Posted on 04/29/2007 10:45:10 AM PDT by 68skylark
I've blogged previously about graphic novelist/illustrator Frank Miller's renegade commentary on patriotism and al Qaeda's jihad. The L.A. Times has a new profile of Miller today with news of his latest projects--and more fodder that will set the 9/10 Hollyweirdos' teeth on edge:
MUCH has been made of Miller's politics in the wake of "300." The deliriously violent and stylized sword film is based on a Spartan battle in 480 B.C., and although Miller wrote and drew the story for Dark Horse comics a decade ago, in film form it was received by many as a grotesque parody of the ancient Persians and a fetish piece for a war on Islam. Miller scoffs at those notions. "I think it's ridiculous that we set aside certain groups and say that we can't risk offending their ancestors. Please. I'd like to say, as an American, I was deeply offended by 'The Last of the Mohicans.' "
Still, Miller gets stirred up about any criticism of the war in Iraq or the hunt for terrorists, which he views as the front in a war between the civilized Western world and bloodthirsty Islamic fundamentalists.
"What people are not dealing with is the fact that we're going up against a culture that finds it acceptable to do things that the rest of the world left behind with the barbarians in the 6th century," Miller said. "I'm a little tired of people worrying about being polite. We are fighting in the face of fascists."
The director of "300," Zack Snyder, chuckled about the portrayal of Miller as a conservative on the attack or a "proto-fascist" as one pundit called him. "I don't think he really has politics, he just sees the world in moral terms. He's a guy who says what he thinks and has a sense of right and wrong. He talks tough and, after Sept. 11, I think he's mad." Snyder said Miller is a throwback and that he approaches his art with a bar-fight temperament, like a Sam Peckinpah. "His political view is: Don't mess with me."
Apparently, Miller's Batman vs. al Qaeda comic book has stalled in the face of "squeamishness by executives at DC Comics and its parent, Warner Bros. Entertainment, in sending a franchise character on a blood-quest after terrorists." No surprise there.
Miller describes the plot and assails the lack of pro-American, anti-jihad backing in his industry:
"Our hero's key quote is, 'Those clowns don't know what terror is,' " Miller said. "Then he sets out to get the guys."
With the hero as terrorism avenger, Miller is pointing to the days of comics in the 1940s, when Superman, Captain America and the Human Torch were drawn taking punches at Hitler or Hirohito.
"These terrorists are worse than any villain I can come up with, and I think it's ridiculous that people in entertainment are not showing what we are up against here…. This is pure propaganda, a throwback, there's no bones about it."
Miller also said he relishes a backlash. "I'm ready," he said, "for my fatwa."
The reason Marvel Comics’ Captain America could fight the Nazis and Detective Comics’ (DC) Superman couldn’t is because Hitler possessed the Lance of Longinius. According to DC editors, the Lance had mystical powers due to its sacred origin (which was always carefully left vague in the comic books): it caused any superhuman being to become powerless against the one to held it. Thus any attempt by Superman to simply fly to Berlin and kick Hitler’s ass would have resulted in Superman augering in as he crossed the Western Front — over Nazi territory (and, presumably, that of their allies) he would be within the infuence of the Lance and therefore without his super powers. Superman, limited as he was to this side of the Atlantic, supported the war effort by rooting our “Jap-o-teurs”, promoting blood drives, helping the Army and Navy with heavy work (lifting battleship guns, etc.), and of course fighting crime, as did the other Detective Comics superheroes of the era, including the Flash, Wonder Woman, and the original Green Lantern.
As for DC’s non-superpowered heroes, Batman might conceivably have fought, although the current Batman would have been too young for the war (or even unborn at the time, if you count the movie Batman).
Captain America, on the other hand, could and did fight the Nazis of the Marvel universe. Steve Rogers received his powers from a scientific experiment in which he was dosed with a mysterious serum and exposed to “vita-rays” as part of an Army project to create a super-soldier. Since his powers were of a scientific and earthly nature, he would probably have been immune to any mystical anti-superpower force deployed by the enemy. Of course, in the Marvel universe Hitler did not own the Lance of Longinius, so we’ll never know what its effect might have been.
