U.S.Agent: American Zealot

[superboyprime]

"Gangsta rap, launched most notably with Cypress Hill and N.W.A., exploited the artistic acceptance of militant themes and imagery that made Chuck D.’s political protest acceptable to argue for the artistic merit of sophomoric, homophobic and misogynistic content directed not toward an oppressor class but toward each other. [...] Calling anybody, even [BET founder Robert Johnson], Hitler would be unfair. Hitler, after all, didn’t teach Germans to hate themselves. Mr. Johnson is certainly no Hitler, though he might have been the guy passing out the Nazi arm bands. Black America has been wearing its own version of Nazi arm bands—Ebonics, the idiotic sagging pants, a distinct cultural lexicon regardless of what region of the nation you visit—for more than a generation, now." - Christopher Priest

From U.S.Agent: American Zealout #1-5...

Comments

[akodo_rokku]

I don't understand exactly what message Priest was trying to convey with this comic. That awful people are in every ideology?

[cyberghostface]

He explains it here.

https://www.gamesradar.com/marvels-new-us-agent-explores-the-difference-between-john-walker-and-dave-chappelle

[reveen]

Sort of, yes? But also that the awfulness of conservatives is really virtue if you think about it. But society has gone insane and doesn't appreciate raw, red blooded Americans who tell it like how it is anymore.

[cyberghostface]

That's... not the the message at all?

[plastefuchs]

The quote leaves me puzzled to no end. So a group of people who had their ancestry and culture forcibly destroyed building up their own culture (maybe in part as a counter to the mainstream?) is just as bad and self destructive as a person he really doesn't want to compare to Hitler.

Not to excuse the homophobic and misogynistic content and thinking that was created through them, but I thought that NWA and others made it possible for other black artists to force themself into the mainstream that just hadn't been possible before.

Though maybe I am just too far away and not knowledgeable enough to understand it even after consuming all kinds of media for the last 20+ years.

[cyberghostface]

The full essay goes into more detail, the OP just picked the most extreme quote to rile people up.

[plastefuchs]

I'll give it a proper read later on then.

[reveen]

Calling out rap specifically homophobic and misogynistic is fucking wack and total hypocrisy. American culture in the 80s and 90s was mixing homophobia and misogyny in their cocaine and railing that shit straight to hell.

[laughing_tree]

Without getting into the accuracy of Priest's opinion of rap -- I'm not really a music person so have no idea -- this sounds like whataboutism. It's pretty understandable that Priest, as a black man, would be more concerned about prejudice in black music than in other music fields.

[tinygaylaura]

There certainly are some rappers who are homophobic and misogynistic. But I don't think you can just dismiss the entire genre like that. That's like saying all comic books are racist because Frank Miller's Holy Terror exists

[lordultimus]

Christopher Priest must really like the Boondocks.

[zachbeacon]

The comic strip or the TV show that lasted exactly three seasons?

[lordultimus]

Don't recall enough about the comic, but the TV show straight up portrayed BET as supervillains, so I guess that.

[zachbeacon]

It focuses more on the family and their neighbors* than the show (which often zooms out to the larger world) but the comic still wears it's politics on its sleeve to the point where there was some stuff that I'm amazed they got away with in a syndicated strip. Also less swearing (obviously).

*The show notably dropped one of my favorite characters but I kinda understand why. Caeser mostly existed make pop culture refences and give Huey someone to talk to about current events and I think taking Huey's friend away allowed the show to make him angrier. I think if he'd been in the show they'd be tempted to TALK about things like the R Kelly trial rather than showing them.

Also the anime references are mostly swapped out for comic books... which is probably just a matter of the media being used.

[cyberghostface]

In case anyone was wondering the quote is almost a decade old, Priest wasn’t using it to describe the miniseries.

[leahandillyana]

Jesus, Christopher, eat a snickers.

[thanekos]

It's not at all the primary takeaway, but I love the American Kaiju invocation - that kind of superhero story seems well away from Priest's particular tastes, but he's still willing to use it cleverly as a detail.

