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Alex Merced
POPC 470
Comics and Culture
Civil War Gives Comics a Reality Check
Growing up comics had always given stories that were grand spectacles that entertained and wowed but the world has changed which has been sirened by Marvels Civil War. The Success of Civil War highlights the change in US attitude towards, “reality”, which can be shown by it's parallel to current events, it's handling of the good/evil opposition, which can all signal back to a trend we've seen with the rise in popularity of Reality television.
Civil War was a Marvel Comics event released in 2007 that spanned across seven main issues, a side series called Frontline, and pretty much the entire Marvel universe having virtually every other Marvel title get involved in the events of Civil war. As the story goes after tragic events involving a battle between the New Warrior and Nitro, a school of kids in Stamford, Connecticut wind up being brutally murdered. The one surviving member of the New Warriors, Speedball becomes the principal scapegoat for the events of that day. Meanwhile, Tony Stark the rich mogul who doubles as Iron Man begins to push legislation through congress to register super heroes with the intention of being able to hold Superheroes accountable for their actions which receives opposition from Captain America, one of the most respected heroes in the world. As the law gets passed, Captain America begins an underground resistance against Tony Starks regime which began the ultimate battle between Captain Americas Idealism and Tony Starks sense of responsibility to the security of the people. While Captain Americas resistance begins to gain ground in the superhero community, more and more the heroes that once entertained us as kids where now face to face with each other fighting over the future of their kind. Iron Man spends his time in the civil war imprisoning many of his old friends and recruiting many old foes to serve his cause, in a continuing saga that culminating in one of the most shocking comic moments of 2007, The death of Americas greatest comic patriot, Captain America.
The events of Civil War show a trend of Reality in todays popular culture which can be seen by the many parallels in the events to todays popular culture. This ideology can be shown in the comic by the parallels between Iron Man and Registration Act to George Bush and the Patriot Act, Speedball and Nitro to Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden, and the Death of Captain America and the Stamford incidents as lost of America innocence.
More and more we see a direct parallel to reality from comics than the allusions or light references of the past, and one of the most blatant and in your face comparisons had to be Iron Man to President Bush. Marvel has been quite forward with it's commentary on the current administration in this series, while also displaying many of the complexities between differing points of view of policies revolving around security. Iron Man pushes an act to serve the safety of citizens of the US by stripping away the autonomy of superhumans while George Bush passes an Act to serve the safety of the US by stripping away rights to suspected terrorists, quite similar. While by the end of the series we see many other similarities come up between the two such as a reference to the halliburton issue when it's side noted that the biggest profiteer in t his whole situation is Stark Industries who received many contracts in the process of pushing this bill through legislation. It's these stark (pun intended) comparisons that drive civil war from back to end, and being the best selling comics of 2006, this shows America turning away from the escapism of old comics and embracing a new reality based relevance in comics.
Another really controversial comparison between Civil War and current events is the whole events with Speedball and Nitro. Nitro can easily be seen as a parallel between Saddam Hussein, a scapegoat for the fallout of an event that was not his fault (9/11), while by no means is Saddam Hussein anything like Speedball ideologically (Speedball is a good guy, Hussein is NOT) it's still a clear comparison the transfer of responsibility. This is where Nitro comes in representing Osama Bin Laden the “architect” of the events of 9/11. Nitro being the one responsible for the events is forgotten about and never pursued due to the transfer of responsibility to Speedball which is very similar to how we never got Osama Bin Laden. Again we see how Marvel made it's comics relevant to todays issues in an extreme way, no longer is the bigger than life beyond reality stories of Superman or other omnipotent heroes relevant, neither is even Captain America which is greatest theme in all of civil war, the lost innocence of superhero comics.
