#it gave us more arnie roth

[magnetothemagnificent]

2023 objectively sucked but it did give us some of the best Captain America comic characterizations so.....you win some you lose some

[wandringaesthetic]

Final Fantasy Distant Worlds “Coral” Nashville, 1/25/23

Isare went to the symphony. No, it’s not a misspelling of “choral.” I don’t get it either.

Before the show:

I dressed up (basically) as my FFXIV character, so a version of the level 50 Healer’s Robe and elf ears. I feel the effect was pretty good and so did a bunch of random strangers, but I didn’t get a good picture of all of it and don’t feel like sharing my visage right now. We stopped at a bougie bistro/grocery place in Franklin that had among other things a bunch of artisanal olive oils. And here I am some kind of elf priestess and I feel like the people who worked there wanted to ask “what the heck are you wearing?” but were too busy or afraid of losing their job to actually comment. Very nice salmon tacos, though.

Vibes in Nashville on the other hand were extraordinarily good. Like, we went to Opry Mills (big mall) and had casually friendly interactions with multiple people who worked there that did not give off the vibe that they hated their job? Everyone we encountered seemed extremely chipper in a not-feigned way. Even the conversation with a lady trying to solicit us for donations was mostly pleasant. Maybe I should wear elf ears all the time?  

We went to a very cool, extremely fancy cafe/restaurant and I had turkish coffee and some sort of italian fruit and cream pastry. Next time we go to Nashville we’re going to try to eat a meal there.

The show itself:

This was my third Distant Worlds concert. Fourth if you count the Final Fantasy VII Remake concert. (which I suppose you should as it was Arnie Roth conducting and I think was generally part of the same mission and idiom.) I got a music box that plays “Theme of Love” from the merch table.

I think I remember everything that was played, but possibly not in correct order.

“Final Fantasy I-III Medley” (Prelude, Final Fantasy I Main Theme, Matoya’s Cave (I), Elia Maiden of Water (III), Chocobo Theme (II), The Rebel Army (II))

“Eternal Wind” (III)

“The Red Wings”/”Castle Baron” (IV)

“Home Sweet Home”/”Music Box” (V)

“Phantom Forest”/”Phantom Train”/”The Veldt” (VI)

Battle Theme Medley (IIRC, the regular battle themes from I-VI, followed by the victory fanfare)

INTERMISSION (a very nice person gave me a piece of Final Fantasy IX fanart in the hallway)

“Liberi Fatali” (VIII. it is at this point revealed that we have a choir, and because we have gone in order up ‘til now I say “FUCK VII” hopefully not too loudly)

“Not Alone!” (previously “You Are Not Alone!”, IX)

(I know I am probably screwing up the order at this point)

“Ragnarok” (from XI)

“Aerith’s Theme” (VII)

“Apocalypsis Noctis” (with the choir, XV)

“Flash of Steel” (XII)

“Blinded By Light” (XIII)

At some point Arnie Roth introduces SUSAN CALLOWAY. I know that I am IN FOR IT. She, and the choir, and the orchestra perform:

“ANSWERS” (XIV)

Every XIV player is now deceased. We are revived by

“MAIN THEME OF FINAL FANTASY” (also with the choir, singing “aaaaaa”)

Of course we all realize that they have skipped one so there is an

ENCORE:

“To Zanarkand” (X)

And because what would a Distant Worlds concert be without the worstie, a second encore:

“One-Winged Angel” (VII)

OBSERVATIONS/THOUGHTS/FEELINGS:

I seem to have been on whatever point in my hormone cycle that makes it easy to cry, so while there were not, like, tears running down my face, my eyes were wet through more of it than not.

“Matoya’s Cave” and “Eternal Wind” borrow a lot more emotions from XIV than they do from their original games at this point. I find that really interesting, especially with the repeated themes, your “Prelude” and “Main Theme” and “Victory Fanfare” &etc, how things from the future recontextualize and give more weight to the past.

Video montages from the games play during the performance, and for I-VI they used the pixel remasters. I couldn’t swear to the content of each because I spent some of my time paying attention to that and some looking at the orchestra and some with my eyes closed. But I wonder what the impression the moms and girlfriends and boyfriends who have little to no exposure was of this series? Elia DIES, Alus’ dad tries to kill him and then turns the knife on himself (I had straight up forgotten about that), Josef? DIES. Minwu? DIES. Look, a chocobo!

