Reviews ComicBook / I Am Not Starfire

Hmm, having some interesting markup issues with this review.

I've noticed, since the review doesn't start out with a bold paragraph like most of your others do. Have you tried editing it?

A bunch of times, doesn\'t seem to fix it. Weird that it\'s only this review it\'s happened to, considering it\'s the second I\'ve done today.

Eh, personally I don\'t really care about the very concept of that story, but guess what? I reacted by doing that insane thing that is \"just not reading it.\" I didn\'t go waste my time ranting on the internet about how much it sucked before it even came out—\'

I swear, the comicgate crowd are stupid.

I just didn\'t read or buy it as I have zero interest in reading about Starfire\'s daughter and... well all that mess in general. The previews and excerpts made the whole thing feel like Mandy stating \"I don\'t like my mother because she\'s everything I\'m not, including the things I could be but chose not to.\"

It\'s not because it\'s women\'s literature but it\'s an example of bad women\'s literature. The one where the main character is supposed be sympathetic, but comes off as unlikable. Seriously, even those who are YA think this book is a mess.

I feel this is gonna be a Ghostbusters(2016) situation.

It`s a [visibly-female-orientated-entertainment-in-a-traditionally-male-franchise/medium] situation.

I meant a So Okay Its Average work that will be judged as much better or worse than it is based on reasons outside it's own merits.

Which is what happens when it\'s an adaptation of a much beloved series. Happened with The Last Airbender, Dragonball Evolution, and Ghostbusters (2016). On their own, any of them would\'ve been alright movies but nothing special.

It is a bit different for comics, where Elseworlds stories are a norm and have been around for donkey`s years. Normally, people don`t mind seeing a story where Superman is a communist or Marvel becomes the last man on earth. People expect to see those characters reinterpreted, as is the entire point of an Elseworlds comic.

(But when a girl does it, it's icky and crazy and ruins Starfire etc.)

@maninahat

No, people dislike stories that don\'t understand the characters or make us read about an offspring of a heroine who is so unlikable that you wish her aunt vaporized her. The problem is Mandy is an asshole and no being a teenager doesn\'t excuse it.

Asserting that oneself dislikes a story for non-sexist reasons is one\'s right, but asserting that there is no sexism at all to the wider critical block against this comic, particularly with Comicsgate still very active, is steep denial.

Personally I thought this comic was okay. Mandy being a moody teen is pretty typical ground for most of Mariko Tamaki\'s stories and the superhero battle climax is an awkward fit, but there\'s a decent foundational theme about the pressures of being a second generation immigrant kid and the fear of failure.

Sorry, but I think comicsgate thing has just been used as an excuse to escape criticism and is just become a meatless label. And I really think saying it\'s just sexism really just doesn\'t jive with me because a lot of people agree it\'s crud because it does the same thing as a typical ya story. It\'s badly executed in it\'s themes.

A lot of people were declaring it was crud long before it was ever publicly available. Amongst the people who like YA novels and have actually read it, particularly professional reviewers who don\'t have an axe to grind, it is liked.

Personally, I never trust professional reviewers/critics due to how often they\'re almost blatantly being paid off. How many movies/games/whatever have the critics raving about how amazing it is while the fans call it trash? (Doubly so for remakes and sequels)

Granted, I figured it was probably going to be bad long before it debuted because I looked at the promo image and wondered why Starfire had a child with Oswald Cobblepot.

^LMAO

“A chubby protagonist on the cover means the book will be bad” is pretty terrible to say.

That\'s a lukewarm take. First, she\'s not chubby, she\'s obese. Don\'t pretend otherwise. Second, Mandy looks nothing like her mother. Third, I didn\'t care for the art style. Fourth, I have basically zero interest in \"Kid of superhero who hates their parent\" which a title like \"I am not Starfire\" basically screams is going to be the plot. If I wanted that, I\'d go watch Boruto.

She’s not even close to obese, that’s ridiculous. You don’t have to like the book but overblowing the aesthetic reasons is pretty absurd.

Aren't you raging a little too much at a comicbook you admitedly didn't read?

First, she's not chubby, she's obese. Don't pretend otherwise.

People tell you "no fattys" is a terrible take and your answer is basically, well she's really fat so it's ok.

Second, Mandy looks nothing like her mother.

Again, just saying things doesn't make them an argument. Isn't that the point? that she altered her image to her prefered style.

Third, Forth...

You're just sidestepping the issue and not really saying anything. The point is: "you're complaining (behemently I might add) about a comicbook that you didn't read, based on self admitted pre-concived biases and trying to somehow pass it at best as a valid argument, at worst as an objective fact".

No, I mean that even when Mandy has orange hair, she looks nothing like her mother. Not \"Oh she doesn\'t dress like Starfire\". I mean she has the same physical resemblance to Starfire as she would if she was adopted. And no, it\'s not \"sidestepping the issue\" to say \"I\'m not interested in a fic about some kid who hates their superhero parent\". Because *that\'s why I didn\'t read it*, especially since the early reviews by people who got to read it ahead of time all said \"Yeah, Mandy hates her mother and apparently gets really mad at anyone who likes superheroes. Until she becomes one; then suddenly superheroes are a-okay\"

Within the context of the story, her becoming a Superhero allows her to save her mom and win the admiration of her peers. For the first time in her life she has been celebrated for her own achievements, not her mother`s. That is why she likes being a Superhero. As a metaphor, it is about a teenager finally growing up enough to figure out an identity beyond ``I`m-not-my-parents!``, which then allows for reconciliation with parents.

