The Four Color Media Monitor

The Conversation posted an article about the history of USA comicdom and how it metaphorically tells the experiences of Jews. And perhaps the most distorted part has to be at the beginning:

Nearly a hundred years ago, a hastily crafted spaceship crash-landed in Smallville, Kansas. Inside was an infant – the sole survivor of a planet destroyed by old age. Discovering he possessed superhuman strength and abilities, the boy committed to channeling his power to benefit humankind and champion the oppressed.

This is the story of Superman: one of the most recognizable characters in history, who first reached audiences in the pages of Action Comics in 1938 – what many fans consider the most important single comic in history.

As a historian of American immigration and ethnicity – and a lifelong comics fan – I read this well-known bit of fiction as an allegory about immigration and the American dream. It is, at its core, the ultimate story of an immigrant in the early 20th century, when many people saw the United States as a land with open gates, providing such orphans of the world an opportunity to reach their fullest potential.

Taken in and raised by a rural family under the name Clark Kent, the baby was imbued with the best qualities of America. But, like all immigrant stories, Kent’s is a two-parter. There is also the emigrant story: the story of how Kal-El – Superman’s name at birth – was driven from his home on Planet Krypton to embrace a new land.

That origin story reflects the heritage of Superman’s creators: two of the many Jewish American writers and artists who ushered in the Golden Age of comic books.

Oh good grief. This is classic confusion and distortion at its worst. Kal-El was a refugee from a destroyed planet, and yet another propagandist is obfuscating it all for the sake of modern PC narratives that it's entirely a metaphor for immigration. And he wasn't "driven" out of his homeland; his father and mother built a rocketship to transport Kal-El to Earth as a means to save his life. What does the Conversation think they're accomplishing by persisting with this kind of confusion? It's not helpful and embarrasses the legacy of Siegel and Shuster. Besides, the propagandists who're pushing this idiocy don't give a damn about Israel, the land of Siegel/Shuster's ancestors. What is telling is how the columnist implies the USA is almost literally a "land with open gates", as though it's perfectly okay even then for an older person to just stroll through the USA's borders without proving their worth and honesty. It's a disgrace how the surreal boundaries of science fiction are being blurred with reality. Yet, it's nothing new.

Comics also reflected the feelings and fears of Jews in a moment in time. For example, in the wake of Kristallnacht – the 1938 night of widespread organized attacks on German Jews and their property, which many historians see as a turning point toward the Holocaust – Finger and Kane debuted Batman’s Gotham City. The city is a dark contrast to Superman’s shining metropolis, a place where villains lurked around every corner and reflected the darkest sides of modern humanity.

By sharp contrast, very few comics today, mainstream or otherwise, are reflecting the reality of the Hamas bloodbath during October 7, 2023, if at all. It's highly unlikely you'll see illustrations similar to Captain America's debut issue - where he punched Hitler - depicting any heroes punching an Islamofascist. That's one of the saddest results following September 11, 2001, when al Qaeda destroyed the World Trade Center in NYC; many people in the entertainment world vehemently refused to take a convincing and objective approach to the subject of Islamic terrorism, if at all. I remember when the now defunct Crossgen had plans to produce a comic titled American Power, written by Chuck Dixon, and that too was cancelled, possibly more because of leftist opposition than because of their bankruptcy. And lest we forget Marvel's turn to apologia when they put Captain America under the Marvel Knights imprint; that's when the imprint really became worthless, and why it was decidedly best discontinued in 2006. And then, near the end, a bad writer is brought up:

In later years, Jewish authors such as Chris Claremont and Brian Michael Bendis introduced or took over mainstream characters who were overtly Jewish – reflecting an emerging comfort with a more public Jewish ethnic identity in America. In X-Men, for example, Kitty Pryde recounts her encounters with contemporary antisemitism. Magneto, who is at times friend but often foe of the X-Men, developed a backstory as a Holocaust survivor.

History is never solely about retelling; it’s about gaining a better understanding of complex narratives. Trends in comics history, particularly in the superhero genre, offer insight into the ways that Jewish American anxieties, ambitions, patriotism and sense of place in the U.S. continually changed over the 20th century. To me, this understanding makes the retelling of these classic stories even more meaningful and entertaining.

I wonder why Bendis matters here, after all the damage he contributed to the Marvel universe, and later DC's, recalling he wrote the Legion of Super-Heroes? And his stories were anything but patriotic. Why, patriotism under Quesada and Alonso was effectively destroyed as a concept when they ran Marvel. To note a writer as awful as Bendis only makes a farce out of this whole observation, and he did no favors for characters of Israeli/Jewish descent either.

It goes without saying the columnist doesn't comprehend much about complex narratives either, or maybe such leftists wouldn't be so hostile to certain ideas supported by conservatives. And it should also be noted that, if leftists aren't willing to take an objective view of subjects like Islamic antisemitism and terrorism, it only has the effect of making stories about the WW2 Holocaust look like a joke. If you can't be straightforward about issues that're still prevalent, even communism, then what good does it do to even talk about Jewish experiences?

Labels: Batman, Captain America, dc comics, dreadful writers, good writers, history, indie publishers, Legion of Super-Heroes, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, msm propaganda, Superman, women of marvel, X-Men