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A Tale of Two Janets
Apr. 20th, 2010 08:22 pmWARNING: This may be triggering regarding abuse.
The other day I posted on Mark Millar (you know, the one who thinks fun jokes are proposing 22-page illustrated rape scenes and female characters whose superpower is to get pregnant anytime a woman looks at her. No, literally.)
Anyway, someone pointed out that everyone talks about Millar’s sexism, but not as much about his racism. I have blessedly managed managed to avoid much first hand experience, but I have, unfortunately, read his “updating” of the “Hank Pym hits his wife” story. Some things you just can’t purge from your brain. And the racism and sexism? Totally connected.
Backstory: Marvel Universe (MU) is the superhero universe most of the popular comic book movies in recent years not named “Superman” or “Batman” come from. Ultimate Marvel (UM) is an “updated” version of MU designed to be “darker” and “edgy.” This basically mean 2 out of every 5 (at best) words are swear words, “heroes” punch out men who have already been beaten until they can barely stand because they were annoyed, and plots revolve around things like the Hulk destroying half of NYC because he wants to rape his ex. No, literally. Mark Millar is the popular and “edgy” writer responsible for most of that.
Both universes have a heroine named Wasp. MU Wasp is Janet Van Dyne (we’ll go with Jan). Jan was a flightly socialite who basically became a superhero because she had a crush on a scientist whose experiments gave him superpowers, and they had adventures and joined the Avengers, and she eventually became one of the most respected leaders of the Avengers, while still being a chipper socialite. (Disclaimer: Most of my familiarity with Janet is from the first 50~ issues of Kurt Busieks Avengers run from about 10 years ago, and scattered appearances before and since.) UM Wasp is Janet Van Dyne (we’ll go with Janet). Janet is a mutant who pretends her powers come from her scientist husband’s experiments, while his powers actually come from her blood that he experimented on. While Janet has had far fewer years to make her mark than Jan, and I try to avoid having too much knowledge of UM, her accomplishments seem to primarily consist of being beaten by her husband and then being Captain America’s girlfriend. Both Wasps have the ability to shrink really smal, grow wings and fly when small, and shoot nasty electric stingers.
Now, as you can tell, there’s an abuse story here.
In the original, MU version, Jan and her scientist boyfriend, Hank, eventually got married. Because his scientific experiments often involved experimenting on himself, Hank developed a lot of behavioral problems, as well as a second, much angrier and violent personality who called himself Yellowjacket. Jan supported Hank/Yellowjacket through his problems, but divorced him as soon as he became physically abusive and hit her. She remained a superhero, and helped bring him down when he eventually completely snapped. Hank got his act back together and they eventually became friends again after he was sane and had wallowed in guilt for ages, and they dated a few times. She also dated a lot of other men, with nary an abuser in the bunch. Every time I’ve seen the subject brought up by the characters, it’s been clear that (A) Hank still hates himself for hitting Jan while not in his right mind, and doing it again was the thing he was most afraid of, and (B) Jan wouldn’t be anywhere near him if she thought it would happen again, was never going to forget it did happen even though she had forgiven him, and she wouldn’t be putting up with it ever happening again.
In the UM version (”updated” by Millar), Hank beat Janet regularly while they were dating, and throughout their marriage, blaming her for the typical reasons that she didn’t
In theory, everyone is seething over the changes to the story. Now, consider this:
Jan is a white socialite. Janet is an Asian scientist. (I don’t believe Janet’s ethnicity has ever been specified beyond “Asian.” I don’t think she’s ever been given a maiden name, either.)
The “official” reason, I believe, is that they wanted UM to be more racially diverse in its origins than MU was when the principle characters were created. I think we all agree that that’s a good goal, and most readers of American superhero comics will agree that it’s something the industry reads.
Do you really think this stereotype had no influence on changing an independent woman who was an authority figure in her own right, and who rejected abuse, into a woman whose role is largely defined by who she’s sleeping with, and who stayed with her abuser for years and seemingly never would have left him of her own free will*? If anything, I’d say it’s likely that the decision regarding Janet’s ethnicity was based at least in part on the desire to portray the graphic abuse (and believe me, that scene was very graphic) because it was considered more “acceptable” to have that plotline with an Asian woman than with a Caucasian woman. With Millar, at least, I’m convinced that the decision and association were very deliberate. On the editiorial/publishing level, the acceptance and approval may have been more subconscious, but that doesn’t really make it any better.
Now for an element that may be even creepier. At about the same time as the UM storyline was happening, or just before, over in the MU, Kurt Busiek was having Hank and Jan dating again. Both Hank and Jan’s feelings and thoughts on the event were directly addressed, and other characters also voiced their opinions on it. My memories are a bit blurry, but I seem to recall that most of it was people accepting Jan’s decision, and that she would do what was right for her**. One version was hailed as edgy, rivetting, and having amazing writing. The other was criticized as being something people were uncomfortable with, despite the series as a whole being very good, and not something they thought should be in a superhero book like Avengers. I’ll let you guess which was which.
BTW, both Jan and Janet died recently. Jan died trying to help save the world, and became a celestial entity. Janet was eaten by Blob.
*I know many women are unable to leave abusers for various reasons, but I’m not talking about the psychology involved in abuse, here, but about the changes to the character.
**Which is about my stance on the matter.
I have now made myself feel sufficiently dirty, and shall go watch and anime about a talking magic cat, a guy who is “so so so daaangerous no really and look at his sparkles