It's Elemental: Portrayals of Metamorpho and Element Girl

As Julie D. O’Reilly succinctly points out in her article ‘The Wonder Woman Precedent: Female (Super)Heroism on Trial’, most superheroines, especially true of Golden and Silver Age characters are mere extensions of their male counterparts (273). Apart from Wonder Woman, many of the female characters’ monikers are suffixed with the adolescent title of girl – Supergirl, Batgirl, Element Girl, for example – as opposed to the male characters’ man. While the male hero graduates from boy to man, the female hero remains stuck in a kind of permanent adolescence. For example, while Peter Parker is still a teenager his rise to the level of superhero sees him becoming Spiderman. In contrast Jean Grey of the X-Men was still only Marvel Girl when Professor Xavier deemed the X-Men worthy of hero status. For the male readership (of all ages), the male superhero is to be idealised and aspired to, while the female superheroine, the girl, is to be gazed at, dominated, and acquired. If the superheroine is merely an extension of the superhero, then becoming a superhero also means “getting the girl” – the male superhero naturally attracts his female counterpart, and in doing so reinforces his own status as the primary hero. As Elizabeth Grosz states:

male self-definitions require and produce definitions of the female as their inverted or complementary counterparts. This implies… an analysis of the ways in which masculine or phallocentric discourses and knowledges rely on images, metaphors and figures of woman and femininity to support and justify their definitions. It also… implies an exploration of the disavowed corporeal and psychic dependence of the masculine, with its necessary foundation in women’s bodies, on the female corporeality it cannot claim as its own territory (the maternal body) (74).

Element Girl is one of these female others to the male hero’s one. Element Girl, a.k.a. Urania Blackwell, first appeared as a counterpart to Metamorpho in Metamorpho #10 (1967). Treasure hunter Rex Mason became Metamorpho, the Element Man, after exposure to the Orb of Ra in an Egyptian pyramid. He gained the ability to change into any element or compound contained in the human body allowing him to turn parts or the whole of his body into a variety of gases or objects such as blades, springs, or hammers. Rex’s dashing good looks were ruined during the transformation as were his intentions of marrying his beautiful girlfriend, Sapphire. However Rex takes to using rubber masks to cover his face. Element Girl volunteered to be exposed to the Orb of Ra and received a coloured body, disfigured face, and abilities, similar to Metamorpho. After a number of adventures together, Element Girl fell in love with Metamorpho, pursuing him vigorously, becoming a rival to Sapphire. While the last issue of Metamorpho (#17 March/April 1968) has Rex and Element Girl together, the storyline is clearly not complete. Element Girl was not seen again until an appearance in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman (‘Facade’ #20 October 1990). By this time she has become unable to leave her apartment because of her hideous appearance. Like Rex once did, Urania now uses masks to cover her face, which is in contrast to her initial portrayal where she appeared quite proud to accept her freakish appearance. But it seems that without Metamorpho around, everything is different. Urania produces silicate masks using her elemental ability, but they fall off after a short period and flesh masks composed of her own elemental makeup quickly rot. Terribly depressed without virtually any human contact, she had failed to commit suicide on several occasions due to her body’s natural defences (Wallace 104). 

A minor comic character at best, Element Girl’s story in the Metamorpho and Sandman titles provides contrasting portrayals of men and women’s personal appearance. In the original Metamorpho series Element Girl is a headstrong, confident, intelligent, and resourceful woman. As rival to Sapphire for Rex’s affections (citing their similarities as freaks would make them a perfect couple) she provides a stark contrast to the spoiled, rich, and passive, Sapphire. In her coloured and changing body Element Girl is definitely presented as other, and in her desire for Rex’s affection she can also be seen as an interloper who tries to break up the potential family unit. Rex had always planned to marry Sapphire before becoming the disfigured Metamorpho and it is Sapphire who continually re-emerges as Rex’s true love, even though she remains a continually passive character. Interestingly Metamorpho’s appearance becomes more comely over the years meaning the rubber masks he uses are eventually discarded. He is never hideous enough to shut himself away like Element Girl eventually does. Rex is concerned with his looks but this is not the sum total of his identity. This wouldn’t be the actions of a hero. Nor does he lose Sapphire’s love after his transformation. Indeed Rex ends up with two women fighting over his disfigured form and affections, a situation which would rarely occur if the genders were reversed.

