Wednesday, May 12, 2010

X-Position: Matt Fraction - Another Question Asked!

Last week I was thrilled when I saw that a question I sent to Comic Book Resources was asked to Louise Simonson. Now normally when I ask a question I get the sense it's buried in a pile of mail somewhere between the Viagra adds and the links to sexy singles looking for a good time. Last week I was really happy to see each question asked and Louise Simonson give a thorough and thoughtful answer. This week I asked another question for Matt Fraction, the writer of Uncanny X-men. I didn't expect anything to come of that either. Again, I was wrong.

X-Position: Matt Fraction

My question did indeed get asked, but only part of it. My questions was concerning Emma/Namor, a plotline he seems to have forgotten recently because he's too bent on making Cyclops/Emma look like the greatest thing since free internet porn. I expected a pretty dry answer because of this, but this was not so. Here's what he said.

MarvelMaster616 has romance on his mind. Can you share some info that might titillate and entice?

I love the chemistry you gave Namor and Emma during "Utopia," but Namor has been a bit quiet in his affections for Emma since then. Is that ever going to become an issue again? Namor does have a history of pursuing blondes, and he doesn't seem to respect Scott Summers nearly as much as he did Reed Richards...

Yeah, of course! Imminently, even. Namor and Emma come to the forefront again in our first "Second Coming" storyline, "The Five Lights." That's a story I've only just started to tell, and I'll be getting back to it once the dust of "Second Coming" starts to settle a little bit...it's been a busy year from "Utopia" to "Second Coming," y'know?

We just got an amazing Terry Dodson cover featuring the two of them, as a matter of fact.

And I think Namor respects Scott - after "Second Coming," I know it for a

Fact - but they're not married. Y'know? Scott shoulda put a ring on it. And as we've already seen, Namor and Emma have a hot-and-bothered history. Ssssooo...

So it looks like he hasn't forgotten. That's a good thing because based on his usual interviews and his Twitter account, he often comes off as more eccentric than Willie Wonka on LSD. Emma/Namor is something he developed with Utopia and since Second Coming is not his baby, it doesn't make sense for him to flesh that out during such an event. The arc that comes after it "The Five Lights" appear to be the next big story and Namor may finally get some face time. It's a good thing too because his depiction of Cyclops and Emma Frost is really an insult to the chemistry set up by Grant Morrison and Joss Whedon. I get that Fraction loves those two together, but it's so blatant it makes the characters come off as a product of horrendous bias.

This brings me to the question that didn't get asked. When I sent my message into CBR, I originally asked two questions. The first one, I felt, was a bit more important than the last one because it brought up Matt Fractions blatant Cyclops/Emma bias and cited an answer he gave in an earlier interview. Here is what never got asked:

A while back you described Emma Frost as the love of Scott's life and Jean as the love of Scott's youth. But how can Jean be the love of Scott's youth when they were married for over a decade in comic time? Do you recall how they ventured into the future together to raise Cable for 12 years? That doesn't seem too befitting of mere youthful love. Doesn't Scott and Jean's love deserve more credit than that?

I would have loved to hear his answer on this because it is an answer that generated a lot of buzz on the internet forums. A lot of people weren't thrilled to hear an X-men writer was so blatantly bias towards a pairing that he completely ignored a relationship as being a product of 'youth' when the nature of the relationship propagated for over a decade. That gives the impression that he doesn't even know the full history of the characters that he's writing about. If that's the case, then it's no surprise his writing is so bias.

Either he didn't care to answer the question or CBR didn't ask it. Whatever the case, it's a question that deserves scrutiny and I hope that future X-Positions give me or someone else a chance to bring it up. Either way, at least I know my voice is being heard. That alone is awesome in a ways that a fan such as myself can deeply appreciate. Nuff said.

Jack

No comments:

Post a Comment