Showing posts with label Marvel comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marvel comics. Show all posts

Thursday, 6 April 2017

Royals #1- A Message to Marvel Comics


STORY BY
ART BY
Jonboy Meyers
COLORS BY
Ryan Kinnaird
ReLEASE DATE
5TH APRIL 2017
PUBLISHER
Marvel Comics




‘We forgot the meaning of love’ drones the laughably juvenile dialogue, and off they go into space, a bunch of cutesy lesbians, trusting in some obviously villainous bloke who told them there’s a special ‘magic’ prize hidden at the end of the Care Bear rainbow in space.

And Marvel still doesn’t understand why readers are turning away from their books?

What exact readership demographic is Marvel looking to attract here? After reading Royals #1 I can only assume that it’s the pre-teen girls who are questioning their sexuality demographic, because there’s not a lot in this for anyone else, especially young boys. If I had read this book as a ten year old version of myself then I would have been 100% convinced that I had just accidentally read a girls comic book, and not a very good one either.

Okay Marvel, keep writing girly books where you try to convince everybody (including yourselves) that there’s no difference between the genders, but recognise that these comic books will only ever appeal to social justice warrior activists, and your sales will continue to decline. Do you really want to destroy yourselves with gender neutral love and feelings stories? All you are really doing here is whining that the world isn’t the way that you want it to be, and it’s getting a bit embarrassing.

Marvel, my old mate, it really is getting a bit silly now. You really need to stop with the leftist, race-gender-sexuality activism. The world that you are pushing for is a communistic world of perfect equality, where gender, race, politics, sexuality, religion, and everything else is merged into a creepy Borg collectivist whole of unquestioning love and acceptance. The world, the real world, can never, and will never be like that, and the more you try to achieve your impossible Marxist Nirvana, the worse that things will get for all of us.

Wake up Marvel. Take the red pill option that the rest of us are taking. We are forgiving people, and will look back at this period in your history when you got infiltrated by Marxist activists posing as writers, have a laugh at how silly it all was, and move on.

Get with the times Marvel. Recognise that the world is full of real diversity away from the Marxist deceptions of forced integration and mass immigration into western countries. Celebrate real diversity Marvel, real diversity away from the multicultural lies that are being rejected at the ballot box, in England, America and Europe.

Stop pretending that we are all the same Marvel. Reclaim national pride. America is great. Be proud of who you are. Stop pushing leftist victim groups as heroes. Stop hating on straight, white men. Fire the activist leftists who pose as writers. Get back to telling good stories, with recognisably masculine and feminine characters, who are defined by their actions, and not identity politics and how much of a ‘victim’ they are on the liberal scale of officially sanctioned oppressed groups.

You can do it Marvel. You were great before, and you can be great again. All it will take is a little red pill, a touch of courage, and the ability to recognise that you are walking towards a cliff, and it’s time to stop, change direction, and start walking back home. We are waiting here for you Marvel, we miss you Marvel, and we desperately want you back.


Rating for comic: 2/10 (A load of silly old, irrelevant pap) 

Wednesday, 15 March 2017

Mighty Captain Marvel #0 (Review): Feminist Turds in Space





Written by Margaret Stohl
Art by Emilio Laiso, Ramon Rosanas, Rachelle Rosenberg
Published by Marvel Comics
Release date: December 21, 2016




I’ve finished my latest novel, Red Pill Tales from the Alt-Right: Volume Two (please check it out, it’s all over amazon), and now I have some time to read, relax, and see what is going on in the comic book world. How bad has it got? Is it all Donald Trump bashing, SJW, feminist, open-border, pro-Islam, anti-white man insanity, like I suspect? Let’s jump into ‘Mighty Captain Marvel #0’ and find out.

Okay, we are starting in a therapy session with our brave, short hair heroine, and her cat is there, and it’s all jokes and silliness. She’s super awesome, because, well, of course she is, what did you expect from MarDisney? But being awesome is hard work, so she can’t sleep, because of awesomeness. Okay then, that’s a problem that that nobody in the world (bar Donald Trump) can identify with, and immediately I know that I am back in MarDisney, the world of perfect females and identity politics running amok, where progressive victim-groups are portrayed as galaxy conquering superheroes.

Oh, a cat, how cute.
Oh man, can I go back to writing a new book now? Nope, not yet, you must read MarDisney, and you must suffer for your white male patriarchal sins. Right them, so back to the story of Ms Perfect BBC haircut in space.

It appears that she’s helping space refugees get to earth. THIS IS NOT A JOKE. No, really, she’s in space, helping refugee aliens get to earth. I wrote a story about that in my Red Pills book, it was a joke, and now I’m reading it in a comic book. Bloody hell, what are they like? Lefty, that’s what they are like, very, very lefty.

Now she’s moaning about being a high-achiever, yep, common problem with feminists these days don’t you know. Come on story, do something. Here comes a bald bloke with a (hey, it’s me in a comic book) oh no, he’s just another male comic book cuck, a delivery boy with a parcel for our great sexless wonder. What’s in the box? So exciting, what could it possibly be? Oh, it’s some of her old stuff, and now we are going to flashback mode to see how perfect she was as a kid.

Come on, DO SOMETHING.

