Comicscape - October 8, 2003

By: TONY WHITT
Date: Wednesday, October 08, 2003

OPINION

I've just reread AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #36 for what is probably the 40th or 50th time, and whatever else we may say about it, there's one incontestable fact: it's lost very little of its original power. I thought that, after having read it so many times in the past and with a distance of two years from the events that inspired it, I'd be able to approach it dispassionately - and yet here I am, tears running down my cheeks yet again. Or maybe I'm just a big ol' baby, but there it is. It's a powerful issue, and arguably one of the most moving comics ever produced.

However, even at the time the issue first appeared back in November of 2001, there were rumblings among fans about the tribute and about certain elements that didn't completely please them. Ignoring the logical fallacy that comic books fans (myself included) can ever be completely pleased for the moment, it's instructive to look at the review done by CINESCAPE's own Arnold T. Blumberg, who ended an otherwise strongly positive article with these thoughts: "Yes, it does get a bit preachy from time to time, and yes the sentiments all of which have already been heard on television and seen in print countless times over the last two months are wearing thin even now. But for most Americans, they're well worth reading or hearing again, to remind us of the importance of what we have lost, what we have gained, and what we stand for as a nation and a people." As usual, my friend Arnold's criticism was an apt one then, and it's even more apt now, after we've endured a good two years of hearing those same sentiments over and over again. This can't be counted as a "flaw," of course - JMS was speaking the language of that moment in history, after all, and speaking it far more fluently than just about anyone else - but it does somewhat lessen the effect now more than it did then.

Reader Jason Schachat's feeling towards the issue was similar, leading him to temper his praise with criticism: "[First off,] the issue hit me really hard. It'd been a while since 9/11, but the story brought back all the shock and confusion I'd felt at the time. It confronted the reader with so much in such a short amount of space... well, I was floored. Now, there are some easy criticisms one can make. First, it was a jolt and even seemed a little goofy to see Marvel heroes helping dig through the rubble. In a way, it felt belittling to the real volunteers, though that was addressed shortly afterward, and, when you think about it, if you choose to incorporate 9/11 into the history of your superhero universe, it only makes sense that they'd be there. [I wonder, though, if this issue really is meant to establish that - what do the rest of you think? - Tony] Second, I got the feeling that the art and the words were crafted separately by the writer and the artist. Granted, this is no big surprise when the story's driven by a free-floating monologue and the visuals flash to so many locations and viewpoints, but the flow of the story got a little choppy. I think that's my real criticism of the story: the flow was disturbed. However, that's a purely technical criticism, and I think it all comes down to whether it delivered an appropriate and worthwhile reflection on 9/11. Despite the fact that a number of things Straczinski said echoed what we'd heard in the media following the attacks, I think enough originality was brought to the table to deliver for the reader the moment. More importantly, though, he was able to record and reiterate much of what we felt at the time, and set it on the page for future readers to look back on. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #36 isn't a historical recounting of the event, but a snapshot of how it felt to be an American at the time, and I think that's its greatest achievement."

There were (and are) other criticisms of the tribute, though, some of them, like Jason's, surrounding the presence of those superheroes helping out in the ruins - and more significantly, the presence of supervillains, including a Magneto, Doctor Octopus, the Kingpin, Juggernaut, and a teary-eyed Doctor Doom. About that page, Canadian reader Marc Williams writes, "How many times has Magneto tried to destroy mankind to make way for mutantkind? And he's mourning here? I know JMS did this to make the terrorists look really evil, even compared to a super villain, but it just didn't sit well with me - if anything, these super villains would take the opportunity to strike while there is chaos."

Zafer Yildirim also has trouble with that scene: "All in all it was a good comic book and an important part of history to tell, but the unsettling part was that this was, I believe, the only medium that had fictional characters searching around in the ruins. Fictional characters in spandex, on top of that ([and] Doom crying?). I'm not from America, and the only knowledge I have about that day comes from TV footage, and so today 9/11 still seems surreal, like a scene from a movie, although we know it happened. Putting superheroes on the scene just makes it more surreal, even unreal, and that takes away a huge deal of strength from the story and the message."

Philip Simon (from Bangalore, India - which just proves this issue impacted as many readers from other countries as it did Americans) just recently acquired a copy of the issue, and he feels even more strongly than either Williams or Yildirim does - and I mean strongly: "This issue actually is insulting to anyone who reads it. I mean, the writer actually wants me, the reader, to believe that Doctor Doom would shed a tear for all the people who died in the attack. What the f**k was that all about? I literally felt the writers thought that we readers were going to swallow that s**t. The issue was just a big plug for Marvel. I was

very disappointed."

