Many Americans have concerns about the economy, healthcare, and national security. Have no fear. Lif
e is fine; we have Batman, Superman, Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, Captain America, and many other comic book heroes to protect us. How do I know? Do I have x-ray vision? a direct line to Homeland Security? Obama's Skype ID? No! I have something better. I just read that Marvel Comics apologized to the Tea Baggers for portraying them negatively in a comic book.
Here's the breaking news! Issue 602. Captain America is protecting the nation from a right-wing group called the Watchdogs. Captain America goes underground with his partner, the black super hero The Falcon. Observing the Watchdogs from a rooftop, they observe signs with the following slogans - "tea bag libs before they tea bag you" and "stop the socialists."
But wait, this is just the beginning. The plot and the real world controversy continues. The Falcon observes and says that the Watchdogs are not just anti-taxers, but they are actually anti-American. They hate Americans! And I thought they were going to say that the socialists were anti-American!
Warren Tod Huston of Publuis' Forum noticed that the anti-American Watchdog group is portrayed as the Tea Party. He complained and Marvel Comics issued an apology. Marvel said that it was a stupid mistake to portray this group to resemble members of the Tea Party.
I don't like these types of apologies. If you wrote it or said it, defend your statement. The graphic that accompanies this article clearly shows Marvel's intention.
America is the land of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The Tea Party members don't like the story line. So what! It would be no different if the Watchdog group were portrayed as liberals, conservatives, or independents. Some will like it and some won't.
Obviously, the apology is for commercial and public relations reasons. Marvel does not want comic book sales to go down because of this plot line.
So don't change that bat channel or surf to another bat website. Pow! Bang! Kazoom! Share your comments with me.
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Comments: 6
The interesting point, as Charles M. points out is that the Old Marvel would have told the story differently. The power of being implicit instead of being explicit, is that it would have gotten more people to think. There are many political groups who views are quite divergent.