If there are two things that I love discussing, it’s politics and comic books, so it seems that this story was just tailor-made for me to rant about.
About two weeks ago, some tea party leaders (How you can consider yourself a leader of something that isn’t really organized under one roof, I’m not sure, unless you call that roof “the Republican party.”) went straight to the press crying over a recent issue of Marvel’s Captain America comic after a conservative blogger found an obvious reference to the tea parties (who won our “Worst Muckmaker” award this year) within its panels. Here’s the gist of it…
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.”
The Falcon mentions that the gathering appears to be “some kind of anti-tax protest” and notes that “this whole ‘hate the government’ vibe isn’t limited to the Watchdogs.” He then tells Captain America that he doesn’t think their plan will work because “I don’t exactly see a black man from Harlem fitting in with a bunch of angry white folks.” Captain America then explains that his plan entails sending The Falcon in among the group posing as an IRS agent under the thinking that a black government official will most certainly spark their anger.(You can read the actual comic pages here.)
The teabaggers are pissed at their portrayal, but what is untrue about it? They’re mostly white, carry signs with those exact slogans, and have made many, many bigoted remarks against our black president to the press, on their signs, and in countless videos found on YouTube. The vocal core supporting this astroturfing “movement” is made up of a bunch of dumbass (often gun-toting) hillbillies, so why can’t Ed Brubaker, the writer of the comic, say so? For a group that spends so much time complaining that their freedom of speech is going to be revoked by the oppressive regime of the White House, they certainly wasted no time in condemning Marvel Comics for exercising theirs.
And they effectively censored them too. Both Brubaker and Marvel’s Editor in Chief, Joe Quesada, have blamed the signs on “stupid mistakes” by letterers under a deadline who did not approve the lettering with the creative team before it hit the presses. Quesada, in a stunning move, even publicly apologized for the offending panels, saying that “There was no thought that it represented a particular group.” While he may have done this to placate his new bosses (Disney now owns Marvel, in case you missed that one.), there’s really no reason to lie to us; maybe that particular panel really did have some last-minute edits (maybe), but let’s be honest – Brubaker makes his politics abundantly clear throughout his Captain America books. Even though they’ve agreed to censor the books by editing future printings of the comic to have different slogans on the signs, it’s as apparent as Cap’s stars and stripes that “the Watchdogs” are satirizing the tea parties…and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
In fact, if you know your comic book history, you’d realize quite easily that Captain America is no stranger to stirring the pot, and he’s certainly no stranger to liberalism. Ever since writer Stan Lee revived Steve Rogers in Avengers #4 in 1964, he has transformed him from a one-dimensional WWII propaganda character into a man who must constantly struggle with being the symbolic representative of America and all its ideals. He alone must shoulder the responsibility of being truth, justice, and the American way to everyone, and that’s not always an easy task in a country that’s often divided over what exactly “the American way” is. For Lee, this was progressing along with the times, adapting to whatever changes are coming along and making the best of them, learning and growing from them. Rogers was a traditional young man of the 1940s who, frozen in time for over a decade, wakes up in the 1960s to find that America isn’t quite the same as when he left it. This was a time of “free love,” shifting household and gender roles, and the Civil Rights movement, so Cap had a lot to learn. He adapted quickly, however, as he could see that this was the way America was headed, and he became a symbol for a new America – one that wasn’t afraid to challenge the status quo and fight against the grain when necessary.
In 1974, during the midst of the real-life Watergate scandal, Steve boldly quit being Captain America for a time after becoming disillusioned with the government he had been defending all these years. And just in 2006-2007, during the immensely popular Civil War storyline (which affected almost every Marvel character), he bravely fought against the Superhero Registration Act, which was symbolic for the Patriot Act and its violations of individual freedoms and privacy. This led to his assassination, which he was only recently resurrected from. During his absence, his old crime-fighting partner, Bucky Barnes, took over as Captain America, and that is the Cap we see in the panel talking so highly of the tea party protesters. So even though it’s not exactly the same Captain America, the point remains the same – the character has never been a big fan of Republicans, and he can always see through their bullshit. Brubaker knows this, and Quesada knows this. This guy clearly doesn’t…
“When I was a child in the ’60s Captain America was my favorite superhero,” [Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips] said. “It’s really sad to see what has traditionally been a pro-America figure being used to advance a political agenda.”
Not only can they do whatever the fuck they want with their own character, they’re staying true to that character’s personality and history as well. If Phillips was actually a Cap fan, as he claims, then he’d know about his long record as a progressive and that he would always reject something as close-minded, bigoted, and counter-productive as the tea parties. He’s far from pro-government, as demonstrated, but he’s also anti-corporate America, which is all these protests are a front for. FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity whipping morons into a frenzy for profit and political gain is not an “independent grassroots uprising,” and even a fictional character can see that.
Speaking of which, it may seem silly to speculate on what a fictional character may or may not believe, but that’s not really the absurd part – asking an artist to change his work so that he doesn’t offend the delicate sensibilities of others is. No one should have to apologize for expressing themselves creatively, and Quesada should have stuck by his artistic team and simply laughed at the criticism. And who was he apologizing to? Some self-important blogger who spends more time ripping other people’s work than he ever will creating his own? A jumbled mess of rich Republicans hoping to wrangle some poor citizens into voting a party back into office that is even more corrupt than the one currently in power? The only thing inaccurate in that comic book was the fact that those signs were actually spelled correctly…and the protesters should have been drawn way uglier. The Captain has spent over 50 years fighting for what he believes in…Marvel backed down within a month. It seems that even they can learn some lessons in courage from the heroes they create, and the teabaggers should do some reading of their own – the Constitution might be a good place to start. The First Amendment includes the right to peaceably assemble (“Douchebags assemble!”), but it also includes the right to criticize that assembly as well.