Admittedly, I found that scene pretty troubling at first, too, particularly given Magneto and Doctor Doom's well-documented histories with human rights and suchlike. But we may have gotten so caught up in the idea that comics present a visual reality that we've forgotten they can also be read as metaphor, which is the only way the scene makes sense. For example, Jason talked above about how the presence of the superheroes side by side with the rescue workers seems belittling, but metaphorically it serves only to make those rescue workers more heroic. In our universe, they are our heroes, and they don't need optic blasts or a rock-hard epidermis to save lives. However, they mean as much to us as Cyclops or the Thing do to their universe - perhaps even more.

So we need to look at the monologue that accompanies the villains' three-panel appearance: "Even those we thought our enemies are here. Because some things surpass rivalries and boundaries. Because the story of humanity is written not in towers but in tears. In the common coin of blood and bone. In the voice that speaks within even the worst of us, and says This is not right. Because even the worst of us, however scarred, are still human. Still feel. Still mourn the random death of innocents." The key to the metaphor is in those first two sentences - since when would any hero in the Marvel Universe describe someone like Magneto as one of "those we thought our enemies"? And whatever may drive the heroes and villains of that universe to fight, it seems odd to characterize their battles as being over "rivalries and boundaries" - though it certainly would characterize the reasons that we fight. At that moment, we're meant to remember that it wasn't just Americans who died in the tragedy (even though the rhetoric out there nowadays would have us think otherwise) - the death toll included people from other countries, including some we had once believed to be enemies. And while people from those countries may not have literally helped at the scene of the tragedy, their thoughts were as much with us at that time as anyone's.

After having said that, though, I feel compelled to include the response of a Colombian reader who sent an anonymous e-mail which reminds us that even those we consider friends may not feel as sympathetic as even those villains: "When I read the 9/11 issue, I saw something completely different from what you perhaps saw. I saw a new kind of xenophobia: You just don't see the third world as criminals, but as monsters. The fact that the villains appear in the comic [as if to say] 'We wouldn't have done that' shows how much worse the terrorists were... Last week you started a discussion about how politics are presented in comic books and the political leanings of the writers and/or editors, but everyone forgets that the political leanings in the U.S. are bland. Every storyline that has the 'heroes take over the world' theme portrays foreign countries as little towns populated by people in rags (that applies to every single medium, actually) and when [those people] don't want 'them' [the Americans] there, it is because they don't like interference. Now, that's bulls**t. The reason we as third world countries always fear invasion is because there's a huge price to pay. If the U.S. wants to invade, it's because they feel that there's something they want there. The Panama invasion in 1989 was not just to free the people of Panama, it was to take over and get the politicians they wanted to have more control over El Canal, and the two attempts at Iraq are [have been] for strictly business motivations. You are nobody's heroes.

"[It looked so stupid when Americans in the comic] were portrayed as victims, saying, "Why would anybody do that?" almost on every page. It was a comic issue devoted to xenophobia and grief, continually establishing a parallel with Pearl Harbor (which was an invasion of foreign territory as well) and lots of tears and crying for vengeance ([which became] laughable in CAPTAIN AMERICA later, when the attack was on suburbs, which takes away the whole meaning of the real act). I am Colombian, and that may not mean much [on its own], but as a comic book reader, I have to stand over and over the image of Colombians as drug dealers, corrupt politicians, and terrorists every time. By the way, 9/11 was the day that started the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, an act in which the U.S. government was involved and where lots of liberties were violated and lots of people died." Throws a new light onto our discussion about those villains being in the ruins, doesn't it? For this reader - and perhaps for many other comics readers out there who may have felt the same way about the "black" issue - the question is far too complex to reduce down to "heroes" and "villains," and I think that's something JMS was trying to convey, too.

I know I'm going to get some hate mail this time for having included a response which some will characterize as "anti-American," or for having "dissed" the tribute issue in the first place (which I didn't, naturally), so e-mail me your thoughts, positive or negative, at comicscape@cinescape.com. Next week, I'm going to move out of the political arena for a while and focus on Peter David's ongoing depiction of Captain Marvel as a madman, with a view to answering the burning question: Is he still a hero? Is he an anti-hero? Or is he now a villain? (Actually, that's three burning questions...) In the meantime, here's what you have to look forward to:

THIS WEEK

Writer Zeb Wells

takes a look at a group of teenaged mutants who don't get into the Xavier School or end up with the Morlocks in NYX #1. Raves will never be the same again.

