Firestorm votes Democratic!

[PaulTiberius]

I found the first three pages of obvious anti-Bush rhetoric in the most recent issue of Firestorm to be over the top. I don't expect comic creators to keep all their personal politics out of their work, nor do I expect them all to agree with my own politics. But this issue had a campaign speech that was irrelevant to the plot, and just served, in my mind, to try to convince readers/voters how bad the present administration is, published four weeks before the election in our real world. It had nothing to do with what's actually going on in the DCU of late, it was all about Iraq, Katrina and Halliburton, without using those words.

Here's a quote:

Lorraine Reilly, Firestorm #30: When my father was young, they had a saying: “Never trust anyone over thirty.” It sounds silly – but it was a very serious response to the times. Back then, a group of older men had a stranglehold on the federal government. …

Today, a new group of men controls all the branches of the federal government. Men of power. … They lie to us about weapons of mass destruction. They ruin crucial government agencies with shameless cronyism, then watch as our cities flood and die. They preach morality while they steal our jobs and bankrupt our future, little by little – all the while grabbing more and more money for themselves.

I don't think this is what I pay for in a comic. At least make the political elements relevant to the story, and true to the history of the imaginary world.

Stuart Moore might as well have just replaced this scene with a blank page that said:

“We interrupt regularly scheduled programming for the following announcement: Stuart Moore wishes to express his fondest hope that you will elect Democrats four weeks from now. We now return to Firestorm The Nuclear Man, already in progress.”

[Nstar83]

Get Over it, comics are a great every average joe to vent such frustrations, which i have no doubt alot of readers agree with.There are alot of politics going on in the firestorm book so it was apropriate given the characters involved.I think your only complaining because your conservative an disagree with what he said thru the comic he was using as his soap box, everyones entitled to thier opnion an allowed to express it, that includes in art such as comics.

[Peter M.]

You might not have noticed this, but she is a Democrat Senator and apparently it is election season in the DCU given the events in Freedom Fighters.

As for her complaints, they are hardly exclusively to Republicans, Democrats have a far longer and sordid history of corruption and incompetence. In fact those responsible for the disaster in NOLA were all Democrats, it's just that they and their allies in the MSM would rather have us concentrate on Mark Foley than Harry Reid's land deals and the incompetence of Nagin and Blanco.

[Petertime]

Hey, not sure what exactly to say, but I felt a need to respond.

I agree the stuff in a comic should pertain to the comic, both the short and long term story. Not having read that issue, I can't comment on that other then to say, if you say it had nothing to do with the story I believe you.

That said, I understand sometimes people need to make statements when they feel very strongly about something. I know if I lived in the U.S. I'd be pretty vocal with my views on your current administration. Maybe the writer just felt he had to make a point, and took this opportunity while he could. I can totally understand that.

Then again, he should have worked harder to make it fit the story.

[nuclearman]

I haven't read the issue yet ... so I'll reserve judgement.. I haven't found any of SM's stories so far to be politically motivated.

[PaulTiberius]

Then again, he should have worked harder to make it fit the story.

Yeah, that's about the gist of it for me. Obviously, I hate the statement on its face, because I am a Republican and this is just all the liberal talking points shoved out on the page. But I don't really have the right to complain about MY politics not being represented. The author can do what he wants, and I will either take it or leave it.

But I think it is legitimate to note how blatant it all was, how utterly irrelevant it was to this particular issue, and how it's quite convenient that this soap box was inserted into the last issue to hit the stands before the election.

It's presentation in the comic was just so pompous, and the art ridiculously solemn. I scanned a couple of panels for my blog, with my cruddy scanner, by the way.

[PaulTiberius]

I haven't read the issue yet ... so I'll reserve judgement.. I haven't found any of SM's stories so far to be politically motivated.

Yeah, neither have I. That's what made this issue so bizarre to me, and probably heightened my sense that it didn't belong. I have trusted Stuart Moore to provide just good old super-hero fun, and have never felt I needed to brace myself going into his comic to be ready for my political perspective to be mocked or insulted or pointed out as "wrong."

It certainly seems out of character for the author.

