Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Sue would SO leave her children!


Over on Christians Read Comics Too!, the Mad Monk asserts that the Sue he knows would never leave her kids with Reed.

I beg to differ of course. Sue is leaving to join the resistance. That's no envionment for kids. It's dangerous and desperate and she needs to direct her energies to the fight. And this IS a fight that she would wage out of concern for her children. One has superhuman powers and the other may manifest them in the future. She has to leave and fight to try and secure a future where they won't have to.

The Mad Monk doesn't argue that though. What he suggests is that Sue would never leave them with Reed, who is, " wacked out on evil scientist juice."

But I don't think SHE sees him that way. I doubt she thinks he's evil. Does she think he's misguided? Wrong? Yes, but not evil. And while she feels he's misguided about registration, she doesn't doubt that he is still a good man at heart and would never be irresponsible in the care of his children. Further, knowing they're safe with him, she hopes their influence will help him see the harm in what he's doing. I don't think her comment, "beg you to give them the time you have so often denied them in the past," in her goodbye letter was made without the understanding that if he got closer to his children he might begin to see why what he was doing to their future was so wrong.

Sue's great faith in Reed's fundamental goodness is completely consistent with the Sue I've always known.

11 Comments:

At 7:58 PM, Blogger Barry said...

Maybe The Mad Monk went a bit hard on Reed, but the other point was that she would choose to leave them with someone like Agatha Harkness. This is what really got me. The Susan Storm that has always been at the core of the character for me would not punish Reed, but at least give him a wake up call by leaving and hiding the kids until things clear up. But I see your point.

On a different note, I would suggest you look into the word verification part of Blogger. Eventually those nasty spambots will find you and they are just a pain. I tell everybody this, just trying to help out.

Chow.

 
At 9:49 PM, Blogger Timothy Liebe said...

Dawn - given how far Reed's gone, and how Sue's leaving to join the very people Reed's planning to sic supervillains like Bullseye(!) and Venom(!!) on, I think it's one of the more boneheaded, and out of character, decisions Sue could have made. Reed's notorious at the best of times for being so narrowly focused he forgets to eat or come to bed - and with his wife leaving him after calling him a "Fascist"(!!!) (which he and Stark absolutely are in this arc), he's more likely to plow himself into his work than ever.

Even if Reed wouldn't use the kids as hostages against his own estranged wife (and in his current state, he just might - and if he wouldn't, Tony Stark sure would!), he's still the worst possible caretaker of young children. No - Sue would have found somebody to care for the kids that she trusted before leaving him....

I'm Tamora Pierce's husband, Tim - she also blogged about this (rather severely!) at http://tammy212.livejournal.com/2099.html .

Best,
Tim Liebe
Dreaded Spouse-Creature of Tamora Pierce
- and co-writer of Marvel's upcoming White Tiger comic

 
At 10:44 AM, Blogger Dawn said...

Severely but she's got some excellent points as do you. I posted my comments in reaction to Mad Monk's but didn't give enough thought to this. I still think there's a case to be made for Sue having done what she did but...I'm a mom myself. If I had a husband who had a track record of ignoring the kids and was obsessed with pursuing that agenda...?

And the assertion that she might leave her kids in hopes of reaching Reed...To be honest I wasn't wuite buying it as I wrote it. That's using the kids.

I may have jumped the gun on this.

 
At 10:47 AM, Blogger Dawn said...

Palladin, THANK YOU! :) Word verification is now on here and I'll get it on my other blog in a few minutes.

And I didn't give enough consideration to the Agatha Harkness option either, did I? There's also the option of leaving Reed, taking the kids and heading for Canada.

This is a bigger discussion then I thought it could be.

 
At 2:01 PM, Blogger Timothy Liebe said...

