Profile: Vanessa Marianna Fisk

Vanessa Mariana Fisk

First appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #70, March 1969

Creators: Stan Lee, John Romita Sr.

History: Vanessa Fisk (Marianna was her maiden name) was the wife of the Kingpin, Wilson Fisk, and figured notably in a number of stories involving the ruthless, towering crimelord over the years in both Spider-Man and Daredevil's series. Though she was married to Kingpin, she did not approve of his criminal activities, and was later written trying to convince him to abandon his criminal career.

Was subjected to the following act of discrimination: many years later, in the 2nd volume of Daredevil, around issue 31, she was depicted murdering her son Richard, because he'd tried to bump off his father Wilson. And that was just the beginning of storylines where she was portrayed as descending into contrived and forced madness. Later, in the 92nd issue, she tried to have Daredevil murdered, as she blamed him too for all the troubles she'd gone through with the Kingpin. Then, she was depicting dying.

What's wrong with how this was done? After being depicted as an imperfect but decent person years before, this 360 degree alteration was utterly atrocious, and another example of how characters developed by Stan the Man were being thrown under the bus long after he'd left Marvel management. It was also some of the worst writing Brian Michael Bendis had begun, and Ed Brubaker had concluded.

Was there anything good to come out of this? Nothing. Like practically all the rest of the Marvel universe, even Daredevil's storytelling collapsed after the original volume ended in 1998, and till this day, hasn't and won't recover under a corporate ownership. A character like Vanessa Fisk deserved much better.

Profile: Shvaughn Erin

Shvaughn Erin

First appearance: Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #241, July 1978

Original creators: Paul Levitz, Jim Sherman

History: Shvaughn Erin was a member of the Science Police in the far-flung future era where the Legion of Super-Heroes is set (starting in the 30th century), who served as a liason for the team with local earth authorities. She helped them battle villains during "Earthwar" like Mordru, Dark Circle and the Khunds. She was subsequently written developing a love affair with Element Lad (Jan Arrah) during the Bronze Age period where she first appeared.

Was subjected to the following act of discrimination: in 1992, during what's called the "5 Years Later" period, a curiously large team of writers/artists working on issue #31 of the Legion volume that began in 1989 (Keith Giffen, Tom and Mary Bierbaum, Curt Swan and Colleen Doran), penned a story where Shvaughn was retconned into a transsexual, or more precisely, based on the premise at the time, a man named Sean Erin who disguised himself as a woman by taking a drug called Profem. All that just to serve as an excuse for depicting Element Lad seemingly open to homosexuality, even as the relationship fell apart in the resulting story.

What's wrong with how this was done? Some of the worst things about this divisive story, in addition to how it was being used to promote LGBT ideology, are that an established character was retconned/exploited/abused for the sake of channeling the writers' purported goals, instead of creating a new character to serve the intentions, no matter how much in poor taste they may be. It was also a form of erasing women, and it's strange how there seems to be quite a few supposed advocates for more female representation in comicdom, mainstream or creator-owned, who're actually quite fine with erasing a woman for the sake of a man, in the most contrived ways possible. At its worst, the retcon also has the effect of making Shvaughn look creepy and icky, which is hardly what you'd think the creators' intentions were. But, that's exactly the result, and if an established male character were turned into a woman in such science-fiction stories for the sake of it, that too would be just as unacceptable. Science fiction and fantasy may be an okay place to explore such ideas as sex-switches. But that in no way justifies taking established characters and leading to divisive situations the audience can end up being revolted.

I'm very disappointed with the late artist Swan, who was one of the most well regarded Superman artists of his time, for willingly taking part in such an icky "project". Even if at the time, it wasn't intended as a political statement, it's certainly been hijacked since in some ways, and it had been done today, it's chilling to think the retcon would stick, no matter how badly it would tarnish the original stories.

