newx-menfan: Part Three- Hellion’s Mental State in Liu’s ‘X-23′So as I
newx-menfan: Part Three- Hellion’s Mental State in Liu’s ‘X-23′So as I stated in Part 2; Mike Carey largely dropped Julian’s storyline after #244. We don’t actually SEE Julian get to a better place where he learns to accept his prosthetics. He just gets new ones in ‘Age of X’ and apparently because the alternate version had them for years, he effectively absorbs the knowledge.This is a HUGE cop out in my opinion; the problem with a lot of disability narratives is it effectively represents the person as “lesser” or “broken”, and that’s what gets the focus. I’d compare it to Hiromu Arakawa’s ‘Full Metal Alchemist’; Arakawa shows a snippet of Ed’s depression after losing an arm and a leg, and a small moment of him going through physical therapy; but that’s really it.For the major chunk of the story, we see Ed accepting his automail. Ed is represented through the series as a gifted and highly competent Alchemist, not as a “broken” individual.While there ARE issues with this series (at the end, every main character essentially is “cured” of their disability other than Lan Fan…), for the most part FMA is an example of how to write disability correctly.While it’s perfectly okay to examine trauma and stories around disabled veterans; it is a little problematic that western stories tend to put more focus on trauma than recovery, to the point where it almost bleeds into shock value…Another issue with Disabled storylines or storylines around Metal Illness- usually the character is vilified…Which brings us to Marjorie Liu’s X-23 Solo.I’m not going to touch on issues 1-3 since not a lot happens with Julian and Laura; other than they admit they care deeply for one another, Laura leaves the school, and Julian is still showing signs of insecurity around being disabled.In issue #17, we see that Julian has been sent to the school after the Karima incident with Logan.Julian isn’t happy to be there, because he’s effectively being treated as a criminal. Logan version of concern is to essentially berate Julian, calling him both a threat and a jerk.Once again, there is zero sub textual evidence that Julian is receiving therapy or any kind of group support, despite showcasing signs of depression and/or PTSD. While Logan is REALIZING there’s a problem here, he isn’t taking much action to remedy this situation DESPITE the risk of a potential suicide attempt, and DESPITE being the adult authority figure at the school.Logan also asks him WHY he’s choosing to stay- which my question is where else CAN he go? His parents have abandoned him (what’s even sadder is, Julian chose his mutant identity and supporting his friends over the protection wealth PROVIDED; so it’s not even like Warren, Emma, or Betsy who can hide behind their family name/wealth). He’s been kicked out of Utopia. Emma has abandoned him. He tried Magneto, and Erik wouldn’t take him. It doesn’t seem like he’s even getting support from any of the Academy X kids. As he stated to Logan, leaving the school means he’ll be branded as a mutant terrorist by Cyclops. Or alternatively be killed, since we all know mutants survival rate on the outside is pretty damn low ( Just look at the Morlocks…).Julian has been effectively abandoned by everyone.So he turns to the one person who he believes with have his back- Laura……And that goes horribly wrong.Going back to Part 1 and why I think Julian has issues with Co-dependency; Julian relies heavily on the people around him.This can be both a weakness and a strength.It’s a strength, because it does really help his leadership. In DeFilippis and Weir, Julian is shown to be actually a GREAT leader for his team! He’s great at rooting out other teams weaknesses- Sophia’s stubbornness, David being the brains and the reliance on him, how to get a rise out of Josh, the New Mutants being too individualistic and struggling to work as a team, etc.- and finding unique ways to manipulate that. He’s also able to find a perfect balance between the Hellion’s powers and how best to utilize them.But Julian’s biggest strength- Supporting his team members. Just as he’s able to somewhat manipulate people to bring to bring out the worst in them, he’s also able to manipulate the situation to bring out the best in people. The reason the Hellions were honestly a more functioning team, was largely because of Julian. As much as Julian states “I don’t normally do control, I do sledgehammer”- Julian DOES actually think things out when he’s not being emotionally compromised. Out of all the X-Kids leaders, I actually think Julian might have been the best leader; because while Nori DID learn it LATER, in the beginning of Kyle/Yost she didn’t know how to bring her team together.While Julian tends to only care about a small number of people, if you’re one of those people he will be FIERCELY loyal to you.It’s a weakness, because Julian has a tendency to give his all to the people he cares about and it slowly becomes unhealthy.When people inevitably DON’T return the same level of effort and care- Julian ends up getting hurt.Julian relies heavily on others; it’s shown with his friendship with Brian, his relationship with Sophia, and his relationship with Laura. I’d argue that it’s used as a way of instead of coping with his own emotions, he attaches himself to relationships and takes on other people’s hardship to effectively avoid dealing with his own.This effectively becomes an issue, in his relationship with Laura.Julian feels like Laura abandoned him; and in his defense, she kind of did. While on the trip with Gambit, Laura never bothers to call Julian despite knowing he’s still struggling with recently losing his limbs. Julian has repeatedly been shown to think about Laura; in New X-Men he talks about Laura to Surge and his realization that Laura has undergone trauma in