Real Adventures of Johnny Quest VS. Young Justice

So, recently, I picked up season one of The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest. This is the better season, which shows off how independent and capable Jesse Bannon is, portrays a loving friendship (or possibly more) between Benton Quest and Race Bannon, and focuses on the kinds of danger and situations that, while fantastic, are often more real. For example, there may be a ghost haunting a house, but the threat is more likely to arise from the fact that Johnny's trapped outside in snow and could freeze to death than from the ghost threatening him. The show has its problems (easily summed up by the hilariously awful Questworld segments) but it's fun to watch and oddly, by empowering Hadji and Jesse over Johnny (they frequently act more as his guardians), the show manages to have pretty positive tones of tolerance and teamwork. Good stuff, right?

Well, yesterday night we picked up season one of Young Justice, because the cover showcases a group with two ladies and four dudes. Not the best situation but hey! At least there's more than one token female, right? There's, like, even two!

Let's break this down.

Aqualad is amazing. (Apparently so amazing that he becomes a villain in the timejumped season two. ...Disappointed.) But seriously, Aqualad is amazing. He's a cleric. I love him for being wise and promoting the idea of teamwork and responsibility. I would seriously have recommended this show just for him.

Robin is apparently Dick Grayson? Problem number one, right off the bat, is that we have Tim Drake personality Robin, but he's apparently Dick Grayson. That just chafes, for some reason. This Robin is thirteen and kind of a dick, but that actually fits, given that he's the youngest, thirteen year olds are regrettably insufferable to the world around them most of the time, and he's also the hacker character / information guy. I would not recommend the show on Robin, because he's kind of annoying.

Kid Flash, then, is Wally West. Which, you know, in some ways I was sad to discover it wasn't Bart, but at the same time, I also really like that it's Wally. Wally has the hero-worship for his uncle thing going on, and the backstory of working in the lab with his aunt and uncle. So, when it comes to certain things in pseudoscience, he's actually pretty clever. Wally varies wildly between being loveably dorky and being irritatingly full of himself. Also, you know how the comic relief character's duty in the standard TV formula is to be a sexist asshole who hits on all the ladies? Yeah.

Then we have Superboy. I hope you liked Ang Lee's the Hulk, because that's basically who we've got here. Superboy has the potential to be really interesting, but he's so wrapped up in being ANGRYYYYYY all the time that mostly, he's just an asshole to the people around him without giving them much chance to talk to him. He desperately needs Aqualad's guidance (and thankfully seems to be getting it), and would benefit from Superman's-- if Superman wasn't being such a dick and purposefully avoiding him.

I'd introduce you to the girls, but here's the catch: they don't show up. Miss Martian doesn't show up until the end of episode two. And Artemis? Try episode six. Wow. Uh-- WOW. Fuck you, Young Justice. Big, big strike.

It gets worse from here.

Miss Martian is a homemaker cutesy bubbly airhead who's actually quite capable, intelligent, respects and relies on authority, and has more superpowers than anyone except Aqualad. But her homemaker, cutesy-bubbly-airhead status is what the show focuses on; also, the boys consistently shame her and put her down for minor mistakes that, had any of THEM made, would not have been considered such a huge deal. They make a huge point of calling her a rookie. And don't worry, the writers understand your NEED for shittily written romance, so Miss Martian immediately starts crushing on the guy most likely to beat the shit out of her for no reason at all-- Superboy, the walking time bomb. As if this were not all bad enough on its own, the show has a particularly annoying bible where each character has to say a certain catchphrase or type of thing each episode. This isn't noticeable with Aqualad, who probably is required to regularly spout wisdom, or Superboy, who's just angry all the time anyway; Kid Flash collects pieces from each villain and invariably feels the need to squal 'souvenir!', Robin is obsessed with incorrectly attempting to dismantle the English language and reverse engineer stupid slang words...

And Miss Martian, whose name is M'gann (Megan for Earth), regularly has to tell herself, "Hellooo Megan!" and smack her head at how she's just such a silly little idiot. I'm not even fucking kidding. It's incredibly annoying just on its own merit, not even taking into consideration how offensive it is that the only female character is buying into what everyone around her tells her: that she's the stupid one. (Even though, you know, it's her fucking spaceship they fly around in, and she's smart, telepathic, and can shapeshift into hotter versions of Robin and Kid Flash.)

