I remembered seeing from September 2003 that talked about the attention that JLA #83 got for its very awkward political, if metaphorical, statement on the war in Iraq. But as weak as that issue was, however you look upon it, that’s not what I found ridiculous about it. No, what was ridiculous about this article was how they described the situation surrounding and you are not going to believe how they put it here, or maybe you are:

In April, conservative commentator Michael Medved took Marvel Comics to task for allowing Captain America to question the United States’ role and culpability in the “war on terror.”

The problem here is two-fold:

First, what exactly do they mean when they say that Marvel “allowed” Steve Rogers to question the battle against an evil that even the Star-Spangled Avenger would find abhorrent? Is he a real person, and presumably was being hypnotized into being a 100-percent obedient slave, not on what the guv’ment would tell or make him do, but rather, on what Marvel themselves would?

This reminds me of an argument I was having once regarding Identity Crisis on a forum I no longer visit with a man who sounded like a moonbat, to whom I was trying to explain that, as I put it then, “I have never known Dr. Light to be a sodomist.” And what did he say in reply to that? In a very cynical, contemptuous and nasty tone, he said, “neither did Wally West [The Flash].”

In other words, he indicated, and only then, that he’d already made up his mind about where he stood on the whole subject, and that being that he bought into what the miniseries published in 2004 claimed, NOT what the Justice League of America adventure from 1962 in which Dr. Light first appeared established. Well in that case, why’d he ever insist on arguing and upholding DC’s dumb little controversy-baiting act in the first place?

That aside, this is exactly the problem that some of those who upheld Marvel’s actions without rhyme or reason seemed to have, which was blurring the differences between reality and fiction. And if that’s how they’re going to argue, then simply put, they have no argument.

Second, there’s the way that they refer to the war on terrorism, by putting it in between quotation marks. That, IMO, smacks of the notion of denying that terrorism exists, that there’s a war that’s got to be led against it, or that we even are at war with the nightmare at all. And considering where I live just now, that’s one more reason why I find it offensive, and definately insulting.

provides me with a reason not to waste any time on Mark Millar’s Wanted:

In “Wanted” by Mark Millar, a young man named Wesley, who despises his miserable life, learns the world is really run by super villains.

His morals and ethics are progressively stripped away, until he becomes an utter sadist, murdering and raping at will. On the final page, scores of bodies later, the protagonist shouts insults at the reader, a triumphant monster. The message of the comic is casting aside your inhibitions and embracing a life of brutality is a positive, liberating experience.

Oh…my…god. This is what all these years of comic book publishing has led to? Shudder. No wonder I did not want to waste any time on Ultimate X-Men years ago when it began, and, as I later discovered, Millar wrote a story in which Ultimate Wolverine abandons Ult. Cyclops in a deep valley, all so that he can go back and seduce Ult. Jean Grey for the purpose of sex. Just what kind of entertainment is that? And what genuinely positive messages can be gotten from that?

I do not believe media representations of violence will “make” people commit such crimes. However, the glamorization of violence, in which it becomes an act of emancipation or a form of art, is extremely distressing to me. There may not be a causal relationship between watching violence in the media and committing it, but a continuous diet of violent images can nonetheless be harmful.

Atta boy, that’s saying something alright! And the bad messages this monstrosity features are most definately a reason to avoid the book.

Many young people, men specifically, seem to embrace media violence. Last semester, when I saw the movie “Sin City,” based on a series of violent graphic novels, much of the audience applauded the violence. The dramatic justifications for the brutality were largely ignored while the cruelty itself was reveled in. In horror movies such as the “Saw” series, the plot seems largely a pretext for slaughter, and the slaughter serves no greater purpose than to please the audience.

There is a profound element of dehumanization in these works. Victims are reduced to little more than livestock, while inhuman butchers cut them apart. In “Wanted,” ordinary people are preyed on by the main character, first in revenge for minor slights, but ultimately to satiate his boredom, such as when he attacks a police station and kills the people inside. There is no rhyme or reason to this chaotic orgy of destruction - instead it is meant to represent the character’s newfound freedom.

For some reason, the part about the police station being attacked by the book’s antagonist reminds me of the reports on when a police station was attacked by gang of Islamofascists in Paris when the really big riots broke out in late October in France. Aside from that, the dehumanization of the victims in Wanted is what really makes me sick. Violence that’s done solely for sadism, as Wanted does, is a leading reason for why people become apathetic to violence in real life.

