‘Diversity’ in DC Comic Books- A statistical breakdown of the lead protagonists in DC Comic books released on 17/6/2015

I hear a lot about ‘diversity’ in comic books these days, so I decided to take one week in comic books, one publisher (DC) and to look at the comic books to see how ‘diverse’ they actually are. The following books are either single person protagonist books, or two person protagonist books. I have not included the ‘team’ books that were released in the same week by DC (Four titles) as all four titles had multiple protagonists, both male and female. All of the titles that are listed below are single-issue comics, and were released by DC comics on Wednesday 17th June 2015. The list is simple. Name of comic, then the age, gender and race of the main protagonist(s).




Astro City #24 - Non Human (ape)

Black Canary #1- Late teens/early twenties female (white)

Doomed #1 –Late teens/early twenties male (non-white)

Dr. Fate #1 – Late teens/early twenties male (non-white)

Harley Quinn & Power Girl #1- Late teens/early twenties females (white)

Martian Manhunter #1 – Alien.

Prez #1 – Late teens/early twenties female (white)

Robin Son Of Batman #1 – Early teens (male)

Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #11- Early twenties (female)

Sinestro #12 – Alien

Superman Wonder Woman #18 – Early twenties male and female (white)

Wonder Woman (2011) #41 – Early twenties female (white)


Conclusions

- None of the comic books have protagonists over the age of 30 years old (excluding aliens).
- White male protagonists appear in two out of twelve books. Superman (an alien) and Robin (a prepubescent boy).
- Young female protagonists appear in six out of twelve books.
- Non white (human) protagonists appear in two out of twelve books.
- Non human protagonists appear in three out of twelve books, four if you include Superman.
- Young females dominate the list of protagonists in DC comics during the week of 17/6/15.
- White males and non-white protagonists are minorities, represented in only two out of twelve books.
- Aliens (or non-humans) are protagonists in more books (four) than white males or non-white protagonists.
- None of the human characters are over the age of thirty.
- DC Comic books protagonists (on 17/6/15) are all young, and the majority are female.


Is that ‘diversity’ in comic books? Here’s the dictionary definition of the word:

diversity (daɪˈvɜːsɪtɪ  Pronunciation for diversity ) 

Definitions
noun

the state or quality of being different or varied
a point of difference
(logic) the relation that holds between two entities when and only when they are not identical; the property of being numerically distinct


DC comic books don’t appear (at least based on this sample week) to be very different or varied at all.

This is not my opinion. It is factual information based on looking at their actual comic book protagonists. If you are a young girl, or an alien, that’s great, but what about the rest of us? For everybody else living on planet Earth (and for ANYBODY) over the age of twenty-eight, you’re not going to see yourself being represented within the pages of a DC comic book, at least this week.

If (like me) you are a white male in his forties, then forget it. You’ll see alien shapeshifters, young female rock-stars, talking Gorillas, and girl presidents (Prez #1) but a male in his forties? A male in the demographic of the actual people buying the comic books? Don’t be daft. Who would want to read a comic book about a guy who actually looks like the people who are buying comic books? Don’t be silly. Now, here’s my latest idea for a new teen female punk rock rebellious heroine. It’s super cool dude, those old comic book geeks will love it, and it’s super PC and ‘diverse.’





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Book Review: Truth is a Lonely Warrior- The Meaning of Life

Full title: Truth Is A Lonely Warrior- Unmasking The Forces Behind Global Destruction
Author: James Perloff
Publisher: Refuge Books
Released: October 10th 2013
Author’s website:
http://jamesperloff.com/truth-is-a-lonely-warrior/



Have you ever read a book review that started out by discussing the meaning of life? Perhaps you have. I don’t know, but if you haven’t, you’re in for a new experience, because that’s exactly what I’m about to do here, to discuss the meaning of life.

James Perloff

I don’t even know why it’s such a mystery really, as to me it’s simple. The meaning of life is to grow, physically and spiritually. The first part is easy. It’s the second part that people have problems with.

