Even comic books have them

Elder of Zion wrote earlier about the AP's puff piece on a bigoted comic being published in Egypt. In case it hasn't been discussed here yet, there are other examples of comic books right within the US that have anti-Americanism, anti-Israelism, and even pro-terrorist sympathies, that were put out over the past few years, and that's one of the reasons why, besides my world affairs blog, I've also got a comics blog, The Four Color Media Monitor,* on which to discuss these things too. I'd also written a special posting on my world affairs blog almost two weeks ago on which to discuss some of these issues about comic books that could be going on right under the very noses of the public. And, after reading on that dreadful book from Egypt that the AP sugarcoated recently, I thought it a good idea to write some notes on what everyone should be on the lookout for in comic books today. For example:

The Betrayal of Captain America (in PDF format), co-written by Michael Medved and Michael Lackner, via The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. And click here for Medved's own excerpt from National Review. Learn mainly in the PDF file about how the leftists lording over Marvel Comics now degraded one of comicdom's most favorite freedom fighters for the sake of political correctness, and why even other superheroes and anti-heroes are not safe either.

In 2004, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man was used as a political tool when comics writer Paul Jenkins wrote a pre-Munich story called "Countdown", which also used quite a bit of moral equivalency in a story that's almost like a corruption of an earlier, better story written by Stan Lee in 1970 ("The Arms of Doctor Octopus!"), when Doc Ock broke out of jail in Chicago and hijacked a plane carrying a Chinese general to New York. The difference is that, at the time that was written, nobody was denying that the Communists were baddies, whereas Jenkins' story, by contrast, whitewashes the PLO and the character of Hayan Zarour almost entirely, and even if his appearances are short (compared to the 5-6 part story, which is way overlong), Jenkins still does whatever he can to make the readers sympathise with a character who's working for an enemy organization. Ugh. See also this letter conversation I had with Jenkins himself in 2004 that I reprinted a year later. That man, I'm telling you, has no shame.

And then, here's a most distastful example of anti-Americanism hidden in plain sight: Identity Crisis, from DC Comics. Yes, it's misogynist, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Here's three articles about it from IGN's comics section, and in the second one, a most telling clue for starters about where it stands is when the writer says on the 10th page that:

So far, at least, Identity Crisis seems simply to be undercutting the moral stature of many Silver Age superheroes, and by extension, the Silver Age itself. The "magic lobotomy" of Doctor Light is the JLA's Abu Ghraib scandal.

But it's when you read this article here, that you learn some more:

NRAMA: Where did the desire for a shift in tonality within the DCU come from?

DD: A lot of this actually came following September 11th. After everything that occurred in New York City, I was coming to work at DC, and going through the Port Authority. At that time, you would walk into the Port Authority, and you would have National Guardsmen standing there with machine guns. He’s standing there holding his machine gun, and is supposed to be making me feel better and more protected, but somehow, that gave me a greater sense of dread – it put me more on edge.

Yes, it appears that DC's EIC is more afraid of those who want to protect him than he is from the terrorists who destroyed a landmark monument. And, sometime later, I found an article published on the week of the 9-11 memorial, that further confirmed that this was all more or less politically motivated, and an attack on the United States in the worst of ways.

That's what's called political bias and even sympathy for terrorism hidden in plain sight, as well as deconstruction of heroes. Let that serve as an important note about why you need to be on watch for this kind of garbage at all times, and why it pays to have a microscope handy for the more subtle messages too. Just like movies, comics are also in danger of political bias, and we can't let it escape our notice.

* I've also got an extra one, The Comic Book Discrimination Dossiers, that's similar in some ways to the purpose of Women in Refridgerators.