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COMIC BOOKS: PART OF THE LIBERAL MEDIA.
Ken Sheperd at Newsbusters is whining about bias in comic books because of a recent Spider-Man comic in which Spidey prevents a supervillain from interrupting Obama’s nomination. Jamison Foser remarks:
Apparently for the comic industry to remain bias-free, it must depict criminals successfully undermining Obama.
Well, the other problem is that Sheperd is just wrong. In a recent comic, Obama appears only to fire Iron Man Tony Stark from national security agency S.H.I.E.L.D, only to hand authority over to Norman Osborn, otherwise known as the Green Goblin, Spider-Man’s greatest foe. Which, if I were like Ken Shepherd, would have me whining about how Marvel obviously supports torture and believes that Obama is destroying our intelligence apparatus. One could interpret the death of Captain America during Civil War as symbolic of the Bush Administration’s disregard for civil liberties, but then you’d also have to take Secret Invasion as endorsing the idea that Muslim extremists are hiding among us, waiting to strike at any moment.
All of which is to say that while the politics of comic books are often interesting, they’re also often very incoherent, and hard to interpret as nakedly partisan.
-- A. Serwer
COMMENTS (2)
You could say the same about Newsbusters: "often interesting, they’re also often very incoherent."
Posted by: Everett | January 8, 2009 6:01 PM
No, YOU are wrong. In the comic, President Bush is the one who appoints Norman Osborn. No liberal outfit like Marvel is going to portray Obama like that.
Here">http://www.newsarama.com/comics/120817-Diggle-ThunderboltsB.html">Here is an interview with a writer at Marvel, Andy Diggle:
So according to marvel, Bush is the one who swore in Osborn.
Also, I don't consider Secret Invasion to be a political allegory, just a brainless suspense and action thriller.
Posted by: T. AKA Ricky Raw | January 9, 2009 7:57 PM