I'm guessing the editors allowed this because the Zero Hour crossover was in the works around the corner, and so they intended to jettison it anyway along with quite a few other established characterizations up to that point. But regardless, that doesn't mean the relation between Element Lad and Shvaughn Erin should have to end on such a sour note, laced with creepiness and ickiness. That was a slap in the face to the fandom, and the worst part is how, in years since, only so many "woke" advocates want to refer to a character who'd never been depicted as transsexual in any way when she first debuted as though she were, and it'd make no difference to them if a whole bunch of established cast members had been retconned similar to how she was, because what we're talking about here is a generation where certain people are taught to believe everything's "their" property to determine what'll become of it, and if they want it changed to suit their beliefs instead of create their own ideas, so be it. I can only wonder what the original creators think, because if they refused to object, that was a huge mistake that's since enabled more woke abuse of this sort.

Was there anything good to come of this? Thankfully, in 1994, in one of the very few good things to occur during the Zero Hour period, when the Legion's continuity was rebooted, the female-to-male retcon was jettisoned and retconned away, and Shvaughn was restored to her original biological sex, though as depicted in the series going forward, Element Lad was younger again while Shvaughn was several years older, apparently because the writers decided to discard what had previously been written up in the Bronze Age.

In the end, it's wise to recognize that all these "developments", "establishments" and "retcons" are just pencil and paper, and what some pretentious modern writer concocts doesn't literally "prove" an established creation is this or that in their original incarnations from the time they originally debuted. Let us be perfectly clear: Shvaughn Erin was created as a biological woman, and bizarre subsequent retcons alone don't prove otherwise. What matters is whether writing - and artwork - are in good taste, to say nothing of organic, and the 31st issue of the 1989-2000 Legion series wasn't any of those things. It was just an embarrassingly bad wrapup to an era in writing prior to a crossover event (and one that came several years after Crisis on Infinite Earths) - apparently the only way DC is capable of reworking continuities, and Marvel today has also gotten to that point - that SJWs since have sought to hijack for their own selfish purposes, the real fandoms be damned. It also symbolizes a lot of the problems with corporate-owned franchises, and how they're much more vulnerable to "social justice pandering" than creator-owned products are. Legion fans who really care about the creations shouldn't let such reprehensible abuse of fictional creations go unaddressed, though in an era where much of mainstream comics fandom has since abandoned DC/Marvel, it's admittedly a moot point.

And it's also shameful how more creative concepts like emphasizing ethnic/national backgrounds, like being of Irish/Scottish descent (Shvaughn Erin's name sounds like it draws from such backgrounds), are repeatedly thrown out the window for the sake of this woke humilation. If the writers had wanted to, they could've developed a story about Shvaughn studying her Irish heritage and cultural traditions, including dining on colcannon salad and even playing bagpipes. Instead, they degraded her for the sake of modern PC. Seriously, I think all involved in that 31st issue of the 1989-2000 Legion series owe an apology for their creative bankruptcy.

Record: Neil Gaiman

The UK native Neil Gaiman, who began his career writing short stories, was once known in comicdom as writer of the 1989-96 Sandman series, and has several other comics to his credits. He also went on to write various novels, and even co-authored a few with scribes like the late Sir Terry Pratchett. And then, Gaiman went on to work in TV shows and at least a handful of films, mainly in the late 2010s until recently.

But in June 2024, his fame turned to notoriety as it was reported he'd been accused of sexual assault by several women in the past 4 decades (also that same month, the Canadian literary author Alice Munro was accused of siding with her 2nd husband, Gerald Fremlin, after it was discovered he'd sexually assaulted her daughter Andrea Robin Skinner). Since that time, Gaiman's career has taken a downfall, as you could expect, and deservedly so. And now, in this post, I'll list a number of troubling moments from his comics writings that should be pondered, because what he did for comicdom in past years only did more harm than good, what with how he passed himself off as a "male feminist", and that's just for starters. In quite a few of his writings, including - but not limited to - the Sandman series, there's allusions to sexual violence that, in light of the new discoveries, only give his work a whole new meaning.