Color me annoyed by this point, but we kept watching because A) Aqualad is still honestly cool enough to watch the show for and B) we wanted to see Artemis introduced, already! Along the way, I did get to see Black Canary showing up to be awesome as their teacher in the practicality of fighting sans powers. Also, I should mention that there's a subplot about Speedy, Green Arrow's ex-sidekick, and his descent into becoming a Nightwing-esque renegade. Speedy of course is the extra boy in the boys' club. All the boys want him to join, and you know, like, since M'gann is like, totally going to be baking cookies for everyone again, it would just be tooootally fantastic if he joined because she wouldn't, like, really mind!

Instead, we finally get introduced to Artemis, who happens to be Ollie's niece. Artemis, of course, is also a bow character, which puts her in conflict with the boys' desire to get Speedy-- I'm sorry, Red Arrow, Mr. Original-- to join their super secret We Fail At Stealth Ops team. With Superboy crashing around intentionally breaking the rules just to break them in rage at the machine, or whatever, Robin regularly running off and leaving the group clueless as to why he left them to get shot at, Kid Flash comically bungling things because he's unfortunately the comic relief, and Aqualad and Miss Martian actually handling things (though of course, hellooooo Megan, it would be like, so rude if she were to take credit for that), you'd think they'd be happy just to have anyone join their team, especially someone that the Green Arrow personally endorses and has trained. Instead, Kid Flash instantly hates her for scaring away his BFF Red Arrow, and makes it known that he's like, totally not hot for her (Oh, young male character in a predictable TV show. You will be. You will be.) and she sucks, anyway.

Artemis is naturally the polar opposite to Miss Martian, so she's a capable fighter with lots of intel and connections to the world, she sasses the boys back, and you'd think 'hey, so she'll be really effective in contrast, right?'

No, she's still a girl, so every time she messes up in the least, Kid Flash lets her know it. The others get to play the 'well, maybe you're being a little harsh...' game, but it's okay because Artemis doesn't seem too affected by it, aside from sultrily glaring at Kid Flash to set up an unhealthy romance that will be utterly unbelievable. (I'm guessing, here; I haven't watched past episode six yet.)

In case you still thought Artemis was cool by the end of the episode, she's outed as an apparent member of the eeevil League of Shadows, who happen to be working for the show's main villains, the Council of Light. It makes very little sense, since the revelation comes about through a confrontation with a masked assassin who's been talking to her the whole episode. However, when the mask comes off, she finally realizes that she knows the other girl, and the assassin plays on Artemis's fear of being exposed. She could hear the voice all that time, but only suspected when the mask came off? Jeez. Also: I can think of another show about teenage heroes where the blond female character turned out to be infiltrating the team just to work for the bad guys, guys. She ALSO fell in love with / wooed the Comic Relief male character. Would have been nice to see something different being set up.

Overall, the show was still fun to watch. I doubt I'll pick up season two, since Aqualad is the only reason I can continue to watch season one even as I grit my teeth against the arbitrary and forced-feeling catchphrases. I just can't recommend the first season of the Real Adventures of Johnny Quest enough. Jesse Bannon is a badass. Benton and Race are charmingly old friends and the show seems unworried about the possible interpretation that the pair could be in a romantic relationship together. Hadji is a badass, and actually Dr. Quest's lab assistant, not just Johnny's token friend. It's a great show.

There are catchphrases in RAoJQ too, but for the most part, it's just Johnny declaring that cool things are "slammin'!", which is much less grating on the nerves than "The opposite of a disaster must be an aster, right? When everything goes right."

No, Robin, the opposite of a disaster is a cakewalk. An aster is a kind of flower.

Kids these days.

A comment in response to a blog post

First, check out this awesome blog post (it's written in a friendly and funny tone, which I like): Viking Women got More Respect Than That!

Then, below, if you are curious, my comment (which was far too big to post in reply to the blog entry!)

( Hey there! I followed you from the Feminist Frequency site. )

This sort of play experience IS available, and extremely fun. It encourages a cooperative, friendly playerbase and atmosphere and it works! But because the games are not mainstream, nor funded by mainstream, many people who are less familiar with MMOs don't even know that they exist-- which leads to complaints that such projects have never been tried.

