Originally Posted by
DAHX
Then you're not going to like ANW or his relationship with Laura in general, because Marvel went with the opposite dirction and they considere each other family.
I know that Daken has many problematic and suggestive writing regarding this, but I don't think he's canonically considered a rapist or that Marvel will ever address this problem with him.
-Partly because Marvel is blind to the problem imo.
-But mostly because back in older comics the writers did and were allowed to do anything in order to make him dark, edgy and digusting, because the character was never intended to be developed or liked. The intention was only to make him as repulsive as possible in contrast of other characters and for the readers too, the creator pretty much admitted this. – this is where his pheromon powers to mess with people or him using his bisexuality only to manipulate everyone is coming from. So basically they could do anything with him and get away with it back then, which wouldn't be accepted or possible today. This itself is a problem on Marvel's side not the character's.
But where it gets really problematic and questionable is when in order to acieve this super edgy writing they also used a discriminative way, making the character half Japanese and did things like naming him 'mongrel' (which pretty much racist), made him bisexual only because it was viewed (and portrayed) as something obnoxious as it was used only for evil goals, and when they combined these things with other questionable things Daken was doing. And maybe then Marvel didn't care about representation or if it looked bad to use minorities like this, but it is still pretty much racist and homophobic up to this day. Daken is still far from not not having problematic writing as we all know(they still use the depraved bisexual trope), but some of his actions and this rapey aspect is toned down now for example. And since nowadays this kind of approach they did with him is unaccepable, I really doubt that they will ever continue that old edgy writing or address certain aspects of the character in the future, and doubt he will be written with this in mind that he is a rapist. (although I doubt too that the questionable side of his pheromon powers won't be used again, as I said Marvel seems to be blind to the problem)
I think if they ever want to fix or redeem the character, then first of all they should be more respectful and considerate of the way they treat a poc and bi character, and I think continuing/referencing the mistakes they did and not letting the character move into a better direction because of it, wouldn't be the solution.
There was an instance when a thief girl from the streets literally offered to stay with him, and he yelled to go the hell away, so interacting with teenage girls shouldn't be a problem. And yes, it was Romulus' teaching to use his phereomon powers for manipulation, but he is also pretty much ignored these days.