Captain Un-American: Marvel Comics’ Idea of Heroism — Fighting ‘Teabaggers’
by James Hudnall
Marvel recently announced that their heroes would start acting like heroes again. So what were they doing, running crack houses?
After seven years of grim and grimmer story lines, including a superhero “civil war” that pitted Iron Man against Spider-Man and the death of Captain America, Marvel Comics will usher in a more optimistic “Heroic Age” approach in May.
“Heroes will be heroes again,” says Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada. “They’ve gone through hell and they’re back to being good guys — a throwback to the early days of the Marvel Universe, with more of a swashbuckling feel.”
What does “swashbuckling,” which refers to pirates, have to do with heroism? Quesada went on to explain that Captain America, Iron Man and Thor would be working together again instead of acting like foes. Suddenly, WTF? appears over the scene like the Batsignal. How does working together make them heroes exactly? In the “Dark Reign” series of stories at Marvel last year, a bunch of Super-villains led by Norman (Green Goblin) Osborn had taken over the Avengers and were “working together,” trying to kill off the real heroes. Under the guise of helping people. How progressive. But that’s not very heroic.
The problem is, Marvel, like DC to a large extent, is run by and largely created by Progs these days. People who mostly adhere to the “progressive” worldview. There isn’t much diversity of political thought over at these companies. Progs tend to exclude those who don’t follow the party line. They feel more comfortable in a groupthink environment. And this leads to a kind of “bubble mentality” that comes with living in an echo chamber. In the case of Marvel it sometimes becomes unintentionally rank — with a lot of Obama worship — from Spider-Man teaming up with the Prez to Captain America saluting and praising him in the “Who Will Wield the Shield.” There sure wasn’t too much positive being said about Bush during his administration in comics, when they mentioned him at all. But Obama has been praised and venerated from the get go. Like his Nobel prize for just showing up, the comic world’s been awfully uncritical of a president who’s sinking faster in the polls than any president since Eisenhower.
But coincidentally or not, Obama’s first year in office is also the year of the Dark Reign, where villains took over as “protectors” of America and increased the corruption in all the government agencies. Isn’t that ironic, as Alanis might sing? The heroes were on the run, but now there’s a new battle called Seige where the heroes are fighting back against the ersatz heroes of Dark Reign. Hopefully, that will reset things back to “normalcy” in the Marvel Universe.
But that doesn’t get around the fact that ugly politics occasionally show up in their books.
Disclosure time: I know Brian Michael Bendis, the architect of the current Marvel plot-lines like Dark Reign and Seige, very well. I also know Captain America writer Ed Brubaker fairly well, having known him almost since he was a teenager (and Bendis from back when he had hair). I like them, so I’m not going to bash them or anything. But I do need to point out where their politics can be a problem. Bendis is pretty smart about keeping his on the down low. From what I’ve read of his work, and I’ve read a lot, it generally doesn’t creep in that much. Just a dot here and there like you’d expect from a Hollywood writer. Brubaker lives in the San Francisco Bay area. And occasionally he’s thrown in some lefty views in his work. He generally doesn’t as a rule. But his latest Captain America crosses the line and it needs addressing.
Captain America #602, the latest issue, features a stand in for Cap, who was once his sidekick, Bucky Barnes. Bucky was “dead,” but has been revived from being a long term Soviet sleeper agent. He’s supposedly on our side again. Bucky/Cap and his sidekick, the Falcon, head to Idaho to stop a rogue version of Captain America from the 1950s (uh oh: 1950s = evil!) who’s allied himself with extremists, apparently. (The ’50s Captain America is from a classic 1970s story by Steve Englehart.) So what do they see when they go to Boise to find him? Why, marching “teabaggers,” of course.
As the Falcon (a black character) describes it: “A bunch of angry white folk.” And they’re carrying signs protesting high taxes and socialism. So naturally, they’re a bunch of evil rednecks, right? I mean, there are no “black faces there” not even the minstrel kind. Here is how Brubaker explains the story.
I’m trying not to put politics in the comics necessarily, but it’s hard when you’re doing a comic called Captain America not to reflect the world around you to some degree. I’d been planning this story for six months and suddenly there were all these tea parties everywhere. Since the tide has changed in government and the Democrats are in charge, the people who were in power for eight years are out in the wilderness, and they feel like they don’t have a voice anymore. And we’ve got this ’50s Cap who doesn’t know what he’s going to do. As I was planning this story, Obama won, and people start having tea parties and carrying signs that say “Obama is a Nazi” and it’s like “Oh God!” So I’m dealing a little with the disgruntled part of America in this storyline. It gets to both sides of it because I’m trying to be fair and balanced. [Laughs] I never set out to mock people…well, I do in life, but not in my work. I think whenever you’re writing a character you have to try and see their side of the story sympathetically. So this ’50s Cap as a character is someone who I’ve always seen sympathetically because his viewpoint is not mine, but I can get into his head and see where he’s coming from.
