Monday, August 20, 2018

The greatest of the spaceknights vs nobody's favorite superhero and how comics tackle racism

Left click to enlarge
This guy I used to know on social media who was both a ROM and Captain Atom fan used to call Captain Atom "Nobody's favorite superhero". Can't seem to recall what exactly he meant by that but unfortunately he's disappeared off the grid and now hasn't been seen for years now so I guess I won't ever get a chance to ask him again. Those of you who saw my last posting will no doubt recognize the source material for this art. I had some down time recently so for the Hell of it I decided to print out the sketch and try out adding some color to it. Can't imagine what kind of scenario would have these two heroes unleashing holly Hell on each other like this but it's not like we've never seen this sort of thing before right? But it's never the less interesting and creative and it's just the sort of fan art I like to post here.



Allow me to pivot here. I saw Blackkkklansman on it's opening weekend and I loved it and I hope some of you will see it while it's still in theaters. I thought the movie did a great job of telling a fascinating story based on a real life situation back in the 70s while drawing a straight line to today's troubles in race relations and political partisanship. There was also a lot of great humor but aside from all that I thought it was very interesting and unexpected with how it dealt with Adam Driver's character. For some people (some "very fine" people I'm sure) this Spike Lee joint might have been a bit too heavy handed or even over the top. A minor issue at best, this was never the less a great film on many levels with much contemporary relevance.

Fantastic Four 278 (1985)
Black Panther Civil War TPB 2007
Speaking of the history of taking on racism in artistic forums I had some thoughts about the world of comics. It's interesting when I look at comics of the 80s and how the writers seemed to take on racism in it's more blatant forms. But clearly in more recent years writers have become much more sophisticated with putting a spot light on the more subtle forms of racism. I think that's very commendable, especially during times like this with all the dog whistles, assault on the truth and pretenses to national security to what are largely policies and statements motivated by this culture war of race politics.


9 comments:

  1. Nice colour work there, especially on Rom!

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    1. Thanks, I used a set of high quality soft tipped coloring pencils.

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  2. Great post. Check this out. I have a gift for you if you want it. http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-other-one-is-your-if-you-want-it.html

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    1. Much appreciated Cal but allow me to save you an international shipping charge. I can practically still remember the day I saw that issue at a random mini-mart and got my dad to buy it for me and it’s been part of my ROM collection ever since. How did you end up with 2 copies? Also, I’m surprised you haven’t posted about Blackkklansman (or did you?) it seems like your kinda movie.

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  3. Saw the trailer for Blackkklansman and it looks absolutely hilarious! I'll check it out once it hits online or netflix.

    What FF comic is that Nigger-Lover" panel from because I've never ever seen that one before? I know based off the art its from John Byrne's run, but wow, can't believe that was ever allowed to be printed with that, especially when Jim Shooter was EIC at the time.

    I've also never heard of Captain Atom refereed to as "Nobody's favorite hero", because c'mon, every hero/heroine and villain/villainess has their share of fans, even if it's only one person.

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    1. thanks for the comment Dale it made me realize something happened to the caption i once had under that FF clip art but it should be there now to answer your question. even within the context it's used i'm also surprised that Marvel printed that kind of language. as for the nick name for Captain Atom that's compliments of K.o.T who you're probably more likely to find on a milk carton then any where on social media ever again.

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  4. Ahhh, makes sense now. According to his Twitter account, he hasn't been active since July of last year, so I hope wherever he is, he's okay.

    1985 seemed to be the year of the N-word over at Marvel, considering Kitty says the word herself in the now infamous UXM#196. Upon further research Claremont has Kitty use the word again the following year in '86, but she first used the word "Nigger-Lover" in 1982's X-Men graphic novel, "God Loves, Man Kills."

    Damn Kitty, you brave girl.

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    1. yep i recall, i used to have "God Loves, Man Kills".

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