Marvel’s Civil War: The Death of the Superhero and Rise of Comic Book Collectivism

Article by: Mark.A Pritchard (aka Rorshach1004/SwindonPoet)
Date: 11th September 2015



‘The Iron has spent the last six years isolating us from the rest of the world. They have embargoed our trading partners. Threatened those who help us. Spread lies.’ (Captain America in Civil War #4-2015)

Do American (and western) comic book ‘geek’ readers see the irony in that statement?

The words come from the mouth of Captain America, the ultimate American comic book hero, and what he is describing (and decrying) is US foreign policy since the end of WW2. He is outlining a deliberate strategy of economic isolation/suffocation deliberately designed to achieve hegemony and domination over an entire planet. It is a policy that has led to the deaths of millions of innocent people who never had a chance, people who died because of the deliberate policies coming from western democracies.

The original Civil War, by Mark Millar.

That is the policy of the west. That is the policy of the ‘heroes.’

Will readers see the statement as a critique of what America actually is? Will they see the reality behind the statement, or will it just be another piece of comic book story-telling that is read, forgotten, and seen as play-time fun and games that has nothing whatsoever to do with the real world?

My guess, and it’s just a guess, is that readers will read it as part of the story in Civil War #4, and will leave it at that. Captain America has given a speech that could easily have come out of the mouth of Saddam Hussain, or Muammar Gaddafi, or Bashar al-Assad, or Vladimir Putin. It’s a speech that could have been given by any leader that has seen his country targeted for destruction by western ‘democratic’ neo-liberal corporate hegemony.

What would happen if readers carefully analysed the statement made by Captain America, and looked at what has happened in the real world over the past few decades? How would they see the US as a force for good in the world? They would be forced to re-evaluate, and to re-consider what they personally are doing in the world, how they, through paying their taxes, and supporting the state, are complicit in what has happened, what is happening and what it going to happen next.

What is going to happen next is war, a big war waged against Iran and Russia, the last two holdouts against western imperialism. It will be called World War 3, and it will be the last war. The end result will be a nuclear holocaust, a tiny population of world-controllers, and a slave population of five hundred million people.

Comic book readers need to put down the comic books, look at recent world history, and decide whether or not they want to go along with the unfolding agenda. They do have a choice; they don’t have to go along with it. They have a voice, and they can use it, if they want to.

The new 'Civil War' by Charles Soule.

This is not silly conspiracy stuff, it’s recent world history, and it’s happening right now as I type these words. Writer Charles Soule puts his words of truth into the mouth of Captain America at the beginning of Civil War #4, but then the book unfolds in a convoluted, contradictory fashion that makes pretty much no sense whatsoever, thus diminishing the impact of the opening statement. However, the statement is made, and it cannot be unmade. It’s truth in a genre that sees very little truth at all, and now it’s up to us to decide whether or not we want to face that truth, or just go back to reading comic books as usual.

US superhero comic books don’t do heroes anymore. Tony Stark won the original Marvel Comics Civil war, and the superheroes became agents of the state. Captain America, the symbol of individualism, of freedom from state control (Yes, I know it’s ironic, but perhaps he’s just represented the old America?), surrendered, and was murdered. Mark Millar wrote that ending in 2007. It was the correct ending to write.

Contemporary comic book heroes are collectivists, controlled by the state, working for the state. The era of individualism died with the death of Captain America in the original Civil War. What has followed since has been painful to watch, with Marvel and DC comics celebrating collectivised, order following, ‘heroes’ and the death of individualism and true heroism. The independent, moral, liberty minded heroes have become unthinking soldiers. I'm sorry, but soldiers are not heroes, no matter what the propaganda coming out of the state tries to tell you. Soldiers follow orders. Right and wrong does not figure in their actions, morality does not figure in their actions, they do what they are told to do, no questions asked, see Bradley Manning for more details.

Marvel’s original Civil War story-arc and this new extension of the original story (by Charles Soule) reveals a brutal truth about the death of individualism in post 9/11 America. That truth might be clouded and hidden within a jumble of plot twists, super-powered personality issues and contradictions, but the truth is there, and is something that we all need to understand.

