#aritcle

written by @robinwritesallthethings

Marvel is a huge fandom with an epic amount of source material, even if you’re solely interested in the MCU. If you want to go back even further and dive into the comics, the task of figuring out exactly where to start can be daunting. This isn’t a series of four books that got turned into a movie or television show. You’re looking at having to sift through decades of material featuring hundreds of characters, thousands of storylines, and even alternate universes. It’s not simple by any means, especially because the question of canon takes front and center here. Officially, the Marvel Universe as we know it today began in the 1960s with The Fantastic Four. Unofficially, the origins of many of Marvel’s most popular characters and stories began long before that. It might sound that I’m trying to discourage you from even attempting to get into Marvel comics, but I swear that I’m not. I’m just suggesting that you could use a little help, and that’s where this particular fandom project comes in.

When I decided I wanted to start reading Marvel comics, the first thing I did, naturally, was to Google Marvel reading lists. That presented me with a few problems. First of all, there are a lot of them to sift through. Second of all, the way most of them are organized is not what I was looking for. Most Marvel reading lists are not comprehensive, for one. For another, most of them are also chronological. This means that whoever built the list has suggested what comics should be read, and also has mandated that they be read in the order all of the comic events happened in. So, for example, if a recent issue of a Captain America comic focused on a flashback story from World War II, that comic would be put before any other canon Captain America comics in a chronological list. This doesn’t do what I personally wanted, which is replicate the experience of someone reading Marvel comics as they were initially released. It also makes it hard to know if something has been added to a section of the list you’ve already been through. To be clear, I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with chronological orders, if that’s the way you prefer to read. It’s just not the way I prefer to read, and I knew I couldn’t be the only one. That’s how I found The Complete Marvel Reading Order, a project created by a Marvel fan who wanted to read the exact way I did. The Complete Marvel Reading Order, or CMRO, is more than just a list telling you what order to read Marvel comics in. It’s an interactive website that lets you organize and curate your own reading experience while interacting with other fans.

To start, the CMRO isn’t just one reading list. You can go totally comprehensive and read everything Marvel has ever written, whether it’s still considered canon or not. You can use the base reading order, which is the entire canonical Marvel universe. Or you can strip the universe down to the essentials and just read what’s absolutely necessary to understand where Marvel is now. And, if none of those options appeal to you, you can use the existing database to create your own reading list, tailored just to you. For instance, you can search by character or group and pull up a list of every comic Tony Stark has ever appeared in and just read those, along with many other customizable options. Basically, the database acts as a checklist. You can mark which comics you’ve read and which ones you’ve skipped. That way, if you ever want to go back and read what you’ve skipped, there’s a convenient list you can pull up that will show you. All of your reading progress is saved overall, no matter if you’re in one of the pre-made lists or in a list of your own, so it’s also very easy to switch if you decide one day that you’d like to tackle the comprehensive order instead of a custom one, for example.

And the features don’t stop there. To clarify, the comics aren’t included on the website, which is totally free. You have to find access to them some other way, but the order does have links to the ones that are part of Marvel’s subscription reading service, though. There is also a forum for suggestions and more in-depth comic discussions. You can leave starred reviews and specific comments on every individual comic as well. There are ranks and badges that you earn the more you read, but it has to be public so that others can see your reading order and your experience with it. You can also submit your own content, like synopses of individual comics and stories within those comics. This is a crucial factor of the CMRO. Since the site is entirely run by fans, they rely on volunteers to create and add this sort of content, otherwise they would never be able to keep up.

In India, the fundamental rights are provided for in Part III of the Constitution i.e., in Articles 12-35. There are six fundamental rights of Indian Constitution; namely

1.      Right to Equality (Article 14-18)

2.      Right to Freedom (Article 19-22)

3.      Right against Exploitation (Article 23-24)

4.      Right to Freedom of Religion (Article 25-28)

5.      Cultural and Educational Rights (Article 29-30)

6.      Right to Constitutional Remedies (Article 32)

 Earlier, there used to be another fundamental right, namely right to property. But, this right does not exist anymore. Why is Right to Property not a Fundamental Right anymore?

This right was removed from the list of fundamental rights by the 44th Constitutional Amendment. The reason behind it was the hindrance being created towards attainment of the goal of socialism and redistribution of wealth (property) equally among the people.

Note: The right to property has now become a legal right instead of being a fundamental right.

A few weeks ago I watched Princess Mononoke for the first time and I’m so glad I did. It was beautiful, exciting, engaging and the best environmental movie I’ve ever seen.

