Posted on 05/11/2006 11:34:59 PM PDT by Lorianne
Marvel's new series has your favourite superheroes fighting George Bush and the Patriot Act
Captain America is about to battle his most fearsome foe yet: The government of the United States.
Today, Marvel Comics is releasing the first in its miniseries Civil War, which can only be described as a gutsy comic-book series focusing on the whole debate over homeland security and tighter government controls in the name of public safety.
The seven-issue series once again puts superheroes right back in the thick of real-world news, just as DC Comics has Batman battling al-Qaeda in a soon-to-appear comic and Marvel's X-Men continue to explore themes of public intolerance and discrimination.
It also recalls the plotline during the Watergate years when Captain America's alterego, disillusioned by White House politics, stopped donning the patriotic costume.
But with Civil War, hero is pitted against hero in the choice of whether or not to side with the government, as issues ranging from a Guantanamo-like prison camp for superheroes, embedded reporters and the power of media all play in the mix.
The Fantastic Four's elastic Mr. Fantastic has already joined Iron Man to support Washington in earlier editions of Marvel comics leading into the Civil War series. Doctor Strange isn't taking Washington's side.
But what about Spider-Man, that hero of many counterculture kids? Will he side with the Man? Or will the rest of the Fantastic Four? (There's even a rumour that Marvel's Canadian hero Alpha Flight might get into the mix.)
Civil War starts with a clever premise. A number of incidents involving Marvel's rough-and-ready heroes has turned the good guys into targets of U.S. lawmakers: There is, for instance, one accident where a group of novice superheroes gets in over its head, leading to the death of a schoolyard full of children.
The politicians are concerned about public safety. So Congress passes a bill forcing all superheroes to register with the government as human weapons of mass destruction, and to work, in effect, for Washington. Superheroes who don't comply will themselves be branded fugitives.
Washington insider Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, argues that siding with Washington is a way for the heroes to work with lawmakers, not against them, in this moment of trouble. Others see it as a way to gain recognition from the authorities, at long last, or even a way to get government funding to help fight the bad guys.
But other heroes aren't having any of it. In one comic leading up to the series, Doctor Strange gets hopping mad when he first hears about the bill (albeit in his debonair, "master of the mystic arts" kind of way). And Captain America, who couldn't be more all-American if he tried with that costume of his, finds himself leading the fugitive heroes.
In the first issue of Civil War, he brilliantly folds an entire dissertation on security into one succinct dialogue bubble by saying: "Don't play politics with me, lady. Superheroes need to stay above that stuff or Washington starts telling us who the supervillains are."
But Marvel says it isn't trying to take one side or the other.
"We need to present both sides' arguments, both sides of the coin, as fairly and as accurately as possible, and really let the readers make their own decision," said editor-in-chief Joe Quesada. "Marvel readers come in all shapes and sizes, and we speak to so many different people, different demographics. It's unfair for us to make this our bully pulpit and sit there and say, 'This bad. That good.'."
The series is also far removed from the era when DC Comics' Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were punching out the Nazis or Japanese during the Second World War.
In Civil War, there is no Iraq war, although George W. Bush is the president in the series. The story, though, focuses on the central issue of public security versus personal freedoms with two factions of superheroes battling among themselves on the question (with comic fanboys living vicariously through them).
But what does it say about us if Captain America and Iron Man start to occupy some readers' attention more than the latest real news?
"One of the best ways to broach these conversations and bring up this discussion is through entertainment and through characters that people are familiar with. And again, for us, it's communicating both sides of the argument," Quesada said.
In the end, one of the cleverest touches in Civil War may be a few panels, a momentary breather in the story, in which the giant figure of The Watcher stands silently in the corner of Doctor Strange's sanctum. As the Strange explains: "He only appears to record moments of great change and enormous upheaval. His presence now does not bode well."
Disturbingly, that could be how many of us feel, watching events unfold
I like the "Batman vs. Al-Qaida" idea a lot better.
This sounds like Marvel ripped off the premise of Disney's "The Incredibles", but did it with a "let's-bash-Bush" spin.
In Disney's version, the ACLU goes after the supers, and the government has to create the Superhero Relocation Program, driving all heroes underground.
Rolling Stone magazine reviewed the movie in 2005, calling it, "a hidden right-wing agenda".
Proof for the masses, that lawyers are the real superheroes....
Interesting.
It's not as bad as DC where Bush is Lex Luthor and Batman is against unilateralism. And Superman is told that if he doesn't support the president then he sides with the terrorist.
Oh, not to mention they had Lex stage a terrorist attack on America in order to invade the Middle East.
What no illegal Mexican super hero?
I'm not buying the idea that it's so directly connected to real life, I think this author is just projecting his own biases onto the subject matter. I'll check out the first couple before I make my judgement.
Unfortunately, comics are mostly left wing these days. Google for Batman: Seduction Of the Gun, sometime.
Kind of stupid considering Batman is the poster child for unilateralism.
"Doctor Strange isn't taking Washington's side."
Read that as:
Doctor Strange sides with the Terrorists.
"I like the "Batman vs. Al-Qaida" idea a lot better."
Me too. I wont be buying this civil war thing.
How can they write it and not take a side?
They can't say this is good/this is bad? They're writing a COMIC BOOK and that's all comics do is explore good/bad.
It's sadly appropriate IMHO. I'm not from the greatest generation, not even from the baby boomer generation. I was in my teens in the 80s and that's old enough to remember how were were all supposed to be appauled at how the east germans tapped all of their citizen's phone conversations -- and yet the NSA is now plugged into our telcos and even has spy boxes at the major internet vendors (and had the EFF's lawsuit for illegal domestic spying squashed on a rarely used national security rule).
We were supposed to be appauled at how the cubans ran gulags and threw people in jail without trials and appeals and rule of law and then we opened a prison right next door that was just as bad.
We were' supposed to be the good guys, we didn't torture prisoners until Abu Garab.
The greatest generation would be sick, and it's no surprise their super hero is upset about the world as well.
This isn't the America we're supposed to be, not the one I grew up learning about anyway.
bump for Chris
I also doubt that that the Communiist gulags ever willingly provided religious literature & prayer times for the inmates.
Holy mackerel, really? There's a reason I don't read comics anymore. Sigh.
Why?
The only thing Marvel did right was when they had that traitor klinton kick Cap out of the country.
Steve Rogers was a 1940's Patriot who saw Pearl Harbor and signed up, who's side do you think he would take today?
Keep in mind that this was America when Hollywood had Jimmy Stewart, and the media wasn't trying to pussify the US.
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