her childhood (this happens in ’Quest for Magik’). He pushes her to move past her experiences as a weapon (’Mercury Falling’) . He constantly supports her, like defending her when Surge fought with her over X-Force (X-23 #1 ).Laura is rarely showcased to consider Julian’s feelings and problems; and while that’s more than likely BECAUSE of her upbringing (it’s hard to consider other people if you’re not coping well yourself), Julian DOES have a bit of a point.Laura while visiting him in his room, remarks that it smells; which, if Julian IS going through depression/PTSD: calling out his inability to engage in self care (bathing, doing laundry, cleaning his room, etc.), isn’t the best way to handle it. While this can once again be argued that Laura doesn’t have the social skills to realize this could be hurtful; for Julian it probably is invalidating and making him feel even worse about himself.I want to make this CLEAR- I am not defending Julian’s behavior when he breaks the window; that is NOT okay. But symptoms of PTSD can be: Explosive anger.Julian then sits down and while brushing off Laura leaving, there are hints that he was actually hurt by it. We also see Julian avoiding his own feelings, by focusing on Laura’s “rough time”.While Julian defends his actions with Karima; between the lines is hints that he is actually feeling guilt, stigma, and shame for what happened. He is essentially wanting reassurance from Laura that he did the right thing/is not a bad person.Instead Laura gets up and barely talking to him, walks away.AGAIN, I’m NOT defending Julian grabbing her wrist to get her to stay; that is NOT okay.Gambit shows up and sees what’s going on; he tells Laura she got a call from Sue Storm to babysit. He then threatens Julian to blow off his arms and legs.I’m REALLY ANGRY with Liu for feeling like this was appropriate; because this dialogue is ablest and just kind of gross. You have a recently disabled traumatized youth, being threatened by an adult who SHOULD KNOW better and effectively watching a teenager be re-traumatized. Remy works in a school with children; he should be able to de-escalate situations without resorting to threats, or he probably SHOULDN’T be teaching!Besides the fact that Laura really doesn’t need Remy to come to her rescue; this scene is coded in a way to prop up Remy and vilify Julian and/or code him as abusive. Liu REPEATEDLY does that in this series and I’ll get to why it’s a huge problem later.Laura goes to babysit, and while Julian calls her to apologize for his behavior- wacky hijinks happen that leads to a dragon showing up at Baxter building. Julian shows up and honestly REALLY tries to help but ends up making mistakes and causes Laura to get irritated; then they get sucked into this worm hole that takes them to an outer space junkyard.Julian tries to connect with her by bringing up old times, and Laura scoffs it off as she’s essentially moved on from all that. Julian tried to subtly find out if she’s returning to the school and gets upset finding out she’s been getting close to Gambit (In Julian’s defense- Gambit and the whole Foxx/Mystique thing kind of justifies his reaction a bit…).Julian is also jealous, because it once again reaffirms his fears that Laura DOESN’T CARE about him; she can spend all this time with Remy, but cannot be there for him when he needs help.Julian once again realizes his reaction was unfair and states that he didn’t mean that. Through this story arc, Julian REGULARLY does apologize; acknowledging that he knows he’s behaving poorly but doesn’t currently have the skills to voice what’s wrong.He once again states that he can’t stop thinking about her, essentially saying he CARES. Laura reacts to this by saying, “Stop talking”.This causes Julian’s insecurities to come up, with him asking, “Is it my hands?”Going back to Part 2; Julian is insecure about his appearance, his desirability, and struggling with feelings of helplessness. As I stated previously in Part 2; age of limb loss can affect sexual development, especially in preadolescent or adolescent age group.Laura than comments on Julian’s feelings of abandonment; stating she was there after the accident and waited for him to wake up.Which, OK GREAT, but you weren’t THERE to really support Julian with the psychological effects AFTERWARDS.While Laura states she was dealing with her own struggles afterwards and needed to focus on herself, which is TOTALLY okay- she’s still EFFECTIVELY invalidating his feelings of abandonment.This is essentially GASLIGHTING; it’s saying, “I’m sorry you feel that way, but that’s not true/you’re imagining it”.The truth is, Laura chose to take this time to focus on her own issues, which is a valid choice; but in doing so she did leave Julian to process things on his own. Again, she COULD have at the very least called to check if he was okay; SHE chose not to.It is revealed they are at the Collectors spaceship, they find the Richards kids and get back home. At the house, Julian helps clean so the children don’t get in trouble with their parents.Afterwards Julian tries to salvage their damaged relationship again, with Laura AGAIN walking away from him and avoiding talking much to him.Laura in these scenes never bothers to really TELL him she no longer wants friendship/a relationship; leaving Julian to essentially fill in the blanks- and with his current mindset those blanks are going to be ‘she doesn’t want me because I’m disabled’ or ’I’m worthless/weak/unlovable’, etc.It’s perfectly OKAY to tell someone you do not want a relationship with them, but Laura in these scenes never bothers to give any answer on what her feelings are.From Julian’s perspective- she went out of her way to visit him; after just up and leaving one night without saying goodbye, and after seemingly being very close/admitting she cared for him. Now she’s