-By Warner Todd Huston
** UPDATE ** BELOW Marvel Apologizes
Marvel Comic’s Captain America is the mightiest soldier with the super powerful secret soldier formula that makes him a super man. Sadly, this muscle bound hero that took on the whole Nazi army during WWII seems to be afraid of those American people who’ve joined the Tea Party movement. Not only is Cappy quaking in his little red booties, but he’s sure that the Tea Party folks are dangerous racists, too.
Isn’t it wonderful that a decades old American comic book hero is now being used to turn readers against our very political system, being used to slander folks that are standing up for real American principles in real life — and one called “Captain America” at that?
In issue number 602 of Captain America, a new story line has begun called “Two Americas.” In it the current Captain (there have been a few of them, apparently) is on the trail of a faux Captain America that is mentally deranged and getting chummy with some white supremacist, anti-government, survivalists types going by the name of “the Watchdogs.” While investigating this subversive group, Captain America and his partner The Falcon — a black super hero — have decided to try and infiltrate the secretive organization.
In preparation for the infiltration, Marvel Comics depicts the two super heroes out of costume and observing from a rooftop a street filled with what can only be described as a Tea Party protest. The scene shows crowds of people in city streets carrying signs that say, “stop the socialists,” “tea bag libs before they tea bag you,” and “no to new taxes.” Naturally, the people in these crowds are depicted as being filled with nothing but white folks.
(Click to see larger image)
The black character asks the out of costume Captain, “What the hell is this?” And follows that with, “looks like some kind of anti-tax protest.” The Falcon character then snidely tells his partner the Captain, “So I guess this whole ‘hate the government’ vibe around here isn’t limited to the Watchdogs.”
The two then discuss their plan to infiltrate the subversive group that Marvel comics seems to be linking to the Tea Party movement. This discussion culminates in The Falcon wondering how a black man would do such a thing. “I don’t exactly see a black man from Harlem fitting in with a bunch of angry white folks,” he tells the incognito Captain America.
The Captain tells him, “no it’s perfect… this all fits right into my plan.” After this we find that the Captain’s plan is to send the black man into a redneck bar to pretend to be a black man working for the IRS and to get everyone all mad… because… well, you know that every white person is a racist that hates black civil servants, right?
So, there you have it, America. Tea Party protesters just “hate the government,” they are racists, they are all white folks, they are angry, and they associate with secretive white supremacist groups that want to over throw the U.S. government.
Bet you didn’t know that when you were indulging your right as a citizen to protest your government that you were a dangerous white supremacist that wants to destroy the country, did you? Bet you didn’t realize that your reverence for the U.S. Constitution was a subversive thing to do, did you? And I’ll also bet that you never imagined that you’d scare the little blue panties off of Captain America!
Nice going Marvel Comics. Thanks for making patriotic Americans into your newest super villains.
** UPDATE ** Marvel Apologizes
Well, it looks like Marvel has admitted that it was a bit of a mistake to specify that they were talking about Tea Party groups in Captain America issue #602 published this month.
As I reported on Sunday, it seemed that Marvel Comics was saying in the story line of its latest Captain America title that Tea Party groups are nothing but white supremacists that are dangerous, and anti-American. Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada discussed my article today and agreed that they made a bit of a mistake and promised to remove the Tea Party references in reprints of the issue. Quesada spoke to Comic Book Resources website offering some further clarification from his perspective.
Quesada said that the comic’s writer, Ed Brubaker, did not intend to pinpoint the “anti-tax protests” in his comic as Tea Partiers.
There was zero discussion to include a group that looked like a Tea Party demonstration. Ed simply wrote in an anti-tax protest into his story to show one of the moods that currently exists in America. There was no thought that it represented a particular group.
And yes, what Ed said is absolutely true, he does shy away from labeling things and did exactly that in this instance. In Ed’s story, there was no connection to the Tea Party movement, that’s a screw up that happened after the fact and exactly what some people are getting upset about.
Where Mr. Houston [sic] is correct is in our accidently identifying in one of the held up signs, the group as being a part of the Tea Party instead of a generic protest group. That’s something that we need to apologize for and own up to, because it’s just one of those stupid mistakes that happened through a series of stupid incidents.
Naturally, Mr. Quesada claimed I was being “irresponsible” with my intimation that Marvel was painting Tea Partiers as racists. Of course, that is a bit hard to accept since the drawing of the protest clearly identified it as associated with the Tea Party movement and The Falcon character said he could not mix with those “angry white folks.”
I think Quesada doth protest too much.
