This week on the Major Spoilers Podcast, the gang takes a look at the first Elseworld’s book released by DC; Batman: Holy Terror.
Twenty-two years after the death of his parents, Bruce Wayne has moved on and is planning to join the clergy, when he is visited by his friend James Gordon. Gordon was the inquisitor who was investigating Thomas and Martha Wayne’s murder, and has come to tell Bruce the truth about what happened. Their deaths were not a random mugging, but a state-planned execution. Despite Thomas’ position as physician to the Privy Council, both were anti-government radicals who ran a clinic for the many victims of the government’s brutality and brainwashing. Those they treated were men and women who were subjects of experiments to alter their sexual orientation, women who tried to perform abortions on themselves, and prostitutes psychologically scarred by aversion therapy. Bruce consults a former friend of his parents, Dr. Charles McNider, who confirms the truth about his parents, and that of many others who were killed by the state. McNider, a broken man who lost both his wife and his eyesight, tells Bruce about a government conspiracy called “the Green Man”, but warns Bruce that nothing good has come of fighting the system.
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3 Comments
Hmmm…. “Batman: Holy Terror” and “RepUGLicans” all in the same page. (Way to get around a locked thread!)
The great thing about America is that writers can take characters such as Batman and others and write a story that’s pretty much an ill-disguised take on what would happen if an extreme “religious/puritanical right” were in power. This “Elseworlds” story was basically “Batman: V for Vendetta.” Conservatives are shown as being anti-gay, anti-abortion (although, for the record, I do oppose abortion. Please don’t argue it with me. I’m not going to change your mind and you’re not going to change mine)and abusive to prostitutes. Liberals like Wayne become the heroes. Christianity is just a means for certain groups to take power. Basically the same plot. This is an extreme view and not one I agree with but I can appreciate the way it’s presented. It’s a cautionary tale for those of us that are conservative Christians to be aware of those that would use our religion to oppress instead of liberate and to spread conformity instead of liberty.
I believe that the comics industry today has the same “liberal” tendency as most other media and as most other fiction and non-fiction writers have. My old college fraternity brother and friend, J.D. Rhoades, who has written several mystery novels including “Breaking Cover” and “The Devil’s Right Hand” is an unashamed liberal and very eloquent in his defense of his stance. For some reason, I appear to be in the minority of writers who tend to have a conservative world-view. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. A person that’s confident in their convictions has no problem with reading novels, comics, etc. that diverge from those convictions as long as they’re well-written, entertaining and not designed for shock value only.
Thanks for your comments. The good thing about this site is, as long as people keep on topic and don’t veer wildly, you’ll find most people here are pretty cool when it comes to expressing your opinions.
You’re welcome. To use a well-worn line “Some of my best friends are libertarians and liberals. They just won’t admit they know me.”
I think a lot of people missed the point of the “tea party” cite in Captain America. If you’ll notice, I picked Bucky/Cap as my “gravitar” for a reason. Falcon comments that he wouldn’t be accepted as part of the protesters. This is a very realistic comment to have as many african-americans and other minorities see the “Tea Party” movement as a reaction to a president that’s not “white”. I think a lot of people lose sight of the fact that our current Commander-in-Chief is much like our country: a mix of races, groups and cultures, which I think is a very good thing. Mr. Obama is the son of an African father and a “white” mother. He spent many years in Hawaii, which is an incredibly diverse state but still gravitated to the Midwest and Illinois with their strange combination of western attitude and progressive (albeit, sometimes corrupt) politics.
However, there are many people in the US that are concerned with the direction of many of the President and his political party’s policies, not the color of the President’s skin. These same people protested during Hillary Clinton’s push for new health care laws during her time as First Lady. This view is one of the reasons why Cap replies “It’s a tax protest.” All the writer of that comic did was put current events into the context of two long-time friends who just happen to be iconic heroes whose partnership was formed in the context of the America of the 70’s. I find that no more a “slight” to my own opinions than Hawkman or Green Lantern hashing it out with Green Arrow in DC comics.
Now, if Steve Rogers or Bucky Barnes stop being what the character of Captain America is supposed to be, the spirit of a nation that is both a protector and a defender, both open-minded and loving of liberty but still resolute in it’s moral standards, a true warrior that loves peace but prepares for war, then I may raise objections.