DCU: DECISIONS - Superheroes and Super Delegates

[CBR News]

Curious who Superman is going to vote for in the 2008 election? Want to know whether Zatanna leans to the left or the right? Writer Bill Willingham can give you a clue in "DCU: Decisions," a miniseries that outs superheroes' personal politics.

http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16573

[Lemurion]

Sounds very interesting.

We know GA and Hawkman I think-- the rest.........

[Hawkman]

The more I read about this the more I'm willing to give it a shot. I wholeheartedly agree with Bill that it's pretty obvious where a writer stands politically when he tries to write the other guy's perspective (because typically it seems that I am that other guy). So having two writers of opposing viewpoints doing the series in conjunction really has my interest piqued. Controversial views that each side holds might for the first time be portrayed in an accurate way without making either party the proverbial villain.

The only problem, though, is I see massive whining about this series with each characters' political proclamation. The second a character that someone loves is shown to hold beliefs contrary to that reader's, you're going to have claims of the sky beginning fall. Politics are very personal to most people, as are a lot these superheroes, so it's an understandably touchy subject to broach. I'm intrigued by the idea, but it's definitely a very volatile one, and despite Willingham's explanation I'm still not sure why DC felt the need to risk potentially alienating a lot readers by printing this tale.

On personal note, this quote by Willingham has me confident that he'll counterpoint Winick's contributions to the series in a manner that's very much to my liking:

Now, I sort of consider myself a Republican, but mostly, I'm a conservative. I've got certain leanings, and the Republicans are the ones that most exemplify that.

When I first heard about this project, I knew Bill was a Republican, but I wasn't sure where he fell exactly. I also know Judd's a liberal, and a pretty dyed-in-wool one at that. That being the case, I felt DC needed to get someone equally staunch to write the other side, but feared Willingham might be nothing more than a wishy-washy RINO. He sounds like my type of Republican, though, so my confidence for this book coming across as fair and balanced (to borrow a phrase) just went up a notch.

[TradePaperbackTraitor]

Ugh. I don't like this idea at all. Keep the politics and religion away from the dinner table and away from the dudes in capes. ESPECIALLY if the writers are just going to go with stereotypical portrayals of liberal and conservative. I'd like something a little more in-depth than a Dittohead or PETA member. It was bad enough involving Marvel in 9/11 allegories with Civil War, this is just going the extra mile.

[DanCMH]

This is just "Here Satan take my marriage to the hot redheaded super model on the left so I can go back to being a virgin living with my Auntie and riding a bicycle" bad of an idea... Let the readers learn the character's back stories and history and decide for themselves.

[JonniRandom]

This is a ridiculous concept.

THEY'RE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS< WHO CARES?!

[Velvis]

I think this is a really bad idea. You want to identify with the characters. To find out that half of them agree with Ann Coulter will be a real downer.

[elise]

Bleh, I don't like it either. Keep politics out of comics, please. <_< Aren't they meant to be an escape from all the crap of real life?

[jonnynyc]

This just sounds awful. And I am going to wind up not liking characters because of their political affiliation. It's dumb to turn off your readers like that. It doesn't really matter though since it's not going to sell well so it'll probably be forgotten soon enough.

[brett tolino]

Another genius idea from the king of genius ideas, Dan Didio.

[brett tolino]

Double post. Sorry.

[lonewolf23k]

Well, I'm interested in seeing this.

[spidervenom]

dc's next disaster after countdown? I think so. Just a horrible idea, I mean seriously, the only way to make it worth while is have all the heroes have a brawl against hillary

[Babylon23]

Personally, I see no problem with politics being used in comics if the writers can provide a balanced viewpoint. Willingham seems to be suggesting this project will do just that.

Plus, it's not like we haven't seen politics in comics before. O'Neill's GL/GA, Englehart's Captain America, The recent Ultimates series, even Lee's anti-Communist stance in the 60's were all highly political. Hell, most of the WWII-era comics were massive political propaganda.

In not an American, so I don't have a vested interest in either of the American political parties. I'm interested to see what the political leanings are of the DC heroes. I'm also an athiest whose interested in the religious background of characters. Both politics and religion can add depth to a character if handled well.

[Grumpy Fox]

I'm not a DC fan and usually only check stuff that stands on its own.
This looks interesting.

Of course characters always had political views, it's all subtext and there has to be some kind of unspoken bible for it, especially in our time.
A lot of heroes make implied or bold stands on subjects like the death penalty, war, freedom of speech since the 60s.
There has to be a reason why writers like Peter David are more inclined to write some characters or find ones they can shape in an according way.

If things are handled correctly, no fan will be neither surprised or pissed off by the political opinions of their favourite characters (unless they have little background, whis is a weird place to have fans from) because they already relate to the character for his/her way to handle touchy matters for years.

For instance, I mostly root for the underdog and don't care about über-macho killer types.

But maybe they should leave the more iconic characters like Superman out of this. Some (like Captain America) are above that and too pliable to one writer's view to have their political views written in stone.