Well, first off he’s using the false premise so many Democrats have about the tea parties. That it’s specifically anti-Obama. That it’s all Republicans. All White people. Not surprising if Brubaker watched the usual MSM channels because that’s the narrative they’re selling. The truth is that many have left the Republican AND Democrats to become Independents because they’re sick of the way both parties have acted in the last decade. They’re tired of the games both parties have been playing. The tea party movement is Independent. And its anti-tax message is all about holding the government accountable for wasting our resources. Some tea partiers consider the wars a waste of money, some consider bureaucracy a waste. Many are sick of the nanny state. Many are sick of being pushed around and told that they’re stupid by media elites. But this comic has it that they’re all White (it’s set in Idaho, hello?). The Falcon goes into some redneck bar as a tax collector to get the attention of the ’50s Captain America and quickly gets pummeled by all the rednecks in Caterpillar hats — because that’s what they do to his kind around there, or something.
Needless to say, the scene is another classic lefty trope. But as #602 is part one, and the set up for part two, we’ll have to reserve judgement to see how he shows the “other side” in the next issue.
The subtext of this story is what’s the problem. Here we have Captain America going after people who are protesting government policies and taxation, which is not only their right, they’re doing it peacefully. But because they are protesting the government of Obama, that demands Captain America try to stop them? What kind of hero is this? OK, yes, he’s really there for the 50s Captain America who wants to be a “revolutionary.” But he’s somehow tied to the “tea baggers.” Again, tea party people aren’t violent. They cleaned up after their Washington DC protest site unlike the Obama inauguration people. But hey, any chance to stick it to the protesters. Because protest is wrong, man. When Democrats are in power, anyway.
So, let’s look at this in overview. The American government has put psychotic criminals in charge of the Avengers (still ongoing at the time of this story apparently), but the Bucky Captain America is trying to stop a peaceful protest of the government because that’s wrong? In other words, he is defending a fascist state and oppressing the little guy. That’s heroism, man! Stick it to those “teabaggers.”
Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko, an Objectivist, famously asked a bunch of comic pros if they could define what a hero was, and they couldn’t. You have to wonder if he would get the same response from the comics writers at Marvel and DC today.
It’s a problem if these companies really want readers. They’ve alienated a lot of them since their last heyday, the early 1990s. Considering that this is a center-right country it’s really not a great idea to keep pushing politics that are increasingly unpopular. Better to not get political at all, or at least know what you’re talking about.
And if you want to write about heroes, know what the word really stands for.
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273 Comments
DC stories and superheroes were always better – at least in the 1960's "Second Golden Age" of Comics.
I guess Marvel didn't realize that they will continue to lose audience with this kind of exposure. Why aren't they accused of Left-wing propaganda. If I made a conservative movie, that is what it would be shown as, propaganda.
I don't have any statistics on the comic book demographic, but there have to be some Conservatives that read them. Why would you want to spit in the face of people who buy your material?
Are any comics even fun to read these days? Or are they all a political slog to read?
Well, its like movies nowadays.
Ideologues are so desperate to make their messages known and slander the opposition they will shoot themselves and their business in the foot to do so.
Look, I know these people may be personal friends of yours but that doesn't mean that their worldview doesn't influence their art. All art has a world view.
I have personal friends that are lefties but I don't ignore their worldview or pretend that it doesn't help form their actions.
This latest development that finally moves Captain America to Comrade Amerika has been a long time coming.
Your line
Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko, an Objectivist, famously asked a bunch of comic pros if they could define what a hero was, and they couldn’t.
says it all. These writers are above such mundane and bourgeois concepts like Hero or Villain there are important ideas that must be forced upon us mere mortals.
Stan Lee is a major contributor to the Democrats and Marvel has jumped on every "progressive" bandwagon since the early 1980's. I gave up on comics long ago (putting away childish things is extremely liberating) but recognize the pernicious effects they have on the culture. I can't take the Captain America storylines very seriously since Marvel has been doing the "Maybe I should have fought less and questionned more" routine with the character since Watergate. (Remember when Cap became "Nomad"?)
I predicted last year that all the "gloom and doom" storylines would disappear with the coming of "The O" and that a creepy form of what the Left calls "patriotism" would become fashionable. I am not surprised that Marvel's editors will subtly (and not-to-subtly) get in shots against the Tea Party movement and conservatives especially if they keep gaining momentum. Besides who else can be the villains? Even mutants (evil or otherwise) are now protected by some comics code version of a "hate crimes" statute.
In my youth, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, even this avid DC fan read Marvel Comics under the aegis of Stan “The Man” Lee, particularly Captain America. I always got a warm glow when Cap gave his patented red-white-and-blue patriotic speeches. Cap was a man out of his time, having been frozen for 25 years after WW2, and it was refreshing to harken back to that less complicated era of unapologetic patriotism. Then, getting into the anti-war, anti-Vietnam swing, the power-that-be at Marvel went all in regarding leftist politics, and Captain American denounced his government, chunked his uniform and shield, and became Nomad. Well that was then, when it was patriotic to question your government, but this is now. Now Cap is after Tea Partiers with the same fervor as he went after Nazis and Commies. With the new Captain America film in the offing, it is sad to see how this once proud symbolic icon has fallen under such misguided, wrong-head editorial direction.