Yep, there she is as a kid, getting an ‘A’ in physics, just like all of the other good feminists. It’s a thing you know. Physics and feminism go together like television and bullshit. It’s just a thing. Wow, now we are in a flashback where her own dad is being sexist against her, like that has ever been a thing since the 1950’s.

Here’s the direct quote from the story: Dad (to little Ms Perfect)- ‘Find yourself a nice boy. Heck, a nice astronaut and settle down.’

Come on, this is very, very, very, very silly. I’m 43 years old, and that kind of sexist bullshit wouldn’t even have been a thing when I was a kid. What the hell are they trying to do here? Silly question, because we all know exactly what they are doing. Once again they are portraying a member of one of their victim groups (this time it's women) as brave warriors fighting against the all powerful, oppressive patriarchy that apparantly only exists in white, western, democratic countries.

Oh MarDisney, call me ‘paranoid’ but I’m starting to smell agenda all over this story. First strike is alien refugees, second strike is imaginary sexism, made worse by the fact that the sexist is her own father. That’s pretty low MarDisney, even for you.

A feminist winning? Yeah, keep dreaming love.
Right, I’m reading this digital comic book online as I’m typing, so they have one more strike and that’s it, I’m done. Let’s see. I’m 9:18 into the 17:13 comic book, how long do you think I’ll last before I can take no more of this shite? Let’s see.

So, Ms Perfect joins the airforce, and is the best at everything, obviously, and now she’s moaning about ‘all the voices that said I was nothing.’ Why were they saying that? Because she is a girl, no really, that’s what the story is doing here. It’s saying that girls are treated horribly in AMERICA just because they are girls, and remember, this is all taking place a couple of years ago. Going by her age in the comic book she can’t be any older than thirty, so all of this bad memory stuff must be fifteen years ago tops.

Fifteen years ago was 2002, so they are trying to tell readers that AMERICA in 2002 was some kind of misogynist hellhole for brilliant and talented young women.

FUCK OFF.

NO, REALLY.

FUCK RIGHT OFF.

That’s your third strike Captain Perfect, the comic ends for me at 9:55 of 17:13. I just can’t do this anymore. I can’t subject myself to anymore of this total and utter horseshit. I can’t take anymore of this imaginary world where women are a suppressed minority in western countries. I can’t take the madness of it all. How am I supposed to handle this wilful, agenda driven ignorance and hatred of reality itself?

Fuck it. That’s my review done. If this is what MarDisney is going to do as the entire planet experiences a red pill awakening, rediscovers national pride and rejects global leftism, then they are completely irrelevant. Fuck this comic. Please check out my new book, it’s a lot fucking better then this Ms Perfect piece of shit. Sorry, this piece of shit comic really wound me up, but fuck Marvel, they deserve to fucking die, and if they keep on laying turds like Mighty Captain Marvel #0 that’s exactly what is going to happen to them.


Rating for comic book: 0


If you are some kind of crazed masochist you can read the shit-fest comic book here (I do not recommend it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baj143Qq5ik


'Red Pill Tales from the Alt-Right: Volume Two' is available now on Amazon Kindle, and as a paperback. If you enjoy laughing at the crazed lunatics on the left, this is the book for you. Get your FREE sample below:

Kindle (UK): https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XKRQV2L
Kindle (US): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XKRQV2L
Paperback (UK): https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1520836678
Paperback (US): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1520836678






Wednesday, 2 December 2015

Reality Cat is worried about: New Comic Book Day (A webcomic about new comic book day)



Marvel Comics: New releases-2nd December 2015


1: All New All Different Avengers #2 (Threat book with the separated superheroes needing to get together in order to beat the outside threat. Umm, sounds like a western style ‘intervention’ is needed. )

2: All New Inhumans #1 (Superhero girl has the task of helping people out after a comic book catastrophe. Does she work for a NGO? Hey perhaps she can help out in Syria or the Ukraine as well?)

3: All New X-Men (2015) #1 (Brave teenage heroes fight against the prejudices of society. What year is this again? Perhaps it’s set in Saudi Arabia?)

4: Daredevil (2015) #1 (Daredevil is a district attorney now. Hey, perhaps he can investigate some real criminals for a change and not just cartoon gangsters? Nah, just kidding. I know that’s not going to happen. It’s the Kingpin again isn’t it?)

5: Doctor Strange (2015) #3 (Issue #1 was like a 1990’s Constantine comic book, but with all of the non PC edge taking out of it. If you want something safe and with Doctor Strange acting like a playboy professor, then this is the book for you.)

6: Extraordinary X-Men (2015) #3 (More humanity versus the mutants guff again. Something new, please?)

7: Guardians Of Infinity #1 (Friendly characters go on chucklesome adventures around the galaxy. Quips, puns and one-liners guaranteed.)

8: Howard The Duck (2015) #2 (Howard the bloody Duck? What year is this again?)

9: Invincible Iron Man (2015) #4 (Tony Stark has relationship issues. Lucky old Tony.)

10: Miracleman #5 (Do you like the 1980’s? If so, this is the book for you.)

11: Nova (2015) #2 (Nova has to save the world from an earthquake cause by a monster. Fracking?)

12: Red Wolf (2015) #1 (It’s about a cop, in samurai get up. Next…)

13: Spidey #1 (Young Spiderman worries about girls. One for the pre-teens.)

