Comic review: Inhumans-Attilan Rising #5- ‘There is no freedom in this world.’

Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: John Timms
Publisher: Marvel
Released: 23rd September 2015



I’ve had a pretty intense comic book reading week. Dealing with the liberally skewed distortions of reality that come from progressive statists can be hard-work, so to end my week on a soft landing I’ve decided to conclude with a quick look at one of Marvel’s ‘Battleworld’ event books.

That book is ‘Inhumans-Attilan Rising #5’ by Charles Soule, a writer who writes a lot, some of it good, some of it very good, and some of it painfully mediocre. Inhumans #5 fits securely into the ‘good’ category.

The story isn’t particularly complex or revelatory, but I did get a glimmer of truth from it, something to use for my own deviously anti-statist purposes. What am I talking about?

I’ll explain.

The narrative is about subjugation, about a people being enslaved, and not really understanding that they are enslaved.

‘The world is not as we have been told. We are DOOM’S playthings. He caused DEVICES to be built into New Attilan that broadcast a signal. It keeps the populace from realising one essential truth…There is no freedom in this world.’ (Medusa)

Replace ‘Doom’ with ‘Government’ and ‘Devices’ with ‘Mainstream media’ and you pretty much have a perfect encapsulation of what is happening in the western ‘democratic’ world today. A tax net population enslaved under the illusion of authority, propagandised through their televisions, newspapers and I-devices, and told that their enslavement isn’t actually enslavement at all. That’s our world, and that’s how we live today, but how many of us see it for what it actually is?

Do you see it, or are you getting angry with me for pointing it out? My message is simple. You are owned, and your owner is government. I don’t even think that this is a particularly extreme thing for me to say. It’s a bit like me pointing out that water is wet, so why do people get so angry with me for pointing it out? Oh well, that’s the matrix that we all live in. It annoys me, but I’m used to it now.

Did Charles Soule deliberately include an anti authority meaning within his comic book narrative, or is it just me (as a nasty, anti-authoritarian anarchist) that is putting meaning into something that is not there?

To me, it doesn’t really matter. The meaning is there, whether it was deliberate or not. I read comics to find meaning, not for purely hedonistic purposes. That’s what I do, that’s the main reason why I’m writing these ‘reviews’ on my blog and not working for a comic book website that values hedonism and entertainment over reality.

That doesn’t mean that I’m a complete masochist though. I read comic books for fun as well, and as a comic book existing purely as a vehicle for narrative excitement and thrills, Inhumans-Atillan Rising #5 is pretty decent. The story is fast paced, the characters are interesting, and the art, by John Timms, is very pleasing to the eye. The final panel in particular is superb, featuring a young lady looking absolutely stunning.

So, that’s it for my blog this week. The Tithe #5 is the one book that you need to track down. 2000AD PROG 1949 features a very revealing contrast between two authoritarian Judges. Negative Space #2 is creatively weird and fun, and Inhumans-Attilan Rising #5 is a lot better than I thought that it would be.


Rating: 7/10 (Sweet art, involving story, interesting characters, worth checking out)

Comic review: Civil War (2015) #1- The hour is late, but freedom is still an option

Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Leinil Francis Yu
Publisher: Marvel (Disney)
Released: 8th July 2015



If, like myself, you felt that the ending of Mark Millar’s Civil War arc was a massively anti-climatic letdown (Captain America surrendered because he didn’t want people to get hurt) then this version of Civil War will be right up your comic book alley.

In this book, Cap doesn’t surrender. The war continues, with the ‘nation’ split in two. On one side (The Iron) is the progressively totalitarian Iron Man, with laws made by him (because he knows best), you obey, or you go to jail. On the other side is Captain America’s ‘The Blue’ where freedom and individuality reigns, and the collectivist co-ordinator class is stripped of their authoritarian big brother powers:

‘Captain America made a land with only two laws. Hurt no one, and help where you can.’

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had the option to choose between the two in the real world? As it is, we are living in the authoritarian ‘Iron,’ with the ‘authorities’ telling us what we can and cannot do (see the drug laws) because they know best. There is a battle going on, but it’s a battle for power, not a battle for freedom. It’s a red and blue struggle for authoritarian control.

Politics is a battle between authoritarian personality types; to be the ‘expert’ telling everybody else how they should or should not live their lives.

