than Jean Grey?
The best answer is... there are a lot of answers. I should probably just list them off, in no particular order, since I can't really decide which, if any, would be more important than the others. Here we go:
- I really like that, in any other situation, Jim would have been the monster of his own story. He could have been, really -- he could have taken how humanity treated him and vowed revenge. He could have taken the abandonment from his father and grown bitter and angry. Hell, he could have even gone the same route as his brother, Adam II, and just plain declared himself better than the humans and opted to wipe them out so that the superior machines could take over. But, not only did he not do any of that, he took all the hurt and abuse he'd suffered and decided that he would help others who'd suffered in the same way. He went off and became a cop so he could defend those who couldn't defend themselves. That's pretty damn cool.
- Jim puts a really big store on family. I get why -- the only 'blood' relatives he knew, growing up, all ended up being major assholes; his father, his brother, the occasional 'cousin' that appeared here or there... And so I think he wants to make sure that he's not like them, that he can be better than that. And he is. And not just to birth relations. The best family ties Jim has are the ones he's made for himself: Toro and the Invaders and Tara. And I love that the books never paint these relationships as secondary to his 'blood' relationships. Maybe it's because he is an android and the writers maybe never thought of it that way, but still, there it is. We're never asked to question his bond with Toro, or told it's any less legitimate than any other family bonds.
- Jim and Namor's BFF relationship that has lasted 70 goddamn years. If I could find a way to bottle that kind of brolationship loyalty, I could retire tomorrow. I'd like to write a whole essay on their ( ._.|._. ) -ness, but that would end badly for my character limit, so.
- Despite the massive timeframe and disparate writers/artists and various numbers of books involved, Jim has had a fairly cohesive characterization, which is pretty damn impressive. Granted, most of that seems to be "woe I'm a robot woe," but eh, someone always comes along and smacks him upside the head and tells him to stop moping. Shulkie did it once, and it was fantastic.
- Jim is the only character I've ever seen who has rocked the satellite-dish collar and has, somehow, despite all reason and sanity, made it work. Kind've. Well, he didn't hurt himself, anyway. It's a skill to be applauded.
- Cats! CATS EVERYWHERE!
- Jim is, at his squishy, gear-filled, flammable center, a good guy. No matter how bad things get, and no matter how horribly someone fucks with his programming, it's impossible to stamp that bit out. Maybe he is a robot, but he's got a soul, and it is good.
Pt. 2
Date: 2013-01-29 08:00 am (UTC)While I do kinda-sorta ship Jim and Jackie, it's more or less an AU-only situation type thing. Because, in the current universe, it doesn't really work. Current-verse, I think they're friends-- maybe even good friends --but not lovers, or in a position to be lovers. They've both got a lot to work through before they even approach that stage.
Really, there isn't anyone around, past or present, I'd say I ship him with, romantically. He has lots of friends, and a fair number of bromances, but...
And let's not even touch that any relationships before or during the War would have the unfortunate consequence of taking place when Jim was vastly underage. For my part, without a fair amount of explanation (is he mentally mature for his "species" or not?), that whole area might be a crapshoot.
On a completely silly note, I'd love to see him and She-Hulk try to date and fail horribly. Friends and co-workers, yes. Dating material? God no.
* My non-romantic OTP for this character:
If it were a moray eel, the answer would bite you. :3
* My unpopular opinion about this character:
I actually really liked The New Invaders.
When it first came out, I was disappointed. The art was different enough that it was off-putting, the setting hit a sore spot that I couldn't really identify at the time, and the first part of the series spent its time mopping up the mess of a really terrible crossover arc with The Avengers. But the more I re-read it, the more I really dig it. The characterizations are all spot-on. The setting is less discomforting, now that I realize why it bothered me (a current war as inspiration for the setting is just too close to reality -- not good for someone who uses comics as escapism). Even the art is growing on me; once I figured out the mechanics behind the art style, I got into it a little.
Most importantly, Jim was given a leading role. Yes, Steve popped in briefly to help corral things. But Jim was the leader! And he was being allowed to develop, character-wise! He had casual relationships and friendships and he was starting to form a family bond with Tara. He was allowed to be competent and thoughtful and not just reactionary. He was hesitant and unsure of himself without being weak or timid. He had issues to work through, but he also had friends there to help him through it all.
Jim was treated like a fully-fledged character for the first time in a long while.
And then the series got canned, and the writer burned his bridges (ha!) when he left.
And maybe I wasn't terribly disappointed when it happened, but I can say with all honesty that I am, now. I'd be more than happy to pick up that series again, today, if it was still being published. I might be the only one. But I'm okay with that.
* One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:
I wish they'd gotten a better writer on Secret Avengers.
I could write a whole page's worth of rant material on why the storyline there is just... wrong. It's wrong, and bad, and it doesn't even get close to the basic themes that other writers have given Jim's personality or character development. The idea behind that arc is good-- hell, I love me some robots-disguised-as-humans horror! --but the execution is... well... terrible.
Granted, the arc isn't over yet, and I might end up being surprised by some twist at the end that makes the over-usage of shit we've already seen a dozen times bearable. But I'm not holding my breath.
