What to do with Monica?

[Dermie]

You know if you was given the chance to write a marvel comic, you'd want to write characters that you've always wanted to play with especially if their underused. So why can't Hudlin? Because there's some comic book law against have more then 3 black superheroes interact?

*sigh* No, that is not what I said. The problem is NOT about black characters interacting; I said it seems forced when characters are put together to interact for NO OTHER REASON than because they are both black. Please note the difference.

And why can't Monica have a crush on Tchalla? Dudes a KING!! Women like dudes with power especially when they're a hero.

I wouldn't really have a problem with it if Hudlin had showed them meeting and Monica developing the crush, rather than suggesting she's had a crush on him for years when there is absolutely nothing in Monica's prior appearances to back that up.

[G. Boney]

*sigh* No, that is not what I said. The problem is NOT about black characters interacting; I said it seems forced when characters are put together to interact for NO OTHER REASON than because they are both black. Please note the difference.

In what issue did they interact just because they are black? You are taking Hudlin's supposed real world reason and trying to apply it to the comic story itself. Every writer who wants to team up characters he or she likes does it because they want to and makes a story where those characters meet.

I wouldn't really have a problem with it if Hudlin had showed them meeting and Monica developing the crush, rather than suggesting she's had a crush on him for years when there is absolutely nothing in Monica's prior appearances to back that up.

Now this I can understand. Just like he made it seem Panther and Cage didn't already know each other.

[AllisterH]

she is no harder to write in a fight than flash or silver surfer. she is no more boring than originakl cap or superman ...big boy scouts. writers are just too damn LAZY.

comicbook writers are supposed to have big imaginations, so being a little creative with the character shouldnt be beyond them. a character is only as 'bland' or fascinating as the writer makes them.

there is no way you can say she is harder to write power-wise than say FLASH.

Er, how long have you been on CBR?

Flash gets REGUKLARLY mocked because fo his fights. It also helps that Flash has his own book and usually the focus is on his personal life.

She should be written like the Surfer is, but the surfer is almost always placed in space settings where the minimum level of opposition is fleets of ships that can sundive.....

Shellhead and Dermie are right and I'm almost positive Gruenwald gave the same reason why he had Monica ditched after Stern. She's not stupid a la Hydroman and her powers are highly effective thus she should simply end fights....

Take for example the New Avengers battles with Hood and crew. Monica by herself should be able to solo the ENTIRE Hood gang.

[XPac]

You know if you was given the chance to write a marvel comic, you'd want to write characters that you've always wanted to play with especially if their underused. So why can't Hudlin? Because there's some comic book law against have more then 3 black superheroes interact?

Hudlin gets bashed for putting those characters together but a lot of them were in limbo.

And why can't Monica have a crush on Tchalla? Dudes a KING!! Women like dudes with power especially when they're a hero.

I think Hudlin gets bashed simply because he doesn't actually do it well.

Characterization and continuity often come off as off or forced with him.

[Roger Stern]

Put her back in her classic and very good looking black and white costume, give her back the Photon name, and put her in Avengers where she belongs.

It's Black and Silver, actually...but, yeah, I like it, too. Another great JR design.

-- Uncle Rog

[Alphaxman]

It's Black and Silver, actually...but, yeah, I like it, too. Another great JR design.

-- Uncle Rog

Love your work with her. She was my second favorite character during the 80's after Storm. She (and your stroies) were the only reason I got into the Avengers. I was sad and mad the way she was written out of the book.

[Hypestyle]

Monica deserves to be interacting with cosmic heroes, taking on entire alien starship armadas by herself, and winning.. put her in Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, etc.

[GHalecki]

A couple comments on her-

I have no problem if she developed a little bit of a crush on T'Challa after being in the room for five minutes with the guy. He has macho, charisma, smooth, brains, looks and personality all in spades (no pun intended). It doesn't matter if she is black. I would not find it hard to believe if Carol, Natasha, Rogue, Kitty Pryde, or any other female had the same reaction (or Northstar for that matter). He is the FREAKING MAN!!
If it were Luke Cage that she fell for out of nowhere, then it would come off to me like a forced racial thing. She is a cop and he is a street thug. Falcon would be more her type, because he is a REFORMED street thug with the personality of Captain America with a serious tan.