Element Girl has a confident nature in her superhero role, though when fighting alongside Rex she constantly tries to convince him of her worth. By the time the Metamorpho series was cancelled, Metamorpho and Element Girl’s relationship seemed to be in the ascendency. In Sandman #20 her circumstances are quite different. Unwanted as an operative at her former government agency, unable to procure other ongoing work due to her disfigured appearance, and with Rex nowhere to be seen, she has essentially become a shut-in. Element Girl’s appearance has become the be all and end all of her life. With her self-esteem seriously low, she is certainly no hero, and the story shows the reality/absurdity of a “pensioned-off” hero. When she finds that her own body prevents her from committing suicide, Gaiman introduces the character, Death, to help dispatch her. Gaiman is determined to get rid of Element Girl one way or another. Death simply tells Urania to ask Ra to help take her life, which he does.

While Gaiman’s story comments on the abundance of pneumatically enhanced female characters that populated (and to an extent still continue to populate) contemporary superhero comics, there is a more disturbing subtext playing out. Gaiman’s depiction of Element Girl reads that once a woman’s youthful looks, and therefore her usefulness, are gone, she will effectively be abandoned by society. However Gaiman doesn’t address how this problem can be overcome. His solution to her predicament is to make her suicidal. This other female presence must be dispatched. Without looks, a job, or a male superheroic counterpart, it seems there is little else left except suicide for Element Girl.

Reference

Gaiman, N. (w), Doran, C. (p), and Jones III, M. (i). 'Facade' Sandman. v1 #20 (Oct. 1990). New York: DC Comics,1990.

Grosz, E. Jacques Lacan: A Feminist Introduction. London and New York: Routledge,1990.

O’Reilly, J.D. ‘The Wonder Woman Precedent: Female (Super)Heroism on Trial’ in The Journal of American Culture. 28, 3, 2005.

Wallace, D. ‘Element Girl’ in Dougall, A. (ed.) The DC Comics Encyclopedia. New York: DC Comics, Dorling Kindersley Ltd, 2004.

Review - Superior #2 by Mark Millar and Leinil Yu

Superior is Millar's attempt to return to more traditional type of comic story, one filled with magic and wonder. In this Millar follows in the footsteps of Kurt Busiek's Astro City and Alan Moore's Tom Strong. This may not seem much of a talking point but since Millar's stories (The Authority, Wanted, Kick-Ass and Nemesis) are generally wall-to-wall blood-filled, over-the-top, action extravaganzas, a little magic and wonder is definitely a different tack for Millar.

I haven't reviewed issue one because, while I bought it, I lost the copy! Where it went...

Anyway here's a quick recap. Issue one saw multiple sclerosis sufferer Simon Pooni granted a wish by Ormon, a talking monkey in spacesuit. The last talking monkey I saw was in Grant Morrison's The Filth - and a foul-mouthed simian he was! Simon's illness has left him wheelchair-bound with his parents having to help bathe and feed him - terribly embarrassing for a budding teenager. Simon is also bullied and spends most of his free time immersing himself in movies. All pretty standard stuff but let's face it, anything with a talking monkey instantly elevates the story to comic book gold! Simon's wish? To become Superior - the superhero star of the Superior movie franchise played by actor Tad Scott. Wah-lah! The monkey grants Simon's wish. This has echoes of Captain Marvel/Billy Batson and smells of adolescent power fantasy. Well, really, which superhero comics aren't adolescent power fantasies... None of it's subtle but Millar doesn't do subtle.