Art from Yu, on the new Civil War #4

As the US Empire continues to crumble and morph into a one-world government, at least we all know how it happened, and who was responsible. The coming New World Order was made possible by the economic strangulation of sovereign states, a siege policy that ends in war or capitulation. All countries that have refused to be dictated to by US led corporate, neo-liberal hegemony have been under economic siege for decades, and those still holding out are being targeted by western intelligence agencies, NGO’s, mercenaries and the western backed lunatic army known as the Islamic state.

The policy of total, global domination is at the centre of western, neo-liberal political consensus. When you vote, you vote for war. All parties belong to the cult of neo-liberalism; your only choice is between personalities, not policy differences. Corporate lebensraum has made the world what it is today. Do you like it?

I personally am not a fan.

So who is to blame? It’s not the politicians or the liars on the television. They are there because we allow them to be there. We built their houses. We bred children to be used as their slaves, and now our children have guns, and the guns are turned at us.

We are to blame.

We built neo-liberalism.

We built it, brick by brick, vote by vote, order followed, after order followed. We refused to look as we slaved away at its construction, but we built it. It is our fault. The world is the way it is today because we had free choice, and we decided to give away our freedoms to the illusion of authority, because men and women calling themselves ‘Government’ ordered, and we chose to obey them.

Iron Man, a symbol of collectivism over individualism.

We shout and scream at the individual pawns, yet we play their game, we vote, we get what we deserve, we are willing dupes, and we have allowed ourselves to be used, abused, divided and killed. The world could be a beautiful place of free choice, free association, individualism and self-determination, but we didn’t want that. Instead, we chose collectivism, and if we continue to be spectators in our own lives then what happens next will be exactly what we all deserve.

Hoping for change will not change a thing, action is what is needed.

Real life heroes are individuals, people who do things not for ideology, reward or status, but because it’s the right thing to do. Change comes from action, from doing something, not hoping for somebody else to do it for you. Government kills all ideals of action and individualism and replaces it with the all-encompassing collective merged prison identity of the state.

We are living during a time of neo-liberal, cross-party consensus tyranny. We can change it, if we want to, but here’s my opinion on the matter. I think that some people would rather read comic books and go along with it, and some people would rather join it, than fight it.

A lot of people have become lazy, immoral, complacent, greedy and selfish. A lot of people are scared, or apathetic, or perhaps they are just confused? Learnt helplessness is a powerful weapon of the neoliberal corporate elites, and it’s pumped out 24/7 from their mainstream media indoctrination centres masquerading as ‘news.’  The message is to comply and that all resistance to neo-liberalism is futile. You are small, you cannot do anything, stand-down, comply, do what you are told.

Complicity, fear, apathy and confusion together with learnt helplessness imprison the programmed, collectivised masses and the end result is millions of people complying with their own enslavement and serving the system that imprisons them all.

Choose Cap, choose individualism over collectivism.

Individualism has become a bad word. It is being discouraged, because it is the individual that will destroy the collectivised state. We need to stand up, as individuals, not as a group. We need to re-learn how to say NO, and to do things for ourselves. That’s what I think. That’s what I think about the world today.

Comic books reflect reality, and the reality is that we have become collectivised slaves to state authority. Tony won, collectivism won. Cap lost, individualism lost. The world we live in today, the western world, the comic book world, it’s a defeated world. But is it over? Oh no, not yet.

I’m a scrappy bloke, and I’m up for a comeback fight. Cap died, but death is temporary in comic books, and here’s a truth, it’s temporary in the real world as well.

We die, sure, but the soul cannot die. The soul is immortal. The body dies, but we return, the fight does not end, it goes on, we live, learn, balls things up, but it’s never over.

Neo-liberal collectivist ideology might be in the ascendant right now, but that doesn’t mean that you have to go along with it.  I’m up for a fight. I’m up for saying no, and I’m ready to kick neo-liberal collectivist slave ideology in the balls. I’m not a superhero, but I’m not a slave either. I’m an individual, and individualism is the silver bullet that will kill the murderous ideology of neo-liberal state collectivism.

My blog is small, and it might only be read by a handful of people, but that won’t stop me from saying what needs to be said, and from talking about what is happening in the world today. Comic books reflect cultural consensus, but cultural consensus changes. We are living during a time of rising state collectivism, a time of war, lies and propaganda, but it doesn’t always have to be like that.  We can turn things around, but the only way that we are going to get out of our self-dug pit of collectivism is to realise that we are standing in a hole in the first place.