• In the Sandman series, when Morpheus confronts Dr. Destiny after he uses the enchanted gem to force several people at a diner to kill themselves in graphic and gory fashion, the "hero" doesn't deliver any serious punishment to the villain after defeating him, which is troubling, considering how heinous Destiny's deeds were. Morpheus just takes Destiny quietly back to Arkham like nothing ever happened, and the victims of Destiny's crimes are otherwise forgotten. That particular storyline is never mentioned again.
• Also, two more moments in the Sandman series stick out as alarmingly horrific and defeatist - issues 14 and 17. In the former, the focus is on a convention for serial killers/rapists at a hotel complex(!), and a girl nearly falls victim to a giant, obese child rapist before Morpheus stops him. But, once again, a lenient approach to sexual violence occurs in the script - the giant rapist starts dreaming that his victims forgive him for his crimes and party with him, and Morpheus just delivers a lecture to the offenders who're attending the contrived scenario of a convention, and lets them all slip away without ensuring the police will arrest them. In the latter, when the writer Richard Madoc repeatedly rapes Calliope after buying her as a sex slave from Erasmus Fry for the sake thinking up ideas for books, Morpheus' idea of punishment - and how to free the lady from Madoc's clutches - is again very weak. He merely clogs the creep's mind with an avalanche of ideas for literary writing "in abundance", causing Madoc at one point to get a scratch on his face from desperation and frustration in memorizing, and Morpheus never calls the police to arrest Madoc for sexual violence and false imprisonment. Madoc just whines in the end that, with Calliope no longer in his clutches, he can't think of anything else to write. Most bizarre is how Madoc is written describing himself as a "feminist writer" at one point, and nobody thought at the time this was hurtful to the feminist cause? Gee whiz.
• In the 20th issue, the only point seems to be to getting rid of Metamorpho's female counterpart, Element Girl/Urania Blackwell. And the way Death of the Endless acts like it's fun and amusing to see Element Girl perish was sickening.
• Gaiman's mistreatment of Lyta Hall/Fury, to say nothing of her husband Hector Hall/Silver Scarab (neither the latter's codename nor Infinity Inc. receive any mention in the Sandman series), was nothing short of insulting too. Under Gaiman's writing, we're told the anthropomorphs Brute and Glob had Hector resurrected as a semi-ghost so they could come up with their own substitute Sandman while Morpheus was MIA, and after Morpheus makes the two monsters disappear, he causes Hector to disintegrate in a very cold, uncaring manner, and doesn't give a damn if this upsets Lyta, who believes Morpheus killed Hector. In all the time I've known about that storyline in issue 12, I've been shaking my head in disbelief at how anybody, no matter their standings on Roy Thomas' creations, could ignore that or not be disappointed at the cold way Gaiman deals with Lyta and Hector. And the son, Daniel? Well the way that's dealt with - Morpheus wanting the little guy to be heir to his throne in the Dreaming, and the 1994 storyline where the series' takes on Loki and Robin Goodfellow apparently burn the poor little guy to death in order to transfer him to the Dreaming - was nothing short of repulsive too. Oh, did I mention Lyta also falls victim to sexual misconduct in later issues like 59? A story which does a terrible disfavor to Black men as well.
• In the 38th Sandman issue, a girl complains about sexism, and here Gaiman turned out to be even worse in real life.
• In Books of Magic - the original 4-part prestige-format miniseries from 1990 - when Zatanna puts on her original costume with fishnet stockings and a top hat similar to her father Zatara's, Tim Hunter and a cabbie look at her like she's nuts. Which must've been Gaiman's way of trying to conceal his contempt for women by playing "moralist" on the issue of sexy outfits, when in real life he behaved terribly to the fairer sex. And towards the end of the storyline with Zatanna in it, when a crowd of monsters at a convention threaten her and Tim, John Constantine merely cuts in and puts an end to everything without a fight. Which unfortunately results in an underwhelming portrayal of Zatanna that doesn't give the reader a chance to see how effectively she can be written as a lady combatant. In light of the discoveries about Gaiman, of course, such a cop-out takes on a whole new meaning.
• In a 1994 miniseries titled Alice Cooper's Last Temptation, which Gaiman wrote as part of a short-lived imprint called Marvel Music, there's a panel that's set up so it makes it look like the young protagonist of the story is being threatened by a child rapist, which in the story is a form of zombie. The scene is so repellent because it looks like a sex assault scene hidden in plain sight. It also reeks of coded dialogue.
• In the 2007 Eternals miniseries Gaiman wrote, Sprite, the member of the group who's meant to resemble an 11-year-old, tells how he wishes he could have sexual relations with Sersi, who, according to Gaiman's script, has done it with almost all other male Eternals. As though it weren't bad enough that near the beginning of the miniseries, Gaiman depicts Sersi blabbering that a homosexual man she knows told her he likes her because she "looks like a cross-dresser"! That too was offensive based on how it's demeaning to women by saying she looks like a man(!), but even worse is the scene near the end where Sprite, when confronted by Zuras over the former's misdeeds (Sprite all but erased the Eternals' memories), threatened to tell authorities that Zuras tried to assault him sexually, a scene which minimizes the seriousness of sexual abuse by making it look like children not only lie about being sexually assaulted, but that such lies are routine (Identity Crisis has a similar problem in the epilogue with Animal Man dismissing a newspaper headline about Jean Loring being assaulted in prison). And then, adding insult to injury, Zuras broke Sprite's neck towards the shoddy tale's end.
• In Secret Origins Special, a woman implies she's uncomfortable with the thought Batman could be peering through her bedroom window while she's asleep. When Gaiman did worse. And the topic of infidelity comes up in the tale, something Gaiman did too. And, in Secret Origins 36, Poison Ivy's reading a book titled "Feminist Trash". Could that have been Gaiman's way of hinting what he really thought of feminists too?

