I don’t talk a lot about the comics I read personally and in detail because I have reason to believe not many people I know care too much about it, and also they lose interest within three minutes on average when I do begin discussing such things that are less important to them than the fungi that they don’t yet know are growing under their carpets.
But now and then, certain comic books can do some good. Maybe sway some non-believers into picking up a copy. Maybe Archie can take a back seat to Cable & Deadpool or The Preacher once in a while. Hard to believe. There are moments where its genuinely beneficial for someone to read a comic book.
This is one of those times.
You already know my opinions on gay rights and all that jazz, at least at this given point, I hope you all are on the same page with this. If not, all the more reason to at least check this comic book out. It’s only 40 pages of a picture book for older people, so bare with me.
SOLICTIATION: "OUT, OUT..." This is the X-Men comic that will have people talking for years! Some candles burn twice as bright and half as long. Some candles don't get a chance to burn at all. Generation Hope discover what happens when a light goes out.”
NECESSARY BACKSTORY: There are not a lot of mutants anymore in the Marvel Universe. Recently, one girl became the first mutant to come a long in a while, and after, her existence started springing more across the world. Mutants were happy, because they were growing out of imminent extinction.
These new mutants just manifest their powers, so they’re teenagers. And the girl bands them together, as a sort of teenage team, under guidance of the big X-Men. Their main job is to look for the newbies who spring up, and get to them before someone else does.
Generation Hope #1-8 are in Local Comic Stores now if you want to know more.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT: Spoilers, kind of, below.
“It Gets Better” is a direct reference to a certain online help group that allows bullied and suicidal LGBT teens seek guidance if they feel threatened, ostracized, disowned, or considered unequal.
The character on the left is one of those new mutants, and if you read the comic issue, you’ll understand what he’s saying a bit better. You know the character on the right. And you can get a sense that he knows what he’s talking about, since he’s been around for a while. The point is, comic books and real life are very much alike in some ways. Comic books are not novels, they don’t just end. There’s not stand-alone narrative that can be taken as it is and then left alone.
Comic books reflect life as we live it. It’s very modern, and most times, events in our reality are often satirized or represented in comic books across the medium, within major publishers specifically. Rooting that kind of realism in frankly spectacular stories of superheroes creates a contrast that persists through the narratives presented.
As I’ve said before, X-Men is a prime example. X-Men’s subjects, its allegories, change with each generation, because they represent an entire concept, instead of a specific issue. Prevalent today is very much so the damaging effects of gay bullying, rashes of gay-related suicides in the US (where most comics are set), and added onto that, is the fact that this book is marketed towards teens, because it’s about teens—one of the few out there today.
This is a prime example of good comic book writing, and what comic books can do for its readership. Yes, comics and their characters are absurd, but they can also incredibly real.
Think I’m full of shit? Deal with it, go back to your Gossip Girl, Catcher in the Rye, Adventure Time or whatever piece of narrative you prefer. I’m sticking with the spectacular.
Give it a chance. Please do pick it up at your local comic book store. No need to read previous issues, it’s a one-issue story, and it works well that way.
No comments:
Post a Comment