Captain America, Traitor?

National Review Online ^ | April 4, 2003, 7:15 a.m. | Michael Medved

[SlickWillard]

Bump.

[EdReform]

BTTT

[Bikers4Bush]

Marvel comics is full of leftist scumbags. The comic books aren't even worth being used as toilet paper anymore.

[GATOR NAVY]

When such sentiments turn up, however, hidden within star-spangled, nostalgic packaging of comic books aimed at kids...

I wouldn't worry too much. Do kids even read comic books any more? The only people I know who read comic books are geek adults.

[MattinNJ]

I gave up on Marvel when they turned Iron Man into a murderer several years ago.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

This is not teaching racial tolerance, etc., as defended, it is teaching guilt just like all the pc bs. It is part of the leftist campaign to undermine and destroy our noble culture and past.

[Sans-Culotte]

You're right. Captain America becomes a soapbox for anti-American pro-terrorist rhetoric, and The Rawhide Kid is resurrected as the first openly gay western "hero". If this isn't re-education, what is it?

[7thson]

Last year, while cruising the net, I discoverd that Marvel took some of its characters and redid them - The Avengers became The Ultimates, Spider-Man - Ultimate Spider-Man and XMen - Ultimate XMen. They redid them as if they started in todays time vice the early 60's. Actually, the stories were pretty good. Lately though, while looking at their website, the artists conceptions of the men and women who make up their characters tend to be pornographic. The Enchantress stroking Thors leg while his hammer is displayed right in front of his crotch. The females with their legs spread. The making of the Rawhide Kid as a homosexual. Then I have also noticed some other things. Some of the females have the body of a women but the face of a child. This strikes me as borderline pedophilia. Now this piece about Captain America. It is just too much and I wonder how to answer it. I remember reading these comics as a boy and young teen. I remember the battles with the Red Skull, as the evil Nazi is spewing forth his hate and Cap giving it right back, telling the Skull what America stands for. Back then, most of the creators of these comics fought in WW II. Now, we have these socialist pansies making excuses. It is sickening.

[new cruelty]

iron man, murderer? i've been out of the comic book loop for a while.

[freekitty]

And these leftists always have a patriotic name.

[Tunehead54]

Jeez! I guess the answer to the question "Is nothing sacred?" is no. Sigh.

---

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

BTTT

[ClearCase_guy]

Very sad. I remember several years ago there was a cross-over series where Captain America appeared in the Daredevil books for a bit. At one point, an unethical president wanted Captain America to do something illegal and then questioned Cap's loyalty when the demand was refused.

Captain America reached out and held the American Flag and basically said, "I'm not loyal to you. I'm loyal to this."

Guess Marvel has changed.

[=Intervention=]

They sure have. I gave up on Marvel when they canned Chris Claremont from X-Men. It's sad. I sure won't pay $2.50 - $3.00 a piece for poorly-written nearly porno trash.

[Gwaihir]

Stan Lee runs the show there. Check out his political credentials, he's a major Dem fundraiser.

[=Intervention=]

True, but there's been a huge decline in quality from about 1992 until now. Something changed, and it's not just Lee's political tendencies (which as far as I know, were always Dem). It's hit the whole comic-book industry, too, but I never really cared about what DC did and I didn't expect any better from the independents.

[MikeD]

Stan Lee hasn't run the show at Marvel for years. The quality control has gone to pot ever since he left.

For what it's worth, the best portrayal of government in a Marvel comic has been in "Black Panther." There was a great arc a year or so back where a supporting character was debating domestic policy with the President, and the President was written as witty and intelligent. Three cheers to Christopher Priest...

MD

[LS]

As a long time comic collector (I recently sold my X-Men #1, Avengers #2, and SpiderMan #1), Marvel used to be HIGHLY patriotic. During the Cold War, the Fantastic Four fought the "Red Ghost" and his apes, and there were frequently communist enemies, like the "Crimson Dynamo." "Dr. Doom" was a Milosovic-type dictator.

But Marvel began to get quite PC in the 1980s---the art pretty much sucked after Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott left---and the 1990s Marvel junk is unreadable and the art horrible.

[MattinNJ]

iron man, murderer?

Yup. I couldn't believe it. I was reading comics up until I was 30 something (guilty pleasure). IIRC, Iron Man ran around killing some people (Jarvis? the Wasp?) to cover something up-I can't really remember the specifics. Right after that happened, the entire Marvel Universe went into an alternate universe and he was back to being a good guy. It just wasn't the same after that and I gave up.