Let's Talk Comics

Guest Column Written by J. Andrew World

Ed Brubaker has no need to apologize.  In fact, Joe Quesada should have defended him. However, I understand the need for Marvel to take the stance they did. I mean their parent company, Disney, always shies away from controversy, plus it makes good business sense. Like they say, shit runs down hill, and Mr. Quesada and Mr. Brubaker probably got hell from Disney. But last weekend proved Mr. Brubaker right, and therefore he shouldn’t have needed to apologize.

If you have heard about the flack over Captain America #602, then you know what I am talking about. If you don’t know what I am talking about, in Captain America, Cap and Falcon are trying to take down a White Supremacy group, and go undercover at an anti-tax protest. Warner Todd Huston wrote on his blog at publiusforum.com:

In issue number 602 of Captain America, a new story line has begun called “Two Americas.” In it the current Captain (there have been a few of them, apparently) is on the trail of a faux Captain America that is mentally deranged and getting chummy with some white supremacist, anti-government, survivalists types going by the name of “the Watchdogs.” While investigating this subversive group, Captain America and his partner The Falcon — a black super hero — have decided to try and infiltrate the secretive organization.

In preparation for the infiltration, Marvel Comics depicts the two super heroes out of costume and observing from a rooftop a street filled with what can only be described as a Tea Party protest. The scene shows crowds of people in city streets carrying signs that say, “stop the socialists,” “tea bag libs before they tea bag you,” and “no to new taxes.” Naturally, the people in these crowds are depicted as being filled with nothing but white folks.

When the comic was written, drawn, lettered and colored, it was before the National Tea Bag Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, so it is easy to see how Hudson could view the comic as liberal propaganda. However, this week, after the convention, Tom Tancrado has proved Mr. Huston wrong by calling for the return of Civil Literacy tests, to a room full of Tea Baggers who were cheering him on.

Civil Literacy Tests were abolished thanks to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Granted, it did take a while before they were abolished. They were created during the 1890s in Mississippi because the minority white community wanted to keep control over the majority African-American population. The tests were given only to minority voters and were specifically designed to block non-whites from voting. It was filled with questions that were so hard, that there was no choice but to fail. Can you answer this question: “If a person charged with treason denies his guilt, how many persons must testify against him before he can be convicted?” I know I can’t. How about this: “If a president does not wish to sign a bill, how many days is he allowed in which to return it to Congress for consideration?” It gets even tougher: “If the United States wishes to purchase land for an arsenal and have exclusive legislative authority over it, consent is required from [fill in the blank].” These were actual questions from the state of Alabama’s Civic Literacy Test. These tests were created so people who were in charge could keep their jobs by preventing people they don’t want to vote, from voting.

When Mr. Tancrado uttered the words, “we do not have a civics literacy test before people can vote in this country, people who could not even spell the word ‘vote,’ or say it in English” to the cheers of the Tea Party, they showed that, naturally, the people in these crowds *ARE* nothing but white folks. The Tea Party Convention showed us that Ed Brubaker was right and shouldn’t have to apologize.

Mr. Huston continued on talking about Captain America saying “isn’t it wonderful that a decades old American comic book hero is now being used to turn readers against our very political system, being used to slander folks that are standing up for real American principles in real life — and one called “Captain America” at that?” It is obvious that this man has never read an issue of Captain America before in his life, as well as reading things into the comic that are not there. Captain America has always been a liberal, which scares Mr. Huston, and nowhere did they say that you shouldn’t protest the government. In fact, if Mr. Huston had ever read Captain America, he would know that many times Captain America has stood up to internal threats  to this country by protesting!

Captain America began his career fighting Nazis.  Nazism is a far right political party, so it would make sense that Steve Rogers or even the current Captain America, Bucky Barnes, his side kick during World War 2 would lean left. This is why Steve Rogers stood up against the Nixon administration in the 1970s. He questioned his role as a patriotic superhero, just as our nation questioned the integrity of our president. In protest, Steve Rogers hung up his costume to become the costumed vigilante Nomad for a short time. By partnering with The Falcon, Cap took on social issues involving race. Captain America in the 80s fought for gay rights, and raised awareness of the AIDs epidemic, when The Falcon’s own nephew, became HIV-positive. He continued deal with his own identity as what it meant to be “Captain America” through the Reagan years, and at times stepping down from the mantle. If Steve Rogers was a real person, I am certain he would be a registered Democrat; this scares Mr. Huston because he feels that a real American is a Conservative. Like many people of the right who constantly try to drape themselves in the flag, Hudson feels anger when someone who is draped in the flag leans left. Captain America is certainly draped in the flag and he certainly leans left.

Although I can not know what is in the Tea Bagger’s heart, I can say this; there is a difference between stating that a political movement has racist undertones, which even people on the right, like Megan McCain, have pointed out, and calling someone a racist. Saying something is racist is different then accusing someone of being a racist. Ed Brubaker did not say that the tea bag movement has no right to protest. In Captain America, they never even referred to the protest as the tea bag movement. Mr. Huston has every right to question the United States Government, which is why our founding fathers gave us the right to protest. Captain America himself has used this right in times of dire circumstances such as when a criminal administration, such as the Nixon administration, was in political office. However, Mr. Huston jumps to conclusions by making blanket statements that in Captain America, Mr. Brubaker is saying all tea baggers are white, angry and racist. Mr. Brubaker drew a real life parallel with the undertones of the Tea Bag movement, and hate groups. The line between protest movement and hate group is definitely blurred when people like Dale Robertson, who is the self-described “President and Founder of the Tea Party” goes to a protest with a sign that not only uses the N word, but misspells it!

It is apparent that Mr. Huston is as out of touch with Captain America as he is with America, itself.  He concluded by saying, “Bet you didn’t know that when you were indulging your right as a citizen to protest your government that you were a dangerous white supremacist that wants to destroy the country, did you? Bet you didn’t realize that your reverence for the U.S. Constitution was a subversive thing to do, did you? And I’ll also bet that you never imagined that you’d scare the little blue panties off of Captain America! Nice going Marvel Comics. Thanks for making patriotic Americans into your newest super villains.” These leaps of logic he makes are impressive as they are stupefying. Nowhere did Mr. Brubaker say that there should be no protests against the government, nowhere did Captain America, acting as an agent of the United States Government try to break up the protest. That would have been unconstitutional. There is racism in your movement, sir; Mr. Robertson and Mr. Tancrado along with the people who cheered him on at the Tea Party Convention have proved that. Mr. Brubaker and Marvel Comics had enough tact to not even name the tea bag movement by name. Mr. Huston, if you want to have the American public believe that the Tea Party is not a bunch of angry, white racists, then why don’t you address the problem by taking on the racism that is in the Tea Party, because you obviously don’t read comics.

Ed Brubaker shouldn’t have apologized, but perhaps you should.

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily represent those of Let’s Talk Comics or Joshua Lazarus. Guest columns represent only the opinions of the individual authors.