This Lost Innocence in superhero comics is greatly represented in the two greatest parallels of civil war, the Stamford incident and Captain Americas death. 9/11 was time many look at as the loss of of Americas innocence and I feel this paralleled in these two incidents when you look at the symbolism of Children as sign of innocence, so in a sense it's a very literal parallel outright killing innocence. Captain America has been symbol or patriotism and the American way since his inception, his idealistic and sometimes innocent views on how America should be has grown less and irrelevant to the current world as this phenomenon of America just kinda embracing reality since Millennium. Even in the final pages of Civil War the American people are cheering for Iron Man, yelling obscenities to the very hero who's fought for their freedom for day one. With his death we can see the end of an era in American ideology.
It's these kind of references that make Marvels Civil war a text that leaves it's appeal in providing a window into reality instead of an escape from it. With the US population more and more craving reality like or “realityesque” content. With easy to draw parallels to the the current administration, Bin Laden and Hussein, and the changing ideology of American values we see that Civil War more than any mainstream comic this year hit close to home in US Culture, and I believe it's this nature of the comic that highlights the trend towards reality based culture.
Marvel has blurred the shades of gray concept beyond recognition in civil war by creating a text that destroys the old escapist good/evil dichotomy which is typically presented in comics which must equate to an outdated American ideology when you see comics like Civil War not only sell better but completely obliterate the competition in sales. We can see this destruction of good vs. evil in the Iron Man/Captain America Fued, The Formation of the New Thunderbolts, and redemption of Speedball.
The breaking of this good/evil dichotomy is a sign of the changing values to the realityesque.
Iron Man and Captain America, two characters that have always bee associated with eh good side of things, but now readers have been forced to choose which side of good they're on creating blur between the line of good and evil. While they paint Iron Man as the more morally ambiguous side, they still go out of their way to explain his intentions to protect the people unilaterally by making superhumans do “what's best for them”. Captain America instead is painted as morally unwavering and idealistic not willing to compromise or give up. In the end which side is right or if either side is right it never ever answered even in the conclusion of the civil war saga, we're only left with the ever increasing incarceration of our favorite super heroes and the dead body of Captain America. This lack of answers is definitive of lack Good or evil and is part of the changing times of todays world.
During the civil war Saga Tony Stark made a lot deals with current and former villains which was hard to see one of our childhood heroes work with the Bad guys. This dealing with villains hits it's pinnacle when he reforms the line-up of the Thunderbolts with some of the most notorious villains in the marvel universe including Venom, Green Goblin, Bullseye, and many more. The Thunderbolts where originally a group started by the masters of evil to gain the public trust for Baron Zemos (classic Captain America Villain) plan for world domination. During the time of Civil War many of the villains from it's inception now worked for the government fighting crime with the Thunderbolts and Baron Zemo returned with cosmic powers and is asked by Tony Stark to capture known super villains to join the new thunderbolts. While Baron Zemo sacrifices himself to save the world from the Grand Master before civil war is over, the damage is now done. Captain America also crosses the line of who he'll work with brokering deals with the Kingpin and a few C-list villains to aid in his cause who are killed by the Punisher before they even get to say hi. This makes you wonder how can good guys be good if they work with the bad guys and fight against the good guys, the semblance of shades of grey gets so blurred it begins to seem like a lot of movies like The Departed or TV shows like the Sopranos, where good is just relative to what character you'd like to live. What all these have in common is also their commercial success which shows connection in this moral ambiguity and American Values. This is what happens when good guys fight goodguys.
Of course we remember our favorite scapegoat, Speedball, who blurs the idea of bad and good in a very particular way. Speedball shows us that just having good intentions and values doesn't make you “good” as he is lambasted with accusations and even at one point shot (why does he survive getting shot, yet Captain America just croaks). After surviving a assassination attempt Speedball has a mental breakdown and is given a new suit which keeps him in constant pain he now feels he deserves cause of the Stamford incident. In this new costume he changes his name to Penance and joins the Thunderbolts. With Speedball it's not an issue of what's absolutely good, or what absolutely bad, it's an issue of perception which create static in the good/evil binary leaving this perceptual grey area.
Civil War is a comic that really hits home with the reality of todays world, with the world where no one knows who the good or bad guys are anymore with people attacking and fighting for the US in the name of a good cause. We see this phenomenon is other popular culture such as professional wrestling which used to be a very comic like battle between good/evil that now has blurred the lines and become this morally ambiguous battle of superpowers, similar to current global conflicts, and similar to the situation in Civil War. This is all part of the ties to the realesque change in American preferences.