Issue two sees Superior/Simon convincing his friend, Chris, that he's actually Simon in Superior's body. Thankfully we're spared the "I'll tell you something that only you and I know" scene. They test out Superior's super abilities to see if they're the same as the Superior movie character version or the comic book version - some pretty standard "new superhero learns how to use their abilities" stuff, but at least a little amusing. Simon uses his frustration of living with multiple sclerosis to fuel the control of his new powers. The climax sees Superior confronted with his first major disaster. There's also a hint that Simon may not be Superior forever.


As I've come to expect from Millar the story jumps along at a nice clip but like Nemesis I feel that Millar is delivering only just enough per issue. This issue could've been told in half the pages which means we could have double the amount of story! Do we really need half page splashes of Simon/Superior learning to fly? Or him learning to use his supervision?

The issue's high point is Leinil Yu's realistic styled artwork. Each panel is meticulously drawn and striking really producing a big look.

The one thing that was disappointing was the comic's colouring, especially on Superior's face. It just looks heavy-handed at best, amateurish at worst, and takes away from Yu's fine pencil work. Pages with just Yu's pencils are reproduced in the back of the issue showing the detailed and crisp line work.The colouring really obliterates this detail. I'm assuming the colouring has been done digitally I've found this on any number of occasions in comics. It used to be worse, especially in the 1990s when the use of computers and digital imaging was just beginning. Thankfully proficiency and programs have improved but like anything it can be done badly and here, I think it is. I sometimes think that I'd prefer to see the comic printed just as pencils without the coloring.

If there's one other small criticism, while Yu's work is fantastic, the poses Superior strikes are still in the vein of superheroic. There's less conveyance of a young goofy boy in a hulking unfamiliar body. Nothing like how Frank Quitely brilliantly managed to pull off making Clark Kent look completely different, and actually hold his body different, to Superman in All-Star Superman.

Superior #2 is entertaining enough and is setting up the longer story nicely. Millar is one of the superstars of comic writing at the moment and it's easy to see why. He's developed a distinct style in his storytelling - bold in style, big in concept. Millar produces a spectacle, leaving lots of room for his artist to work. Still, I just wish there was more...

This: Solid and interesting
Forthcoming: Why not? Talking monkeys (and ones that grant wishes) are always a drawcard. Let's see where it's going...

Read review of Superior #3

A Golden Era for Comics Scholarship Beckons

Comics have been given more academic attention over the last ten years, and with three academic journals/series devoted to comics scholarships emerging in 2010 -

• Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 
• Studies in Comics and Cartoon Series
• Studies in Comics

adding to the already established The International Journal of Comic Art (IJOCA), The Comics Journal and Image/Text, the outlets for comics scholarship are very healthy indeed. Books have been written on comics with individual chapters devoted to themes, characters, titles, and the figure of the superhero, but the next level of analysis will be of comic writers identifying themes across their work. 

To some extent this has already begun. Neil Gaiman's Sandman has been analysed out the wazoo in academic journals and will no doubt continue to be for some time. With its literary and mythological references it was always ripe for analysis. Gaiman has also had a few books written about his work-

• Neil Gaiman's the Sandman and Joseph Campbell: In Search of the Modern Myth (2003) 
• Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman (2008)
• The Sandman Papers: An Exploration of the Sandman (2006)
• The Neil Gaiman Reader (2007)

So has Alan Moore-

• Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel (2009)
• Watchmen and Philosophy: A Rorschach Test (2009).

Grant Morrison already has two books devoted to his work-

• Grant Morrison: The Early Years (2007)
  
• Our Sentence is Up: Seeing Grant Morrison's The Invisibles (2010)

But look at the dates. Apart from one Gaiman book, there's nothing before 2006. It's an exciting time for comics scholars. There's an endless amount of material to plunder and more coming all the time. The advent of digital downloads and access to back issues (from whichever source you get them) means analysis is much easier and cheaper for scholars. Almost the complete DC and Marvel archives are available online (if you know where to look).

