The Politics of Marvel

Well, apparently, Captain America is dead.

It's a story that has featured prominently in all of the comic book sites I read and in some mainstream media sites as well.

Is it permanent? Nah. They would never kill off an icon like that permanently. In both major comic book companies, Marvel and DC, the only icon who remains dead and buried is Barry Allen. As Spider-Man said, once, in one of the earlier JMS issues "that never seems to last very long around here, does it? Just about everyone I know has been dead at one point or another."

Is it a stunt? Well, Marvel haters would happily dismiss it as such, but I honestly think there's more at work here than the commercialism that drove the death of Superman or even (let's be fair here) the cloning and replacement of Spider-Man.

For one thing, one has to consider that Marvel is currently riding on the wave of the publishing phenomenon called Civil War, the best-selling American comic book of the new millenium (the half-a-million-selling issues of Tokyopop stuff aren't American), the seven issues of which have sold over two million copies on the whole. Captain America was one of the two principal characters of that book, the other being Iron Man. It was all about them, really, and it sold like hotcakes.

For another thing, most of Marvel's line (including the Captain America title) has benefited massively from that mini, and it has launched a number of books out of it, besides, including a revamped New Avengers book and an all-new Avengers book.

Oh, and they already have two gimmick event books linedup for the year, one involving the Hulk and the other involving the X-Men (neither of which I am buying, happily for me).

So no, I don't think the flagging popularity of any character came into play here.

I honestly believe that this is Marvel flipping the bird yet again at the Bush administration.

Tony Stark's pro-registration forces may have won the Civil War, and it's a way of acknowledging the current status quo in America with the Patriot Act in place. Now, however, it feels like Marvel is saying that when certain freedoms are curtailed, America might as well be dead. I mean, one of their most important characters is wearing the American flag and lying bloodied on courthouse steps, for God's sake. You don't get much more political than that. It may be a little prosaic, but at least it isn't so much about sales as it is ideology.

And Marvel has brought forth some of the best talent in its roster to tell this story. The current Captain America writer Ed Brubaker is probably one of the most well-loved by fandom since Mark Waid, if not more, and I have yet to hear anyone saying anything bad about Steve Epting's moody, stylish art. Marvel's even lined up a miniseries about the reactions of different heroes to Cap's death called Fallen Son, written by Heroes producer/writer Jeph Loeb and drawn by John Cassaday, David Finch, Ed McGuinness, John Romita Jr. and Lienil Yu. It's not as if they're getting by with gimmick covers or pre-sealed bags. Whatever one may feel about this story, at least Marvel's telling it in style.
Right now I love how Marvel is basically wearing its anti-Bush sentiments out on its sleeve. Its staff was actually anti-Bush even when it wasn't fashionable, the only blip being the time some right-wing journalist wrote a propaganda piece for the war in Iraq which they couldn't bring themselves to publish for the longest time and finally ended up printing as a one-shot rather than the originally planned miniseries.

So what's my guess as to how and when they'll bring Cap back? None, really, but maybe they'll bring him back in time for the 2008 elections, or after the mostly-Democrat Congress has impeached Bush, or after America has elected its first woman or black president.

Will I buy this story? I'm not really sure, but I certainly applaud Marvel's decision to print it.