Family Business
So, I’m gonna start this post by talking about Joss Whedon. I did, after all, in a much earlier post say I’d do that.
Since the first episode of Firefly I saw back when it was on Fox back in 2002 (which wasn’t on for long, they canceled it quite fast) I guess I’ve really “been into” Joss Whedon’s work. I think Whedon’s ability to both have huge, awesome sci fi stories and a lot of action which is actually less interesting than the characters is something I really find awesome.
And you know me: I love monsters and spaceships and martial arts fights and magic and superheroics and villainy more than the next guy.
I think with everything Joss Whedon writes (TV shows, comics, movies) he manages to pull off ridiculous action and sci fi. But, all that flashy stuff takes a sort of backseat to the characters, their issues, their inner lives and most importantly: their relationships. Where am I going with this? Well, there, actually. To relationships. And that’s the meat of this post. And, I don’t mean relationships strictly in the lovey dovey sense. Joss Whedon has some pretty sappy romance in his stuff. Buffy probably being the biggest culprit of lovey-dove. But, I guess I mean all the kinds of realationships between his characters. I think that’s really at the heart of Whedon’s storytelling. He’s very skilled at setting up relationships between characters and letting them almost drive the story. I think the major kind of relationship Whedon is interested in is family.
But, not family in really the traditional sense. Whedon’s stories tend to revolve around a main character (and generally a “hero” in the, uh, hero sense of the word. Not just the “hero=main character” way. Hopefully that made some kinda sense) and their family unit. Not a family really made up of realitives, but one that’s a group of friends that really acts like a family.
I know that’s kind of confusing.
But, allow me to explain further. This is especially true for Buffy and for Firefly. Buffy has “The Scooby Gang” which, no doubt about it, is a superhero team, but they’re also a family. A whole lot of people have written about how Buffy’s watcher Giles is a father figure for Buffy since her father is basically absent from her life. And, I have to say I agree with that. But, beyond that, Joss Whedon (and the other writers who worked on Buffy) really did a good job setting up the relationships of everyone in the Gang to make them appear like a family.
They’re Not just a bunch of kids who fight Vampires together and not just a group of friends either. Like a family, they really depend on each other and support each other. And, I think Whedon is trying to make the point that without that support, Buffy wouldn’t be the superhero that she is. Buffy is the strongest member of the team (literally: she has superstrength. But beyond that she is the hardest working of them all) but, she is the team member who needs the most support from everyone else. Typically a slayer like Buffy would work alone (well, just her and her watcher) and in secret. Buffy is unique because she has a huge family of people fighting evil with her.
And, Joss Whedon shows us what Buffy could be like without family. We see this in her antithesis: the “bad seed” slayer, Faith. Faith really pushes people away from her and doesn’t fit in well with the Scooby Gang. In fact, Faith very quickly betrays them and becomes a villain. This is during season 3 of Buffy. And, unlike Angel, who had turned evil and been the 2nd season’s villain, Faith had a choice to become evil. And that choice is what makes Faith an interesting and complex character.
Faith really just has a kind of wonky sense of responsibility. She has superpowers, and a Slayer’s weird love of violence, but no family unit to keep her in line. Faith appears to only care about herself, and to have little trouble doing “evil” things. But, this isn’t totally true. There are moments when Faith “breaks down” (that’s a terrible phrase) and shows guilt for things she’s done. She’s not a sociopath, she’s just incredibly misguided. And, during her time as a villain working for the evil Mayor of Sunndale, I think we see just how redeemable Faith is.
Faith originally joins forces with The Mayor to essentially get on his good side and protect herself. But, the Mayor begins to treat her like his daughter more and more. He sort of dotes on her and talks to her like a sterotypical “dad” would. Calling Faith things like “young lady” and showing weird, fatherly affection for her. And, Faith seems to really be working with him for that reason. I think that fact is important. This shows that Faith is looking for a family. I think that’s the real reason she decides to work for the Mayor and become a villain. And, the fact that she wants a family means she is human.
While Buffy is probably the best example of Whedon’s views on and portrayal of family, just about everything he’s worked on is about this. On Firefly, Malcolm Reynolds is the main character, but his fellow crew on his spaceship Serenity are a definate family unit. And, in Whedon’s work on the comic Astonishing X-Men, the team is also like a family. With X-Men, I think the idea from the franchise’s creation was to have the team of X-men behave like a family. I think in the original Uncanny X-Men by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the X-men were definelty shown as a family group with Professor X as a sort of father figure for all of them. I think where we are now with X-Men, with so many different mutants and so many crazy sci fi things, the original focus on the team as a family has really gone by the wayside. That’s not really a bad thing, it is a comic book, after all.
