Pretty good Ask Chris article this week, and of interest to some of you.
Ask Chris: Catwoman and the Villainous Love Interest (Comics Alliance)
Again I'm reminded of just how much I agree with Chris Sims, down to my affection for Baroness as a "pure" villainess, and I'm one of those people for whom the "villainous love interest" cliche for Catwoman has long worn thin. Why, when that moment comes up in Arkham City where Catwoman has to choose between giving up the loot to save Batman or leaving Gotham City with the briefcase from Pulp Fiction, I chose to leave. Twice.
And on a subject from earlier today... I've opined about the Jean/Scott/Logan thing at length elsewhere, but for me it boils down to this: Scott was someone who's all about control and repression, about being aware and afraid of the dangerous power inside him, because that's who he is because of his nature and the accident. On some level, that's what attracted Jean to him: that constant repressive nature, coupled with a neediness that appealed to her maternal instincts, because Jean is also someone who was repressing a dangerous force inside her. They connected there on that level, and also because they spent years together side by side. Then along comes Logan, and Jean sees something in him that's completely different. Logan also has a dangerous power inside him, an animal lying under the surface, yet unlike Scott Logan doesn't always repress that power. On the contrary, Logan releases it, lives through it, revels in it (perhaps just a bit too much); yes it gets out of control, and yes Logan came to Xavier's to learn how to control it better but he's more alive and free because of it. And Jean sees that, and she's attracted to it, attracted to him because of it, because the power, the wildness, the Phoenix inside her wants to be alive and free too. So, Jean's repressed matronly nature was attracted to the needy Scott, and Jean's wild desire was attracted to the easy freedom of Logan. And for Logan, the attraction was simple: in Jean he not only sensed a kindred wild and dangerous spirit yearning to be alive and free, but Jean was someone who believed that he could walk that line, strike that balance between man and animal, because SHE wanted to believe that it was possible for HER too. Jean wasn't afraid of Logan (and that's something I've always taken issue with); if anything, Jean was afraid of how Logan made her feel, because if she wasn't strong enough, if she tried to be like him only to lose control, then the primal force inside her would consume everything.
