Posted by
Daniel Crandall on Sunday, January 27, 2008 11:24:59 PM
As I've noted in an earlier post, Marvel is doing a real world team-up with the United Nations; creating comic book propaganda unseen since perhaps WWII. To bad that if this stuff
was produced during WWII then it would have made Nazi Germany and fascist Japan look like misunderstood freedom fighters.
Brett Schaefer, at National Review, has noticed this pairing and decided to let readers know what Marvel's masked super-heroes will really be supporting.
"The very notion that today’s U.N. is eager to embark on heroic
struggles against evildoers defies reality. But reality is no check on
propaganda, which explains why the organization is so keen to team up
with Marvel. The U.N.-themed comic will be distributed free to one
million U.S. school children in hundreds of schools. The U.N. also
plans to translate it into other languages and distribute them around
the world.
"Why? A U.N. communications officer explains that
the comic will make the U.N. “more accessible” to young people who will
“get excited if they know their heroes like Spider-Man will work with
the United Nations to address these issues, peace and security.”
"Marvel
Comics became a publishing powerhouse because their superheroes had
flaws and were therefore more “realistic” than their competitors’
offerings. How ironic that Marvel’s “realistic” heroes will be used to
burnish the image of an often ineffective organization, subject to
corruption, lacking in accountability, and serving as a soapbox for the
world’s most despotic nations."
This isn't the first time Marvel takes up the UN banner. That veritable New York comic publishing house created the
UN Bannermen in Marvel Boy II (#2), which came out in September, 2000. What is rather ironic about these United Natoins super-soldiers is their weakness: "Between their low intelligence and
programmed responses, Bannermen are not very versatile, and can
be taken out of a fight by disorienting them sufficiently." Not too unlike the real
United Nations Peacekeepers.
We all know why Marvel won't do this
on behalf of those who truly fight for peace, freedom and liberty,
and who have a much better overall record of reaching their goals. Why are the folks making these kind of decisions at Marvel these days working to produce propaganda for a bunch of Hate-America Lefties? This kind of stuff makes Marvel look very bad especially following on the heels of
killing off Captain America when America is fighting a war against Islamo-Nazism, and the UN constantly works to undermine the American position in that war.