14: Star Wars 2015 #13 (Princess Leia against Darth Vader. You go girl.)

15: Totally Awesome Hulk #1 (Asian Hulk, no really.)

16: Vision (2015) #2 (A book about the vision family. Sounds intensely uninteresting.)











Wednesday, 18 November 2015

50-Word (Comic) Review- Starlord #1: Pretty much what you would expect




Writer: Sam Humphries
Art: Javier Garron
Publisher: Marvel (Disney)
Released: 18th November 2015


I’m like totally a rebel, and I like want to impress my dead Mum. Dad? What is a Dad? Anyway, this like female boss is like totally on my side, and I’m going to steal this spaceship to show how special I am. Wooooooshhhhh, off I go. Oh, I’m lost.


Rating: 4/10

Here’s a book about the bloke that everybody liked in that movie. He’s a loveable loser type. I find it very telling that one of the most popular new comic book heroes is a loser, telling because it’s the comic book industry reflecting readers back onto themselves. They see their readers as losers, so the heroes are losers as well, with the obvious difference being that in the real world comic book fans will always be losers, but in comics, they win, hence the appeal. So, is this book any good? If you want a personality based narrative about a loveable loser getting to win, get it. I couldn’t get anything out of it, but that’s because I am a comic book reader who wants to win for himself, not just read about winners, and that’s why I’ve started to do my own webcomics. Please check out the latest one here on my blog. It’s about BigFoot and Isis. The art isn’t as good as you will be used to, but I’m trying to say something about reality, about the real world, and you are not going to get that in Marvel/Disney comic books about loveable losers that get to win.









Wednesday, 4 November 2015

50 Word Review-Drax #1: CM Punk’s Pipe-Bomb Comic Book Fails to Ignite




Writers: CM Punk & Cullen Bunn
Artist: Scott Hepburn
Publisher: Marvel (Disney)
Released: 4th November 2015


Smart butt one-liners, quips, self-aware jokes, the book laughs at itself. Empty protagonist Drax runs on revenge/hatred. Punk commenting on his own life? CM railed against corporate WWE system of dull conformity, too legit, he quit. Here, he puts his name to just another corporate comic book. Fandom, or money?


Rating: 4/10

Drax #1 is ex-WWE wrestler CM Punk’s second attempt at (part) writing a comic book (the first was in the Feb 25th 2015 Thor annual). It’s co-written by established writer Cullen Bunn, and to me, the book reads like just another safe, corporate, Cullen Bunn narrative. It’s character based, daft, uncontroversial (not like Punk at all) and pretty much indistinguishable from any other Marvel comic book that you will find today. The story exists as mere background to the characters as they engage in witty banter, ‘cool’ dialogue, knowing asides and smart a*** comments. It’s going for that comic book ‘cool’ factor that made the last Avengers movie such an interminably bore to sit through, and I’m not impressed. CM Punk was all about anti-authority, rebellion and telling it like it is (or at least as he saw it), but I don’t detect ANY hint of that anti-corporate rebellion in this comic book. Pipe bomb? Nope, it’s not even a softly deflating balloon. It’s just another comic book, and as CM Punk was more than just another wrestler, this one has to go into my ever-increasing pile of comics bearing the scribbled legend, ‘Disappointing.’ I’m reading little of worth in contemporary comic books, and that’s why I’m starting to write my own webcomics on this blog. Please check them out. I know that the art is bad, but at least I’m trying to say something, and that’s a lot more than you can say about Drax #1.





Friday, 23 October 2015

50-Word-Review: The Uncanny Inhumans #1- Starring Christine Legarde as Medusa




Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Steve McNiven
Publisher: Marvel/Disney
Released: 21st October 2015


Medusa as Christine Lagarde, Hillary Clinton, Angela Merkel, totalitarians masquerading as liberators, protectors. Humanity enslaved to collectivised left, on the Daily Show/ CNN. Male emasculation as female liberation, cheat on your husband, in his face, no shame, immorality is tolerance, kill tradition, diversity a mantra, collectivisation, feminist New World Order.