(that post that’s something like: the best pieces of fiction are the most heartrending scenes followed by the most unbelievable bullshit)

The medleys chosen for IV thru VI were interesting because they’re very curated slices of the games in question. For IV, extremely grandiose and martial. For V, the very specific feeling of going back to your hometown and realizing its not home anymore. For VI, a very SPECIFIC part if the experience of playing that game (highlighted by the video): find your way through the SPOOKY WOODS. Hop a ride (with the souls of the dead) on the PHANTOM TRAIN (and suplex it), befriend a FERAL CHILD (thou? thou! thouthouthouthouthouthouthou!)

I love the way that battle medley reflected the experience of playing the games. The video ended on a pile of screens of our 16bit heroes pumping their fists, and, if you’re like me, you’re forced to reflect up the thousands of these screens after the thousands of battles of you’ve been through playing and replaying these games.

In the same way I loved ANSWERS followed by the MAIN THEME. We have been on a LONG JOURNEY. We have reached a CLIMAX. The ending cutscenes have GUTTED YOU. Recover while you listen to some nice orchestral music that dates from the series debut while we roll credits. 

Being in the process of finally playing XI, “Ragnarok” is an interesting choice as representative of that game, no? The video was specifically a quick trip through the plot of Treasures of Aht Urhgan. Luzaf is probably the #1 FFXI character I’ve caught feelings about and my general feeling about that whole expansion was “Man I would be ALL ABOUT THIS were it just SLIGHTLY better written.” But when I think about, say, VIII, or XII, part of what makes the stories great is context embellished or even fully made up by the player. I don’t know. Aht Urhgan hasn’t simmered long enough in my brain to make a good stew.

ANSWERS with the full choir live and in person was basically at the top of my wish list for this concert, but it was hard to slip out of a double consciousness (pay attention! pay attention! savor this! this is your chance!) to be fully in the moment. Susan Calloway is obviously a hell of a performer (IIRC what led to her winding up on the vocal tracks for XIV was being a soloist on this concert series for things like “Eyes On Me” and “Kiss Me Goodbye”). You have to be a hell of a performer to do “Answers” full-throated and with a straight face through those spoken lines (”Roam. Roam! ROAM!”). “Play the actual goddess of this fantasy universe while doing your best Celine Dion” is a tall order. Savored all the “slightly-different from the recorded version I’m most familiar with” vocal embellishments. She did a thing that I’m going to find difficult to describe and I’m not 100% sure I perceived correctly where she started going for like, realized her voice was going to crack on it if she did and did like a less intense aaAAAaaAAA type thing instead. Only really noticeable, I think, if you’re extremely overly familiar with the ARR cutscene recording. What a pro. 

But there was also a TRIPLE consciousness there. Because. I get the idea the person next to me was in the “girlfriend along for the ride” camp from overhearing her talk to her date and she was getting kind of shifty and maybe bored by this point and ANSWERS, if you’re not completely in the headspace of accepting it as a thing, is A Lot. It is probably Too Much. It is. Several layers of cheese. Set over a CG cutscene of a multination battle while the world literally ends and some elf man dies for our sins and the moon is a dragon now, deal with it (which they played as the video accompaniment for this, btw).

*shakes fist at the heavens* HIGH FANTASY!!

I had a lot of feelings about ANSWERS even back in 2013/2014 or whenever it was I played ARR, and now thru Shadowbringers and Endwalker I have much more feelings because its another of those things that has gained meaning over time.

IN CONCLUSION:

I had a very great time. I’ve had a hard time, lately, with doing some things that are supposed to be fun but are going to take a lot of time and preparation. Like trying to party when what you really need to do is sleep. In a way, I was dreading this as much as I was looking forward. Ugh, I’m using one of my off days on this. Ugh, I gotta clean the house because my parents are going to be staying here while we’re gone in order to watch my kid. Ugh, I gotta drive to Nashville. Ugh, I’ve taken it upon myself to wear this whole elf getup. Ugh, I gotta park in downtown Nashville. Ugh, I’m gonna get home after midnight. But it all felt extremely nice and not that effortful. I am grateful. 

