I just read a really interesting article over @ Bleeding Cool. It is How Liberalism May be Hurting Comic Book Sales by Darin Wagner. The premise of the article is that way too many comic books are merging liberal talking points into comics. The comic creators take characters who have been historically a-political and uses them to espouse their personal political views. Wagner argues in a time where comic sales are way down, it is not smart to isolate readers who do not agree with your political views.
I suggest all comic fans read this article to view what Mr. Wagner has to say because I believe he has several valid views. Below are a few excerpts but please check out the whole article.
Sure these little jabs and nods are individually nothing that can’t be dismissed… but they have a cumulative effect. They wear us down and eventually the excitement and magic of comic book superheroes becomes outweighed by our being annoyed. It’s happening more and more over the last dozen years: The people behind the scenes allowing their personal politics to bleed through into the stories of otherwise apolitical superheroes whose adventures are meant for everyone to enjoy. This in-and-of-itself wouldn’t be quite so bad if it weren’t always the same political views repeated over-and-over ad nauseum…
One thing that those who disagree (most of whom are typically self-described liberals) will say is that there is conservatism in comic books because superheroes are inherently conservative. In saying this, they are implying that they are in fact balancing the scales by having these characters occasionally-to-frequently quip liberal adages. I have to disagree with that. The first comic book superhero, Superman, fought a liberal/social agenda in his first stories. The character only became a symbol of lawful authority later. Most superheroes, it can be argued, are apolitical by virtue of the reader’s ability to insert their own politics into the character when the writer has not already done so. Even Green Arrow could be a conservative character, rather than the liberal one we’ve had since Hard Traveling Heroes.
Now, you might say, “Darin, you’re obviously unaware that Green Arrow is based on Robin Hood and as EVERYBODY ELSE KNOWS, Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor. He’d be an Occupier today.” Well, yeah, that’s how those on the left view Robin Hood… but if you look more closely at Robin Hood you will find that the character more accurately stole from the state and gave back to the people… so one could just as easily say that Robin Hood would be a Tea Partier today and, therefore, Green Arrow could be too.
After you have check out this article, then please check out a couple of articles on this site. They have a balancing article How Conservatism May Be Hurting Comic Book Sales by Rich Johnston. There is a also a more humorous follow up article How The English May Be Hurting Comic Book Sales by Cameron Hatheway.
I just discovered Bleeding Cool and it is a fun site that is worth checking out no matter your political perspective.