There's a massive list of comic writers who have developed, and are still developing, masterful bodies of work. Apart from those already mentioned there's Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Millar, Garth Ennis, Ed Brubaker, Jeph Loeb, Geoff Johns, Mark Waid, Greg Rucka, Kurt Busiek, Paul Pope, Ben Templesmith, Brian Wood, Brian K. Vaughn, and Judd Winick. 

In the near future there'll be an explosion of expositions on comic writers analysing their bodies of work. It's inevitable. Due to the time involved in the publishing process, what this really means is that these forthcoming works which I'm predicting are actually being written now. 

For me the next major focus of scholarship will on Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis. Pushed by the success of the movie adaption of RED, Ellis' work will receive a lot more attention. Of this Transmetropolitan, The Authority, and Planetary will be the main focus.

Update 30 Nov 2010: And right on schedule, here's what I'm talking about -

• 'Telling stories about storytelling: The metacomics of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Warren Ellis'
• 'Useful Play: Historicization in Alan Moore's Supreme and Warren Ellis/John Cassaday's Planetary'

As we speak Garth Ennis is virtually re-writing how superheroes can be looked at with his 'metacomic' The Boys. Ennis' wildly pessimistic depiction of amoral and immoral superheroes will garner more critical and analytical attention than Watchmen. It deconstructs the superhero almost to the point of obliteration. In fact with his back catalogue - Hellblazer, Preacher, The Demon, Hitman, Goddess, Flinch, The Pro, The Punisher, Chronciles of Wormwood, and Crossed (to name a few) Ennis' writing is ripe for analytical picking.

I can't wait for what scholars will garner from the material. The golden era of comics scholarship is now!

Review: Nemesis #3 by Mark Millar (writer) and Steve McNiven (artist)

Carnage. Nemesis #3 is pure carnage.

Millar and McNiven have produced a love letter to violence and shock tactics with Nemesis #3 going into gross-out territory in both physical and moral violence.

Having been captured by supercop Blake Morrow, Nemesis (aka Matthew Anderson) isn't too worried as it appears being incarcerated in a maximum security prison is all part of his master plan. Sure enough, with some help from his henchmen Nemesis escapes, in the process killing not one, not two, but ninety-seven fully-armed riot-cops! This takes up approximately five pages.

Nemesis though has much in store for Morrow and his family. Nemesis' actions against them are genuinely sickening.

As far as story goes, there's actually not a lot here. Nemesis escapes, makes Morrow reveal some secrets, and Morrow's resolve to capture Nemesis is reinforced - 'let's nail this bitch.'  Morrow's family secrets aren't really that shocking but they're supposed to show us that attaining 'supercop' status has had disadvantages and consequences which affect Morrow's family. It's supposed to make us sympathise (and empathise) with Morrow (i.e.: he's flawed) and show that Nemesis has no scruples (as if we didn't know that already) in trying to tear Morrow down.

Okay, so let's make it clear. Millar isn't drawing on subtlety, or indeed reality, with Nemesis. It's major over the top stuff in virtually every sense. He's going for big and extravagant and succeeding brilliantly. Nemesis is pure spectacle. Don't believe me? A supervillain walking around in a completely white suit and cape for starters...

The issue really belongs to Steve McNiven. His artwork, especially the violent and bloody sequences, is top quality. As shown by the sample script pages at the rear of the comic, Millar's directions are minimal allowing McNiven's talents to shine. If asked for one word to describe his art, I'd volunteer- precise. There's nothing extraneous or superfluous here. Everything is exact.

My only gripe is that it ripped along so fast. Pages where there's all action and little or no dialogue makes a very quick read. Considering I'm in Australia and it cost me $6, I was hoping for a longer experience. Again produced in the widescreen format with a maximum of five panels to a page (with the exception of one page with six) and four full page spreads I couldn't help but feel this was really only half a comic.

I'm hoping for a truly memorable ending next issue.

This: Worthwhile, but a little disappointing in content. Forthcoming: Bring it on!