Did all of you catch that sign in the top left corner of the first graphic? When a comic book depicts us as racist that is nuts. I'm not a racist, I'm an American and if your in this country trying to speak the language making a semi-honest living, not breaking most laws(some are dumb and should be broken on a daily basis) – your an American.
Well, I for one hope this trend continues.Then maybe people will go back to, maybe, reading real literature. And I don't mean "graphic novels."
MArvekl is retracting some elements of this issue: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/09/tea-pa...
Progs have killed comics. Back in the day comics were conservative in nature (good vs. evil). Progs like to blur that line. Thus you get what you get out of them today.
Glad I got out when they were approaching $1/comic. The prices they charge, and the crap that is produced in them these days, make for a bad combination.
I didn't realize the comics industry was doing so well that they could afford to spit on so many prospective customers. If I were still reading comic books, this stunt would make me drop all Marvel titles the same way I dropped all DC titles back when Green Arrow went on a tear against the Second Amendment.
Captain America should be kicking terrorist butt.
When concepts of "No new taxes and "stop socialism" on placards somehow become dangerous and extremist..we got more problems than just a left leaning bias in a comic book. Was I the only one that noticed this? Apparently socialism and higher taxes are now the new America and the new American values?
Marvel's comic book line is living off the trough of its toys, cartoons and movies. Essentially, like a public enterprise leeching off of the private sector, and we know how that turns out.
If Marvel was interested in a profit – or at least a quality product, would Quesada still be in charge after all this time?
You wanted a waterline mark to know when to exacltly when to drain the pool? You got it. It is time. Take back your country..long live the Republic!
This comes as no surprise: http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/02/gall...
I am an avid comics reader and wrote to Ed the night this issue was released, voicing the same concerns. I felt betrayed and mocked by the very medium where "evil" isn't viewed as a passe concept. It is a place where relativism doesn't exist to the degree it has permeated the rest of our culture.
Ed promptly responded, and explained that an artist added the tea-bag references to the signs just before print, and that he would have it removed before the graphic novel edition is published, that he didn't intend for these protests to be representative of the tea-party movement. I think the timing is a little too coincidental to be anything else. I also think his portrayal of middle-America is one-dimensional. This is out-of-character for Ed Brubaker who is hands down one of the best writers in the comics industry.
The problem with writing for comics and Captain America in particular is that the writer has fifty-sixty years of precedent and context to write within. Def disappointing.
The problem with Ed's response is that it's not just the sign that's the problem. It's the whole page, which even without the sign has a very clear political statement in it that's offensive and juvenile. Given his own rather vociferous political comments, it's no big surprise that he went there.
But let's be honest about this: comic books have never been good at this sort of political commentary. Just look at the Marvel Civil War series, which was billed as a kind of serious comment on contemporary politics. It only made the writers look like politically ignorant high school students. The political commentary was laughable. They had no idea what they were talking about, and it was pretty clear that they got their political information from Jon Stewart. I was hoping for something with a bit more heft and nuance, and it had neither. They made fools of themselves. So I'm not surprised by this.
Ed Brubaker trying to be fair and balanced with his comic book works is just about as Keith Olbermann trying to be "fair and balanced" with his unhinged rants on camera. It's a good thing I didn't buy a single comic issue written by Brubaker since. Leftist politics does not belong to Captain America or any other Marvel character. Period.
I did complained to Marvel Corp. about the tea bag movement depiction in Captain America but my email comment got booted off from Marvel unread (no profanity was ever used).
He is back peddling, saying these people aren't "tea party" protesters. Well its obvious they are modeled after them. He's not fooling anyone. People see what he's doing
The problem with progressives and other secularists is that they have no absolute standard with which to judge. They cannot define what a hero is for that reason.
I was planning on seeing the Avengers movie. But since Marvel thinks I'm a racist maybe I'll have to reconsider. The entertainment industry loves to make big statements with their "art". I think I'll make my statement by not buying their "art". There are plenty of books in the library to fill my spare time.
I actually liked the premise of Civil War–if people existed who could shoot lightening out of their fingers, then I wouldn't really mind if the government knew who they were. But the story bogged down and the idea of heroes all being forced by the government to essentially join the army took, well, all the fun out of superhero-ing. I've essentially dropped comics more for fiscal than story reasons, but both major publishers unending trend of multiple issue, months long story lines (and that's YOU TOO, DC, with "Crisis, 52, More 52, Still more 52 and Blackest Night) hasn't lured me back. I'll buy the occasional collection, but a weekly pull is a thing of the past.
I agree. I think the real condescension occurs when Cap and The Falcon happen into "any-bar" Idaho and are able to conjure up enough race-hate to infiltrate the right-wing extremist group.
"The problem is, Marvel, like DC to a large extent, is run by and largely created by Progs these days. "
"They feel more comfortable in a groupthink environment. And this leads to a kind of “bubble mentality” that comes with living in an echo chamber. "
In the ad industry we say clients like this "are talking to themselves". Doesn't matter if the audience likes it, the middle manager (writer) and the CEO (publisher) like it… that's all that counts.
TPM is truth, justice, and the American Way.
