Revisitation 46: Terf War.

11/11/2021

This week, it's the last post I'm making in my 30s before hitting the big 4-0 on Wednesday.

And what better way to celebrate that with the worst Transformers comic made this side of Kiss Players?

It's all in my look at the unfortunate Spotlight Arcee.

With thanks to all those mentioned in the piece who helped out.

7 Comments

Robo God

12/11/2021 08:22:44 pm

Finally: the spotlight that cast a loooooong shadow.

I found this a very fair analysis, although I do think you've been a wee bit harsh towards Alex Milne who turns in some cracking pages in this, as well as one of my favourite Arcee designs. The image you highlighted is deeply regretable but I'm inclined towards "thoughtless" as an explanation. I say that because I've arrived at a more-informed comprehension of the Trans community only very recently, learning some painfully public lessons even in just the last year. Sadly, I went through the same 80's education as you did, and it's been an uphill climb catching up far later than I should have.

While I'm on Art, I do find the colouring in this issue quite weirdly dark. Even panels with bright lighting have muted colurs and swathes of shade.

As for the writing...it's hard to speak ill of a man I spent decades beliving to be somewhat godlike. But, yes, not only is this issue an appallingly ignorant creation but the willful refusal to admit any kind of wrong-doing, and respond haughtily to criticism, is sadly the worst cliche of the Boomer generation. And you're right, this damaged his reputation irreperably. People were loudly critical of Regeneration where once they might have held their tongues, and it's telling how safe he's played it since (and how oddly aggressive his work for that game can be).

But I do like they way you've looked at this positively, in how later writers responded to it both in the sudden emergence of women Transformers as a large and wholly-natural expression of the race (as it always should have been!) AND in the expanded expressions of mixed gender relationships championed by James Roberts and others. In a way it's almost as if Furman inadvertently created a situation so bad it finally needed to be dealt with once-and-for-all. Prime's Rib was a poor joke, a one-off that could be easily swept under a rug. By doing it again - and worse - in Spotlight: Arcee he took the issue of TF Gender to crisis point. I, for one, am very proud of the way the franchise developed since then to become more inclusive. Not quite done yet but hugely better than it used to be.

Well done, Stuart. This was handled very well, I think. A difficult subject, and one where it could have been unusually difficult hard to maintain a balance. But handled with applomb. And Kudos for getting the peer-reviews. Hopefully now you're past this you'll have a smoother sail ahead.

Oh, and Happy Birthday when it comes!

Llama God

13/11/2021 09:57:00 am

Well what can be said that you've not already said, and said so well? That's a great article, covering all the issues well, and you definitely showed a lot more consideration to the issues at hand than the comic itself did (although you'd have to work to hard to do less) by getting the sensitivity reading done before piblicaion, so well handled here.

As to the comic itself, well... Maybe there are some plus sides? Arcee's design is pretty good, and the flaming swords become iconic. The new design for Fortress Maximus is also great, and I wish we'd actually seen a toy of it (an official one, I mean). And the spark extraction prisons are nicely (and horrifyingly) designed. So there's that. And... that's kind of where it ends.

I will have to admit to being your rather typical, uninformed white men on my first reading when this was initially published. I was rather sheltered back then and utterly ignorant of... well pretty much any gender-related issues when I first read this issue, and just took it as being an interesting new take on Arcee. I kinda liked the way that she was depicted as a fierce warrior (I may have just finished watching Headmasters, in which she's relegated to a pretty-much secretary-like role), and just figured that yeah, of course being experimented on unwillingly would cause her to end up like that - without really taking into account the gender reassignment side of things and how that all looks. I like to think I've learned better since then.

The first time I realised it was problematic was when the stuff with Scott blew up. I mentioned this to my girlfriend at the time, who wasn't a Transformers fan, and explained what was going on and she just looked at me incredulously - how could I have not realised that it was a problematic? Depiction of trans issues aside, having the only female character (at that point in the comics) be one who is dangerous, unstable and problematic is not great representation. What I did do, though, was listen and learn when I was told that these things were indeed problematic. And I've done my best to keep listening, and keep learning.

And that is indeed the big problem with Furman. Not just that he wrote a fairly misogynistic story initially (although that's not great either), but that rather than acknowledging his ignorance and working to maybe educate himself a little better he instead doubled down and struck back. And it's certainly tarnished my feelings towards him, to say the least. Yes, his original Marvel comics will remain very important to me, but I'm somewhat less inclined to support or be excited by any of his new works now. I went from being super excited to be drinking with him at the bar at AA 2014 (my first big con) to avoiding him as completely as possible at TFN 2019. As you say, he really has thoroughly torpedoed his own legacy. But that affects him and only him, and is a direct result of his own actions, and is of much lesser consequence than any damage that he might have done (and continues to do in his work) to those in the LGTBQ+ communities.

It is a testament though to later writers that they reached out to and engaged with members of the trans community to attempt to address the problems raised in this issue. That doesn't make it better, of course, but the awareness at least that wrong had been done and that there was a willingness to correct that is at least something.

And all of these problematic issues aside (inasmuch as they can be set aside) the story itself is terrible. Nothing is achieved, aside from introducing Arcee, and all the characters are idiots. When last I re-read this I was mostly taken by the general ickiness of the all the Arcee stuff, but yes, this time around I was struck by just how bad it is when you take all of that out too.

