Spirituality & the Power of Myth in X-Books

[TheMutantJinx]

Sorry for the long post. This is actually really, really shorter than what I have started earlier.

Hey, no need for apologies. Long posts are sort of what this thread is all about, at least in my observations.

And sungila, I'll let you know as soon as the first half of the story is finished.

[sungila]

Ororo Munroe aka Storm.

Started knowing the X-men through X-men:TAS. I was in love with Storm because of her ability to control the weather and her character being compassionate to her fellow x-men members and nature (which I am to both too). After that, I started knowing she became a leader which I think she's the most known female leader in comics ( I was a student leader before and I wish to become a leader someday ). I also love her mohawk. I also felt sad knowing what happened to her parents when she was a little child and became an orphan ( I can relate to her on this because though my parents were alive, it felt like they were not there for me, especially my father. I think it's more painful to have parents but are not there for you and worst of all, doesn't support you but keeps on discouraging you.). Her physical appearance was different, especially the hair. The differences of the x-men from humans made me relate to them in general.

Because of Storm, I used to like to try to make it rain, stop the rain, make a rainbow, make it snow, call the winds, etc.

I even dreamed of Storm becoming my wife!

We do always have typhoons here but we get used to it so I was actually enjoying it because there's no school, etc. However, when typhoon Haiyan struck, that's when I realized I shouldn't be happy when a storm/typhoon is coming. I was not directly harmed because I was working at a different city (signal #3) which is on a different island but my hometown (Tacloban City, signal #4,) was the center of the typhoon.

Everytime I see a typhoon or when a typhoon is being discussed, I get teary eyes. That's why when I saw the Storm #1 preview (unlettered) I cried. I cried because we need a real Storm in this world to stop tsunamis, typhoons, hurricanes, etc. I cried because Storm was saving fictional people. She should be saving real people. Storm should have been able to stop typhoon Haiyan and thousands would have not died.

I was thinking that since we can check in advance if a storm/typhoon is coming, there must be a way to stop it. I've created threads about it and got funny and serious answers (they post an image of the Philippines and put pictures of big electric fans) but the serious answers ( deploying submarines : http://www.popsci.com/technology/art...-chilling-subs ) were not proven effective. I hope one day, somebody can create a machine to stop typhoons.

For now, I'll just keep on dreaming that a white-haired, blue-eyed weather manipulator will appear someday and save the world.

Sorry for the long post. This is actually really, really shorter than what I have started earlier.

Please don’t apologize for anything. Like Jinx says, your post is exactly what this thread is all about. Thank you for your touching words.

Throughout most of human existence we have believed in a deep connection between ourselves and the weather. Ceremony, itself, may have begun with the rituals of ‘rain making’, collectively and individually asking for fair winds, good harvests, fortunate seas and giving thanks for the changing seasons.

There have always been people who are specially connected to the elements and for whom the emotional and physical flow of the Earth is deeply connected to their own. In the past these people weren’t “weather reporters’ – they were ‘weather makers’.

Storm embodies that essential part of our humanity that has been lost…and with that essential connection…we have removed ourselves from a communion with the weather and as such have hurt ourselves and the planet. I didn’t cry when I first saw the wordless preview for Storm’s new solo…but my blood stirred and my heart rose and I felt that now, finally, here’s a hero we need fighting real threats and defending real people that need protection – here’s a stiff arm to the violence and horror of genocide and child soldiers…here’s a human appeal of strength to commune with the Earth – here’s a woman who can speak for us and show the vision of ourselves as who we once were, who we are deep down and who we can become.

And still…it’s her humanity…her imperfections, her personal struggles…her phobias and passions that truly make Ororo a ‘knowable’ and potentially intimate heroine for so many.

Thank you so much for your post…for speaking about the Goddess and the Woman who is not only your ‘favorite’ heroine but the one you feel most connected to. It’s not silly or childish to invoke her as a means to stop typhoons and protect lives. That’s what prayer is all about…that’s what heroes and storytelling and ceremony is all about. We spend too much time as people making fun of the spirit and obsessing over footage of ‘real life’ disaster – letting the images make us cold to the reality that we are not helpless or powerless and that change and our power to affect change begins with the vision and hope to act.