Life is a test. You are challenged to grow from the baseness of the body, and material desires, to spiritual enlightenment, fulfilment, or Nirvana.

That’s the goal, and that’s what you are here for, to understand that you are a spiritual being having a material experience in order to learn and grow.

Do you know how you are guaranteed to get nowhere? Sit in your house, watch television, and go to work, and back. Repeat forever, don’t forget to eat, and don’t forget to vote every four years or so. Is that life? Yeah, it’s life, but do you think that you were put on this beautiful and terrible planet to do just that?

I don’t, and that’s why I come across like a pompous ass, and talk about concepts like truth, knowledge, morality and spiritual enlightenment. It makes me unpopular, but seeing as popularity is not something that I’m going for, I can deal with it. No, what interests me more than anything else is learning the truth about the world, so I read. I attempt to gain knowledge about what has gone on, what is going on, and therefore what is likely to happen in the future.

A lot of people like myself, with my thirst for knowledge, start off with history books, and that’s what I did, and continue to do. But as I continued to read and grow I saw a pattern emerging. That pattern was the control of information, through the schooling and educational and media monopoly systems that are corporate/government sponsored. It became increasingly apparent to me that knowledge was being controlled and manipulated to serve the agenda of the status quo control system structures of our society.

Examples are everywhere, from the JFK assassination, to the suspicious circumstances surrounding 9/11. The mainstream acceptance of government sources was getting ridiculous, so I began to search outside of the mainstream, to look at information that was not government approved.

This questioning of official sources seems pretty obvious now, especially after what happened with the Iraq war and the mythical WMD’s, but the process of awakening takes a long time. It’s not like the Matrix movie, you don’t wake up one day in a tank of goo. You have to read, watch videos, listen to long talks, question everything, especially the new information, and come to your own understanding of what is going on in the world. I’m not fully there yet, but compared to fifteen years ago, a time when I didn’t question anything, I’m a completely different person now.

Mocking the msm idea of the paranoid 'conspiracy nut.'

That brings me to this book, ‘Truth Is A Lonely Warrior- Unmasking The Forces Behind Global Destruction, by James Perloff. The book looks at the world from a Christian point of view, and that fact alone would have put me off reading it before my slow process of awakening. Fresh from my mainstream education into atheism I would have laughed at it, mocking the very idea of Christianity and I would have refused to even read the book.

If I was forced to read it, I would have rushed through it, determined to mock it with a scathing review that I’m sure would include some reference to Richard Dawkin’s and the Flying Spaghetti Monster in the sky.

I would have done that before, but not now. With the university arrogance now just a distant (bad) memory, I look at the book with impartial eyes, and I carefully process the information, reading the facts, the details and not just what I want to read in it.

The book is not only from a Christian point of view, it’s from an American one. The writer is American, so it’s understandable that he wants to know what has happened to his country, and why it has become the global Empire of lies, war and destruction that it is today. The book takes the reader on a journey, starting with the false flag (deliberate acts designed to justify war) that define America’s history. It talks about the banking cartel that has taken over the country and how they use the media, education, freemasonry, environmentalism, terrorism and wars to control a nation. The book also discusses the ideologies of Zionism and Marxism and how they tie into Satan’s plan, the plan being the creation of a New World Order, a centralised control system for the entire planet.

A lot of this is not new to me personally. I read about this agenda all of the time. I see it being justified on my television set and newspapers by the puppet politicians, as they come and go, changing their faces, their races, their genders, but always pushing the same totalitarian control system, and the creation of this tyrannical one world government control system for the entire planet.

I’m not a fan of government. As a general rule, and with regard to my historical understanding of world history I think it’s an unarguable fact that the more government you have, the less freedom you get. So the idea of one all-powerful WORLD government controlling everything and everybody is completely insane in my eyes. Why would anybody want that? It’s madness, and I’ll fight will all I have to stop it from happening.