Part 3 - Notice the Difference? Eliminating the Feminine in Superhero Comics

Part 3 of 'Notice the Difference? Eliminating the Feminine in Superhero Comics' covers how armouring the male superhero body is an attempt to elicit self-control and thereby control the feminine that is embodied in chaotic, uncontrollable and changing ‘outside forces’. I further establish how armouring the body is unworkable due to its passive mode of resistance. I describe the next step in the process to control outside forces as becoming the weapon/machine and the consequences that this can have for culture at large.

Read Part 1

Read Part 2

Armouring the Body

Why have ‘ideal’ male superhero bodies increased in size so dramatically? Superman had ‘the constitution, organs and abilities equal to the rigors of the Machine Age’ (Bukatman 99), but he was never so damned big and rippling with obscene amounts of muscles as these heroes. What the increasing size of the male superhero body indicates is a process of armouring.

A defining characteristic of postmodernism is the decentring of identity, of meaning being found outside of the self. Bukatman states that the bodybuilder/superhero-fantasy represents an attempt to ‘re-centre the self in the body’ (110). Stripped of signs, naked, idealised, this re-centring, armouring of the male body is an attempt to weather the postmodern storm; to re-load the body with meaning.

Simply, the times-are-a-changing and 1990s superheroes didn’t know much else to do other than to be bigger, badder, and just punch on, incarnating problematic and painfully reductive definitions of masculine power and presence’ (Bukatman 96). Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, distinctly postmodern in their own rights, had heralded the direction superhero comics would take. Image comics eschewed any type of self-reflexivity, and instead ran with the surface aspects of the dark, gritty, and violent figuring that extreme sex and violence was the natural extension from Miller and Moore. And for a time they were right. Without realising it they also produced a thoroughly postmodern response, that being that these comics were all surface and little substance. They had no meaning other than armouring the body to hypermasculine extremes against the postmodern condition.

Apart from the decentring of identity, the postmodern condition also signifies the instability of western culture due to its questioning of stereotypes, sex roles, and role models. James Maertens writes that controlling nature is ultimately ‘rooted in the desire for absolute self-control’ (191); for ‘self-control, mastery of nature and of our nature, is a defining marker of the masculine state’ (Frosh 104). Nature necessarily is equated with the female or femininity as Theweleit states – ‘male rationalist thinking repeatedly renews its demand for the oppression of women each time it calls for the subjugation of “nature”’(1987 432). Using the fascist male as an example, Theweleit describes perfectly how the state of controlling the self through armouring the body equates to control of outside forces –

Men themselves were now split into a (female) interior and a (male) exterior – the body armor. …the interior and the exterior were mortal enemies. What we see being portrayed… are the armor’s separation from, and superiority over the interior: the interior was allowed to flow, but only within the masculine boundaries… What fascism promised men was the reintegration of their hostile components under tolerable conditions, dominance of the “hostile” female elements within themselves.

A line from Superman #123 relates how Superman’s inability to control his newly acquired energy powers threatens his existence – ‘that lack of control made him more vulnerable than ever’ (Jurgens, Frenz, and Rubenstein 1997 2). Therefore control of the self and the ‘female’ interior through armouring the body conflates with controlling the feminine as nature, and other ‘uncontrollable’ outside forces such as the postmodern condition. More succinctly, it is the wish to control chaos. However this control and re-centring of the self is ultimately relegated to the realm of desire; it is unobtainable. While being armoured protects one from outside industrial shocks, it imprisons the ego which is then ‘unable to escape the barriers it has raised against a universe that can only be conceived as an enemy’ (Maertens 190). An imprisoned ego is unacceptable to the masculine ideal because armouring the body is a passive mode of resistance, a protective rather than aggressive strategy. In the midst of postmodernism, the characters with reductive definitions of masculine power, unable to ‘re-centre the self’ turn out to just be, bulging, empty, armoured, shells.


