漫威释出新作「亚美莉嘉」 评价褒贬不一

首本漫威「亚美莉嘉」漫画系列封面。图片来源:漫威数位商店(Marvel's Digital Comic Shop)。

今年年初,美国漫画公司漫威(Marvel)推出全新漫画「亚美莉嘉‧莎薇丝」(America Chavez)。主人公亚美莉嘉是第一位出现在漫威宇宙(Marvel Universe)的拉丁裔同性恋主角。

许多读者对此感到雀跃,认为这系列漫画将提供关于移民、身分认同、性别等议题的讨论空间,尤其美国现在的政治和社会局势正值紧张状态。

其他人则认为,过度着重于身份议题会牺牲漫画的故事性。

这系列不只以身份认同为主题,也包含自我探索的故事。根据漫威官网,亚美莉嘉不单是打击犯罪而已,她坚信教育和自我探索的重要性:「拥有超人般力量的青少年会怎么样实现小小的满足感呢?当然是去大学上课啊!」

「亚美莉嘉‧莎薇丝」是漫威旗下唯一以女同志为主角的系列作,也是唯一以拉丁裔女同志为主角的漫画。 (1) pic.twitter.com/FUIjHG3JI8

— ?玛丽? (@宅女蕾丝边) June 10, 2017

这部由小说家盖比‧利瓦伊拉(Gabby Rivera)构思、由乔‧吉诺尼(Joe Quinones)作画的漫画,已在网络引发一连串关于同性恋和拉丁裔议题的讨论。据哈芬顿邮报(The Huffington Post)的报导,作者群预想漫画的封面是以各文化交融的方式呈现,像是利用「披头四或希莉亚‧库兹(Celia Cruz)等[…],我们讨论的都是对美国文化有着极大影响,同时也拥有多重身份的人物。」:

America Chavez will not be the only character in the book with an intersecting identity,” Rivera said. “She will not be the sole representation of queer people and women and Latinas. There will be communities of folks all around her testing their super powers and finding strength within themselves. We’ve been very intentional with reflecting different body types and gender presentations. Our characters are black, Afro-Latinx, Asian, mixed and everything in between — like literally running the gamut of melanin, you know?

利瓦伊拉表示:「漫画里,不只是亚美莉嘉有着多重的身分,她也不会是唯一一位代表女同志或拉丁裔女性的角色。她身边也会有一群人试着测试他们的超能力,并找寻自我的力量。我们刻意让角色以不同的体态、性别来呈现自我,我们的角色不乏非裔、非洲拉丁裔、亚洲及混血等。这就像黑色素所有色阶的人都有了。」

作者强调,在创作角色的过程中,她在漫画里看见「自己」:一位性感又复杂的有色女性。

「我要很棒的故事!也要很棒的角色!」

然而,不论故事或角色都免不了争议和批评。漫画首篇在网络上受到严厉的评论,遭批「性别第一,故事第二」。网友在许多影评评论文章底下留言,批评漫画的故事情节,认为亚美莉嘉如此高涨的性别和文化意识,将会使该系列所欲达成的目标适得其反:

The dialogue was terrible, the Spanglish was racist (at best), the plot jumped around between various irrelevant points with little connection, the political commentary was a subtle as a sledgehammer, and there wasn't a single character with any sort of development (other than “random girlfriend whom the reader never gave a reason to care about broke up with the protagonist, in what might be one of the least realistic exchanges of dialogue ever written”).

The author is apparently hoping that “MINORITY LESBIAN YASSSS!!” will be enough to cover up for her complete inability to write either characters or plot lines, but this comic is so completely terrible in every aspect that I doubt she'll get away with calling everyone who points out its plethora of flaws “racist/homophobic”.

角色间对话处理得很不妥当,拉丁式英语可能带有歧视,故事线跳来跳去没有很好的连接性,想传达精巧的政治评论却弄巧成拙,而且竟然完全没看到任何一个角色有成长的趋向。(除了和主角无预警分手的某任女朋友,他们分手那段对话可能是全漫画里最真实的一段对话。)

显然作者是想藉由女同志议题来掩饰她构思故事上的无能。因为这部漫画各方面真的糟透了,我怀疑作者会不会因此把批评她的人都贴上「种族歧视」或「恐同」的标签。

许多YouTube使用者也开始讨论这部漫画想传达的复杂议题,认为将一个角色的特定元素无限扩大,尚不足以让读者认同这个角色:

As a Latina myself, I am disgusted and insulted by America Chavez. I'm supposed to love and identify with this character? On what grounds? […] Why should I care about her or her story? Because she's a Latina queer? So what? That doesn't make her interesting. There are Latina queers all over the place here. That's not unique at all. […] I DON'T CARE if the main character of a comic is the same race or gender as me! Tell me a GOOD STORY with GOOD CHARACTERS! If the story and characters are solid and well written, then it won't MATTER what race, gender, sexuality, or creed that character is! Labels don't make a character. CHARACTER makes a character! And America Chavez has ZERO CHARACTER.

身为一位拉丁裔女性,我对亚美莉嘉这部漫画感到羞耻。我到底为什么要认同这样的一个角色?[…]为什么我要在乎她的故事?只因为她是拉丁裔同志?那又如何?这又不是让一个故事有趣的原因。其他地方有成千上万个同样的人,这没有甚么好大惊小怪的。[…]我才不管主角是不是跟我是一样的种族或性别,因为我要很棒的故事!也要很棒的角色!如果故事构思和角色架构的做得很好,那角色是什么种族、性别、信仰、性向根本叫不重要!光贴标签不会让一个角色变好。好角色本身就会造就好角色!而亚美莉嘉‧莎薇丝根本就算不上好角色。

与网络媒体公司BuzzFeed合作的YouTube拉丁频道Pero释出影片LatiNoticias,影片中对这部漫画也免不了一番冷嘲热讽:

It's pretty fun that a character with the potential to excite so much hate from right-wing conservatives is literally named America. That's like if I named a new contraceptive Freedom Pills, or if her sidekick was a gender-nonconforming bald eagle. America Chavez was the third choice for the superhero's name after Marvel passed on “Uracis Ifudonlykme” [You’re racist if you don’t like me] and “Sue-Kit White Concervadores” [Suck it, white conservatives].

这真的非常好笑。看到名为「亚美利坚」(America)的角色会有如此能耐激起各方保守派的仇视。就像我将避孕药命名为「自由小药丸」(Freedom Pills),或亚美莉嘉的伙伴是一只「性别表现不一致」(gender nonconforming)的老鹰。亚美莉嘉这个角色名其实是漫威名单中的第三顺位,他们还考虑过「Uracis Ifudonlykme」(音同「You’re racist if you don’t like me」:你种族歧视你不接受我)和「Sue-Kit White Concervadores」(音同「Suck it, white conservatives」:去死吧保守白人)。

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