Incidentally, many Marvel heroes fought in World War 2, including Ben “The Thing” Grimm (a USMC fighter pilot), Reed “Mr. Fantastic” Richards (an OSS operative), Namor of Atlantis (the Sub-Mariner) and Nick Fury (leader of the Army’s “Howling Commandos” special operations force).
I have always found DC’s stable of heroes to be more to my liking, especially Superman, but since DC reimagined most of its heroes as young adults during the 1950s and 1960s, they didn’t have much part in the Good War. World War 2 on the DC front was won by the same guys that won it in real life: Sgt. Rock and the boys from Easy Company.
Ooooo! What was the one about the southern tank driver
who was helped by the ghost of Jeb Stewart?
Miller rocks!
Thank God someone in the entertainment business is speaking out of the horrors that we must fight.
Comics books are supposed to be cheap, disposable entertainment. Unfortunately, the comics books of today are almost completely different from those I knew as a kid. DC editors and creators like Julius Schwartz, Elliot S! Maggin, Mort Weisinger, Curt Swan, Dick Giordano and Joe Kubert were real men, grounded in the real world of bills, wars, and family life. Many were also religious, and worked the general concepts of religion into their work.
(To be fair, Marvel had many religious people such as the incomparable Jack "King" Kirby on staff; I used to refer to Marvel as the Jewish comics company and DC as the Catholic comics company.)
Of course Marvel had gods as heroes (e.g. Thor, Hercules), but in the DC world the God existed and even intervened in human affairs on occasion; for example, DC's the Spectre was the Wrath of God personified, and DC's Green Lantern went to Limbo after he died.
(Superman was raised as a Methodist by the Kents; I'm not sure if he still attends.)
Today's American comic books industry is run by a different breed. Many of the big-shots at DC and Marvel are '70s comics fanboys who have, er, a less traditional view of the world than the folks that made the funnybooks before them. Now, there are lots of good people that work in the U.S. comics industry today, and there were plenty of drunks, wifebeaters, and crazy people making comics back in the old days; the difference between today's comics creators and those of the past is that back in the old days the drunkenness, violence, and insanity were not celebrated in the pages of the books.
Case in point: The hottest creator in comics today — and I mean the absolute darling of comic fans and New York literary critics alike — is a bearded Brit known for "his signature themes...: information overload; cynical, burnt-out adventurers with hidden streaks of compassion and even sentimentality; the erosion of conventional societal taboos; posthuman technology run amok; a dysfunctional relationship between, on the one hand, human consciousness and, on the other, technology and culture; the exploration of the inherent contradictions of transhuman philosophy; protagonists with substance addiction problems; an urgent desire for utopia in the face of overwhelming dystopian trends; and an outrageously extreme sense of humour". He had a big success a few years ago with a series about a team of "uncompromising left-wing superheroes" who take over the world and impose their version of Utopia upon it; and another in which "homosexual doppelgangers of Superman and Batrman" fight against the government which discriminates against their love. So much for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
Anyway, I mostly write for a living these days. I'm planning on doing some comics again in the near future, but I doubt it'll be for any company that publishes American superhero comics. Sic transit gloria mundi.
That was just a cover story. Superman was actually Jewish but had to pretend to be Methodist since they were unable to circumcise him.
the infowarrior
Personally, I'd consider that a compliment, being dissed by Hollyweird I mean.
I have yet to see the movie but I liked this scene from the trailers I saw. A co-worker said anyone who stands next to a pit with his back to it, deserves to be kicked into it.
Frank Miller isn’t a conservative-— he’s more like a Christopher Hitchens type in that he’s a leftist who reacted with clear sight to 9/11.
In “Dark Knight” for instance, he displays the usual leftist take on Ronald Reagan, portraying him as a hapless (though grasping and corrupt) twit.
ping
The Liberal Left in America is sliding closer and closer to outright Nazism with each passing day, now.
In just the last few days, we’ve had Democrats calling for Special Squads to carry out National Gun Confiscation, Thought Crimes Legislation that carry’s a life sentance for speaking out against gays, etc.,etc....
I’d say the Dems are “Over-reaching”, but the leftist media is FIRMLY behind them, and the sheeple haven’t got a clue...
ping
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