I think it's important that we are aware of what the industry has tried (whether mainstream or not) both so we can make an educated assessment of what the industry is doing right and wrong, and so that we can support the things that it's doing right while accurately pinpointing what hasn't been tried enough to our satisfaction. (Just because something has been tried, after all, doesn't mean it was done right!)

Sometimes, I tell this story

Radicalizing Consent Towards Implementing an Affirmative Consent Model in New York's Rape Law

Good proposal, I think.

It reminded me of the time that we were sitting around the apartment. Tony, who kept going out on the landing for smoke breaks, was outside for yet another. We commented on it, and I locked the door, saying 'well, he can't come back in now, it's too late.'

There was laughter in response to this; eventually, Tony finished his cigarette and tried to open the door, only to find that it was locked. Annoyed, he knocked, and after a few moments, I laughingly unlatched it from where I was sitting on the couch to let him back in.

Tony entered the apartment, and put his hands around my neck as if to choke me.

My response was, obviously, to get to my feet and immediately demand he leave my apartment. You DO NOT do this, I told him. Get the HELL out of my apartment. That is NOT okay.

The response of the assembled, entirely male group? Uncomfortable silence. "Geez, ___. You're overreacting."

"He was only playing around."

"You should have known better, Tony does that to everybody."

Not one of my friends (and these include my very close ones) stood up for me, or understood why I would feel threatened and frightened by someone even pretending to choke me. I don't doubt that they said to themselves after they left that night (I told Tony he didn't have to leave, and we played the game for another hour or whatever), "Man, ___. Talk about crazy." Or "Why did ___ make such a big deal over nothing? Sheesh." I know for a fact that THEY all disapproved of me until I finally called Tony to leave a voicemail saying "Hey, we're still buds, right? I didn't know you were going to do something like that, and I just want you to know, I'm not comfortable with it-- but I didn't mean to shout at you. Sorry, man."

When I brought this up with some of my friends, their response was "Well, if you wanted to be treated like one of the guys, we figured that meant being included in the way Tony plays around."

Important points:

1. I had no idea that he did this.
2. Being one of the guys =/= signing on for play-choking.
3. I don't want to 'be one of the guys' so much as I want to be treated like a human being, just as I would treat any of my friends, regardless of gender...but if that means being 'one of the guys' so that I don't get treated like I'm different just because I'm a girl, then so be it.

This particular instance was really unsettling for me. Nothing bad actually happened, thank goodness, but I think it's not unreasonable to be freaked out by someone putting their hands around your neck as if they're going to kill you, whether in play-anger or otherwise. When I play-punch people, I don't make contact with them, I move my fist slowly across the air in front of them, so they'll know I'm not actually threatening them. The times that I have failed to avoid making contact, I've been at risk of hurting someone, and I don't like that.

I don't think it's okay for people to do stuff like this without getting consent. And this applies to things other than rape. If your friend just doesn't like playing basketball with you, you shouldn't drag your friend into playing basketball with you. It applies to every facet of life, and really, it's not at ALL hard to remember to ask.

Edit: Actually, another really good example, from a friend's life (not my own). He was at a friend's house, and hungry. When his friend offered him a sandwich, he said "Sure!". However, this friend has particular tastes and certain foods actively make him ill, so he can't eat them without risking throwing up. The friend, either not knowing or not caring about this, started to prepare him a sandwich made 75% out of things he didn't want to risk eating, and then became extremely angry at him when he said "oh, never mind. I can wait, I don't want to eat that!"

Another friend who was hanging out with him took the side of the friend putting together the sandwich. Let's try to put this in context.

In this situation:

"You look like you're in the mood. Wanna have sex?"
"Sure!"
"Okay, we're going to do it from this position that you don't like. Get ready."
"Um...I've changed my mind, and don't want to have sex anymore."

It would be wrong to insist on continuing to have sex, and it would be wrong to demonize the person who doesn't want to consent to sex in a way that was unpleasant to them. Consent is important in every aspect of life, not just sexual aspects. So if your friend wants to go to the movies until you suggest seeing a film that they clearly don't want to see...respect your friend, instead of berating them for not wanting to see something they know they won't like.