Rating: 2/10


There’s two stories going on in ‘The Uncanny Inhumans #1# but they didn’t particularly grip me. The first one involves Black Bolt trying to get his son back from cartoon evil ‘Kang the Conqueror.’ The second story involves his wife (Queen Medusa) acting like a globalist politician, ‘Your world is our world. We will always fight to keep it safe.’ Medusa is the empowered boss of this book, working with what looks a UN approved superhero diversity team, appearing on collectivist, progressive media platforms (The Daily Show), and concluding her day by kissing her new boyfriend in front of her ex-husband’s (are they even divorced yet?) face. What does she think about her missing son? It is her son, as well as Black Bolt’s, right? We don’t know, as she never mentions it, she’s far too busy with her political agenda, and new boyfriend to care about a missing boy, even if he is her own son. Oh, by the way, she’s a heroine in this book, not a villain. Yep, what we have here is the typical ‘progressive’ feminist protagonist, more concerned with her career and personal pleasure than the welfare of her own family. She’s not a woman, she’s a representation of the very worst kind of man, but that’s third-wave feminism for you, and that’s exactly what you are getting in this comic book. Female empowerment is always pushed as a good thing as it emasculates men, denies the biological reality of femininity, and pushes females into positions of authority within the new state collectivist system of human enslavement. Females are encouraged to join this system where they can boss around/protect the poor innocent victim/voters that grovel at their feet in willing supplication. Females know what is best, because they are female, and they get to tell us all what to think, feel and do. If you disagree with them that means you are you are a misogynist bigot and are a danger to the wonderful new world order that is currently being ushered in by the wonderful progressive liberal writers working for globalist programmers Marvel/Disney comics. If you disagree with any of this progressive agenda then you are a barrier to ‘progress,’ to be ostracised from society and thrown in jail if you continue to speak up on any of these issues and invade the ‘safe space’ non-reality of all that push it. Hey guys, blokes, men, and any traditionally minded female who values family, respect, honour and real femininity over far-left communist inspired ideology. Why are you reading these comics? You do realise that they are attacking YOU, don’t you? I read them to expose this anti-human ideology, and to talk about it in these ‘reviews,’ because nobody else is doing it, and comic books are being given a free reign to push this collectivist crap. I have to write about it, because I disagree with what they are pushing, and I want to call them out on it. That’s my excuse for (occasionally) buying these horrible tools of Marxist/Globalist/FemiNazi propaganda. What is yours? 




* Bonus story is statist bull**** with an agent of the state rescuing a poor innocent helpless civilian/victim from evil white men with beards. Same old s***.
















Thursday, 22 October 2015

50 Word (Comic) Review: The Astonishing Ant-Man #1- Ants, the Ultimate Collectivists




Writer: Nick Spencer
Artist: Ramon Rosanas
Publisher: Marvel/Disney
Released: 21st October 2015



A tonne of exposition, dialogue from Ant-Man, sounds child-like, nothing adult about his words. Is this book for pre-teens? Art lacks detail, appears 2D, static, not impressed. Villains are businessmen, tech industry, inventors, innovators, and ‘libertarian.’ Oh dear, another book for the collectivist youth brigade then. I’ll pass. Goodbye Pants-Man.


Rating: 1/10

It took me a couple of pages to realise that this comic book isn’t really for adults. There’s something very simplistic, and childlike about the dialogue, almost like it has been designed for children under the age of thirteen. But would I give it to a kid? No, I wouldn’t. Here’s why. The main protagonist is a loser father, a man portrayed as loving, but inept, and the main villains are businessmen, the kind of people who actually create, innovate and make the world a better place. They are the villains because they are selfish, because they want to make money with the things that they have created, and thus you are getting the message that business innovation is villainous, and that you need to join the collective and stop being so darn selfish. It’s the same idea that is explored in ‘Atlas Shrugged’ by Ayn Rand, the big difference being that in ‘The Astonishing Ant Man #1’ businessmen are the villains, whilst in Atlas Shrugged they are the heroes. Why are mainstream comic books pushing collectivism onto the developing minds of young children? Why are they indoctrinating them into the cult of collectivism, programming them with the idea that innovation, business and money making itself is a bad thing? Do you know what particular group despises making money and inventing new things? In one word- Communists. Why would a writer be pushing Communist ideology in a 2015 comic book? He either believes in it, or he doesn’t even know that he’s doing it. It’s one of the two, and I just hope that it’s the former because at least then he’d still be thinking with his own mind. I would strongly advise against any parent buying this poisonous comic book for their young children. This is horrible, but am I surprised that Marvel/Disney is pushing this? No, not really. They don’t want any competition, they want to maintain the status quo that serves them so well, and that’s exactly what is being pushed within the pages of this comic book. Welcome to the era of corporate/state/collectivism. You can call it ‘globalism’ or ‘the New World Order,’ if you like.








Thursday, 15 October 2015

50 Word Review- Civil War #5: A study in divide and conquer manipulation, individualism and collectivism




Writer: Charles Soule
Art: Leinil Francis Yu
Publisher: Marvel
Released: 14th October 2015


End of Civil War arc resonates with reality. Both sides manipulated into war. Narrative conclusion highlights real world male/female divide. Feminine/left gives up liberty for illusion of security. This is why governments target females, demonising men/family/tradition. Right/male choose individuality versus collectivism. Peter Parker chooses anarchy/morality/individualism, makes me smile, worthwhile arc.


Rating: 9/10


This arc was occasionally confusing, and a lot of things didn’t make sense to me, but the conclusion offers something that I can get my teeth into. Read it as you like, but what I see here is an admission that a lot of manipulation is going on in the real world, and that when the puppet masters are revealed, and destroyed, there will be a choice to make. That choice will be individualism versus collectivism. The totalitarian, feminine left, versus the individualistic, masculine right. This is not a gender war. It’s an ideological war. Comic book readers are predominantly male, and predominantly left wing and feminine in their world-views. They are statist/collectivists, liberals, progressives, and slaves to the state, the idea that you have to give up personal liberty in order to have personal freedom. It’s a contradiction, as the more liberty you give up, the less freedom you have. The mainstream political establishment is liberal/progressive today. Comic books are also mainstream liberal/progressive in their world-views, so it’s nice to see the other side in a comic book for a change. This Civil War arc by Charles Soule, gives fair airing to that other side, and for that reason alone it’s a very valuable and worthwhile comic book to read and to get in tpb as soon as it’s available.