What is happening right now in the west is that the totalitarian mindset of the old right has now switched to the new left. The mindset has not changed, it’s still about control, still about telling people what is best for them, and what is bad for them, and what they can and cannot do.

We now have a situation where social justice warriors (young Marxists straight out of university and loaded up with feminist rhetoric) are trying to enact social change around issues of sexuality, gender and race. All they want is control. They are ‘educated’ and they know best, so they are the ones who will tell us what we can or cannot think, do or say. They want ‘change’ but not real change. All they really want is for you to obey them, to do exactly what they say, they are the experts, they know best.

This collectivist nonsense is all wrapped up in ‘social justice’ but the bottom line is the same. They want Iron Man totalitarianism, you must agree with them, and if you don’t, you will be arrested, thrown in jail, and silenced. It will be for the best, it will help maintain the collective, it will make the world a better place, because they say that it will, and they are right, and everybody else is wrong.

What social justice warriors really want is a communist society, with a mass of order following workers being dictated to and controlled by a select controller class (them), just as is happening today in the slave labour camp called China. SJW's are control freaks. They are the wannabe co-ordinator class of a politically correct communist hellhole. You must grovel, you must obey, and if you don’t you will be called a racist, sexist, homophobic bigot and be ostracised from the new totalitarian paradise that they are creating for all of us.

Sorry, big rant there, but that’s what you get here on my blog.

The original comic book Civil War had to end with a defeat for freedom, because that defeat reflects what is actually happening in America then, and today. Forget ‘conspiracies’ what is democracy, other than a competition between control freak authoritarian mind-sets, of people looking to control the top-down, centralised control system? That is what America is. That is what the UK is. That is what democracy is. Vote for a controller. If you don’t want a controller, tough luck, you’re going to get one anyway. And that isn’t even mentioning the controllers behind the political puppets, the controllers you elect who you don’t even get to see or hear about. That is democracy, and democracy is freedom, even though it’s not.

I enjoyed this book because it takes the defeat of freedom that happens in the original Civil War comic book and retells the end of the story, showing that an anarchist society (meaning freedom from the violent coercion of the state), and based on the no-harm principle, can actually work.

We all instinctively knew that Iron Man was the villain in Civil War, that his argument was weak, that it advocated slavery to government and that his idea of ‘order’ was fascism. But he won, and we all accept his idea of control and totalitarianism in our own lives, even though we know that it is wrong.

We demonstrate this when we go out to vote time after time after time for a new version of Iron Man to rule over us.  The option advocated by Captain America in this comic book, the idea that you should be free as long as you don’t harm anyone, is not available at the ballot box. You don’t get freedom through voting between an old or new slavemaster; of course you don’t, yet that’s what we do when we vote.

Civil War #1 then is a look at the possibility of freedom from a centralised control system, of experts, hen-pecking, telling us what we can and cannot do and say, and what is good or bad for us. It offers us the choice between freedom and tyranny that we should have in our real world, yet because of our acquiescence to government, fail to realise is even there.

Here’s a closely guarded secret that you won’t hear the pretty people on tell lie vision discuss. We do have a choice.  We don’t have to choose between a red or blue control system of henpecking authoritarian beaurucrats. In this comic book the choice is easy. Iron Man totalitarianism, or Captain America freedom and the no harm principal. However, in the real world that choice is hidden, with the corporate elite’s doing their best to hide it from us, and with social justice warrior twerps thinking they are making the world a better place, when all they are doing is maintaining the current paradigm of totalitarian control. Their change is stuck in the old control system paradigm, but the possibility of real change does exist.

There is a choice in the real world, as there is in this comic book, but the human slavery control system is not going to broadcast it from their propaganda ‘programming’ machines.

The choice is between voting for slavery, for control systems, or to abstain from voting altogether, to withdraw your consent to be governed. That’s the new paradigm, that’s the one thing that we all need to do en-masse in order to break free from the tyranny that has controlled and manipulated us for far too long.

Civil War #1 is a worthwhile comic book because it continues a story that had an unsatisfying ending, and because it reveals a truth about the society that we are living in today. The truth is that freedom exists, but it can only exist outside of a centralised control system called government.

Iron Man was the winner in the original Civil War, and Captain America was led away in handcuffs. In this version of Civil War, the battle for freedom continues, and just like in the real world, the struggle for independence, for genuine human emancipation from the tyrannical top down control system that is government never ends. Most fight for control, the few fight for individual freedom. Join the few, fight against collectivism, and fight to uphold the no harm principle as advocated by fictional heroes, and their real world counterparts as well.