Captain America 3- Civil War: The Choice is Between Collectivism & Human Emancipation

Article by: Mark. A Pritchard (aka Rorshach1004)
Date: 28th August 2015


The original Civil War arc in Marvel comics (written by Mark Millar) was all about the registration of superheroes. Captain America was against registration. Iron Man was for it. Cap thought it was anti-freedom. Tony Stark argued that it was needed in order to protect the people. It’s the old argument, fear versus freedom. We all know how that went in the real world (NSA, Patriot Act) don’t we?

In Marvel comics (SPOILER ALERT) it goes pretty much the same way. At the end of the Civil War Arc Captain America meekly surrenders and fear wins over liberty. It’s a terribly depressing ending, and is carried on in the new Civil War arc (by Charles Soule) that is part of the current Secret Wars event in Marvel comics. Quick note, get the book, it’s great.

So, in Marvel comics all of the superheroes must be registered with the government, and everything they do is monitored in order to 'keep them safe.’

In other words, it’s a soft tyranny, centrally controlled and enforced with a legal mandate over the use of coercive violence.

It’s France, it’s England, it’s America, and it’s every country in the west. All are enslaved underneath the loving, caring eyes of big brother government. And how do they get away with this soft tyranny, both in the comics and in the real world? Through the use of a heavily propagandised, relentlessly programmed ideology called ‘Democracy.’

Democracy has no regard for moral truth, individual liberty, or spiritual enlightenment. You vote for a master, and that’s exactly what you get. Democracy is about tyranny, order following, centralised control, collectivism, ‘sacrifice,' death for the system, joining a cult, becoming a brick in the wall, a cog in a machine of human enslavement. You better join it, or you will be punished for your failure to assimilate. I should know. That’s why I’m writing on my own personal blog, and not for some crappy comic book website.

Here’s a definition of the Borg from Star-Trek:

‘The Borg are a collection of species that have been turned into cybernetic organisms functioning as drones in a hive mind called the Collective, or the hive. The Borg's ultimate goal is "achieving perfection".

Here’s a quote from the hive-mind Borg themselves:

"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_(Star_Trek)

Does all of that sound familiar? To me, it sounds like the neoliberal, mainstream corporate hive mindset of TODAY.

If you fail to comply with the neo-liberal corporate (mainly Marxist), politically correct consensus then you are a thought criminal, to be ostracised and accused of crimes against the perfected, progressive collective. This is particularly true when it comes to today’s comic books. These politically correct vehicles of neo-liberal corporate consensus feature narratives that explore every single facet of identity politics, but fail to touch any of the vital, underlying issues of our times.

But what about the racist, sexist, misogynist, homophobic, Islamaphobic right-wingers? Their very existence disproves what I am saying here, right? They might not dominate the comic book industry, but look at Fox news and all of the other racist, right wing bigots in the mainstream. If the media really were so ‘neo-liberal’ as I suggest, then Fox news and all of the other right wing ‘bigots’ wouldn’t exist, right?

No, not really. I’ll explain why.

Are all of the people that identify themselves as ‘right-wingers’ primarily concerned with freedom, liberty and individualism? No, of course they are not. Some are, but they are in the minority. The vast majority of those on the ‘right’ of the political spectrum just want to get what they can from government, just like the left. They want to use the power of the state to line their own pockets. As the state has a monopoly over violence it’s natural that both left and right wingers would be doing all they can to influence it, and make it serve their own needs. Makes sense, right?

The main difference between the left and right is that the left wants to suck off the state, whilst the right wants to pay-off the state. That means that they both have one thing in common, that being the state.

The left sees the state as Mommy, and the right sees the state as Daddy. Mommy protects, and Daddy corrects. Both are wrong. The state is neither Mom, nor Dad, it’s coercion through violence, always has been, always will be. The left knows this, and so does the right. They know, and that’s why they both support the violence that is the state, as long as that violence benefits them, of course.

In America (and the EU) today there is an alliance between the collective left, the collective right and the state. The state and large business collude, and as a business grows it can afford to pay off those working within the state apparatus with bribes/donations. As for the left, it needs the state like a baby bird needs his Mommy.

The state feeds the baby left, funnelling money into welfare handouts and their intellectually vacuous educational institutions that teach reliance on the state and victimhood to mythological oppressors like evil white men and patriarchy. The state is happy to do this as it keeps the left on the plantation, dependent upon its largesse and unable to identify the real oppressor, which of course is the state itself.

