[dropcap]T[/dropcap]urns out there are a bunch (or if we’re using the official term of assembly, a “Limbaugh”) of bigots on the internet, still butthurt about what they heard had happened to Captain America without actually reading the story, so now I have to waste my social commentary skills and think piece writing superpowers explaining why racists are dumb?
The MAGA crowds aren’t even trying to feign their points have merit anymore and I resent having to use critical thinking skills to craft reasoned arguments only to then throw them down the gaping maw of the bigoted social rhetoric that occupies these conversations. The fact is, beyond basic taste preference, there is no good reason that Coates should NOT write Captain America. Bloggers have cited Marvel’s “ultra-leftist rhetoric” and Coates’s “record of anti-American beliefs” making him unfit for writing the title of the most patriotic of superheroes in Marvel Comics, somehow completely forgetting about every single f****** time Captain America has abandoned his role as government’s stooge or acted out in protest against policies he didn’t agree with. This includes, but is not limited to, vacating his position in the 70’s and 80’s due to Nixon and the drug epidemic respectively, never mind his Marvel Knights run with the subject of immigration or Mark Millar’s Civil War series where he stood against government involvement in violating people’s privacy and the Civil War film where yada yada yada Captain America is a big ass lefty.
Now I know one of the better tricks of white privilege is the ability to change history around so that it always agrees with the neoconservative narrative but the evidence against an ultra-nationalist idealized version of Captain America is actually in print in color and archived alphabetically in the Library of Congress. Thing is, I know most of these trolls don’t give enough of a s*** to have any evidence backing the dumb-ass thoughts from their Trump-damaged brains, but for everyone else, check the absurdity. All those bloggers trying to defend the good name of an American hero from political dissidents pushing socialist progressive agendas are ignoring the fact that the guy they’re protecting has ALWAYS been critical of America and her politics while always keeping leftist, nearly socialist agenda that he was willing to fight and die for in multiple wars. Cap wasn’t warped into that by a bunch of “SJW cucktards” in recent years, he was born that way from his very beginnings.
[quote]The only real politics I knew was that if a guy liked Hitler, I’d beat the stuffing out of him and that would be it. – Jack Kirby[/quote]
Steve Rogers was made by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, two Jewish men who created a character during a time of violent prejudice towards Jewish people, and they’ve stated in several interviews that Captain America wielded a power that they wished for themselves to have had during World War II. With the ability to fight fascists and stand up for the persecuted as a representative of the ideals of a country they loved, Captain America was their way to see their beliefs represented in print media. Jack Kirby in particular is well-documented in his efforts to fight for the persecuted and underrepresented, which is what led him to create the character of Black Panther, the title which Coates currently writes.
So how do we get to the place where a long-standing symbol for equality and positive idealism against all odds somehow gets co-opted by the very side he fought against like some kind of prototypical Pepe the Frog? Much of the blame lies on the “America First” rhetoric that is pervasive in the right-wing narrative and yet by itself couldn’t justify the cognitive dissonance we’re hearing in blogs and tweets created by ignoring the actual depictions of the character. To make that work, you have to add in the fact that the people complaining about Coates and championing Captain America don’t actually read Captain America stories. Reading the things that the people who object to Captain America being written by Coates gives you the impression that the only thing they know about Captain America are the sensationalized headlines that they’re reacting to. Most of these people are very upset by the Captain America series in which he was revealed to have been a deep cover Hydra agent for the entirety of his existence as America’s favorite Star Spangled superhero during Nick Spencer’s run on Captain America leading up to secret Empire…except that contrary to what has been reported in multiple news sources, that is not what the f*** happened.
Setup near the end of the Avengers: Standoff event and explained in “Steve Rogers: Captain America” #2, Steve Rogers was tricked and brainwashed by his arch nemesis The Red Skull. The hows are a bit ridiculous but the main takeaway is that the Captain America you know and love was under a spell and not really a Hydra agent and yet the headline that Marvel Comic rewrote years of comic history to make Cap a Nazi drew public ire and therefore attention. So the sensationalizing of one portion of a narrative that was at its worst a dumb plot point was typified as some kind of crisis of the nation’s identity to play a half truth for ratings alongside the sensational(ly racist) campaign of our current president and perpetual human sized bag of actual dogs*** Donald Trump. This cycle of fact-less outrage which filled the coffers of unscrupulous media organizations by keeping scores of hapless eyes glued to their broadcast has been directly cited by media experts as being one of the direct causes for Trump’s successful ascension to the presidency.
Continued…
People don’t want Ta-Nehisi Coates to write Cap. America because the values Cap’n represents are alien to him. Coates has clearly never read a Cap book or even seen any of the Captain America movies (he expressed surprise that the Captain often resists government orders if they’re antithetical to American values). It comes down to your thesis being utterly wrong from the start. Coates is a terrible comic book writer and his Black Panther runs being cancelled in short order is proof of that. To grant Coates the right to headline two more comics after flubbing two lay-ups is the reason for the resistance. Your three pages to make it seem like the resistance to Coates is do to some sort of racist agenda is so far off the mark that it screams of clickbait.
Seems like you didn’t really read the article 😉. I only say that because you don’t seem to make one cogent argument addressing any point I have made but that’s perfectly fine. Reading the article would have only spoiled the fact that I knew you weren’t going to anyway.
In any case sincerely thank you for your patronage. Be well my friend.
So the criteria for being allowed to write a character is that comics have to be read and all movies watched before they get the job? You do know that PLENTY of comic writers do this little thing called research on characters and I’m sure Marvel and Coates are prepping for this. I see Jim Zub and other white writers on twitter all the time talking about research on characters they weren’t too familiar with in order to be better prepared to write them and no one jumps down their neck about it. So that argument is invalid.
Also since my whiteness has allowed me to be privy to hearing a lot of crap there ARE people who don’t want Coates on Cap simply because he’s black. Claiming he’s racist and making up false equivalency seems to be the go to for thsee people. Can you actually PROVE the values Cap represents are alien to Coates? You can’t because you’d rather make an assumption about this guy to fit your narrative about him. Black Panther is also NOT CANCELLED BECAUSE OF COATES lol Marvel is doing a “fresh start” and several titles are getting renumbered/restarted once again and I’m more upset about that than Coates writing Cap.
And to call the article click bait because YOU didn’t read it is the weak argument of someone who is too lazy to forge an actual thoughtful debate.
While I’m indifferent to Coates being attached to Captain America, I fail to see where the previous commenters points about why people are opposed to it are valid based on the piece provided. To say that the values Cap represents are alien to him are pure conjecture. And while I don’t always agree with Mr. Crump’s Correct Opinion, even you would have to agree that with the current social climate and certain peoples proclivity to denounce or sabotage anything black (review bombing and false reports of white people being assaulted during Black Panther screenings as examples) are most certainly a reality.
Having read the Atlantic piece to which he spoke about his taking on the Captain America story it would seem that he has quite a good grasp who Cap is and the legacy to which he is entering. Whether Coates “flubbed two lay-ups” with Black Panther is subjective as with most art forms there will be people who love it and people who hate it. Clearly, if Marvel saw his runs on Black Panther as “flubs” they wouldn’t have granted him the support of some of their best.
Eric gets it.
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