‘Truth Is A Lonely Warrior,’ is a concise, easy to read book that gives a historical context to what is happening in America right now. It doesn’t mess around. It’s angry, and it wants to tell you all about what is happening, and who is responsible. It’s particularly detailed when it comes to the truth behind vaccinations, giving testimonial after testimonial from Doctors and parents of children damaged by them.

Reds under the bed.

If you didn’t already know about the eugenics programme that is modern vaccinations, then this book will shock you, not because it’s silly ‘conspiracy’ opinion, but because it contains cold hard facts and detailed evidence about what is actually going on.

The book is split into tightly edited chapters, and the writer uses a kid friendly technique of using a little frowny face as a dissenter, questioning him as he goes along. It helps to clarify points, and is very useful, not just to young readers, but to adults who instantly dismiss any new information as a reflex reaction caused by their many years of mainstream indoctrination.

I sped through the book relatively quickly, and I have to applaud the writer for his clarity, for a writing style that was extremely reader friendly, enjoyable, angry, but always aware that a book with important information should steer away from being too dense and too academic.

I would give this book as a gift, to either a child (ten or above) or an adult not yet aware of what is happening in the world. I would give it as a gift that is intended to spur spiritual growth. It’s strongest on vaccines, and the influence of Marxism today, and how it has become a huge factor in mainstream educational establishments, warping the mind of supposed ‘intellectuals’ making the bright dumb, and convincing them that they are superior from the common cattle whilst doing so. 

I enjoyed the book, and now I will pass it on.

Help each other out, share what you have learnt. It’s not always going to make you the most popular person in the room, but the meaning of life is to grow in spiritual knowledge, not just in social-status and popularity. Truth might be a lonely warrior, but what else are you living this life for?


Rating: 10/10 (Reader friendly and packed full of essential information)



*The funny photos in this review are from the author's own website, showing that he has a great sense of humour and that it's important not to treat yourself too seriously. 

Comic review: The Punisher #16- Shocking moments of truth in a mainstream comic book

Writer: Nathan Edmondson
Artist: Mitch Gerads
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 18th March 2015


I can’t quite believe it, but I’ve actually read a Marvel (Disney) comic book where the villains are politicians who control drug gangs, propagandise the public through the mainstream media, and use soldiers and police as order following enforcers to violently suppress any public dissent.

The hero of the story is a war veteran (I’m not sure which war, or in what time period this is set) who is fighting against high level corruption. This hero (The Punisher) is being demonised as a villain by the compliant government propaganda machine known as the mainstream media. The Punisher is not fighting against unconvincing and anachronistic Nazi’s or petty drug dealers like he usually does, but real life criminals. He’s fighting against the political puppet criminals that exist in the real world of 2015.

Shocking.

What’s even more shocking is that when the Punisher captures one of these high ranking political puppets and asks him, 'Who else is behind it?' the answer is ‘More than you can get to before a drone takes you out.’

That’s so refreshing to hear, not just that there are powers above the puppet politicians, we all know that by now, right?  No, what’s so refreshing is to see drones being mentioned in a mainstream comic book, and put into their proper context as the unrestrained evil that they actually are. Drones are the perfect corporate soldiers because they kill without any risk to the brave order following ‘hero’ who pilots them a 10000 miles away in a US military base. Drones are the future of warfare, and as we mess around on our isurveilance devices and waste time posting selfies this hellish reality and threat to the future of mankind continues to grow by the hour.

Punisher #16 is a case study that shows how government actually works. It shows how government uses the media, the police, the military, drug gangs and drug laws to further their hidden agenda of consolidation of private wealth for the rich and powerful, and slavery for everybody else. It shows what government actually is, and that's extremely rare in a mainstream comic book. I don't know what's happening in Marvel this week, but this is the one book that you cannot afford to miss.