FoxNews also reported that Marvel has decided to remove the reference and reported that Quesada spoke further about the issue.
Ed Brubaker, who wrote the story, told FoxNews.com he did not write the “Tea Bag The Libs Before They Tea Bag YOU!” sign shown in the edition, insisting that the words were added by someone in “lettering or production” just before being shipped to the printer. It will be changed in subsequent editions, he said.
“I don’t know who did it, probably someone who thought it was funny,” Brubaker wrote in an e-mail. “I didn’t think so, personally. That’s the sign being changed to something more generic for the trade reprint, because I and my editor were both shocked to see it.”
Even as writer Ed Brubaker admitted to Fox that he harbored anti-Tea Party movement sentiments, Marvel promised to remove the Tea Party reference in reprints and will avoid it in the rest of this story line.
I want to point out, though, that I never called for any retractions or apologies, myself. I merely reported the incident. If Marvel Comics wants to apologize that is up to them. And they have, at least for “accidentally” identifying the Tea Party movement in their anti-protest screed.
(My reply to Carla Hoffman’s “Open Letter” to me)
Also, read my full review of Watchmen, that seminal comic from 1986. I rip it up pretty good as the left-wing, hackneyed political screed it truly is.
For a Captain America fan’s own Cappy story, see Captain America: Ground Zero.
____________
“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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Yeah comic books are very leftist there are only a small handful of conservatives working in the industry. I was banned from a popular forum for comics for daring to win a argument against a liberal.
I picked this up the other day. I had been sort of following this storyline since they started the “Death of Cap” storyline. It sort of irritated me that they kept talking about these “right wing extremist groups” throughout, but I wasn’t surprised. This took the cake, however. Also, did you notice the way that the protesters were pictured on your attached pages? Looks like a bunch of liberals to me. :)
Publishing giants Marvel and DC do have a problem with leftist writers. Editors are overwhelmingly liberal and hire and encourage liberals and liberal storylines. Neither company really understands heroism or patriotism, so is it a surprise all characters act to the left of Howard Dean? Preachers, conservatives and businessmen are ALWAYS depicted as villains in comics. It’s sad, but don’t look for heroes acting like heroes or any type of fair or balanced writing at Marvel or DC. Those days are long gone.
I love the unwashed, average-liberal-protester-type look of the protesters in the comic: stocking caps, trench coats, facial hair, hoods. Aside from the obvious “gun-nut” stereotypes thrown in, this crowd would probably fit right in at a (now extinct) anti-war march.
What ever happened to speaking “truth to power?” Oh yeah, now the libs are in power and no dissenting opinions are allowed. Even in the comics. Sickening. Love how they bring race into it as if they weren’t the racists. So sad. I can’t even buy comics for my kids anymore.
I used to buy a decent number of comic books each week. I stopped on Spiderman completely because of the left-wing agiprop.
I guess I should commend the leftists who cut their own financial throat in order to make a point of principle.
This is so sad.
I collected Marvel comics for years and years. While I’m haven’t been into comic collecting for over 20 years, to see what they’ve done to Captain America makes me want to puke.
Great find and post.
Have you ever Googled any photos from these Tea Parties?
I think Marvel nailed this one.
Yes, but many “tea baggers” ARE racists, they DO throw around the “socialist” epithet all the time, they are being manipulated behind the scenes by cynical – opportunistic Republican operatives and lobbyists, and mover-over they do not have an exclusive lock on common sense, reality, understanding the US constitution, etc.
Today’s tea baggers are in no way identical to the group of people who were energized by Ron Paul a few years ago.
And to sum up, Tom Tancredo’s opening remarks were racist, and Palin is a proven idiot. Good luck with a movement that thinks those braniacs are worth supporting.
The only mistake Marvel Comics made was to reveal their true agenda – Socialism. And with that I will take make capitalistic dollars elsewhere, whether it be comic books or movies.
That’s an interesting point, I had already read the story and hadn’t really made any of the connections you picked up on but they seem pretty valid to me. It’s a shame the Cap books have been really great lately and the original Cap is my favorite character and I just started buying the book again with his return but I guess I’ll have to keep this in mind and decide whether or not to keep on. It may really be more a result of lazy writing, making angry white folks racist is as easy as spreading soft butter on hot toast.
My gosh! Can someone go here and help me out on this topic??? I’m JRF007 there as well:
http://washingtonindependent.com/76314/marvel-comics-apologizes-for-tea-bag-insult-based-on-twi-photo#comment-33505361
I’m not really buying the “it was an honest mistake” line from Marvel. As someone else already noted, the comic industry is replete with Lefties. Wasn’t always that way, but it is now.
