X-MenPart Two: The Leopards and the Cats

By, Becky Arturo

Abstract

In this cover of the X-Men, the theme of vengeance and self-loathing is very prominent. Spiral attacked Elisabeth Braddock out of vengeance for the X-Men, Gambit arrive to protect the other X-men, and Matsu’O killed Nyoirin because of vengeance over lies about Kwannon. Matsu’O experienced self-loathing due to Kwannon’s death and loss of love, which was another theme. This self-loathing led to a romantic scene with Elisabeth Braddock, before Braddock had to stop Matsu’O from taking his own life. Elisabeth Braddock also experienced self-loathing and self-doubt during the opening scene due to Sprial’s attack.

Theme

• The main theme that was explored in this comic was vengeance and self-loathing. The two are paired together, because they seem to go come as a pair. When one character is full of self-doubt, it is due to vengeance that has been taken, or vengeance that this character plans to take.

The McCloud principle expressed hereis emotional expression. By adding head

Position and gaze direction, more emotionCan be conveyed.

In this panel, Kubert and Ryan utilize gaze direction and a downward head position, mixed with a face of emotional dismay to convey the mixture of sadness and anger that ElizabethBraddock is experiencing. This facial expression shows the want for

vengeance, while Matso’u’s facial expression and position belowconveys self-loathing.

The McCloud principle expressedhere is elevation and status in body language. Different bodylevels can help convey a character’sspecific mood or emotion.

In this panel, the authors utilize body language to show Matsu’o in a bowing position, while Elizabeth Braddock is standing tall. Braddockis demonstrating confidence, while Matsu’o is showing defeat.Matsu’o’s body position exemplifies the theme of self-loathing, as the reader can see his self-defeat in the panel by the way he is sitting.

The McCloud principle being expressed here is body language. different positions of the body canconvey a unique message.

In this panel, the authors have Elizabeth Braddock demonstratingstrong body language. Her posture is used to represent show a confrontational scene. This goes directly towards the theme of vengeance, as she stands with other Xmen, not ready to be knockeddown.

The principle shown here isDistance and relationships. InGeneral, as characters’ relationshipsGrow closer, they have a smallerPersonal zone.

This panel explores the theme of distance and relationship in therelationship between Elisabeth Braddock and Matsu’o. While the two are not truly intimate partners, they do have a close and strongrelationship, which is represented in the panel. The scene is used torepresent to self-loathing Matsu’o is experiencing to do the loss of Kwannon.

The McCould principle expressed here is a parallel word-picture relationship,which appears when the picture and wordsdon’t seem to relate.

In this panel, the authors have a scene of destruction and smoke. However, the speech bubble is discussing Spiral’s general thinkingpatterns. The words and picture seem to be showing two completelydifferent aspects of the story. The thoughts of Elizabeth Braddock

due to Spiral’s mind games result in some self-loathing, while the destruction in the image is a result of Spiral’s vengeance towards Braddock.

The McCloud principle representedhere is a word-specific word-picturerelationship. The words tell the wholestory, while the picture is in thebackground.

This panel uses only speech bubbles to convey the messagethat Matsu’o is sending. He is upset over Kwannon’s death, andhe is worried and confused about how her final thoughts are known.While the words tell the whole story, the picture helps to show hisself-loathing and sadness in the background. This goes directlytowards the theme of self-loathing.

The McCloud principle representedhere is a duo-specific word-picturerelationship. The words and picture tellroughly the same story.

In this panel, the words and picture both convey the message that Elizabeth Braddock is trying to save Matsu’o from killing him to be with Kwannan. The words literally tell the story,while we can see Braddock lunging towards Matsu’o in attemptto take the Katana out of his hands. This further exemplifies theself-loathing of Matsu’o due to the death of Kwannan.

This McCloud concept explores changes of frame. An above the sceneview can help readers see more aboutthe scene.

In this panel, readers see from a slightly raised angle. This helps to create a dominate view ofGambit. It also helps to allow the readers to see more of the environment in the scene. The dominance of Gambit leads to the theme ofvengeance, because Gambit’s dominant characteris acting with vengeance.