That Ororo is an Orphan on many levels. That she has progressed over time by pulling away the masks that cover her true nature and that she has become more and more powerful as she has learned to accept and trust her true nature…to laugh, to be vulnerable, to love and count on others, to feel bitter hatred, anger and all the human emotions that make us truly connected to the Earth…to have and to lose…to play and have fun, to cry and when she needs to, to go alone on a journey or quest of self-discovery.

Storm is as complex as her namesake – a near unfathomable dance of industry, natural elements, past and future…galactic and geological…mineral, animal – but so are we all…we are all clouds, rainmakers, water bodies of light and contrary forces pushed and shaped by winds…our potential to choose our fate is in our hearts…that clam in our storm…and Ororo inspires me just like you…to be that fierce center and to begin with faith in myself…to find my faith in others…and to use that faith to do my best.

No Storm won't stop the typhoons and horrors of climate change...but the part of ourselves that WILL - is exactly who Ororo and you emoby.

[sungila]

Hey, no need for apologies. Long posts are sort of what this thread is all about, at least in my observations.

And sungila, I'll let you know as soon as the first half of the story is finished.

That's great Jinx. I'll be eagerly awaiting the fist half.

[sungila]

@RR THE POEM IS SO BEAUTIFUL SO TRUE!!!

it has been said that poetry is the saying what can't be said
the utterance of the unspeakable

the poem IS what it expresses...it IS only that which it expresses
and in that singular essence...it is all expression

another poem by a sacred fool pure heart terrorist that comes to heart in response is this one by Ryokan
it speaks to the big heart and empty mind of the one too in love to be in love
For yet he writes this verse with pure honesty it is known that the monks sleeves were often damp with his own tears but that he was never 'aware' why his sleeves were damp...or why his favorite scrolls of great poetry were water stained

If someone asks
about the mind of this monk,
say that it is no more than
a passage of wind
in the vast sky.

Now that's a Longshot poem for sure!

What do you think about his hollow bones, his two hearts and his ability to read the memory of objects?

To me the hollow bones are incredible...they make me think of him like a ceremonial pipe...like his marrow is but the prayer of the world around him...and he, the instrument to give body to the world's whispering invocations...

His two hearts and his special ability to read objects is not something I understand completely...and also, what about Mojo...who is Mojo in the mythological sense? Not a very likable fellow, and yet...he is a creator...hmmmm?

[sungila]

Thanks to Ricochet Rita I have been revisiting the incredible Ann Nocenti/Art Adams original Longshot series and with the help of this thread's generous intimate shares I am beginning to feel as though the Mythos and Spirituality of the X-Men is not so much something to be known...but to be immersed in, to experience here in the now over and over again unlike ever before - as we do ourselves when forced or freed from our 'knowing' and loosed into the action, spun up in the soap opera epic of the immediate. Our heroic selves blazing our panels under the kick of our heels...our signature sure as our stride...

We are not 'found' in our connection to these characters...we are lost in them...as such...we are free to roam....to forget in order to discover. The 'stick' is when that discovery is a coming home...an unexpected reunion with ourselves on a shore we've never touched. That's how it is with me and Nightcrawler anyway. I guess that makes me "developmentally challenged" - because this HERE, this me...it's where it always is...and when that "I" sets in...well, all I got to do is BAMF free...over and over again.

brimst0ne_digitally_inked_nightcrawler_by_red_viper_of_dorne-d4m17p6.jpg

Here's an incredible quote from Ann Nocenti that comes from the preface of her collected edition Longshot:

The idea of deep origins that we are so sure of, and of the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, and the suspicion that perhaps all memories are rewritten stories, all this led to the idea of Longshot having no past but rather a story he had to discover along the way. And maybe that’s all it was, and all memory is, a story we tell ourselves. Or try to tell others. The actress Ingrid Bergman once said, “Happiness is good health and a bad memory.” Forgetting is part of health. Remembering who you are now, not then.
I’ll say one more thing about comics. Writing them for ten or so years kept me infantile. Developmentally challenged. I still live half my life in a fantasy world. Halleujah.

annie-by-art-adams.jpg

[Ingonyama]

Gosh...I'm really late to the party. Most of my favorite characters have been spoken for (Jean, Ororo, Kurt).

So who's left to talk about?

I know...Psylocke.

