Someone has, but there's still a separate folder for it on the main page. So now the question is, which do we keep?
Most of the content on the new page was just taken from this one, and and this page has all the subpages, which I already reorganized to accommodate the new series, so I am inclined to argue that we should keep the separate folder on this page.
Edited by StrixObscuro By now, it should be clear to all except the most dense of us that sheep are secretly conspiring to kill us all and steal our pants.
I'd rather keep the new page. I don't think the repeated tropes need to be re-listed for the new run except for new examples, but the current page is busy enough without folderizing the original and reboot runs on the same page. Eight years between runs seems like a natural dividing line, and the kids have had various other appearances in between with their own pages.
the problem with Alex for me was always the fact that in him we had a young black male generally devoid of the classic stereotypes of black masculinity and a ripe opportunity to explore some different narrative themes and instead they fell on the trope of the idea that you can’t trust an educated black man. Yes, eventually you get other examples of black men on the heroic side but Cloak and Dagger don’t show up for a while and it’s not their story.
Alex as the mole was one way the story could go. It was not the ONLY way the story could go.
His turn was also painful because it felt like a betrayal of the reader. For me, Alex was the first time I had a character I could overlay myself onto. I didn’t need to insert myself into Runaways becauase Alex was already there. That was a new feeling for 16-17 year old me. There are a lot of narratives telling black boys they’re destined to be criminals or villains already. It takes a lot of mental effort to rebuke those narratives and Alex’s turn to the darkside carries more problematic baggage because of it. Couple that with his parents being drug dealers of the most stereotypical sort, it strikes me as a somewhat pathologizing. Especially because we never get a really good explanation of why Alex sided with his parents that I remember. He just knew about them earlier and the series decided to use that old anti-intellectual idea of “Smart people let their smarts make them amoral/evil” that we see in a lot of fiction. It’s not at all surprising that none of the other runaways are much above average intelligence (Miko is clever and the little girl is occasionally wise in the way pre-teens can sometimes be but intelligence isn’t a strong suit among the runaways)
As for the redemption aspect of this… well that plays into the idea of the black man needing redemption and saving from his inherent evil nature doesn’t it. *sigh.*
I suppose that could be added to the Unfortunate Implications section of the YMMV tab...
By now, it should be clear to all except the most dense of us that sheep are secretly conspiring to kill us all and steal our pants.
Should we start a new page for the 2017 series?
By now, it should be clear to all except the most dense of us that sheep are secretly conspiring to kill us all and steal our pants. Hide / Show Replies