Comics lost the kid market with the undeniable supremacy of the video game. There are kiddie books still, but most comic shop visitors are well beyond their teen years, so more grown up storylines would make sense, except that people tend to read comics for _escapism_. Heavy handed metaphors are going to cost them what's left of their shrinking readership. Most readers, regardless of their politics, don't pick up comics for the editorial content.
I'm a woman and and artist. I like graphic novels because of the gorgeous artwork and yes, complex storylines. Have you ever read one? Read Neil Gaiman's 1602 or his Sandman volumes and I dare you not to have some respect for "graphic novels". Oh, and by the way, I also read and enjoy plenty of "real literature". I'm not trying to be mean and I know my geekness is more than apparent, but my taste is diverse. I have as much respect for Jeph Loeb as I do for E.M. Forster. Now back to the topic. I just read Who is Wonder Woman…talk about progressive. I wanted to throw the volume away. The villans in the book seemed more like the heroes. Why is liberating hundreds of women from a sex trade operation and then destroying the men responsible wrong? Wonder Women thought it was??? Why wasn't she the one helping these women instead of the villan?
How many Black artists and writers does Marvel Comics have working for them? I'd wager it's a sea of white faces in that racist Stan Lee's pool of Good Ol' Boys.
Who's editor in chief at Marvel these days? Ellsworth Toohey III?
"Excelsior, true believers in the State!"
I'm really getting tired of the constant onslaught by the cultural elites against normal, everyday, concerned citizens of this country. America used to be far more tolerant and we all got along even if we didn't agree.
Now it's all about degrading middle America. It feels like an agenda.
That's it! We gotta make our own superheroes, comic books, & movies! THAT'S IT!!
That's exactly right and therein lies the problem.
Lest I rag on poor ol' Marvel, DC was qually guilty of politicizing its comic book line during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
How can one forget that post-Silver Age escapades of Green Latern and lefty Gree Arrow hunting for relevance?
I remember one particularly egregious Justice League of America (JLA) story written by Mike Friedrich dealing with the dumping of chemical weapon into the sea which poisoned the inhabitant of Atlantis. Aquaman got his swimming trunk into a major wad, and the JLA apologized for the transgression of the evil United States. Never mind that the U.S. was getting rid of these chemical weapons, or other countries, notably the Soviet Uion, had them. No, in a polemic worthy of our current president, the United States was the problem, not the solution, and Superman et al apologized for our sins.
Finally, The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and The Watchmen by Allan Moore were both diatribe again Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
In the immortal words of Stan Lee: 'nuff said!
I've loved Brubaker's run on CAP, it's THE book I look forward to each month, but this issue really angered me. The Falcon/racist part was just a slap in the face… If I don't agree on how the government is being run, or how my taxes are being used, how does that make me a racist?!? It's also strange to me that ALL characters in Marvel seem to have the same political outlook. I would think that if anyone would have a different outlook on politics/morals/the world, it would be Bucky and Cap… they've both been transported from the 40s to today. I would think it would be more realistic to portray at least some characters with a different viewpoint, but Bucky and Falcon are shown chatting away in exactly the same political mindset. I'll still be buying the book, but it's sure dropped out of the top spot for me with this storyline.
I'd actually respect Brubaker more if he didn't :a) shift blame onto a 'letterer', and/or b) didn't treat his audience like idiots who couldn't get his hateful stance toward Free Speech that clearly permeates the book.
Save Me Falcon! Save Me! I'm getting beaten up by the SEIU!
Sorry, Kenneth Gladney, I can't help you. I'm off to save America from Capitalism and Global Warming.
But…but, Falcon! You were my Hero…Nnnoooooooo!!!!!
No Robert, they're all Korean.
It depends how you define 'terrorist'. For Brubaker it's the Tea Partiers. Probably how a certain English King felt as well.
But Civil War wouldn't have seen the light of day (no relation to DC) had it not been for the Patriot Act. Had Obama instituted the Act, a similar series might have been written, but with a reverse take, with the 'real' heroes defending the Act wholeheartedly (as Cap volunteered to work with Obama in the WWWTS issue.)!
This is a very weak retraction to say the least. And notice the writer commented how he was "shocked" at "obama is hitler" signs. Was he as shocked during the 8 years of protestors carrying "Bush is hitler" signs? Would love to be able to have a one to one conversation with this guy.
http://hollywoodpropaganda.wordpress.com
On the other hand, Ed Brubaker's Cap does carry a gun. Ed said one of his friends carried a gun and wasn't a nut.
I don't think that The Dark Knight Returns is a diatribe against Reagan – it struck me much more as a polemic against the folks who think that all enemies will respond to negotiation: c.f. the mayor.
I liked the premise too, until I realized that they were going with the "conservatives want registration" and "liberals don't want registration" line in some (actually, most) of the issues. Honestly, I could imagine a lot of conservatives being against registration, just like they're against gun registration. It could have been a wonderful way of cutting across partisan lines, but they blew it by being ideological. The implication was that the anti-registration characters were the real heroes, with Cap being the martyr. The whole point was to divide fans, to make them take sides. In the end, though, the story was so biased that everyone took one side. Which is what happens when all the writers are ideologically liberal. They completely lost the nuance that could have made the story great.