Betsy Braddock is a great example of one of the Claremazons' most defining qualities; inner strength brought out by supreme trial.

psylocke07_zps3d9188c4.jpg

Over time, she was transformed, again and again, starting with joining the X-Men:

PSYLOCKE_costume_050811_zpsa69483ce.jpg

and then undergoing crisis after crisis as she was continually reinvented, sometimes of her own volition, sometimes not:



Every time Betsy has been faced with something, she's come out fundamentally changed. Her metamorphosis has been constant, if more subtle in later years than her initial transformation from British "Lady Lancelot" to Asian ninja master. She's lost friends and lovers, even her very sense of self, in such amazingly over-the-top ways you'd think you were reading an actual myth.

I don't know if where she is now is where she's happiest, but I DO know X-Force isn't an endpoint for her, so much as a waystation on her endless journey, and we'll probably see lots more changes in the future.

Speaking as someone whose life has always been in flux, I can honestly say I'm like Psylocke in the sense that 'stability' is a myth for me, and I'm not altogether sure it's a desirable goal at this point. When I think of the "American Dream" -- house, car, 2.5 kids (adopted in my case) -- I cringe a little. It feels like a prison. I'd rather have the freedom to explore, to grow and change, than be stuck as some dream guy's happy househusband for the rest of my life.

[TheMutantJinx]

Speaking as someone whose life has always been in flux, I can honestly say I'm like Psylocke in the sense that 'stability' is a myth for me, and I'm not altogether sure it's a desirable goal at this point. When I think of the "American Dream" -- house, car, 2.5 kids (adopted in my case) -- I cringe a little. It feels like a prison. I'd rather have the freedom to explore, to grow and change, than be stuck as some dream guy's happy househusband for the rest of my life.

I think yours is an excellent analysis of Betsy's character. You're right; there never has been a true constant in her life, and when she thinks she may have found one (Warren, for instance), it's always ripped away from her. That's part of what makes her such an interesting and strong character, since I think she's become quite good at adapting.

[sungila]

undergoing crisis after crisis as she was continually reinvented, sometimes of her own volition, sometimes not:

Every time Betsy has been faced with something, she's come out fundamentally changed. Her metamorphosis has been constant, if more subtle in later years than her initial transformation from British "Lady Lancelot" to Asian ninja master. She's lost friends and lovers, even her very sense of self, in such amazingly over-the-top ways you'd think you were reading an actual myth.

I don't know if where she is now is where she's happiest, but I DO know X-Force isn't an endpoint for her, so much as a waystation on her endless journey, and we'll probably see lots more changes in the future.

Speaking as someone whose life has always been in flux, I can honestly say I'm like Psylocke in the sense that 'stability' is a myth for me, and I'm not altogether sure it's a desirable goal at this point. When I think of the "American Dream" -- house, car, 2.5 kids (adopted in my case) -- I cringe a little. It feels like a prison. I'd rather have the freedom to explore, to grow and change, than be stuck as some dream guy's happy househusband for the rest of my life.

I think yours is an excellent analysis of Betsy's character. You're right; there never has been a true constant in her life, and when she thinks she may have found one (Warren, for instance), it's always ripped away from her. That's part of what makes her such an interesting and strong character, since I think she's become quite good at adapting.

Agreed! Betsy is adaptation, growth and poetry in motion. This is a great expression and testimony to what makes her a personal favorite and such a strong enduring character. It's so true, the ideal of stability...of finally getting to a solid ground, a rock bottom a place of absolute certainty...it just never happens. That 'desirable goal' of insurance...of your own personal security...its always being dangled out in front of us and reenforced by society. In so many ways Psylocke just can't have that...she tries her best to provide that for others...to protect them from every conceivable harm - more than any X-Man she independently engages the most hidden and invasive of threats...stands before them, regardless of the risk and takes action. Always shedding armors...and somehow in all that fire of change...she's maintained her 'being'.

