There has been a lot of talk re: Rick Remender recently on social media. It isn’t the first time his writing has sent readers to the internet to voice greivances. It is, however, the first time readers have rallied behind a single hashtag to have their voices heard. The tag, #FireRickRemender, blew up almost a week ago with the release of Captain America #22, an issue featuring a drunken sex scene between Sam Wilson and Jet Black. What seemed to spark the initial outrage was ambiguity over Jet Black’s age.
Narration within the title describes the two children of long-time Captain America villain Armin Zola as infants. We are shown an infant Ian Zola and an older Jet Black. Given that the adjective “infant” is used to describe her, many readers took Mr. Remender at his word and presumed her to be around three years old at introduction, pushing the limit of infancy. A total of 12 years pass. While her brother Ian is still rendered like a child, Jet is drawn more like the typical T&A female. This would seem to indicate she is either much older than Ian or that the creators simply wanted to draw a sexy teenage female. Either could be true. Let’s be real, comics haven’t always done a stellar job of drawing teenage girls looking like teenage girls.
This sets the stage for the flashpoint. For 21 issues enough of the readers believed Jet Black to be a teenager that her sudden declaration of being well into her 20s came as a surprise. To these fans, it felt like one of two equally troublesome things:
- Mr. Remender self-retconning his own character to enable her to have sex, or
- Jet Black is simply lying (which has very unfortunate complications when it happens in reality as adults are still held responsible if a minor lies to them about their age and they engage in sexual activity)
In truth, the issue of Jet’s age has been a muddy one given what we’ve read to describe her, given how she’s been rendered on the page, and given the amount of time Mr. Remender has told readers passed. Tumblr user Khat has laid out a detailed and convincing analysis of Jet’s age. In spite of that, I cannot find fault in those who believed her younger than her stated 23 years. Her age, due to writing, has been an ambiguous thing and I would argue that it isn’t uncommon to draw a pre-pubescent child as a child and a child who has already reached puberty as an adult (Ie – boys with height and muscle, girls with T&A). I can easily see how it would be easy to think there’s only two, maybe three years age difference between Ian Zola (aged 12 at the time of his apparent death) and Jet Black. For this reason, I cannot dismiss the concerns of those fans who believed a statutory rape took place.
I personally have been denied the opportunity with fans and creators alike to discuss my issues further because I won’t concede that this interpretation of the character is patently false and that these outraged fans are rallying around a biased lie. Supporters of Mr. Remender, Marvel editors, and creators are dismissing all other concerns re: Captain America #22 and Mr. Remender’s history of playing light with serious, real-world topics.
There are very real and problematic issues with Sam and Jet sleeping together. The first being the muddy issue of her age. More than a few fans believed her a teen and I won’t belittle their interpretation and their reaction to the thought of a beloved and important character like Sam Wilson committing statutory rape. Nor will I use this misunderstanding to ignore past and future greivances these fans have with Mr. Remender (which many of his supporters are now doing).
The remaining two issues I see with this scene involve issues of consent, which by Marvel editor Tom Brevoort’s own admission should never be taken lightly. First, concent cannot be given when a person is under the influence of drugs of alcohol, period. Regardless of if Jet and Sam both eagerly and drunkenly hopped in bed together, Sam’s reaction the next morning was anything but enthusiastic, implying that the alcohol prompted him to do something he normally would not. I cannot say it emphatically enough: no one can consent when they are under the influence. This segues into my second point: another, possibly more problematic reading of the scene. Jet Black pushes Sam to continue drinking after he says he’s had enough. Sam wakes the next morning with an echoing “Oh no, oh man, no no no.” This sends a clear message that Sam would not have gone to bed with Jet had he not been under the influence. Jet, however, is glib, saying that’s not the response she expected, that she had fun, and they should do that again. This paints a very disturbing, very rapey picture of Jet (though I highly doubt we will ever see any indication of Sam as a victim of sexual assault since male rape in media is rarely acknowledged as such).
This is the real issue that sparked the controversy surrounding Captain America #22. This is the issue being dismissed, ignored, or belittled because some fans (myself included) were initially caught up in the ambiguity of Jet’s age. It’s unfortunate that this is happening to a beloved character like Sam on the heels of his introduction in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and while he’s poised to take over the mantle of Captain America.
What’s more unfortunate is that this minsunderstanding / misinterpretation of Jet’s age is being used to ignore any and all criticism leveled against Mr. Remender. Eve at The Rainbow Hub more eloquently details a myriad of problematic issues (whitewashing diverse casts, glorification of violence, death and gore for shock value, repeated use of negative racial stereotypes, etc.) with Mr. Remender’s runs on Captain America and Uncanny Avengers. Mark of Eat Geek Play posted a recap of the controversial topics featured in Mr. Remender’s Captain America (for those trying to ignore the history and focus only on Captain America #22). Others have (some years ago) noticed the ease with which Mr. Remender discards characters. His ham-handed attempt at profundity with regards to identity politics (via making Alex Summers and Wanda Maximoff his mouthpieces) has been thoroughly analyzed and criticized.
And yet all of these choices have been defended, or worse, ignored by Mr. Remender’s supporters. Marvel editors and creators as well as readers are happy to trivialize the outrage of fans in the #FireRickRemender hashtag as being willful untruth to denigrate Mr. Remender. These critics are accused of being liars, they are told their complaints don’t matter because of the recent ambiguity which helped to spark this newest controversy (I would call it shoddy writing, but I’ll be told that’s mean-spirited since I am not a fan of Mr. Remender’s work). I have personally been told that my list of complaints won’t be heard because they are “bullshit” from one fan and denied a chance to even discuss my greivances with one creator because I would not belittle and dismiss a specific interpretation of an ambiguous point.
It would be easy to shut up and stew quietly, but I am reminded of a lesson Steve Rogers taught me:
❝ we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — “No, you move.” ❞
We'd be so groovetastical 