If I had phenomenal cosmic powers (and an itty bitty living space), I'd have a 6-issue miniseries, written by Kurt Busiek and Alan Jacobsen, drawn by Chris Samnee, and have us follow teeny-Jim on his first few cases with the NYPD and maybe have it tie into a present-day case that Jim is assisting on. Because I think the best way to play "leave the android alone" is to establish him with the current-day NYPD. Not kill him off when you're done with him, like everyone seems to love to do. Seriously. Just point him at a cop car and he'll toddle after it and we know he has a happy ending. :3
Jim feels!
Date: 2013-01-30 10:55 pm (UTC)*rolls in them* :D
I'd like to write a whole essay on their ( ._.|._. ) -ness, but that would end badly for my character limit, so.
Another time, perhaps?
Cats! CATS EVERYWHERE!
This made me guffaw. XD
On a completely silly note, I'd love to see him and She-Hulk try to date and fail horribly. Friends and co-workers, yes. Dating material? God no.
They have one date that's an actualy date-date and not a friends doing stuff date, and it's a disaster, but they come home laughing. Jen is holding her shoes in one hand; one of them is broken. Jim, eyes crickling, says, "let's never do this again", and Jen chuckles again and kisses his cheek. "Not meant to be, hot stuff. Ah, well -- worth a shot." And she winks and wanders inside her place.
Two days later she's texting him with suggestions for possible ladies to ask out.
Jim was the leader! And he was being allowed to develop, character-wise! He had casual relationships and friendships and he was starting to form a family bond with Tara. He was allowed to be competent and thoughtful and not just reactionary. He was hesitant and unsure of himself without being weak or timid. He had issues to work through, but he also had friends there to help him through it all.
Jim was treated like a fully-fledged character for the first time in a long while.
New Invaders had it's problems, but this wa sone thing it did pretty well, I thought. *nod*
have us follow teeny-Jim on his first few cases with the NYPD and maybe have it tie into a present-day case that Jim is assisting on. Because I think the best way to play "leave the android alone" is to establish him with the current-day NYPD. Not kill him off when you're done with him, like everyone seems to love to do. Seriously. Just point him at a cop car and he'll toddle after it and we know he has a happy ending. :3
I WOULD LOVE THIS VERY VERY MUCH.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-26 11:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-26 10:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-27 03:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-29 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-29 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-30 06:32 am (UTC)Bruuuuuce-- !
* How I FEEEEEL about this character:
In no particular order...
- I deeply, deeply want to just give Bruce a hug. Everything in his life gets fucked all to hell, constantly, and I just want to hug him and let him know someone cares about him.
- I really love it whenever Bruce is allowed to shine. A lot of books play up the Hulk as the dominant character, but I prefer when they're more like co-stars who just happen to never be able to share a scene together.
- Bruce is funny and witty and can be a lot of fun. I'm love seeing those parts of him peek out, but it also makes me sad, because it happens so very infrequently. He just doesn't have the opportunity to really let his guard down.
- I really love movie!Bruce. Both in The Incredible Hulk and The Avengers. (I wish the two movies had been a little more contiguous with their character line, but eh.) I think the movies did a really fantastic job of picking the best parts of Bruce-- his good heart, his drive, his need to move forward even in the face of utter ohgodwhy --and putting them into the center of his story. This is a whole lot different from the "victim of shitheel" Bruce from the Ang Lee Hulk, who wasn't so much a driving force for the movie as a convenient plot device -- aside from the jumbled plot, this was one of my main dislikes for that film.
- Even though there have been multiple explanations for what the Hulk is-- a separate personality, a manifestation of pure rage, a repressed memory gone awry --I think my favorite one, and the one I tend to view the character through, is that the Hulk is just Bruce, simplified. Everything that makes Bruce who he is, minus the intellect and the reasoning, but still basically Bruce inside. And that's why Hulk is inherently good. Maybe he can be petty or cranky or rude, but he's a good guy, deep down. Because under it all, he's still Bruce.
* All the people I ship romantically with this character:
Betty is really the only one. I know he's had some other passing flames, but I really enjoy Betty and Bruce's chemistry. (Hee. Chemistry.)
* My non-romantic OTP for this character:
Comics-verse, I'd say Rick, but before everything got kinda weird in there. And, by weird, I mean before comics decided that Rick was actually Wesley Crusher. So, it's been a while. Heh.
Betty can also fit in here, since I also like her platonic relationship with Bruce just as much as her romantic one.
Movie-verse, Tony. Assuming movie!Tony doesn't try to shoot Hulk into space like his comics counterpart, anyway.
* My unpopular opinion about this character:
The brief period in the 90s, where Bruce's consciousness was dominant in Hulk's body didn't really bother me all that much. A lot of people outright hate it. I really don't care all that much. It's hardly weirder than anything else that's happened in comics, and it's not like they don't share a body, anyhow.
* One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:
At some point, I hope Bruce gets to shoot Tony into space. B|
no subject
Date: 2013-01-30 10:43 pm (UTC)At some point, I hope Bruce gets to shoot Tony into space. B|
HA! Yes, that would be good. :Dd
no subject
Date: 2013-01-26 05:39 pm (UTC)Just wanted to say yay! art updates! :D
no subject
Date: 2013-01-28 12:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-29 12:05 pm (UTC)*is back*
Date: 2013-02-12 12:08 pm (UTC)