[Ontir]

I found the first three pages of obvious anti-Bush rhetoric in the most recent issue of Firestorm to be over the top. I don't expect comic creators to keep all their personal politics out of their work, nor do I expect them all to agree with my own politics. But this issue had a campaign speech that was irrelevant to the plot, and just served, in my mind, to try to convince readers/voters how bad the present administration is, published four weeks before the election in our real world. It had nothing to do with what's actually going on in the DCU of late, it was all about Iraq, Katrina and Halliburton, without using those words.

Here's a quote:


I don't think this is what I pay for in a comic. At least make the political elements relevant to the story, and true to the history of the imaginary world.

Stuart Moore might as well have just replaced this scene with a blank page that said:

“We interrupt regularly scheduled programming for the following announcement: Stuart Moore wishes to express his fondest hope that you will elect Democrats four weeks from now. We now return to Firestorm The Nuclear Man, already in progress.”

Comics have ALWAYS reflected the societal and politcal realities of their creators. Superman and Batman were a direct repsonse to the violence, and political corruption of the prohibition era. Wonder Woman and Captain America represented a shift in perspective as war was upon us. While the sequence you take issue with might not pertain to the specific issue in which it appears, it may well be part of a larger statement or arc. If, however, you find it's too much, don't buy it.

[Damo]

Wow. A comic character with political views. Scandalous.

*Goes to read Green Arrow. Or maybe Cereberus the Aardvark? Then again, Kingdom Come is good... hopefully good enough to tide things over until Batman vs. Osama bin Ladin comes out...*

[Bradley]

I haven't read the issue in question, but I think it might be worthwhile to point out that way back when I was a kid and Firestorm was written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Pat Broderick, there were frequent instances of conservative rhetoric slipped into the comic book. Ronnie, of course, constantly reminded the reader that protesting the Hudson nuclear plant was a "stupid thing" he had done. The first villain Firestorm fought in his second series was the Black Bison, a Native American character whose villainy was caused by his hysterical anger towards the white man. The second Hyena was a foreign-born doctor who became hysterically angry over being made to start his medical training from square one once he arrived in America. Killer Frost was a meek, mousy wallflower who became hysterically angry because she felt she was overlooked by men.

And look at issue #3, we see a "looney liberal" judge yell at a prosecutor that he's violating Killer Frost's civil rights by keeping her enclosed in a chamber that nullified her cold powers, and orders that she be freed. Naturally, Killer Frost takes advantage and goes on to freeze all of New York, all because of some leftwing wacko activist judge. And just to make sure we get the point, the caption tells us that the judge was appointed during the "last days of previous [Carter] administration."

The funny thing is, I'm a huge, huge liberal. Like, to the left of Karl Marx. And I absolutely love Firestorm-- particularly Gerry Conway's version of the character. Sure, I tend to roll my eyes at the parts that I find insensitive or overtly political, but I can overlook them because... Well, I thought Firestorm was awesome when I was a kid, and I think he's awesome now. Conway being a Reagan Republican didn't make the story arc where Firestorm was infected with the Hyena virus any less awesome.

Now, if you generally don't like Stuart Moore's work on the character, that's fine. I tend to think the book is one of the best on the stands today, but your mileage may vary. However, if you tend to like the book, don't let the fact that one character is a Democrat and expresses the beliefs that you suspect Moore holds to detract from your enjoyment of the book. Surely, you can tolerate other people's political opinions without actually having to subscribe to them yourself, right?

[PaulTiberius]

I haven't read the issue in question, but I think it might be worthwhile to point out that way back when I was a kid and Firestorm was written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Pat Broderick, there were frequent instances of conservative rhetoric slipped into the comic book.

Thanks, Bradley, for all of this. I had no idea! I've only ever read a few of the classic issues.

The funny thing is, I'm a huge, huge liberal. Like, to the left of Karl Marx. And I absolutely love Firestorm-- particularly Gerry Conway's version of the character. Sure, I tend to roll my eyes at the parts that I find insensitive or overtly political, but I can overlook them because... Well, I thought Firestorm was awesome when I was a kid, and I think he's awesome now. Conway being a Reagan Republican didn't make the story arc where Firestorm was infected with the Hyena virus any less awesome.

