Rolling Stone on current comic storylines
The latest issue of Rolling Stone, which features 24's Kiefer Sutherland on the cover, talks about Infinite Crisis, Civil War and Batman vs. the Al Qaeda in a brief article that quotes Kevin Smith:
Smith makes a geeky but dead-on point: Captain America was invented to fight Hitler, Iron Man was born in the jungles of Southeast Asia and the hated mutants of the X-Men were an allegory for civil rights in the Sixties. Stories like these must reflect the times to resonate. For instance, if the movie version of V for Vendetta had not been updated--the original graphic novel was Alan Moore's dystopian, anti-fascist fantasia of Margaret Thatcher's England--and recast as an attack on the Bush administration's policies, the film wouldn't be a hit.
The April 20 issue of Rolling Stone is on newsstand now.
posted by JK Parkin @ 6:35 AM
2 Comments:
". . . the hated mutants of the X-Men were an allegory for civil rights in the Sixties."
No, they weren't! Or at least find some evidence to back your point, Mr. Smith.
Frank Miller was arguing for his Batman-vs.-Osama storyline by pointing to superheroes' roots in WWII Axis bashing. Miller might possibly do something good with his al-Qaeda story. God knows we always need new approaches (or even new-old approaches) to keep comics interesting. But I logically object to the idea that today's comics are suited to this kind of thing just because the comics of the 1940s were. Comics, and what readers expect from comics, have gone thru some big changes. Miller's approach has as much chance of working or not working as it would if there'd never been that Daredevil cover back in 1941 (or whenever).
Personally, the idea of Batman fighting al-Qaeda makes me cringe. Whatever I look for in superheroes, it isn't answers to any specific, serious problem that I actually care about. Trivialization is the risk that comes to mind here.
I've mentioned this elsewhere on the web, but Batman was never intended to get involved with this kind of "real-world" activity(the book BATMAN UNMASKED points out that, although he did his share of flag-waving covers and War Bond ads, the actual Batman comics of that era tried to avoid mentioning the war as much as possible).Yes, the X-Men were seen as a reflection of the civil rights movement in the 1960s; they're also seen as a symbol of the gay rights movement today. It's called METAPHOR, and it's more powerful than this kind of direct, limited referencing.( Of course, Captain America is PURE metaphor, so he can act a bit more directly. But Batman VS. Osama is just plain wrong-headed. (Incidently, this will be the sixth Batman story Miller will have written...and only TWO of them have been any good at all.Isn't it time we admitted he just doesn't get the character?)
Post a Comment
<< Home