Supergirl And Her Plant-Like Relationship With Suns -- Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (2021), #1-8

by Null -- November 22nd, 2024

If you asked me just a week ago about Supergirl, I probably would have told you that I don't know much about her and am not interested to learn. But, now, after reading the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comics, I am hooked! The entire character of Supergirl, or Kara, had me enraptured. She was quite three-dimensional, equipped with a complex personality and even more complex powers. I hate to admit it, but I'm not quite knowledgeable on Clark Kent as Superman either, so when reading about Kara I started to be intrigued by a few things, but one was how the different colored suns affect her superpowers.

When introduced to Kara on other main character Ruthye's planet, she explains (a but subtly) that the red sun that Ruthye's planet orbits reduces her powers, making her, most notably, able to get drunk (to celebrate her 21st birthday). This doesn't make her completely vulnerable, though, as she still pertains some of her imperviousness and strength. She just might bleed a little here and there.

After Ruthye manages to convince Kara to accompany her across space, hunting down a man, Krem, who killed her father, they come across this planet Coronn that has a yellow sun. This different variation of sunshine actually is what grants Kara her abilities, making her into the classic Supergirl we all know and love. The same effect is done for Superman as well. This is why these heroes seem to be like gods on Earth.

Ruthye and Kara manage to track Krem and his space pirate gang. While engaged in battle, Krem uses a rare magical item to teleport the duo to a planet designed to kill Superman and, consequently, Supergirl. The planet has a green sun, which acts the same as Kryptonite does to these super people. It rains radiation on their body, subjecting them to weakness, pain, exhaustion, and lunacy. It destroys them physically and emotionally, stripping them of not only their powers, but their minds.

Ruthye later speaks about how Kara's abilities will return after sunset: "That sun's going to dip any second. No more green. You'll start feeling better. It's all going to be all right. You'll be good and you'll get up and we'll just fly off and get back in that good hunt" (Supergirl: WOT (2021) #5, pg 22). Kara must survive 10 hours on this planet, awaiting sunset. Once the green sun disappears beneath the horizon, Kara does become Supergirl again, imbued with her amazing abilities. Her and Ruthye, after a battle with some sort of dinosaur, manage to escape the planet and return on their journey of revenge.

These different affects that the different colored suns have on Supergirl reminded me a lot about plants and how they, too, favor some colors of light over others. In Supergirl's case, she thrives best under a yellow sun, soaking it into her body and flourishing from its light. Plants, on the other hand, prefer blue and red lights, violet (a mix of both) being the color they thrive best under. In this case, both plants and Supergirl have light preferences, some helping them become stronger than others.

But, more specifically, plants reflect green light (it's why most plants are commonly green). Supergirl, as well, has a distaste for green light, as a green sun causes her to crumble under an imaginary weight. Both plant and Supergirl are able to endure such a light, but at the cost of their health. If they are able to survive prolonged exposure, being able yo survive other elements like temperature and weather while in their weakened state, then they have the opportunity to blossom. Despite Kara being alien, I believe these side effects she garners from different colored suns is plausible, especially since it is already seen in plenty of living organisms on Earth.

It makes me wonder if this parallel was intentional, or if it was just a cool space way to give these super humans some sort of weakness. Either way, I don't think I'll be able to think about Supergirl again without imagining her as a dramatic plant.

--Null

 

Vibranium, The Solution or The Problem? -- Black Panther (2018)

by Null -- November 22nd, 2024

When it comes to fictional rare metals, it seems that Vibranium has the rest of them beat. Vibranium, noted for its extraordinary capacity to not only absorb and release kinetic energy, but also storing it. It is the key component to the utopia that is Wakanda and it is the main ingredient to their stupendous technology. In the distant past, its amazing properties (along with help from the panther goddess Bast) help unify the four (later five) tribes that make up Wakanda. In modern times, though, Vibranium is the cause of much conflict, fighting, and death.

It is clear from the start of the Black Panther (2018) film that Vibranium is a very powerful material, capable of crafting extraordinary machines, medicine, and weaponry. Obtaining it is one of the main driving forces of the movie. A character, Klaue, is an enemy to the Wakandan people after he broke into their nation, killed multiple people, and fled with a quarter ton of Vibranium, the price of such being described as billions of dollars.

