Tag: Steve Rogers

Nick Spencer lectures world on refugees; Marvel writer silent on how many he’ll accept into his home

November 14, 2015November 14, 2015by Douglas Ernst19 Comments

Marvel’s Nick Spencer used the Paris terror attacks on Friday as an opportunity to remind the world of its duty to accept millions of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa.

His conclusion: Refusing to force towns like Sumte, Germany (population: 100), to accept 750 people from Syria, Iraq, and Libya is a win for the Islamic State group. Strangely, he refused to say how many he would take into his own home. How about five? Does five work? If Smute,Germany, can be outnumbered 7-to-1 overnight, then Marvel’s Captain America scribe should be able to handle a Syrian family of five.

We don’t know exactly where the thousands of refugees that make it to the U.S. will wind up, but Business Insider assures us they will be able to eventually make contact with Nick Spencer — if he’s willing to put his money where his mouth is.

Business Insider reported Sept. 12:

Those who have relatives in the United States will sometimes be assigned to live near them, and most go to cities like Atlanta, San Diego or Dallas where rents are more affordable than in New York or San Francisco.

Others end up in smaller cities like Boise, Idaho or Erie, Pennsylvania, but regardless of where they are taken they are free to move once they find their footing.

Sure, Mr. Spencer will have to buy less tweed jackets from J-Crew or Banana Republic, but he’ll finally be able to rest easy. He’ll know in his heart that he’s finally doing more than self-righteously pontificating on his social media moral pedestal.

Mr. Spencer, an activist masquerading as a comic book writer, says the “goal of ISIS” is to get countries (what about Captain America writers?) to stop accepting migrants. The odd thing about liberal activists like Mr. Spencer is that they only take Islamic radicals at their word when it suits the liberal-activist agenda.

It is not hard to find Islamic radicals who say they plan to achieve their long-term strategic objectives through various means (e.g., migration coupled with high birth rates). One needs to only look at London and Paris — and soon Berlin — to see Islamic radicals are masters at playing long-ball.

If you get a chance, let Mr. Spencer know that you can’t wait until he starts taking single men off Germany’s hands. It’s always nice to see comic book writers practice what they preach.

Exit Question: Nick Spencer is the type of guy who likes to take shots at Christians with comments like, “42 percent of Americans believe the world was created in six days.” Sure, time to God is not like time to man — and it is understandable that smarmy writers will not get that humans use imperfect language to describe the actions of a perfect being beyond our comprehension — but I digress.

What are the chances Nick Spencer would ever tweet something along the lines of, “78 percent of all incoming refugees believe the death penalty is appropriate for those who reject Islam“?

In Mr. Spencer’s world, taking weird pot-shots at Christians is totally acceptable, but voicing concerns about mass Islamic-migration on the day of a giant terrorist attack in downtown Paris is out of line. Telling.

Nick Spencer’s Captain America: No time for Ranger-run task forces — conservatives are the enemy

October 16, 2015October 16, 2015by Douglas Ernst43 Comments

Regular readers of this blog know that I am a U.S. Army veteran. What they might not know is the last thing I did before walking into the recruiter’s office as an 18-year-old — I sat and stared at a Captain America comic book in my local comic shop. I thought about what it would mean to serve my country, where it would take me, and whether or not I should take that leap into the super-unknown. That is why it saddens me when a writer like Nick Spencer infuses characters with his own petty politics.

I went on record when it was first announced that Sam Wilson would be Captain America that I was on board with the decision. I wanted to support Marvel financially. Why would I do that, however, when the first issue of Sam Wilson: Captain America turns conservative Americans into the enemy over an issue like illegal immigration?

The Daily Caller reported Friday:

The action — and the political preaching — unfolds in the Marvel-produced “Captain America: Sam Wilson #1,” as noted in a video released by the MacIver Institute.

In the issue, Captain America beats up members of a white supremacist militia called the Sons of the Serpent as they attempt to apprehend a group of illegal aliens crossing the desert from Mexico into Arizona.

The leader of the group, the Serpent Commander, makes statements that are similar to what Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been criticized for saying during his White House run. The Commander longs for the construction of “the mighty wall” and laments the “trouble and disease and crime” that the border-crossers are bringing with them.

When Captain America isn’t on stage at a gay pride parade, he now fights silly depictions of conservative Americans. A similar thing happened in 2010 when Steve Rogers took on … the Tea Party.

Where are Captain America’s missions with Joint Special Operations Command?
Why isn’t he working with Ranger-run task forces to take down individuals in the Haqqani Network?
Why have we never seen Captain America in Kandahar province, Afghanistan?
Why have we never seen Cap on a mission in the Sulaiman Mountains?
Why have we never seen Steve Rogers perform a HAHO (high-altitude, high-opening) jump into Abbotttabad, Pakistan?

Shall I go on?

It is embarrassing that Marvel regularly wastes potential of a character like Captain America on the myopic tit-for-tat politics of men like Nick Spencer.

