#asteria rants

This small monster is in two parts, first up is me going a bit nuts about a common theme of comic books which drives me nuts, then tried to write out the scene which has been driving me nuts.  Feel free to skip either section.  Or just skim.  Whatever.  Thanks for being here basically. *two thumbs up*

Rant

This all started the other night as I was thinking about the girlfriends of superheroes, specifically the non-super ones, the Lois Lane, Mary Jane Watson, Jane Foster types. Generally they really, really bug me, except Lois because of Smallville, simply because they don't seem to be there for anything other than occasional fridging, damsels in distress, and to be the prize at the end.  And the power games of *heroic voice*: 'look how well I hide who I really am from the woman I say I love.  Haha she is so silly and know nothing'.  I understand that the usual justification is along the lines of protecting the significant other, but it reads as a trust issue.  And there seems to be a bit of a ‘win’ felt each time the hero manages to keep the girl from working it out. 

Gah!  It really bugs me, I prefer my equal relationships: Nightwing/Oracle (or Batgirl, just Dick and Babs, okay?), Electra and Daredevil, Batman and Wonder Woman (damn Justice League cartoon got me a’shippin’), and especially Jessica Jones and Luke Cage.  They are equal not in terms of their power levels, but because the games about identities isn't a dominant dynamic between them.

So I was sitting there thinking about how it would feel to discover your boyfriend was a superhero, and then naturally started thinking dirty things, and the Flash being fast at everything kinda came up.  Don't judge.  Who doesn't giggle at that every now and then.  So I thought, ‘let's do a Wikipedia on both Wally and Barry and their respective 'girls'’.  And I did.

First impression:  what is with all the twins, seriously.  And the thing with reporters.  Gah.  Such a type.

Secondly, Iris West (Barry’s) learnt about his extracurricular activities in spandex on their wedding night?  Because he sleep talked?  WTF?  Okay the fifties origin doesn’t help, but still.  Wow. 

Reading and laughing at this made me think about what I would do in that sort of situation.  And thus a scene and a bit of a synopsis outline has been bouncing around in my head since.  As with Pamela, I’m hoping that getting it out of my head and on to the internet will give me more headspace for study.  And sleep.  

Anyway the wedding night reveal has probably at some point changed during a reboot, and I haven't researched this at all (the Wikipedia look was seriously only at the very first couple of paragraphs of each page, it was after two in the morning), but it still has stuck in my head.  So much so that I have the whole scene mapped out in my head for a remake in modern media format.  Because that is what I do.  Without even seeing a panel from the original story. Just a reminder I know I don't know what I am talking about.

Scene

Instead of it being their wedding night, it's just after they’ve gotten  engaged, which happened through some sort of emotional turmoil like period, so it’s kind of a secret engagement, but Barry had been planning it, the timing was just not right to go too public (this is me trying to give him justification for not telling her, in some way...).  

So just after they got engaged, she gets up part way through the night (for a glass of water or something, hey maybe she needed the loo) to come back to find Barry muttering.  She realises he is sleep talking, and tries to gently wake him up. He is in some kind of nightmare, tossing turning all like, so she is trying to soothe him, and be mutters something that gives it away that he is the Flash.  

She freezes, and works it out.  When running the hypothetical of ‘what would I do’ I came up with two scenarios, neither of which I would actually probably do.  Either she (A) stops trying to gently wake him and instead starts to poke him in the belly, loudly telling him to wake up.  Which he does, to be greeted by 'you're the Flash?' in a slightly hysterical tone OR (B) keeps calming him until he is sleeping properly again, gets a lot of her stuff together, and all scary calm like leaves, he wakes in the morning, confused about where she is.

B is my favourite, and I have the follow up for that, so with B we go.

She scampers off and hides away for a bit, getting someone to be a messenger to let Barry know she is fine (by hide I really mean go get space.  If there has been some sort of emotional uproar then she probably needs to deal with that as well as finding out about Barry, so the space is probably at least feels needed, even if it isn’t healthy, I don’t know.  I'm just setting up the scene).  He is a bit too distracted for the moment by some sort of world emergency and the main hero plot, because those are great at coinciding with emotional drama by at this point, so isn’t able to spend too much energy in finding out what went wrong. But he is still a little off about it.

So after the fight that always comes before the final fight (the one where all hope seems lost) Barry came home to find Iris on the couch, curled up a bit, kind of out of it.

He approached her cautiously:

‘Iris?  Where hav- Are you okay?

She’s staring off into space.  ‘Is the Flash genetic?’

‘...Why?  I don't think Kid Flash is the Flash's son’

Iris looked up at him. ‘No.  Kid Flash is the nephew of the Flash's fiancée’

Barry stopped in his tracks.  ‘Iris-‘

‘You've been talking in your sleep.  It was the other night, after *insert drama llama here*... I couldn't sleep, so got up to, I dunno, a glass of water or something, came back and you were muttering away.  Didn't think much of it at first, until I started listening.  Something about *insert Flash villain name here*, the Speed Force, and then what must have been the end of a conversation you've had with Wally.’

