What Might A Conservative Comic Book Look Like? by Darin Wagner

[Rich Johnston]

Darin Wagner writes for Bleeding Cool

The title of my column this week (which is something of a follow-up to the one I did last week) comes from a question that has been asked of me from both comic book fan and pro alike on various message boards over the last couple of years. The question has been asked rhetorically and the question has been asked sincerely. My answer tends to differ from the vast majority of the answers offered by non-conservatives.

For those of you who need some definition of conservatism as it pertains to this column, I?m referring specifically to American conservatism? which has several principles, including the moral superiority of liberty; characterized by capitalism, small government and the rights of the individual.

Simply put, a conservative comic book would be one that regularly presents and simultaneously explains conservatism.

To illustrate this, I will revisit a scenario from my last column. Let's say molten man-monsters from under the Earth's crust are causing a seismic disturbance in the ocean that threatens an oil platform. In a liberal comic book, the superhero or some other character given in-story credibility would mention somewhere during the action (most likely in the form of a snide comment) that such platforms are recklessly built and operated. They might go so far as to use the moment to promote so-called "green" energy and/or take jabs at corporate America and capitalism too. The basic ideas conveyed are that oil rigs are bad, that oil is bad and that humanity really shouldn?t be drilling for oil. In a conservative comic book, none of these things would be said. Instead what you might find is the protagonist mentioning something like how statistically safe drilling for oil is, how important oil is to mankind, what technological marvels modern oil platforms are or how well the platform?s damage control team responded to the unusual crisis. (Complimenting the damage control team would reflect positively on the company they work for and imply that the company is a responsible one? as opposed to how oil companies are typically portrayed when there is a liberal slant.) Now, someone might be saying ?But Darin, DC?s Aquaman and Marvel?s Namor both have a history of dislike for the ?surface world? and have shown great concern for the ocean environment. How can these characters be used to ?present and explain conservatism,? as you say?? Aquaman and Namor have indeed been portrayed as being rather cranky from time-to-time when it comes to the standards and practices of the surface world. It would not strike me as terribly out-of-character for either of these superheroes to offer a soliloquy lamenting the fact that overzealous surface-world environmentalism has pushed the drilling for oil off land and further and further out into their domain. I think both of these guys would prefer on-shore drilling to off-shore drilling any day.

Now, would a story that featured moments like the one I just described stand out on the shelves today? I rather think that it would. Most reactions would range from ?I never thought of it that way!? to ?Whoever wrote this is nuts!? It certainly wouldn?t be something most readers would expect to see come from Marvel or DC these days.

When asked what a conservative superhero comic book might look like, many non-conservatives will nonchalantly respond with a question like ?You mean a superhero who is FOR pollution?? The ones who try a smidge harder come up with scenarios like a superhero charging a fee for his services and not saving those who are not current with their payments. They describe a superhero only saving Caucasians or not responding to a disaster occurring in a poor neighborhood? in short, they describe a superhero who is not heroic. It is for this reason that a conservative comic book would need a conservative writer and/or editor. If you ask most writers working in comic books today to do a conservative comic book, I think the ones who agree to try would come up with some sort of superhero version of Stephen Colbert? a straw man character not actually intended to represent authentic conservatism, but rather to depict it as a joke and to actually support the opposing viewpoint.

For a better example of what a conservative superhero story would look like, I can direct your attention to a film most of you have probably seen?

In 2009, the website of William F. Buckley?s magazine National Review named Pixar Animation Studio?s superhero film ?The Incredibles? the #2 Best Conservative Movie of The Last 25 Years.* The site described it as follows: ?This animated film skips pop-culture references and gross jokes in favor of a story that celebrates marriage, courage, responsibility, and high achievement.? The conservatism in ?The Incredibles? is subtle for the most part? but it?s definitely there. I can remember nearly jumping out of my seat in the theater when Helen tells Dash ?Everybody is special? and Dash mutters ?Which is another way of saying no one is.? ?Everybody is special? is something I can remember hearing entirely too much in public grade school? it was something my liberal teachers always said in an attempt to bring us all together, but what it really did was dampen our sense of achievement and individuality. Later in the film when the supervillain utters his variation of this in summing up his long-term evil plan (?When everybody?s super, no one will be!?), I figuratively punched the air. I?ve often thought of the story contained in the movie as ?the anti-WATCHMEN? because it?s a different take on ideas contained in that watershed comic book from the ?80s. While the two stories both feature former superheroes dealing with a superhero ban, the two are very different. In WATCHMEN, the characters who represent ?conservatism? are sadists, genocidal madmen and tragic sufferers of insanity. In ?The Incredibles,? conservatism is represented by a family.