In the one book that should attempt to unite all Americans, we now have immature political pot-shots that a.) will not stand the test of time, and b.) turn off readers who would otherwise be interested in purchasing the product.

Perhaps Sam Wilson or Steve Rogers will eventually be written by someone whose mind operates outside the domestic public policy squabbles of short-lived news cycles. Until then, I won’t be picking up Sam Wilson: Captain America.

Three cheers to Marvel, and its highly unique business model of needlessly alienating potential customers.

Falcon can soar as Captain America, but Tom Brevoort crashes and burns as a Marvel representative

July 17, 2014July 19, 2014by Douglas Ernst25 Comments

Marvel has taken a lot of heat in recent days for its shameless She-Thor publicity stunt, but the announcement that Sam Wilson will be the new Captain America does not deserve similar scorn. While its press release on the decision to give Falcon a chance to shine in a new role successfully articulates Rick Remender’s thought processes, it also includes further evidence of Tom Brevoort’s rhetorical buffoonery.

Superhero Hype reported July 16:

This fall, Sam Wilson flies where eagles dare, as the intrepid Falcon assumes his new role as Captain America. A new chapter begins in ‘All-New Captain America” #1 by Rick Remender and Stuart Immonen.

“This is it,” says Remender of the culmination of two years of storytelling in ‘Captain America’ and the dawning of “All-New Captain America”. “This is the fireworks factory we’re arriving at, and now everything’s going to blow up and be very pretty and exciting to look at. It leads into an evolution of Steve Rogers’ character that I had very early when I was given the job. I think that it’s important with these stories to do things that are natural and make sense and have an inherent logic to the universe, but are also constantly shifting and exciting, keeping the drama high. In order to do that it really comes down to creating new dynamics.

“I’ve been having a lot of fun writing Sam. It’s a completely different attitude. The fact that he’s not a soldier shifts things up a bit. Sam’s not going to be Steve. Steve can be very rigid. That can be kind of joyless at times, whereas Sam is absolutely not that.”

This is logical. Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers have a long history together. Iron Man fans know that Tony Stark and Rhodey have a similar dynamic. Fair-minded fans — even if they dislike the move — will admit that on many levels it makes sense for Falcon to become Captain America in the event of Steve Rogers’ death or prolonged absence. In fact, one could make a convincing argument that Anthony Mackie deserves a chance to play Captain America in the event that Chris Evans walks away from big screen Captain America role a few years down the line. Agree or disagree, there is sound logic behind what Marvel is doing.

Enter Tom Brevoort, whose track record of embarrassing behavior can fill many, many blog posts.

“While Sam shares many of Steve’s beliefs in a general sense, he’s also a very different person with a very different background,” adds editor Tom Brevoort, “He didn’t grow up in the 1930s, he’s a modern day man in touch with the problems of the 21st Century. For most of his professional life, Sam has worked as a social worker, so he’s seen the worst of urban society up close, and how crime, poverty, lack of social structure and opportunity can affect the community. So he’s got perhaps a greater focus on the plight of the common man, and perhaps a greater empathy for the underprivileged than maybe even Steve himself.

The idea that Steve Rogers — Captain America — would have less empathy for his fellow Americans than anyone who might temporarily fill his shoes is cringeworthy. To understand what Mr. Brevoort means by the “common man,” one must first view his comment within the context of his own openly-leftist politics.

Ronald Reagan may have put it best during a 1978 radio address to the American people in regards to elitists’ references to the “common man.”:

“I wonder, though, about the people in those cars, who they are, what they do, what they’re thinking about as they head for the warmth of home and family. Come to think of it I’ve met them oh, maybe not those particular individuals but still I feel I know them. Some social planners refer to them as the masses which only proves they don’t know them. I’ve been privileged to meet people all over this land in the special kind of way you meet them when you’re campaigning.They are not the masses or as the elitists would have it the common man. They’re very uncommon. Individuals each with his or her own hopes and dreams, plans and problems and the kind of quiet courage that makes this whole country run better than just about any other place on earth.”

A character like Steve Rogers, who would have experienced the horrors of Nazi Germany up close and personal — who would have lived in a time when black men had significantly less rights than they do in 2014 — would certainly empathize with any grouping that racial bean counters or “social justice warriors” could come up with. A man like Steve Rogers, who we’re told has gone to all corners of the earth to fight tyranny and injustice and pure evil — heck, all corners of the universe — would most-certainly have empathy for all Americans that is equal to or greater than the man who borrows his shield.

Steve Rogers, however, has one thing that he can’t overcome in the mind of Tom Brevoort: he is a blonde-haired blue-eyed white man. It doesn’t matter if he’s fought for freedom and liberty all around the globe, or traveled the stars to save the entire planet — his empathy for the “common man” is always up for debate. In Mr. Brevoort’s world, a social worker in 2014 probably has more empathy for how “social structure” affects a community than the soldier who saw the death and destruction caused by the “social structure” that created Nazi Germany.

