Politics in Comic Books

The world of comics has grown up substantially since the days when the cover price was less than six minutes in a parking meter today. One of the biggest changes is the influence the world of politics has on comics.

At first, comics, and the cartoons derived from them, were used as patriotism instilling propaganda tools, from Superman's early days fighting Japanese saboteurs in World War II, to for years, starting with his first appearance in 1941.

These days, however, the nature of political participation in comics is much more sophisticated and much more based in the area of social commentary than that of propaganda. These commentaries have a lot to do with the popularity of the leaders depicted, to be sure, but also the political stances of the writers and even those of the characters themselves.

A lot of the lasting presidential cameos from comics are fairly lighthearted. In the 70's Former President Jimmy Carter attended the Superman/Muhammad Ali charity exhibition-boxing match. In the late 80's, Ayatollah Khomeini was portrayed in the pages of Batman, offering The Joker an ambassadorship to the United States in a bid to kill the leaders of the world. Batman foiled that attempt, but Superman was assigned by the CIA (at the behest of former President Ronald Reagan) to make sure Batman didn't lay a hand on the Joker at the risk of causing an international incident. In the early 90's Former President Bill Clinton attended Superman's funeral with Mrs. Clinton and offered a eulogy for the Man of Steel.

More recently, though, the portrayal of our own leaders, politicians and even the political climate has been bent toward much more interesting forays into the realm of biting social commentary. A lot of people in the world of politics don't seem to realize how much the world of politics pervades the world of comics.

In 2000, in the lead up to the most contentious election in history, DC Comics opted to run Lex Luthor for president instead of George W. Bush. Superman's arch-villain ended up winning the Presidency, causing all sorts of strife for do-gooders across the DC Universe with the citizens in the country unable to see Luthor for the villain that he was. With the electorate and Congress unable to remove him from office, Superman and Batman went to work removing him from office (this story was running concurrently with the build up to the Iraq War.) They exposed him to the world as the villain he was and he fled the country in disgrace.

As George W. Bush's popularity dwindled after the events of September 11, 2001, writer Mark Millar started two bestselling Marvel comics, Ultimate X-Men and The Ultimates. In these books, he cast Bush as the president. This version of Bush matched the public perception of him being a well-meaning but severely misguided bumbling old fool. The culmination of these stories ended with mutant terrorist revolutionary Magneto taking over our nations capital, stripping Bush to his birthday suit and forcing him to literally lick Magneto's boots on national television.

Though I think this graphic depiction of the leader of the free world rubbed some people the wrong way, it captured the mood of most progressives and comics readers, selling out issue after issue.

Another excellent example of the effect of politics in the world of comics can be found in Brian K. Vaughn's series "Ex Machina". Launched in 2004, it's a book that those of us interested in both superheroes and politics should be required to read. It's an alternate history where a superhero prevented the second World Trade Center tower from collapsing and then gave up his heroics to run for Mayor of New York City. The book is a perfect blend of insider politics and comic book, while at the same time shedding symbolic light on our current political climate in a post 9/11 world.

Even British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, holding a generally popular standing, has been nabbing headlines in recent weeks for his decisive leadership in dealing with the Skrull Invasion in the Marvel Universe.

But I think the most decisive act of political commentary in the pages of comics in recent memory was the assassination of Captain America last year, symbolizing, in my view, the death of the old American way. (I wrote about this instance at length here.)

Who knows what turn things will take if Obama wins, or McCain. Hell, in the Marvel Universe, even Stephen Colbert has a shot at winning, only time will tell.

There are dozens more examples I could offer here, but my hope is that the readers of this column will seek out more and more comics in search of these political parables and understand that comic books can be a useful tool for gauging the political climate of the pop-culture and can offer a satisfying glimpse into the world of politics with a different pair of eyes.

(Bryan Young is the producer of "Killer at Large" and blogs daily about comics at Big Shiny Robot!)

Comments

[AustinCynic]

I can't believe there's no mention of Alan Moore's Watchmen, though it's a self-contained story universe rather than a treatment of the more familiar Marvel and DC worlds of Superman, Spider-Man, et. al. Part of the conceit was that "real" costumed heroes first came into being when Action Comics and Detective Comics launched a fad.

In the alternative world of Watchmen, the 22nd amendment has been repealed and Richard Nixon is serving his 5th term as president.

It's coming out as a movie next spring; based on the trailer I'm cautiously optimistic.

[BryanYoung]

I didn't mention Watchmen because that would have taken up twice as much space as the entirety of the article itself.

Though I may make that my next topic.

I'm not exactly thrilled about the movie either. 300 = not very good. Zack Snyder is no Alan Moore.

[SciVo]

Maybe fill out that future article with more by Moore? For example, I also can't believe you didn't mention V for Vendetta. I haven't read Moore's run on Swamp Thing, but it's widely known for being highly political too. I checked the Wikipedia article on him, and politics also played an interesting role in the series 1963, in that Moore deliberately re-created the cultural mores of classic comics, though jarring to modern sensibilities.

