It's no secret that rappers love comic books. MF Doom has based much of his solo career on Dr. Doom, and members of the Wu-Tang Clan have taken on the ideology of some of their favorite comic characters. Ghostface Killah's first album is called Ironman (and he calls himself Tony Stark on a regular basis), Method Man goes by Johnny Blaze aka Ghost Rider, etc. RZA even created a new superhero, Bobby Digital, and invested much of his fortune into developing him into an RLSH, complete with a bulletproof outfit and a themed, souped-up car.
But besides rap's fascination with comic culture, what could Marvel's Avengers team possibly have to do with the rap group the Wu-Tang Clan? The answer may surprise you. Several years ago I wrote an essay for my first book about going to see the Wu-Tang Clan in Orlando in 2005. It was a great concert, but one of the things I focused on for my essay was the business end of the Wu and how they'd built an empire based on correlating products.
The short(est) version of it is this. In 1993, Wu-Tang released their debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang, which was a blowout success. It's a great album, featuring all nine emcees in the band throughout, besides being a welcome change from the poppy direction the genre had taken in the late '80s. The real genius of Wu-Tang, though, lay in the group itself. After the release of Enter the Wu-Tang, most of the members of the band released a solo album, mostly showcasing their own talents, but with guest spots from the band and other talent they'd recruited. It's not hard to tell who's who on Enter the Wu-Tang - half their songs feature the rappers calling themselves out for easy identification - and fans found themselves gravitating towards each member's solo albums depending on each fan's preference. The debut album became, in a sense, a sampler for the rest of the Clan's independent effort.
Even stronger for the business was the paperwork. The group's leader, RZA, rallied the other members to sign to different record labels. The band were so hot at the time, the labels agreed to unheard-of clauses in their contracts - including that a percentage of each artist's royalties would go back to the Wu-Tang group itself and divided up between all nine men. Also, any talent that one Wu member would recruit and sign to his label would pay that member royalties on their albums, which would sell better with guest spots the main Wu-Tang artists performed. Essentially, in a matter of a couple years, nine kids from New York City controlled over 30% of the money in the hip-hop industry and record labels were competing with one another to sell their albums, not realizing they were in fact putting all their money directly towards their own (and one another's) artists. Now stick a pin in that whole idea, reverse it and you'll see where where this is headed.
Fast forward to 2008, when Marvel Studios releases a modern take on Iron Man, starring the amazing Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. Of course it didn't hurt that Downey's supporting cast included the stellar Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Terence Howard - not to mention being in the capable hands of Jon Favreau - but the mainstream movie crowd was still struggling what to think of superhero movies in terms of the 21st-century market. On the one hand, Christopher Nolan's Batman films had done very well - at the time, The Dark Knight was near the top of a short list of highest-grossing movies of all time - as had the first two Tobey Maguire Spider-Man efforts. However, two attempts at bringing The Hulk back (and Spider-Man 3, whose double-time jazz hands still cause me to wake up screaming at night) failed to impress audiences. We were only a year or so out from the poorly-received portrayal of Eddie Brock/Venom by Topher Grace, so in a way, Marvel Studios (and Iron Man) had to cut its jibs and prove itself from scratch.
The same way Batman Begins had to just three years prior.
The same way Wu-Tang had to in 1993.
Perhaps taking a cue from the Caped Crusader's recent successes, all parties involved in Iron Man made an effort to focus less on the campier, classic style of superhero media developed from the '40s to the '80s and update Tony Stark to fit in a little more with contemporary mainstream movies and their more realistic, toned-down portrayals. The last three Best Picture winners were The Departed, No Country for Old Men and Slumdog Millionaire - how much good do you think pun-filled one-liners would do for Marvel Studios? The result was a Tony Stark who was sometimes funny or goofy - again owing to Robert Downey Jr.'s seemingly endless list of good performances - but still grounded entirely in reality. Beyond a couple exaggerated gadgets in his repertoire, Ol' Shellhead was suddenly as believable a character as Bruce Wayne - no radioactive poisoning or freak mutations, no artifact from outer space. Just a guy with his heart in the right place (no pun intended), able to make a striking difference in the world - and who doesn't want to see that?
So Marvel had a hit on its hands. How could it make lightning strike twice? After the end credits of Iron Man, Tony is confronted by Samuel L Jackson playing Nick Fury, who tells Tony he's assembling a team of other people like him - The Avengers Initiative. Audiences went nuts - though it would be another four years before Avengers released, we had proof positive of how good their movies could be, assuming they were all produced under the same umbrella as Iron Man.