unexplainably acting cold to him, commenting on his inability to manage basic needs which he more than likely is already beating himself up for. He keeps apologizing, but it’s not really fixing anything. He can’t get himself to say or do anything right, even with the dragon he inexplicably messed up despite it really not being his fault. Laura is seemingly getting more and more irritated with him, and he doesn’t know why; because of his PTSD and or depression, his mind is going to the worst scenarios possible. He feels like she doesn’t care, and when he finally voices this feeling; Laura immediately shuts it down without really listening to him. She keeps implying to him she cares deeply about him, but her actions do not match up with the words.After saving her and helping get the kids home, she is again treating him coldly and barely talking to him.Julian kissing her without her permission IS NOT OKAY. It was wrong.Laura than tells him goodbye, and Julian blows up.What Julian said was hurtful and cruel. He lashed out and that wasn’t okay.Laura then states she does have feelings, just not for him; effectively being cruel back. Julian then is left to simply walk home alone.Laura meets up with Gambit and tells him she does actually care for Julian; something she seemed incapable of verbalizing TO Julian.Another symptom of PTSD is often searching for a rescuer. I do believe Julian did do this with Laura; and while that’s an unfair responsibility to put on others…at the same time Julian WAS right. Laura showed very little concern for Julian. She could have pushed Gambit to get Julian some kind of help or check up on him, since he is an adult responsible for the X-students; she didn’t.She could have at the very least called him while traveling; she didn’t. She could have listened to him while he talked about what happened with Karima; she didn’t.She could have done a lot of things, but she chose NOT to.I’ve seen people argue Laura’s “not his therapist, it’s not her responsibility”-and that’s true. But it wasn’t Julian’s responsibility to help her all the times he did. It wasn’t Jubilee’s responsibility to provide support for Laura.Gambit and Storm DO have a responsibility to get involved at signs of concern with their students as teachers, but they also got involved in Laura’s situation because they cared.It’s not my intention to rake Laura over the coals, or ignore her own struggles with mental illness but it does bother me that this series has an uneven representation towards mental illness.I do think there’s an issue of Julian being vilified/set up as abusive. This is especially apparent in issue 20, where he’s watching Laura from the trees and represented as “stalking her”. While it started in Mike Carey’s Legacy, with Julian’s breakdown being framed as him possibly going evil, instead of it being looked at as someone honestly struggling with PTSD; Liu perpetrates this narrative by showing Julian breaking things, grabbing/kissing Laura, and the scene with Gambit.This is EXTREMELY PROBLEMATIC, because it feeds into several problematic narratives; the narrative that mentally ill are violent (statistically mentally ill are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators- there are several studies out there showcasing these statistics!), representing disabled characters as villains or violent to continue isolating and othering them, and a gender biased representation of mental illness (The idea that men can’t be mentally ill or don’t need the same kind of support in dealing with mental illness).So I have mixed feelings on Julian’s representation on disability; a lot of it WAS problematic, the storyline hasn’t been touched on in years, the focus was more on Julian being broken or violent than about accepting himself.But I do think it at least PROVIDES some kind of representation, it makes up a huge chunk of his character, and it would feel like erasure to get rid of him being an amputee.I also think, while it was never outright STATED IN THE TEXT, Julian’s actions can all be examined and explained in the context of untreated PTSD and Depression.I ALSO hate how the Karima incident and Liu’s solo left a black mark on his character- because I essentially I think it should be viewed as a story about a teenager under a lot of stress and acting within the best of his coping abilities, with little help from the adults around him. Julian is essentially a story about how children are left to fall through the cracks, because they are stigmatized as ’problem children’ or have little support from the people around him.Sources-Amputee: *https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5248418/ * http://www.oandplibrary.org/alp/chap28-01.aspPTSD: *http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/ptsd-overview/complex-ptsd.aspMental Illness: *https://news.ncsu.edu/2014/02/wms-desmarais-violence2014/(There are TONS of articles on this if you google ‘mental illness’ and ‘victims of violence’)Addiction: *https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/painkiller-addiction/side-effects/#gref . *https://store.samhsa.gov/shin/content/SMA11-4648/SMA11-4648.pdf *https://sunrisehouse.com/addiction-demographics/physically-disabled/Representation: *http://www.wbur.org/npr/178255429/one-amputees-message-of-hope-for-bostons-bombing-victims *https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ykXguKWqy4 *https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w7VEMQEsy4s(these are just some of my sources; I also used TV Tropes and other sites to look at common tropes with mental illness and disability.)(Eventually I would like if I ever end up going back to school, or just for the fun of it; I’d like to do a paper examining gender, disability, and class with Julian’s character! ☺️)*Redoing/reblogging for edits…and because tumblr keeps flagging this post… -- source link