[AustinCynic]

I haven't seen 300...as long as the script is good, Watchmen should be OK as long as the director sticks to directing and they have a good screenwriter.

I like the casting. Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach was a masterstroke.

[joebiz]

Good post.

In parts of the Spanish speaking world, a political cartoonist by the name of Rius was instrumental in "how to comics." Rius would use drawings to explain social issues like poverty, Marxism, the Catholic church, etc. These were the precursors to the Readers and Writers series "Introducing" and the "For Beginners" books.

During the Central American wars of the late 70s and early 80s, the US distributed sinister little, 'mini comic books' to would-be counter-revolutionary elements. These comics were drawned with very little writing to show the population how to create chaos in a city. It showed how to short circuit an electrical grid with a few handy household items among other things.

Who said comic books aren't useful?

[Nommo]

The question I have is who got the jobs fixing the city back up after The Hulk and The Thing, or Thor and Hercules had at each other for 3 or 4 pages? Did Perry White or J. Jonah ever write editorials denouncing the superheroes for their casual way with the infrastructure? I imagine that Bloomberg's developer buddies would be having a grand old time in the big town after a typical superhero dustup

My own inclination was toward the Dr. Strange types who did not wreck buildings dispatching mystical
miscreants. Or DareDevil who may have been guilty of leaving footprints on the odd windowsill, or the roof of a car. Just imagine though, that there might be a real Galactus type out there, that appearance would just make it all of these ruminations a bit moot, huh?

[BryanYoung]

There was a really good book that took on the infrastructure issues a little bit called "Marvels". It was written by Kurt Busiek and painted by Alex Ross.

It's a view of the Marvel Universe through the lens of a photographer at the Daily Bugle. Not Peter Parker, a normal guy, who lost an eye photographing a fight between to "Marvels".

I would advise you check it out.

[Nommo]

I'll give it a look.

[ReelBusy]

Also try KINGDOM COME another graphic novel from DC about super powers and fascism.

[Ides]

There actually was a Marvel book about the people who clean up after superpower beat downs, called Damage Control. I'm pretty sure they're still a part of continuity.

I mean, if they actually have a name for the guy who fixes superheroes up after fights in the middle of the night, no questions asked (Night Nurse), and a name for the guy who fixes superheroes' and supervillains' costumes separating them by a curtain, then one supposes they have all their bases covered.

[RealityBaseCamp]

Thanks for the article. A few more occurred to me: JFK once posed as Superman in a story so Clark could show up to preserve his secret identity. He was just implicitly trusted with the knowledge. DC also just published an original-team Teen Titans story that purported to be an unpublished story from 1964 that had Kennedy not dying as it appeared, but leaving Earth to lead an alien race who needed him even more. Wow, Comic Book Heaven. Or maybe Valhalla.

Marvel had Captain America giving up his patriotic symbol ID for a while post Watergate after discovering a top government official was part of a villainous conspiracy. They also had an alien posing as VP Nixon in a series set in the '50's. Tony Stark was hounded by a Senator Byrd, and I don't think they knew there WAS a Sen. Byrd, because I remember his name suddenly became Boyd. And of course at some point in his travels, Tony got the antiwar message of the time and gave up weapons manufacturing. Took him long enough, considering he was nearly killed by a land mine (in Viet Nam!) in the original version. Oh, and Howard the Duck ran for president against two nearly-identical major party candidates. In real life, I read that he got "thousands" of write-in votes against Ford and Carter. Then the movie killed whatever political chances he had.

[ReelBusy]

Another JFK cameo in Superman came shortly after his death in 1963 as JFK asks Superman for help getting his Presidential Fitness Program going.

[djmediafreak]

A couple things, basically some news and a thought:

- Comics will once again feature politics in an upcoming 4-issue mini-series in DC Comics called DC Universe: Decisions starting in September. Green Arrow is already a known liberal (he's in the mini) and Hawkman is probably conservative...they've butted heads for years sometimes over ideology, but we'll probably be seeing other characters' ideologies as well.

- Speaking of Lex Luthor, I believe that even though he is a fictional big-time A-List villain who probably could care less about America, it's likely he'd be more resoundingly accepted and get more respect as president than Bush right now or anytime in the past few years....that's how low opinion is for our current president and his administration. That's pretty sad.

[Ides]

Lex Luthor: Man of Steel presented Luthor as a fairly sympathetic pro-human anti-hero. The reason he hates Superman so much is because he's afraid of them giving themselves over to an alien messiah who could destroy them all.

Several years later, Superman then proceeds to destroy them all. Of course, Metropolis forgives him, like the battered wives of the DC Universe. (Then again, Metropolis, I hear, voted unanimously for Lex Luthor...)