[ohsnapulon5000]

Conceptually and I guess Spiritually- or at least in a really broad sense of the word ii came to the X-men the way many young people came to "love" the franchise and certain characters. Feeling like an outsider, feeling secretly special, feeling persecuted- feeling like your normal disassociated pre-teen. Claremonts super nuanced stories were readable by me in later years and understood in a different way each time i came back to them because as a kid- i was really into the adventures of the ANAD cast! Holy hell, they were a thrilling bunch! The action in those stories that i came to were like the tales of Robin Hood to a young King Arthur. I lived in Sadi Arabia at the time and my Older Brother would send me Martvel comics from overseas when he went to boarding school in Connecticut and lived near a convenience store that sold BYRNE/CLAREMONT era X-MEN for like .75c, so it was the equivalent of getting vintage Playboys when i popped these seemingly illegal boxes open and i would get to catch up with NIGHTCRAWLER, THE STOIC COLOSSUS, MEAN WOLVERINE, oh and STIZZNORM! QUEEN OF DANGER.

and so it went for years until i moved stateside and by then it was during the LEE/ CLAREMONT switchover. The focus for me was the adventures and the world they inhabited. it wasn't so much about a single character that engaged me, it was the X-men asa unit getting away with all the ridiculous crap they got away with because of how under the radar the tried to be.

The first time I had interest in a single character was the White Queen- which led to genuine projected love for the GenX cast nad so on and so forth in a linear, then radial kind of way as i retraced back issues of the franchise, leading up to now- finding a wealth of characters that were oft times decent metaphors for the human, super human, and str8 up freakbitch experience people share sometimes. I left and came back to the franchise a couple of times.

But in my Twenties- I rediscovered The Dazzler...and just like i felt as a kid- finding something so completely similar, touching, hauntingly familiar, and real about her character, i discovered my hero. Having The Dazzler in my life when i did was the equivalent of having a three legged dog pull you out of a river while you were drowning.

Our stories were so the same at a period, it was bizarre and admittedly comforting. Here I was, some seemingly hot young thing, trying to make a name for himself in L.A. selling myself short in ways, giving it my all in ways, and in one of my lower moments when i only had money for food or a Dazzler omnibus, i totally bought the omnibus because there it was @ MELT comics staring me in the face like some phantom. Her hand outstretched on the cover of her first book, inviting me to her stories.

When my place got burgled and trashed- I felt like ali after the Rogue trashed her place.
Having to make it on your own without your family support.
Leaving on that midnight bus from east to west coast.
Having friends that care for you but would honestly like to see you ditch your ambition and live more like them.
Dealing with sleazy ass aspects of IRL the entertainment industry
Riding in the passenger seat, sweating the details with some hot nerd in one of those fleeting and flimsy hot little romances
oh god. drugs.
Fundamentally being a self confident person in a world that, for whatever reason, would rather see you on your knees.
Direct conflict with the our parental units from a single parent household.
Dealing with cicumstances waaaay out of your realm of comprehension every now and then.
Dealing with a seemingly incurable mania for seeing silver linings even when things look bleak.
Understanding that ultimately, the love you seek, you've always possessed. And what it means to truly love yourself.
You betta work.
That things take time to achieve.
Feeling that amazing things happen around you, because of you, but not necessarily for you.
Understanding that you cannot rely on your natural talents alone, you must grow as well.
Overcoming Suburban Brat syndrome in the real world.
Having the munchies with no food sucks.
That sometimes- when you're hot ****. And you flash it around town. Bitches will hate. etc.. etc...

there were a million real life lessons that i related to in her book.

But what the character represented and represents to this day to me and the marvel U is that she's a muse. clearly. Dazzler is the ever loving spirit inside all of us that says, "don't give up! GO FOR IT!". In a broader sense it's the spirit of survival. In a romantic sense it's the spirit of PASSION. VIVRE! It's when you see someone really give it their all that erupts you from your seat, or brings a tear to your eye, or makes you rain single dollar bills all over a sweaty stage. It makes the mo's scream YAAAS, the woo girls scream WOO and the bros FISTPUMP.
An encompassing thrill of overcoming is what Dazzler represents as well.
The idea that sometimes in the darkest places, the light is all that can survive. so focus on it.
Dazzler is the feeling inside you of that makes you dance when you never thought you would.
Dazzler is you singing in your shower or in your car.
Dazzler is what happens when that bass drops.
Dazzler is what happens when your face gets melted at that show you were covering for your music blog.
Dazzler is that feeling you got when Piper beat Tuffy's face on the season finale of Orange is the new Black S.1
Hell dazzler is the feeling of a really good poop. it's a muted victory in even your everyday when no one's looking.
Dazzler ultimately represents the idea that you have the capability of being whatever you like, in your own way. It's freedom even it's sometimes lonely.