[imposterogers]

oh they care about the lgbt+ community? confirm mcu!bucky is gay then. it's been over 10 years and they still refuse to admit they stole arnie roth's story despite the man who created him publicly speaking on it for years. (he even tweeted about it during the give captain america a boyfriend era).

him being a ladies man? that's from arnie, it was a cover/him struggling with being unable to expresss his sexuality.

him protecting steve from bullies? arnie.

him boxing? arnie.

him being steve's childhood best friend? arnie.

his family looking out for steve? arnie.

there is so much more, not to mention they erased him being jewish. i think the least they can do is put their money where their mouth is for once and have the balls to stop erasing arnie roth's sexuality from mcu!bucky.

arnie was a groundbreaking character for queer rep and it's time marvel gave his story the respect it deserves.

sorry this is rambling i'm in a bad mood, im tired of companies saying they stand with us but doing absolutely nothing for us or actively harming us.

-gay jewish bucky/arnie roth anon

marvel studios: we stand w the lgbt+ communities we promise <3

also the mcu: (as u said) took the backstory from a gay jewish man and gave it to bucky but erased both his identity as a gay jewish man, has been producing content since 2009 and to date the only lgbt+ characters are loki (confirmed with a throw away line), gay joe russos, and phastos, disney has a long history of homophobia, has not made any moves towards better representation and supporting the community where it matters

[shit-mcu-stans-write]

About the Bucky-thing, he was a child sidekick because it both gave their audience, kids, something to identify with (according to Peter Sanderson), and Robin was such a hit that Marvel decided to do it too. Back then, it was seen as humanizing that an adult got along well with a kid, and it was a story device for explaining what the hero is doing instead of captions.

Later, that vision changed. They wanted to make the heroes more "serious" instead of colorful and silly, and the writers felt uncomfortable putting a child in there. In The Avengers (1963), Stan Lee and Jack Kirby announced Bucky dead and Steve moved on with the Avengers.

Then Ed Brubacker came into the picture. He revived Bucky because he felt Bucky's dead was handled flippantly. He fought for the idea for a while, also using the Vietnam War as base for his ideas. The "Winter Soldier Investigation" event of 1971 is where he got the name. When the comics came out it was a hit, that's why they used Bucky in the MCU.

They wanted the Winter Soldier story line, but didn't want to feature Bucky as a child in TFA because Stan Lee never liked child sidekicks and they felt it was irresponsible, so they aged him up.

I'm still very sad they erased Arnie Roth though, rest in peace king❤

thank you so much anon!! i've read very few capt america comics- the main ones i stick with are usually agent venom, any spidey run, christopher priest's black panther, and just recently i've been reading more fantastic four, so when i got the asks revolving around bucky and why he was changed in the mcu i wasn't really sure how to answer it

so. thank you! rip arnie :(

[sineala]

Captain America: Patriot

This isn't really an organized meta post or review so much as a few half-finished thoughts I wanted to get out after I read a Cap miniseries a few weeks ago that I can't really stop thinking about, because it had a scene that really stuck with me and that I think we could use more of in current comics and also with Steve, because even though it was a relatively recent mini it wasn't about Steve.

Captain America: Patriot is a 2011 miniseries about the third Captain America, Jeff Mace. For those of you who are more familiar with the MCU, I should probably explain something about 616, which is that Steve Rogers' identity as Captain America was not public during the war; it wasn't public until after 9/11, although generally his fellow superheroes knew. This meant that when Steve died -- well, as far as the Allies knew -- during World War II, what they did was conceal Captain America's death entirely. So they started putting other men in the Cap suit. It's important to note that none of these people were super-soldiers or superhuman in any way. They just wanted to keep morale up by making the world believe that Captain America was still alive. (Also Bucky. There are a bunch of Buckys too.)

The second Captain America was a guy named William Naslund, and he fought alongside what remained of the Invaders for about a year before dying in battle -- see above, re: not actually a superhuman. Coincidentally, Jeff Mace happens to be the guy who finds him on the battlefield, and Naslund actually dies in his arms.

Now, Mace isn't superpowered, but that doesn't mean he's not a superhero. Previously a Daily Bugle reporter, he decides to put on a costume and fight injustice as the Patriot, backed by the All-Winners Squad, which is how he manages to be around a battlefield to find Naslund dying.

And then basically the government says, "Hey, would you like to be the next Captain America?" and Jeff Mace here, despite having no superpowers whatsoever (there is in fact a plot thread about how he's the only baseline human on the All-Winners Squad and is worried about keeping up) and knowing that the last guy only lasted a year... well, he says yes. Of course he does.

