Marvel Comics' apology
 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/201002...s/ynews_ts1129

Thu Feb 11, 3:21 pm ET

Since 1941, Captain America has been one of the most popular comic book characters around. The fictional super-patriot fought Nazis during World War II, took on those who burned the American flag during the Vietnam era, and raked in hundreds of millions of dollars for Marvel Comics along the way. Now, the appearance that he is taking on the Tea Party Movement in a storyline about investigating white supremacists has forced Marvel to apologize for the comic hero.

Issue 602 of the comic features Captain America investigating a right-wing anti-government militia group called "the Watchdogs". Hoping to infiltrate the group, Captain America and his African-American sidekick The Falcon observe an anti-tax protest from a rooftop. The protestors depicted are all white and carry signs adorned with slogans almost identical to those seen today in Tea Party rallies like "tea bag libs before they tea bag you" and "stop the socialists."

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Good ol' Marvel, I've always loved that they were pretty progressive politically with their character's political beliefs (Marvel did begin to gain huge ground in their bid to be at the top of the comics industry heap in around 1962, after all....and they grew all through the 60's and 70's).

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

I was hoping this was a "we fired Quesada and plan to fix Spider-man" apology.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Aren't they about to do that? I keep seeing ads in the recent comics showing Spidey reaching out to grab MJ (wearing a wedding dress) w/ some characters and strewn about in the background.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Hehehe. They must be lovin' this. They probably can't keep that issue of Cap' on the stands.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Yeah, this kind of thing makes proud to be a FOOM (Friend Of Ol' Marvel, for those aged comic fans amongst us, lol). Even though I no longer read new stuff (just can't stand the continuity problems), these characters will always be close to my heart.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

I used to get the FOOM magazine

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

I don't understand why people are proud of Marvel over this. Because they apologized, or because they included some modern day headlines in the comic?

While I like Bru's cap, I can see why the people complained about this, and Marvel's excuse (that they were at a deadline and pulled whatever signs they could from the internet) doesn't seem to ring true to me. Of course, I haven't read the issue, has anyone here?

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

To answer, in order:

It's because they ran a story with negative depictions of right-wingers (yay! for that).

Marvel's excuse doesn't ring true to you because it wasn't sincere. It was simply an attention-getter for them to sell more copies of this book. Marvel is, primarily, a left-wing publisher (not too far left, but left nonetheless, thank goodness). They don't give two sh!ts about the Tea (Bag) Party, other than to display them as the (relatively minor, for now) threat they may become to the current administration.

No, I haven't read the entire issue, just a few of the main pages in question.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

I would feel the same way if they depicted anti-war protesters as terrorist sympathizers.
Generalizations and the subsequent cheerleading doesn't help any.
One more reason not to buy Marvel.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

What Marvel should have done was have Cap side with the Tea Baggers and the Falcon against them.
Fair & balanced .

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

tea party =! right wing republican. tea party = independant conservative

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Marvel doesn't have to be fair and balanced and they wouldn't put Cap, who is a true symbol of Americana, with the bunch of racist nutjobs that make the Tea Party.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Very true. All the way around.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

I would add slightly misinformed slightly wacky independent conservative.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Who cares? This is all about business. They say what they want, then apologize and get more publicity drumming up even more sales in the process. Lame. If they had any balls at all they wouldn't need to apologize.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Yes. The race card. Quite eloquent.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Actually, they kinda already did that.

http://everydayislikewednesday.blogspot.com/

Page down to the post of February 11 talking about Marvel's Secret Invasion #6, which includes scenes of activists supporting Skrull-provided "change".

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

What?

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Not sure why they feel the need to apologize. The entertainment industry has been left-wing for as along as it's been around. Why is this anything different?

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Signs that the Teabaggers use? So they're misspelled badly, show no signs of actual grammar, and use thinly veiled racist slurs?

I'm not sure why Marvel is apologizing. It sounds like a good basis for a Cap story, really.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Cap is for abortion, gay marriage and changing Christmas holiday to Winter Break too,right?

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

As much as any fictional frigging character can be.

And don't forget, Cap spent WW2 hanging around with an underage boy to whom he wasn't related, has been having premarital sex for the better part of a century, and keeps letting the bad guys go.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

When Tom Tancredo, an openly racist asshole, opens as a keynote speaker for the OFFICIAL Tea Party convention, talking about how the literacy test (a law during the segretation era to prevent blacks from voting) should be brought back, then I can see and say that the party endorses a racist, exclusive agenda.