The McCloud principle beingexplored here is representing physicalstates. Physical states can be expressedas emotions and interactions with the physical world.

In this panel, Elizabeth Braddock resembles anger in her physicalstate. The authors use her facial emotions to show anger, and they use her relation to the physical world – causing dust to fly andpushing into the ground – to convey the same message of anger. Sheis angry because she is self-loathing, and wants some vengeance because of the mind games that were played on her.

The McCloud principle being exploredhere is combining external source ofstimulation, such as gravity, withcombinations of the emotional primaries.

In this panel, you can see Elizabeth Braddock fallingdue to her fight with Spiral. She has fear in her face,and you can see the force of gravity being representedin the bottom left of the frame. Elizabeth fell due thevengeance of Spiral, and she is now falling intoself-loathing. There is also a look of vengeance is the face of the character catching her, because he too wants vengeance against Spiral.

The McCloud principle being exploredhere is representation of sound effects.McCloud states that the sound effectsshould become what they describe.

In this panel, the word SLAMM! Is used to represent Spiralbeing taken down at the end of the fight scene. The X-men takingher down want vengeance on her due to Spiral’s bad track record. This is very evident by the extreme entrance and knock down that occurs in the panel, which is exemplified by the sound effect.

The McCloud principle explored hereis emphasizing specific, loud, and/orimportant words in word bubbles.

In this panel, Gambit is saying the words “BANG! You dead!” The authors have emphasized the word “band” to give is a stronger,louder effect. This makes the scene seem to have a harsher andless careful tone, which leads to the theme of Vengeance, which isthe purpose behind Gambit’s shooting.

The McCloud principle representedhere is an interdependent word-picturerelationship. The words and picture worktogether to tell the whole story.

In this panel, the words are used to explain the reason behind thefighting, while the picture is used to show the actual fighting. Whilethe words do show distaste, there is nothing in the words that would tell the reader that Spiral and Braddock are actually physicallyfighting in this exact panel, so the picture is used to convey thatmessage. The words of distaste and the violent fight both worktowards the theme of vengeance, as Spiral is fighting for vengeance,and Braddock is defending, partially in vengeance as well.

The McCloud principle being explored here is variation in lettering, which helps to define important words.

In this panel, the authors have made the words “fine” and “hypocrite” bold in the second bubble. This helps to emphasize these words as important – as words that should stand out. The authors also integrate the graphic symbol ”FWWWW” in the midst of the word bubbles to differentiate. The emphasis on harsher words allows for Spiral’s distaste for the X-men to be further explored, which goes towards the theme of vengeance. She is telling the X-men these things out of a desire for vengeance.

The McCloud theme being explored here is close-up frames.

This close-up of Braddock and Matsu-O allows readers to see the fierceness of Braddock and the pain of Matsu-O. The close-up frame allows for a good view of emotion. The authors here have used the close-up to she Braddock’s stare and Matsu’O’s tears. His tears go towards the theme of self-loathing, as he is crying because of the death of Kwannan.

The McCloud principle being explored here is expressing environments through detailed backgrounds.

In this panel, the authors have drawn Matsu’O in a very detailed room. The environment leads to a gloomy feel for the reader, which plays on the theme of self-loathing. Because of the detailed background, the reader can feel the gloomy self-loath that is being expressed by Matsu’Obecause of Kwannan’s death.

The McCloud principles explored here are variations of frame choice due to an off-center camera angle and an increased sense of depth. This helps convey important panels and keep readers interested.

In this panel, the authors use both an off-center angle and a largely increased sense of depth to show the lonesomeness of Matsu’O and Elizabeth Braddock. The distance from everything surround them created by the sense of depth makes the scene feel hopeless, which adds to the theme of self-loathing, which Matsu’O is still experiencing in this panel because of the loss of Kwannan.

Conclusion

• The authors Kubert and Ryan successfully used many of McCloud’s principles to explore the theme of vengeance and self-loathing. The authors used many graphic techniques, as well as many word-picture combination techniques. One technique the authors did not focus a lot is variation of word bubbles. In this comic, the authors used similar word bubbles with a lot of words in most panels.