I can’t remember if it was non-binary-bucky or buckyoubucky who wanted Bucky getting “rimmed till he drooled on the covers”, but I finally got around to drawing that. I had a lot of fun with that metal arm this time around. I probably should have given him facial hair, but I didn’t feel like drawing it.
Because, like. On the one hand it’s just fun and funny and silly in the way we want Spidey to be- him being young and naive enough to take a command (like “You’re an adult in the Jewish community now” farther than it’s maybe intended.
But on the other hand, this is exactly what’s intended. Superheroes- at least, the best ones- are basically the living embodiment of “If not me, then who?” They’re trying to make the world a better place than it was. And that is the responsibility of any Jewish adult. Peter getting bit by a radioactive spider and saying “Well, shit, looks like my only option is tikkun olam” is SUCH A FUCKING RIDICULOUSLY JEWISH CHOICE.
Like- if Peter was already comfortably Spidey in Civil War, in the MCU he had to be pretty close to his Bar Mitzvah when he became Spider-man. Which means that it happened right in that time where you’re taking the idea of what b’nai mitzvot means super seriously. You’re suddenly expected to view the world as something you can fix. You’re considering what it means that you’re suddenly an adult, and that you have these new responsibilities, and how can you live up to them.
In that context, with great power comes great responsibility isn’t just about being a superhero, it’s also about being called to the bimah, and permission to read the Torah, and the ability to join a minyan. In that context, developing fucking spider powers must feel like a sign of how being a Jewish adult encompasses so much more than you could ever imagine, both in terms of pivilege and in terms of obligations.
Maybe “Spider-boy” could walk past someone who needs help, but “Spider-man” could not. In choosing that name, Peter is unequivocally embracing the power and burden of Jewish adulthood.
NO BUT GUYS.
Consider:
Peter’s congregation does not, officially, know that he’s Spider-man. It is definitely his secret identity and that has not been breached, he is VERY SECRETIVE, etc.
Except.
Except that they’re a community and they all know about the tragedy that took his parents, and then to lose his Uncle Ben (z’’l) on top of that.
When he started acting odd, they all thought it was grief, made it a point to keep an eye on him.
When he started asking questions about the morality of certain things- they took notice.
The way he disappeared some afternoons, even if there was a youth group meeting (and he used to be pretty good about attending those when he didn’t have clubs after school), and those always happened to be the same day Spidey footage showed up on YouTube.
The way he’s always offering to run errands and just happens to be able to do things faster than anyone else can.
The way Spider-man doesn’t seem to work on Shabbas unless there is something that really cannot be solved without him.
They see the Bugle articles about him and, as a community, reject them. The rabbi says it in his sermon: Spider-man is not a menace, he is a mensch.
In the pews, Peter Parker’s sigh of relief is loud, and everyone pretends not to hear it.
Peter asking his religious school teacher REALLY BIZARRELY POINTED QUESTIONS. Peter bringing up weird fringe Jewish theories he found on Reddit and YouTube and being like “Is this true though? IF I GOT BITTEN BY A SNAKE-” “Peter, did you get bitten by a snake? Forget religious concerns, do we need to take you to the hospital?” “DO NOT TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL”
Man, but this is actually a really interesting question! Because health and well-being takes priority over basically everything else in Jewish tradition, how does developing superpowers factor into that? Are they enhancing health and well-being, or compromising it? If it’s the former, would doing things to support superpowers be considered not just good because helping people is a mitzvah but also because it is using his body the way it was intended? By biting Peter, did the radioactive spider inadvertently perform a great service in more ways than one?
“Do aliens count as life? Would killing them bring repercussions upon me? Hypothetically speaking.”
“Am I a bad Jew if I teamed up with a non-Jew, like a…a spider or a gentile god or a sentient raccoon or something in order to fight said aliens? Hypothetically speaking.”
“Could non-kosher animals that perform a good service for a Jew be rewarded? In what ways?”
“Is it Jewish of me to get the urge to crawl into a ceiling corner and wait for flies?”
“What if I could help people, but the way in which I helped them didn’t match up with Judaism? I could follow Jewish teachings, but then I’d be helping less people…”
I think what I love most about this is that so many of these questions have halachic precedent, some even in our world, but ESPECIALLY in the MCU.
