Dancing in the Rain: Or Being Very Good At Being Poor

The fun thing about being unemployed (or I guess underemployed, since I'm freelancing where I can) is that there's always something to do and you literally never feel like you're doing enough. I came in well under the number I needed to financially stay afloat in September, which is a major stressor given that Q4 is often a budget desert in digital media. BUT, the good news is that I have a lot of experience in being poor, am lucky to have great friends who'll spot me a drink or a meal and, despite what my bank account may indicate, I had several wins despite the limited September work.

Wins like a Contributing Editor credit in FANGORIA magazine, a publication which I love ran by humans who I love even more. I nabbed my first independent moderating gig that just so happens to be on the main stage of NYCC, and have plenty of first time bylines that, most recently, include Consequence.

Unfortunately, that debut was for the unfathomably bad MONSTER: The Ed Gein Story. But hey, it's been a while since I've gotten to write a pan so I'll take it.

On the flip side, my review for SISU: Road to Revenge is finally live as well. What's even less common than a pan (for me) is getting to write a pan and a rave nearly back-to-back (because most art is just fine). But when I tell you that Road to Revenge is a banger's banger of a movie, I mean it.

I lost a lot of time on the MONSTER review, but I do still have plenty of Fantastic Fest reviews that will be published natively here once I have a moment to breath but, in the meantime, I have a lot of prep for NYCC to get out of the way.

In tandem with all of that, Gen V and Peacemaker are both going strong with each delivering impeccable episodes this week. I've seen (and reviewed) all of Gen V Season 2, so it's difficult to talk about it in a meaningful way without unintentionally wading into spoiler territory, but I promise the payoff is very worthwhile. The recent revelation with Marie is only going to get more interesting as the series goes on, and Hamish Linklater is actually god-tier-good as the new dean of Godolkin.

Meanwhile, what I found so striking about Peacemaker this week is its highlight of a very, very common problem: most people simply ignore oppression when it isn't happening to them.

Peacemaker Spoilers (mild):

Last week the reveal guessed around the internet came to fruition: Chris ran away to a Nazi dimension. That's not terribly interesting on its own, as Gunn prefers to let the work speak for itself rather than explicitly saying anything (for better and worse). What is interesting is that, through Chris, Gunn highlighted a wildly common problem, particularly with non-minorities.

Peacemaker had no idea he was in a Nazi dimension. Emilia Harcourt holds up a copy of Mein Kampf and points at a Hitler mural immediately, chastising her idiot would-be-partner for being oblivious to the problem and not immediately noticing that there wasn't a single person of color. Chris essentially writes it off as stupidity, tossing out a joke line about people who look like him don't read books (calm down, Gaston). But what's more interesting here is that it isn't about stupidity, it's about ignorance. Whether intentionally or subconsciously, there becomes a point where that ignorance is a choice, and Chris saw exactly what he wanted to see in his little runaway dimension.

Chris' friendship with Ads makes the highlighting of this moment even stronger. Peacemaker is exactly the kind of person to insist "I can't be racist, I have a Black best friend!" To highlight that "not being racist" and "being anti-racist" are two separate things in a major comic book adaptation on a major streaming platform is pertinent for a billion reasons, but extends to all levels of privilege. How many people in America do you think are paying attention to the genocide in Gaza? Hell, how many people are paying attentions to the atrocities on our own soil? People are being disappeared off the street, but hey, ignorance is bliss, right?

The ability to ignore what's happening around you is privilege at its peak. Insisting "I'm not political" when people are using politics to destroy your neighbors is inherently reliant on the belief that you will be fine regardless of how many your neighbors get ripped out of their houses or how many children starve overseas.

Of course, there are thousands of Star Trek and X-Men fans who believe those franchises are apolitical, so there's a significant chance the message went directly over the heads of anyone who actually needs to hear it. But hey, we'd be bitching at Gunn for being too "on the nose" if he were heavier handed with it, so maybe it's too much to hope that art can still change hearts and minds.