Dec. 21st, 2017
Astro City #49 - "Resistance"
Dec. 21st, 2017 11:27 pm
Just saw someone complaining that they’ve been a Marvel reader for over 40 years, and they have no interest in the books today because of the politics, that the books should go back to like they were, with no politics. Which makes me wonder what he was reading 40+ years ago. I mean, if he doesn’t think the current books are well-done, that’s one thing, and he’d certainly be entitled to his opinion. But if he’s been reading the books for over 40 years, that means he started before 1977. So we’re talking the stridently feminist MS. MARVEL, Captain America having been Nomad (where Nixon and Exxon were the villains) before taking on entitled elitists who wanted to rule over the little people. Thor took on banana-republic dictators, there were multiple stories inspired by the Watts riots, the Sub-Mariner was in a permanent ecological snit, and more. We’re talking the heyday of Englehart, Gerber, Moench, McGregor and others, of reflexive anti-corporate stories, of flat-out anti-racist feminist stories where even Tony Stark was a liberal. You can like or dislike what you want, but the idea that the Seventies were apolitical is mind-boggling. -- Kurt Busiek
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