Klaue wants to sell thus Vibranium and, in a set-up, agrees to sell it to CIA agent Ross for a briefcase full of diamonds (which, to me, follows the worth billions of dollars price tag). Now, I bring this up because this is a classic scene in the real world when it comes to real rare Earth minerals, metals, and gems: the material is discovered, is seen as rare and valuable, it gets stolen one way or another, and others are willing to pay hefty sums for it.

"The Wakandans used Vibranium to develop technology more advanced than any other nation. But, as Wakanda thrived, the world around it descended further into chaos." -T'Chaka, Black Panther  (2018)

The issue with this is that Wakanda does not want to let this precious metal be common ground for the rest of the world. The possibilities of new advanced tech is boundless and, when in the wrong hands, can cause for mass destruction. Vibranium weapons can be game changers in any battle, as they are nearly indestructible and can charge and release energy like a cannon.

Killmonger, also known as Erik, is another character who wants to get a hold of this Vibranium, but not to sell like Klaue. He wants to use it to make mass amounts of weapons that can then be distributed to the Black community that lives outside the Utopia of Wakanda, allowing them to take a definite stand against their oppressors. He wants to use Vibranium for violence in order to unite all of the world under the empire of Wakanda, a nation built on blood.

Klaue and Killmonger both have this inherently violent and greedy way of seeing Vibranium and, because of others likeminded to them, Wakanda hides itself behind a barrier, essentially hoarding all of the Vibranium in an attempt to keep it from outsiders. They believe that if Vibranium was easily obtainable, an export Wakanda could sell, then the rest of the world would descend into war and chaos, people misusing the technology for their own selfish gain.

However, the Vibranium can be used to create beautiful, safe cities, hidden behind a forcefield impervious to anything beyond it. It can also be used medically, and impressively so. When agent Ross is shot in his spine during a small scale prison break, Shuri, Wakanda's lead scientist, is able to heal him overnight with her Vibranium technology when, under regular circumstances, agent Ross would have likely perished.

Vibranium could do a lot of good in the dystopian world that lies outside the Wakandan walls. It could solve many world struggles, cure incurable illnesses, and offer refuge to those who are oppressed. But, because of the greed of select people, Vibranium (and Wakanda) stay under wraps. At the end of the film, T'Challa (the Black Panther) buys a block of apartments and establishes a Wakandan refuge/embassy in the United States, using some of their resources to help the people in need outside of Wakanda.

I believe this to be a good "middle of the road" decision. While I agree that Vibranium should not be widely accessible due to the avarice of others, I do think it should still be used to help under controlled circumstances (like the refuge/embassy).

It is within human nature to be a bit selfish, a bit greedy. We all have wants and needs, but some people are controlled by these desires and they become obsessed, willing to do whatever is necessary to achieve their goals, and this makes them dangerous. When it comes to the powerful metal Vibranium, it's within Wakanda's right to keep it locked away for themselves. Humanity has proven to not be trustworthy with a material so strong. Maybe, in the future, they will rebuild that trust, and Wakanda will allow their technological sublime to grace the globe.

--Null

 The Subconscious Bias When Discerning Right From Wrong – Wonder Woman (2016) #761

By Null -- November 14th, 2024

We all know the subtle ways to tell when someone is telling the truth or lying. The way their voice shakes, their body moves, their eyes darting around. There are plenty of human subtleties that can aid us from determining right and wrong. But, what if, you were Wonder Woman, your Lasso of Truth wrapped tightly around one of your greatest enemies, and all he says is the truth you do not want to hear? A truth you can not believe? How, then, does that influence bias on what is right and what is wrong? What is truth and what is lie? How are heroes just in these decisions when their own bias controls their very choices? 

In Wonder Woman (2016), Diana struggles with a new villain at large who happens to harbor some sort of mind control powers. She is originally suspicious that the perpetrator is an old foe of hers, Maxwell Lord, who also has psychic abilities, but upon questioning him in prison it turns out that he knows nothing of who the current villain could be. In Wonder Woman (2016) #761, Diana wraps Max in her Lasso of Truth, unable to believe what he is saying without the lasso.

But what he was saying is the truth, as proven by the lasso, but she is still unable to come to terms with it. Max sharing so willingly all the information he has to offer makes Diana believe he must be lying still, somehow. That this is all another game of mind control he is playing on her. Even as the Lasso tells her otherwise, she can’t come to terms.

She is so disturbed by this idea – Max being truthful despite him being an untrustworthy enemy – that she falls under the influence of the psychic villain once again, her mind turning Max Lord into Ares, the God of War, now a demonic memory that haunts her every waking moment.

