The Four Color Media Monitor

Leave it to Comics Bulletin to add themselves to the list of sites that are neglecting their medium for the sake of bashing Donald Trump with uninformed, profane propaganda that compares him to Lex Luthor:

I’m not going to mince any more words at this point. This is about president-elect Donald Trump. Trump is a motherfucker who has fucked up more times and fucked over more people than we can count. It’s all public record too. In the past year we’ve all become aware of this man’s many sins. Yet we live in a world in which he can be elected to the highest office in the free world. We live in a world in which his terrible business practices, abuse of women, and open incitement of hatred towards anyone who isn’t a straight, white man is embraced.

We live in a world where a man who makes Lex Luthor look like a dream can be elected President in spite of continually being exposed for being a monster. That’s the reality we live in. That’s what we must come to understand.

And that’s the crux of your question. In a better world, I might respond that people are too stupid or egotistical to alter their behavior after having it exposed. That might still be true, but it’s not the fundamental truth of this answer. Because even if someone like Trump is stupid or egotistical, it’s not the core of why he continues to behave like he does.

The truth is that he continues to act this way because there are no consequences. Trump has shown us that you can indiscriminately fuck over contractors, grab pussy, and disparage people based on their color and creed, all while becoming President. So maybe the better question is, why do people care about being exposed if they’re in a position of power?

I can’t answer that question. I don’t really want to.

The real question he can't answer is why men like the jerk who wrote this one-sided, foul-mouthed, ignorant rant repeatedly turn a deaf ear and blind eye to the offensive actions of Bill and Hillary Clinton alike. There's even a Wikipedia page about his past felonies with links to more articles. If he wants a real life variation on Lex Luthor, he'd never have ignored the Clintons. Slick Willy acted as he did for many years because the liberal establishment would ensure via their ignorance that there'd be no consequence to his actions. It's the same with Hillary and her apologia for sex offenders.

By the way, if Trump's "poor" business practices, among other details, are really on public record, how come the guy didn't link to any of them? I'm sure he could find quite a few reports online if he wished. We must be missing something here. We're also missing how the guy writing this crude piece fails to acknowledge that Lex Luthor gets away with his crimes repeatedly because the writers/editors have decreed it to be that way. It's not a fault of Lex himself, because he's only imaginary.

Surprisingly though, the same Comics Bulletin writer did admit that the election issue of Muslim Ms. Marvel was a serious mistake, even as he continues to lay on the propaganda simultaneously:

[...] The past month has been full of examples of big releases in mainstream comics that were clearly driven by good intentions, but definitely crossed that line you mentioned into being “overtly harmful/reductive”. It’s a lot easier to understand nonsense when you see nonsense, so let’s take a look at a few.

The most obvious recent example of this is Ms. Marvel #13, the big election issue that was published after Election Day. I think there’s a need to preface any discussion of Ms. Marvel screwing the political pooch with mention of how often it hasn’t done just that. It’s a comic that has been an inspiration to many current and new readers within comics, and even people outside of the medium. Kamala Khan means so much to so many. The creators on the title have consistently tackled important themes of diversity, acceptance, and responsibility in a fashion that is both charming and intelligent. I would have highly recommended every issue in the series on both accounts, until this one.

Well that's certainly quite a giggler. A title that's already plummeting to less than 25,000 issues shipped to stores - probably as a result of the insutling election propaganda - is intelligent when it's full of dishonesty about Islam from the first story told? Please. But maybe he's starting to turn around and admit it's not worth the paper it's printed on. I just don't get why only the 2016 election serves as a turning point in his defenses for the book.

Because Ms. Marvel #13 is a clusterfuck of good intentions going horribly wrong and no amount of previous good work justifies this particular stapled pamphlet of nonsense.

No, but let us remember - if it's dishonest about the religion the main character goes by, then there's no good work at all, and wasn't to begin with. Hey, even the artwork was dreadful.

Let’s start with the most obvious issue: the release of the issue itself. Ms. Marvel #13 was originally slated to be released before Election Day on November 8th, but was delayed until November 30th. This wouldn’t be a problem if the story inside existed well without the context of an upcoming Presidential election. That is not the case. The antagonists of the piece are clearly intended to mimic the major party candidates of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. An entire page of the issue serves as nothing more than an infomercial on how to find your polling place and register to vote. The comic is not a free advertisement encouraging people to vote though, it’s a piece of entertainment that readers paid for to be informed about things that no longer matter.

What’s worse is that in the wake of the election, the issue highlights so much of the ego and rhetoric that made the dark reality surrounding the issues publication possible. While Ms. Marvel #13 tries its best to remain non-partisan, the politics of the series and the issue itself are clearly liberal. It abhors rules that limit voting and partisan redistricting. It supports a diverse electorate and make the Trump-like candidate an actual member of Hydra, while the Clinton-like candidate is merely an unpopular incumbent (and a victim of his opposition).