Then we are fellow travelers of a sort. All the liberal agendas (if I can use that phrase) in modern comics still don't make me quit them. I love the genre!

Now, if you generally don't like Stuart Moore's work on the character, that's fine. I tend to think the book is one of the best on the stands today, but your mileage may vary. However, if you tend to like the book, don't let the fact that one character is a Democrat and expresses the beliefs that you suspect Moore holds to detract from your enjoyment of the book. Surely, you can tolerate other people's political opinions without actually having to subscribe to them yourself, right?

You are absolutely right. And I actually explored precisely this question in much more detail on my blog (shameless plug, click link in sig). I just didn't want to put the whole thing in a post and scare away anyone with its sheer length. But there are pretty pictures with my blog, so it's an easier read. Check it out. :)

I do plan to keep reading Firestorm, at least for a while. The only book I've ever dropped for primarily political/worldview reasons was Uncle Sam & the Freedom Fighters. But as a rule, I'm not the boycotting type.

[PaulTiberius]

Comics have ALWAYS reflected the societal and politcal realities of their creators. Superman and Batman were a direct repsonse to the violence, and political corruption of the prohibition era. Wonder Woman and Captain America represented a shift in perspective as war was upon us. While the sequence you take issue with might not pertain to the specific issue in which it appears, it may well be part of a larger statement or arc. If, however, you find it's too much, don't buy it.

And I want meaty, thought-provoking writing, which includes political content. No question.

While I personally disagree (vociferously) with the political view spouted in this particular issue, what really ticked me off was the way it intruded on the story for no reason, the way it played off real-world politics instead of DCU politics, and the irrelevance of its content to the theme of the ongoing story arc.

Candidates Kelly and Creed, in the X-Men mythos, definitely came across as political commentary on the times in which their characters were featured, in ways I, as a Conservative, probably would have found somewhat unfair. But they had the virtue of being relevant to what was going on in the story, so while I might utterly disagree with the writers' worldviews, I could at least accept that the characters and their messages were organically integrated into the stories and served a deliberate purpose ... beyond a shameless attempt to persuade readers to vote in a certain way four weeks from the publication date.

[Ontir]

There actually are Republicans/Conservatives who believe a good deal of what you attribute to liberals in this Firestorm issue. In general, I think "Liberal Agenda" is a load of manure. The words "liberal," conservative," "Republican," "Democrat," Democracy," & "Communism" are now entirely bereft of real meaning, merely slogans thrown at the opposing side, with no more accuracy than "X" or "O."

It seems to me, that one ought to expect a certain amount of controversy from a title called Firestorm, though. Re-reading the quote, I can't find anything that's even questionable, let alone objectionable - except the "never trust anyone over 30." I'm 40, and highly trust-worthy.

[Rik Levins]

...I can't find anything that's even questionable, let alone objectionable - except the "never trust anyone over 30." I'm 40, and highly trust-worthy.

All of the people who used to say that are members of my generation, and therefore crossed the threshold to untrustworthiness decades ago.

[Hulkamaniac]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion ofcourse, but to complain about how an artist or writer created their work is just silly. Were you the guy yelling at Streisand at her performance for adding her two cents intoa comedy skit during her own production? I recomend staying away from sci-fi , comic books, cartoons and the "liberal media" if i were you. let me ask you a question , did you hate Robocop because he's a take on the evils of privatization? Dont ever read Grean Arrow or most of the "liberal" characters written by mostly "liberal" writers or creators. You must be torn when reading Civil War, better off just buying Iron Man comics or somthin;)
Look everyone has their "soapbox" , Moore happens to have a much bigger one than your blog when it comes to his readership and his paycheck :p
If you dont like the message then dont buy the comic, its that simple, everyone has dropped titles now and again, why should this be any different? ANd dont give me that, "He has defiled my beloved firestorm!", get over it, I can't remember how many times my beloved characters have been mutilated or killed off, bad writing, art whatever. If these political and social issues bother you so much maybe you should write your own "conservative" comic book:D

PS. your title is misleading, not all "liberals" are Democrats, no matter how much Republicans chant such a mantra.