Because you know that the second Tony Stark stepped up to that mic in 2008 and said “I am Iron Man,” Jewish scholars started EXPLODING with discussions and hypotheticals about this new world they were suddenly occupying.
Plus, by the time Pete was bitten by the spider, the Chitauri attack already happened, which means rabbis in New York were at the FOREFRONT of figuring out what the shit is going on with their world and how that intersects with Jewish custom.
I’m unclear if SHIELD being infiltrated by Hydra ended up known or if they covered at least some of it up, but if it was public knowledge, that is such a huge additional thing for Jews- that this group historically associated with the Nazis is not just still around, but infiltrating the highest aspects of government. I think that would fundamentally change how Jews approach superheroes and superpowers. In fact, I think that would be a pretty big topic in youth groups and in religious classes, both dealing with kids’ fears and figuring out how to make the ones who AREN’T scared realize how deadly serious the whole situation is. And that, in and of itself, would probably change Peter’s response to becoming Spider-man; the great responsibility of it takes on new resonance in that climate.
… I need to look up that midrash or folktale or whatever it was about King David (before he was king, I’m pretty sure) asking God why He created spiders and scorpions because they seem so useless and harmful, and God doesn’t answer but before the week is out David gets his life saved by a spider and a scorpion in quick succession
because somebody needs to tell Peter that midrash at some point
I disbelieve infinity war. There is a reality stone, there is a time stone, and we can fix this. if they don’t in the film universe we goddamn will in fic, but it would also be pretty stupid to leave all the characters that died actually dead, because they need some of them to make money.
Sidenote: I’m angry that they brought their shitty war to Wakanda. Way to make the isolationists right. Let’s open up up our country and share our knowledge and goodness with the world. Oh look, we’re on fire right now and half our people are dead.
White racists pulling the “Wakanda as an absolute monarchy that doesn’t share its secrets is so fucking problematic” card as a “gotcha” to excuse their antiblack racism or get one over on Black fans of the film (“how can you be anti blah blah blah if you like this problematic country”) is beyond annoying.
Where’s the insipid commentary on how monarchies are bad related to Thor and Asgard, hmm? No one had a problem with absolute monarchies until Black people were running one.
All these fuckers parrot about Wakanda sounds like it comes straight from white supremacist handbooks and it’s so transparent considering a fictional monarchy run by black people in Africa is basically a tipping point for them and their anger.
It’s the same hypocritical bullshit of this person going “I’m not going to pay to watch Black Panther because they are exploiting Shuri who’s a minor” when they didn’t boycott Civil War or Spiderman Homecoming despite Peter being exploited by Tony in both movies. They really think they are being subtle with this crap but they are not.
Asgard/Odin literally conquered other planets and shit and committed genocide but noooo they don’t care.
Hey everyone, so if you don’t know what’s going on: yesterday, footage from Marvel’s Black Panther was released showing the romantic f/f relationship between Okoye/Ayo, characters from the comics the movie will be using as inspiration for the story.
Of course, many fans were overjoyed to hear this, as we have been waiting for lgbt+ representation in MCU for a long time. However, Marvel has since retracted this, and released a statement saying that the relationship between these two women will not be depicted romantically:
This is more than disappointing to many, many people. We were teased with the possibility of representation, only to have it taken away from us. It’s long past the time for Marvel to step up and start telling more diverse stories, and we are tired of waiting.
What can you do to help? Please, please, spare a moment to reach out to Marvel, their producers, representatives, etc etc, on twitter, using the hashtag #LetAyoHaveAGirlfriend. Social media is such an amazing tool and we can use it to make our voices be heard, and maybe make a change. I think it’s really important for us to try.
Please take a moment to signal boost this post as well… the more awareness spread the better! It would mean the world to myself and so many Marvel fans if we were to have a canon, lgbt female character in the MCU.
How is this an amazing cast? There are literally only two actors out of this entire cast that are actually great actors, I have never even heard of the rest of these people.
I feel like you are only saying “Its an amazing cast” Because there are so few white people.