[sungila]

1048072-retro_dazzler_by_tsudaduda.jpg

Whenever I think of Dazzler I can't help thinking about how many times she's overcome the desire others have had to want to contain her, capture her, posses her, own her - and how she's struggled to accept the responsibility that comes with the limelight. She's truly meant to be on stage...to be a Diva...but it's not vanity...it's destiny...it's who she is - and she has struggled with that identity. As an artist she's both extremely internal and expressively extroverted. It's a paradox of being that consumes so many artists. Yet, over the years, Dazzler has managed to balance those extremes of nature - with the best of both aspects shinning full strength.

Thank you Ohsnapulon5000 for highlighting the X-Men's best and truest star - and for sharing your own star power.

[Ricochet Rita]

Once upon a time, once upon a place... A boy with no name, no past, no future --only present. Like a blank paper, people reflected their hopes, fears, desires and prejudices over him, so he was called saviour, fool, slave, alien, star, rebel, clown, messiah, freak, hero, mutant, slut... His existence was a never-ending loop of rise, fall and oblivion with only one thing for sure: he was lucky --was he?

The original Longshot Limited Series was kinda "Alice in Wonderland": someone suddenly thrown in a foreign world starts a journey and meets many characters who use to annoy him and despise him and use him and treat him as if he were a perfect idiot or a puppet, and he ends up loads of confused. But the question is: who is actually the mad one, Longshot/Alice or the others?

It's not really a story about an interdimensional creature, it's a story about how people react to this creature and his 'anarchist' attitude. As another poster (The Lucky One) said once, Longshot is by nature a pretty passive character (rather a mirror): he lets stuff happen to him and wanders from one crazy situation to another while basically staying unflappable. But at the same time he's a powerful trigger: his presence always unleash a chain of events that disturb the accommodating existence of average (or super!) people and blow their mental frameworks up. He's an unconscious saboteur!

So Longshot is not sweet, as many writers have tried to establish. He's bittersweet, perhaps --acid, rather. His world, his mind, are a perturbing mess that collide with ours. Longshot is an alchemy catalyst, an agent of change, and I can understand that it's a hard character for writers --people evolve around him, but how can he been evolved into the tough limits of a superhero comic-book?

[To be continued after Summer...talking about creation, existentialism, Sisyphus, fairy tales and that wonderful Nocenti's quote that Sungila posted]

[sungila]

Once upon a time, once upon a place... A boy with no name, no past, no future --only present. Like a blank paper, people reflected their hopes, fears, desires and prejudices over him, so he was called saviour, fool, slave, alien, star, rebel, clown, messiah, freak, hero, mutant, slut... His existence was a never-ending loop of rise, fall and oblivion with only one thing for sure: he was lucky --was he?

The original Longshot Limited Series was kinda "Alice in Wonderland": someone suddenly thrown in a foreign world starts a journey and meets many characters who use to annoy him and despise him and use him and treat him as if he were a perfect idiot or a puppet, and he ends up loads of confused. But the question is: who is actually the mad one, Longshot/Alice or the others?

It's not really a story about an interdimensional creature, it's a story about how people react to this creature and his 'anarchist' attitude. As another poster (The Lucky One) said once, Longshot is by nature a pretty passive character (rather a mirror): he lets stuff happen to him and wanders from one crazy situation to another while basically staying unflappable. But at the same time he's a powerful trigger: his presence always unleash a chain of events that disturb the accommodating existence of average (or super!) people and blow their mental frameworks up. He's an unconscious saboteur!

So Longshot is not sweet, as many writers have tried to establish. He's bittersweet, perhaps --acid, rather. His world, his mind, are a perturbing mess that collide with ours. Longshot is an alchemy catalyst, an agent of change, and I can understand that it's a hard character for writers --people evolve around him, but how can he been evolved into the tough limits of a superhero comic-book?