So yeah, this really is a low-point. And much as I'm not looking forward to McCarthy or Costa's runs, they at least are just dull at worst, and not actively offensive. Onwards and upwards...

Richard

17/11/2021 08:45:53 pm

Happy birthday!

Also - great analysis. This particular comic really does feel like the last gasp of the very outdated idea that all robots must be ro-boys.

Thankfully, Transformers has made big leaps forward in representation. Cyberverse and the IDW 2019 comic series in particular feel to me like they've have really helped address the gender imbalance, and it's a shame the toy lines haven't kept pace.

LiamKav

19/12/2021 11:27:33 pm

Remember the outrage when a Windblade and a Chromia toy came out near each other? Oh no, there are two girls and only 20 boys on the shelf! It's just shoving political correctness in our faces!

Jeremiah Ecks

2/6/2022 09:43:59 pm

Begrudgingly - I admire that Furman sticks to his guns against criticism. Ok, he's ethically wrong, but I at least admire that he isn't just shrugging and going 'Oh well, I don't really agree but I'll pretend I do to curry favour with everybody.' I suppose.

A big issue here is, of course, that he used a public fiction forum to, perhaps inadvertently, promote the view that women have lesser value (they can only come from men, are psychopaths etc.) and sure it's toxic. But his past and future work separated from this apparent misogyny shouldn't be cancelled or anything and he should also be judged on his other merits. However if anybody is stupid enough, and I mean *stupid*, to let him put into print his outdated views, then it's their problem.

But alternatively, I will fight for Furman to hold whatever views he wants to have. It's his prerogative. I worry that it's a slippery slope towards Thought-Speak to demand everybody only thinks like we do.

I won't, however, read anything he writes if it involves directly women, and I don't need to give him my hard earned cash. That is also acceptable and I hope people would agree with my decision. If they don't, it's their right - FREEDOM is the right of all sentient beings, eh? But we know the cards he's playing. Now we know we have the right to abstain.

My only worry here is the Magneto PoV - what happens when they come for you and your children? Because you look back at what people are trying to legitimately cancel now, was acceptable when I was a child. Ethics and morals change. How many times do we need to see that if you live by the Sword, you'll one day die by it? We now understand patting a woman's butt with a wolf whistle is totally unacceptable and I 100% agree. I in fact have always agreed, even as a child, because I see people of all genders as equals and I always have. I wouldn't do it to a bloke so why should I do it to anybody else?

But although we now know it's wrong, why were people doing it for so long? Because once, it wasn't.

My worry is that whilst many people try to cancel so many things, they won't be judged and cancelled themselves by the next generation for whatever has now changed. Ethics and morals change. Many things were absolutely is abhorrent and are now cool, and vice versa. We've improved as society from one to the other, but what happens when we find ourselves 'outdated'? Hopefully we will find successive generations to be patient and *explain* to us, rather than demand we're cancelled and arrested.

Just to be clear. Stuart hasn't written any vitriol that I can detect in his article so I'm not referring to him here. Actually it's relatively positive considering the really terrible stuff within the comic (yes, it's bad enough that what he wrote was holding back!). But some people send death threats and cancellation demands at people when they do stuff like this and I find that too far, too dangerous for us as society.

If a writer starts making toxicity, vote with your wallet. Don't get wrapped up in hatred or anger. Let the person go, after explaining your position. Life is too short to allow vitriol in our hearts.

I hope I don't offend anybody here or sound like I'm taking a side. If I am, it's clearly not the side of a sexist, outdated approach to women, but I just don't like the more radical sides to cancel culture either. I'm very concerned at any voices that tell us what we MUST think or, we'll be changed for our own good. I hope for the day I inevitably disagree with the majority ethically, that someone will stick up for my views, even if they're outdated. And you don't need to buy my comics either. 😊

If I have said anything you disagree with, I'm happy to discuss. You might change my mind. I might change yours. But that's what I'm getting at - discourse, not disdain. (And that's another area Furman fell - in denigrating Scott professionally...)

As an aside to all of this... Phenominally Competent Merciless Assassin Arcee is my favourite Arcee. Indeed in my top tier favourite Transformers characters. I love all the shenanigans with Prowl secretly employing her, her arc with Sideswipe, and her relations with Optimus and his supporting cast. When played in these fields, I love Arcee. Badass and dangerous, and full of great lines.

I however do NOT like her being Galvatron's brother - because it just isn't written well at all - and I obviously HATE this issue. I'm also not a fan of her killing Jhiaxus repeatedly. It's just... not the good form of sadistic.

What I don't get is, WHY? Why have Arcee change gender at all? Why is it so hard to have a female if you're using a male pronoun?

Transformers has almost always had female characters of some sort. So why did he think he needed to invent the wheel?

Also, yeah, writing your ONLY female character at this point as crazy is a terrible idea. I don't like Arcee crazy. I like her as ruthless to the point she isn't seeing reality like you and I but she ISN'T

Stuart

3/6/2022 12:19:54 am

Am seeing this on the way out of work and into bed after an interesting jubilee shift, so forgive the shortness but I didn't want to risk forgetting by the morning to say thanks for such a thoughtful, interesting couple of posts.

Oreo

18/2/2024 03:12:55 pm

Why would you be scared of Furman, even if he Has views you disagree with? You say it, as if he's actively attacking people, and trying to hurt them. Also considering he was still writing Transformers years after he left main continuity, I thing you're projwcting what a career killer ot was for him.

Revisitation 46: Terf War.

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