*The image at the head of this review is the Lo-Karr, Bringer of Doom variant cover by John Cassaday.

Tuesday, 13 October 2015

Secret Wars #6 of 8: Fatherhood versus State Collectivism



Art: Essad Ribic
Story: Jonathan Hickman
Publisher: Marvel (Disney)
Released: 7th October 2015


This article is not a review. It’s intention is to discuss the role of fatherhood, using Secret Wars #6 to illustrate some of the broader points about the importance of fathers within the family unit and as a vital component in today’s fight against the collectivisation agenda pushed by the modern state apparatus.


In Secret Wars #6 a young girl (Valeria) is undergoing the process of realisation that her stepfather is a liar. His name is Doctor Doom. He is a dictator, a man pretending to be God. He represents the western democratic bogeyman of 2015, the anti-democratic dictator. This evil man must be disposed by western military intervention. He represents the past. He is an obstacle to change.

Valeria Richards appears to be about twelve years old, and is portrayed as independent, intellectual, very smart, very questioning, and very self-aware. She is like no twelve-year-old girl that I have ever met. Simply put, she is exceptional, a genius.

This positioning of the exceptional young female who questioning male authority figures is a common theme in contemporary comic books. The old structure of western society is portrayed as being organised around male power, normally tied to religion. It is portrayed as corrupt, violent and an obstacle to human progress. It needs to be replaced by young females. The message is clear. Old men need to step down. Religion is a lie. There is no God. The message is feminist and atheist.

The argument is that men, and the religions that they have created, have made the world the terrible place that it is today. Men and religion are oppressive symbols of the past. Women and atheism are the future. What we need then is a brave new (atheist) world controlled by exceptional young women. This is the idea, and it comes from Rockefeller funded university classes that push Marxist, feminist identity politic cultural programming onto the middle-classes, specifically girls, but men get it as well.

This is how it works: Middle class children are taught that white males are to blame for all of the evils of the world. The real reasons (blind obedience to the violently coercive power of the centralised state) is not taught. They are taught that the solution is to build up girls as the replacement, as the future leaders, that girls (because they are not boys) will make the world a better place.

Boys and girls go through the same cultural programming, girls are empowered by it, and as boys want to please girls, they go along with it as well. It doesn’t matter if the underlying assumptions are true, or not. What matters is that boys want to please girls, so they are happy to accept it as truth, even if it’s not, even if all the evidence around them contradicts what they have been programmed to believe. What young man would want to be labelled as a misogynist? None, and so they go along with the cultural programming.

Will the future then be a utopian society ran by female geniuses? No, it will not. The future is NOW, as this cultural programming has been pushed by universities for over fifty years, and has been a constant in progressive mainstream media texts for the past decade, at least.

So why isn’t the world a wonderful place today? What went wrong?

Instead of producing a western world of female geniuses changing the world for the better, what has been produced is a broken society where family break-up is the norm. The family unit has been targeted, and destroyed, and females now compete with men in order to serve state control systems that collectivise the individual and make the world a worse place for all of us all, men, women and children alike.

Men have been continuously told that they are bad, just because they are men, and women have never been more depressed, lonelier and isolated.

The progressive world of feminist ideology leads to frustration, depression and dependency upon the state. The genius girl as portrayed in Secret Wars #6 is all grown up now, and she is a retired government worker. She is a spinster, surrounded by cats, with no family of her own, drinking, taking prescription medicine for anxiety and depression, and wondering why her life turned out the way that it did. And how does she answer this question? She blames men, and thus, the cycle is complete.

In 2015 progressivism as pushed by cultural Marxism has created a society that blames men, depresses women, destroys families and empowers the state.

That is the inevitable end result of progressivism. When you attack tradition, attack masculinity itself and put young girls on undeserved pedestals you get a breakdown of the family, and a subsequent breakdown of society itself. Of course you do, what else could possibly happen? That is the disease of contemporary liberal ‘progressive’ ideology fused with third wave feminism. It is an ideology of destruction, of collapsing all that has come before it, in order to bring in a utopia that has never existed, and cannot exist as it goes against human nature itself.

In a progressive society nobody is empowered, women are miserable, families collapse, and the world that is created is a collectivist, soviet Russia style Hell hole. All that is remains is ideology wedded to the state. This is Hell. This is the world that we live in. This is the world that we are continuing to build with disenfranchised men, bitter, disappointed women and unhappy, fatherless children.

Secret Wars has a chance to tackle the ideology of collectivism wedded to the state. You have to remember that Doctor Doom is not the real father of Valeria. He is a stepfather, and thus could be portrayed as a state stand-in, an artificial substitute for the real father, the real head of the family unit. Valeria’s real father (Reed Richards) is plotting against the state as represented by Doom, so this story could put out a strong message about the role of the father in reuniting the family unit against the tyranny of the state.

If Doom represents the tyranny of the Collectivist State, a tyranny that takes the role of absent men/fathers within the family unit, then the victory of Reed Richards will be saying that men need to return to the family in order to resist the power of the collectivised state.