In Astonishing X-Men, Joss Whedon really brought that family mentality back. How the team (Cyclops, Emma Frost, Beast, Shadowcat, Wolverine, Colussus) support each other and where they get into conflicts with each other is really explored. And again, Whedon didn’t sacrifice any action or sci fi comic book stuff for that. Whedon is able to have both worlds working together in Astonishing, which is probably why I like the series so much. The X-Men in Astonishing are, like the Scooby Gang in Buffy, moved beyond just a flat superhero team and are shown as a family unit.
What I mean by “flat superhero team” I guess is what we see in almost every team book. In general, teams of superheroes (like the Avengers or Justice League or The Authority) are just a bunch of superheroes together fighting bad guys. The realationships between the characters aren’t explored at all. I really like the idea of superhero teams (What’s not to like, right? All your favorite superheroes in one place) , and I think the best stories with them do investigate the characters on the team, and their relationships. I think the DC comics event Identity Crisis written by Brad Meltzer and drawn by Rags Morales is a great example of this.
Identity Crisis is a story about the Justice League and the aftermath of the murder of Elastic Man’s wife, Sue Dibny. Sue was a civilian, not a superhero. And, she was murdered by a civilain, too. The series is about the investigation of Sue Dibny’s death, and how that leads to a new superhero tactic for the DC universe: brainwashing villains to punish them.
Where Identity Crisis really succeeds is in how it shows conflict between members of the Justice League since not all of them agree with the brainwashing. I know all of that makes the story sound quite ridiculous, but it really is a good examination of the Justice League and the relationships of the characters in it. Which, again, not many stories about super hero teams do. And really, I don’t understand why that is. It seems to me that a story about a group of people (super or not) should be about the group.
The comic series Runaways (originally written by Brian K. Vaughn with art by Adrian Alphona but Joss Whedon and artist Michael Ryan had a run on it. Now, Terry Moore is writing it and Humberto Ramos is drawing–and it’s not very good anymore–but I think they’ll be off the series soon and they’ll be new creators, so we’ll see what happens) is very much a story about family.
The Runaways are teenagers who realized their parents were supervillains. In the early issues, the kids are very quickly forced to band together, and they don’t even know each other well. But, they come to be a new family after having to leave their evil ones behind. For Vaughn and Whedon’s runs writing Runaways, the series’ major focus was the kids’ relationship as a family. Especially how they looked out for each other and supported each other in a world that is essentially out to get them. The Runaways have a rough deal because villains don’t like them, and most of the Marvel universe superheroes don’t like them either (though for different reasons).For what I read of Whedon and Vaughn’s work on the series, there’s a definate sense that they’re all they have.
Moving away from Joss Whedon and from comics and superheroes and super teams, I think in reality, family has always been something I value. Both my actual family, and the families we create with people we aren’t related to. I think having strong groups of friends who are family-like is important. Maybe this is why, even though it should be sort of lame, I’ve always really liked how in hip-hop, there are so many groups. I mean, I think the Wu Tang really kicked this off, but just about everyone who raps (or makes beats) is a part of some group. And, holding it down for your group is really important in hip hop (as you’re probably aware). I think Kanye West‘s “Grammy Family” featuring MCs Consequence and John Legend is a good song that sort of celebrates this idea. He’s talking about his G.O.O.D music crew. Plus, it’s a good song. And, “Family” is in the title so, you know, that is appropriate for this post. And, it’s a DJ Khaled is song and he’s a very dumb but fun-to-laugh-at man.
Like I said, it is be sort of lame, but I am a big fan of that sort of mentality.
In my own life, I’ve really been into establishing those types of groups of friends for some reason, even before I got into hip hop. And again, maybe that’s a bit lame. But I think it’s not a bad thing. My Dad has always tried to “raise me” with the idea that friends are very important. And, of course they are. I mean, it’s human nature to have friends. If you don’t, you could end up like Tom Hanks in that movie with the bloody soccer ball.
As Mos Def says on the song “Sunshine”: “Everybody gotta have family, y’all”. And he’s right. We do.
So, allow me to conclude this post (in an extremely “hip-hop”, and probably extremely assinine manner) shout out my friends. Word up to the Mof-Nins, The Fighting Dreamers and especially the Clan Of The Cave Bear. Bears, we’re not gonna be together much longer as the demise of our school looms on the horizon. But, let’s hold it down until then. And, here’s to the Cave Bears remaining tight like Legos even after that.