Iron Man was followed by Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America, all using cast members and writing styles that would lead up to and return in Avengers. Iron Man 2 and Thor even introduced a couple supporting/fringe heroes, Black Widow and Hawkeye, respectively, who would return in Avengers. It should be noted that the one underrepresented superhero in Marvel's five-year plan is The Hulk, who will be played in Avengers by Mark Ruffalo rather than Eric Bana or Edward Norton who have each played him in recent years. I would imagine Marvel Studios didn't want to try to make a third standalone take on Hulk in a decade just for the sake of rounding out the team, but I'm sure Ruffalo does a great job.
Much like the Wu-Tang solo albums, details have already surfaced about Captain America 2, Iron Man 3 and Thor 2, which will obviously follow some time after Avengers. It seems that up until this point, like the record industry promoting a full-length album by an artist with one or two singles releasing before the album, Marvel Studios has been content for each superhero's movies to work on their own until next Thursday, fueling the release of Avengers. Whereas Wu-Tang released their assembled heroes first to later develop their own solo material, Marvel Studios has taken the opposite route for now - though they may for the next couple years follow suit, earning successes for future individual releases based somewhat on their united group's smash hit.
...Now all we need is a comic series crossover between The Avengers and the Wu-Tang Clan, in which the Wu would get to flaunt the musical and martial arts talents they have in their video game Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style. That or an arcade fighter game: Avengers Vs. Wu-Tang, a la Marvel Vs. Capcom.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
Analyzing the Bee Sting/Shotgun Incident.
When I published my book Penny Cavalier a year ago, I figured its release would essentially mark the end of my personal involvement with - and coverage of - the Real-Life SuperHero movement. I had no desire one way or the other to continue or discontinue writing about the global phenomenon of anonymous masked citizenry, and as other projects came up on my itinerary, Penny Cav tucked itself into a corner and essentially went into hibernation.
So imagine my surprise this morning as I awoke and found myself so compelled by an incident in their community to dust this blog off and compose a new entry. I think given my past with the RLSH it's partly my responsibility to try to lay out the facts in a straight line and make sense of this situation involving their subculture.
An RLSH named Bee Sting has been arrested in Burton, MI - that link has the most concrete story I've found besides comments from other RLSH on FaceBook shedding some light on the incident. Details are sketchy at best right now, so please take even my report with a grain of salt, let alone what you read elsewhere, but I've come to understand something to this effect between all the sources I've read. Last night in the vicinity of a mobile home neighborhood, Bee Sting came across a motorcyclist who he believed was making enough noise to warrant intercession - I believe the man's motorcycle was the source of the noise. At some point, Bee Sting is said to have drawn a shotgun during his discussion with the man. The shotgun went off - whether intentionally or accidentally has yet to be proven, so no judgments can be made on its fire - and the shot hit a nearby vacant trailer. The police arrived and took Bee Sting into custody; I was unable to find information on the motorcyclist's whereabouts after the confrontation.
Since a hundred questions remain (Why bring the gun? Why brandish it? How did it fire? What did the conversation sound like?), I can't speculate on why or how it happened, nor how differently or similarly it should have happened. I've always made it my practice to use as few opinions as possible regarding the RLSH as a whole or as individuals, and will do my best to continue to do so today. Why? In researching Penny Cavalier, I had the privilege of speaking with many anonymous citizens who opened up to me despite unfavorable media coverage on their lifestyle before and since, and their open mind regarding my position as a writer convinced me further to treat them the same, whether we agreed or disagreed with one another's practices from time to time.
New Orleans private activist Captain Black has written an opinion piece on the Bee Sting incident and raises some interesting points. For example, Black points out that the Trayvon Martin / George Zimmerman scandal in the news has caused the nation to rouse debates on everything from gun rights and neighborhood watches to Florida's self-defense laws and contemporary racial stereotypes. While Zimmerman awaits trial, a news story involving an RLSH brandishing a firearm on patrol couldn't possibly come at a worse time. Clearly the incidents are very different in circumstances and outcome, but a 21st-century scandal-happy news industry can and will connect the dots if the Bee Sting story continues to grow. After all, the Martin/Zimmerman case has already caused Fox to pull and revise its campaign for the upcoming Ben Stiller comedy Neighborhood Watch, in which four concerned citizens on patrol end up battling aliens who land in their neighborhood.
The media blowout awaiting Bee Sting - and the RLSH community, who will surely face some collateral damage - raises plenty of questions by itself. Primarily, how can a number of people judged and grouped in the public's eye largely by their physical appearance shake the social stigma attached to them whenever one individual sharing that appearance acts in a publicly unfavorable manner? I touched on this issue in a chapter of Penny Cavalier, in which a celebrity stalker had made several claims of being involved directly in the RLSH community - though in my research, even his conversations with any other RLSH were tenuous at best, much less resembling an acquaintanceship. Without that research, though, what image does that paint of the RLSH? An answer may have come from Michigan today.