I don't see her as being all that much of a proven leader. Yes, she was chairwoman of the Avewngers for a little while, but that didn't exactly stand out as one of the teams shining moments. In fact it was something of a disaster. I have read rumors that this was done intentionally by editorial dictate, in order to make Cap coming back as leader that much more impactful. But whatever. What is on the page is what is on the page. After all, not every capable hero is cut out to be a good leader. Or at least they SHOULD NOT all be cut out to be good leaders. The idea that leasership of a super team not being one of her talents somehow is insulting to her is I think just plain silly.

I think as things stand, the best place for her to fit in terms of her personality would be with Mighty Avengers, the team that comes closest right now to her historical activities as an Avenger in the past.

In terms of her straight powerset, she is ideally suited for a cosmic book, like GotG, or something similar.

In terms of what book could use her the most, I would say New Avengers. But that all depends on if the direction the book is taking is going to change. For the sake of argument of this particular issue, I will suggest that the book move in a direction toward a more traditional Avengers dynamic. I say this because with Clint now in charge, and including Mockingbird, and the New Cap, that this is one of several possibilities. Adding Monica to that team would go a long way toward grasping a more traditional Avengers attitude in the book, as well as giving them a little more firepower to deal with more traditional Avengers type stories. However if the next few years are going to be more fighting ninjas/stopping bank robberies/finding kidnapped kids/rescuing princesses, than fighting Ultron, Kang, evil gods, alien empires, giant monsters etc, then her presence there would be kind of pointless.

I agree with what someone said above about her particular powers seem like they are tough to write in an interesting way. For all intents and purposes her major powers are limited to turning intangible, flying really fast, and blasting stuff with energy. One way to make flying or blasting stuff interesting, is by making them have to shoot around things or aviod obsticles. Well, that isn't an option with her. If she is flying at the Abomination ready to blast him, there is no excitement about him throwing that tree at her, because it won't hit her. There is no drama about if Batroc is going to slip away down that alleyway, because she can just go through the wall and cut him off in the blink of an eye. The only way for her to fail in general in these situations is for the hated dus ex machina making it a hard sell to the reader, by stretching the believability of the situation every time.
But these kinds of situations are the bread and butter of super hero action. You have to go more outside of the box in order to have situations that are not only credible threats, but also exciting exchanges at the same time.
So certainly, a charachter with her powers are more dificult to write for WELL, than many other charachters.
I would really LOVE inf Uncle Rog could chime in on if I am onto something or if I am just way off base on this. After all...he would know,

[Will.S]

If it were Luke Cage that she fell for out of nowhere, then it would come off to me like a forced racial thing. She is a cop and he is a street thug. Falcon would be more her type, because he is a REFORMED street thug with the personality of Captain America with a serious tan.

I don't quite get your statements here.

Luke and Sam are different in temperament but I don't see one being particularly above the other.

[GHalecki]

Luke is still a street thug. Particularly in the way he was portrayed in Black Panther, but really everywhere he is shown. He is a good guy, but he has never elevated himself above that (actually he DID, way back in the day, but Bendis seemed to make a point of dropping him back into the stereotypical black guy from the streets portrayal that seems to be what "counts" these days). He isn't exactly ashamed of the fact that he used to run around in the streets with a gun when he was young.
Falcon on the other hand, is ashamed of the things that he did back when he was "Snap" Wilson. He elevated himself to working as a social worker to help the poor, and is LIVING the American Dream. You will never hear Sam talking about "the man keeping him down".

[Will.S]

Luke is still a street thug. Particularly in the way he was portrayed in Black Panther, but really everywhere he is shown. He is a good guy, but he has never elevated himself above that (actually he DID, way back in the day, but Bendis seemed to make a point of dropping him back into the stereotypical black guy from the streets portrayal that seems to be what "counts" these days). He isn't exactly ashamed of the fact that he used to run around in the streets with a gun when he was young.