I actually really like Bendis' Dark Avengers, and, intentional or not, it really does lead itself to an Objectivist interpretation. The Marvel Universe has blurred the lines between heroes (Spider-Man or Captain America) and villains (Punisher) for so long that they're not only tolerating, but promoting villains in the persons of the Dark Avengers. Part of the series' conceits is that the villains are actually masquerading as famous heroes, which is about as patently chaotic as you can get in Objectivist terms. A=/=A, Venom =/= Spider-Man, and Norman Osborn =/= Tony Stark.
Despite his faults, Bendis is usually very good about being apolitical, leading to fiction that can actually be interpreted multiple ways. Which, you know, used to be a good thing.
I gave up on Marvel when they jumped the shark in the mid 90's. I remember when they some of the greatest artists like Jim Lee (X-Men) Todd McFarlane (Spider Man, Hulk). When they left I scrambled over to Image Comics with Spawn and the like. I do have a soft spot in my heart for DC comics since they always had the best writers and I cling to The Dark Knight Returns (Frank Miller's masterpiece). On a side note that is why I am happy about Batman Begins and The Dark Knight because they were the closest to the Frank Miller's vision of Batman.
Ed's obviously *not* trying to be fair and balanced. None of his work is. The politics are very clear in his work. That's not necessarily a problem. They are, after all, his books. He can write what he wants. However, this single page goes beyond comment to slander. He should be embarrassed by how ignorant it makes him look, but he's completely unaware of it. In his own echo chamber, that page is an eloquent example of speaking the truth. They probably all guffawed and did high fives after seeing it for the first time. They are ignorant of how ignorant they are. It's a scary thing.
It's hilarious that Watchman;'s stand out character is Rorschach, and he comes off the hero to most people.
Frank Miller was not trashing Ronnie exactly, but he was making fun of the politics of the day.
David, look who gave the orders to intervene to Superman and also look who appeared in the TV to talk mindlessly to the public about those Soviet nuclear missiles in Corto Maltese. It was the president — who looked like Ronald Reagan but drawn to look like Pruneface from Dick Tracy.
http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/Ronald_Reagan...
http://www.darkknight.ca/storylines/tdkr.html
http://www.allyngibson.net/?p=1950
Again, In the immortal words of Stan Lee: 'nuff said!
"It's also strange to me that ALL characters in Marvel seem to have the same political outlook."
I love these books, but this point also bugs me. It's what killed the Civil War storyline. Despite the promise of real conflict, these guys all think the same way, just like all Marvel's writers think the same way. The RIGHT way. The PROGRESSIVE way. It's silly, juvenile, and takes away from what could add quite a bit of depth to the world they inhabit.
Have these writers seen the anarchist protests at the G20 summits, whether those summits are held in other countries or here in ours (Seattle, Pittsburgh)? They destroy shops, smash bricks through bank windows, and battle those who try to keep the peace. Then again, those are Comrade Nancy Pelosi's kind of people. And you also see some of them with scarves wrapped around their face like the real cowards they are.
So much has been made from the Tea Party protests, but nary a word from these for more dangerous people.
I hardly think what was in the Miller graphic novel was exactly flattering toward Reagan:
http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/Ronald_Reagan...
Once again, in the immortal words of Stan Lee: 'nuff said!
I propose a comic book tax. I think the….um…"artist"…is clearly stating that he is in favor of taxes.
All in favor say "Aye!"
The Falcon can kick the Red Skull's butt and not break a sweat, but he's scared to death of a bunch of White folks waving anti-tax signs. Yeah, that issue would've made it into the round file when I was a kid, too.
I remember once reading an article by Christopher Priest in which he talked about his white editor and co-workers telling him that he wasn't writing Luke Cage black enough. The image of a bunch of white liberals lecturing a black man on how he doesn't know how black people talk is cringe inducing. But hey, it's we conservatives who are the racists. Priest had to settle for sneaking in little bits, like Cage thinking his angry black man routine isn't working while trying to get information out of someone, to try and suggest that it was just an act that Cage put on and that he was really more articulate than Marvel's editorial staff would allow.
Please, Jan, do enlighten us as to what you consider "real literature."
Politics and ruined superheros aside, oh, how I HATE literary snobs.
Maybe Captain America can make Roger Ebert his new side kick.
A Major Perceptual Failure upon the Left…and a good section of the Right about Tea Parties is that they are decentralized.
As an Analogy, I'll use a Technology Base. The GOP are Kinda Like Apple: Relatively well ordered, if narrow in scope, but usually a stable platform.
The Democratic Party is Like Microsoft: Big and encompassing, but the plaform is prone to crashing on occasion and riddled with compatability issues.
The Tea Party is much like Linux of Unix: There are many different flavours of Linux or Unix, but all generally perform the same function, are self-correcting of errors by the programmers, and have no leadership other than what the community wants.
And that's What drives both parties and the MSM up the wall. The Dems and GOP are closed source. the Tea-Parties are Open Source.
Can't wait to tune-up some of those purple-shirted SEIU superheros this summer. SLAM- BOOM!
Not CARTOONS!!!!!!!!!!! Of MEN IN TIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So then I must be a "literary snob" and PROUD OF IT!!!!!