Rating: 8/10 (Civil War lives again, and freedom is still an option)

Comic Review: Planet Hulk #1- Captain Pony-Tail & His Pet T-Rex

Writer: Sam Humphries
Artist: Marc Laming
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Released: 20th May 2015



I’ve often wondered, and reading Planet Hulk #1 has made me think about it again, that the only thing that makes a comic book hero an actual ‘hero’ is that he fights against dictators.

The hero stands up for ‘democracy, and freedom.’ That is what he does, and that is why he is a hero. The unquestioned assumption of course being that democracy equates to freedom.

So what happens when a democracy becomes compromised? What happens when obscenely wealthy people purchase the democracy, and propagandise the people through their media manipulation machines, thus making the democracy a sham, an empty charade where the people are not as ‘free’ as they might think that they are?

What happens when change is impossible, when the political parties represent not the people that vote for them, but the people who fund them? What happens when a democracy becomes nothing more than a dictatorship of the wealthy, and people go along with it in the hope that they can at least make a decent living out of the corrupt situation that they have found themselves living in?

Where are the comic book heroes to be found in such a situation? Where are the comic book heroes in 2015? What do they do, what do they say, and do they even deserve to be labelled as 'heroes?' Let's jump into the larger than life world of comic books, and see what the heroes of today are getting up to.

Heroes in Marvel comics of 2015 come in many different shapes and sizes, but they all do one of two things:

1- They fight against fictional bullies and dictators (whilst ignoring real ones like the western backed gangster family in control of Saudi Arabia) and pretend that democracy in the west is not broken.
2- They become ‘social justice warriors,’ and fight for all of the politically correct ‘freedoms’ that are pushed by the mainstream media, the same media that is ran and controlled by the people who run and control the sham democracy.

I think it's safe to say that Marvel comic books of 2015 focus mainly on evil dictators, and social justice warrior issues. The writers are almost 100% feminist neo-liberal in their world-views and frequently pat themselves on the back for having stories that deal with issues related to race, sex or gender. Their idea of controversial is what would have been controversial thirty years ago, not what is actually controversial today.

Why am I bringing all of this up in a review of Planet Hulk #1? It's because that backdrop informs what I am now going to say about this particular comic book.

Planet Hulk #1 has a simple story, and reads like any other mainstream comic book that you will find in your comic book shop today. It doesn’t have as many zombies or third-wave feminist empowered young girls as most of the other junk books on the shelves, but its overarching assumptions are very familiar.

The book’s villain is an evil, world controlling dictator. This dictator (Doctor Doom) sits on a thrown and orders people to do his bidding. People follow his orders (just as they would do in a democracy btw) and the world is a horrible place that needs the help of some comic book heroes. Captain America is one of these heroes, and as we begin this story he is a pony-tailed gladiator who rides around on a T-Rex. He works for said evil dictator in order to help his friend, Bucky. The book is about fighting, and if you like fighting you’ll like the book.

Oh, I almost forgot. You also get a backstory about how a place called ‘Greenland’ got to be radiated, and thus turned into a big monster play-park. The story might be fun, but only for those under the age of about ten years old. This add-on story is about monsters, and more fighting. So again, if you like fighting, you'll like this bit as well, and if you like monsters fighting then this will really make your day.

Here’s how I read Planet Hulk #1. Captain America is a US marine, a man who is fighting not for a great cause, but because he wants to help his buddy. I’ve read interviews with real soldiers, and when they are asked what they were fighting for their answer is normally the same. They were fighting to help their friends, not America, not democracy, not freedom, they are fighting for their friends, and their friends are fighting for them. Their objective is to get home safely, and if they have to murder people to do so, well, they’ll do it, a lot.

Don’t ask the soldiers why they are occupying a foreign country, and don’t question why they would agree to do such a thing in the first place. You don’t question the troops, and you certainly don’t criticise the troops. They are heroes, just like Captain America. What they actually do is not important. You thank them for your freedom, and you don’t question anything that they do.

Do you see the problem here?

I don’t have to spell it out, do I? You have a culture being created, being celebrated in comic books like Planet Hulk #1, where questioning is something that you just don’t do. But then look at the comic book again and look at the villains. Who are they?

Who are the villains in Planet Hulk #1?