Before I finish off this review I just want to acknowledge that this current portrayal of the political realities of life in contemporary America CANNOT last in a mainstream comic book. I’m not stupid, and I’m not naïve. I already know how it’s going to end.

The Punisher is going to get rid of a few rotten apples and business will continue as usual, the moral of the story being that the system is not broken, it’s just that it had a few bad people in it. It has to finish that way, because if it doesn’t that means that writer Nathan Edmondson is actually telling the truth about the world, and doing so in a mainstream comic book. Do you think that he will be allowed to get away with this? I certainly don’t. Do you really think that he’ll be allowed to conclude a story with the truth?

You might think that I’m incredibly arrogant when I talk about truth, and that truth doesn’t even exist? You might think that I’m deluded, that truth can never be known. I disagree, and yes call me arrogant if you like, but truth is truth, whether you accept it or not. Here’s the truth about politics in the US as of March 18th 2015.

US political power elites are bought and paid for career obsessed sociopaths who will do anything to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of humanity. Morality is not a concern to them; the only concern is for themselves and the party that has put them into a position of power. They serve rich people, not poor people. They serve the 1%, and the other 99% are there to be duped, used, abused, controlled and discarded when no longer useful. Government is a criminal gang that has given itself a monopoly on the use of violence. That is what it is, that is reality, that is the truth.

If you admit this truth in a mainstream comic book then you are lifting the blinkers from the eyes of a blinded public, and calling for a revolution. You are admitting that government is a lie and advocating an over-throw of the current political status quo where two identical globalist parties serve the interests of private banks and corporations, and not the American people that are duped into voting for their own enslavement.

I don’t see how this message will be allowed in a mainstream comic book, I just don’t. What I do envision happening is that a cartoon villain will be blamed for all the evils that are taking place within this comic book, he will be unmasked by the Punisher who will give him a good kicking, and then it’s all back to normal again.

The Punisher will then probably go into space, or time travel back to 1970 where he can safely battle Nazi’s, communists or zombie aliens just like he usually does. That is what I expect to happen at the conclusion of this story arc, but for the time being this is a must buy book as what you are getting here is a rare glimpse of truth in a mainstream comic book.

I applaud writer Nathan Edmonds and wish him all the best as he tries to wrap up this story in a way that won’t harm his future career and will leave a few grains of truth before the Punisher is inevitably moved on to safer comic book waters where he won’t be shining such a devastatingly accurate spot-light on the way that real world criminals are operating out of Washington DC today.


Rating: 9/10 (Shockingly realistic portrayal of real-world reality in a mainstream comic book)

Comic review: Conan the Avenger #11- Developing a passion for knowledge, and desire for truth

Writer: Fred Van Lente
Artist: Brian Ching
Colourist: Michael Atiyeh
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Released: 25th February 2015


Reading a good Conan book always cheers me up, and this was an excellent one, with a devious wizard, a beautiful girl, treachery, bravery, cunning and revenge.

All of this is beautifully portrayed with large (I have to put that one on my wall) panels of excellent artwork from artist Brian Ching. The art, from the pencilling, to the colouring, to the panel layout and size is uniformly excellent, and it puts a fruity, ripe scrumptious cherry on top of what is already an extremely delicious comic book cake.

Am I not a hypocrite though for railing against ‘Dominators’ as I did in my previous review of Sinestro #10, and then heaping praise on this Conan book? Surely Conan himself is just another dominator? No, he is not. Conan has never been about domination. To me, and when he is written as he should be, he is a moral man, brave, cocky, adventure seeking, but also (as Robert E. Howard himself describes) deeply melancholic.

At the end of his adventures Conan becomes a reluctant King. It is something that he never wanted to be, but in the twilight of his life all of the battles have been won, and so almost by default the crown goes to him, and unhappy is the man who wears it.