This is just plain bad business. As a retailer I can tell you, Marvel just alienated half of my market. We’re struggling enough as it is. We depend on Marvel to appeal to a wide audience for the good of the industry and this time they have let us down. You may think this was funny or cute but our retail shop is already on the edge. Why would you do this to us?
Considering they're trying to get a Captain America movie franchise off the ground, I think it's a smart move for Marvel to lay off the political stuff. The folks on the left aren't the only ones who watch comic book movies.
Some perspective to show how far we've fallen: The first generation of costumed superheroes (Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, etc) started at the very end of the 30’s, just as the winds of war were gathering. The first issue of Captain America appeared in early 1941, almost in anticipation of America's entrance into WWII. By 1942, every superhero (or "mystery men", as they said back then), from every publisher, was portrayed as being an unofficial part of the US Armed Services. DC Comics had the Justice Society of America, Timely (later to be known as Marvel) had the All-Winners Squad, etc. There was usually some sort of attempt to explain why it was that America's caped battalion didn't just go over to Germany and Japan and win the war immediately–they had to "guard the homefront" while all of our boys were fighting over there–although they dealt with their fair share of German and Japanese spies on US soil, and villains who were often allied with the Nazis somehow. Clark Kent tried to enlist, but was humorously rejected when he accidentally read the eye chart from the next examination room with his X-ray vision, thereby being classified as 4-F for his poor eyesight. Nevertheless, every superhero always exhorted his young audience to "keep 'em flying", to send their previously read comics to the boys overseas, participate in scrap metal drives, etc.
Compare this with today: Could you even imagine a superhero of today being portrayed as even vaguely hostile towards al-Qaeda, Iran, North Korea, etc? To say nothing of the possibility of showing, say, the Fantastic Four or the Teen Titans bust up a terrorist plot on US soil? Impossible to conceive.
Captain America is an even more special case. All but a very small number of superheroes disappeared by the end of the 40's–other genres became more popular for a time. By the late 50's, new versions of the old characters entered the fray, and in the early 60's Stan Lee and Jack Kirby kicked off a true renaissance with their mostly brand-new characters. For whatever reason, they decided to revive Captain America from "suspended animation" so that he was “a man out of time”. After some initial success for the new Captain America series (Yes, I know he joined the Avengers–I’m talking about his solo comic), there was a quick realization that without an obvious enemy, a character whose main element was that of a sort of embodiment of patriotism did not lend itself to the more science-fiction-y approach of the 60’s comics. For quite awhile, CA’s solo comic featured “Untold Tales from Captain America’s War Diary”.
Eventually, the escalation of US involvement in Vietnam allowed for a contemporary take on CA: “Everything was so black and white during WWII. Now all I see is gray. I’m not sure whether my country is in the right anymore. What does America really stand for in this brave new world? If America is in the wrong, then why am I wearing this costume?” To a greater or lesser extent, this existential quest has been the bread and butter of Cap’s adventures for 35 years.
This latest plotline does not surprise me, just saddens me. Isn’t there room in the modern world for some comics that are unabashedly pro-US in their orientation? Not even propaganda, just not automatically viewing regular Americans as evil ignorant racists.
btw, when this story first caught my eye, I told the guys on Red Eye to cover it. They were supposed to do it last night, but it got bumped. Let’s hope they do it tonight.
I read Buffy and Angel and the Serenity series in comic book form. Graphic art is amazingly beautiful and I'm pleased to have found comic books for the first time in my life. I bought Jim Butcher's "Welcome to the Jungle" and Koontz's "Odd Thomas" graphic novel. It takes as long to read a graphic novel as it does to read a book, because every frame is dense with information and story. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful, this new medium of storytelling.
I don't know of these "Marvel" comics of which you speak. They sound pretty old and tired to me.
All the stories of good vs. evil are all gone and we are left with the political rants of some left-wing comic writers.
I quit comics when the writers lost sight of what a hero was.
It's very simple. Don't buy Marvel comics. These people are coming out of the woodwork, aren't they. Hurt them where it matters.
Yes, because that's all graphic novels are about. If it's not your cup of tea, why must you put down those who do like it?
Or are you just a liberal troll? Because I find that the liberals are always telling me what I should and shouldn't do, and what I should and shouldn't like.
You are not a literary snob, you are an elitist literary snob which is far worse. Show some intelligence and open up your narrow mind. Because if "MEN IN TIGHTS" is all you have well, you really do come across as not very smart.
No, Miller actually left room for some ambiguity in his portrayal of Batman (Commissioner Gordon: I couldn't judge it. I couldn't judge him. He's too…big…").
OTOH, Watchmen very definitely reflects Alan Moore's paranoia about what he viewed as a sort of creeping fascism; he cheerfully admitted that Watchmen was an anti-Reagan, anti-Thatcher diatribe. By using Nixon in his 5th term as a stand-in for Reagan, he was able to tell his story.
But I have to point out: The horrible fate that Moore feared so greatly (a Cold War on steroids, with the US and the USSR literally about to have an all-out nuclear exchange) did not happen. Reagan, Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, Lech Walesa, and Boris Yeltsin won the Cold War. The core thesis of Watchmen has been totally disproved by the flow of history.