I recall reading the Civil War series a short while ago, in which Captain America played a central role. Of course, in THAT storyline, Cap was portrayed as a hero for opposing the government (which of course was being led by George W. Bush at the time). There were thinly veiled jabs at Guantanamo Bay and the Patriot Act. In fact, Captain America was actually murdered for daring to oppose the government (no doubt, Dick Cheney arranged the hit).
It’s typical of the Left to think that it’s only patriotic when THEY oppose the government. When anyone else does it, then the Left labels them as dangerous, hateful racists. They’ve turned Captain America into a whining Lib. Who’s next…. Superman???
You’re a disingenuous hypocrite. The entire spectrum of your organization has risen to political power saying that liberals want to destroy marriage, promote nonwhites over whites, steal from rich people, murder babies and sell us out to our enemies. Yet you and yours never seem to manage to find the time to correct those misconceptions. Your absolutely insane movement holds up signs of the victims of Dachau, regularly used swastika and other Nazi imagery and said such things as “keep the government out of my medicare”, but now you whine like a baby for being called out like the chumps you are. The only difference between the mischaracterizations of liberals and those of conservatives is that yours are true. Shut up and deal with the fact that your party is dying.
You know what, the Marvel Comic’s action just prove once more how successfull TEA PARTY MOVEMENT is. Good job Tea Party Movement members. )You know I never thought of joing to the TEA PARTY MOVEMENT but I think it’s time). This is the most desperate and shameful way of attacking the movement. Not to mention, REDICULOUS. Congratulations MARVEL COMIC, you just destroyed the image of CAPTAIN AMERICA that we love. Anybody wants to join a party called “BURNING CAPTAIN AMERICAN COMICS PARTY” or “BURNING ALL MARVEL COMICS PARTY”? Let me know.
wow. chill out. do you know how many people read Captain America every month, less 100k individuals. thats it. You read one issue, saw one scene in one panel and you make your judgements. Seriously. thats like reading the bible, reading some obscure law in Numbers and thinking well thats what the bible is about. Or watching Star Wars Episode 4 and writing off the whole series. Let those of us who have been faithfully buying Captain America comics for decades enjoy Brubakers really creative stories. If somehow this gets him fired you guys are bunch of douchebags. Captain America hasn’t been written this well in years. Captain America doesn’t belong to you, he belongs to those of us who actually buy the comics.
God what a bunch of looney tunes on this site
From what I can see the “tea party” are a bunch of thinly veiled apologists for big business to ride roughshod oever everyone else with no control
I find it funny that the same idiots who claim Obama and the “liberal elite” are controlling everything moan and whinge over one panel in a fairly small circultaion comic
For info Captain America is not the mightiest hero – his powers have varied between none and sub-spiderman
Also for a large period in the seventies the character refused to call himself Captain America in disgust at Nixon (the nomad period)
From this side of the pond I see the tea party as a bunch of right-wing idiots against any sort of social provision
BTW Alan Moore is British so why should he support insane reaganomics
(I approved this one, misspellings and all! LOL)
Wow! You spend a lot of ink on ONE panel from a comic book. Talk about “Protesting too much!” And then you have the3 nerve to complain that no one takes the Teabggers seriously! Instead of looking at a comic book for a scapegoat, how about your own hypocrisy? Where the devil were all you people during 2001-2008 when the deficit was being increased by factors every year? Where was your childish, outrageous behavior when the cost of the Iraq war was not even officially listed in the Bush budge or the Bush Administration’s deficit numbers? Oh, I see…now, NOW you have the outrage. It is only, magically after January 2009 that you became angry! What a fantastic coincidence…or not.
Folks, I posted this foolishness from sambarber because it is filled with such lies. He squawks about “where were you people” and whines about “Bush’s deficits” without the first firing synapses in his tiny little brain understanding that the Tea Party groups came about BECAUSE of Bush’s bailouts and deficits with Obama’s far, far WORSE bailouts and deficits on top of it! The tea party groups opposed Bush’s domestic financial policies all the way to the end. But Obama’s were by many trillions of magnitudes worse. The deficits that Obama created in his first year are three times worse than what Bush created in eight years. This braindead reply from Sammy shows that the let is complete free of any facts whatsoever. So, I was happy to post his reply because it is so illustrative of the failure that is liberalism.
Tea Partiers ought to accept the fact they’re a party specifically representing a Euro-American or WHITE nation. In a couple short years, when truth is self evident, Marvel will be seen as the anti-white propaganda outlet it increasingly has become.