Outside of documentaries, most environmental films I’ve seen have pretty one dimensional messages.

Unlike Princess Mononoke, there is always a clear villain. The amorphous pollution monster. The evil human corporation. The guy who likes dumping radioactive sludge in rivers for fun. Ferngully, Avatar, Happy Feet, Bambi, The Bee Movie, The Lorax, The Happening. Entertainment with underlying messages of environmentalism tends to fall flat. When movies do it right it can resonate with you. Yet, so many get it wrong. It’s destructive at its worst and whimsical at its best. While each of these films aims to educate, they do little to help environmentalism as a whole.

So, if these movies don’t represent environmentalism well, what does? A good representation of environmentalism encapsulates what environmentalism is. Of course, but, what is environmentalism?

According to Encyclopedia Britannica Environmentalism is a “[…] political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities; through the adoption of forms of political, economic, and social organization that are thought to be necessary for, or at least conducive to, the benign treatment of the environment by humans; and through a reassessment of humanity’s relationship with nature. In various ways, environmentalism claims that living things other than humans, and the natural environment as a whole, are deserving of consideration in reasoning about the morality of political, economic, and social policies.”

TL: DR. Environmentalism is a movement that takes into consideration the natural world in societal actions, to prevent and stop harm towards the environment.

While this definition is my favorite “formal” definition of Environmentalism, there’s something missing. The same thing that makes most environmental messages fall flat. Environmental destruction is interconnected with all human issues. From racism to sexism to classism, environmental issues often overlap with civil rights. Simple solutions for complex problems often erase the issues minority populations face. Both in the natural and human world.

It’s well known that bees have been having a rough time, but what does that mean for the environment? Often when people think of bees they think of honey bees or on occasion bumble bees. Honey bees create honey sure, but they also pollinate. They’re important and according to Albert Einstein, “If the Bee disappears from the surface of the earth man would have no more than 4 years to live.” But, how much of it is true?

According to Greenpeace USA, honey bees perform 80% of all pollination worldwide [1]. They also represent a statistic that has been shared across the internet. That ⅓ of all the food you eat is in direct relation to the honey bee. However, there is a lot of detail they leave out. Honey Bees do pollinate 80 percent of all cultivated crops. [2] But to say all pollination worldwide is disingenuous. For the plants that honey bees carry lots of pollen and visit often. It is no doubt that honey bees do increase yields.[3] Yet, many plants are not visited by honey bees. It’s easy to forget that honey bees are an introduced species in various places around the world, for the sake of cultivation. This includes the Americas. There are also many places honey bees cannot live. Still, many plants do well without them. The reason why is because the honey bee is not the only pollinator. It seems like basic knowledge, but something that’s forgotten in the common mindscape. While the world panicked about Colony Collapse Disorder, pollinators worldwide continued to decline. [4] This tunnel vision left the general public unaware of a very dangerous problem. Important pollinators are disappearing right under our noses. [5]

Then there are people. Lately, environmental racism has gained popularity alongside social movements such as BLM. While not fully recognized until the ’70s and ’80s, its effects are felt around the world. [6] It shows itself in the violence that founded national parks and the correlation between landfill placement and low-income communities. [7] It is important to acknowledge people in their vulnerability and any proposed solutions. Environmental vulnerability affects the poorest people in the world the most. From pollution causing increased health crises to poor countries being the most affected by the heat of climate change. From lung issues, heart disease, and cancers. [8] Not to mention the heightened levels of obesity which can be attributed to Food Deserts. [9]

Our definition of the Environment and Environmentalism needs to change to incorporate all of its nuances. We need to change ideas of separation from the natural world, singular praise of a species, and protecting nature at the expense of others. If we want to make a lasting difference everything needs to be taken into consideration. Environmentalism is more than a movement. It is a guideline to move towards a future that is better for the planet and the humans that reside within it. Ecology as a whole is complex, so to treat the solutions to ecological problems as simple is dangerous.

