Avatarex: Destroyer of Darkness #2

[laughing_tree]

"The thing we've always for the last fifteen years at least -- certainly since 9/11 -- I think America's been processing the horror of those images through their art, through their popular art in particular.

"That's why I think superheroes became from ordinary people who went out at night to make the world a better place, they've become I think agents of the military-entertainment complex. The Avengers work for the government, and it's been like that since Mark [Millar] did The Ultimates. Batman as seen by Christopher Nolan and subsequently is a soldier. He wears military gear with his ordinance and his machines. For me, it became quite reductive. It was an interesting way to look at it for a while, but it's persisted for so long that I'm quite bored with the idea that the best superheroes can represent is some aggressive version of the military.

"So it seemed like it was very worthwhile to go to cultures that weren't dealing with that, and go back to things that superheroes are supposed to be. They're supposed to be champions of the oppressed, they help ordinary people, they make things better for people. They don't prop up our grotesque, doddering culture of war and aggression." -- Grant Morrison

Comments

[starwolf_oakley]

9/11 affected pop culutre. I still wonder if 9/11 is why all of Quentin Tarantino's movies turned into revenge fantasies. ER suddenly had its characters (Chicago doctors) going overseas for reasons. Lots of legal dramas had "unlawful combatant" episodes.

Morrison himself said his X-Men run was about "conformity culture" taking on the "unusual and the different" in post 9/11 America.

[razsolo]

Looking at the clothes...is this meant to be set in India? Because some of these folks are pastier than me and I'm as whitebread as it gets *_*

Either that or I guess it's some fantasy world where everyone's white but our entire aesthetic judt happens to draw completely on another culture without having to actually look at icky brown people which...is definitely not better :\

[locuatico]

India

[norj]

Most upper class Indians are very light skined. The caste system was partially based around it.