I'm sure even Gaiman's novels have some fishy stuff, but that's something best left for literary experts to examine. For now, it's atrocious how Gaiman exploited the comics medium for the sake of turning out quite a few tales that, contrary to what ultra-leftist news sources may have claimed way back when, feel just so...empty. Sort of like a dream, or more precisely, a nightmare. I'm not sorry his career's taken a downfall in the year since his bad deeds came to light. What is sad is how many women were victimized by yet another ideologue posing as a "femnist ally", which is worse than fictional characters being abused for the sake of a pointless exercise in phony Shakespearean dramas.

The Gaiman Sandman series will hopefully be going out of print after this scandal, and let's hope DC's archivists will be willing, for a change, to concentrate on reprinting the original Golden Age Sandman stories featuring Wesley Dodds (and also Sandy Hawkins). Those great stories nearly a century ago from 1939-46 are what people should really be reading, not some shoddy modern-age mishmash like what Gaiman turned out.

Another revival

The last time I'd tried writing some entries on this blog was at least 6 years ago, and since then, there have been ceertain occurances in the comics world that are significant to note. For example, Dan DiDio was fired as DC's publisher by its owner, Time Warner, and Joe Quesada left any managing role he had with Marvel a few years ago too. Though that alone obviously and regrettably hasn't led to an improved mainstream scenario, it's good they're gone from the jobs they had, because they were a very bad influence in their own way, and "wokeness" had its early effects and influences under their tenureship as well.

For now, let me say there are at least a few more items I have in store that could come in handy for posting even now, in 2025, including a post about one specific scriptwriter of comics and films who's turned out to be an embarrassment to the entertainment industry as a whole. I'll try to write up the latest entries I've thought of as best as possible, if only because I feel they could come in useful here too for consideration.

For now, it's great to revive the use of this particular blog for at least a few more entries, and make a few more points about what went wrong with comicdom when it comes to fictional characters and how they're approached by real life figures. I'll also try to update some of the topics in time, by linking between them, for example, and that too could come in useful.

Another conclusion

It's been a few years since I decided to resume using this blog again, though on a less frequent basis than I had originally, and I think the time has come to call it a day again.

I should note that, as of this writing, Dan DiDio has struck again over at DC (along with figurehead EIC Bob Harras), with another reprehensible miniseries called Heroes in Crisis, where the victim this time was Wally West, turned into an "accidental" murderer of a number of other characters, all for the sake of more drawn out storylines and publicity stunts. And even under current Marvel EIC C.B. Cebulski (and lest we forget, Joe Quesada's still in charge), similar stunts have continued, with the replacement of Valkyrie by Jane Foster one of the most recent examples. And judging from sales receipts, it looks like these PC stunts have finally taken their toll, with pamphlet and trade sales plunging, and stores even closing down.