Diana is petrified of putting trust into someone who has hurt and wronged her, someone who has hurt and wronged innocent people all for their own selfish gain or violent fantasies. Even after Max uses his abilities to free Diana from her mental warfare with Ares, she still is apprehensive.

“I know Maxwell Lord. I know the clarity he claims to provide comes with a price. A terrible price," Diana thinks as her and Max race off to track down and stop the real enemy of this story.

Because of her past relationship with Max Lord, the hardship he has caused her and others, and his villainous background in which she will never forget, Diana is biased in believing his word, even when it is delivered by the Lasso of Truth. So, if even great heroes like Diana, ones who are bound by doing what is just, refuse to relieve themselves of their biases in order to better determine what is right and what is wrong, then what does that say about society?

In the modern day, people are quick to anger and quick to fight. As it pertains to the average person, no one is trustworthy, barely even close friends or family. The hate we keep inside of our hearts and minds clouds our judgment, just as it did to Wonder Woman. We need to be able to let go of biases and opinions, our idea of what’s right, in order to discover what is the genuine truth. Then, hopefully, in time, trust will be regained in society and people will be less prone to hate and more prone to love.

-Null

 Unconsciously Conscious– Plants And The Way They "Think "

By Null -- November 11th, 2024

There is no doubt that plants are alive. They breathe and eat and drink just as any other living being needs to do, just differently than your average human or other animals. They require sunlight and shade, cool and warm weather, and a balanced ecosystem to thrive. But, while humans and other animals are equipped with brains capable of thinking and feeling, plants are not. I believe plants do contain some level of “thinking,” but just not something active like other organisms have. Thus, I dub plants as unconsciously conscious.

It comes as no surprise that plants adapt and overcome whatever environment they are introduced to. We see it every day with the vines that grow up the sides of buildings or the weeds that pop up in pavement cracks. We all have seen the way flowers, such as daisies, “move” to face their petals towards the sun as it travels across the sky, east to west. Common house plants droop and flourish depending on how much water they get, how much sun they soak up, seemingly in a state of conservation, a place between promising life and certain death, as they wait for more nutrients to come.

But, is this really thinking? Do plants think about how they need to spread their roots out rather than down to maximize their water intake? Do plants think about how they spread their leaves out to make space for the leaves underneath to get sunlight? I don’t believe they do.

It’s true that those examples can be seen as some sort of thinking, but do beings actively think when they adapt? If a certain species of bird with a stronger beak survives better on a nut-based diet than a bird with a weaker beak, do the weaker beak birds think about having stronger beaks? No… no they do not. Those weak beak birds will die off along with their genetic make, the stronger beak birds will survive and reproduce to pass on their superior genetic make. It’s life, natural selection, recognizing adversity and imbalance in nature and it self correcting.

The same goes with plants. In Zoë Schlanger’s The Light Eaters, she mentions Azolla Filiculoides, a species of small fern that is commonly found in wet environments. Schlanger states an interesting discovery about these ferns: “...it evolved a specialized pocket in its body to house a packet of cyanobacterium that fixes nitrogen” and how this nitrogen is an essential “building block of all life. But in its atmospheric form, it’s entirely out of our reach.” Certain bacteria, though, know how to combine this nitrogen into forms that plants (and all other life) can use. So, the “azolla morphed itself into a hotel for this bacterium” (Schlanger pgs 9-10).

 

This plant, the small but mighty azolla, spent millions of years in the distant past perfecting this little nitrogen-bacterium pocket. Does that mean it learned how to do this? In a way, I suppose. But was it conscious thinking? No, I don’t suppose. Just like many things, the azolla likely struggled for nutrients amongst its bigger plant competitors, dying off slowly. Then, it likely happened that one azolla plant (or maybe a couple) began to grow slightly different from the rest, likely due to some abnormality or mutation, that allowed bacteria filled with nitrogen to make a home amongst the abnormal dips and curves of the plant. So, what happens? Do the plants realize that they have become nitrogen sufficient due to these different growth patterns? No! Simply, the previously normal and bacterium-free azolla begin to perish in the competitive wet environment as the mutated, now normal, nitrogen rich azolla flourish. This new strand of azolla becomes the common azolla as it spreads and grows and passes on this “bacterium hotel” gene.

