The Four Color Media Monitor

I'd long suspected that The American Conservative is not a very reliable site, and this article they published - by an editor for AntiWar, which shouldn't be hard to guess is about - proves they're not a news source that wants to be taken seriously. It talks about Marvel's ridiculous cave to alleged fans over the Northrop Grumman partnership, and how the guy interprets everything - to say nothing of behaving in a most entitled manner - is laughable in the extreme. First, he says:

What it really was, however, is the latest in a long line of attempts to ensure the American military-industrial complex is, everywhere and always, presented in an immutably heroic light in popular culture.

Oh please. No sane person, conservative or otherwise, thinks all military personnel are saints. Some very reprehensible staffers practically enabled Nidal Hasan to go unpenalized for his bigotry, and their PC cowardice enabled him to commit the massacre at Fort Hood. But, if that's what he thinks, does he believe it was wrong for Kirby and Simon to create Captain America? Of Stan Lee and company to depict Flash Thompson joining the army during the Vietnam era and fighting commies? Or to depict Nick Fury as a war hero? Most likely, he does, yet didn't have the courage to say so. Now, here's where he tried to make it sound like all comics readers are literally anti-war, anti-military types, and different from moviegoers and TV couch potatoes in every way:

Comic book readers, it seems, are a bit more savvy than the typical media audience. With superhero storylines increasingly built on moral gray areas and asking tough questions about interventionism, teaming the Avengers with a Northrop Grumman-armed group in a Northrop Grumman-supported and branded publication, clearly wouldn’t wash. Let’s face it: if Northrop Grumman’s characters and equipment would only be for “good guys,” that would not be a good read for anybody.

Wow, what concrete proof does he have those were really "fans" who started complaining on Twitter about the alliance? As in many other, similar cases, the chances a lot of these whiners don't read their products is very high, no matter how entitled they feel to the MCU creations regardless. You'd think comics readers all limit themselves to one form of media and have no interest in any other. Or that moviegoers are all right-wing, which is not so either.

Marvel has a history of addressing controversial issues in its storytelling. Iron Man, indeed, owns a major defense company, and the moral quandary of arming the warfare state is a familiar wrinkle. Northrop Grumman, clearly, wouldn’t allow their own branded characters to wrestle with the morality of wiping out populated areas with their warplanes.

Oh really? What proof does he have of that either? He's obviously trying to make Northrop sound like they're full of themselves, and don't recognize that humans, in the army or not, aren't infallible in all instances.

Fans realized what a conflict of interest this partnership would be, and in standing up against it, forced Marvel to back down. Like superheroes battling an arch-rival, the battle to keep comics out of this sort of relationship is one they’ll likely have to fight again, when the next contractor or service branch comes around.

It’s a positive story for comic book fans, and a teachable moment for fans of other pop culture. How much better would television, movies, and video games be if storytellers had the freedom to tell whatever stories they want, without manipulation, subsidy-driven cajoling, or fear that some bureaucrat down the line is going to find something objectionable and force a re-write?

Again, this is hilarious, because there are anti-war movies around, past, present and future, and tons of leftist filmmakers working round the clock to think what they can do next. Brian dePalma's Casualties of War from 1989 was one irritating example, built on the kind of narratives Walter Cronkite crafted. Therefore, the columnist is just insulting his own for the sake of a silly, dishonest portrait that could easily be debunked in a jiffy.

Hollywood has its own myth-makers, and professional sports can produce their own legends.

So in other words, mainstream superhero books are solely the property of leftist anti-war activists. I see. Just another selfish disgrace who likes to hog pop culture icons he didn't create for his own narrow visions, and must surely consider Marvel's most famous creations abominations that should never have come to be. I wouldn't be shocked if he even believed no conservative contributor to comicdom ever mattered, and he ignores that some of the Marvel movies, at least on the surface, may have contained elements he'd surely hate.

Despite what most of the initial reports stated, I think Marvel is going to still remain in their agreement with Northrop. Despite Polygon's attempt to imply otherwise, the press brief they give says here:

The activation with Northrop Grumman at New York Comic Con was meant to focus on aerospace technology and exploration in a positive way. However, as the spirit of that intent has not come across, we will not be proceeding with this partnership including this weekend’s event programming. Marvel and Northrop Grumman continue to be committed to elevating, and introducing, STEM to a broad audience.

If they're under special contract, they certainly couldn't get out of it in a hurry. That's the good news. Even so, their capitulation at the convention is still a very bad example, and in fact, that the American Conservative magazine would publish such an idiotic puff piece puts their own credentials in doubt. Why they'd associate with people taking stands one would think a contradiction of their own right-wing positions and accept laughable propaganda for publication is beyond me.

Labels: Captain America, conventions, marvel comics, msm propaganda, politics