There are two issues left in this Secret Wars arc, and it’s very likely that this will happen, so even though I get fed up with this continuous pushing of the girl genius as the liberator of humanity, the likelihood is that this book will have a very positive conclusion. Will it happen, will the role of the father as a barrier against state collectivism be re-established, just as it needs to be in the real world? I hope so, and I’ll keep on reading in order to find out.














Friday, 25 September 2015

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)




Wednesday, 9 September 2015

Comic review: Journey to Star Wars- The Force Awakens-Shattered Empire #1- Identity Politics Golem



Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: Marco Checchetto
Publisher: Marvel (Disney)
Released: 9th September 2015



Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens-Shattered Empire #1 is the most underwhelming ‘Star Wars’ book that I’ve ever read.

The story starts at the end of the final battle in Return of the Jedi, and the main focus is a staple of mainstream comic books today, the pretty, young, empowered, female. The story unfolds from her point of view as she flies around shooting assorted villains before assisting Luke Skywalker in his escape from the soon to be exploding Death Star.

I don't remember that in the movie, but oh well, what can you do? As our society collapses and real freedoms diminish I guess it's all going to be about cultural marxism and identity politics now.

Who wrote this book? Let’s have a look, ha, it’s Mr Greg Rucka, he can always be relied upon to put out a good PC girl-power unit shifter. I’ve read so much of his stuff over the years, and it’s about as memorable as a mid-card WWE story line. (Note: The WWE cannot do stories, at all, they are terrible, really, really bad).

Greg Rucka is one of those names that you remember, but you can never quite recollect what book he wrote. He writes a lot, but what has he ever done that is actually good, or memorable? Was it Punisher? Could be. I stopped reading that one months ago.

Anyway, back to this utterly underwhelming book. This female warrior girl shoots up some villains, kisses her boyfriend, has a brief chat with Luke, and Han Solo, then goes back out on a ‘mop-up’ mission to kill some imperial soldiers that were left over from the main battle. That’s it, that’s all you are getting, thanks for buying the book, suckers.

Why the Darth helmet would I want to buy issue #2 of this series. Come on, somebody give me a reason, because I don’t get it. Am I supposed to like the girl warrior because she is pretty? Come on, there has to be more to it than that, because as far as her personality goes, she’s as generic as you can possibly get. 

I understand what Greg is doing here. I get it. He’s trying to write a ‘strong’ female character, the kind of character that is ten a penny in DC and Marvel comics in 2015.

Want a career in mainstream comic books? You better get writing about strong, independent (i.e. working for the government) pretty young females then. Give your ‘progressive’ character a military uniform or a wacky haircut and nose-ring, show her beating up some random men (preferably white sexist/racists) and you’re flying.

Am I being unfair here? Buy a comic book, any comic book, and judge for yourself. Strong, independent female characters (in other words, women acting like overly masculine men) are as ubiquitous as lies in mainstream television news broadcast these days. Every other comic book features an empowered female. It’s not ‘brave’ or ‘new’ or ‘edgy’ or ‘rebellious.’ It’s easy, boring, predictable and lame. Comic book writers are largely singing from the same song sheet here, and it’s getting really, really boring now.

What you are getting in Star Wars- Shattered Empire #1 is a comic book Golem, a character that is more about being a female than she is about being an interesting or engaging personality in her own right. She moves with purpose, yet has no semblance of life about her, at all. I don’t care about this Golem girl, not because she’s a girl, but because she is a two dimensional, generic character that has no memorable features, quirks or personality attributes. She’s clay, she’s not real, she’s a Rucka inspired Golem.

You can’t just put a girl in a role that men would usually occupy and expect people to care. I’m not obsessed with identity politics, so I need a bit of character, a bit of personality, a bit of life. Oh Greg, you’ve done it again. You’ve produced another unit shifter of a book. I’ve read it, reviewed it, and now I’m starting to forget about it already. Greg, I know you want to write about empowered girls, but please put a bit of personality into the next one that you launch onto the comic book reading public. It’s not enough that she’s a girl, I need a bit more than that.



Rating: 3/10 (Move on, there’s nothing to see here)







Friday, 4 September 2015

Comic review: Miracleman #1- Neil Gaiman and the Perpetual 80’s



Writer: Neil Gaiman
Artist: Mark Buckingham
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Released: 2nd September 2015



I didn’t read Alan Moore’s Miracleman series when it was first released in 1982. I was around at the time, but doing something else, probably obsessed with American football, or just plain old football, I expect. I was reading 2000AD though, irregularly, and this new Miracleman #1 by Neil Gaiman very much reminds me of that time period in my life.

This new book has a narrative starting date of 1987. It’s a future parallel world 1987 with a God like superhero and a destroyed, then rebuilt London, but it’s a very familiar 1987. It’s a 1987 that is very, very 1980’s. It’s a 1987 that could have been written in 1985, at least, that’s how it reads.

Perhaps it’s just me, but whenever I read anything by Neil Gaiman it has that 1980’s feel about it. I get the sense that he doesn’t really care about the contemporary neoliberal world. His narrative universe is the late 1980’s, and so he is the perfect choice to be the writer on a book that is set in a parallel universe 1987. He doesn’t have to deal with anything that has actually happened in the real world for the past twenty eight or so years, he can build his cocoon in the late 80’s and he can go back to the past, a place where he very evidentially feels most at home.