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Cap is for equal rights for all, including homosexuals. He is also a true believer in civil rights, so I don't doubt that he endorses pro-choice. As for the Christmas thing, that is just ridiculous.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

He wants the voting populace to be educated and that makes him a racist? Hypersensitivity and playing the victim at its finest. I swear people will find racism in everything. "read between the lines. he hates brown people!" give me a break. if i say i hate bown m and m's it means just that. i hate brown m and m's. sometimes people just say what they mean.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Actually, I agree with you. I wish that people were more educated in general, and I don't think that people who are unable to pass a literacy test should be able to vote. "The great unwashed/Wal-Mart crowd" have kept us down for a long time, and I don't give a crap what color any of them are. And to understand this real contradiction I have over this issue, you should know that I'm typically on the Dem side of things.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Funny thing is that the literacy test will disqualify a lot of those Teabaggers, but that doesn't take away the other fact that Tancredo mentioned this in his speech in order to prevent blacks from voting.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Alot more than teabaggers would be left out in the cold. Hell I probably couldnt pass a civics literacy test. That dosent make it racist. I would direct you to this youtube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6zM5ldO35A around the 7-8 min mark is Obama's old church leader being more racist than anyone ive ever seen before. The author of that video would have you believe that Obama himself is a racist by taking passages from one of his books out of context, that I do not agree with. Here is the snopes page that explains most of the comments made that can be construed by people grasping at straws that Obama is a racist. http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/ownwords.asp Now in the video is some news clips that do make me scratch my head. Obama describing his grandmother as a "typical white person" and Michelle saying that black America will wake up. There in lies the problem with throwing out the race card. Is it not also racist to target a specific group of people just because you happen to look like them? Shure, not racist in the negative sense, but racist none the less. And I dont think Captain America hates America, two party politics hates America.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

This Tancredo character mentioned that he wanted to prevent blacks from voting by instituting a literacy test?

Wouldn't that just prevent ignorant people from voting?
I would need to know more about how a literacy test would affect things in the long run to completely be for it. Sounds like a good idea though.

I do however, like the idea of counties not putting (R) or (D) next to candidates names. Discourages people from just voting by party, instead of actually reading up on the candidates.

My uncle just checks everyone who has R by their name. He also thinks Obama is an undercover Muslim because he "slipped up" when speaking to Bill O'Reilly.
*sigh*

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Didn't he bring that up when describing that his grandma feared a black guy walking down the street and that he can't disown his grandma, just like he can't disown the guy who speaks at the church down the street?

It might have been better to say "she was a result of growing up in all white area," if that was the case.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Holy shit, why would you want politics to have ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOUR COMICS?!

I'm conservative, but this shit just kills comics. Look at the stories when they were subtly political...like X-Men. Much better. This dumbass crap with Obama hanging out with Spider-Man and Captain America not having a 1940s mindset is just stupid.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

I agree. That's why I didn't like the idea of DCU: Decisions comic.

I remember there was a rumor that a writer a ways back was going to have revealed that the reason why Captain America was frozen, was because he opposed the bombing of Hiroshima and that a general manipulated the events of his last mission with Bucky in order for both of them to be taken out.

It kind of doesn't work because where was he when all the collateral damage was being done in Germany or Japan prior to that?

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Like I said before, this was a law for blacks only, where they needed to pass a literacy test to vote. That is what Tancredo was refering to. By the way, Tancredo is not any character, he is/was a powerful politician for Colorado who was even hated by the Bush administration for the outrageous remarks he made publicly.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Dammit... this got all too political. I was hoping to come here and see an open letter from marvel saying sorry for ruining the punisher (frank(en) castle). Or atleast saying they would print some of the opposing viewpoints in the comic, instead of throwing 10 different pro Frankencastle letters in it.

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Captain America has always been a political character. Back in the 70's, Marvel got heat from the US Government due to the writers using Cap to criticize Vietnam and the entire Nixon administration. I think that as a private company, they can do whatever the hell they want and if they want to send a political message, more power to them. They have the tools and necessary audience to take a political stance if they want to. Watchmen had a political plot and tone. Isn't it one of the most respected works in the industry?

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

Exactly. And Marvel, in it's classic 60's/70's heyday, was ran by a bunch of fairly liberal folks (Stan Lee, Steve Gerber, etc) who often integrated their political stance in their works. The comics were/are, quite often, reflections of the attitudes of the counter-culture, hence being very appealing to forward-thinking young folks who like their fantasy administered with a bit of vigilantism. After all, who wouldn't want to just walk up to a threatening rival and simply...dispatch them, in the method of both your choice and ability?

Re: Marvel Comics' apology
 

"V" was really political, so was The Dark Knight Returns, Elektra Assassin, all the best books are, really. So, as I stated earlier, the only reason I could see for this "apology" is to gain more publicity for flagging sales.