It's
almost time for International Darkstar Day (Decmeber 18th) again.
Last
year I participated by sending in a drawing I did of Darkstar, even though I
was frustrated by the fact that it looked like it was drawn by a 14-year old
girl. After reading Drawing on the Right Side of The Brain, by Betty
Edwards, I now have a better understanding of why it came out that way, though
I'm not sure I can do better yet.
My
participation was solely due to the enthusiasm of Steve Morris ( @stevewmorris
on Twitter), whose enthusiasm for the day and the character inspired me. It
also left me with a great dissatisfaction that she was dead.
I
did take down notes on recommended reading, but I have only found one of the books,
Darkstar & the Winter Guard. It ended up being what I needed.
First
of all, it covers more than one Darkstar. My allegiance was very much to the
original, Laynia Petrovna, but the first part of the book is Darkstar II, Sasha
Roerich, trying to hold on to her identity. Shortly after she dies, and
Darkstar III, Reena Stancioff is introduced, and then she dies but Laynia
returns in her place.
That
sounds kind of horrible, but there were some important things about it. One is
that I have to give the writing credit for making each woman someone you can
care about. They worry about honoring memories and keeping a sense of self, and
I could relate to them.
Also,
with each death, and even before that with the death of Vadim (a Crimson Dynamo),
it becomes clear that there is sort of a hero assembly line going on:
Make
appropriate arrangements for the family. See that they are taken care of.
Redeploy.
The
individual team members build personal relationships, and they seem to matter,
but the loss of one is routine, and the response is rote. Fair or not, it does
feel very Soviet.
It
does not feel right, but then you find out that there were those who could not
accept it, and disappeared. They come back, and you feel the pain and the
anger, especially for Laynia's brother Nikolai Krylenko (Vanguard). Nikolai
can't accept her replacement, which feels human and real. He still manages to
work with Reena, because he must, and he reacts to her death, but then you are
also there for his relief when Laynia rises reborn.
It's
a roller coaster ride. Also, Ursa Major features prominently, and he is like
the best superhero idea ever.
Anyway,
it started me thinking about the superhero genre as a whole. Many superheroes
have had multiple versions, and just as surely as you have people who only accept
Dick Grayson as Robin, and maybe that's part of why they hated Jason Todd so
much, there are still people who are glad to see Dick moving on to being
Nightwing, and find the changes interesting.
Personally,
I hear "Captain Marvel" and I think of Carol Danvers, but I really
like Monica Rambeau, and I like that they can do things together, and sometimes
will. There are people having a hard time with the changes to Thor, and past
changes to Spider-Man, and the more I think about it the more examples I
realize there are.
I
want to say that if the writing is good it will work out. For people whose
objections are based in racism or sexism, good writing may not be enough, but I
don't have great sympathy for those issues. However, I have realized another
component, and this is continuing to care about the other iterations.
I
could accept Laynia's death better when I saw that it mattered. Her comeback
seemed worse the way it happened in conjunction with Reena's death, but there
was a gain there too. Deaths happen, and we should have fiction that deals with
death, but then it can't lose sight of the value of life. If the writers are
not invested in the characters there is no reason for the readers to be.
That
may just be another aspect of good writing.
PS:
Writing about Robin reminded me of something silly I wrote:
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