Originally published at: Superheroes vs Fascism or: will Putin ever get punched in comics? | Boing Boing
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It would be more appropriate if he did it as the Spectre.
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Putin has a punchable face, so you ain’t going to have to wait very long.
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As it was my childhood introduction to Jordan, I loved his tenure as the Spectre.
I love him as GL WAY more, but his Spectre days are underrated.
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The main setting for Michael Chabon’s novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is the American comic book industry spanning the period from the late 1930s through the early 1950s, and there is a great bit midway through the story where the fictional Jewish protagonists have to fight their publisher to allow a cover image showing their superhero punching Hitler. As in the real-life version with Captain America the concern was that kids’ comics shouldn’t get into “politics.”
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I actually don’t know Hal’s Spectre that well, but the old school Jim Corrigan Spectre was quite open to outright killing fascists. While Hal Jordan’s GL seemed more law and order (when he wasn’t insane or possessed or anything else I’ve forgotten.)
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If you ignore the Nazi sympathizers, which is an excellent rule for life in general
Ignore their entreaties, not their existence.
concerned Americans that thought the book would escalate the tensions between America and Germany
That time’s Useful Idiots and appeasers. It’s also important to note that many original members of the original and ostensibly neutral and isolationist America First Committee were quietly pro-Hitler and not so quietly anti-Semitic.
All of which is to say, comic book creators should definitely feel free to show their superheroes punching out Putin and his minions. Same goes for any other scumbag autocrat. If American right-wingers object, they’re just showing us where their sympathies lie.
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That’s my favorite novel of all time. I read it in 10th grade and become a massive Chabon fan ever since.
And the scene you referenced is super dope.
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I always thought the novel would make a fun movie or maybe a miniseries. In a media landscape hopelessly oversaturated with superhero stories it might be nice to get some behind-the-scenes stories on screen.
Plus the novel even has a brief Stan Lee cameo.
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And my man Salvador Dali shows up for a split second too.
I agree, though. It could be an Oscar winning epic if they adapted it correctly.
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Punching Putin? Or even Trump? The problem goes deeper than that.
Vigilantes only reinforce the status quo.
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I don’t know from comics, but at least according to the movies I think Captain America would have been considered a legitimate combatant when he punched Hitler, not a vigilante.
Not that that changes anything about his position in protecting the establishment.
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Even better, can we have an issue of Green Lantern where Sojourner Mullein chucks Putin into orbit? Hal’s honestly a bit borderline fascist at his core.
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Well, Kilowog once faced Gorbachev and had to fight his own friends…
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But it was somehow okay when Superman (and Stetson Kennedy) beat up on the KKK?
That was several years later on the 1946 radio show during a story arc called “Clan of the Fiery Cross.” The radio show didn’t actually mention the KKK but it was obvious to all who the organization in question was meant to represent. And even then it did stir up a bit of controversy at the time.
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The concept of a Green Lantern’s ring is predicated on the Triumph of the Will.
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