As for her appearance, she dyes her hair, wears a lot of black, and stress eats. Starfire does not. That's why she looks different from her mom. Also, children often look a lot more like one parent than the other, so she presumably gets her complexion and features from her non-present father. It is a weird thing to get hung up on.

The issue here is the question of whether or not you should judge a book by its cover. Yes, yes you can. It is perfectly reasonable to have some type of bias against it before you even consume it because of the vibe it gives off. The premise, the design of the main character, the tone of the narration used in the book's trailer, and the impression given off by the author herself all give me the feeling that this is one of those stories where the flawed protagonist is used for complacency rather than genuine self critique. So no, while I do think there are certainly people that hate on this book because they're sexist or don't like fat protagonists, you can't explain all the backlash that way. (And no, I didn't get the same impression from the female Ghostbusters reboot and I have no bias against that despite it featuring heavyset women)

I understand that when someone writes a review countering the impression you get from its cover, you can get annoyed and want to dispute it. But while it's perfectly OK to judge a book by its cover, if you want to argue with people about its quality or otherwise make a statement about its quality you better read at least some of it first because otherwise you have no leg to stand on. At the same time, I do think people should back off a bit and approach detractors with, "I know that's the impression you get, and that's reasonable, but it's actually different" rather than "You hate it for no good reason."

For me, I'm confident enough of my impression of the book and I simply don't care enough that I'm not going to bother reading it to dispute the review. The only reason I posted this was to try to clear up some of the issues here.

I tended to disagree with the backlash because this is the sort of stuff I'm into. Am I gonna say it's a 10/10 superhero deconstruction or a galaxy-brained take on the extended superhero family dynamic that uses conflict in a much more down to earth way than your average superhero page-turner? Not really. I'm not interested enough in it to give it that much praise.

But I do like the idea of it because it's a slice of life story about a non-super family member of a famous superhero, who has her own issues and baggage. I like the idea of this because it's like "Starfire is my mom, we don't see eye to eye, this story is about my mundane life and my goal to date my crush and go to France". Whether it's superhero adjacent or not, I love that shit - I dig Life is Strange, and one of my favorite Twine games was this thing called Do Androids Dream the Body Electric where a combat android with a body like a rollcage and a family is contemplating leaving her husband. There's no greater stakes, her being an android doesn't play into a grander message. It's about a woman who's met another man, who's current husband is kind of a bigot and who has a daughter she feels weirdly estranged from. It's just such an offbeat little story game where you're talking this robot lady through her issues, and it's fantastic.

I Am NOT Starfire sounds like it'd be right up my alley. So it was annoying and disheartening to see so many people jump on it right out of the gate. Some of it was like "ugh SJ Ws", other complaints were stuff like "god this book seems like it'd spend the whole time lecturing me" - one person even took this hilarious amount of umbrage with the fact that someone in the comic makes a "doing your mom" joke at the main character, saying it was inappropriate for teenagers. Shit sucks. I think it'd be a perfectly palatable slice of life story with a personal, human bent to it, set against a more supernatural backdrop. Apparently, any perceived "wokeness" ruins the entire product and makes this a pandering shitfest thought, so that's fun.

I can't make an objective statement on this comic, but I maintain that I like the sound of it and while I respect a personal opinion to the contrary, I hate the backlash. Like I said at the start, I'm not here to go "this is a stunningly brave take on the human side of the superhero dichotomy" - but I am here to say that whether you agree or not, I think there's room in the conversation for stories like this that don't need to be shouted down because it's perceived as "pandering" to some nebulous other whose influence detracts from "real" comic books - or to say that stories like this don't have a target audience, and serves to alienate more people than it serves. That's not to say that anyone who has an aversion to this story fits that mold, but I am saying that I've seen a lot of that and I'm so sick of seeing perfectly adequate and engaging stories get taken to task for perceived badness when it's just taking a different approach with different priorities.

I feel like that should’ve been a review in its own right rather than a comment on this one.

It was a long comment, I\'ll give you that, but it was mostly me venting my frustrations about the reaction to the book rather than an evaluation of its contents. If I ever read it, I might review it.

I'm not very emotionally invested in DC Comics, and my only connection to Starfire is watching Teen Titans, so I'd probably never seriously consider reading I am Not Starfire(let alone hate on it) but I'm honestly surprised that a positive review on this site is this controversial.

I\'m honestly surprised that a positive review on this site is this controversial.

It\'s been toned down a lot but it used to be pretty normal. Now-a-days it\'s been brouht down more to \"I\'m gonna make a negative review just because the only one it has is positive\".

So actually read it and.... wow. I have zero idea why you\'re supposed to root for Mandy rather than Starfire. On the one hand, a loving and supportive mother who\'s always there for her daughter (very explicitly never even missing a birthday despite often being offworld or in a different galaxy even) and is only ever upset with her when she ditches school and an important test because she \"Wants to just move to france and never do anything.\" On the other hand, you have a Jerkass daughter who hates everything her mother ever tries to do for her (including the birthday parties), gets mad at her mother for daring to have her friends over, never apologizes to her girlfriend for throwing a tantrum over a selfie of all things, and is just generally insufferable for the entire story.

In theory, it\'s about the struggles of living in the shadow of someone famous, but the story dedicated all of one page to that and the rest to Mandy just being a brat to everyone except her girlfriend (plus her girlfriend the moment she posted a selfie with the Teen Titans) then being more of a brat to them when they call her out on it. The most apt line in the whole story: Mandy saying \"I\'m the worst daughter ever!\"

I mean, the fact that she says "I'm the worst daughter ever!" indicates that she acknowledges her character flaws and then works to improve; basically the origin story of... every superhero ever.