Last week in the comics, Batman was murdered by evil itself and Spider-Man got to meet Barack Obama. So, three guesses as to what gets all the attention: Batman’s smoking corpse (yeah, they have a body. Yes, it’s really Bruce Wayne. Yes, he is quite dead by comic book standards) or Peter Parker’s brush with His Majesty, the most beneficent King Barack the First?
If you have to ask, you haven’t been hanging out here long enough.
In addition, The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan’s excellent analysis of the War on Terror was snubbed for a Best Picture/Best Director Oscar. The Dark Knight, cleverly disguised as befits a superhero genre flick, pointed out that sometimes in order to fight terror, we must sometimes do things we don’t want to do as a free society in order to stop the threats that we face to life and property. In fact, a review in the Wall Street Journal observed that you didn’t need to squint real hard to see that the Bat Signal looked a lot like a “W”. In the movie, Batman must become a scapegoat so that order can be restored- Sounds a lot like George W. Bush’s brand of morality. Bush didn’t/doesn’t allow his own ego and desire to be liked to stand in the way of defending American society. He (like Batman in The Dark Knight) was willing to be reviled to keep citizens safe.
And now, Batman is dead. On the last page of Final Crisis #6, Superman holds the burned… almost mummified… corpse of his friend who died while confronting the ultimate villian in the DC Universe: Darkseid. In his death, Batman proved the very premise of his creation: That proper preparation and training and hard work can make any man superhuman, capable of great good and able to confront even the greatest evil, and triumph.
Down the road at Marvel, Spider-Man is glad-handing Obama on the cover of his comic book. First, I can’t really comment on the book. I couldn’t hold my gorge back long enough to thumb through it, and didn’t feel like vomiting over the back issues at my local comics retailer. The very fact that Marvel sees fit to cash in on politics is kind of repulsive- I mean, we’re not going to see Sarah Palin on the cover of Sensational She-Hulk, right? Dan DiDio (Editor in Chief at DC Comics) said in a Q-and-A at www.newsarama.com when asked what the plans were for incorporating Obama into the DC books:
"There are no plans at all. The reason why is that over the past ten or more years, we have never gone to any lengths to include actual political figures into any of our books, and see no reason to change that right now. The world that our characters exist in is a fictional world that touches upon ideals and sensibilities of the real world, but we don’t like to mix it to any great level in regards to real people and real events. My feeling on it is that I have always preferred that the President in the DC Universe, if not one of our characters such as Luthor, be a character that reflects the sensibilities and attitudes of the current Administration, without ever featuring individuals in the books themselves. It’s just my opinion. I’m pretty comfortable with how we do it, and even though it seems to be the flavor of the day in a way, I prefer just to concentrate on the books we’re doing and the stories we’re telling now." SOURCE
It’s the timing of this that kind of strikes me odd, though. The week that Bush leaves office, the character that most personifies his approach in the comics is murdered in a method that may take the folks at DC a few years to reverse, if ever. And his successor is touted in their cross-town rival’s books. All within a week of the coronati… I mean inaguaration.
And which comics story does the media decide to cover? Again, if I have to answer that one, you’re not paying attention. The Obamasm cover of Amazing Spider-Man has gone into three reprintings. There were lines at comic stores…
In one of the most telling lines from The Dark Knight, Harvey Dent says “You either die the hero, or live long enough to become the villian”. Well, Batman (and by extension and metaphor, Bush) has now managed to do both. Bruce Wayne as Batman may be very much part of the past; George Bush as Batman… definitely. The Batman-metaphor-for-War-On-Terror died with the character. Hollyweird is trying to forget The Dark Knight and bury the movie’s caped crusader along with his pulp inspiration.
And nobody noticed.
Except me.
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Comments
27 December 2008
15 min 24 sec
Totally agree, Justinian. Of course I'm more of a DC guy than a Marvel guy, I never quite got Marvel's appeal, stylistically or in narative. It all seems a bit too tied to the Greater NYC/Amtrack Corridor area/lifestyle for it to have any real resonance for someone who lives in the remaining 98% of the United States like I do.
