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Aaron Robinson

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Marvel Comics' depiction of anti-tax protesters inspires anger, apology

Since 1941, Captain America has been one of the most popular comic book characters around. The fictional super-patriot fought Nazis during World War II, took on those who burned the American flag during the Vietnam era, and raked in hundreds of millions of dollars for Marvel Comics along the way. Now, the appearance that he is taking on the Tea Party Movement in a storyline about investigating white supremacists has forced Marvel to apologize for the comic hero.

Issue 602 of the comic features Captain America investigating a right-wing anti-government militia group called "the Watchdogs". Hoping to infiltrate the group, Captain America and his African-American sidekick The Falcon observe an anti-tax protest from a rooftop. The protestors depicted are all white and carry signs adorned with slogans almost identical to those seen today in Tea Party rallies like "tea bag libs before they tea bag you" and "stop the socialists."

The Falcon mentions that the gathering appears to be "some kind of anti-tax protest" and notes that "this whole 'hate the government' vibe isn't limited to the Watchdogs." He then tells Captain America that he doesn't think their plan will work because "I don't exactly see a black man from Harlem fitting in with a bunch of angry white folks." Captain America then explains that his plan entails sending The Falcon in among the group posing as an IRS agent under the thinking that a black government official will most certainly spark their anger.

The clear implicit attack on the Tea Party Movement was first noticed by Publius' Forum's Warner Todd Huston. When a minor uproar ensued, Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada spoke to Comic Book Resources and defended the issue while apologizing for the panel that seemed to tie real-life Tea Party protesters to the fictional group depicted in the book.

Saying that he could "absolutely see how some people are upset about this," Quesada said that there was "zero discussion to include a group that looked like a Tea Party demonstration," adding, "There was no thought that it represented a particular group."

Quesada then went on to say that Marvel would "apologize for and own up to" a series of "stupid mistakes" that led to them "accidentally identifying" one of the members of the protest group "as being a part of the Tea Party instead of a generic protest group." He explained that they were on deadline to get the issue to the printer for publication, and in the course of sending it off it was noticed that the signs in the scene contained no words or phrases. He said the editor then asked the letterer to "fudge in some quick signs" and that in the "rush to get the book out of the door," the letterer "looked on the net and started pulling slogans" from signs captured in photographs at Tea Party protests in order to make them appear "believable."

In response to Marvel's explanation and apology, Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips told Yahoo! News that it "sounds less like a genuine 'we're sorry' than it does a 'we're sorry we got caught' statement."

"When I was a child in the '60s Captain America was my favorite superhero," he said. "It's really sad to see what has traditionally been a pro-America figure being used to advance a political agenda."

Ed Brubaker, the writer of the controversial Captain America story, told Fox News that any and all references to "tea bag" will be removed from all future editions of Marvel Comics.

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It was very clumsily inserted into the storyline, just a case of a writer sacrificing artistic integrity to make a political point. I think those people are nutcases too, they are the ones who think Glenn Beck is a reliable news source, but Brubaker should be positioning Cap as a hero to everyone, not using him in political statements. I know I'd be pissed if a less liberally minded writer had appropriated Cap and used him to further a right wing agenda, or had Cap say "I need to uncover the lies and find out why these people are making up this climate change nonsense".

I'm amazed someone in editorial didn't immidiatly send the script back with a note saying "please try harder".

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Here's the line I find most interesting:

"When I was a child in the '60s Captain America was my favorite superhero," he said. "It's really sad to see what has traditionally been a pro-America figure being used to advance a political agenda."

I wonder if Judson Phillips would feel the same way if Cap were pro-teabagging Tea Baggers.

Also, was this Bucky-Cap or Steve-Cap? I know the average person and media doesn't know there's a difference, but I'm curious.

So, this issue will be worth a lot of money in a few years?

In a few years people will forget about this. Right now, though, it's selling on eBay for $10-15. So if you have it, sell it now.

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Here's the line I find most interesting:

"When I was a child in the '60s Captain America was my favorite superhero," he said. "It's really sad to see what has traditionally been a pro-America figure being used to advance a political agenda."

I wonder if Judson Phillips would feel the same way if Cap were pro-teabagging Tea Baggers.

Also, was this Bucky-Cap or Steve-Cap? I know the average person and media doesn't know there's a difference, but I'm curious.

So, this issue will be worth a lot of money in a few years?

In a few years people will forget about this. Right now, though, it's selling on eBay for $10-15. So if you have it, sell it now.

From what I understand, it's Bucky!Cap.

There was a big fallout on Twitter about this, too; Brubaker got harassed, and apparently Gail Simone did, too, for defending him.

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Ha!

A character with a flag for a costume ebing used to make a political statement?! Perish the thought!

Who. Fucking. Cares.

If it's clumsy then that sucks but don't uptighties have bigger fish to fry? Really, I've been down on Marvel lately but this is stupid. The one thing that's stupid to me is "black guy from Harlem mixing with angry white folk" thing. The black govt agent pissing them off? That's funny.

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Ha!

A character with a flag for a costume ebing used to make a political statement?! Perish the thought!

A character who was born during the Great Depression and fought in World War Two, mind you. I can actually deal with Bucky or Steve being disgusted with this petty crap.

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Ah. The people who complain about people Bush-bashing are the ones who compare themselves to American Revolutionaries. Right.

And protest Big Government? They should have been doing that in the Bush Administration.

Look, I don't feel like getting into an off-topic political debate with you.

But do me a favor and don't insult my friends.

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I didn't insult anybody yet.

Fine; let's keep it that way.

So... back to comics-talk?

I think Marvel's trying to continue riding the wave of success they got from the Obama/Spider-Man issue. It's not the same type of attention by any means, but I do think that they're "going political" on purpose. And hey, Quesada's admitted that he purposely does and says things to generate reaction (positive or negative), so I wouldn't be surprised if this whole thing was purposeful.

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I think that's irrelevant.

I think it's wrong that they (even indirectly) took a real-world group of Americans and made them "the enemy" by applying fictional qualities to them. (making them a white supremacist/government hate movement)

It's like if they took my friend Robert and said "this man is a white supremacist."

And, technically, that's exactly what they did.

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