Marvel fans can be proud of the fact that Sam Wilson will officially be Captain America for an extended period of time, but they should shake their heads in disappointment that a guy like Tom Brevoort represents the company.

Tom Brevoort: Maybe Frank Miller can write a generic Captain America tale for Marvel

June 16, 2014June 17, 2014by Douglas Ernst101 Comments

Marvel Comics is paralyzed by political correctness. One needs to look no further than Tom Brevoort’s response to an inquiry about Frank Miller taking a crack at Captain America.

Read Mr. Brevoort’s words — “I don’t think, for example, we’d have gone with Holy Terror as a Captain America story” — and then go to any reputable news source and examine the stories coming out of Iraq and Syria right now. The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is doing everything within its power to bring about an Islamic caliphate in the heart of the Middle East, Iraq is imploding, Syria is a terrorist breeding ground and the president of the United States is so desperate for help that he needs Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to help stem the violence.

A relevant publisher would see such glaring national security threats and say: “This is a subject matter that a Captain America comic book must address.” Sadly, that is not the case at Marvel Comics. The character who punched out Hitler won’t take on radical Islamic extremists because that might offend somebody.

Militants from the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. (Associated Press)

Let us turn to one of last week’s most interesting national security headlines. The Daily Beast reported June 14:

When Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi walked away from a U.S. detention camp in 2009, the future leader of ISIS issued some chilling final words to reservists from Long Island. The Islamist extremist some are now calling the most dangerous man in the world [said]: “I’ll see you guys in New York,” recalls Army Col. Kenneth King, then the commanding officer of Camp Bucca.

Hmmm. This seems like a pretty bad dude. He’s got a huge bank account, an army of men willing to die for him, and his organization has left a trail of dead bodies all across the Middle East. Oh, and he just-so-happens to hate America — but somehow Marvel doesn’t want ask the kind of tough questions “Holy Terror” addressed — in a Captain America comic no less? Pathetic.

When one reads excerpt’s from Frank Miller’s “This Old Cloth,” Mr. Brevoort’s answer becomes even more spineless:

Then came that sunny September morning when airplanes crashed into towers a very few miles from my home and thousands of my neighbors were ruthlessly incinerated — reduced to ash. Now, I draw and write comic books. One thing my job involves is making up bad guys. Imagining human villainy in all its forms. Now the real thing had shown up. The real thing murdered my neighbors. In my city. In my country. Breathing in that awful, chalky crap that filled up the lungs of every New Yorker, then coughing it right out, not knowing what I was coughing up.

For the first time in my life, I know how it feels to face an existential menace. They want us to die. All of a sudden I realize what my parents were talking about all those years.

Patriotism, I now believe, isn’t some sentimental, old conceit. It’s self-preservation. I believe patriotism is central to a nation’s survival. Ben Franklin said it: If we don’t all hang together, we all hang separately. Just like you have to fight to protect your friends and family, and you count on them to watch your own back.

So you’ve got to do what you can to help your country survive. That’s if you think your country is worth a damn. Warts and all.

No black ops for Cap in Syria. No black ops for Cap in Iraq. No black ops for Cap in Afghanistan. No black ops for Cap in Pakistan. But Marvel is all about Captain America taking on the tea party.

These days, Marvel doesn’t push the envelope at all. It puts out a press release every time it does something easy (e.g., the company creates a superhero that allows guys like Mr. Brevoort to chortle on about diversity, as if readers haven’t been bashed over the head with how awesomely-awesome diversity is since they could barely walk). Unfortunately, Marvel has not explored what it means when the desire for diversity allows the world to turn a blind eye to the most illiberal individuals and organizations on the planet.

Here is what I wrote about Holy Terror upon its release:

Holy Terror is at times raw, confusing, and poignant. Sometimes it angers (do you think that might be intentional?). It also makes anyone who reads it wonder why it had to be written in the first place. Fans of Holy Terror know why, and some of us aren’t afraid to talk about it. Critics of the book liken any frank (no pun intended) discussion of Islamic terrorism to an attempt to make it synonymous with Islam as a whole. Again, whose fault is that? Perhaps we should ask Theo Van Gogh, the Dutch film director to whom Frank Miller dedicates the book. Or not…because he’s dead, slain by Islamic radicals.

Tom Brevoort likes the idea of having Frank Miller write Captain America tales — provided he turns in politically correct milquetoast pap. While the world focuses on very real, very evil bad guys, Marvel gives the green light to “Cap vs. Tea Party.” Readers got a heaping helping of weird Bush administration allegories with “Civil War,” but suddenly the burning desire to keep readers politically abreast of real-world headlines cooled just around 2008… How convenient.

If you want a thought-provoking read, tell Marvel to reach out to Frank Miller about writing Captain America. If you like self-congratulatory fare masquerading as ground-breaking diversity, then do nothing; Marvel has mastered that act.