The Four Color Media Monitor

Some comics readers with long memories may recall Ben Raab, an early example of an otherwise untalented writer hired by Marvel in the 1990s to write their X-Men titles, including the last 2 years of Excalibur. Well, it turns out he's yet another leftist, and over a month ago, he posted the following tweet in response to the news of NFL players kneeling for the US anthem:

"Better the pride that resides in a citizen of the world, than the pride that divides when a colorful rag is unfurled." @rushtheband pic.twitter.com/lhJAhbEt8d

— Benjamin Raab (@Wondermasons) September 23, 2017

It would seem as though he's quoting somebody else very approvingly, and by extension he condones calling the Old Glory a rag?!? Absolutely ugh and gross. Next thing you know, he'll be calling France's Tri-Couleur drapeau a rag too because it uses the same colors as the US flag. What a disgrace Raab is. The "citizen of world" part sounds like a nod to the leftist concept of globalism.

Since we're talking about Raab, I also found an interview he did in the early 2000s about his work on some adaptations of Lee Falk's Phantom comic strip, and he said:

When and how did you get started in comic book writing?
When I was a kid, Marvel put out two things that I think started me on the road to writing comics. Subconsciously, that is. I had no idea at the time that it would lead to where I am now... Those two things were the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and the "Days of Future Past" storyline in UNCANNY X-MEN. The former opened me up to a whole world of characters that I never knew existed; the latter showed me that their deaths could inspire a sense of loss and tragedy. So, sometime around the age of 12 or 13, I sat down with the Handbook, one of those early typewriters with the LCD that allowed you to read a line before printing it, and set about destroying the characters I didn't like and having the ones I did survive to save the Marvel Universe. It was all very sweeping and epic. Granted, it was also all crap, but it was fun to do. I'm sure it's lying around my mother's basement somewhere, along with old report cards and other sundry projects from my youth.

In a way, that's what he did when he was writing some of the superhero comics he'd worked on in the 1990s and early 2000s; he basically destroyed them. And he seems to think his absurd fanfiction writings of yore are some kind of masterpiece, even as he seemingly admits they're junk. It's not clear what characters he did or didn't like, but how can their deaths inspire a sense of loss/tragedy when he wrote some cruddy ideas out of dislike?

And of course, his leftism is no improvement, and if that's what he thinks of the American flag and sees nothing wrong with politicizing football games, it could explain why he really is such a poor writer with little or nothing worthwhile in his portfolio. The form of liberal politics he adheres to evidently has a negative effect on talent.

Labels: comic strips, dc comics, indie publishers, marvel comics, moonbat writers, politics