Angela Basset: Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner, with enough award nominations/wins to necessitate her own wikipedia page for awards alone. Lupita Nyong’o: Academy Award winner. Chadwick Boseman: Joseph Jefferson Award nominee; already showed his stripes as Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War. Sterling K. Brown: Emmy Award Winner for The People Vs. OJ Simpson and actor in the Golden Globe nominated television show This Is Us Florence Kasumba: Already had a bit part in Captain America: Civil War; was praised by many critics for her one scene being a scene-stealer Forest Whitaker:
^ that’s all from a single movie. Danai Gurira: Tony-award winning writer, plays Michonne on The Walking Dead, one of the most popular series out there today Michael J. Jordan: Featured actor in popular shows like Friday Night Lights, The Wire, and Parenthood in addition to frequent appearances on film. Daniel Kaluuya: The star of Get Out, which currently boasts a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and has been in the press pretty much constantly upon release. He was also featured in an episode of the acclaimed series Black Mirror. John Kani: An actor, playwright and director; while he hasn’t had as much work in America, he’s prolific enough to have a theatre in Newtown Johannesberg named after him.
Winston Duke and Letitia Wright have fewer credits to their names (the former has a consistent role in the well-received Person of Interest; the latter has been cast in Black Panther and Ready Player One in what is hopefully the beginnings of a bright career), but I don’t mean to belittle their successes by leaving them out, and those who aren’t as well known SHOULD be given a chance by big franchises. Lesser known names tend to get big after starring in Marvel movies. I sure as hell didn’t know who Chris Evans or Chris Hemsworth were prior to their flagship titles.
But even putting aside how important it is that this film is led by black creators, just because you don’t know these people doesn’t mean that they’re not critically acclaimed in their field, who haven’t put in the work. They have, and they’ve been recognized for it. Consider checking out some of their work before you decide whether or not only two of them are great actors.
Excuse me, police? I’d like to report a murder
Fake nerd boys haven’t seen Civil War or The Force Awakens. And son, you don’t know who Forest Whitaker is? Did you get frozen several decades ago and just get thawed out? Are you ok? Do you know who the president is????
Okay so I honestly have no idea how to answer this because well…
I have no idea how people could get a reading of Fury as a “bad” guy from what we see of him in the MCU.
Like I’m not talking about the fact that any character thoroughly enmeshed in neo-imperialist government agencies like SHIELD can’t be 100% on the level, but that Fury isn’t a Loki/Kingpin/Pierce kind of character. Those are villains. They are villainous. The narrative may give the former two “good” reasons to explain why they’re the way they are but they’re still awful and murderous.
Fury isn’t any of that.
He’s not a villain.
He’s an old guy who’s seen a lot of shit, done even more, and hasn’t gotten shit to show for any of it.
Like… fandom isn’t being critical of SHIELD unless it’s about Fury. Fandom doesn’t care about “liars” unless it’s Fury doing the lying. The things that we’d write off as normal (or absolutely benign) if M in the Bond films or any number of white guys in the MCU did them, are things fandom cites for reasons not to like or trust Nick Fury.
I’m going to be honest here, I can’t make you believe Nick Fury is a good guy if you don’t think he is. I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to change the way people think of him and other Black characters for years and I mean… It’s difficult when your argument is “in the canon they’re not bad guys in any way” when people have completely opposite readings of the text.
I will say…
Ask yourself why you don’t think Nick Fury is a good guy (if you feel this way) and then look at how you conceptualize and respond to other, actual villains in the MCU and other franchises. Because a major difference between how Nick Fury is treated when you compare him to other, actual villains is that fandom likes their villains when they’re white.
Loki attempts to commit two separate genocides (because the NYC thing counts since the Chitauri would have wiped out humanity) and he’s a poor baby that has no control over his feelings and doesn’t have to because he was adopted and fandom handles that poorly.
Rumlow and the rest of Hydra are… well they’re legitimately analogous to and descendants of N@zis. What do we get from them? Hydra Trash P@rty and assorted nonsense where Hydra “isn’t really that bad”.
The glorification of white crime thing that I’ve talked about? Means that white villains will always be treated better than characters of color of any moral level.
Nick Fury is a complex character who deserves more than he’s got (and I am still holding out for the chance to write a Young Nick Fury series, y’all). In his appearances in the MCU, he’s been the head of an agency we know is complicity in all sorts of awfulness by virtue of the kind of agency it is. He’s also been a friend to Steve/Natasha, a mentor to Tony, and a force behind rooting out the corruption in the organization he was in charge of.
And all fandom sees him as is a lying liar that lies.
Beltainefaerie's Flights of Fancy 