The comic actually advocates for strategies and beliefs that run contrary to effective voting strategies and the compromises necessary in democracy. At one point in the story Kamala says that democracies rely on daily engagement and that you can’t just get out on Election Day, but the entire story is about people getting woke on Election Day. Nobody in Jersey City cares about the Election or any of the problems of the likely new Mayor, until Ms. Marvel and her friends run around rallying them on the day of the election itself. It’s a complete contradiction of her speech and supports the idea that Election Day is all that really matters.

Well at least he's admitting the heavy handed leftism is a turnoff. That the book features a page or two explaining how to vote and get the certificates suggests the Marvel staff behind the propaganda really do think whatever readership they're marketing to is dumb as a log. As one of the most blatant propaganda products they've turned out, it wouldn't be surprising if this is why sales are taking such a dive.

Interestingly, he also brings up the new Champions title from Marvel, whose 3rd issue, on the surface, would seem to be attacking Islamic fundamentalism, but when it doesn't even a]acknowledge Islam is the problem, b]has the Muslim Ms. Marvel participating in the ostensible rescue mission, c]is written by Mark Waid, who's biased in favor of Islam himself, and d]is coming from a company whose heads are otherwise fully biased in favor of guess what, you know it's unlikely this'll make a clear statement on anything pertinent. Anyway, here's what he says about that:

Unlike Ms. Marvel #13, which can at least be called idealistic, Champions #3 is purely cynical. It establishes its tone at the start of the issue by casually dismissing the cliffhanger of Champions #2 with some adolescent dialogue that sounds like poor-imitations of 21st Century teenagers (and an awkward joke about lesbians). The very premise of the book is continually questioned as being silly or driven by outside concerns. Everything reads like it is being written because it was determined to be saleable, not because someone thought it was a good idea.

Then the team goes to the imagined country of Sharzad where Muslim women are being prevented from receiving any formal education under penalty of death. It’s a very real issue that affects millions of young women in different areas of the globe, one that has no easy solutions and demands incredible bravery from those resisting oppression. The Champions look at this as an easy adventure and decide to throw out the name of Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai just to wink at their audience that they totally know this is a real thing and totally hopped on Wikipedia to learn about it.

The plotting of what comes next reads as cynically as the setup, too. They crash into a small town, have a brief learning moment, then execute a plan that mostly involves just punching the bad guys. It’s superhero comics 101 and doesn’t take into account the continuing death threats and suppression that will face the women of this community after the six children with extraordinary powers leave. Champions #3 acknowledges these problems exist, but essentially ignores them at the end because they are too complicated and fraught to be dealt with in the pages of this Marvel teen superteam book.

It sounds even worse than the ending of Tintin and the Picaros, where one autocrat is replaced by another (General Alcazar, who'd been deposed at one point), and the citizenry of the fictional Latin American country (San Theodoros) are left in no better a position than before. That's certainly not getting anywhere; Waid and company didn't even leave square one.

The columnist's also got a disturbing revelation about DC/IDW's Love is Love (on which note, none of the news outlets I've seen talking about this seem to acknowledge jihadism was behind the Orlando bloodbath. Very strange...), and a ludicrous story featuring Deathstroke:

Just to make sure it doesn’t seem like I’m picking on Marvel Comics too much, DC Comics (along with IDW Publishing) offered a great example recently in the Love is Love anthology. The anthology itself is a great concept founded on good intentions. It uses lots of recognizable characters along with some original stories by a bunch of top-notch talent to send proceeds to those affected by the Pulse shooting in Orlando. I would encourage getting it simply to help support a good cause, check out the good stories, and encourage similar initiatives in the future.

However, there are some really poorly conceived stories packed within this volume. A one-page story of Deathstroke shows him listening to real coverage of how and where the shooter obtained the weaponry used during the slaying. In response he takes all of the guns in his apartment, dumps them in the garbage, and swears to only use karate from now on.

It’s a joke, a very bad joke.

Not only does it play poorly against the character chosen, who regularly uses gun violence to slay hundreds of people, but it diminishes the problem it’s seeking to address. There’s a cause and effect of seeing guns used to kill, then deciding to put guns in a dumpster on a city street that is silly in nature and might evoke a laugh from some. Yet the setup for the joke is the Pulse shooting itself. The facts of the case are stated at the start of the strip and sets this story in a world where this really happened (albeit one where Deathstroke also exists). His reaction is farcical and the joke becomes darkly unfunny because it’s a minor gag confronting the mass murder of dozens of innocents due to their sexual orientation. It’s a very bad joke.

It's a sick joke. What if some thug came along, discovered the guns before the trash collectors did, and took them to use for more crime? Why didn't Slade just smash them or take them apart? Recalling that DC's thrown away continuity cohesion long ago, it doesn't take much to figure this story ignores the fact that Slade Wilson did try to reform after the whole Judas Contract debacle he caused, and even the new story is out-of-continuity, it still stinks. Yet somehow it's just not shocking at all that any story could be published in this "tribute" anthology that's more offensive than educational, let alone informative.

So, as bad as the Comics Bulletin columnist's own leftism is, he still at least provided some eyebrow-raising information about the worst comics to come in the wake of last year's election. And you can be sure it's not going to get any better this year.

Labels: dc comics, indie publishers, islam and jihad, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, politics, terrorism, violence