To be fair, though, DC *has* made reference to real-world presidents in the past. I recall Guy Gardner talking about President Bush (The first) taking office, and didn't Booster Gold rescue Reagan at one point? Not to mention real-world figures, like that time Superman and Mohammed Ali boxed on a planet orbiting a red sun.
To be honest, this always bugged me - as R2 can attest - because they kept jumping back and forth between a real(ish) world and a paralell world. I'm not sure they really decided to go their own way until Luthor started running for president, but I could be wrong about that. I lack R2's encyclopedic knowledge of such things, but I definitely prefer my superheroics confined to a paralell universe rather than being used for a propagandistic purpose.
2 June 2009
1 year 6 weeks
Disagreement is great, we can agree on that!
I would counter that while the Batman is prone to using methods of torture and illegal surveillance, the movie is nuanced on both of these issues.
While the Batman does use the fancy mobile phone system, he makes a point of destroying it. The movie makes a caveat for the " ticking bomb " scenario...
Secondly , Bruce Wayne is ready to give himself in to save Dent. He recognizes the superior moral authority of the "white knight".
In fact he chastises Dent when he tortures and tries to kill the Jokers henchmen, and those he subverts through blackmail.
And last, the torture of the Joker plays into his hands, first he manages to plant false information. Secondly he distracts the Batman and the Gotham police from the bomb he has planted amongst them. Both points underline the dubious efficacy of torture.
I think that the movie has very current and topical themes, a " paean" to Dubya, hardly...
And please, I doubt that you think elected officials should emulate the behavior of mentally unbalanced vigilantes, however noble they may seem.
cheers!
23 December 2008
2 hours 21 min
Thanks for the kind words, Ben. We love working on the site, and will continue to do so as long as there are people out there (like you) who enjoy it.
Or until someone comes by and offers us an insane amount of money. We can be bribed.
To answer your question, I looked at a lot of the post 9-11 comics, most notably JMS's Amazing Spider-Man issue (which wasn't as good as I remembered, honestly) and I found one or two stories in the DC 9-11 compilation books that were of the pro-Bush policy variety. But to the best of my knowledge (and admittedly cursory research), Bush was not mentioned by name in any positive light.
And I'm sure that DC has SOMETHING you'd like. The Green Lantern books are six kinds of awesome right now...
23 December 2008
2 hours 21 min
Actually, that's not accurate. I love disagreeing. Makes me THINK.
The reason that I (and many others) think that "The Dark Knight" is a (perhaps unintentional) paean to W's War on Terror can perhaps be best conveyed through the film's climactic hunt for the Joker. In order to accomplish this, Batman uses 'unWarranted Wiretaps' to locate the Joker- it is established that this is the ONLY way to root out the clown painted terrorist. In addition, Batman has never had any qualms about "enhanced interrogation techniques": while waterboarding plays on the basic human fear of drowning (although there is no actual danger of drowning), Batman suspends people from great heights to play on the basic fear of falling (although I believe he used this more in Batman Begins than The Dark Knight).
And more to the point- Batman at the end of the film realizes that the people of Gotham will need a scapegoat, and he provides them with himself. Likewise, Bush knew that he'd become the 'bad guy' in a lot of people's minds, and was willing to take that as part of his legacy to keep Americans safe.
I'm not quite sure that the Harvey Dent character arc proves much beyond "No good deed goes unpunished".... Even when he begins to 'cross the line' as D.A., those actions do not directly impact his fate in a 'causal' sense (perhaps they do in a Karmic sense, but I'm a poor judge of Karma.)
In any case, thanks for posting! Welcome to the 'Bot!
2 June 2009
1 year 6 weeks
"The Dark Knight, cleverly disguised as befits a superhero genre flick, pointed out that sometimes in order to fight terror, we must sometimes do things we don’t want to do as a free society in order to stop the threats that we face to life and property."
No it didn't. The moral was that terrorizing and torturing our enemies only makes us resemble them, look at the Harvey Dent character.
I may or may not agree with your views on torture, but The Dark Knight was not a vague apology for the excesses of the War on Terror.
cheers