Where did you get that impression?

I've never seen him be proud of the fact that he was part of a gang and that old street life. He routinely tries to better the neighborhood and has elevated himself ever since he's started Heroes for Hire and joined the New Avengers so I would hardly call him a stereotypical black thug.

Falcon on the other hand, is ashamed of the things that he did back when he was "Snap" Wilson. He elevated himself to working as a social worker to help the poor, and is LIVING the American Dream. You will never hear Sam talking about "the man keeping him down".

I don't think he's been elevated any higher than Luke just because he hangs around with Cap and is officially registered. He's just as conscious about helping out crime ridden neighborhoods as Luke such as when we saw him do that sort of stuff in the Falcon Mini series back in the 80's but I still don't think that he's any better off.

[Laminator_X]

*sigh* No, that is not what I said. The problem is NOT about black characters interacting; I said it seems forced when characters are put together to interact for NO OTHER REASON than because they are both black. Please note the difference.

Wait, you mean they're not all in the Black Character Club?

I mind showing up out of the blue a bit less for Monica than for some, as she can globe-trot effortlessly and has been known to do so in the past. The point holds just the same though.

I think the best counter-example where this was handled well was when she and Triathlon were talking in Busiek's run. They were having a side conversation while Tremont was performing some magic to help reunite Goliath-Pym and Yellowjacket-Pym, and Delroy was griping about not being accepted. Kurt did a good job of framing the tone of the dialogue as that of collegues who just met, but with some common ground based on both their shared heritage and the experience of having been the new Avenger on the block. Much more natural, professional, and sensible than Hudlin's characterization. Race was part of the conversation, but not the center of it.

[GHalecki]

Where did you get that impression?

I've never seen him be proud of the fact that he was part of a gang and that old street life. He routinely tries to better the neighborhood and has elevated himself ever since he's started Heroes for Hire and joined the New Avengers so I would hardly call him a stereotypical black thug.

I don't think he's been elevated any higher than Luke just because he hangs around with Cap and is officially registered. He's just as conscious about helping out crime ridden neighborhoods as Luke such as when we saw him do that sort of stuff in the Falcon Mini series back in the 80's but I still don't think that he's any better off.

Honestly, my particular impression in this area comes more from how he was portrayed in Black Panther than anywhere else. When he was talking to Blade about killing the Vampires he had some dialogue like "of course I know how to use a glok. Back in the day this was my main piece. It brings back some memoreies."
That just doesn't sound to me like someone who really has put that all behind him. And his biggest step toward cleaning up the neighborhood is to stand around scaring drug dealers off. Like that is any sort of real solution.

Falcon at least tries to work for real, substantial social changes in the same context. He is out there as a social worker trying to help people imorove their situations. That means helping them get jobs, stay in school, things like that.
he even ran for Congress.

I just originally implied that Monica, as a Cop and a superhero, would probably be more interested on a personal level in a guy who worked as a social worker than a guy that worked as hired muscle.

[Will.S]

Honestly, my particular impression in this area comes more from how he was portrayed in Black Panther than anywhere else. When he was talking to Blade about killing the Vampires he had some dialogue like "of course I know how to use a glok. Back in the day this was my main piece. It brings back some memoreies."
That just doesn't sound to me like someone who really has put that all behind him. And his biggest step toward cleaning up the neighborhood is to stand around scaring drug dealers off. Like that is any sort of real solution.

Well dealing with drug dealers is certainly better than doing nothing about it but that's part of a bigger sociological problem that superheroes are never quite going to solve such as in real life.

Falcon at least tries to work for real, substantial social changes in the same context. He is out there as a social worker trying to help people imorove their situations. That means helping them get jobs, stay in school, things like that.
he even ran for Congress.

I just originally implied that Monica, as a Cop and a superhero, would probably be more interested on a personal level in a guy who worked as a social worker than a guy that worked as hired muscle.

Fair enough.

Personally I stay away from the Hudlin written stuff since it always comes off as so badly off the mark.

[KrullWall]

Please Marvel let Monica be in something...other than Marvel Divas