In the case of Bee Sting, his involvement with the community is more tangible. He was at least called a member of a Midwestern group called the Michigan Protectors, started a year ago by a masked citizen known as Arsenul - in the interest of being forthcoming, I want to note here that Arsenul has added me on FaceBook since the publication of Penny Cavalier, though I have not spoken with him directly in at least a month or two and this piece is being written without the direct involvement or knowledge of any RLSH. As soon as Arsenul caught word of the story about Bee Sting last night, he publicly denounced Bee Sting's actions and, according to the MLive article linked to earlier, has kicked him out of the Michigan Protectors. It's my opinion that this is a step in the right direction in the interest of damage control. That's not to mention that there is no evidence suggesting that Bee Sting's carrying a shotgun on his patrol is because of or in accordance with the usual practices of the Michigan Protectors. So unless verifiable reports to the contrary come in, Arsenul's public disapproval of Bee Sting's actions can be reasonably taken as honest - if the public gives him that chance. Each member of their community is now faced with the decision of continuing his or her personal and professional relationship with Bee Sting, and that brings about another point raised by Bee Sting's course of action last night.
When acting as a representative of a group, where does one's responsibility to that group end, and is every member prepared for that accountability? The actions of each RLSH have the potential to reflect upon them as a whole in open view, and it's as much the media's job to report on newsworthy RLSH activities fairly and objectively as it is for the RLSH to act in a manner that serves their global image. When either side fails to meet that task, the watching world is presented with an unjust account of these anonymous citizens. What i mean is, it disheartens me that many people will likely look at the circumstances regarding Bee Sting this week as a great reason to assume that any human dressed "like him" (e.g. in a symbolic outfit but not legally-recognized law enforcement or medical aide) must obviously "act like him" (from what these people have read, a citizen patrolling a neighborhood with a shotgun he is able and ready to brandish). This assumption can and will boil down, to some, as "all these superhero types must be dangerous." I actually know for a fact that's not the case, and will continue my habit of taking each person in a group at face value, but many people don't know that. Basically, it's up to every RLSH to decide what his or her responsibility is in their efforts of altruism, and he or she must consider what each action for which s/he performs will "say to the world" about "all of them."
In light of this event, regardless of which details come to light about Bee Sting's run-in with the police, the only assumption I believe we should make is that we can't make any assumptions. If you want my personal findings about the individual's rights to stand up for his or her community and what the consequences are, I spent about a year researching it and wrote a book. In regards to this situation in particular, I've done my best to separate fact from stereotype and speak from my experience. I hope this has been a call to reason for anyone on the fence on this issue and to remind anyone reading this to make your opinions based on facts and empirical evidence - as well as in individual cases - rather than conjecture or large-scale general critiques, even though anonymous masked citizenry is such a new and unfamiliar topic to much of the population that our limited experiences with it are easily confused with representative actions of a culture.
Note: It was not my aim in authoring this piece to approve or disapprove of Bee Sting's actions, nor those of the RLSH on the whole. As I discovered in researching Penny Cavalier, there are nearly as many types of people in their community as there are people in their community.
So imagine my surprise this morning as I awoke and found myself so compelled by an incident in their community to dust this blog off and compose a new entry. I think given my past with the RLSH it's partly my responsibility to try to lay out the facts in a straight line and make sense of this situation involving their subculture.
An RLSH named Bee Sting has been arrested in Burton, MI - that link has the most concrete story I've found besides comments from other RLSH on FaceBook shedding some light on the incident. Details are sketchy at best right now, so please take even my report with a grain of salt, let alone what you read elsewhere, but I've come to understand something to this effect between all the sources I've read. Last night in the vicinity of a mobile home neighborhood, Bee Sting came across a motorcyclist who he believed was making enough noise to warrant intercession - I believe the man's motorcycle was the source of the noise. At some point, Bee Sting is said to have drawn a shotgun during his discussion with the man. The shotgun went off - whether intentionally or accidentally has yet to be proven, so no judgments can be made on its fire - and the shot hit a nearby vacant trailer. The police arrived and took Bee Sting into custody; I was unable to find information on the motorcyclist's whereabouts after the confrontation.
Since a hundred questions remain (Why bring the gun? Why brandish it? How did it fire? What did the conversation sound like?), I can't speculate on why or how it happened, nor how differently or similarly it should have happened. I've always made it my practice to use as few opinions as possible regarding the RLSH as a whole or as individuals, and will do my best to continue to do so today. Why? In researching Penny Cavalier, I had the privilege of speaking with many anonymous citizens who opened up to me despite unfavorable media coverage on their lifestyle before and since, and their open mind regarding my position as a writer convinced me further to treat them the same, whether we agreed or disagreed with one another's practices from time to time.