Plants follow a genetic code, like the rest of us, that lays out how they will live their life and adapt to a wide array of environments and situations. But these codes do not take the place of a thinking brain that makes conscious decisions on how to change. Meanwhile, a human, when faced with adversity, thinks about how life has changed, decides how to move forward, and acts accordingly. Many animals do the same, like when a stray cat is hungry, looks for food, realizes a human will feed it, so it sticks around to get fed. 

Plants don’t know when they’ll get watered again. They don’t know that they will. So, instead, they ration their resources to make it by, even if the plant does get watered once a week on the same day at the same time. Plants don’t know that the sun is moving across the sky, turning day into night. Instead, when no more light gets absorbed by their leaves, they hibernate in the dark, becoming limp and frail as they wait for a light that they don’t know will ever come. But it always does, the sun always rises.

Plants act in ways that do resemble thinking beings, but it is all a form of adaptation passed on from millions of years of natural selection. They can’t think or feel, but they can exist with the uncertainties of life and adapt to varying environments and obstacles. So, in a way, they are conscious, but also not, so unconscious. If I had to label them in an anthropomorphic way, as all humans like to do to non-human things, plants, as I coined before, can only be described as unconsciously conscious.

-Null

 Hard Boiled Detective Turned Emotionally Wrecked Vigilante - Batman: Hush

by Null -- August 30th, 2024

It’s night, the moonlight lost in the clouds. The roads and streets are empty, trash and debris lining the bottom of buildings, each window emitting a soft, yellow glow. You step into the dim light of a flickering street lamp and stop. Down the alleyway is a tall, broad silhouette, cloaked head to toe in shadow. The only thing slicing through the black are sharp, angry white eyes, scowled in your direction. Whenever the street lamp flickers bright, you catch a shine from the silhouette’s outfit: pointed, horn-like ears and a zigzag cut at the bottom of a long, draping cape. 

It becomes clear that the individual is Batman, but why must he stalk in the shadows like such a creep? Like, come on, he's a buff grown man over six feet tall just chilling in the darkest shadows, watching, waiting. It’s a bit creepy. Sure, these whole dark, brooding, lonesome attributes are all just a part of his character, but I believe as Batman evolved from a hard boiled detective, saving Gotham in the late 1930’s, into the modern day Batman with a deeply tortured past and traumatic, life altering events, his “dark knight” aesthetic manifested with said evolution.

                              

Early on, especially so in his debut Detective Comics (1937), Batman wasn’t really even a superhero. At most, Batman was created off inspirations from cheesy, mystery pulp fictions and grimy, noir detectives. The whole bat costume just kind of tagged along to help appeal to kids. In these early Batman renditions, it was clear to see the artists and authors desperately trying to stick to a hard-boiled detective character, usually at the cost of giving Batman any real substance. He didn’t really have any backstory, nothing haunting him, and not even much movement. He was a slow, often static, figure, slouching in each scene he was drawn. This, too, still aligns with him falling into the hard-boiled detective category. He wasn’t really a character. He wasn’t really Batman.

Fast forward to the early 2010’s and Batman has become a completely different character. No longer is he the same simple detective who barely ever threw a punch. Now, he's a crime-fighting vigilante, sworn to bring justice, even if it needs to be done outside of the law. He works on his own, never really trusting in anyone or confiding in them. When he does build meaningful relationships, Batman fears for their lives, as everyone he has ever cared for (and cared for him back) has been killed by one of his many enemies. Between 1990 and 2015 is where we really started to see the emergence of a man always cloaked in shadow and prowling around the nighttime streets of Gotham for his next crook to bust.

This could just be because tastes in superheroes have changed and the majority of audiences want some epic, shadowed, muscular, face-punching hero rather than a slow, brightly colored, personality-less detective. But, I believe, the way Batman is known now is a direct cause from his increasingly harsh backstory and the weight it adds to him.

Early Batman lacked substance, story, drive, purpose. These things were added on throughout comics as time passed, giving him a tragic backstory with his parents dying and him becoming an orphan, or him watching a long-time enemy kill his prodigy, Robin (just to name some instances). With each new addition to such a blank state character, a darkness grew over the old Batman, consuming it until nothing was left but an abyss filled with loss and rage.

The Batman seen in Batman: Hush is a great example of this change. Where 1930’s Batman lacked emotion and action, Hush Batman was washed in it. Constantly, Hush Batman was depicted covered in shadows, never fully visible. He consisted of majority black, becoming one with the darkness of Gotham. But this darkness was within him as well, clinging to him like a disease, festering in his mind and his heart. His grief and pain and loss and anger all accumulated into his own personal shadow, cast upon him even on the brightest of nights. 