It's all the fault of these higher echelons who've gone out of their way to spite their fanbases, and for all we know, both of the Big Two may eventually be closing their publishing doors, unless they're licensed out to 3rd parties who could have a better idea how to write stories, and stand continuity erect again while jettisoning the worst stories of the past 20 years or so. Better yet would be if the Big Two were sold off to smaller businesses minus the merchandising rights for films, toys and games, which, IMO, can remain with Disney and Time Warner.

For now, you could reasonably wonder if it's for the best if the Big Two close down. And maybe that'd be a good thing, since it would prevent further pointless abuse of their properties.

Some of the sexism that was prevalent in the 2000s storytelling may have stopped, but there's still more going in other ways, including how uglified the artwork's become in mainstream superhero comics, especially at Marvel during Axel Alonso's tenure as EIC. Carol Danvers was a particularly notable victim of this when she was shoved into the role of Captain Marvel. With that kind of approach, flaccid storytelling and even Mary Sue-ish writing, it's no shock the several different volumes of that solo book would collapse so badly.

And that's why, let me be clear, if the Big Two finally collapse, it'll probably be for the best. The way they're being run now is an utter disaster, and it would actually help if they ceased production of new stories. The people in charge not only refuse to take responsibility, resign and allow somebody not part of nepotism to take over their position, they even openly signal their contempt for core audiences. That's no way to run a business, period. So again, if the Big Two are on the way out, there's no need to feel too sorry about it.

And with that, I once again conclude the use of this blog.

Profile: Mariko Yashida

Mariko Yashida

First appearance: Uncanny X-Men #118, 1979

History: the first notable lover of Wolverine, she was the daughter of Shingen Yashida, the half-sister of the Silver Samurai, Kenuichio Harada, and the cousin of Sunfire. The two of them met when the X-Men traveled to Japan to stop the terrorist Moses Magnum from menacing the country. They were engaged to be married, but because of the usual complications seen in superhero adventures, it never went through.

Was subjected to the following act of discrimination: in the years following hers and Logan's failed plans for marriage, she was poisoned with a toxin-laced blowfish by a hitman named Reiko, who was working for mobster Matsuo Tsurayaba, a rival of her family's, in Wolverine #57, July 1992. She wanted to avoid a painful death, and convinced Wolverine to finish her off faster, which he did, while swearing to take revenge on Tsurayaba.

What's wrong with how this was done? Fortunately, very little. It was a tastefully and plausibly handled passing of a character, at a time when Marvel writing was still coherent enough. And one of the better stories of its kind set in the Asian/far-eastern world.

It's still a pity though, that Wolverine couldn't be allowed the benefits of a better life, along with a lady like Mariko.

Profile: Valkyrie

Valkyrie

Real name: Brunnhilde

First appearance: Avengers #83, December 1970

History: initially, Valkyrie debuted as a disguise of the Enchantress, and later, made an appearance as the persona of a deity that was placed into the body of a mortal woman, Samantha Parrington, in the Incredible Hulk #142 in 1971. Then, in the 4th issue of The Defenders in 1973, Valkyrie's essence was placed in another mortal woman, Barbara Norris, and the 3rd iteration of the character joined up with the group for much of the rest of the run.

Was subjected to the following acts of discrimination: she was originally killed in the last issue of Defenders, just so some cast members like Beast could then be used in X-Factor, though later resurrected in a Dr. Strange story 2 years afterwards. More recently in 2019, she was slaughtered again in the War of the Realms crossover by the dark elf Malekith, just so that Jane Foster could take her role, after being forced into the role of Thor himself a few years prior when Axel Alonso was Marvel's EIC.

What's wrong with how this was done? It was cheap and superfluous to kill her off in the Defenders finale from 1986, though in fairness, they did wisely reverse this shortly after in Dr. Strange's solo book. It was much worse when Valkyrie was put to death in War of the Realms, where she was either stabbed to death with a sword in the back, or worse, decapitated.

The worst thing is that this was coming some time after Marvel had taken up a social justice Orwellian anti-sex agenda, yet jarring violence was still left intact. That's what really makes their steps abominable, and it hasn't changed much under C.B. Cebulski either.