That wouldn’t account for his pristine beardless cheeks now would it?

If dynamorphism is a factor then all bets are off anyway 😐

I posted a comment above about how making Patrick “secretly transgender,” or even just the “benevolent” aspect of his psyche, seems pretty damned offensive. I agree with you that there needs to be more and better representation of trans people in media… but…

1: we’ve already got at least one in this comic (the biodynamic individual who changes genders… making them very much like an intersexed person), and possibly others (which would be interesting; the women in the group ostracized the intersexed person for being “part time male,” what would they have done to an MTF?), and while one character is still not a substantial number, it’s still better than the vast majority of media at the moment (and this is coming from someone who has yet to see a Jewish male character as an action star role, with the possible exception of Jeff Goldblum’s character in “Independence Day.” And even then, he was a computer geek who sat next to Will Smith’s character and moaned about being chased by the aliens).

2: one of the (fully justified) criticisms made by people objecting to the “SJW Marvel” crap we’ve been seeing is that shoe-horning previously established characters into new roles to fulfill a quota (turning the happily heterosexual Iceman into a flamboyantly homosexual caricature, for instance) is a poor substitute for creating new and interesting characters to fill the role (i.e. if they had shown the creative ability to make a new character who is homosexual and is not the Iceman).

3: Not sure if Samus was ever meant as a transphobic joke. ORIGINALLY (when Metroid was originally released in the 80s) she was meant as a sexist joke – a joke on sexists and a commentary on gendered assumptions. A silent, powerful, unstoppable bounty hunter who no amount of aliens and space pirates could stop… and then off comes the helmet and OMG A WOMAN!? Transgender issues had nothing to do with it (And then came that game “Other M” where she was depicted as a shy, clingy, vulnerable thing with massive Daddy issues pining for an abusive jerk). The first real transgender character in video games was… the result of Capcom’s attempt to defend themselves against accusations of violence against women (Instead of saying “it’s okay that they’re hitting Poison because Poison is a violent street criminal armed with a knife who attacks first,” they said “It’s okay that they’re hitting Poison because… er… um… Poison’s really a dude? Yeah, that’s the ticket…”).

http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/every-rose-has-its-thorn

(Followed by Birdy from Super Mario Bros 2… who was definitely a transphobic joke…)

” we’ve already got at least one in this comic”

Sigh, the quota argument. This is actually a real world problem in publishing, minority group authors have literally been told by publishers “we like your novel, but we already have a black/gay/whatever author” (author, never mind character). And for that matter, I’ve multiple trans friends, never mind just acquaintances, yet I should be restricted to just one in fiction? A significant demographic among my friends is gay, neurodiverse, wheelchair users, I’d have a problem getting one of those past a publisher, never mind half a dozen.

“one of the (fully justified) criticisms made by people objecting to the
“SJW Marvel” crap we’ve been seeing is that shoe-horning previously
established characters into new roles to fulfill a quota (turning the
happily heterosexual Iceman into a flamboyantly homosexual caricature,
for instance) is a poor substitute for creating new and interesting
characters to fill the role”

Well, the idea that Marvel Corporate has the first clue when it comes to doing something subtle and well written when it comes to universe wide diktats is your first problem. But the particularly problem with an established universe that was written under the rules of the universal narrative (everyone is a straight white male unless specified otherwise – it’s even more of a problem in written work with no imagery) is that trying to fix it is very difficult. In the real world around 1 in 4 of your characters will have some kind of disability (mostly invisible ones such as diabetes, epilepsy or neurodiversity), 1 in 10* will be LGBT, and ethnicity will vary heavily by locality, but in any major urban area in the west you should expect non-white people in numbers significant enough they should show up within the typical cast.

Trying to fix the issue to become representative of the real world population is a significant effort if you restrict yourself to introducing new characters, you’re looking at a 10% growth in character numbers for LGBT alone, which isn’t too significant in a stand-alone novel, but is a problem for a universe as large as Marvel’s. And of course there is the problem of introducing neophyte characters who need to be as competent as characters who in some cases have been written about for 70 years. If they’re that competent and well established, why haven’t we heard of them? If they aren’t competent and well established, you’re recreating Robin the Boy Hostage in a more offensive format, to inevitably be saved by the SWM heroes. But superhero characters are almost all closeted, their wallet ID hidden behind a super-persona. That means that having them doubly closeted about their sexuality isn’t actually a major step, plus real-world consistent, and makes it much easier to bring in LGBT heroes in a more developed role and without needing a significant uptick in headliner characters. Doing it for ethnic minorities, or visible disabilities, is obviously more of an issue.

Of course expecting Marvel to do it in a well-written, respectful and appropriate manner is probably too much to hope.

* Stats vary, but, as talking about LGBT sexuality becomes more openly accepted, look to be headed for at least 10%, with outliers for as much as 15%

“and this is coming from someone who has yet to see a Jewish male character as an action star role”

Hm, I suppose none of Kirk Douglas’s or Harrison Ford’s characters were ever shown to be Jewish. I believe Inglorious Basterds had a Jewish person on their crew. Magento isn’t really a ‘Hero’ ( although there have been movies where he’s just been kind of a big dick instead of a straight up villain), but he does qualify as an “Action Star” since he’s a main character in multiple action movies and participates in the action that occurs.

Ooh, you should watch ‘The Frisco Kid’ if you haven’t. It’s a comedy starring Gene Wilder as a Rabbi making his way through the wild west. So he’s extremely Jewish and gets into various hijinks with some mild level ‘action’ involved due to the nature of the setting. It’s great!

*cough* That is some pretty shoddy representation though, but at least it’s better than Jeff Goldbloom in Independence Day.

It occurs to me there’s at least three versions of Operation Thunderbolt/The Raid on Entebbe, pretty much all of them with Lt Col Yonatan Netanyahu (Benjamin Netanyahu’s elder brother) as the male lead character. But that’s a special case.

And if we drop the ‘male’, Ziva David on NCIS pretty much fits the role.

I think that’s reasonable, and like I said I had the same thought.

I initially didn’t take it as Patrick, but there’s that line on the cheek–I’m not sure if it’s a scar or a cheekbone line, but Patrick is usually pretty distinctively drawn with it, right?

I’m not claiming it’s any kind of solid evidence. They just look really Patrick-ish to me. I’m sure we’ll find out what the deal is when we get a closer look.