The Four Color Media Monitor

There are plenty of worthy people to give Stan the positive regard he deserves after his passing. But there's also those unworthy who're supposedly praising him even as they don't seem repentant over their roles in defaming poor Stan earlier. Some more of those examples include Bleeding Cool, who may be speaking positively about him now, but earlier, they were running "reports" about his supposed abuse of nurses, and even followed up on that crap with another disgusting defamation that he supposedly abused a masseuse.

Then again, after finding this irritating item written shortly after Lee's passing, which only regurgitates the same crud that had been seen before, even going so far as to attack the daughter, it has to be concluded that they still aren't very sorry for all the trouble they furthered.

There's also Comics Beat, whose prime shill may be speaking lavishly of his memory now, but at the beginning of the year, when those abominable defamation attacks came about, just threw him to the wolves without defending him, subtly or otherwise. What are the odds some day, we're going to be hearing her singing entirely different tunes after more baseless allegations are made against Stan for the sake of drama-queening?

But maybe the most ludicrous case of all would have to be HBO host Bill Maher, who's surely one of the most unfit to speak about Stan, since all he could think of doing was belittling him, for the sake of political biases to boot:

A day after Stan Lee was laid to rest in a private funeral service, Bill Maher took a shot at the Marvel Comics legend, and his grieving fans aren’t happy.

In a post titled “Adulting” on the Real Time With Bill Maher host’s blog, Maher linked comic books to the dumbing down of America — and Donald Trump‘s presidential victory — saying that in our country, “We’re using our smarts on stupid stuff” like picture books about superheroes.

“The guy who created Spider-Man and the Hulk has died, and America is in mourning,” Maher wrote. “Deep, deep mourning for a man who inspired millions to, I don’t know, watch a movie, I guess. Someone on Reddit posted, ‘I’m so incredibly grateful I lived in a world that included Stan Lee.’ Personally, I’m grateful I lived in a world that included oxygen and trees, but to each his own.”

Maher said he has nothing against comic books, but then he dissed them, saying he read them as a boy when he couldn’t find a real book. He said he was raised to think that comics were for children, “and when you grew up you moved on to big-boy books without the pictures.” However, he went on to say, 20 years ago, “something happened — adults decided they didn’t have to give up kid stuff. And so they pretended comic books were actually sophisticated literature. And because America has over 4,500 colleges — which means we need more professors than we have smart people — some dumb people got to be professors by writing theses with titles like Otherness and Heterodoxy in the Silver Surfer. And now when adults are forced to do grown-up things like buy auto insurance, they call it ‘adulting,’ and act like it’s some giant struggle.”

Maher said that Americans aren’t necessarily “stupider” today than we were then, but we’re “using our smarts on stupid stuff.” He ended with the Trump zinger, writing, “I don’t think it’s a huge stretch to suggest that Donald Trump could only get elected in a country that thinks comic books are important.”

Oh, so it's all an excuse to get a cheap shot at Trump! And the biggest irony is that Maher had no issues with making an appearance in Iron Man 3, based on one of Lee's most famous creations. That, IMO, rates as one of the biggest betrayals of all. Somehow, he too is a product of a certain segment that doesn't think it's even remotely possible to write up a comic book involving serious issues like drug abuse, the subject of the famous Spider-Man issues in 1971, when Harry Osborn became addicted to drugs. Or that they could focus on more adult situations like Nexus and Badger did in the 80s. Of course, mainstream superhero comics over the past 2 decades have become increasingly dumbed down, yet it's pretty apparent Maher doesn't make distinctions between eras, and the modern has become perfectly dreadful indeed.

His narrow, insulting approach led to some backlash by fandom, but unfortunately, more phonies took advantage of it too, including a certain propagandist SJW writing of Marvel's worst, most politically motivated books:

Bill Maher has done the impossible: gotten the entirety of comics fandom to agree on something

— G. Willow Wilson (@GWillowWilson) November 17, 2018

A fandom that does not include Wilson, no matter how much she tries to convince otherwise. After all, she's long exploited the Muslim Ms. Marvel title for pushing pro-Islamic propaganda into the superhero scene, and I honestly doubt she ever really respected Lee any more than Maher does. I think the only reason she's "criticizing" Maher is because of one of the few good things he's ever really done: speak out against Islam. So it's not altruism motivating Wilson's pan of Maher, but dislike over his misgiving about the Religion of Peace. That's why she's but one whose "opinions" don't count.

Lee's aides at POW Entertainment panned Maher as well, and again:

The remarks drew anger from comic book fans and Maher supporters alike, many of whom called his comments disrespectful, while also pointing to Maher’s cameo role in Lee’s movie Iron Man 3.

Yep, that is the most bizarre part. He should return his paycheck if that's how he feels. For now, alas, he hasn't changed:

HBO host Bill Maher is standing by his criticism of comic book legend Stan Lee’s legacy and is now saying the backlash over his comments about Lee prove his point that comic book culture is “stupid.”

I think the worst thing about his attack is that he's basically doing just what the anti-Comicsgate crowd wants, even if they supposedly don't see it that way. But if you ask me, I'm sure there's some leftists in comicdom who secretly admire his comments, because it's not like they ever respected Lee's career either, seeing how far they've brought it down today. Here's more of Maher's mishmash:

But Maher went on to say he was not attacking Stan Lee on a personal level.

“Yeah, I don’t know very much about Stan Lee, and it certainly wasn’t a swipe at Stan Lee,” Maher said.

King then added, “You would have liked him. He was a really nice guy,” to which Maher replied, “Yeah, fine. I am agnostic on Stan Lee. ”

Then Maher doubled down on his attack on comic books and noted that all the people who were upset at him were “making my point for me.”

“I don’t read comic books. I didn’t even read them when I was a child,” Maher told King. “What I was saying is, a culture that thinks that comic books and comic book movies are profound meditations on the human condition is a dumb fucking culture. And for people to get mad at that just proves my point.”

Wait a minute. First he said he only read them when nothing else was available. Now he says he never read them at all? Well in that case he was unfit to comment in the first place, and he practically demonstrates what's wrong with Hollywood: they don't care about comics either; all they care about is the money made on the movies.

And he makes it sound like people who read comics don't give a damn about other forms of media, like classic theater, television dramas or board games like Monopoly. There's all sorts of people with a whole variety of different interests together, and he fails to consider that. I will say, however, that if there's really a supposed "fandom" for Batman movies that's against even the slightest negative comment on the films, that's wrong, though it looks like it's more connected with the movies than the comics.

In any case, Maher was unfair to Lee and comicdom, and still is now. He's little different from the specialty news sites whose contributors abandoned Lee when those tabloid accusations were leveled at him, which may have caused him so much upset it precipitated his demise. They all owe Lee an apology, but acting like they never screwed up isn't how to do it. They have to admit they were wrong in their refusal to defend him when they had the chance. But it's clear they won't own up to their mistakes.

Labels: good writers, Hulk, Iron Man, islam and jihad, marvel comics, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, politics, Spider-Man