“The Return of the Real is a recurring motif not just in the conventional mass media, but Also in the development of Digital Media. On the one hand, we are deluged with prolifereating reality formats, from those that on found video, like when animal attacks and Busted on the Job, to slick productions like Survivor, and recently, to gross-out shows like Jackass and Fear Factor.” - Andrew Andrejevic (Andrejevic pg.61)
This is what Andrew Andrejevic saids in his book “Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched” also talking about this realityesque phenomena as it pertains to Reality Television. By exploring the relation between reality TV we can highlight the existence of this realityesque phenomenon in which Civil War has played such a kye role in 2006, resurrecting the comic industry and reflecting many changing values in American culture.
“However, The Content of much Reality programming contains informative elements in the programme, but they are nevertheless part of the programme. For example, the lifestyle makeover format Changing Rooms functions as entertainment, and also as information.” Annette Hill (hill pg. 79)
This quote by Annette hill speaks about the double function of entertainment and information presented by Reality TV which we can see in comics with it's ever realityesque nature of Civil War which in some sense is informative on the dynamics of current issues while being primarily entertainment. Reality TV became bigger over the last decade which can be seen as a backlash to all the eccentric and bigger than life programming of the 80's, remembering movies like “Not Quite Human” or “My Stepmother is an Alien” which all kind of abandoned reality all together similar to the hair metal of the time which also felt this backlash when bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam hit it big focusing on reality. This period of time marks the change of American tastes from escapism to the realityesque.
We live in a time of war and and uncertainty, and in the past during times of war, people have looked towards popular culture for escape from reality, but now they are looking for an escape to reality. While in the 50's Captain America would punch Hitler as nice message to the masses that everything is gonna be all right, now he lies dead on the ground telling the world those days are dead and gone. In the same sense in the 50's people got away from their own lives by watching idealized images of the cleavers and the Bradys yet now we escape from our own reality by relishing in the harsh truth of the realities of others by watching reality television. What's with the sudden taste of realism during war time, has society now changed to hunger for a taste of what's sort of like something real, do people now embrace the sad truth of our worlds problem and no longer seek idealistic representation of other views. There is a larger trend at work that you can see as you jump from one pop culture medium to another. Seinfeld, Hip Hop, Harry potter, all popular texts which focus on the truth of human flaws and mortality compared to their world war II counterparts, and on the same token comics have taken this turn.
In the end, Civil Wars success if the pivotal example of our changing values as a nation towards our culture not distracting us from what's going on, but to now hold our are hand and helping understand what's going. People now care what's going on. We can see these allusions to world issues by direct parallels in the Civil War narrative and also by seeing how it represents the changing dichotomy of good/bad in contemporary American society. Compare this to the change of tastes in television programming to more reality based television you see America has accepted reality more and more over the year, or at least something like reality. Now we watch a fallen solider stand alone mourning the death of innocense.
Dear Captain America,
I know you dead and gone but i still feel compelled to write you this letter. I know you never lived at all but yet again I still feel compelled to write you this letter. I grew up with you telling me thing were gonna be alright, but they arn't. I grew up with you telling me that good always triumph, but it doesn't. Despite that I was always able to forget about the worlds pressure and just get lost in your ideals and hopes, which has died along with mine. Although in the end you showed me a valuable lesson in truth and justice, innocence has no place here. I watch as those I harbor continue to obsess over the lives of other hoping that the truth of things will at some point change but that's not what's great about things. What's great is despite everything that is going we can still hope and appreciate that in within itself, innocence is dead, hope is not.
` Sincerely,
America
Works Citied
Andrejevic, Mark. “Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched” Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, INC. September 28, 2003. April 21st, 2007.
Hill, Annette. “Reality TV” Audiences and Popular Factual Television”. Routledge. November 11, 2004. April 21t. 2007.
1 comment:
Keep up the good work.
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