Becoming the Weapon

However all is not lost! If re-centring the self through armouring the body is passive, there’s a further step that the male can take to fight this unstable, uncontrollable enemy that is indicative of the postmodern condition: a change from armouring the body to arming it with weaponry. The body is now becoming the weapon/machine, blurring the boundary between the weapon/machine and the body. This is exemplified in Wetworks where the team is enclosed by the symbiote described as a ‘bio-metalloid compound saturated and controlled by nanotech wetware’ (Portacio & Choi Jun.1994 9). The symbiote augments the Wetworks team’s metabolic systems, and adapts and integrates weapons systems so that they function as extensions of their body (Portacio & Choi, Aug.1994 3). The idea of the body as weapon is demonstrated more explicitly from this excerpt – ‘Look at them, Colonel. Don’t you see that you and your soldiers are the perfect weapons I need to bring the vampire nation to its knees’ (Portacio & Choi Aug.1994 4). The idea is not limited to the superhero comic however as the literature of the Freikorps explicates – ‘these men were living guns’ (Schauwecker in Theweleit 1989 179); ‘was I now perhaps one with the weapon? Was I not machine– cold metal?’ (Salomon in Theweleit 1989 179); and ‘What purpose would be served by all these weapons leveled against the universe,  were they not intertwined with our nerves, were it not our blood that hissed on every axis’ (my italics)(Junger in Theweleit 1989 179). Becoming the weapon is a reaction to outside forces, and again we find the recurring motif of the universe as enemy.

As Connell argues, modern day "heroes" such as professional sportsmen are obliged ‘to treat their bodies as instruments, even as weapons’ (58) which ‘ultimately results in violence against one’s own body’ (Messner in Connell 58). But becoming the weapon gives one ‘the ability to recreate oneself into a predictable machine, one which, if it does break down, can be fixed’ (Maertens 191). The predictable body/weapon/machine aligns itself with the re-centring of the self, for predictability necessarily ensures control. This predictability and control of the self therefore translates into a control of outside forces. 

Where armouring the body failed due to the imprisonment of the ego, becoming the weapon/machine is an active mode of resistance against the postmodern universal enemy. This resistance enables the individual to act rather than react. 

The consequences for the feminine and other outside forces when the male becomes the weapon/machine is very disturbing. Becoming the weapon involves a mode of production that Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari call machinic. Ideally an individual is a ‘human multiplicity-machine’. Theweleit describes the functioning of the individual as machinic thus:

by manufacturing an infinity of new associations… it is always in search of accessible connections, open pathways, unforeseen spaces, powerful flows. It couples, it uncouples; each component is functionally independent; it may function here, or… elsewhere’ (Theweleit 1989 198).

This human multiplicity-machine has the ability to produce infinite pleasures. Becoming the weapon explicitly negates the desire of the human multiplicity machine, the individual becoming a human totality machine– ‘hierarchized, functionalized, individual; the machine connections are standardized and unified, it flows liberated only if individual components overwhelm and explode’ (Theweleit 1989 198).

As weapon/machine, the human being, a ‘producer of desire’, is transformed into a muscle machine (the armoured body incorporated) that prohibits and persecutes the production of desire (Theweleit 1989 199). In turn the machine also becomes anthropomorphised. The human-

becomes an imperfect machine and the machine an imperfect human being, neither any longer capable of producing, only of expressing and propagating the horrors they have suffered. Perversely distorted, both now become destroyers; and real human beings… are the victims’ (Theweleit 1989 199).

These horrors are the bombardment of the decentring process, and the extraction and distortion of meaning from the human self. The ‘horror’ of these perceived attacks, this destabilisation that the masculine psyche has experienced, can only mean that the attacks will be violently returned against those who are seen as responsible, namely women, the feminine as nature (the environment), and other ‘outside forces’ like postmodernism. It could be argued that these attacks are demonstrated by violence against women such as domestic violence and rape, the continued devastation of the environment when it is seen an economic resource, and to a lesser degree, the call for a return to "traditional" gender roles and "family values". The male, ‘perversely distorted’ as expression-weapon/machine can only express his anger through becoming nothing more than a ‘destroyer’.

