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JUDGE ANON

@judgeanon / judgeanon.tumblr.com

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tepkunset

PHYLA-VELL READING LIST

Phyla-Vell is a sword wielding space lesbian and founding member of Earth 616′s Guardians of the Galaxy. (There was a Guardians of the Galaxy series in the 90′s, thus the vol 2 instead of 1, but it was in a different reality.) Phyla’s pretty damn awesome, and remains one of my favourite characters. 

CAPTAIN MARVEL VOL 5 (2002) #15-25

When Genis-Vell (AKA Captain Marvel at the time) intends to preemptively stop a war he foresees with his cosmic awareness by… starting a war, Phyla-Vell is sent by their mother Elysius to take him down and assume his role. (This is when she first meets Heather and they almost instantly hit it off.)

ANNIHILATION (2006)

Thanos kidnaps Heather, and this leads to Phyla teaming up with Nova, Star-Lord, Drax and other space heroes to rescue her love and defeat Annihilus. In doing so, she ends up being the new Quasar, gaining the Quantum Bands.

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST (+PROLOGUE & QUASAR MINIS) (2007)

The Phalanx + Ultron = super bad news for like, everything. This is the first event where Phyla is actually a largely featured character and ends up playing a very important role, and if you don’t want to read chronologically but rather really jump into things, I suggest starting with the prologue, then Quasar mini, then main Annihilation event. SPOILER WARNING: Heather ends up turning into a dragon in the Quasar mini, then dying in the main event. 😢

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2 (2008)

After fighting and defeating the Phalanx and Ultron and the Nova Corps gone to shit, Star-Lord realizes it might be a good idea to put together a crew to… guard the galaxy. Phyla joins the team as Quasar, but SPOILER WARNING: ends up becoming the new Avatar of Death in order to bring Heather back, and renames herself Martyr. (Wendell Vaughn resumes the role of Quasar.)

But yeah, she dies. And it fucking sucks especially because her death is so ridiculous and feels shoe-horned just to make a dramatic reveal more dramatic. And honestly, Heather’s reaction is mine @ the writers:

But please, go enjoy her for what she’s in! It is an absolute travesty she is not more well-known. 

#Phyla-Vell#Guardians of the Galaxy#Marvel#Quasar#Martyr#Reading List#Recs#Yes to all of this
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tepkunset

I mentioned how one of the things I love about Phyla-Vell is that her story and archetype is one that is typically given to male characters, and figured I’d expand on that.

If I were to describe a character who has identity issues stemming from not measuring up to their father in the eyes of the world, a character who struggles with a quick temper, a character who sometimes does reckless shit to the frustration of the team leader… you’d probably expect that character to be a man. The Cool Guy™ who plays by his own rules or whatever. But that’s Phyla. 

Phyla’s father was Mar-Vell. Her father and brother were Captain Marvel. She was constantly pushed to live up to impossible standards while at the same time kept in the background. Then when she gets the Quantum Bands and becomes Quasar, she starts on her own path for the first time in her life, one not dictated for her. And she feels so inadequate, all the time, but keeps trying anyway. Then she becomes Martyr, and gets called a failure as that as well, but who cares because she saved Heather and that’s what matters to her. (And damn do I ever still wish she wasn’t needlessly killed off for dramatic effect, and has still yet to be resurrected. But hey that’s being a lesbian character for you.)

Anyway, I am gonna make a reading list I decided. Cause she’s so cool and deserves more people to know about her. :P

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judgeanon

Yes yes YES I love everything about this post. This is exactly what I loved about Phyla as a character: even when she was Quasar and the actual ghost of Wendell Vaughn showed up to tell her she was doing fine and she was saving the universe on a regular basis, her own mental conditioning kept her constantly struggling against impossible standards set by nobody but herself. She was born to take someone else’s position and be not just as good but better than they were. And it wasn’t a little quirk or a source of jokes, it was a fatal character flaw that actually had massive repercussions for herself and everyone around her.

And here’s the thing about Martyr that really fucks me up: Martyr was the first and only role she stepped into for almost completely selfish reasons. Phyla was born to be Captain Marvel and took the Quantum Bands because the galaxy was in danger and nobody else could. But despite the threat of the Dragon of the Moon, Phyla became Martyr almost exclusively to save Heather. She wasn’t saving the universe, she was saving her love. And even then, even then, she still couldn’t help but try and be the best Avatar of Death she could. She was incapable of rebelling or even asking for help. She took on that burden completely alone, suffering in silence with the knowledge of the horrible thing she’d have to do, because that’s what she was created to do: take on a role. Step on someone else’s shoes. Be what someone else wants her to be.

That’s why Phyla is my favorite Guardian. That’s why her story resonated so strongly with me. Her impossible standards were a flaw that she never got over. At best she managed to keep it silent, but when she was at her lowest, when she was panicking, when she was alone, it came back to drag her into darkness. Because that’s how flaws work. And while her arc was sadly truncated before she could really address all that, on its own it stands as a poignant and tragic story about the dangers of trying to manufacture heroism and the inherent flaws of putting the weight of everything on a single person’s shoulders. Sooner or later, it will crush them.

#Phyla-Vell#Guardians of the Galaxy#Marvel#Marvel Cosmic#Martyr#Quasar#I have so much fucking THOUGHTS and FEELINGS about Phyla-Vell
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