New Orleans private activist Captain Black has written an opinion piece on the Bee Sting incident and raises some interesting points. For example, Black points out that the Trayvon Martin / George Zimmerman scandal in the news has caused the nation to rouse debates on everything from gun rights and neighborhood watches to Florida's self-defense laws and contemporary racial stereotypes. While Zimmerman awaits trial, a news story involving an RLSH brandishing a firearm on patrol couldn't possibly come at a worse time. Clearly the incidents are very different in circumstances and outcome, but a 21st-century scandal-happy news industry can and will connect the dots if the Bee Sting story continues to grow. After all, the Martin/Zimmerman case has already caused Fox to pull and revise its campaign for the upcoming Ben Stiller comedy Neighborhood Watch, in which four concerned citizens on patrol end up battling aliens who land in their neighborhood.
The media blowout awaiting Bee Sting - and the RLSH community, who will surely face some collateral damage - raises plenty of questions by itself. Primarily, how can a number of people judged and grouped in the public's eye largely by their physical appearance shake the social stigma attached to them whenever one individual sharing that appearance acts in a publicly unfavorable manner? I touched on this issue in a chapter of Penny Cavalier, in which a celebrity stalker had made several claims of being involved directly in the RLSH community - though in my research, even his conversations with any other RLSH were tenuous at best, much less resembling an acquaintanceship. Without that research, though, what image does that paint of the RLSH? An answer may have come from Michigan today.
In the case of Bee Sting, his involvement with the community is more tangible. He was at least called a member of a Midwestern group called the Michigan Protectors, started a year ago by a masked citizen known as Arsenul - in the interest of being forthcoming, I want to note here that Arsenul has added me on FaceBook since the publication of Penny Cavalier, though I have not spoken with him directly in at least a month or two and this piece is being written without the direct involvement or knowledge of any RLSH. As soon as Arsenul caught word of the story about Bee Sting last night, he publicly denounced Bee Sting's actions and, according to the MLive article linked to earlier, has kicked him out of the Michigan Protectors. It's my opinion that this is a step in the right direction in the interest of damage control. That's not to mention that there is no evidence suggesting that Bee Sting's carrying a shotgun on his patrol is because of or in accordance with the usual practices of the Michigan Protectors. So unless verifiable reports to the contrary come in, Arsenul's public disapproval of Bee Sting's actions can be reasonably taken as honest - if the public gives him that chance. Each member of their community is now faced with the decision of continuing his or her personal and professional relationship with Bee Sting, and that brings about another point raised by Bee Sting's course of action last night.
When acting as a representative of a group, where does one's responsibility to that group end, and is every member prepared for that accountability? The actions of each RLSH have the potential to reflect upon them as a whole in open view, and it's as much the media's job to report on newsworthy RLSH activities fairly and objectively as it is for the RLSH to act in a manner that serves their global image. When either side fails to meet that task, the watching world is presented with an unjust account of these anonymous citizens. What i mean is, it disheartens me that many people will likely look at the circumstances regarding Bee Sting this week as a great reason to assume that any human dressed "like him" (e.g. in a symbolic outfit but not legally-recognized law enforcement or medical aide) must obviously "act like him" (from what these people have read, a citizen patrolling a neighborhood with a shotgun he is able and ready to brandish). This assumption can and will boil down, to some, as "all these superhero types must be dangerous." I actually know for a fact that's not the case, and will continue my habit of taking each person in a group at face value, but many people don't know that. Basically, it's up to every RLSH to decide what his or her responsibility is in their efforts of altruism, and he or she must consider what each action for which s/he performs will "say to the world" about "all of them."
In light of this event, regardless of which details come to light about Bee Sting's run-in with the police, the only assumption I believe we should make is that we can't make any assumptions. If you want my personal findings about the individual's rights to stand up for his or her community and what the consequences are, I spent about a year researching it and wrote a book. In regards to this situation in particular, I've done my best to separate fact from stereotype and speak from my experience. I hope this has been a call to reason for anyone on the fence on this issue and to remind anyone reading this to make your opinions based on facts and empirical evidence - as well as in individual cases - rather than conjecture or large-scale general critiques, even though anonymous masked citizenry is such a new and unfamiliar topic to much of the population that our limited experiences with it are easily confused with representative actions of a culture.
Note: It was not my aim in authoring this piece to approve or disapprove of Bee Sting's actions, nor those of the RLSH on the whole. As I discovered in researching Penny Cavalier, there are nearly as many types of people in their community as there are people in their community.
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