Hate America "Superhero"?

FrontPageMagazine.com | 5/12/04 | Michael Lackner

[kattracks]

The Punisher, Marvel Comics’ avenging vigilante, has become a radical. As well as taking out organized crime kingpins and thugs, he’s now taking on U.S. Intelligence and undermining support for the War on Terrorism.  The publication of these comic book polemics coincides with the April release of the feature film “The Punisher” starring Thomas Jane and John Travolta.

Leftist propagandizing is not new to Marvel, nor to the author of the Punisher series, Irishman Garth Ennis.  Two months after September 11^th, the Punisher was featured threatening the life of President George W. Bush.  The story portrays the President as a slobbering belching incoherent drunk, gleefully itching to launch nuclear missiles.  The Punisher breaks into the Oval Office, tosses a nine-millimeter bullet before the President and warns ominously, “I can get in anywhere …Nine millimeters.  I’m never further away than that.”  Yes, you’ve got it right – Marvel published a threat to assassinate the President of the United States, only weeks after September 11^th.  Even viewed as sick humor, the tenor and timing of this piece was inexcusable.

Michael Medved and I addressed the issue of anti-American comic book propaganda in an April 2003 white paper for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.  Marvel is now using its most recently spotlighted icon, the Punisher, to spread the same message of self-doubt and self-hate, this time published under its new MAX (explicit content) label.

 

In the new series, U.S. intelligence agents are vilified as the bad guys, selling heroin from Afghanistan to covertly finance assassination squads.  Ennis shamelessly writes that “the smack comes packed in body bags along with dead GI’s.”  A CIA operative tries to convince the Punisher to “hunt Bin Laden.”  In response, the Punisher crudely spits back: “F-ck you.” [fully spelled]   None of us realized that the Punisher was actually a closet leftist until, for Garth Ennis, we hear him inarticulately condemn the War on Terrorism:  “Fighting for the people who run the world gets you stabbed in the back.  You fight the wars they start and feed.  You kill the monsters they create.  You die from handling depleted uranium, while they get rich on oil.  I’m not going back to war so Colt can sell another million M-16s.  I had enough of that in Vietnam.”  He then desecrates the memory of the 60,000 brave Americans whose names are carved in the black wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, by stating that they bear silent witness to this twisted viewpoint.

 

Marvel and Ennis don’t stop there. In a just released special one-shot story, this comic book franchise is used to denounce America’s pursuit of the War on Terrorism.  In “The Punisher – The End” we find our hero in an America totally devastated by nuclear war caused by – of course – American militarism and corporate greed.  We are treated to a pedantic “Progressive” discourse by the enlightened Punisher:  “Once upon a time there was a bunch of evil f-cks. [fully spelled]  Hardly anyone knew, because they were so good at keeping it quiet.  But these particular evil f-cks owned the world.  And they made the world a cruel and terrible place.  They ran the great industries that poisoned the air.  Their businesses turned whole countries into slaves. … They made puppets out of presidents and started wars for profit.  Eventually, they came to believe that there was nothing that they couldn’t do.  And so one day – inevitably – they pushed the planet’s luck too far.”  

 

The Punisher explains how the end will come, “Ten bad years.  Iraq was one thing.  North Korea.  Even Pakistan.  You shout War on Terror at the Chinese and they laugh so hard the world blows up in your face.  That’s the trouble with a war you never want to end.”

 

… a war you never want to end?  Do our friends at Marvel really believe this drivel?

 

How very cold.  Were we not attacked on September 11^th?  Hasn’t our Jihadi enemy unambiguously declared the intention to destroy us?  Have we not heard their proclamations of bigotry and religious hatred? Hasn’t the world seen bloody terrorist attack upon terrorist attack?  Can any sane person question what they will do if they get their hands on weapons of mass destruction? 

 

It appears that Ennis and Marvel prefer to live in a vulgar world of leftist fantasy, where an evil American government allied with greedy multinational corporations is the enemy of humanity. If such self-hating beliefs are allowed to permeate the popular culture unchallenged, if our strength of will is sapped before we defeat our real enemies, our very survival may be jeopardized.  

