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[Yawn].

This is tale from DC's "Elseworlds" line. A "What-If" story.

"What if baby Kal-El's rocket landed in Russia instead of Kansas?" Everyone is up in arms over this, and for no good reason.

Ah. I forget. Everyone's heads are in the sand over this, so it's "eeeeeevil."

Not only that, the three issues were issued what, a year ago? The graphic novel format is actually much better for those of us who don't want to fight the fanboys crowded around the counter at the local comic shop. $17.95 for the three-issue series? Considering the original was somewhere between $$5 & $7 bucks a pop, that ain't too much to plunk down for better paper, a decent binding and a package that fits better on my bookshelf. Add in a reasonably good story, and you'll get a sale from me and thousands of other people.

Message to the author: Take off the tin-foil. It makes you look foolish.

Just damn.

If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

The author of the comic is quoted as saying that he DID write this to further his leftist agenda against this administration.

DC Comics is owned by Time-Life-Warner-Turner. If folks want to reconsider giving such propagandists their money, then such editorials are fair game.

The author of this piece did acknowledge that it is part of a tradition of reimagining events (and even differentiated it from Marvel's retro-continuity in the Capt. America history).

"Message to the author: Take off the tin-foil. It makes you look foolish."

Bit harsh, considering the author's tone never goes near tin-foil. By the end of the article, he's highly supportive of "What If" type of stories.

But as far as left-wing propaganda being squeezed into comics, have you checked out the new Marvel "Ultimates" series?

Ultimate X-Men is awful. In the first graphic novel collection, we have Storm punching the daylights out of a baddie yelling "AND THAT'S FOR CALLING ME AN AMERICAN!" We have Bush (yes, Bush, not your typical comic book yet-to-be-elected President) as initially a rather insipid, passive-aggressive racist anti-mutant President, and when the X-Men is sent out to save the President's daughter from Magneto, it is with the X-Men complaining the -whole- time about having to risk their lives for some "snotty brat rich kid from an old-money surname". Wolverine wasn't experimented on by some whacked Canadian guy, he was experimented on by some massive U.S. military-industrial complex outfit full of slobbering American power-mad despots who can't do anything except wantonly kill people in their pursuit of oppressing the planet. These are just a few examples, but the monotonous tone of anti-Americanism and anti-capitalism is pretty much continuous.

Ultimate Spider-Man is a bit different. He's recast as a 15 year old kid, and Mary J knows who he is pretty much from the start. As far as -he's- concerned, it's a -great- coming of age story, well drawn and written, I've really enjoyed it.

One thing though. EVERY villain the original Spider Man ever met has been transformed into a capitalist villain advancing the corporate nihilist agenda. The Kingpin - well, he always was, so no real problem there. But Doc Oc is now just a sympathetic patsy for a rich tyrannical tycoon, who is the real villain. The Venom suit, rather than being space-born, is now an invention coinvented by Peter Parker's father, who has his suit "stolen" by (you guessed it) the greedy capitalist pigs who funded his research. Peter's father was, of course, killed by same capitalist pigs. Even Iron Man, in a cameo, is depicted as the -sole- virtuous capitalist on the planet who has little time to do anything except put other evil capitalists in their place. I have yet to see an actual, non-Fortune 500 criminal in this book yet. Apparently, the surest way to join the ranks of evil arch villains for Spidey to oppose is to subscribe to Money Magazine and vote Republican.

Yes, they're otherwise fairly well written - and I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I love a decent comic as much as the next geek, but the agenda is so blatant in these things that I'm frankly -scared- that these will become popular with kids and we'll wind up with yet another brainwashed generation.

None of those were "What-If" alternate universes, by the way. This is how all the heroes are being cast today, especially in Marvel - as heros combatting the evils of corporate capitalism.

This "Red Son" I don't find nearly as troubling, because at least it's being -explicit-. I don't think the author of the piece was particularly upset about it either. But it's undeniable that comics today, especially Marvel, aren't even -subtle- about pushing leftist propaganda onto kids anymore.

Qwinn