{"id":1863,"date":"2018-04-18T12:04:32","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T16:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1863"},"modified":"2018-04-18T12:04:32","modified_gmt":"2018-04-18T16:04:32","slug":"politically-correct-hijacking-comic-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2018\/04\/politically-correct-hijacking-comic-books.html","title":{"rendered":"The Politically Correct Hijacking of Comic Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

The comic book industry sure has changed since I was a kid.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s comics, which price from anywhere between $4.00 and $15.00 and which can only be purchased in book stores and from collectors, are more often than not referred to as \u201cgraphic novels,\u201d a term wasn\u2019t even on the horizon the 30-plus years ago when I regularly bought comics for 50 or 60 cents a copy at local convenience shops.<\/p>\n

Yet there is a more dramatic\u2014and distressing\u2014change that the industry has undergone: DC <\/em>and Marvel <\/em>have become politicized.<\/em><\/p>\n

More specifically, left-wing, Politically Correct writers<\/a> have infused comic books with their ideology:<\/p>\n

Ta-Nehisi Coates announced in February that he would be taking over duties on Marvel Comics\u2019 <\/em>Captain America<\/em> title as part of Marvel\u2019s Fresh Start Initiative<\/a> that promised \u201cnew fresh ideas, new creators.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

At the time of the announcement I believed it was a terrible decision to put Coates on Captain America<\/em><\/a>. Not only does Coates have a track record on <\/em>Black Panther<\/em> of declining sales, but he is a very volatile and divisive political commentator. Rich Lowry in Politico described Coates\u2019 worldview as reducing \u201cpeople to categories and actors in pantomine of racial plunder\u2026He must erase distinctions and reject complexity.\u201d Not only would Coates be decried in Politico, but he made his own views perfectly clear when he wrote, \u201cWhite America is a syndicate arrayed to protect its exclusive power to dominate and control our bodies.\u201d He would also demonize 9\/11 first responders including firefighters and policemen. He describes them, \u201cThey were not human to me. Black, white, or whatever, they were menaces of nature; they were the fire, the comet, the storm, which could \u2013 with no justification \u2013 shatter my body.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2026But just a few weeks later at SXSW, Coates would compare Captain America to Barack Obama<\/a>, \u201cHe\u2019s like Barack Obama. I want to clarify that. I don\u2019t mean that as praise or criticism. He\u2019s somebody who believes in the ideal of America, really, really believes in it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

That sounds like a hyper-politicized Captain America tale with Coates\u2019 own political beliefs being hammered onto Captain America. And now new leaked photos<\/a> from Coates\u2019 upcoming Captain America Free Comic Book Day story have leaked. These new photos show Coates introducing an Antifa-like organization to the Marvel Universe that stands opposed to a pro-Hydra alt-right type group.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is bad.\u00a0 Self-avowed \u201cconservatives\u201d can vote in as many politicians as they please.\u00a0 But if the relentless leftward drift of the country is ever to be arrested, it is the culture<\/em>, particularly the popular culture, on which they must set their sights.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The comic book industry sure has changed since I was a kid. Today\u2019s comics, which price from anywhere between $4.00 and $15.00 and which can only be purchased in book stores and from collectors, are more often than not referred to as \u201cgraphic novels,\u201d a term wasn\u2019t even on the horizon the 30-plus years ago…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Politically Correct Hijacking of Comic Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2018\/04\/politically-correct-hijacking-comic-books.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Politically Correct Hijacking of Comic Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The comic book industry sure has changed since I was a kid. Today\u2019s comics, which price from anywhere between $4.00 and $15.00 and which can only be purchased in book stores and from collectors, are more often than not referred to as \u201cgraphic novels,\u201d a term wasn\u2019t even on the horizon the 30-plus years ago…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2018\/04\/politically-correct-hijacking-comic-books.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-18T16:04:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Kerwick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Politically Correct Hijacking of Comic Books","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2018\/04\/politically-correct-hijacking-comic-books.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Politically Correct Hijacking of Comic Books","og_description":"The comic book industry sure has changed since I was a kid. 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I teach philosophy at several colleges in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jackkerwick.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/author\/jkerwick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1864,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863\/revisions\/1864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}