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Some time ago, I visited this particular topic, and how I felt that rather than “rape culture”, America more has a problem with “fear culture”, rather than normalizing rape and violence against women, we simply don’t want to face it and address it, indirectly allowing it to happen rather than actively supporting it.

While I don’t want to say I was “wrong” (because I do think that a large part of the problem is simply normal people not wanting to face how real and prevalent the problem is), I clearly under valued that there certainly is a very powerful element of our society that actively seeks to diminish women and what they face.

Enter Brock Turner.

I don’t want to get into a blow by blow of the events (mostly because I don’t want to have to hold myself back from punching a wall), but the general synopsis is, potential collegiate swimming athlete rapes an unconscious woman outside a party, is stopped in the process by two others, and despite the witness testimony and evidence… his sentence is a whopping six months of jail time.

In the fallout, we have seen the head of what feminist thought calls “rape culture” rear its head and bear it’s fangs.

Starting with the judge who administered the slap on the wrist declaring in sentencing that, “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him…I think he will not be a danger to others.”  Or the father who declared that he shouldn’t lose twenty years of his life over twenty minutes of bad behavior.  Or the friend who blamed “political correctness” for the outrage following the trial and sentencing.

But this is all stuff we have heard before, many times, isn’t it?  This idea that rape is a temporary thing, and that if there are any lasting effects, it’s the failing of the victim.  That this should be a “teaching moment”, not a crime that deserves severe punishment.

But this is the first time that I can remember the victim in question actually taking the advice of MRA twats, having the courage to face her assailant, describe what happened to her, the humiliating process she underwent just to get to this point… and then still be ignored by the justice system in lieu of not ruining a promising young man’s life.

Damn it.  Where’s that fucking wall?

Bah, I’d have to get in line anyway.  Half the country is stuck slamming their heads against it.

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.