That Moment When You Realize Your Favorite Character Has Flaws--and So Do You

Story: Jim Shooter. Art: Win Mortimer/Jack Abel. All characters and artwork © and TM DC Comics Inc.

There comes a point in every fan's life when you realize that your favorite actor/musician/athlete is a human being and thus capable of doing things you may find unsettling.

With fictional characters, it's much the same way. Characters often become our favorites because they represent some aspect of ourselves or what we wish to be like. Identifying with certain characters has advantages—we can use them as role models and adopt traits we admire.

However, identifying with a favorite character can also blind us to flaws in the character and in ourselves.

Characters are the brain-creations of writers. They represent how the writer sees the character, not how fans wish the character to be. Most writers imbue characters with flaws on purpose—who wants to read about a perfect hero? Sometimes, however, flaws are less obvious and may even be “accidental,” just because the writer is also a human being.

While it's fun to discover things about a character you weren't aware of before, it can be unsettling when you realize your favorite character—one you looked up to as a role model—may have some less-than-savory qualities that were there all along.

I realized this while re-reading an old story featuring one of my favorite characters, Mon-El.

From Space Wanderer to Legionnaire

Mon-El is a stalwart member in most incarnations of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Originally introduced as an amnesiac space explorer who was mistaken for Superboy's older brother, Mon had the same super-powers as the Boy of Steel, but a different weakness—common lead instead of kryptonite. Lead poisoning resulting in Mon being placed in the Phantom Zone, where he remained without aging for a thousand years, until a cure could be found.

Upon his release, Mon-El joined the Legion and was eventually elected leader of the team. This was the era in which I discovered the Legion, and Mon-El stood out.

He wore a costume similar to Superboy's, but with opposite colors—a red tunic and blue cape, for example. He cast a dashing figure—powerful and confident, yet responsible and mature. In one story, he remains on duty at Legion HQ with his girlfriend, Shadow Lass, while the rest of the team attends a wedding of two former members. 

These were all traits I admired and sought to emulate, consciously or not.

“Lament for a Legionnaire”

The story which hints at Mon's less-than-savory qualities appeared in Action Comics # 384, January 1970. 

In “Lament for a Legionnaire,” Dream Girl—the Legion's resident seer—predicts that Mon will die in five days. Initially, he receives the news with stoicism, learning to appreciate the sunrise, a shower, and breakfast. Then he decides that maybe he can fight death by stocking up on anti-lead serum and staying busy as a Legionnaire.

All well and good so far.

I won't spoil the story by revealing the twists which ultimately lead to Mon-El surviving his predicted death (though it's not a spoiler to say he does so). However, on re-reading this story, I came to see Mon in a different light.

Shadow Who?

One of the things that jumped out to me was that Mon, facing the possibility of his death, never thinks of his girlfriend, Shadow Lass. One might expect that he would want to spend some time with her or at least say goodbye. Instead he seems to avoid her altogether by embarking on a space mission which lasts three days and departing just before Shadow Lass returns from her own mission.

Shady is angry and upset, and even lashes out at the Legion's then leader, Karate Kid.

Now, to be fair, Mon may not have been thinking clearly at this point. And, as KK notes, Mon believed he had "licked" the whole death prophecy. 

Still, you would think he would take Shady's feelings into a account, but he never gives her a thought.

If you can't trust your friends . . .

Mon also comes across in this story as exceptionally paranoid and reckless. Since lead is the only thing which can kill him, he takes great precautions to protect the vault in which his anti-lead serum is manufactured and stored.

The vault is already secured in such a way that casts doubts on Mon's ability to trust his Legion teammates and friends (the only other people who would have access to the vault), but he goes to extra efforts to seal it off and wreck the elevator that leads to the vault. 

Realizing the elevator was his only way out, he tunnels through the ceiling and comes out on another floor, knocking Element Lad off his feet.

Legion stories at the time did not address issues such as structural damage to the headquarters or who was going to pay for all the repairs. (The Legion's benefactor, R.J. Brande, must have gone bankrupt several time footing such bills.) As it is, Mon looks not only paranoid but irresponsible.

Heroes just win—even when they don't try

The last thing I noticed—and this ties into the ending I won't reveal—is that Mon becomes a passive protagonist. The resolution of the story is brought about not through his own efforts but by someone else.

It's great that Mon cheats death, but not at the expense of another character. In the stories which follow, we never see Mon erect a statute to this person (the Legion was big on erecting statutes to fallen comrades) or mention this character in any way.

Granted, continuity was not very tight in those days and throwaway characters were just that—throwaways. But the story ends with Mon reviving and wondering who this person is. We never get to see his reaction—if any—to the events which have unfolded. 