It’s not a particularly complicated equation. The collective right uses the state, and the collective left desperately needs the state. The distinction between the two collective ideologies of left and right blurs into one ideology, that being the ideology of collectivism under state control.

The end result is what we have today, a handful of large corporations paying off the state to ensure they maintain a monopoly over the world’s resources, a bankrupt intellectual class of leftist fools, and millions of people dependent upon state handouts. The mainstream political class in the west then is reduced to a choice between left and right collectivists, all reliant on the state, all supporters of the state. There are plenty of wannabe Iron Men, whilst Captain America doesn’t even get a mention.

Social control of the masses under collectivism is easy.  The status quo is maintained through a divide and conquer left versus right identity politics strategy relentlessly pushed from the aforementioned government sponsored collectivist left and their mainstream educational programs, and their right-wing ‘foes’ on channels like Fox news. This divide and conquer strategy is funded by the collectivist right in big business and the collectivist left in government. The young are taught all about identity politics, but know nothing about the big violent ape in the room.

That ape has a gun, and his name is Collectivist Statism.

Democracy in the west is exposed as a lie, and is nothing more than a combination of left and right collectivism that is funnelled through the violently coercive power of the centralised state. It is legitimised by something called ‘democracy,’ where the slaves on the plantation get to vote between left fist or right fist every few years or so.

This illusion of choice ensures that nothing of major importance ever changes. The only change allowable within this current system of soft tyranny is the race, gender and sexuality of the oppressor. This is exactly what Marvel and DC comics are all about in 2015, and that is why they say nothing and mean nothing.

The problem isn’t that businesses are getting too large and powerful. You should be rewarded for success, that takes hard work, that takes creativity and drive, and it moves the human species forward as your competitors struggle to keep up, and even overtake you in their hard work and innovation.

The problem is that the wealthy are the only people that can afford to pay for the violent protection of the state, a state that has given itself a monopoly over the use of legal violence. Their competitors cannot afford to pay, so they end up failing, not because they didn't work hard enough and not because they weren’t good or innovative enough, but because they couldn't pay for the violently coercive gorilla state that has been given a monopoly over the use of violence.

If you can pay the Gorilla, great, if you can’t, tough luck kid. The end result is a minority of obscenely rich individuals who own and control everything as they can afford to pay off the state, and the 99% of the rest of us fighting amongst ourselves for the scraps that fall from the table of the lucky few.

What we need to do is to level the playing field, and the only way to do that is to abandon the empty lie that is our programmed devotion to the violent, destructive, inhumane, coercive force of the state.

How do we do this?

We remove our consent. We stop voting, for anybody. We stop supporting violent coercion, and we stop supporting the monolithic oppressor that enslaves us all.

Our oppressor is collectivist statism, and we need to stop legitimising it through the ballot box. A violent revolution is not necessary. What is necessary is peaceful, non-compliance with our collective, Borg oppressors.

I can already hear the fear kicking in:

‘What will we do without the state?’

‘How will we protect ourselves from ISIS, or whatever new bogeyman that crops up in the msm next week?’

‘What about the roads?’

What about the children? Somebody think about the children?’

What we will do is evolve. We will talk it out, come to arrangements, make deals, choose for ourselves, defend ourselves, do things for ourselves. We are smart people, and we will adapt. Yes, the beginning will be difficult, but nothing worth having is ever easy.

The number one goal for all liberty minded individuals in the world today should be the abolition of the state. Let’s get rid of it, and let’s start living our lives as free human beings.

Before I finish off, and because this article is supposed to be about the new Captain America 3 ‘Civil War’ movie from Marvel, here’s a quick message for all of the comic book fans looking forward to that movie.

Let’s join Captain America and leave the Iron Men collectivists in the dustbin of history where they rightfully belong. The era of enslavement to the state is coming to an end. People are looking for something new, and that something new is a world where the power of the centralised state no longer dominates our lives. Don’t be scared, don’t give in to fear, as you already know, the only thing to fear, is fear itself.

Take care of each other, and spread the word. Change is inevitable, let’s make it real change this time. A new age is dawning. It’s an age free from the violently coercive power of the state, and free from the robotic, machine-man, destructive ideology of collectivism. It’s a world based on liberty, free choice, morality and respect for the individual. We can have this world, if we want it, but the first barrier that we need to clear is the barrier to human emancipation that is the modern, democratic, centralised, collectivised left/right state.