But that's not really the part of this miniseries I want to talk about.

No, what I want to talk about is the subplot involving Jeff's friend Jack Casey. They were coworkers together at the Bugle before the war; Jack was a photographer and then served in the Navy during the war, took some great photos of him as the Patriot that made it into Life magazine, and so on. And then Jeff finds out that Jack was discharged from the Navy and committed suicide. He tells his superhero friends he'll go to the funeral and give a eulogy for him as Captain America.

And they say, no, Jeff, you can't do that. And when he asks why, they say it's because Jack was blue-ticketed.

A blue-ticket discharge can mean a lot of things (as Jeff points out while trying to wrap his mind around this), but it's pretty clear from context here that Jack Casey was gay. ("Did he ever have a girlfriend?" asks the Whizzer.)

Jeff says that it doesn't matter, that he's going to the funeral anyway, that he doesn't care if they take the Captain America uniform away from him.

The rest of his friends tell him he can't do that. Because the rest of the world is a terrible and homophobic place, he needs to remember that he's not the only Captain America, and if he does this, he'll destroy the world's trust in any Captain America who ever comes after him, or the ones before him. They point out that people will lose all respect for Captain America.

So he goes as the Patriot. His original identity. He lets the world keep respecting Captain America, and he sacrifices the identity that is actually his, and his dead gay friend gets a very touching eulogy.

Afterwards, he puts his Cap uniform back on, and hands his old Patriot costume to Torch to burn.

And then Namor, of course, tells him he is stupid: "Your loyalty is admirable, Mace, but clearly you've killed the Patriot and gained nothing in return! No opinions were changed, no legacies redeemed -- no mark left of any kind!"

This is when Jeff Mace demonstrates that he is truly the ally we all need and PUNCHES NAMOR RIGHT IN THE FUCKING FACE, breaking his hand in the process. (The new Bucky has to help patch his hand up.)

Right. So that's a thing you can read in a comic.

And mostly I just wanted to mention it because I keep thinking about it, both because I think it's absolutely what Steve Rogers would have done if it had been him in the uniform instead, and also because it demonstrates a really heartening amount of -- I don't know what to say, solidarity, maybe -- that I feel like I don't see in comics a lot these days. There's something really nice in knowing that Captain America would stand up for people like you, you know? (Especially when you, say, read Marvel #1000 and find that Waid's Cap speech was edited to make it less overtly political.)

We all know that Steve has demonstrated nothing but respect and affection for his queer friends and teammates, as far back as the storyline that introduced Arnie Roth, Steve's childhood best friend, way back in 1982 in Cap #268. Despite the fact that no one in this comic is actually allowed to say the word "gay" (ah, Comics Code, how I don't miss you!), Arnie is definitely gay, and at one point Steve explicitly compares the relationship Arnie has with his, ahem, roommate Michael, to the love he feels for Bernie, whom he's dating at the time. So that was also nice.

(Steve also has canonically gay teammates from World War II -- Brian Falsworth (Union Jack) and Roger Aubrey (The Destroyer) were a couple, but this was retconned into canon much later so to the best of my knowledge we never see Steve interact with them as gay characters during, say, the 70s Invaders series.)

Spencer's recent run actually gave us a few more glimpses at queerness, even if Steve wasn't really himself. There's a panel of Sam on a Pride float, and longtime sidekick Dennis Dunphy (D-Man) actually came out, but, of course, we don't know what the real Steve thinks about that, or if he's ever gone to Pride.

So at that point I was getting kind of frustrated, because, I mean, yes, Marvel has plenty of actually canonically queer characters elsewhere and I love them too, but it would sure be nice to see that Captain America stood for me too once in a while, you know?

The most satisfying recent issue I can point to is Tini Howard's recent Cap annual. It's a World War II-set story about Steve and Bucky helping out some injured people in need of assistance, and one of them eventually confesses that he's gay, expecting that Steve won't still want to help him and of course Steve does. It's really, really sweet, but I feel that it lacks the immediately extremely public stance that Jeff was unhesitatingly willing to take for his friend, knowing that people would hate him for it, which I think is part of why the Patriot miniseries keeps sticking with me. Steve's support here was very nice, but it was also... very quiet. No one else is going to know, which is not the case for what Jeff was willing to do and for what he eventually did.