It’s not Doom. He’s the face of it, but look at what he actually does. All he is doing is sitting in a chair. He’s not killing anybody. He’s not forcing people to do anything. All he is doing is giving orders, and people are obeying him.

Doom has an army of ‘Thors’ who fly around subjugating the local population on his behalf. This army of Thors rain death and destruction from the sky, targeting civilians as they do so, indiscriminately using violence to sucessfully complete their missions.

The Thors are the villains, the SOLDIERS. Doom is a politician, the president, and the man who gives orders, but he doesn’t do the actual killing himself, that is what his order following Thor/Soldiers are doing.

The villain in this book is not Doctor Doom. The villains are the people who follow his orders, the Thors, the SOLDIERS.

How do comic book readers read this book, and then look at their own soldiers as heroes? The Thors are soldiers, but they are not heroes. Soldiers are never heroes, because people who follow orders are not acting under moral law. They are voluntarily giving away their moral responsibilities, and acting in an immoral way that is inconsistent with the actions of a good, moral person. This is what soldiers do. It’s what soldiers always do. It’s a part of the job. You cannot be an order following soldier and also be a good moral person, the two things are completely incompatible. People might not like to hear this truth, but truth is what it is, and it needs to be said.

After acknowledging that order following soldiers are not heroes, the book then uses the ultimate order following soldier (Captain America) and attempts to portray him as the hero of the narrative. It’s already contradictory, that a man who follows orders is a hero, but then look at what he is actually doing in this book.  He is also working for Doctor Doom, accepting a mission where he is to murder somebody, just on the say so of Doom. His rationale of course being that he is doing it for his friend, the same rationale I discussed previously in this review.

What is this comic book saying?

To me, it’s saying two things. Firstly, that it’s bad to be an order following Thor/soldier, but if you are doing what you are doing in order to help your buddy (remember, the cry of all soldiers) then, well, that’s okay, you a good moral person now.

I guess that if you are following orders to help your buddies then morality no longer counts? You are not a villain anymore. You are Captain America now.

Tell that to the Nuremberg trials of 1945/6 and see if they’ll buy it. They won’t, and do you know why they won’t? They won’t buy it because it’s BS. You are always morally responsible for the results of your actions, no friendships, no orders, and no excuses. If you do evil things, the only person responsible is YOU.

Do you see the insanity, the self-delusion, and the practised ignorance of reality that is on display here in this (very typical) comic book? It’s quite incredibly really, and that’s what you have going on in most mainstream comic books in 2015. An acknowledgement that following orders is probably not a good thing, but this idea that if you are doing it to help your friends then that’s perfectly okay, and even admirable.

It’s madness, pure madness, encouraged in comic books, like Planet Hulk #1, by Sam Humphries, and on display in countless other Marvel, DC and independent comic books that are on the market today.

Is the world mad, or is it just asleep? They understand that western democracies are broken, don’t they? They understand that following orders is what the Nazi’s did, and that is why we call them ‘evil’ don’t they?

They have to understand, and yet they (I’m talking about the writers and readers of contemporary comic books here) are ignoring these two issues.

I’ll read other reviews of this book and they’ll talk about the plot, the art, the characters. I know they will. The deeper issues will not be discussed. My review will be the weird, ignored one. I know that is going to happen, because that is what always happens. And so I put out this review for one reason only, for the sake of my own conscience. I saw what was going on, and whilst others remained silent, I refused to say ‘cool,’ and ignore what was going on. I’m the bad guy who told the comic book reading world that their emperor is not wearing any clothes. Somebody had to do it, sorry, but it had to be done.


Rating: 4/10 (Get it if you want to see a pony-tailed Captain America riding a T-Rex) 

Comic Review: Secret Wars #2 (of 8)- Delicious

Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Essad Ribic
Colours: Ive Svorcina
Main Cover artist: Alex Ross
Publisher: Marvel
Released: 13th May 2015


Secret Wars #2 is a delicious all you can eat buffet of a comic book that leaves you well satisfied and eager to return to the Marvel (ous) restaurant of superhero scrumptiousness as soon as is humanly possible.

The plot is simple. We are introduced to a brand new comic book world called ‘Battleworld.’ Doctor Doom is in charge. He controls everything. His law is the only law. His subjects worship him not just as a ruler, not just as a king, and not just as a god, but as the God, the creator of everything, the alpha, omega, and you know the rest, the big man in the old testament, yes that God, the only God.