The message from the Freikorps through to the superhero comic, indicates that masculinity is unsuccessfully trying to come to terms with the chaotic, fluid and uncontrollable nature of the feminine and a postmodern world. The masculine subject resists rather than accepts these new circumstances. 

Superhero comics seem to come up with ever more elaborate ways of expressing masculine resistance. The energy being superhero is an example of this resistance. Fuji from the comic Stormwatch is an energy being who needs a containment suit otherwise he'll disperse limitlessly into the environment. The same scenario has been played out with other characters such as another Stormwatch character Hellstrike, and for a short time Superman (when he was Electric Blue Superman, May 1997- May 1998). Often it involves a race against time to ‘save’ the hero. Merging with the environment would mean accepting rather than resisting the outside forces of the feminine and the postmodern condition. 

The message that superhero comics communicate to their predominantly male audience is one of fight, resist, and eliminate the female ‘outside forces’, while delighting in homoerotic/narcissistic desire and the worship of impossible ideals of masculinity and femininity.



Conclusion

The female superhero body in superhero comics (especially the Image comics of the 1990s) is endowed with characteristics of a "standard" male body–shoulders wider than hips, a shorter torso and long legs.

For Baudrillard the body is a representation that has been phallicised thus creating erectile parts. This representation of the female is unattainable, derived as it is from the phallus as general equivalent. The phallicised female body is eliminated when it is used as a mirror that reflects male dominance and desire. The female is further not allowed to become a body due to her potential threat of castration (the vagina dentata and the phallic woman) which is eliminated when she is eliminated as female.

In order to control "outside forces" the male superhero tries recentre the self by armouring the body which also is an attempt to control the feminine. This mode of resistance is doomed to failure due to its passive mode of resistance against the postmodern condition. 

The next step in controlling outside forces is to become the weapon/machine. This offers a more active mode of resistance. However becoming the weapon/machine has a disturbing potential dehumanising the individual, becoming an expression-machine/weapon that has the capacity to retaliate violently against uncontrollable outside forces such the feminine and a constantly changing postmodern world, perceived as propagating horrors on the male, such as extracting meaning from the self.

The elimination of the feminine "other", nature or other uncontrollable "outside forces" is effectuated by a masculinity that thrives on homoerotic/narcissistic desire, and the control of the self, which is equated with the control of all else.

Reference

Bukatman, Scott. “X-Bodies (the torment of the mutant superhero)” in  Sappington, Rodney and Tyler Stallings (eds) Uncontrollable Bodies: Testimonies of Identity and Culture.  Seattle: Bay Press, 1994.

Connell, R. W. Masculinities. Allen & Unwin, 1995.

Frosh, Stephen. Sexual Difference: Masculinity and Psychoanalysis. London and New York: Routledge, 1994.

Jurgens, Dan, (w). Ron Frenz & Joe Rubinstein (a). Superman v1 #123 (May 1997), New York: DC Comics, 1997.

Maertens, James. W. 'The Dragon and the Man-Machine: Reflecting on Jurassic Park and Frankenstein', in Mary Lynn Kittelson, (ed.) The Soul of Popular Culture: Looking at Contemporary Heroes, Myths and Monsters. Chicago & La Salle, Illinois: Open Court, 1998.

Portacio, Whilce, (w,a). Brandon Choi (w). Wetworks. v1 #1 (Jun. 1994), Image Comics Inc, 1994.

----. Wetworks. v1 #2 (Aug. 1994), Image Comics Inc, 1994.

Theweleit, Klaus. Male Fantasies. Volume 1.: Women, Floods, Bodies, History. Polity Press, 1987.

----. Male Fantasies. Volume 2.: Male Bodies: Psychoanalyzing the White Terror. Polity Press, 1989.