[TheBlueMarvel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Kain

Um... that was never retconned in, that was something Claremont did early on when he showed her working for Shadow King.

As for her backstory being stereotypical, frankly, it's fictional, so I don't care one bit. Not to mention she is such a well written character that she goes beyond the stereotypes. She's basically to Marvel what Apu is to The Simpsons. A well developed, fully fleshed out, strong character who overcomes the stereotypes by being well written.

I'm actually going to break from my standard convention and respond to you...

Apu? Yeah, I'm going to shelf that for a minute.

40, some odd, years of comics can often get muddled together ultimately representing a big blob, or information dump in a cloudy recess of the mind. You're right, the Shadow King stuff originally surfaced during the Claremont/Byrne run, but like so many other X-men (Wolverine, Kurt etc) her background was considerably nebulous. However, the retcon that I referenced was from a Storm mini that lead up to her wedding with BP which tried to create a meaningful link between Ororo and T'Challa that went beyond 'two African heroes who, to that point, had never really demonstrated any interest in one another have actually always been secretly smitten with each other since childhood'. In this story the two met for the first time before Storm's rents are killed and she's enslaved by Shadow King. It was at the point of reading that story that I realized Storm was largely a hollow character that did need an actual backdrop to explain why a king would marry her because the tropes used to shape her background made for a mismatched pairing between her and the Wakandan sovereign. I began examining my recollections of Storm as a character, realizing a nearly 30 year old (at that time - 2004) popular hero was a weird collection of familiar fetishized concepts about 'exotic' cultures. Who was she really? What made her relatable to me? Where in Africa was she even supposed to hail from? Why do her hair and eyes not reflect the diaspora? Has she been an idealized (which can take on both positive an negative connotations depending on the creative talent) stereotype that I've allowed myself to accept unquestioningly due to being hungry for any characters that even remotely relate to me as an African American??? As demonstrated in my first post, I'm still working my way through all of that, but it ain't anything I'm losing sleep over either.

Honestly, I don't expect you to understand where I'm coming from at all. After all, part off why I don't generally respond to you is because of your sharing with me your belief that my culture is represented, by and large, by thieves. A system of belief you established on your anecdotal experiences in retail with black Americans. Back to Apu: you seem to traffic comfortably in stereotypes, so of course you don't care when they find their way into storytelling. I imagine you might even prefer it that way. When we had that conversation, I tried to tease out the flaws of thinking that way, but that was as much an effort in futility as is the time I just spent explaining something I didn't have to...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Super Joe

Its possible to see HasLab Galactus (online) plus Celestial "Premium Roleplay" (at retail stores) the same year. Dwight said Galactus already completed the design phase, during the same time as the Sentinel. So its ready to go! Plus I prefer a retail series of "Premium Roleplay" helmets. At least 1 new Celestial per year. Maybe 2 or 3 in movie years (Eternals, GotG, or other movies they appear). I just can't wait 10 years for maybe only 5 HasLab Celestials. We can get more Celestials as helmets (retail) versus HasLab (online). Yet I'd love to see the "merged" Celestials form 1 huge HasLab helmet (bigger than the Battlecat by Super 7)!!!

I'm excited to learn that good news. If Haslabs has already done the work to spec out a Galactus, the the character's appearance is all but ensured . Your suggestion of busts for Celestials is starting to grow on me, as the average sizes of Celestials range widely. I'd love an Exitar bust since he's enormous even when compared to other Celestials.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harbinger

You’re a big buzzkill than buzz killington.

Didn't you know that's my superhero codename???

Quote:

Originally Posted by omega145

Excellent post and all very true points. The X-Men were trendsetting in bringing together people from all cultures but they fell into the same stereotypical tropes from Storm to the rest of the "minority" members.

My dude, as you likely picked up, I have plenty of love for the X-men. I also believe that anything can and should be improved upon....that understanding is extended to my assessment of myself, first and foremost.