[tinygaylaura]

Having a black character say that the fascist who murdered their child was totally blameless and "Just doing their job" while saying actually it was all their fault that said black man was murdered by one of the KKKops of Amerikkka's "Justice system" sure is a choice

[leahandillyana]

^^^

[angry_marmot]

Not having read the series in context, I wonder if the Manning character is Priest's take on Brother Mouzone from "The Wire".

[shakalooloo]

Judging by just these panels, rather than letting them off scott-free, he's over-guilting himself for his involvement. Some people do have a habit of blaming themselves for everything they can, no matter how obvious it might be that things are Not Their Fault.

[blueprintstyles]

I was 50/50 on reading this series till that panel. I like Preist most of the time but I'm not spending any money on a Candace Owens-styled super character.

[cyberghostface]

The character in question is, if not explicitly a villain (as he's being manipulated), at minimum an antagonist who resembles the Comedian from Watchmen.

The OP removed it but there's a page I posted where Lemar calls him out for looking at things through a "veil of hate".

[blueprintstyles]

I get that, but I don't want my money giving those views a platform. I have to deal with that crap in my real life I don't need that in my comics.

[fra080389]

This is pretty dull and confusing. But the pizza guy is great, they should write a comic about him.

[starwolf_oakley]

I think C. Priest is mixing up John Walker with Sam Wilson. Wilson is supposed to be the cynical one, not Walker.

Also, both Wilson and Walker were used as puppets by the Red Skull to mess with Steve Rogers. So, irony?

[scorntx]

Is he?
Wouldn't have usually described Sam as being particularly cynical, especially not compared to John.
Okay, he's not as 100% idealistic all the time as Steve Rodgers, but who is?

[starwolf_oakley]

SAM WILSON: CAPTAIN AMERICA #2 had Sam narrate that Steve Rogers believes the country will do the right thing in tough situations. Sam can only hope it will.

Maybe that isn't that cynical, in retrospect.

https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/5743041.html
https://abload.de/img/42auo9.jpg

[reveen]

This is why a lot of people consider conservatives to be fucking evil, not just ignorant blowhard assholes. Because they'll act in complicity to a system that has kept an entire group of people second class citizens at best for centuries. And then when forms of art and subculture arise in direct response to that history they'll turn right around and blame that for why the people they fucked over aren't fully integrated into their society. It's sick, sick shit.

And don't @ me about Priests interview or whatever, I read it. And the one directly related to the comic. Literally every single thing he says regarding politics or race politics is total horseshit. All of it. 100% haram.

[cyberghostface]

Since when was Priest a conservative?

[reveen]

Oh, forgive me. I meant freedom loving libertarian, or classical liberal, or whatever other bullshit term people like to use to at best delude themselves, or at worst lie to your face about how they're definitely different from your garden variety reactionary even though they share most of their beliefs and dutifully come out and vote for them every single time.

[cyberghostface]

So in other words you think Christopher Priest is conservative then, correct? The guy who hung a poster of Malcolm X over his desk when he worked at DC? How right-wing do you think he is?

[blueprintstyles]

I remember Preist saying he was a Republican during an interview when he was writing Deathstroke. It was wrapped up in a joke about him writing a comic with White for once,

[cyberghostface]

Do you have a link? I’ve been searching on google and haven’t been able to find anything with him saying he’s a Republican.

I did find this old Newsarama interview where he refers to himself as being liberal.

https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelstudios/comments/3i0nkv/christopher_priest_writer_of_black_panthers_most/

[mazway_75]

Priest can be hit or miss for me.

This looks like a "miss."

[beyondthefringe]

I agree. I love Priest's work, but he doesn't have a 100% hit rate with me either. This series fell flat for me. Hopefully, that just meant I wasn't the right audience this time around.

And what I find funny is how he has some very specific stylistic tics which he takes with him everywhere he goes... especially the use of non-linear storytelling and the white-on-black narrative panels. I'm surprised he's stuck with it so long.

[crabby_lioness]

Uh -- I like Morrie? And that's about it.