Dawn - not a problem. :) As you can tell, I heard about this in feather-scorching detail from Tammy before she blogged it. :o :o :o

My original thought to Sue's letter had been, "It sounds like a woman who loves her husband, but hates what he's doing right now." Tammy doesn't agree w/me on this part of it - she thinks Reed betraying their friends is a lot worse than his being a drunk or drug addict, which is what Sue's response to Reed's behavior feels like. OTOH, we're both on the same page when it comes to leaving the children behind - no matter which paradigm you use for their behaviors. (Using fancy words that don't sound like they're spelled, like "paradigm", is why Marvel's paying us less than we used to make as office temps to write for them.... :D )

Just out of curiosity - am I the only person who thinks this storyline's going to end with Sue being figuratively stuffed into a fridge by Bullseye...so Reed can use her violation as a combination mea culpa and bloody shirt? (Thank you, Gail Simone, for coming up w/such a great metaphor!) I really HOPE I'm wrong about this one - but given the leer McNiven drew on Bullseye on the last page of CW#4, I have a very bad feeling about where Sue's joining the Resistance is headed....

http://www.tamorapierce.com/marvel.htm - giving our upcoming WHITE TIGER comic a shout-out,
Tim

 
At 6:56 AM, Blogger Dawn said...

Sue as Reed's sacrifice for repentence? I hope to God not but I'm sad to say it wouldn't surprise me.

I checked out the links too. :)
Feel free to plug away here!

 
At 10:17 AM, Blogger Timothy Liebe said...

>I checked out the links too. :)
Feel free to plug away here!<

Dawn - so I see! :) Thank you muchly - I sent your site's link to Tammy. (Yes, she really does exist - she's just been working on her latest book BLOODHOUND, doing color notes for WT#2, and rewrites on WT#4. :D )

I pray I'm wrong about Sue in Refrigerator - I'm upset enough over the liberties CIVIL WAR's taken with the Marvelverse as is. And before some Marvel Fanboy jumps down my throat about "resisting change", I welcome change - but not when it's just change for a cheap pop's sake, and is as inconsistent with the characters and universe as a Vince McMahon Face turn....

Best,
Tim Liebe
Dreaded Spouse-Creature of Tamora Pierce
- and co-writer of Marvel's upcoming White Tiger comic

 
At 6:23 AM, Blogger Barry said...

Looks like a fire has started over this, and I just thought I was writing upset feelings to the way favorite characters were not being written like they should.

I am also afraid that Sue could be on a hit list for unwanted change. Divorce is where I think they are heading. It is not ok for Peter and MJ, but in that misdirect the internet way, Reed and Sue's marriage is in trouble I think. I hope I'm wrong, but like him or not, JMS is leaving the book. At HeroesCon he told how he had told them he wanted the book back. The standard line is that he needs time writing Thor, but a nagging thought to me is that he is tired of fitting other peoples work in his books.

 
At 3:46 PM, Blogger Dawn said...

I can't see Sue and Richard divorced. I can't. :( That's as much a part of their book as the characters...But then this is Marvel...

 
At 11:31 PM, Blogger Timothy Liebe said...

>Divorce is where I think they are heading. It is not ok for Peter and MJ, but in that misdirect the internet way, Reed and Sue's marriage is in trouble I think.<

That's odd, Palladin - b/c I've heard online that Joe Quesada is the one pushing for Peter & MJ to divorce in the belief that SPIDER-MAN needs to be unfulfilled in every aspect of his life, and it was JMS who reconciled them. I like what Strazinski's done w/the book, by and large - sure I got issues w/a few of his creative choices, but so what? I almost stopped watching BABYLON 5 twice before I realized where he was heading w/it - and I'm glad I stuck.

I'm w/Dawn on Sue and Reed divorcing - they're too defined as a couple for too many years to break them up permanently. Gods, they got married back when I was a kid - back when Jack Kirby chiseled comic books on stone tablets while Stan Lee wrestled dinosaurs between scripting sessions.... :D

Best,
Tim Liebe
Dreaded Spouse-Creature of Tamora Pierce - and co-author of Marvel's upcoming WHITE TIGER comic!

 
At 2:13 PM, Blogger Barry said...

The Peter & MJ thing is a Quesada misdirect. JMS said at HeroesCon in Charlotte that late in the year we would see something hit Pete that would be like a bolt of lightening striking the core of teh character. It would be BIG and it would have clear sides that divide the readers.

After the past year or so at Marvel, I would add Be afraid for Peter, be very afraid.

 

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