The Four Color Media Monitor

Two of the Batbooks seem to offer some of the very few things we could possibly expect from a company that's no different from any other leftist-dominated business today, though I could be mistaken. First, there's the 5th issue of the relaunched Detective Comics (via Gotham Spoilers), which features a pro-Joker demonstration that some readers assume is an attack on the Occupy Wall Street movement, though I'd figure it more likely that it'd be an attack on the cultists of Mumia abu-Jamal, who murdered Philadelphia policeman Daniel Faulkner in 1981. If this part of the story (by Tony Daniel) really is a negative allusion to those thugs whom Frank Miller rightfully slammed, that's pretty surprising that they were willing to approve it for publication.

Then, there's the 5th Batgirl issue, which features an even clearer allusion to the Occupy movement, which here is hostile to Bruce Wayne's plans to renovate a run-down neighborhood. If this too is a negative depiction, what makes this really surprising is that writer Gail Simone was one of at least a few writers who attacked Miller for what he said.

In fact, now that I think of it, there's something very peculiar going on here. Granted, one could assume that with the issue coming out now, it was Simone's way of saying she'd come to her senses. However, if my estimates are correct, this story, while it may have been written after OWS turned up, was completed before Miller spoke out, which suggests some hypocrisy on Simone's part, and that her attack on Miller was more opportunist than altruistic. (In fact, for all I know, the previous stories in this series may have a leftist tilt, and if they do, then it's not certain if even this will work out well.)

And it sure is interesting how - in sharp contrast to Miller statements - little or none of the comic book press have attacked Daniel or Simone for alluding to OWS in a negative light. What that tells is that in contrast to Miller, they're seen as part of the "inside" crowd, and those leftists who had a problem with Miller are not going to take the same approach to Daniel and Simone. Yet now, if the above really are negative depictions via metaphor, then the leftists won't be able to attack Frank Miller so easily now that DC might have allowed some of the too few examples of better story ideas to go to press.

Labels: Batman, dc comics, politics