TKO Creations

Despite having been a webcomic writer for two years, and directly working with one of the most prominent webcomic creators in the medium’s history, I’ve never exactly been a comic or manga enthusiast.

First is a limit of only so many hours in a day.  Between balancing a day job and creating my own stuff, I don’t exactly have all that much free time to pick up and follow comics, especially American comics, which are known for endless reboots, redesigns, remakes, parallel stories, etc…

Which leads to the second reason.  While I see tremendous potential in comics and manga as a storytelling medium, it only very rarely reaches its potential.  Mostly because artists and writers are thrown onto a project with very little understanding of what makes those established characters compelling to the audience… or if they do, they just don’t care.

We saw an example of this with the nigh unmitigated disaster that was DC’s “New 52” reboot.  We saw an example of this when some nitwit at Marvel decided that a married Spiderman just wasn’t cool enough in the “One More Day” storyline.

And we’re seeing it again with the latest “shocking”, “compelling”, “earth-shaking” twist with the original Captain America.

Now, Captain America going through some weird phases is hardly a new phenomenon.  The guy was turned into a werewolf and a zombie depending on the continuity involved.

But this one is one where Ol’ Cap has crossed a line that probably shouldn’t have ever been crossed.  Not only is Steve Rogers a member of Hydra (the Nazi analogue that by its own admission is supposed to be the bridge to the Fourth Reich), he supposedly always has been.

This is, unequivocally, a terrible idea.  And whoever thought of that should have been slapped repeatedly until the stupid stopped.

The problem isn’t that a renown hero has really been playing a long game.  It’s specifically Captain America, the production of two Jewish creators specifically during the World War II era and the rise of Nazi Germany and the deplorable crimes against humanity that the Nazis caused.  While America was waffling in a passive-aggressive isolationism with business leaders that openly supported the Third Reich (let’s just say you might want to read about the history of the Ford family, those who insist on buying domestic), Simon and Kirby were calling out their country to act in a climate that was wary of the Jewish presence in America at best, and openly hostile at worst.

An iconic character created specifically as an ideological counter to the Nazi menace should have never been considered to have been a member of the MCU’s Nazi analogue.  It spits in the face of the people who created it and trivializes history for the sake of a “shocking development.”

It’s bad, and Nick Spencer should feel bad for being so bad.

This entry was posted on May 27, 2016 at 7:39 pm and is filed under Grumblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.