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.

[new cruelty]

Thank you for the update. Too bad about the lame ending.

Neil Gaiman would do the same thing with the Sandman story arcs, though I kind of enjoyed the subtle endings in his stories.

[Qwinn]

Oh, I didn't object too much to Sandman story arc endings - liked most of 'em, in fact. I mean, I really -wanted- to be upset with the way the series was ended, but after consideration I was able to be honest enough with myself to admit that my real disappointment with the way Sandman ended was that it ended so -soon-. That's actually high praise, when you think about it.

But if I liked them, and you didn't as much, then that implies that it's likely that if I hated the way Preacher ended, you'd loathe it ;)

I heard rumors a couple of months ago that Gaiman was going to fire up another round of Sandman. Haven't heard anything since though. Keep an eye out.

Qwinn

[LanPB01]

I remember that issue. It was in The Punisher: War Journal. At one point, the Limbaugh-like host was explaining to his listeners that we had to be tough on crime, because it wasn't fair to let some nut off "just because his salisbury steak told him to kill you."

[lentulusgracchus]

There was another Freeper thread a couple of years ago that discussed some gloats that Leftists were passing around among themselves. It seems that gay/Left illustrators have been self-consciously working to penetrate and take over the comic-book medium, recognizing it as a useful medium of propaganda, and their undermining is beginning to bear "fruit" now.......

It's nothing new......same old gig, hijack a respected medium or institution, play "capture the flag" via a cabal. George Meany stomped the communists who tried to do that with the labor unions in the 1940's, and Ronald Reagan stopped the Hollywood Reds as president of the Screen Actors' Guild. Stopping these guys needs a conservative to stand up and start naming names and kicking ass.

[new cruelty]

Oh, no. I meant to say that I enjoyed the subtle endings in Sandman. They were usually very cleverly done. I particulary enjoyed Season of Mists wherein Lucifer hands the key to hell to Morpheus.

I'll have to dig up my collection and reread those issues.

[lentulusgracchus]

(went all DaVinci Code on me, doggonit)

?????

[new cruelty]

Did you ever read Alan Moore's 'Brought to Light'? That was one of the first graphic novels I picked up.

[Qwinn]

"Oh, no. I meant to say that I enjoyed the subtle endings in Sandman. They were usually very cleverly done. I particulary enjoyed Season of Mists wherein Lucifer hands the key to hell to Morpheus."

"I'll have to dig up my collection and reread those issues."

You should - the bit where Lucifer hands the key to hell to Morpheus is nowhere near the end of that story arc :) Unless you were talking about the endings of single issues.

Qwinn

[Central_Floridian]

I think its funny that someone would use comic books to advocate their beliefs on such important issues.
I guess Marvel needs to write on a level that the extreme left can comprehend.

[Qwinn]

"Did you ever read Alan Moore's 'Brought to Light'? That was one of the first graphic novels I picked up."

Erm, don't think so. What series was that a part of?

Qwinn

[new cruelty]

Yes, the ending of single issues. I thought that issue was pivotal to the entire series. After that, the Dreaming is host to several characters seeking the key to hell, Loki, chief amoung them. And if I recall, in 'the Kindly Ones' Loki is a catalyst for Dream's 'demise' by kidnapping Hippolyta's son, Daniel.

[Qwinn]

My mistake then, your memory is quite accurate (and detailed) :)

Qwinn

[new cruelty]

It was a stand alone graphic novel. Very bitter and radical conspiracy type stuff tracking the deeds or misdeeds of the United States during the Cold War. Bill Sienkiewicz did the artwork. I was at an impressionable age when I read it, thankfully, it did not take.

[new cruelty]

I really liked the books. : )

[Qwinn]

Heheh so did I. Read 'em all numerous times. I can get nauseatingly detailed myself. I'd throw a trivia question or two at ya just for fun, but I'm afraid people would start posting pictures of the Simpsons "Comic Book Guy" if I did ;)

Never saw that Brought To Light mag. Creepy.

Qwinn

[William Terrell]

Another consequence of not using the constitutional provision to formally declare war.

[Just another Joe]

The left, almost as a whole, is isolationist when it comes to everything except trade and immigration.

When it comes to trade and immigration they want to throw open the doors, let the burglars and ravers in, and leave the house so that it's stripped and a wreck when they come back.

Why? Because they don't care about the USA, they care about getting their little piece of the pie before the burglars eat it whole.

[TheBigB]

Does anyone besides me read Iron Man nowadays? It seems to be a complete opposite of everything else Marvel is doing...Tony Stark is now W.'s Secretary of Defense. Bush has been pictured several times, with absolutely no insulting or belittling portrayals at all.

[new cruelty]

...but I'm afraid people would start posting pictures of the Simpsons "Comic Book Guy" if I did

LOL. That's funny because it's true.

[finnman69]

I don't remember the Punisher acting like this when I read comic books as a kid.