Superman stuff is so iconic... I imagine it's really hard to try and look at anything related, even Smallville, without being influenced on that.
*nods*
And don't forget ubiquitious.
I mean, I don't know about European or Oz/NZ kids, but no one in North America grows up without knowing who Superman is. You just don't. I mean, I told my dad I was writing CLex and he was like "Superman's not gay! And if he were, he wouldn't be with Lex Luthor!"
Whereas X-Men... not so much with the iconic as the niche superheroes. I mean, Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, the Hulk, the Flash, Green Lantern, Captain Marvel, Captain America (even Aquaman and the Wonder Twins *g*) - those are the superheroes most kids know. Possibly Wolverine would get mentioned, but I can't imagine any other X-Man getting in with that crowd of SuperFriends.
The images are pervasive and hard to shake.
On the other hand, X-canon - though it's definitely got its share of archetypes/icons - is so.. tangled, for lack of a better word, that maybe its archetypal impact is minimized? Huh... now I'm thinking that maybe movieverse would probably let you have easier access to those archetypes, without the accumulated baggage of thirty years or so... is that part of the attraction? :)
That's part of it for me.
Yes, Wolverine is the archetypical Dark Man, or anti-hero. Cyclops is the archetypical Fearless Leader (and not the Boris and Natasha kind), etc. etc. You can play with those archetypes (Wolverine is the epitome of badass loner who... takes young girls under his wing and loves being a big brother to them? Or who bakes cookies for orphans and knows Little House on the Prairie trivia?).
It's fun for me at least, to take some comics stuff I've learned and sprinkle it in (Logan's knowledge of Japanese, the fact that he's older than dirt and fought in WWI and WWII, and probably Korea and Vietnam; Scott's past as a runaway and Ororo's as a thief; Jean's early manifestation and having Xavier suppress her telepathy), since that stuff isn't in the movie and I don't take the novelization as canon.
But it's also nice not to be bound to the Summers family tree (unless it suits my nefarious purposes, and dammit, I don't care if there really is no missing Summers brother, I like my "Buffy Summers is the missing Summers sibling and nobody knows because they're all looking for a boy" theory), the Maddie Pryor-clone of Jean thing and all the other stuff that makes canon so confusing to people who weren't there at the time.
And honestly, I just had a visceral reaction to the relationship between Logan and ROgue in the movie. I thought they had excellent chemistry. I had no idea that other people thought that at the time. I just sat there in the movie theatre going, "They're checking each other out" in the bar scene, and then "He's gonna kiss her! Kiss her you fool!" in the train scene, etc.
Obviously, that's a function of everyone seeing a different movie, but that sparkage is what compels me to write fic about them. I don't choose fandoms, they choose me because something will ping and I get an idea and need to write. (I'll spare you the long story of how I ended up writing a Boromir fic *g*).
If someone doesn't see the sparkage I see, there's no way I'm going to convince them of it, unless I'm a good writer. And I've gotten enough feedback that begins "I don't usually read [Logan/Rogue][movieverse][het] but this story made me see it" to think I am good at it. Which is why I get testy at blanket dismissals of movieverse, to bring this somewhat back to the topic.
Heh. You had *no* idea what you all were in for when I showed up, did you? *eg*
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Re: Something I've been wondering...
Date: 2002-10-29 08:31 am (UTC)*nods*
And don't forget ubiquitious.
I mean, I don't know about European or Oz/NZ kids, but no one in North America grows up without knowing who Superman is. You just don't. I mean, I told my dad I was writing CLex and he was like "Superman's not gay! And if he were, he wouldn't be with Lex Luthor!"
Whereas X-Men... not so much with the iconic as the niche superheroes. I mean, Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, the Hulk, the Flash, Green Lantern, Captain Marvel, Captain America (even Aquaman and the Wonder Twins *g*) - those are the superheroes most kids know. Possibly Wolverine would get mentioned, but I can't imagine any other X-Man getting in with that crowd of SuperFriends.
The images are pervasive and hard to shake.
On the other hand, X-canon - though it's definitely got its share of archetypes/icons - is so.. tangled, for lack of a better word, that maybe its archetypal impact is minimized? Huh... now I'm thinking that maybe movieverse would probably let you have easier access to those archetypes, without the accumulated baggage of thirty years or so... is that part of the attraction? :)
That's part of it for me.
Yes, Wolverine is the archetypical Dark Man, or anti-hero. Cyclops is the archetypical Fearless Leader (and not the Boris and Natasha kind), etc. etc. You can play with those archetypes (Wolverine is the epitome of badass loner who... takes young girls under his wing and loves being a big brother to them? Or who bakes cookies for orphans and knows Little House on the Prairie trivia?).
It's fun for me at least, to take some comics stuff I've learned and sprinkle it in (Logan's knowledge of Japanese, the fact that he's older than dirt and fought in WWI and WWII, and probably Korea and Vietnam; Scott's past as a runaway and Ororo's as a thief; Jean's early manifestation and having Xavier suppress her telepathy), since that stuff isn't in the movie and I don't take the novelization as canon.
But it's also nice not to be bound to the Summers family tree (unless it suits my nefarious purposes, and dammit, I don't care if there really is no missing Summers brother, I like my "Buffy Summers is the missing Summers sibling and nobody knows because they're all looking for a boy" theory), the Maddie Pryor-clone of Jean thing and all the other stuff that makes canon so confusing to people who weren't there at the time.
And honestly, I just had a visceral reaction to the relationship between Logan and ROgue in the movie. I thought they had excellent chemistry. I had no idea that other people thought that at the time. I just sat there in the movie theatre going, "They're checking each other out" in the bar scene, and then "He's gonna kiss her! Kiss her you fool!" in the train scene, etc.
Obviously, that's a function of everyone seeing a different movie, but that sparkage is what compels me to write fic about them. I don't choose fandoms, they choose me because something will ping and I get an idea and need to write. (I'll spare you the long story of how I ended up writing a Boromir fic *g*).
If someone doesn't see the sparkage I see, there's no way I'm going to convince them of it, unless I'm a good writer. And I've gotten enough feedback that begins "I don't usually read [Logan/Rogue][movieverse][het] but this story made me see it" to think I am good at it. Which is why I get testy at blanket dismissals of movieverse, to bring this somewhat back to the topic.
Heh. You had *no* idea what you all were in for when I showed up, did you? *eg*