The narrative itself in Miracleman #1 is instantly accessible. It’s easy to follow and brings the reader straight into the world, telling a story from the point of view of a man with hope, seeing him through a difficult journey, and concluding with a revelation of either hope realised, or hope destroyed. I won’t spoil it. The story is okay, it’s enjoyable, and I think that it’s worthwhile you getting the book to enjoy it for yourself.

The art has a bit of a Watchman feel about it, mixed with some of the recent stuff I’ve seen in Jeff Lemiere’s Trillium, and in the art by Matteo Scalera in Rick Remender’s Black Science. The faces are a bit sharp, very pointy noses and high cheekbones, and very blonde, and the colouring has an unreality to it that screams ‘sci-fi comic’ of the 1980’s, but in colour. I don’t have any problem with it. I’d term it as ‘old fashioned new’ if that makes any sense, and it’s perfect for this kind of book.

Let’s sum things up then. Do I have a problem with Neil Gaiman being stuck in a perpetual 1987 world? No, of course not. He’s a successful, talented man, and his work is always enjoyable.

However, I’m the self-appointed (self-important) post 9/11 false flag/ NWO/Neo-liberal/Globalist comic book reviewer. So what I am after is never going to come from somebody like Neil Gaiman who doesn’t want to get out of the late 80’s, well at least from what I’ve read of his work anyway.

That’s cool man.

Miracleman#1 is a good book. I enjoyed it. The very last part confused me a bit, but I’ll be back for issue #2, and hopefully it will make some sense there.

Get the book if you enjoy Neil Gaiman’s late 80’s worlds, and yes I know he’s just continuing a series left off in the 80’s, so he has a good excuse for doing it here. If all you’re after is a decent comic book with a 1980’s nostalgia feel about it, then this one is a lot better than most of the other mainstream junk that’s being pushed onto the masses today. Check it out, put on those old 80’s records, and go back to a time when the Internet didn’t exist, Thatcher was killing off all working-class resistance and the BBC still had an aura of truth and respectability about it.


Rating: 7/10 (Back to the late 80’s with Gaiman, and why not?)


Friday, 28 August 2015

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.










Wednesday, 19 August 2015

Comic review: Inferno #4- One for the kids



Writer: Dennis Hopeless
Artist: Javier Garron
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Released: 19th August 2015


Inferno #4 is a funny, silly, Nickelodeon teen speak book that follows the X-Men as they fight ‘evil’ monsters in an alternative hellish reality.

The tone is light and playful. The characters joke and quip with each other and the plot is not really very important.

The art isn’t particularly great, but you can differentiate the characters and the happy, smiling faces of both heroes and villains fits the playful tone of the narrative.

There are no themes or issues in the text. The characters are toys, cartoon characters, and they act like children having fun in a playroom full of plastic superhero figures.

The boys and girls are pretty much identical to each other. Some are good, others are bad, but the good and bad isn’t very deep, and the meaning is only surface level, so further analysis is not needed.

Get the book if you are under the age of about sixteen or so, and want a fun, playful fights and quips comic book to read. For anybody else though, it’s not going to make much of an impact.

Inferno #4 is a book for children, so I’m not going to be too hard on it. There’s nothing here for me, and so I’ll be one and out with this one.


Rating: 6/10 (A friendly, silly comic book that is perfect for children)





Thursday, 13 August 2015

Comic review: Secret Wars #5- Atheism, propaganda, dictatorship, democracy, truth and lies



Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Esad Ribic
Publisher: Disney/Marvel
Released: 12th August 2015



In my previous review (18 Days #2) I bemoaned the fact that contemporary neo-liberal corporate hegemony supporting comic books are pretty much all the same.

I moaned and complained that their narratives feature crazy dictators as the villains, and order following agents of democracy as the heroes. These ‘heroic’ agents of the state just want to bring ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ to the world and to stop evil dictators from killing their own people, or something.

‘War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.’ (George Orwell)

The lie that democracy means freedom is the lie that allows western governments to propagandise their own populations and to enslave them to a centralised control system.

Through the repeated telling of this lie the numerous wars that have become ever more apparent since 2001 can be sold as wars for peace, and not the wars for resources, profit and control that they actually are.

The wars are now sold as protecting people (by bombing them) and bringing democracy, which of course equates to freedom, seeing as we are all so free in the west, cough Edward Snowden.

“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it” (Adolf Hitler)

“All art is propaganda. It is universally and inescapably propaganda; sometimes unconsciously, but often deliberately, propaganda.” (Upton Sinclair)

The first thing that we need to recognise is that we are living in a lie. Your life is a lie, and so is mine. The west is a lie, a lie that we drink, eat, and bathe in, daily. It washes over us, flowing from everything and everywhere, yet the lie is so big, and so relentlessly repeated that we come to think of the lie as truth itself. We work for the lie, we feed the lie, we caress the lie, we nurture the lie, we treasure the lie, we love the lie, and we get careers as writers, and repeat the lie until the day that we die.

Do I think that comic book writers working for Marvel, DC, Darkhorse or any of the other US comic book corporations care much about truth and lies? Perhaps in their personal lives, but I know one thing for sure, I know that it’s not coming out in their comic book career lives.

