Monica Rambeau Appreciation 2023

[JudicatorPrime]

Her original base power was to transform into any form of energy along the electromagnetic spectrum. Visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, etc. She could blind people in light form by flying at their face, or tighten her focus until she turned into a laser beam (or maser beam if in microwave form, or 'graser' beam in gamma ray form, etc.). She flew at light speed (around the world eight times in a second!) and was intangible in most of these forms (although limited by the form she was in, visible light generally doesn't go through opaque matter, for instance, while X-rays can be blocked by a thickness of lead, etc.). She could also fire bolts of force, which was sort of a random side-power that, even when I was young, I thought was really extra and unnecessary (just not in those terms).

Later she gained complete control of all those various energies, so that by her appearance in Nextwave she just randomly did anything she wanted, so long as she said something about energy when she did it. Irradiate an entire ship? Sure! Create a massive microwave explosion? Go for it! She also gained the ability to create a hardlight body which could slam into a planet at lightspeed and blow it up, and it was explicitly pointed out that she wasn't just 'turning into light' or 'turning into microwaves,' but turning into her bodyweight in that form of energy, which, since energy weighs almost nothing, means that she was turning into a ridiculous amount of that energy, since 120 pounds of microwaves is *a lot* of microwaves... She also could change her body at will, turning to energy and then changing to look like someone else and re-solidifying as them, and stated that her body was just a construct she had formed from her energy and was immortal. She also explicitly thought and reacted at the sorts of speeds that allowed her to take better advantage of her ability to move at lightspeed, which was kind of insane and more like how some DC speedsters work than anything Marvel did (or, did well, IMO, since they quickly lost the plot and it seemed every appearance spent more time discussing what new crazy stuff she could do, rather than develop her as a character, and thankfully she seems to have come down a bit from these planet-busting power levels fairly soon thereafter). Basic comic book wonkiness.

Yes to all of this and more. With respect to her senses, we're told that she has some form of "Cosmic Awareness" which allows her to perceive things around her whenever she's in energy form and moving at the speed of light. She presumably is able to modulate radio waves so that others can hear her talking, even though she is in another EM spectrum form.

It's also important to mention that Monica's power levels and how she deployed her abilities have changed over the years. Typical comic book stuff where characters lose powers, regain them, and then somewhere along the way they get god-level enhanced only to see them return to "normal" parameters so that writers can use them in a narratively credible way. So while Monica did start off with the modestly powerful ability to convert her mass into any waveform/particle on the electromagnetic spectrum, she has since gone on to have power thresholds that allowed her to tussle with a Beyonder-like being and at least one of her writers hinted that Monica might be a Beyonder/Omega Servitor herself, which gives her an unlimited range of raw, untapped power. I believe she was also written at those same ridiculously off-scale power levels in her last series, although I haven't read it yet and cannot confirm.

Ultimately, if written to her true capabilities (i.e., without writers engaging in plot-induced shenanigans), Monica is easily one of the top 5 most powerful superheroes in the Marvel Universe.

[JudicatorPrime]

Yeah, wasn't that the 70s? Monica's an 80s character.

Fashion doesn't really change that quickly. There were people in the 80s that still wore bell bottoms and jumpsuits, even though that look harkened back to the late 60s and much of the 70s. That's IRL, so you know it's even worse in comics. With respect to Monica's boots, that look would persist well into the 90s on some characters. Not sure when the Taskmaster got rid of his flared boots. Or Captain America, for that matter.

[Thirteen]

Fashion doesn't really change that quickly. There were people in the 80s that still wore bell bottoms and jumpsuits, even though that look harkened back to the late 60s and much of the 70s. That's IRL, so you know it's even worse in comics. With respect to Monica's boots, that look would persist well into the 90s on some characters. Not sure when the Taskmaster got rid of his flared boots. Or Captain America, for that matter.

False equivalence: Blaxploitation =/= Fashion
If you mean the fact that Monica is wearing her natural hair in and afro instead of trying to mimic Eurocentric beauty standards and wearing a wig or chemically processing her hair, that was more from the Black Power movement of the 70s. And then her fashions were from the late 70s etc.
Blaxploitation refers to low budget/quality campy cheesy ass movies that were made to try to make profits from Black movie audiences, thus exploiting them. Monica was intended to bear a resemblance to Pam Grier as a concept but that didn't make it too far into her publication phase, and that's pretty much where the similarity ends. Monica was launched given the flagship name of the company so that suggests a certain level of prestige to the character.