“Environmentalism is really about seeing our place in the world in a way that humans have always known up until very recently — that we are part of nature — utterly dependent on the natural world for our well being and survival.” — David Suzuki

Sources

[1] https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/sustainable-agriculture/save-the-bees/

[2] https://www.vafb.com/membershipwork/news-resources/honeybees

[3]https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2017.2140#d3e893

[4] https://www.scientia.global/pollinator-decline-implications-for-food-security-environment/

[5]https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/while-we-worry-about-honeybees-other-pollinators-are-disappearing

[6] https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/fighting-environmental-racism-in-north-carolina

[7] https://scholarship.law.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1267&context=plrlr

[8] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/28/climate-change-enviromental-racism-america

[9] https://moveforhunger.org/harsh-reality-food-deserts-america#:~:text=In%20rural%20America%2C%20a%20food,%2C%20living%20in%20food%20deserts.%E2%80%9D

More Sources:

https://www.uaex.edu/farm-ranch/special-programs/beekeeping/pollinators.aspx

https://www.nass.usda.gov/AgCensus/

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ocean-plastic-fishing-waste_n_5bc47dc9e4b0bd9ed55c1f60#:~:text=Each%20year%2C%20millions%20of%20tons,in%20the%20oceans%20and%20seas.

I am stuck here in Purgatory. Well I’m not Catholic, so let’s try Limbo.

I’m stuck here in Limbo. In Limbo there is no sun, no laughter, and no sweet-tasting things. If I were a comic book geek (which I totally am!), I would introduce you to Illiana Rasputin, the little, (more powerful) sister of Colossus of the X-Men, who uses her mutant power as a gateway to teleport between this world and a hell-like location called Limbo. She like me is a magical, gorgeous, blond, female mutant who rules her own domain. But every once in a while poor Illiana (also known as MAGIK) sometimes loses access to her soul and becomes a creature called Darkchild, a tragic creature lost to the madness of her dark dimension of Limbo. I too have become Darkchild. I am not in a good place. Horns have spiraled from my crown and I have a long, coiled black tail spindling against the concrete like vipers. Don’t get me wrong, I still look amazing. I’ve lost forty pounds and have the flat stomach of a Russian supermodel. A supermodel with horns and deep black circles around the eyes—but gorgeous nonetheless—like the heroin-chic models of the late nineties, with their splashes of running charcoal mascara and ribs that were too painful to look at. But I still have no taste buds! And not being able to taste sweets is slowly driving me insane.

And making me lose faith.

But at least I’m not dead. As far as we know, the chemo and the radiation has done what it was supposed to do, and the cancer has receded back to the hell that it came from. (Or so we think, until I get my final scans). But the treatment also eradicated my T cells, so that last we checked I have fewer than 200 T cells. Which puts be back at a term that in the eighties we used to call “full-blown AIDS.” I’m on Boost again, you know, to help prevent “wasting,” you know, something that you don’t see in HIV patients anymore in the so-called developed world. So when people stop me on the street and tell me how good I look in my new slim body, I want to pull out my soul sword, open a teleportation disk, slash them across the chest with my black talon claws, and educate them on the horrors of Limbo. But instead, I smile, and say, “Really you think so?” Put my hand on my hip, and hope that they never have to take a compliment for undergoing a painful and debilitating treatment that has almost killed them and taken away their joy.

It’s not really their fault; so I try to keep my tail from wrapping around their necks…our culture is obsessed with skinny. I am no exception. Just a few months ago I thought I was too fat. I was thinking of ways to go to the gym more, change my diet, and eat fewer sweets…but now. I take it all back! The world gives us so few pleasures: There are diseases that are always growing in foreign sludge ready to blossom into our atmosphere and take us out, there are natural disasters biding their time until they crack open the earth and send the ocean ashore to swallow us whole, there is violence and crime—and shady characters hiding in alleyways with sharp blades and semi-automatic weapons, there are evil political moguls, and best friends turned enemies, and wild dogs roaming our neighborhoods, and spoiled milk all just waiting to catch us off guard…. There are so many terrible parts of life right on the edge of our eyesight, and yet we focus on denying ourselves the joy of a simple ice cream cone.

I take it all back! I repent my hubris! I pray to the tastebuds gods for my forgiveness and hope that they see a way to return me to grace. Never again will I deny myself simple joys. Never again will I barter my pleasure and joy to save a few calories. Never will I assume that the health I have now. I will always have. If he who is holy decides to give me back my tongue, I will eat all the things!

Give me all the things that taste of butter and lemon and cheeses and cream and savory and sweet, and umami and salty and sour and bitter coffee, and sumptuous steak, and ice cream. I want all the ice cream!! Every flavor. Every color. Every brand! With rainbows, chocolate chips, sprinkles, and glitter! I want to indulge like my five year-old self; and make every bite like a child’s delight: Like me and mother did in Mexico while watching the sun set purple and gold into the boiling azure sea, as we ate blueberry snow cones and homemade spaghetti on the roof!

Diet be damned!

You never know how many more moments you have.

Take them all.

Swallow them up.

Let them melt in your mouth.

And do not ever spit them out.