That Conan, that melancholic Conan, is not on display in Conan the Avenger #11. In this book Conan is the young, happy, adventure seeking Conan. He is arrogant, funny, brave, sharp as a blade and full of enthusiasm for life. This is the Conan before the victory, doing what he lives for, fighting, conniving, struggling and spitting in the faces of those who would rule over him. He is carefree, bleeding, in pain, but having the time of his life. That is the true essence of Conan. That is who he is supposed to be.

Conan isn’t the only character in this book that is fighting against those who would dominate, there is a girl as well, and it is her story that is the backbone to this issue. She fights for revenge, for the memory of her husband who fought not for gold, for power, but for knowledge.

Imagine what the world would be like today if everybody had the same mindset, where money was not as important as the search for truth? We can have that world, but it has to start on an individual level. It’s up to each and every one of us personally to learn to fall in love with the search for knowledge, the search for truth.

Or we can keep living for money, and the world can continue as it does today. Our choice, we make it every day.

I’m in a fantastic mood now, my spirits have been lifted and I feel more optimistic about the human race than I did before. That’s quite an achievement for a comic book don’t you think? So that’s why I still read Conan comic books, because when they are average they are good, when they are good they are excellent, and when they are excellent, as Conan the Avenger #11 certainly is, they transcend superlatives, showing what it is to be a human being, what it is that we should be living for. To live with passion, with strength, with courage, with determination and a burning, burning, burning desire for knowledge and that elusive yet essential spiritual Holy Grail called TRUTH.

Ratinmg: 10/10

A Life through Comic Books: From mainstream disinformation into a world of reality

By: Mark. A Pritchard

Produced: Friday Evening- 20th February 2015



Comic books were always a part of my life. As a young boy I read the Beano, then graduated to reading the more ‘adult’ 2000AD. I read them for the same reason that any young boy reads comics, as a means of exploring the wider world outside of his little town, little hopes, little dreams. They told me that the world was bigger, that there were possibilities for me outside of my familiar surroundings.

My first love

As I grew into my teens I became obsessed (like most UK boys growing up in the 1980’s) with all things American. American culture was cool, exotic, their heroes had big muscles and their girls were very, very pretty. Along with American football and the A-team there was Marvel comic books. Spiderman was my favourite, but then again, of course he would be. He was a teen who looked a little bit like me, but he had spider powers, and a hot girlfriend for some inexplicable reason. If he had a chance, then surely I did as well, right?

After my dalliance with Spiderman came to its natural conclusion I moved into young adulthood with Alan Moore’s Constantine and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. I was a young, lost adult and these books offered me something that was lacking in my own life. They offered magic, and a sense that there was beauty in the mundane, and let me tell you, I was more than familiar with mundane during this time of my life. As I continued into adulthood, moving from unfulfilling job, to pointless college course, back to another depressing job my comics (and other ‘proper’ books) became even more essential to me. The great big world had shrugged its shoulders and apathetically passed me by, so back to the comics, where there was still life, still possibilities.

I began to read again as a disappointed, depressed and lost adult and I could pretend that I was still a child again. I wasted years reading the same kind of Marvel and DC comic books that dominate the market today. I got up to date with the Avengers, with Iron Man and was excited when they made movies about the books that had a bit of money behind them and actually looked pretty good. But then I woke up to life, and my relationship with comic books would never be the same again.

I loved this book, it helped me get through my twenties

My university education hadn’t helped me at all. My Marxist text books, my keen interest in feminist studies, it all lead me to nowhere, just feelings of guilt for things that I hadn’t even thought about, let alone done. I was confused. I was a good person, and yet here was my life, empty, with nothing to show for it but years of sitting on the sidelines, of reading comics, of reading books, of passing college courses, of being nice, of being kind and considerate. So why the empty feeling?

The comics weren’t giving anything to me anymore, nor were the books, so I put them all down and decided to look at something new. To my immense surprise I found it, and continue to find it each and every day. So what did I find? Don’t worry, it wasn’t religion, it was truth or the search for truth at least.