So somebody explain to me why I still think Watchmen was a terrific comic book? (And I loved the movie last year also, btw…)
You now, maybe it's because of my strange upbringing in the backwoods of New Hampshire, but I always had a soft spot for Captain America. I remember buying a bunch of his comics back in the early 90's and enjoying his fights with the Red Skull. But, I was always disappointed by his constant working for the government, and constantly being in New York (yes, as a good New Hampshire boy, I was ardently anti-government, and as a good New Englander, I was ardently anti-yankees [yankees suck!]).
I can't say I'm surprised by this development. Comics have been extremely liberal since, well, probably the 70's. I remember one writer in particular would go on these long screeds about Bush being the devil, and horribly damaging America in the world. He said he was an Army Ranger and he personally saw the atrocities, and still knew many people internationally that hated the country. Turned out, he lied about rh whole thing. He was never an Army Ranger, and didn't even have a passport. Wish I could remember that guy's name.
I always liked the staunch anti-communism of the early 1960's Marvel stories. And of course, they kept a fairly black and white DC universe until the dreadful, terrible geoff johns took it over. The last comics I remember really enjoying were Grant Morrison's JLA from the 90's. No politics, no breast-beating, or self-introspection about what;s "really" right "really". Just good guys beating the crap out of bad guys. Good stuff.
Like you, I was a big Marvel fan in the '60s and '70s. The Silver Surfer is still da bomb. Sad to see Cap turning into an SEIU tough guy.
For Many Many Years I said "Make Mine Marvel" That was until about 2 years ago when Marvel decided to let the bad guy prevail and killed Captain American in a most unpatriotic way. On that Day After 20 years of comic collected I said Make Mine any thing but Marvel and Voted with my wallet. I have still collected comics but haven't purchased any comics from Marvel.
I wish Joe Quesada all the luck in the world but feel at the same time if he wants to bring back the 48% of the American population that is a little more independent or conservative he might consider cleaning house at Marvel and fire Ed and several of the writers that took them in the direction that has alienated us from reading the stories.
One of the great things about super heros always has been that they are defined by their strengths and weakness. Captain American has always be defined by his one strength and weakness as strong unwaviering character of honor and justice and his strong hardworking middle American social class. take that away and you have lost the character entirely.
Let Liberty Prevail
I haven't bought a Marvel Comic since I was in junior high. This is absolutely despicable.
DC has all the real heroes. In Green Lantern #49, John Stewart uses a Marine sniper construct to dispatch of a bad guy.
And in another Green Lantern, Hal Jordan made up constructs of veterans from each war to beat down a group of Chinese and Russian super-soldiers.
DC also has Green Arrow…
Here is Priest's full commentary about the "controversial" issue of Power Man and Iron Fist you speak of
[Issue #122 is also ground-breaking in that, here Cage admits his "loud angry Negro" routine is a put-on something many whites do not realize. Many whites are shocked to see Queen Latifa or Usher or the late Tupac Shakur in film or on television shows speaking in complete sentences with a calm, even voice. It seems many whites don't realize the gregarious street voice is something we can turn on and off.]
Try the Fables series by Willingham.
Hey, nobody's perfect.
OKAY, you win. WOMEN IN TIGHTS!!!!
Geoff Johns' Green Lantern comics is not about good vs. evil?
I'm not a rabid Johns fan, but his "Sinestro Corps War" storyline was an unapologetically pro-liberty/anti-terrorist as a superhero comic can get.
It's been over a year since I purchased my last comic book. The politics of the writers was the reason why I dropped it. Everything from Mark Millar (writer of Marvel's "Civil War") equating the U.S. in Iraq as Naziism, Spider-Man essentially making a deal with a demon to save his grandmother or Grant Morrison writing a Superman who had no problem with genetically-engineered lifeforms to work essentially as slaves (All-Star Superman, by the by) finally just got to me.
These guys do not get it. There's no color. There's just a dull gray that obscures any inspiration a hero is to provide. I do not miss visiting my local comic shop.
I meant Aunt May, not "grandmother". My bad.
I gave up on Marvel years ago, in the early 80's the art work was terrible and the stories were cookie cutter, no substance only glitz. The heros they had didn't act like regular people. I normally stuck to DC since they had better art work and some of their titles were more adult oriented. Little by little they became progressively less interesting and more repedative. For the last 10 years I have been buying titles from the independents and only those whose artist were up to snuff.
As someone said elsewhere in the netisphere :
Dear Marvel,
I'd like to see Iron man 2, but I don't have to.
I want to see it less now than I did before.
Explains a lot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JQpKeyN39c
(cont.)
*Wildguard – a clever, action-packed comic on the challenges of standing by principles in realm of reality TV
http://www.wildguard.com/
*Spider-Girl – kid-friendly futuristic comic about Spider-Man's crimefighting daughter
http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Girl-Vol-Legacy-Amaz...
*Astro City – a Silver Age-style comic that explores the world of superheroes from a character-driven perspective. The story below is one of my favorites:
http://www.astrocity.us/cgi-bin/index.cgi?page=fe...