I'm reminded of Zemo's line in FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER referring to Sam being dressed up when they went to Madripoor:
"Only in America would a well dressed Black man be thought to be a pimp." (paraphrased)

[Digifiend]

As far as I know only two Marvel characters were blaxploitation, and they've both evolved out of it - Luke Cage and Blade.

[Bunch of Coconuts]

Monica is awesome and I wish I could read about her on a regular basis!

[JudicatorPrime]

False equivalence: Blaxploitation =/= Fashion
If you mean the fact that Monica is wearing her natural hair in and afro instead of trying to mimic Eurocentric beauty standards and wearing a wig or chemically processing her hair, that was more from the Black Power movement of the 70s. And then her fashions were from the late 70s etc.
Blaxploitation refers to low budget/quality campy cheesy ass movies that were made to try to make profits from Black movie audiences, thus exploiting them. Monica was intended to bear a resemblance to Pam Grier as a concept but that didn't make it too far into her publication phase, and that's pretty much where the similarity ends. Monica was launched given the flagship name of the company so that suggests a certain level of prestige to the character.

I'm reminded of Zemo's line in FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER referring to Sam being dressed up when they went to Madripoor:
"Only in America would a well dressed Black man be thought to be a pimp." (paraphrased)

My post, albeit slightly out of context, centered on the fashion only, not the sociopolitical or historical elements of my culture.

[ARkadelphia]

Okay, please someone explain her power set to me. She has light based powers, but on what scale, is she like Dazzler powerful or Like Jubilee, or some other light based character. What are her feats because she's been get a big push, and based on the Marvels, her powers are all over the place, it's like it's random. What comics do I need to read?

I mean, I don’t want to disrespect Dazzler or anything since she’s a character I like a lot, but she wouldn’t last 10 seconds against Monica in a fight.

[Digifiend]

From the New X-Men SDCC teaser thread:

as ive said before look for several charactesr to be magically retconned and turned into mutants come 2024 including a few nobody will ever guess

Wasn't the possibility of Monica's origin being changed teased in her Photon mini? Is she getting a mutie retcon like Kamala?

[mugiwara]

That's possible, since there are two things Marvel refuses to do, no matter what:

1) Using Monica in the main Avengers roster.
2) Using one of the X-kids in a major X-team (unless it's as redshirt)

[Hypestyle]

in the movie

spoilers:

I'm glad that they had Monica's arm puffs, but she should have kept them. I'm also fascinated that an alternate-world Maria is now Binary.

end of spoilers

[JudicatorPrime]

That's possible, since there are two things Marvel refuses to do, no matter what:

1) Using Monica in the main Avengers roster.
2) Using one of the X-kids in a major X-team (unless it's as redshirt)

As long as Carol is on the Avengers, I doubt they'll give Monica top billing ever again. Maybe if they create another Avengers book (West Coast, International, Ultimates?), Monica can have her own thing. It was one of the many reasons why I hated the MCU for linking Monica's origin and history to Carol. Second-class sidekick, she becomes.

[Frontier]

in the movie

spoilers:

I'm glad that they had Monica's arm puffs, but she should have kept them. I'm also fascinated that an alternate-world Maria is now Binary.

end of spoilers

Very much agreed.

[UncannyLZ]

I’m a big fan of Monica and really want to see more of her! If Marvel green lit a new Photon/Monica ongoing solo series, what would you want it to be about? Her last miniseries did a really solid job of showing who Monica is as a character but I’d like to clearly establish what her lane is in the Marvel universe. Something that could answer “What does Photon do?”

[JudicatorPrime]

I’m a big fan of Monica and really want to see more of her! If Marvel green lit a new Photon/Monica ongoing solo series, what would you want it to be about? Her last miniseries did a really solid job of showing who Monica is as a character but I’d like to clearly establish what her lane is in the Marvel universe. Something that could answer “What does Photon do?”

I would like them to give her a name other than Photon. Either go back to Spectrum, or kill off Darkstar and give Monica that name.

I'm kidding, of course. About using Darkstar's name, not about changing Monica's name to something cool.

[UncannyLZ]

I would like them to give her a name other than Photon. Either go back to Spectrum, or kill off Darkstar and give Monica that name.

I'm kidding, of course. About using Darkstar's name, not about changing Monica's name to something cool.

Marvel was never going to be able to brand “Spectrum” as a name for Monica. Personally, I thought it was a fun meta moment in her Unlimited one shot showing the cable company suing her for her name use. Definitely took that as some confirmation on one reason why they changed it. I like Spectrum but I’ve come to really like Photon. It’s a name she gets to define rather than it define her. If given another solo, I’d like to see her rogues expand and really get to see Monica be a superhero.