I found people who had broken out of the restrictive left wing educational paradigm, people who rejected Marxism, Feminism, Liberalism and wanted to carve their own path, rather than follow an old ‘progressive’ route that led to Russia, China and every other totalitarian ‘left’ leaning state. I discovered ‘alternative’ names like David Icke, Michael Tsarion, Mark Passio, Alex Jones, James Corbett, Jordan Maxwell and countless others. I put away my preconceptions, listened, read and learned and then wondered (very loudly) why I hadn’t heard about any of this information during all of my years at school, college and university and all of the countless hours I had spent reading two or three newspapers every day. It was an eye-opener, my world-view 180-degree changed, and I started to see things as they really are. Then I went back to my comics and I read them with completely different eyes.

David Icke, a truly great man.

Why were they not talking about important issues? Why were they so obsessed with race, gender and sexuality when these issues only serve to separate us from each other? Why were they not talking about the US invading Iraq based on an obvious lie? Why were they not talking about Saudi Arabia and their role in 9/11? Why were the superheroes acting like US soldiers? Why were all the heroes acting like cops? Why was anarchy (which just means freedom from state control) always portrayed as a great evil? Why were villains still robbing banks? Surely it was the banks robbing the people, not the other way round? What was happening here? This wasn’t right, and yet whenever I read comic book reviews on the Internet they wouldn’t even bring up all of the contradictions that I was reading in my comic books. So, I did what had to be done. If nobody else were prepared to speak uncomfortable truths about mainstream comic books then I would have to do it for myself.

So I set up my blog, and started to review comics from the perspective of freedom, of saying whatever I wanted to say. I began to use my comic book reviews as a platform to discuss issues and ideas that interested me even more than the comics themselves. The point of the review became not the comic book itself, but the ideas that were being expressed within that comic book. My analysis of artwork, panel layout and narrative structure became secondary to an ideological analysis of the text. Many of my reviews ceased to be reviews at all, instead they were opportunities for me to discuss what I was learning as I broadened my horizons and learnt more and more about how the world actually works. I began to question everything, and that is what I continue to do today.

My blog here also contains my own original fiction writing and as I continue to expand my intellectual horizons I can envision it beginning to take on a lot more subjects other than comic book reviews. The blog has given me a platform to rail against what is lacking in contemporary comic books, but also to celebrate the rare book that does attempt to deal with some of the issues of our post 9/11 world. I am now rapidly reaching the stage where I need to concentrate on my own original fiction work. I have read and reviewed a lot of books, so perhaps it’s time I stopped criticising and started to put out some substantial product of my own.

Jesus Christ as a metaphor for ‘truth.’

A lot of people now understand that Jesus Christ is a metaphor for the Sun, like the many Sun gods that came before him, but he has another metaphorical role that people might not be aware of. 

Jesus Christ is a metaphor for the truth. His entire life is about truth, and he comes to embody truth itself. This isn’t really an arguable point. Jesus even confirms this himself in John 14:6 where he says the following:

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” 

Barabbas, the choice of mankind

After Jesus is arrested something extremely significant takes place. It’s traditional that once a year on the date of the Passover festival one convicted criminal is set free. The man in charge of the prisoners (Pontius Pilate) gives the people a choice. Do they want to free Jesus or a ‘robber’ called Barabbas. A lot of people mistake this part of the story for anti-Semitism, but this is not the case.  

The crowd of people are not representatives of the Jewish people, they are representative of All people. We are that crowd, and we are being asked to make a choice. Do we want truth, or do we want lies? The crowd yells, ‘Give us Barabbas’ unanimously choosing lies over truth. That choice is our choice. The story of Jesus Christ is our story. 

The world CANNOT change until we reach a level of consciousness where we choose truth over lies. What is truth? It is moral truth, doing what is right over what is wrong. We all know what is right and wrong, what these moral truths are, but a lot of us choose to ignore them. By ignoring these moral truths we make the world what it is today. The world is not unfair. It is what we have made it. We get to choose, but at the moment we are still choosing Barabbas.