Batman fans, you'd better mortgage your second child this week - not only have you got the softcover edition of BATMAN: ABSOLUTION to buy for $17.95 (to match the hardcover edition you've already got, naturally), you also have to get Greg Rucka's miniseries BATMAN: DEATH AND THE MAIDENS #3 (of 9); and you've got to get BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #172, featuring a new group of vigilantes called Rough Justice. Good thing ROBIN and NIGHTWING don't come out till next week, or you'd be so screwed...

Image is

releasing a ton of stuff this week, including (but not limited to) AGENTS #6 (of 6); ARIA: THE USES OF ENCHANTMENT #4 (of 4); MICRONAUTS #11; GI JOE #22; and GI JOE: FRONTLINE #15. It also turns out they are shipping CINESCAPE's own Jason Henderson's new book SWORD OF DRACULA #1 this week, but with all the hoopla they're devoting to FRANKENSTEIN MOBSTER #0 (three variant covers this week, plus a mask and a theme song?), you'd hardly know it. Here's the cover to Jason's book, so you can go out and buy it, already!

Fans of Supes will need to save up their coffers this week, too, as you're getting ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #621; SUPERMAN & BATMAN: GENERATIONS III #10 (of 12); and the SUPERMAN: THE RETURN OF SUPERMAN trade paperback for $19.95. Oh, wait, that's right - no one's really buying GENERATIONS III, are they? Sorry about that - yes, you'll have plenty of cash, then.

Everyone is

buying ULTIMATE SIX, the third issue of which ships this weeks, and quite rightly, too. As much as I'd love to see what Brian Michael Bendis is doing with these guys, I think I'll wait four months and get the collected edition when it comes out the same week as the final issue.

Same thing with Neil Gaiman's 1602 #3 (of 8), though the idea of Matt Murdock running around Elizabethan Europe sounds pretty appealing. How would the FF come into being in this time, anyway? I suppose Reed Richards would attempt to fly a balloon to the Moon and would get himself and his family struck by cosmic lightning...

Oh, look,

cleavage! Wildstorm's sending out an interesting grouping this week, including STORMWATCH: TEAM ACHILLES #16; GEN 13 #14; TOKYO: STORM WARNING #3 (of 3); TOM STRONG #22; and the book with the aforementioned boobage, TWO STEP #1 (of 3) - though, as this one's written by Warren Ellis, I imagine there's more reason to buy it than just the cover.

Speaking of

stuff worth buying, Vertigo's sending out 100 BULLETS #47, FABLES #18 (a one-off story with artwork by Linda Medley - that's not her doing the legs, by the way), and the PREACHER VOL 1: GONE TO TEXAS trade paperback for $14.95.

Those wanting

to indulge in superhero teams over at DC are getting some goodies, too, in the form of JLA #88; the JLA VOL 4: STRENGTH IN NUMBERS trade paperback for $12.95; and JSA: ALL STARS #6 (of 8), which appears to have something to do with Doc Mid-Nite this month. That's just a hunch, mind you.

Speaking of Golden Age characters, the DOCTOR FATE miniseries continues this month with issue #3 (of 5). Enjoy it while it lasts!

If you

think there's something different when you open the cover of NAMOR #7, even though that cover looks the same as previous issues (despite being blue, naturally), don't be fooled: it's just new artists Pat Olliffe and John Livesay taking over the insides while previous artist Salvador Larroca Martinez takes care of the outside. Meanwhile, writer Andi Watson takes care of all sides, clever man that he is.

Meanwhile, Jan and Hank are off to Vegas in AVENGERS #71, and it's not to visit poor Roy in the hospital, methinks... Only Geoff Johns knows for sure.

Oh, look,

more boobage! No, not Wolverine, you morons... Brian Michael Bendis continues his ultimate roll with ULTIMATE X-MEN #38.

HUMAN DEFENSE CORPS finally draws to a close this week with #6 (of 6 - d'uh!), as the boys in green fight demons at the mouth of Hell. I'll bet our own troops were feeling much the same way in mid-August...

And finally,

DC comes up with the best idea since 10-cent issues: the WORLD'S BEST COMICS: THE GOLDEN AGE DC ARCHIVES SAMPLER ships this week, featuring Golden Age stories of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Plastic Man, all for the ridiculously low price of $0.99! Guess you won't be mortgaging that third child just yet, will you?

Enjoy the buffet and God bless.

Comicscape is our weekly Comics column.

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