On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

First time I'd heard of Danielle Moonstar being seen as a Problematic comics character today, but maybe I shouldn't be surprised. She was cited as such by Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair at today's Canadian Comics Publishing Roundtable at Sequential's Canadian Comics Symposium. The character's been part of the Marvel roster for 40 years now, or close to that.

So that issue came out this week...

( Spoilers after the cut )

And there's some whiplash right there.  

Okay...we're seeing more than a little bit about SHIELD on the web of late.

Wired and Gizmodo have reported that the US Defence Department's PR people backed away from technical advising on the Avengers movie specifically because of SHIELD, and their uncertainty over SHIELD's place in the scheme of things.

lawmultiverse provided a little commentary of their own on the subject, and it wasn't their first attempt to understand how SHIELD could fit into legal pictures either.

Today, rfmcdpei made his own mention of a blog entry from Andrew Barton where the issue of creators needing to understand exactly what their fictional creations are supposed to be and be capable of, even if that understanding doesn't get all the way to the paying audience in full detail.

Here's what Andrew said exactly:

You know what, though? The military is right. According to the Defense Department, their main problem is that they couldn't figure out where the US military stood in relation to S.H.I.E.L.D., which Wikipedia describes as an "espionage and secret military law-enforcement agency," which really narrows it down - and, hell, I imagine it's easy as hell to maintain secrecy over something like a giant flying aircraft carrier. S.H.I.E.L.D. has, from what I understand, been the subject of fan debates over just what it is for a good chunk of the last fifty years.

Answering questions like this is important. They define what you can and cannot do in a story, and as such reduce the unmanageability of everything being possible into more restricted channels that can guide the flow of a narrative. Something that is shadowy, nebulous, and ill-defined even to the people writing it does not lend itself well to the best writing. Creators need to know how their creations work, even if that information never filters down to the audience.

I've had my own understanding of what SHIELD is supposed to be - mainly informed by the stories of Bob Harras and Dan G. Chichester published in the Nick Fury vs. SHIELD mini-series and the later relaunch of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD in the 1990's when SHIELD was reinvented for the first time, and somewhat further filled out by Jonathan Hickman's work on Secret Warriors and SHIELD in recent years. Among other sources.

It's my hope as a fan that we can get back to that framework: SHIELD as a planetary defence/intelligence service. The ultimate Blue Berets and as flexible as need be to handle the work in the back alleys as on the battlefield.

Your distance-travelled will vary, of course...

Blame Keith Loh for this.

He tagged me with this meme via Facebook tonight, and it seemed worth cross-posting.

So. Fifteen fictional influences on my life and mind. Not all of them entirely healthy, I have to admit. Here's my list good for today only. It will likely change tomorrow.

1. Charlie Brown
2. Snoopy
3. Andy Capp
4. Popeye
5. Spider-Man
6. Cst. Benton Fraser, RCMP
7. Dominic Da Vinci
8. Batman(Bruce Wayne)
9. James Hudson of Alpha Flight
10. Heather Hudson of Alpha Flight
11. Linus Van Pelt
12. Wolverine
13. Hulk
14. Simon Templar
15. John Steed

Over to you...