Plus, Jeff got to punch Namor in the face.

So I guess I just keep thinking that I want more of... that. I want Marvel to write Steve standing up and just doing the right thing, dammit, even if it's the unpopular thing -- the essence of no, you move, I guess, and I think maybe these days they're... not.

Anyway, yeah. Captain America: Patriot. I recommend it.

[steverogersified]

So there's a lot of hate and bad word going around about ta nehisi coates writing captain america... A lot of people say he's SJW-like and that he hates America and stuff. Although he's written and said some things that make me question his thought process and morals (talking about being 'radicalized', odd things about the firefighters on 9/11), I think he's a good writer for cap. Coates recognizes that America isn't a perfect place, and he's like Cap in that respect.

Coates is an excellent choice for Cap and here’s why I feel this way:

The entire point of Steve Rogers is a defender of the ostracized and maligned. When Kirby and Simon created him America had not yet joined the war. Moreover - and this is something most people ignore when telling the story of Cap’s creation - the American government refused to come out and make a definitive statement decrying Hitler and what he was doing in Europe. And, like today, that inactivity on the governments part spoke volumes. Enough so that Nazi sympathizers within America felt… emboldened (sound familiar?).

Enter Jacob Kurtzberg and Hymie Simon stage left. These two Jewish men, first generation American born in Kurtzberg’s (Kirby’s) case, decided that if America wouldn’t make a statement one way or the other regarding Hitler, then they sure as hell would. And that statement was Captain America, who, on his very first cover, was drawn punching Hitler in the face.

And for this Kirby and Simon received hate and death threats by the Nazi sympathizers in America. In fact the hate they received was so bad that the city of New York assigned a police guard to Timely’s (re:Marvel) offices. 

And all of this is my glorified way of saying that Captain America was created to be a social justice warrior and an ally. On purpose. And with full intent by his creators and like Coates, Kirby and Simon had their share of detractors. It didn’t stop them and it shouldn’t stop Coates.

And most (with a few exceptions) Cap writers have respected the character’s original purpose… to be an ally for the oppressed. Stan Lee gave Steve the first African-American superhero as a partner, not sidekick, but partner, Lee was very insistent on this distinction (thus the Cap title became Captain America and the Falcon), in Sam Wilson during the Civil Rights movement. Writer DeMatteis addressed the misconceptions against the LGBT community during the height of the AIDS crises in 1980, and he did this by making Steve’s childhood best friend and protector, Arnie Roth, gay. And when Steve found out Arnie was gay?  Didn’t change his feelings for Arnie at all, in fact, he was protective of Arnie and heralded Arnie’s loving relationship with common-law husband Michael as relationship goals. Again this was done intentionally as DeMatteis wanted to use Steve’s acceptance of Arnie as an example for others to follow. Both Steve Englehart and Mark Gruenwald had Steve turn away from the American government whenever the governments practices got out of line, such as with Watergate and Reagan’s dependence on semi-martial law.

My point is, the entire purpose of Steve is to defend the underdog and who better to voice how an ally should ally than a minority? Frankly, it was long past due for a black man to take the helm of the Cap comic. Long past. And I’d like to see more differing voices writing Cap in the future, after Coates’ long and successful run.

And Coates is a superb fit for Cap for more than just his status as a minority, but because he is someone who has particular insight into parts of America that other Cap writers haven’t, and who has written, and won awards, on the topic. If Cap is to represent America, he needs to represent ALL of America. Including exposing the ugly bits America, itself, tries to hide. 

Plus Coates, himself, seems excited to tackle Steve, in fact, I read on twitter that he showed up at Midtown Comics to see how the release day was going yesterday. I love that he’s so into it. He seems really passionate and his answers in interviews have all been really thoughtful.

I’m sorry this got so long @madoka-magica-is-dead - I’m sure it’s a more thorough answer than you wanted. But honestly, anyone who is against Coates writing Cap because Coates is considered SJW or because he’s too political, have missed the entire point of the Captain America comics and Steve Rogers and I honestly doubt if they’ve ever truly actually read a Cap comic. Cap *is* an SJW, he was *invented* to be an SJW, and his book has always been political and has been from day one. The political messages in the Cap comics haven’t even been subtle, for cryin’ out loud. Like what did these ‘no politics in comics’ people think Nomad was about when it coincidentally happened at the same time as Watergate and mirrored the story almost exactly?!

