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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

A clever bit of sublety that still didn't manage to impress anyone

I am rather infamously not a fan of the so-called comics writer Geoff Johns, mostly because of -  but not limited to - his penchant for jarring, alienating violence, but there's even his questionable politics, which, based on a 2002 story he wrote for the Avengers at Marvel Comics, I can only figure to be leftist.

And he hasn't done much better with his latest output from DC Comics, which is irksome for several reasons, the beginning one being that a character whom he featured briefly in his take on Aquaman named Kahina the Seer, was apparently a Muslim woman from Iran. And if he hadn't made her a follower of the Religion of Rape, the character in itself could've been something to appreciate, but lo.

Now according to the info given here:
Ivan and Joe designed the most elegant and stunning member of the Others when they tackled Kahina the Seer. Originally from Tehran, the Seer was once the conscience of the Others. Named after her prophetic vision, the Seer often uses in in conjunction with her skills with a sword. The Seer has been inactive for the last few years, her whereabouts and activities unknown to Aquaman. Until now.
Gee, I do have to wonder what's so elegant about a woman who basically self-ostracizes?

Now you'll note that this character has since been killed off, and what makes it troubling? Well...it's got something to do with Aquaman nemesis Black Manta:
So you see, Black Manta offs Kahina in an unsurprisingly vicious manner for a story written by a writer as contemptuous as Johns. And what easily makes this story an intellect-insulter is that - depending on how you view it - it technically makes the black man look like the real threat here (he even threatens to terminate her family), and the Islamist the one to be sorry for. In other words, Johns came up with a really clever piece of subtle propaganda, whether he was conscious of it or not.

Not that it's impressed anyone even on the side of Islam, and if you look at the 2nd result from the bottom on this list of Tumblr tag entries, there's one person there, possibly Muslim, who didn't like it, partly because they showed the chador being ripped away. And just today, the leftist British website Bleeding Cool went and published a letter from an Iranian who wasn't happy the character was offed, but didn't say he was bothered by the religion written onto the character.

It's interesting that 2 years ago, Johns was actually accused of racism by at least a few leftists for writing up a story featuring a possible allusion to the Somali pirates jihadists, as though black haven't been featured as criminals in fiction before (in comics, there were plenty of black crooks featured in Power Man and Iron Fist, and nobody batted an eyelash). But what really sabotaged the story he wrote in Brightest Day was the inclusion of Manta, which basically trivialized the more serious issue of the jihadists in Africa. It'll be interesting to see if those accusations of racism made against Johns will still be made for even depicting Manta as a criminal. What's amazing is that even here, Johns, whom you might want to know is a native of Detroit, Michigan, came up with a subtle form of pro-Islamist propaganda, and still no potential Islamists are satisfied. Frankly, after all the trouble Johns and company have caused, I'd say they deserve whatever negative response they get. Especially for forcing all this mess upon a series starring a character created by a Jewish writer/editor (Mort Weisinger), whom I doubt much of the Islamic world would ever have respect for. I hesitate to think how Johns and company at DC would write a depiction of an Armenian in any story they could publish.

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