The overall impression is that Mon takes his whole near-death experience for granted.

A mirror into the soul

Did writer Jim Shooter deliberately imbue Mon-El with flaws such as aloofness, paranoia, irresponsibility, and ingratitude? Probably not. But those traits can certainly be inferred from the story.

And that's not a bad thing. In looking at one's favorite character in a new light, we may get to look at ourselves in a new light—including the reasons why we were attracted to the character in the first place.

There have been times in my life when I've been accused of having each of these traits—aloofness, paranoia, irresponsibility, and ingratitude—with justification. I don't think I picked up these traits from Mon-El—and certainly not from this story, which I first read in my late teens. Yet perhaps I was attracted to the character because I recognized a bit of myself in him—both good and bad traits.

Weird but true.

What about you? Have you spotted unexpected flaws in your favorite character?

A Poem for Faith (Just in Time for Easter)

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field."

 --Matthew 13:31 (The Book)

That little mustard seed cries out.
Curled up into a ball, it pines,
Wearing its pain like a crown of nails:
Harsh words, fragments--
        "something must be done!"
Nothing could be done, then.
And now? It lingers and plans,
That mustard seed,
Buried among the ruins, that sacred castle
       --waiting for the light.

A Poem for Pain

Another of my forays into poetry:

Take Away the Vodka

Take away the vodka

And the wine; no stout for me.

I don’t want the numb

And fake honesty.

I am in pain right now

And I choose to feel it:

The bald uncertainty,

The fear of tomorrow,

The distrust of today.

The world is not a nice place;

No altered state will make it so.

This agony is truth; it clings

Like a worn lover.

It whispers bitter nothings:

“You must be broken

So you can heal.”

A Tribute to the Grandmother Who Encouraged Me to Write

Today marks the 100^th birthday of my paternal grandmother. 

There is no significance to this in terms of writing, except that Grandma Vivian was the only person in my family while I was growing up who did anything creative. She painted.

I still have a painting she made of a white rosebush in her backyard. It is painted from a picture she took. The caption on the photo simply reads,“Taken May 18, 1981. My roses.”

Grandma never pursued her artwork in terms of education or sought recognition. In her day, women didn’t do that sort thing. She married young and, though she held a job for a time, she spent most of her life as a wife, mother, and grandmother. Nothing wrong with that, but I've always wondered if she maybe had other aspirations. 

 

Grandma was so laid back that she often seemed disconnected from her surroundings, like a kid at a carnival who tries to take it all in. Perhaps this is the sort of artistic temperament that is needed to paint or write or draw or make music. 

Perhaps people with this disposition see what could be and find it more interesting than what is.

I see that as a connection between her and me. I often feel like that kid at the carnival--alternately exhilarated and disturbed by the sights, sounds, and experiences around me. In my less optimistic moments, I compare life to a minefield: waiting for something to go off when I take my next step. 

It is through writing that I've found a way to navigate this carnival-minefield. I imagine that art served the same purpose for Grandma.

Nevertheless, it was Grandma Vivian who showed an interest in my work as a writer when no one else did. She took the time and effort to read a play I wrote about a rock band. (She said she liked it, except for the language.) 

She even sought to collaborate with me by coloring a drawing I had made of the Marvel Comics character, Tigra. She got the colors wrong, but she was doing her own thing—something I didn’t fully appreciate at the time.

She also encouraged my interest in writing by suggesting that I write stories about the family she had married into, the Gildersleeves. 

Curiously, she never asked me to write about her own family, the DeFreeces. Perhaps the Gildersleeves seemed more interesting. (Two of my great-uncles served in World War I, and one later died of what she told me was a poisoned bullet wound. This turned out not be true—he died of appendicitis.)

Perhaps it was because she owned a history book written by a distant relative who had traced the history of the Gildersleeves in America back to the 1600s. (A cousin of mine now owns that book.)

I was into comic books at the time, not genealogy, so I never wrote the stories she wanted to read. I did, however, interview her a few years before her death to learn more about our family.

When I launched my own genealogical project a few years ago, I discovered that Grandma was wrong about certain details, especially dates. But she also gave me a lot of information I couldn’t have found elsewhere, including details of her family, which included seven brothers and sisters.

One of the more interesting aspects she told me was that her father—my great-grandfather—had been an acrobat. I couldn’t find any verification for this later on, but it’s a lovely idea and adds a sense of romance and adventure to our family history.

It would not totally surprise me if Grandma had made up that story, or perhaps misremembered and embellished something, as she apparently had done with the poisoned bullet tale. As I said, she lived in her head and seemed only mildly interested in the world around her. 

