Posted on 06/15/2006 8:43:13 AM PDT by Stonewall Jackson
NEW YORK (AFP) - For a comic book hero, it's the ultimate taboo.
In the latest edition of the Marvel comic "Civil War" on sale, Spiderman does the unthinkable and removes his Spidey mask to publicly reveal his hidden identity.
"I'm proud of who I am, and I'm here right now to prove it," the legendary webslinger tells a press conference called in New York's Times Square, before pulling off his mask and standing before the massed ranks of reporters as newspaper photographer Peter Parker.
"Any questions?" Parker asks in the final panel of the issue, amid a barrage of camera flashes.
In a statement, Marvel trumpeted the revelation as "arguably the most shocking event in comic book history."
The seven-issue "Civil War" series, launched in May, sees Marvel's writers taking on the topical issue of civil liberties.
Following a showdown between a group of superheroes and supervillains in which hundreds of innocent civilians are killed, the government passes the Super-Hero Registration Act, requiring all superheroes to reveal their identities and register as "living weapons of mass destruction."
Marvel's roster of invincible crime fighters is split into two bitterly opposed factions, with one camp -- championed by the likes of Spiderman -- in favour of the new law and the other, including Captain America and his ilk, refusing to relinquish anonymity.
"It's about which side you are on and why you think you are right," said Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada.
But aside from that, this series is truly fascinating in that it is dividing the Marvel superhero community like nothing has before. It will be interesting to see how the fairly liberal comic industry does with this touchy subject.
At this "outing" isn't the same type of outing some think they have planned for Superman...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1649889/posts
How the Liberal industry is handling it?
Let's see - we have the arrogant, self righteous, pompous people in favor of the Super Hero registration act and the level headed, thoughtful, freedom fighters opposed.
If Clinton was in office we'd see the reverse I'm sure....
It's pretty obvious already that the fairly liberal comic book community is writing a fairly liberal story here, what with the concept therein that "Capt. America" will blast the administration and move to Canada.
I read the novelization of Superman Returns over the weekend, and it looks like they are going to make Jimmy Olsen gay. I'm not positive on that, but the way the story played out, it seems like a good possibility.
Haven't we already seen this plot in The Incredibles?
they wouldn't go there ... would they?
Outing a superhero? What did Libby know and when did Rove tell him?
Ahhhhh, big deal! The Fantastic Four have had their identities known from the start.
The main heroes pushing for the registration act are Iron Man (Tony Stark- a rich industrialist) along with Henry Pym and Reed Richards (both of whom are brilliant, but spacy, scientists who love to use charts and graphs to predict how things are going to turn out), while the rebels include Captain America, Luke Cage and his wife, Jessica Jones, Cloak and Dagger, the Falcon, Cable, Daredevil, and the Young Avengers. And loner Wolverine is out hunting down Nitro, the supervillian who killed over six hundred civilians to start this whole mess, despite orders to leave Nitro alone.
They haven't said whose side the X-Men will come down on, but considering all of the X-Men storylines that deal with situations like this, I imagine that most of them will side with the rebels.
Exacatly what I thought. Sounds a lot like The Incredibles. A great movie, BTW.
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