There’s one part in this article though, that I’d like to make a correction upon: it’s when the writer says “palestinian terroritories” in one of the paragraphs of the article. Correction: those are rightfully Israeli territories being controlled by Arab/Muslim terrorists, that being the PLO and the Hamas, et cetera. But the writer is most definately right when he says that, “cultures bent on violent liberation ultimately turn to suicidal behavior.” Yep, that’s quite right. As is the last sentence:

Works that glamorize violence, without illustrating its consequences, should not be accepted, let alone applauded.

Quite right.

I once heard via one of the comics stores I sometimes go to that Millar, before becoming a comics writer, used to be a speech writer/editor for politicians in Europe. And if that’s what he first worked in, then I’d think he should’ve stayed there. Politicians, IMO, do not good comics writers make.

The plot of the book is reminicient of a computer game that may have been called “Postal”, one of those games in the Doom vein that features a character (”the postal dude̶ whose victims may even include quite a few civilians. This book sounds almost like it, only worse.

If Wanted is going to be solely about violent, inhumane carnage and messages, then maybe it’d be better to call it “Shunned”.

we find out that Manga in Japan is taking a plunge into anti-Chinese and anti-Korean sentiments:

A young Japanese woman in the comic book “Hating the Korean Wave” exclaims, “It’s not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today!” In another passage the book states that “there is nothing at all in Korean culture to be proud of.”

In another comic book, “Introduction to China,” which portrays the Chinese as a depraved people obsessed with cannibalism, a woman of Japanese origin says: “Take the China of today, its principles, thought, literature, art, science, institutions. There’s nothing attractive.”

To make matters worse:

The two comic books, portraying Chinese and Koreans as base peoples and advocating confrontation with them, have become runaway best sellers in Japan in the last four months.

In their graphic and unflattering drawings of Japan’s fellow Asians and in the unapologetic, often offensive contents of their speech bubbles, the books reveal some of the sentiments underlying Japan’s worsening relations with the rest of Asia.

I just can’t believe it. What is happening with Japan today? This doesn’t make me eager to travel there, and if there’s anything I can say after reading this horrific news, it’s that I’m even less interested in reading Manga than ever.

This also shows that Japan still isn’t apologizing for the Rape of Nanking in 1937.

And not just Barbara Gordon or even Spoiler, but even older female cast members like Leslie Thompkins. (H/T: ) features a lot of info on how badly mistreated a lot of the female cast members of Batman’s own supporting cast have been in the past decade or so, making Batman’s possibly the numero uno book that needs a repair job done.

Reading these also clued me in to a lot more about Bill Willingham’s own writing “style”, one more reason why I’d rather not read any of his books.

One more thing: is it just me, or, has Vicky Vale been out of sight for some time now? I know she was around in the early 90s, but since then, she seems to have joined the the list of ladies vanishing. (Update: she was written out of the Batbooks in the early 1990s by John Wagner.)

Looks like DC is desperate to try and keep a straight face. that Jim Lee and Brad Meltzer are guests of honor at the new NYC Comic-con, and while the former is okay, the latter is not. The news bulleting I linked to certainly isn’t, given how it predictably whitewashes Meltzer’s track record, and to make matters worse, it seems as though DC has signed him on for another one of those “exclusives”:

DC Comics also announced today that Mr. Meltzer has signed an exclusive contract to write for DC Comics. Meltzer’s acclaimed graphic novel Identity Crisis has received numerous critical accolades and was the bestselling comic book title of 2004, when it was originally published in the traditional monthly comic book format. Meltzer is perhaps best known as the author of the New York Times bestselling novels The Tenth Justice, Dead Even, The First Counsel, The Millionaires and The Zero Game.

Remind me not to buy any book he writes for them, not even if it’s from the Vertigo line. And as for bestselling, has anyone writing for Webwire ever read

Now, what have we here, but a very laughable speech by the vice president of Launch Pad for Reed Exibitions:

“I am enormously grateful to Jim Lee, Brad Meltzer, as well as everyone at DC Comics, for making these appearances at our convention possible,” notes Greg Topalian, Group Vice President in charge of Launch Pad for Reed Exhibitions. “DC Comics’ support of our show is critically important and, while DC’s guests are a huge addition to our stellar line up of appearances, they also convey the enthusiasm that DC Comics is feeling about New York Comic-Con. Jim Lee is a legendary illustrator, and Brad Meltzer is a writer with few peers. Together, they will be a huge attraction for the thousands of fans attending our show and I know their appearances will be a convention highlight of convention activity.”

One may be, but the other is enough to frighten me for one away from the whole show for good. Clearly, the company exec whom Webwire quotes above hasn’t read either, has he? Or, he’s just plain oblivious to the facts.

Some way to ruin what could otherwise be a big event, ditto the chance to meet Jim Lee. Needless to say, if I were in Lee’s position at the convention alongside such a colossally overrated, overhyped “author”, I’d be embarrassed.