Barry swallowed. ‘Iris, pl-‘

Silence for a couple of beats.  ‘How did Wally get involved? Did you just decide you needed a sidekick? Because he's seventeen, he can’t even vote and you think giving him super powers was a good idea?’

‘He did it himself.  He recreated the series of events that gave me my powers, he must have done a better job of it than I did because his body is even more efficient than mine.’

‘You didn't coerce him into anything?’

‘Iris, you know I would never do anything like that’

She raised an eyebrow and coldly said ‘I hate to sound cliché, Barry, but I really don't think I do.  Were you actually ever going to tell me?’

‘Yes...I- Yes I would have, but the time-‘ Barry spluttered

‘-never felt right?  Barry, we are engaged, that’s supposed to mean trust with everything, and you didn't trust me to not, what, run around the streets yelling 'the Flash is my husband'?  To freak out or get in the way or ...’

‘I'm sorry I just-’

Iris is back to staring into space.  ‘I'm not even sure about it all.  At first I thought I was mad at you, but then I realised I was really really angry at myself.  Disappointed’ she starts to tear up.

He looked at her, confused.  ‘What?’ he says softly.  ‘This is no way your fault, you're right, I should have told you, and I do trust you-’

‘I had no idea.’

Silence

‘At all,’ she slowly looked up at him, eyes glassy.  ‘That you were keeping something like this from me.  I mean, I thought there was small stuff, you know, work stuff.  I mean, you're a cop, I'm a reporter, there's stuff you can't tell me and I get that, but hiding something like this?  I had no inkling.  When I worked out you and Mr red spandex were the same person, I felt like there should have been a moment of clarity.  When it all fell into place, all the lies and the off feelings made sense or something, but it didn't.  Because I didn't feel there was lies, or an off feeling, or anything like that.  I thought I knew everything about you.  And then when I did find it out, all it left me with was confusion.  Because I couldn't overlap the two.  Barry Allen and the Flash.’

‘Is that why you left?’

‘Well that and I really am mad at you for not telling me.’ Iris was getting flustered. ‘It's more complicated than just being mad, and I needed the space to work it out.  I just feel like maybe we aren't actually right.  You can't trust me enough to tell me the biggest part of your life, fullstop, and I didn’t even realise there was something big in your life that you weren't telling me.’

‘Iris.  Yes I should have been honest, but with all that has been happening recently, I didn't know where to start.  I was going to let you, grieve a bit longer and try to finish up some things first then I thought we would be in an okay place and I could spend the rest of my life making it up to you.  Which I still planning on doing, if you let me.’

Iris broke eye contact again.

‘You just saw Barry and loved him.  Um, me. For all that I was always turning up late.  You've known me since before the accident, did that change anything between us?’

‘Well, yeah’

‘Beyond this mess right now.   I mean in the-’ he cleared his throat.  ‘In the relationship between Barry and Iris, right up to before my subconscious decided I had waited long enough.’

‘...No’, Iris sighed.  ‘There was a bit where you were a little shaky, which I suppose was one of those off things which was meant to suddenly make sense, but we have always been...us.’

‘Iris I love you.  So much more than I can ever say.  And if you want to leave- I understand and I’m not going to force you either way.   But I want us to continue, with no more secrets and no more lies.  Please, give me a chance.  We can call off the engagement and just go back to square one if you want, but please give me a chance and I swear I won't waste it.’ 

‘I love you too [*they be teary now*, gods this is sickly] and I'm sorry I left like that but I didn't know what else to do.  I freaked.  I've thought it through, and there is still more I need to ... to work out and I'm still really...wounded by you but...I don't want to leave us too.  Despite myself.  I like what we have, you need to give me a bit more space to get myself together, but I'm happy to keep us going.  More than so.’

‘.. So no calling off the engagement?  Which I don't think anyone knows about anyway.’ Barry said with a hopeful grin.

‘No calling off the engagement’ Iris smiled.

*sappy kiss, kind of mostly just embracing and all that stuff and teary because this is just angst all through because weeeee and gah and stuff*

They break apart.  ‘You never answered my question’ Iris said, sniffling.

‘What?’

‘Is the Flash genetic?’

‘According to what research I've been able to do there has been a change to a molecular level, but whether it could be passed on is unknown-’

‘Because, just to start the whole no secrets thing,’ Iris’s voice began to fade.  ‘There's something else I realised while I was away.’

Barry drew back.

‘I'm pregnant’

Beat of silence.

‘That’s probably another reason to remain engaged-’

*and more sappyness*

  Okay, reviewing this has shown that I really write god-awful sappy crap that if I think too much about will make me start worrying about how bad the messages in it are, but this was in my head, I wanted it out, so just deal with it. *folds arms and pouts in what she thinks is a threatening manner*

I then have a scene where Barry takes Iris to meet Bart, who has just popped up, with a ‘don’t worry about the survival of your kids (oh yeah, you’re having twins), meet your grandson’.  Because I’m a fan of all the clichés.   As I loudly speak of how I dislike them.

Anyway, this is what I want to say.  Thanks for reading the over 2000 words I’ve written, and please remember this was just an exercise of me venting for head space. 

Also, any recommendations of Flash comics to read, please send my way, I do want to read more.