My mother used to tell me that she had tried to start conversations with Grandma Vivian, her mother-in-law, and was met with silence. Mom interpreted this as rudeness.

Yet I don’t think Grandma was trying to be rude. Some people are just better at small talk than others. I’ve been told that small talk is one of my areas of deficiency, and my dad was much the same way. 

People who live inside their heads often miss social cues or are afraid of saying the wrong thing. Retreating into silence is safer than being called out for violating social norms.

Grandma Vivian passed away during my final year of college. Her passing and funeral are largely a blur—except that the pastor had calculated Grandma's age wrong, thinking she was 77 instead of 78.

Unlike Grandma, I was a stickler for details and meticulously recorded such things. I never said anything to the pastor about her mistake, but I’ve always remembered it. That’s how I make sense of the world inside my head.

But life goes on. I had to finish college and take a graduation trip to Germany, and then ... I had no idea what to do with my life.

Perhaps Grandma experienced her life in much the same way. At 19, she married a man 16 years her senior and moved away from her parents’ home in Nebraska to live with him in Kansas. At 20, she became a mother; when she was 22, her second baby died. 

Life just takes you in directions you never expected, and she had a husband whose strong personality often overshadowed her own. I don’t think she truly knew what it was like to live on her own until he passed away. She was 72 at the time.

I’ve often felt the way I imagined she felt: waiting for someone to come along, take my hand, and guide me through this carnival we call life. But on the two occasions when this happened, it didn’t work out. From my grandmother, I inherited the capacity to dream. But from my grandfather, I inherited a certain stubbornness that resisted being overshadowed by a stronger personality.

So, here we are, 100 years into this carnival, and I’m still trying to make sense of it. Maybe there is no sense to be made. Maybe there’s only an exit sign which magically appears when we’ve had enough.

But, through her art, Grandma Vivian taught me it was okay to dream. 

Happy birthday, Grandma!

Clarifying the Colon: The Mark of Expectation

Here is the final grammar article from my old foray into writing for Suite 101.com. Enjoy. For more such articles, see the index for January and February on the right-hand side of the blog.

The colon—two tiny dots, one on top of the other—causes enormous confusion for beginning writers. Here’s why colons are helpful and how to use them.

Most beginning writers know that colons can be used to introduce lists. However, colons can also be used in a much broader sense: to set up expectation (as the colon just did for this sentence). Colons add variety and flavor to a piece of writing; however, they must be used properly.

As with the semi-colon, there are really only two significant uses for a colon: to introduce a list and to set the reader up to expect something.

I.  Introduce Lists

When using a colon to introduce a list, make sure that the word preceding the colon is a noun:

Seven students went to the ball game on Friday night: Josh, Taylor, Courtney, Nick, Nathan, Patrick, and Jasmine.

Do not use a colon if the word that would precede it is a verb:

The seven students who went to the ball game on Friday night were Josh, Taylor, Courtney, Nick, Nathan, Patrick, and Jasmine.

Note that the content of these two sentences is the same. The only difference lies in stylistic choice of the writer. Which version is correct? They both are. But only the first requires a colon.

Do Not Use a Colon with a Preposition

Beginning writers often use a colon incorrectly:

            After getting off work, Steve went to: the bank, the store, and then home.

The colon adds nothing to this sentence. The preposition to shows the proper relationship of ideas; it doesn’t need any extra help. 

Colons are also not needed when introductory phrases are used instead:

Steve bought several non-essential items at the store, such as magazines and lottery tickets.

Such as also conveys what needs to be said. A colon would simply get in the way.

II. Set Up Expectation

In Sin Boldly!, David R. Williams (2004) described the colon as a mark that says, “here it is”; that is, it fulfills the expectation set up in the previous part of the sentence: 

The band played the last song Bill wanted to hear after Holly dumped him: “The Goodbye Girl.”

Holly said one thing about Bill always annoyed her: He spent money too freely.

When an independent clause follows the colon—as in the second example, above—the first word may be capitalized or not, depending on your preference or the style guide you are using. However, be consistent.

Test Yourself

Where are colons needed in the following passage?  (Answer appears at end of article.)

Todd is a big fan of '60s bands such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, and the Who.  He says there is one thing he’d like to do before he dies play bass like John Entwistle.

Use a colon to set up expectation, whether in introducing a list or in using a word, phrase, or clause that answers the previous part of the sentence.  However, do not use a colon if a verb, preposition, or introducing phrase (“such as”) is used instead.  (Answer: Place a colon after “dies.”)

References

Williams, D. (2004). Sin Boldly: Dr. Dave’s Guide to Writing the College Paper, 2^nd ed. New York: Basic Books.