*Captain Gravity – a fun,pulp-style superhero comic that is “Indiana Jones meets the Rocketeer”:
http://comicsworthreading.com/2007/05/25/captain-...
Yes. It is important to remember these progs are not elites in the sense of having real accomplishments or brains. They are elites only in the sense that they think very highly of themselves and happen to have a bullhorn. By and large, the country wouldn´t miss them if they all went away. Unlike plumbers.
It's possible, I haven't read Johns in probably close to a decade. I've always despised his writing. At first, it was because everything he wrote seemed to be dependent on me reading some obscure Infinity Inc. comic from 1983, and was filled with way too many continuity winks to the audience. After that, he just became way too violent and misogynistic in his writing (and people complained about Ron Marz because he killed off Kyle Rayner's girlfriend). It's possible John is currently writing a anti-terrorist story as you say, but I'm sure he's filled with all kinds of extreme violence (and not the normal comic book violence of people punching each other, I mean stuff like having a woman get a pike run through her gut, as I understand happened recently).
Plus, a multi-colored Lantern Corps is just lame. Even for comics.
Folks like Jules Feiffer have long connected the superhero genre with fascism, and fascism as a philosophy of the left seems right at home in mainstream comics like the Marvel universe. In that light, it seems quite natural that superheros would be fighting activists who were looking to dial back government control as the Tea Party movement is the most authentic anti-fascist movement in the country right now.
I read comics to escape reality which is why Marvel and DC are dead to me now and Manga is my new escape.
Marvel has always been a far lefty label, which is why I always preferred DC when I was a kid
You know, I find this thread fascinating. First, because I had no idea that there were so many comics readers out there. I always kind of figured it was my own personal thing, and most everybody else grew up and forgot about it.
Secondly, everyone seems to agree that the end of the 90's coincided with the end of their comic reading, or at least consistent comic reading. And I'm just wondering what happened there. Duuring the 90's comic readership declined rapidly. When almost every other hobby was gaining hobbyists and experienceing boom times thanks to the economy and the increased social ability of the internet, allowing people to connect in ways never before; comics took a nosedive and were barely able to stay stable (often failing even at that).
I'm wondering, what does everyone think caused the decline? Was it politics? Lack of qality? Inept people running the business, not able to take advantage of the new media? Bad luck? Something else entirely?
The question then becomes how does the ad agency (in this case, the audience) get the CEO (publisher) and his managers (writers) to trust us. I don't know the answer, but because declining comic book sales alone doesn't seem to communicate the idea there needs to be another way, especially when they can rely on licensing their properties to carry the comics.
I think it will take a revelation at the top– who can then hire talented writers to better reflect the American audience as a whole. Archie comics creator, John L. Goldwater, was born in New York but left during the Depression looking for work while hitchhiking his way to the Midwest. Here he met people who influenced his characters and who were also his potential audience.
From the New York Times (March 2 1999) "The guiding idea, Mr. Goldwater always said, was simple. It came down to Archie. ''He's basically a square, but in my opinion the squares are the backbone of America,'' he told The New York Times in 1973. ''If we didn't have squares we wouldn't have strong families.''
The formula clearly hit a responsive nerve. The comic strip once ran in 750 newspapers. Comic book sales sometimes reached 50 million a year, though they have leveled off at about 15 million a year."
Now, of course, I am not saying everything can or should be "Archie", but today's publishers and many of the writers live, work and spend all their time in New York and the North East blue states. Only some of their audience is there. If they get out and meet their audience where their audience lives and works in everyday life they might get that epiphany.
everything was better back in the early 60's…………before obozo was brought to America ……… to further the moooolism terror on America
the comic fools know that they have to defend the indefensible obama as America is rejecting him and his agenda of America hatred
comic fools are fighting for their best customers and their continued ignorance and mooch rights
naaaa …………. their all moooslims working the America bashing into the comic propaganda on the young skulls of mush
Nuff said.
The problem is that Ed Brubaker is inserting leftist politics into my favorite Marvel character, a powerful symbol of the United States of America. Captain America takes no side in politics or ideology, he represents the whole country. That's why I won't buy and read any comic book subtly inserted with leftist politics and progressive ideology. Unfortunately, the majority of comic book readers have been poisoned with them for years.
It seems the Glenn Beck parody in the Marvel title Siege: Embedded has been overlooked as well. A news commentator is blaming all Asgardians for the Soldier Field incident, and calling them illegal aliens to boot. The PoV character derides this commentator as small-thinking and hate inducing.
And the rebuttal by Joe Quesada was disingenuous as well. He claimed that no writer was allowed a soapbox on Marvel titles, yet look at the Stephen Colbert tie-ins that Marvel had during the election of 2008. I never saw a George W. Bush fist-bump with Spider-Man. I could go on about it, but really – why? I have stopped purchasing all Marvel titles after this Captain America #602. Quesada states that we have to read the entire four-issue arc to appreciate the viewpoint of The Falcon. No thanks.
tl;dr Marvel's Damage Control is weak-sauce.
@Jan
Actually, Marvel Comics has begub printing graphic novel versions of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and "Sense and Sensibility." Read the full story by clicking this link and scrolling down to "Spotlight":
http://www.worldmag.com/articles/16347
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