Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Marvel finally lets go of the evil-Cap angle

At least it seems that way. Breitbart's reported they're going to restore Steve Rogers' heroism in the 10th issue of Secret Empire:
After months of a controversial storyline in which Marvel Comics turned Captain America into a fascist dictator in a reality where World War Two was won by the evil, Nazi-like organization Hydra, Marvel is dumping the storyline and returning the Captain to being a hero.

Saying that their plan all along was to return Captain America to being the shining light of Superhero-dom, Marvel is to release Issue #10 of its Secret Empire series which until now has featured a savage, fascist Captain America lording over an America run by the evil Hydra.

The much-criticized series by writer Nick Spencer has featured schoolchildren giving Nazi-like salutes in grade schools and the nation enthralled with fascism.

The company insists that the storyline was never meant as a commentary on current events because it was long in the planning stages before the current unrest perpetrated by Antifa groups, militant anti-free speech activists, and Black Lives Matter protesters in the streets and on college campuses across the nation.

But despite the disclaimer, many fans and media figures criticized the storyline based on their take on the state of the country today.
And they panned it with good reason. It was nothing more than a pathetic effort by left-wing opportunists to exploit Kirby/Simon's famous creation for the sake of tearing down America in every way, not to mention insulting the memory of two famous scribes as well. That they would do a story like this in the first place only compounds the perception they wanted to find every excuse not to tackle serious issues like Islamofascism plaguing the globe, and had no concern about violence committed by leftists either. If anything, they definitely didn't need to waste time and money for paper-making on such a godawful direction that was intended to troll the fans. If DC thought they could pull something like this with Superman and other superheroes, I'm certain they'd do it, much more blatantly than some of the propaganda they've put out so far.

I'd also note that the artwork they've been using is very unappealing, compared to a lot of the art from yesteryear. I've sometimes looked at the samples provided to various websites for book promotion, and a lot of what they use now is all this computerized garbage, some of it with manga-style character design that's very dull. That's another reason why their fans were alienated. Even if it's not on the rock bottom level of Liefeld's style, their current approach to artwork on various books is still very poor. Probably in part because they drove away a lot of better artists with better character design.

And even now, they can't be trusted to steer away completely from all leftist politics they forced down the audience's throats. They also haven't reversed any of the harm caused to Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson, something I'm still wondering why those press sources disturbed by their political propaganda don't seem to consider worth commenting on as well. Even if, on the surface, it doesn't look as bad as the leftism per se, it's still but one of many errors Marvel committed besides the politics that's hurting their comics. And if the right-wing press sources were willing to call for repairs for Spidey just as much as for Captain America, that could be of great help. Likewise, if they called for dismissal of editors like Quesada and Alonso, that too could help bring about some level of improvement at Marvel.

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