 

As if that were not enough – all this is really bad storytelling.  Garth Ennis uses the Punisher as a two-dimensional stick figure to spout his ““Progressive”” political platitudes.  Very uncreative.

 

____________________

 

Michael Lackner is an attorney and former comic book collector, co-author of “The Betrayal of Captain America” for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

[Qwinn]

Holy cow - that -is- -really- bad. That threat to the President, that close to 9/11, is so over the top it's insane.

And to think I used to like Ennis's work on Hellblazer (although that was a DC title, and DC isn't one-ten-thousandth as communist-sympathizing as Marvel has become, so that probably explains it somewhat)

Qwinn

[Qwinn]

Ping.

Relating to our previous conversation about Marvel comics and how bad the leftist indoctrination has gotten...

Apparently their treatment with the Punisher has gone -way- way way way over the edge, far worse than anything than the stuff I told you about from the Ultimates series.

I think Marvel's toast. I think I'm pretty much on the verge of boycotting the whole damn brand (the Ultimate Spideys are the only ones I'd miss anyway).

Thank God we still have DC.

Qwinn

[dasboot]

Holy moley!

Things have changed since I read my last Marvel! What happened to the Howlin' Commandos; Dumdum Doogan and Nick...fightin' fer the American way? Did Stan Lee go bonkers?

PS...what ever happened to Steve Dicto...after the Blue Beetle? (revolutionized comic illustration with Spidey, for the uninitiated....)

[garylmoore]

I am in awe, this is really sick, unpatriotic stuff.

[dasboot]

Ditko...no wonder I couldn't find him searchin'. Thanx Google. (Still drawin', he is.)

[Qwinn]

Apparently, yes, Stan Lee has totally and completely lost his mind.

There's a Marvel Universe spinoff called the Ultimate universe, which is doing a new interpretation of most characters. Nick Fury is black now, and is thankfully one of the few characters who (at least so far and to my knowledge) is still quite likable (along with their 15-year old version of Spiderman). The Ultimate Captain America isn't bad either (although from what I understand their -standard- Captain America had turned into a screaming leftist).

That's the (very little) good news. The Ultimate X-Men is leftist trash, every single enemy Spidey fights has been transformed one way or another into a super-rich cog of the military industrial complex, and basically even the very cool Nick Fury isn't worth reading the rags anymore.

Qwinn

[weegee]

Steve Ditko left Marvel in the 1960s (although he returned in the 1980s briefly to draw Machine Man).

He's pretty much been published by small press companies since the 1980s. He's also gotten more political (to the anger of liberal critics):

[Qwinn]

Wow. Funky stuff.

I appreciate his style and most of his themes, tho that bottom left one - "humanitarianism, compassion, altruism and mercy are anti-life. These are not just, for they are not deserved" is a bit over the top. The guy's a bit too Randian for me. He needs to put the "enlightened" out of "enlightened self-interest".

That said, I'll take his delusions over the Left's any day.

Qwinn

[Qwinn]

Erm, I meant "He needs to put the "enlightened" BACK IN "enlightened self-interest".

Qwinn

[weegee]

I can't say that I agree with all of his politics but they sure are a kick in the teeth of the liberal establishment that opposes nearly everything he writes about.

If we are forced to be compassionate by government, are we really showing any compassion?

God shows us mercy and grace. We get things we don't deserve and don't always get the punishment we do deserve.

Dave Sim (creator of the recently completed Cerebus) is another cartoonist who's politics irk the left. What may be even more surprising is he's Canadian.

[Qwinn]

"If we are forced to be compassionate by government, are we really showing any compassion?"

Absolutely -not-, and I agree with -that- sentiment totally. What bothers me about his view is that he's making no distinction between -voluntary-, individual self sacrifice and -mandatory- sacrifice for the good of the State. The former is good, in fact it's necessary for a functioning, benevolent society. The latter is horrible, and is in fact slavery.

