Since something newsworthy has sprung from the world of comics, I felt I could finally afford to give some blog-space to that dark corner of my hobby time.
Basically, Marvel Comics’ Captain America series has managed to offend America’s Tea Bag protesters by implying they might be rascist. Fox News, who love the chance to paint lefties as attacking righties, jumped on the story. The publisher claims the offending phrase was a mistake. For more details, click the large link above.
I would normally do a piece about freedom of speech, but there is a valid argument that using company-owned superhero characters to make one’s political stamping point is a bit of a no-no. People still do it, of course, but generally with a shade more subtlety, or at least positivity. Partly because the company doesn’t want to take sides, partly because a percentage of the audience will support the opposite side to the author, and abusing their cause risks alienating them.
Not to mention, Marvel is now a Disney-owned company, so having Captain America express a real-world negative political opinion is like having Mickey Mouse call Sarah Palin a moron.
The key word in the above paragraph is negative, of course. Quite a few comic book characters have made small (or not-so-small) endorsements of Barack Obama since he was elected, as a large chunk of the comic book creator community is quite left-leaning. But being mean about the other side gets trouble going.
All of which is why there have been pains taken to make sure everyone knows it was a mistake, and Marvel Comics are “not anybody’s soapbox”. Even though you can get away with a bit of deliberate soapboxing as long as you’re nice.