Lots of things are happening on this Battleworld, but if you know anything about the real world concept of the ‘New World Order’ then it will be easy to understand.

What is the New World Order? It is the world that is to be created after WW3, after the horrendous death and destruction that takes place on this planet leaves people crying out for a centralised control system that will give them a guarantee of peace and prosperity and an end to all future wars. They will have that guarantee, but they will also find themselves living in a prison-cell.

This New World Order will be comprised of one religion, one judiciary system and one army enforcing the dictates of a centralised control system of unaccountable autocrats. That is exactly what is happening in the Battleworld of Secret Wars #2. Doctor Doom is the centralised control system and religion. Dr Strange heads up the judiciary, and a team of Thors make up the world Police/Army.

The only difference between this book and our own world is that in Secret Wars #2 the world is controlled solely by Doctor Doom and his group of specially selected order followers. In the real New World Order system the control will not go to one single person, but a group of elitist autocrats modelled on the EU or Chinese communist system.

However, if you want to look at it from the Christian prophesy point of view then perhaps this really is exactly what is going to happen? That would mean that the character of Doctor Doom is the comic book version of the Antichrist, the false Messiah of Revelations.

Take your pick between the two theories, secular or biblical. I myself lean towards the former, but either one could be correct. I guess we’ll find out as the book (and our own world) progresses. If it’s a team of heroes that are going to beat Doom then it will be a secular reading, but if it’s just one man leading an army against Doom (who could it be?) then we could well be looking at a biblical interpretation here.

Structurally speaking, this book has to introduce its readers to a huge new comic book world. That can be tricky, but writer Jonathan Hickman deals with the problem with ease. He begins with the tried and trusted method of introducing the world through the eyes of a new initiate. That new initiate is a young Thor, a character we both know and enjoy, so already we are at ease with the story. The book then hints at a discovery that might upset the status quo of this new world, a discovery that readers of issue #1 will already be well aware of. That’s clever, and very enjoyable for the reader as we already know more about what is happening than the characters in the book. The reader feels like he has special insight, and that is always a good feeling to have as a reader, and helps to clear any sense of confusion that you might have in reading what is potentially a very confusing story about a strange and disorientating new world. This world is then further clarified for the reader with a demonstration of how disputes are settled, and the book closes with a dramatic, super hero action packed scene of violent confrontation and threat to the status quo.

It’s a big book, but that solid, clever, enjoyable, and expertly crafted structure makes it easy to assimilate all of the information, to contextualise what is going on, and to enjoy it all as a good comic book story. It’s a new world, but it’s never a confusing one. We know exactly what is going on, and the sense of anticipation is deliciously enticing throughout the entire book. All of this is helped of course when the art looks top notch, as it does here. That art, by the tremendously talented Esad Ribic, is superb and the entire book is a joy not just to read, but to look at as well. I’ve talked a lot about the themes, plot and structure, but if this book was in Japanese it would still be a glorious, beautiful looking comic book.

This is how you put together a decent comic book. Develop a strong backbone idea that resonates with contemporary societal anxieties and concerns, formulate a tried and tested narrative framework, load it up with interesting personalities, throw in some action that will threaten the status quo, and get a talented artistic team to make your vision come to life.

That is what you have here in Secret Wars #2. This event is just beginning, but it’s got off to a flying start. I know what people think about comic book events, we’ve been let down so many times recently, but banish all thoughts of Avengers versus X-Men, and give this one a go. Secret Wars 2015 is in an entirely different league to that big pointless punch-up, and this is coming from a guy who not only bashes Marvel on a weekly basis, but has vowed more than once to never read any event story-line ever again.

If you are a comic book fan then you’ll want to read this book. I know it’s Marvel, and I know that they put out a lot of nonsense, but this book is a bit special.

Far too many contemporary comic books (and movies) devolve into self-aware, post-modern analysis of circle-jerk geek irrelevance, and the last thing I want to do is to read comic books written by a bunch of fanboys stroking their own egos and congratulating themselves on how clever they all are.

I don’t see any of that annoying smugness in Secret Wars #2. What I do see is a comic book that has dropped the stupid quips and knowing jokes and has buckled down to tell a good, serious, entertaining story. How refreshing, how entertaining, and how absolutely delicious it all is.


Rating: 10/10 (Yummy)