I firmly believe that the answer to the vast bulk of the Left's whines are to be found in voluntary charity. Charity, particularly Christian charity, served our nation very well for 200 years before socialism set in. Of course, the Left knows this, and this is a large reason why it needs to destroy Christianity in order to achieve it's ends. Even as an agnostic, it makes me ill to watch.

Charity is superior to collectivism not -just- because it reinforces individuality and free will, but for another very important reason. No one -wants- to rely on charity. There's an intrinsic (and correct) shame involved - and surprisingly often, those who take advantage it, once they are back on their feet, will repay the charity and give back what they received of their own free will. State-mandated charity has no such shame factor - and that is clearly evident in how even the language has adjusted to reflect the reality - state mandated charity is now referred to as "entitlements".

Qwinn

[Mr. Thorne]

I LIKE the Ultimates series. Especially 'ultimate' CA, with his (to my mind) tougher, more military outlook toward things.

He beats Giant Man to a pulp, 'cause GM's beatin' his wife. He takes the Hulk (!?) down with a kick right in the stones (after dropping a tank on his head, to be sure). He has (shades of DC's Batman) every battle plan backed up with secondary and tertiary plans for various contingencies.

Sure, Thor's a raging leftist, but frankly, I can live with that. My big complaint with 'team' comic books has been that (apparently) the writers are so far left, they can't even WRITE about a realistic conservative character.

I agree re: Ultimate X-Men, Spidey. Which is too bad, considering I dearly love the work of the artist (Mark Bagley) on USM. I just didn't get into the book early enough and don't feel inclined to buy an entire back-issue run. Which is a sure sign to me that the writing isn't doing it for me.

But let's face it. I'm a Graphic Designer/Illustrator who, years ago, USED to buy a dozen mags a month. The last few months, I was buying two-three. Frank Cho's Liberty Meadows, The Ultimates, and I splurged for the JLA/Avengers crossover (I like George Perez's illustration, too; although, from what I hear, he too, is a ranting leftist).

Well, Ultimates is done for a while. JLA/Avengers is over (4 issue limited series). Only Libery Meadows continues.

FWIW, I also bought Top Cow's Magdalena books. Just like the concept. Nice to have a Catholic heroine. Of course, they had to screw that up, too (went all DaVinci Code on me, doggonit).

Oh well...

[new cruelty]

I stopped collecting comics a few years ago. The last Ennis story I read was Preacher, though I did not read the entire series. (If anyone remembers how it ended, please feel free to let me know). I am somewhat surprised Marvel brought him onboard to helm the Punisher. Then again, I just read an opinion elsewhere that Punisher is currently one of Marvel's best books.

One thing I always liked about Ennis' books was the Steve Dillon artwork. Something about his work just cracks me up.

[Skywalk]

Jeez, I didn't know they had Punisher spouting this garbage.

The left is sick. They have to not only destroy characters with politics they never had, but they can't even bring themselves to look at TRUE evil and let their characters fight it. Punisher SHOULD be hunting AQ, what the hell? If mobsters are evil and worthy of death how can terrorists not be?

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

A far cry from Mike Baron's Punisher. He seemed to lean a bit rightward. One issue even had the Punisher saving a Rush-like radio host from killers. Punny said he agreed with a lot of what the host said!

Ennis did similar lefty crap on Hellblazer, so I'm not surprised. But he totally misunderstands the Punisher's character if this is what he'd writing.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Love that Ditko - his Mr. A and The Question are some of the best comics ever.

[Jon Alvarez]

that's why we designed the American Patriot:

http://www.pabaah.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album05&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php&PHPSESSID=5e444b4efae9e86af13f436462993a70


America needs some new heroes

[Shut up and take it]

We need to ship Mr. Ennis back to Ireland.

[Qwinn]

"The last Ennis story I read was Preacher, though I did not read the entire series. (If anyone remembers how it ended, please feel free to let me know). "

I read the whole series. It ended lame. Really, really, really lame. So lame that, frankly, you're better off continuing with the impressions left by the rather intriguing buildup and not ever find out just how absolutely disappointing the end of it was when it came.

I agree that Dillon's artwork is exceptional.

Qwinn