I read a lot of contemporary US comic books and it’s become very apparent to me that the writers don’t want to go anywhere near truth. They want to tell exciting stories, they want to please liberal, progressive minded readers and they want to keep reality, truth and the real world a million miles away from what they are doing in their comic books.

It’s a choice. They choose the easy life and they echo chamber the thoughts and beliefs of their left leaning audience back to them whilst dreaming of the big television or movie deal. I wish them the best of luck with that and hope that they make lots of money and win award after award after award. It’s meaningless, but as most of them are atheist, solipsist, Darwinian types, that isn’t really an insult to them, it’s just stating a fact about their collective mindsets. Rats in a cage, and they are happy to be so.

Secret Wars #5 is a mainstream American comic book written by Jonathan Hickman. The story is about an evil dictator, and there’s a bit of tame religion bashing going on as well, which is par for the course in contemporary comic books.

The book is beautifully illustrated by Esad Ribic, and doesn’t touch on any real world concerns of 2015. It is an uncontroversial book. It does what all of the other books do, but there’s a lack of jokes, puns and quips in it, meaning (I suppose) that it’s a ‘serious’ comic book.

The ideology that runs through the book compares God to a deceitful, murderous, petty, insecure dictator. It’s an ideology that atheistic neo-liberal types will agree with, and thus is just another continuance of the mainstream echo chamber that stifles all debate and doesn’t address the predominant lie of our times.

I didn’t hate the book. It’s just another lefty comic book. It looks nice, it toes the line, and it does what it is supposed to do. It keeps the neoliberal democratic lie intact, our heads submerged within the corporate matrix, and successfully farts out another unit for the Princess programming, unreality pushing, crazy as a Rihanna video, bathed in children’s blood Disney Corporation.


Rating: 6/10 (It’s all about Doom, how he’s not God, how he created the world and how he’s a big old mean dictator that needs to be taken down by the atheistic democracy squad)



Check out Rihanna's charming new pop video below. Yep, the mainstream sure is a crazy place these days.







Friday, 7 August 2015

Comic review: Civil War #2- Anarchy Versus Democratic Collectivism



Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Leinil Francis Yu
Inker: Gerry Alanguilan
Colours: Sunny Gho
Publisher: Marvel
Released: 5th August 2015



I’m not too sure if anybody is reading this book, as the buzz on it has been non-existent, but I’m reading it, and I’m enjoying it as well.

I’m enjoying it for two reasons. Firstly, it’s taking the unsatisfactory ending to the original Mark Millar Civil War arc, continuing it, and making it better.

Secondly, it’s throwing in a lot of real world issues, issues that you don’t usually see being discussed within the overly corporate and neo-liberal ‘progressive’ world of Marvel comics.

In Civil War #2 there are two sides. One side (Iron Man’s Red) is about safety, control, totalitarianism really, but wrapped up in the need for order, for safety, to put the people in a giant spy drone, surveillance state prison for their own good. On the other side (Captain America’s Blue) there are two rules: 1- Hurt no one. 2- Help when you can.

Here’s the scary thing about it. The Red side looks a lot like collectivist, centralised government, neo-liberal western democracy as it stands today, and the Blue looks a lot like anarchy, or a society structured around individualism, morality and mutual self respect.

That makes Captain America an anarchist, and Iron Man a contemporary political leader, pick a party it doesn’t matter, they are all pretty much the same in the west today.

Is that not a fascinating concept to explore in a contemporary comic book coming out of a declining western civilisation that is falling into governmental tyranny and lawlessness, with perpetual wars for resources and control, whilst encroaching on the civil liberties of it’s own people?

Civil War is a comic book that is actually saying something about the state of the world as it is today. Do you know how rare that is in a mainstream comic book? It’s like finding a nugget of gold in an ocean of s***.

Added to that is a plot twist that suggests that the two warring sides are being manipulated by an outside force, and you have the ‘conspiracy’ aspect that people talk about today when they discuss groups like the illuminati.

These ideas are coming from the (obviously far more switched on than I’d previously thought) mind of writer Charles Soule, and are brought to life by the gritty, grainy pencils of Leinil Francis Yu.

The art also features washed out colouring, and deep, heavy black inking, adding drab, dusty realism to the narrative, and a sense of dry, dirty realism that forces the reader to take the narrative seriously, and not just treat it as another bit of comic book puns and powers fluff.

It’s only two issues in, but this book really has me hooked now. It has Spiderman in it, and he’s talking like an adult. There are no quips, puns and self-aware ‘cool’ moments either. I’m not going to go over the top on it as of yet, as mainstream comic books have burned me so many times in the past, hinting at a bit of truth telling then going back into their corporate, careerist shell, but this book really does stand out as something a bit better than the usual mainstream superhero fare.

I don’t know why people aren’t talking about it, but Civil War is a very intriguing book, there’s a lot going on, it’s touching real world concerns and it’s the only mainstream superhero comic book that is really exciting me at the moment. If you haven’t read it, give it a go. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I was, and I’m already looking forward to next month’s instalment. Me looking forward to a mainstream comic book coming out??? Do you know how rare that is these days? Thank you Charles Soule, top work here mate, top work.



Rating: 9/10 (Far better than I ever thought that it could be.)