It’s funny what I came across some days ago. I was finishing watching the Xmen first trilogy and I found it was better than I could remember. Of course, back in the early 2000’s everyone was rooting for Wolverine or even Storm, but I always had a thing for Jean Grey. They sweetness she had, she looked in control, which wasn’t true, and how her character evolved. Then she ends up sacrificing herself for her friends, like a true hero, only to come back transformed into something way too powerful for her own good. And thus being killed by Logan as an act of pity towards to woman he loved but had been gone too far beyond the point of no return, all this after an epic battle where even Magneto gives up on her as she is far too dangerous.
In the following movies they try to deal with that loss to end up preventing it somehow by changing the past. So basically she is still alive in that alternate reality, but not powerful. What a shame.
Years later I watched the show about a secondary character from the Avengers called Wanda. She was a powerful hero, that went into so much bad stuff she ended up turning into the Scarlet Witch. A powerful meta human, almost unstoppable, and thus an enemy of the rest. She lost her brother when she was still one of the bad guys, she redeemed herself, then she lost her loved one, twice, her kids and then her shit, which anyone would have after so many heartbreaks. But no one seemed to care about it, they just looked for her bad behaviour and condemned her. Not the best endings for a character that started as a hero. OK she was one of the bad guys at first, but it was a story arc that went from there to be a superhero and then fall in disgrace.
But she’s not the only one, in the reboot of the Xmen we go again through the story arc of Jean Grey and how it is inevitable for her to turn into the Dark Phoenix, as it is the only being that can defeat the bad guy. So once again she sacrifices herself for a greater good. And like Wanda her reward is to get so powerful that she is a threat to everyone else. (men heroes).
After watching both shows I couldn’t help but wonder why I got so interested in red haired women that start as heroes, get some bad things happen to them and lose their shit as they become too powerful to handle. Is it something regular? Why are they always doomed to be the bad guys?
I thought about it, because we have heroes, males, that can be at their same level and not be the bad guys. I mean no one ever blamed Charles Xavier for meddling in people’s minds, or Superman for being invincible, or Iron Man or Thor… They were all OK with that massive power and it never went up their heads, and if it did like with Dr Strange, this was used as a redemption story. And I think this is where it goes wrong. Logan, Professor X, Captain America and the others never doubt their minds. Even when they have created chaos and killed lots of innocents. Let’s see why Batman was so mad at his opponent in the aftermath of the fight against general Zod. He considered the destruction he brought was too much to handle. More of the same happened in Captain America Civil War. They were blamed for killing innocents as collateral damage despite being so powerful. And they didn’t really care, the greater good, is what they say.
But if during the process of growing as a person, Wanda or Jean went a bit havoc and some people lost their lives, then it is because they are evil. Or mainly because they can’t be controlled by men. I wonder if Supergirl or Wonder Woman went the same path if Superman or Aquaman would also try to destroy them. And this would make them even worse. More angry.
Taylor Swift wrote in Mad Woman, every time you call me crazy I get more crazy, what about that, and when you say I seem angry I get more angry, and there’s nothing like a mad woman, what a shame she went mad, no one likes a mad woman, you made her like that. And it’s basically the way it works, «they poke that bear until the claws come out» and then they complain about them not being able to control their powers. Madness is never something male heroes have to deal with, except for them to overcome it and come out turned into more powerful beings, whilst for women, and especially red haired ones, they will never succeed and fall pray of it, even if they are way stronger than men.
Some time ago I said on Twitter, so you can guess how long ago it was, that I could relate with Wanda and I never saw her as evil, and someone told me that the fact she had gone through so much pain doesn’t excuse her behaviour. She should have go to therapy and get her shit back together instead of going havoc and mad. No one likes a mad woman. Same for the rest. But what annoyed me, is they never say that to men, if they lose their marbles it’s OK, they are strong physically speaking. They will eventually find their way through. Women are considered as mentally weak and inclined to become a threat. I hate that.
Another red haired pair I liked a lot was the twins from the novel The Queen Of The Damned, by the belated Anne Rice. They were witches that got kidnapped by the evil kings of Kemmet, tortured as they didn’t want to use their magic for the selfish and destructive purposes of the royals, and they end up bringing doom upon themselves. They were too powerful to be allowed to live. The twist of the events make that they were turned into vampires, not before been muted and blinded. They carried those disabilities in their journeys through the millenia, surviving the ages against all odds just to fulfill the prophecy Mekare, one of the twins, placed as a curse on the evil queen. She would rise and defeat her. And so she did when Akasha, the evil monarch, rose from thousands of years of slumber, just to bring destruction on the world. She got killed by the twin, who had been lost for ages, gone mad, or without any mind left, just revenge and the will to reunite with her sister Maharet, she became then the new queen of the damned. In many stories after those events, they see her as a threat as she is too powerful for her own good, and the fact she has lost her marbles doesn’t help. Fortunately her sister is with her to guide her and make sure the rest of the vampires are safe. Were anything bad to happen to her and the rest of the community would perish. Unfortunately Maharet also goes crazy, despite, or maybe because of the fact she is so powerful and old, she loses her shit and starts thinking about ending it all. They have to be stopped and end up being destroyed, the sacred core being preserved into another vampire and thus, they all survived.
Once again men against women, although not with the same optic. In this case other female vampires were rooting for the preservation of the species but without vanquishing the powerful ones. A rogue elder is the one responsible for that, and he ends up paying the price.
As a gay person, I have always been more close to women and those kind of characters. I never identified as cis white male, so most of the patriarchy leaders and heroes are not my type. I liked Xena Warrior Princess as I grew up, more than Hercules, I always rooted for Wonder Woman or Lois Lane. And the discovery of the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice gave me some references to follow. So I always wished I could be like those red haired super heroes that are untouchable, powerful and don’t fear anyone, because they are unvanquishable. I never understood why they needed to be banished and destroyed. Now I do. And I still don’t agree with their fate. Maybe in the future their storylines will be better written. Who knows?
El camino de Santi 