Russia's Putin is a villain in the Valiant universe
7 Comments Published by Avi Green on Saturday, April 02, 2016 at 9:49 PM.
We'll have to give the new Valiant some credit for making a modern communist a villain in their remade universe:
This will have Vladimir Putin seeing red.So they actually have the guts to make a shady real life commie like Putin an adversary. Whether or not it's a good idea to make real life people characters in fiction, what matters here is that the publisher's willing to depict communists as baddies, something the mainstream may no longer be willing to do. That's showing some bravery.
The Russian president is making his comic book debut as a despot bent on world domination in a new series from Valiant Comics.
But what makes “Divinity II” a work of fiction is that the storyline sees Putin manipulating a ’60s-era cosmonaut who has returned to Earth from deep space with super powers and a desire to build a new Soviet empire.
Labels: indie publishers, politics
During (and even before) WWII, comics portrayed the Axis leaders as villains, sometimes seriously, sometimes satirically. Heroes were often shown beating up Hitler, Musolini, and/or Tojo. (Captain America Comics #1 and #13, Boy Comics #4, Young Allies #1 and #9.)
In the 1960's, Marvel heroes often fought communist villains. Nikita Khrushchev (called "Comrade Leader") appeared as a buffoonish villain in a few Iron Man stories in Tales of Suspense.
But, will the Big two ever depict Iron Man fighting Al Qaeda, or Batman foiling an ISIS plot to blow up Gotham City? Don't hold your breath.
Putin is not a communist.
In fact he is the first Russian leader to publicly acknowledge the horrors of the Soviet Union in many, many ways.
In fact Putin's (U.S.-funded) opposition party in Russia is actually the Communist Party.
Putin, though no angel, is also no communist.
He's probably murdered a few hateful propagandists ("journalists). In other words his bodycount is far, far lower than that of virtually all Western leaders.
Putin basically stands up for traditionalism and for Russia the way it is (without obsessive mania for liberalilsm). This is why the West hates him. Valiant is also a very leftist publisher. So of course they're quick to demonize Putin.
The opposition to Putin would, literally, rather see civilization fall apart rather than risk the thought that someone might say something mean to a gay person or prevent gay people from propagandizing children. Putin is against gay propaganda aimed at children. This is why they hate him. (All the other reasons, about him being a "tyrant", well... the West is fine with supporting many other tyrants as long as those tyrants follow the Western program. Putin doesn't follow the Western program very well.)
I've seen the leaders of the Axis punched out and/or knocked silly during the Golden Age, why didn't they do the same thing to the communist leaders, instead of local commie heads in democratic countries or supervillain representatives, during the Silver/Bronze Age?
"Putin is not a communist."
He is in fact a communist. I've also got plenty of right-wing, conservative news stuff that make clear he is such. Case in point:
*https://web.archive.org/web/20041028011505/http://washingtontimes.com/national/20041028-122637-6257r.htm
*https://web.archive.org/web/20050405172133/http://washingtontimes.com/national/20041029-110322-3343r.htm
*https://web.archive.org/web/20050207022012/http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20030820-081256-6822r.htm
*https://web.archive.org/web/20051018094050/http://www.anti-communistanalyst.com/PlottohijackCIA.htm
*https://web.archive.org/web/20050101225528/http://www.anti-communistanalyst.com/Russiasgame.htm
*http://www.jrnyquist.com/is-putin-a-communist.html
**Putin’s remarks at communist youth festival in Russia last October - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzkLe-hOvgU
**Putin: Soviet Collapse a “genuine tragedy” http://www.nbcnews.com/id/7632057/ns/world_news/t/putin-soviet-collapse-genuine-tragedy/#.WjWVNkxFyzk
**Putin as Castro’s friend: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2689518/Is-sign-return-Cold-War-Putin-cozies-Castro-Cuba-relations-frosty-West.html
**Putin’s cryptic statement to the Cuban press: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/21138
**Putin’s support for communist military power in Africa: http://www.africareview.com/news/Angola-now-biggest-African-buyer-of-Russian-arms/979180-2037576-11bhfeqz/index.html
**Putin’s criticism of Lenin as strategist: http://www.newsweek.com/russias-putin-accused-lenin-ruining-soviet-union-418519
**On the Poisoning of Priests in the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad http://www.portal-credo.ru/site/?act=news&id=52322
**Larry King asks Putin about his faith: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0009/08/lkl.00.html
**Russian tank deal with Nicaragua https://news.usni.org/2016/05/09/opinion-russian-tank-deal-with-nicaragua-back-to-the-future-moment-for-u-s
**Putin Kept his Party Card and Says he Likes Socialism - https://www.yahoo.com/news/putin-still-communist-party-card-likes-socialist-ideals-183734163.html
*https://www.outono.net/elentir/2021/01/29/putin-comes-to-the-rescue-of-communism-he-wants-to-ban-equating-the-ussr-with-nazism/
*https://www.outono.net/elentir/2020/03/05/the-george-soros-of-moscow-vladimir-putin-and-his-support-to-the-radical-left-of-the-west/
*https://www.outono.net/elentir/2019/12/31/polands-forthright-and-clear-response-to-the-putins-lies-about-world-war-ii/
*https://www.outono.net/elentir/2017/11/22/neither-with-soros-nor-with-putin-the-russian-interference-in-catalonia-and-the-spanish-right/
*https://thenewamerican.com/communism-very-similar-to-christianity-putin-claims/
*https://thenewamerican.com/former-soviet-boss-gorbachev-says-putin-is-more-communist-than-he-was/
*https://thenewamerican.com/leninists-still-leading/
Cont'd
"Putin basically stands up for traditionalism and for Russia the way it is (without obsessive mania for liberalilsm). This is why the West hates him. Valiant is also a very leftist publisher. So of course they're quick to demonize Putin."
That only proves that Putin's pragmatic and not a dogmatic communist. Trotsky and Stalin had notorious in-fighting with each other after all, due to the latter being more pragmatic and the former being more dogmatic. Doesn't mean he isn't a Communist. Let me remind you that Stalin technically paid lip-service to traditionalism (ie, he was against homosexuality within his borders, he made abortion illegal in the Soviet Union, and even defended the ROC during World War II), yet that was purely to avoid the USSR prematurely collapsing before world communism could be brought about, NOT because he was anti-Communist. I will also point out that Putin had absolutely no problem with funding anti-traditionalist views outside the USSR much like Stalin did based on these articles:
*https://www.outono.net/elentir/2021/01/29/putin-comes-to-the-rescue-of-communism-he-wants-to-ban-equating-the-ussr-with-nazism/
*https://www.outono.net/elentir/2020/03/05/the-george-soros-of-moscow-vladimir-putin-and-his-support-to-the-radical-left-of-the-west/
Not sure why the first post wasn't showing, it gave a huge amount of sources showing Putin was indeed a Communist even today.
I found it, it just got stuck in the spam filter. It probably happened because there were so many URLs in the same post, but fortunately, I was able to fix it.