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I am excited that Coates is on Cap and I have faith that he’ll do a great job. The first issue was an excellent start.It’s great to hear you are optimistic, too. Those other people don’t know what they are talking about. I try not to gatekeep or anything, because I recognize that doing so is insufferable (I don’t want to stoop to their level), but honestly, they should actually read the material before they write-off a writer as being too political, seriously! They sure picked the wrong character to take that particular stance on. 

[jayleeg]

Why Nick Spencer is Wrong

It’s no secret that Steve Rogers’ entire conception was a social justice statement. America was steadfastly refusing to join the second World War. Hitler was reigning terror down on Europe and there were a contingent of people within the United States who supported Hitler and his ideals. Two Jewish men, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, thought that was bullshit, thus Steve Rogers was born...

From “Joe Simon and Jack Kirby: Secret Origins of Classic Tandem”:

“We’d have the main character be second banana to the villain, and that’s how Captain America came out,” Joe reflected. “I picked Adolph Hitler as the ideal villain. He had everything that Americans hated, and he was a clown with the funny moustache, yet guys were ready to jump out of planes for him. He was the first choice, and his antagonist would have to be our hero, and we’d put a flag on the guy and have Captain America.”  ~Joe Simon

From there the trend of using the Captain America label to address relevant social issues continued. 

In September of 1969, in Captain America #117, Steve Rogers long-time partner and friend Sam Wilson, aka The Falcon was introduced in direct response to the Civil Rights movement. 

Said Tom Brevoort on Sam Wilson’s conception:

“The Falcon was the very first African-America super hero, as opposed to The Black Panther, who preceded him, but wasn’t American,” notes Marvel Senior Vice President of Publishing Tom Brevoort. “In a time when the struggle for civil rights was very much at the forefront of the American dialogue, The Falcon brought some of those issues concerning the black experience onto the comic book page for the very first time.” ~Tom Brevoort

Then in 1974 Steve Rogers tackled both the Richard Nixon and Watergate controversies by discovering Nixon’s secret ‘empire’ and losing faith in his country, giving up the moniker Captain America and adopting Nomad instead.

Then in the 1980′s a ton of members of the LGBT community were dying of AIDs, and then president Ronald Reagan refused to address the issue, that didn’t stop Cap writer J.M. DeMatteis from addressing it though, in the style of many Cap writers before him he used Cap’s comics to bring this issue to the forefront of consciousness with the story of Steve Rogers’ childhood best friend and protector Arnie Roth, a gay man in a long-term relationship with his partner Michael.

And the Cap comics weren’t done with calling the Reagan administration to task yet. That same decade Cap writer Mark Gruenwald wrote a second story that featured Steve Rogers severing ties with the Captain America alias. Reagan’s administration told Steve that they owned the Captain America trademark and told him that if he continued to use it he would be working for them and would take orders from them. Not wanting to be associated with any one political party or to be used as a military enforcer, he stated in clear certain terms that the mantel of Captain America was not about serving the government, it was about serving the people and so he gave it up, once more, this time to become The Captain.

“I cannot represent the American Government; the president does that. I must represent the American people. I represent the AMERICAN DREAM, the freedom to strive to become all that you dream of being.” ~Steve Rogers

BTW this story culminated in Steve fighting actual Snake Ronald Reagan who had been turned into a snake by the Serpent Society poisoning the District of Columbia’s water supply...

My point is that the very foundation of the Captain American mythos not only started with social justice but continued the trend for decades. In fact, here’s what Joe Simon had to say for an interview he gave MTV shortly before he died on the importance of Captain America in modern day storytelling, beyond his WW2 origins...

And this is why Nick Spencer, with what he is doing with both the Steve Rogers AND Sam Wilson books, is wrong. First by making Steve Rogers the very thing he was created to fight against, then by getting mad at the completely warranted backlash he received for that move, and creating over-the-top and cheesy villains using social justice language in Sam Wilson’s book in order to make fun of those who have pointed out exactly why Spencer’s work is problematic.

The Captain America comics had been about social justice for decades before Spencer got a hold of them and it is a travesty that he is single-handedly working to spite the love, and hope, and sense of justice that went into the work of several writers before him.