[To be continued after Summer...talking about creation, existentialism, Sisyphus, fairy tales and that wonderful Nocenti's quote that Sungila posted]

Once upon a place there was a time...Arize! The perfect temperament: impatient for the ways things are and an angry desire to make things better...the proper combination of irreverence and rage...
Having just begun Sandman ... I am wondering if perhaps, Neil Gaiman and Arize were forged from the same metal

I am thrilled by this latest installment of Longshot the Pure Heart Terrorist. I have been doing my homework and expansive explorations - immersing fully in Nocenti's manuscript (the astounding first series and her notes) but I've also been for following your leads and venturing outward and looking more closely at Longshot's days with the X-Men.

Truly, the unconscious saboteur! I love that concept!
Is that not what nature invests in Her creations? Her own laws broken by those most true to the greater and only abiding law of continuance!

For when I think of the nemesis to this - the opposing conscious manipulator (Mojo or Sinister) I see the eternal conflict! I see all the ideals ever borne - seeded with their own transcendence...a explosive realization of completion - a moment of absolute...blown apart with increase...with no memory or purpose left...and all that memory and purpose curls in the undertow...reforms the wave in a turning...and again...recreates the shore...and again...

What is that spark in the wave...not the sun...not the water...
What is that spark of life...that impossible outcome...that ultimate act of terrorism in the galaxy...
That beginning that never completes beginning...
What are the chances that there could be this Earth...the moment...this hand typing on the keyboard...
I'd say the odds are always impossible...

What sort of hero could turn the tide...
longshot.jpg

I can't believe I'll have to wait until the end of summer for the next installment...but thank you for these troves of wonder Rita

[From The Shadows]

@Chia I actually think it's important that the connection you share with Kitty is in part the fact that you two look similar. There are soooo many heroines out there...so many throughout time and mediums...but we're all X-fans and - call me a fool, but I feel like there's something special about finding ourselves...or that connection with our inner selves in x-books... I also really appreciate that you are able to see the difference between how a charcter like Kurt can embody a way of being that you admire and find attractive but may not be one that truly 'fits' who you yourself are. So Kitty and Kurt being best friends makes sense...(Kurt is a friend and maybe even an elder role model to the Kitty in you)...yes, I have already accepted that I may be a fool...but it's still a pretty neat idea, right?

Its not really foolish, it actually sort of makes sense. Even though I am much older now i still struggle with my temper and like Kitty even though I'm the youngest (of the family ) and similar to the X-Men being Kitty's family I still take on a lot of responsibility. I also have a similar sense of humor and lack of tolerance for what I perceive as "unfair" or "injustice" that I have to still learn to keep in check and deal with in a more civil manner and sometimes I fail. Hahahaha. I'm sort of like an older version of Kitty I guess... The Kitty/Kurt friendship idea is pretty interesting. I haven't really thought on it too much.

[sungila]

Its not really foolish, it actually sort of makes sense. Even though I am much older now i still struggle with my temper and like Kitty even though I'm the youngest (of the family ) and similar to the X-Men being Kitty's family I still take on a lot of responsibility. I also have a similar sense of humor and lack of tolerance for what I perceive as "unfair" or "injustice" that I have to still learn to keep in check and deal with in a more civil manner and sometimes I fail. Hahahaha. I'm sort of like an older version of Kitty I guess... The Kitty/Kurt friendship idea is pretty interesting. I haven't really thought on it too much.

I bet you could write this story Chia
In some ways you have...hmmm, you are this fanfic - the fact of being that is you...I mean, I don't presume to know you in person...but in spirit I have been afforded some grace of friendship and forgive me, but in all you share...your posts...your writing...there's THIS...this Kitty core.

I think of X-verse and all those alternate realities and different manifestations of the same essential characters...and it brings a smile to think...****, YES, exactly...see, these X-Men are each their own constellation...stars that align to kindle a story that moves across the cosmos...appearing at angles...there beneath the blue sky..beneath the clouds...unchanged and yet changing...and even these can be reconstellated with an imagining heart...the dipper, becomes a bear, becomes a cup overflowing, becomes a smile in the face of a greater being...or the hands that hold an open gate...yet, when there is a losing of oneself...when we need navigate of find ourselves in the night of nights...there's our dipper...there's our Kitty Pryde...there's ourselves sure as can be shinning in the ever alternate infinite galaxy...a way of being born from within that lights the way beyond!

[darewithpeace]

good thread