Hush Batman is haunted by a past he can’t escape, memories that plague his head: His parents, his childhood friend, his late sidekick, his conflicting love. He can’t run from the grief that accompanies these memories, either. These shadows engulf him and he battles criminals in his own mind, in his own body. In his moments of deep rage, it still is birthed from a place of unimaginable loss. So, instead of running, Batman hides in these shadows, allowing them to craft him into the very monster the criminals he fights are.

“Criminals, by nature, are a cowardly and superstitious lot. To instill fear into their hearts I became a bat. A monster in the night. And in doing so, have I become the very thing that all monsters become… alone…?” (Batman: Hush #610, pg 22).

                                                            

By design, Batman has become a dark, tortured figure that mirrors that of his enemies. His hunger for justice and vengeance keeps him on the side of good, but it is accompanied by endless grief and pain and sorrow. Then, the rage comes, the violence, and he is no better than those that have made him that way. So, he hides in these shadows. He uses them to instill fear. He fears himself as well, the monster his darkness has made him become. The shadow cast on his heart and mind makes him Batman, Gotham’s hero of the night, but at the high cost of all he holds dear.

-Null

            

A Society of Group Thinkers Is A Society of Zombies

A Society of Group Thinkers Is A Society of Zombies

by Null -- October 18th, 2024

Dystopian, apocalyptic, zombie outbreak stories are nothing new to me. As a kid I would tell these same stories on the bus with friends, stories where the undead were out for vengeance, ready to steal whatever life is left from the living. Though, when looking at these classic zombie stories now, as an adult, I am hit with the realization that these are not just simply stories, but also commentaries on modern day society and humanity that showcases the pitfalls and dangers of violent groupthink, represented by none other than the zombies themselves.

I want to draw from the same quote Lee Rozelle used in his Zombiescapes and Phantom Zones: Ecocriticism and the Liminal from “Invisible Man” to “The Walking Dead.” This particular quote is from Nick Muntean, in which he describes the zombie.

 “...a liminal figure, simultaneously both life and death, and yet not really either, a monstrous ‘degree zero’ of humanity that defies easy categorization or explanation" (Muntean)

Is this not exactly the same concept of when an individual falls victim to mass groupthink? You lose your sense of self and humanity, adhering to whatever majority standard or idea rules. There is no individuality, just the same sunken face and tattered clothes roaming around in a mindless mass. If a large group of people agreed on the same thing, came to a consensus easily and swiftly, would they not resemble your everyday zombie hoard? Think about what happens when a hoard of zombies spots (or hears) a surviving human or an animal. What do they do? Think and bicker and debate about the best way to get a nice, juicy brain for dinner? Discuss what seasonings are best for the frontal lobe and which are best for the cerebellum? No! They immediately move forward, all consumed with the same idea, blindly following whoever is in front of them. There might not even be food, there might not even be anything, but there’s a commotion going on so each zombie has to get a piece of that action!

Humanity acts the same. If enough people subconsciously believe and think the same thing, then others will follow the same idea, lacking any sort of critical thinking or reasoning. This is seen today, and in the past, when huge amounts of people get exposed to the same thing and all decide on the same “right” thing to do. 

Take social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok for example. Say you came across a video that has ten million views and three million likes. Automatically you would be inclined to think that the video must be something amazing (usually amazingly funny). So, you may drop a like, as the kids say, or go into the comments for further inspection. Boom. One of the top comments is about how someone misunderstood the concept of the video, got offended, and insulted the creator. Others with the same common misconception would then feel inclined to react the same, spread more hate and anger, and the cycle continues.

Individuals lack vital critical thinking when met with something unknown, confusing, misunderstood, or different. They react with violence and anger, they band together to face this abnormality together, tearing it apart in a blind rage.

But… isn’t this the same as the zombies depicted in The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman? Confused creatures who do not know any better, do not want to know any better, and react with violence and bloodthirst? Destroying whatever it is that set them off in the first place? This is starting to sound like me trying to excuse the actions of zombies and make them out to be some lovable creatures, but that’s not the case. The zombies are just the perfect example for groupthink, the dangers of it, the mindlessness of it, the madness. 

Nowhere is safe in a society built of groupthink, single ideas shared by everyone, operating like a brainwashed, power hungry machine (George Orwell’s 1984, anyone?). The people in these societies, too, share the same name as the very metaphor enacted in these apocalyptic stories: zombies. 

                                                           -Null