X-Women Appreciation 2020

[Ambaryerno]

I'm pretty sure Claudine Renko counts.

I really, REALLY DESPISE how recent books have handled Claudine.

In Daken: Dark Wolverine and X-23 she was ultimately a tragic figure. Claudine was just some random woman that Sinister grabbed off the streets and forcibly turned into one of his experiments. She was a VICTIM, and an unwilling pawn in his attempts to resurrect himself after Messiah Complex. Her entire motivation in both stories was to find a way to prevent his consciousness from taking over her body and forcibly converting it into his, which would, you know, KILL HER. She's basically just trying to SURVIVE and keep her own mind and body where it belongs, and is acting out of desperation (especially after her encounter with Daken leaves her even more vulnerable to Sinister's control). It doesn't excuse or justify her actions, but WHY she's doing it is at least is sympathetic and understandable.

Ever since she resurfaced in X-Men Blue she's just been treated like Essex with ****, gleefully embracing his entire Card Carrying Evil Mad Scientist Just Because I Can shtick.

[marhawkman]

I really, REALLY DESPISE how recent books have handled Claudine.

In Daken: Dark Wolverine and X-23 she was ultimately a tragic figure. Claudine was just some random woman that Sinister grabbed off the streets and forcibly turned into one of his experiments. She was a VICTIM, and an unwilling pawn in his attempts to resurrect himself after Messiah Complex. Her entire motivation in both stories was to find a way to prevent his consciousness from taking over her body and forcibly converting it into his, which would, you know, KILL HER. She's basically just trying to SURVIVE and keep her own mind and body where it belongs, and is acting out of desperation (especially after her encounter with Daken leaves her even more vulnerable to Sinister's control). It doesn't excuse or justify her actions, but WHY she's doing it is at least is sympathetic and understandable.

Ever since she resurfaced in X-Men Blue she's just been treated like Essex with ****, gleefully embracing his entire Card Carrying Evil Mad Scientist Just Because I Can shtick.

Well, Mothervine wasn't fully a bad thing though. The fact she tinkered with it to make everyone it empowered vulnerable to mind control was the only properly villainous part. But yeah, why did she bother with that?

[Havok83]

Charlie's Angels ready for action!

[Sutekh]

What can the Avengers women do to be on par with the X-women?

A) Keep one around for longer than a year. Doesn't seem to matter if it's Wanda or Wasp or She-Hulk, the 'core' big three Avengers are Cap, Thor and Iron Man, and some rando others that rotate constantly. It could be Wanda. Or it could be Black Widow. Or Wasp. Or Carol Danvers. None of the Avengers ladies seem to have the same staying power as Storm, or even Jean or Emma, it seems. As this moment 'the first two' X-ladies, Jean and Storm, are large and in charge as leaders of the Quiet Council, while 'the first two' Avengers ladies, Wanda and Janet are... somewhere? Not on an Avengers team, that's for sure.

B) Attitude. Jean, not so much, but Storm and Emma have it in spades. They don't just stand at the back of the pack with the half-dozen others, passively observing the speaker (Cap or Tony), but they are up front doing the speaking. There are times when Wanda or Jan can come off as passengers. Emma, even when someone else is calling the shots, is *not* being ignored. (That said, in better days, Jan definitely brought the sass. It's only in the last decade or so that she's become a doormat.)

C) Less fear of powerful women. When Carol becomes Binary, or Monica Rambeau gets powered up in Mighty Avengers, or Sersi or Moondragon becomes an Avenger, they always seem to get powered back down (or sidelined). There's no fear of fielding a team of X-Men in which *Storm* is the heavy hitter (or Rachel in Excalibur, or Jean, etc.). And yet having a female Thor, or the extended run where Sersi was the 'heavy hitter,' seem to be outliers.

[marhawkman]

A) Keep one around for longer than a year. Doesn't seem to matter if it's Wanda or Wasp or She-Hulk, the 'core' big three Avengers are Cap, Thor and Iron Man, and some rando others that rotate constantly. It could be Wanda. Or it could be Black Widow. Or Wasp. Or Carol Danvers. None of the Avengers ladies seem to have the same staying power as Storm, or even Jean or Emma, it seems. As this moment 'the first two' X-ladies, Jean and Storm, are large and in charge as leaders of the Quiet Council, while 'the first two' Avengers ladies, Wanda and Janet are... somewhere? Not on an Avengers team, that's for sure.

B) Attitude. Jean, not so much, but Storm and Emma have it in spades. They don't just stand at the back of the pack with the half-dozen others, passively observing the speaker (Cap or Tony), but they are up front doing the speaking. There are times when Wanda or Jan can come off as passengers. Emma, even when someone else is calling the shots, is *not* being ignored. (That said, in better days, Jan definitely brought the sass. It's only in the last decade or so that she's become a doormat.)

C) Less fear of powerful women. When Carol becomes Binary, or Monica Rambeau gets powered up in Mighty Avengers, or Sersi or Moondragon becomes an Avenger, they always seem to get powered back down (or sidelined). There's no fear of fielding a team of X-Men in which *Storm* is the heavy hitter (or Rachel in Excalibur, or Jean, etc.). And yet having a female Thor, or the extended run where Sersi was the 'heavy hitter,' seem to be outliers.

Thor hanging out with Jenny would be fun.