Since I?ve mentioned WATCHMEN, some of you may be asking ?What about BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS?? Sure, DKR also deals with a superhero ban of sorts. Sure, there?s conservatism in DKR. There?s a lot of other stuff in there too though. I think the comic book industry needs more stories like the one in ?The Incredibles? film than the one in DKR right now. I can?t recommend DKR to the parent of a little kid who has the potential to get hooked on comics and provide a lifetime of sales to the industry.

Someone said recently that comics have always been subversive. I think right now; in this world of escalating statism, mandatory multicultural indoctrination and environmentalism running amok? conservative comic books would be the subversive comic books.

*Many of you probably want to know what #1 was. I?ll be nice. It was a film called ?The Lives of Others? (2007).

[Fysh]

I will say this much:

"Political comics" (ie openly politically partisan comics) hold very little interest for me regardless of who's writing them, because rhetoric tends to make for bad narratives. I cringe at the thought of the liberal comic you describe, because it just sounds like a terrible comic. It would be just as awful the other way around. (Yes, there are comics with political content in them like the Warren Ellis run on Stormwatch, but I'd argue that the entire point there was that the comic didn't just adopt a "this side is right, this side is wrong, and that's all she wrote" approach to the political issues that arose...)

However, the first answer that popped into my head wit the question "What would a conservative comic look like?" was, sadly for you, Liberality For All.

[Joe B. Pangrazio]

Please don't turn into another huge thread, please don't turn into another huge thread, please don't hurt into another huge thread...

(Unless it's constructive, of course. )

[PreacherCain]

So it's conservatism if it "celebrates marriage, courage, responsibility, and high achievement.”

As opposed to liberalism, which is against all these things?

This makes no sense. Do you not realise how nonsensical that sounds? It's like when the catholic church claim to have some kind of inherent morality and it's impossible for someone of a different or no religion to possibly also have morals or ethics (the irony is only lost on them, I'm afraid).

This is what happens when you mix politics with religion. The Republican party in the US have been destroyed by it. You do not have a monopoly on any particular social or moral value.

[Static-Pulse]

(I admit, I skipped the article so I could post this before anyone else.)

I would hope it'd look kind of like a John Ringo novel.

[red1234]

Please don't turn into another huge thread, please don't turn into another huge thread, please don't hurt into another huge thread...

(Unless it's constructive, of course. )

Good luck with that.

[Hunter Lambright]

I think I would find either scenario poorly written. If handed both versions of the same story, I'd probably be taken aback by the blatant politics on display in either.

[MrEZ]

In America, a conservative comic book would be a story about Jesus written and drawn in crayon because the republicans repeatedly cut education budgets and art/theater budgets in schools across the country.

It would only be able to get ads from the AARP, NASCAR and the NRA.

And it would sell like frigging hotcakes.

[lexid523]

I'm merely baffled by the idea that conservatism and environmentalism are inherently diametrically opposed.

Surely an innovative entrepreneur would be seeking out new technologies for safer, more environmentally friendly energy, and then make a bundle off of them, after strong marketing based off of these selling points.

This is my problem with modern American conservatism-- it stakes out things that it is for and against and calls them "conservative", regardless of whether there is any internal logic to it. You call yourself capitalist, but then act like it's ~unAmerican~ to pursue certain new industries because it might cause problems for pre-existing industries (which are not, despite what you want to think, entirely faultless either environmentally or economically). I can only be glad that the Wright Brothers weren't afraid of what their invention might do to the railroads, or Edison afraid of what electricity would do to the kerosene lamp companies, or Henry Ford worried about what cheap cars would mean for horse breeders.

Frankly, I'd like to see conservatives like my father, an Eisenhower Republican, having more influence in culture-- the kind that believe that sometimes even the almighty market can be broken and need some outside adjustment. Checks and balances, etc.

I agree that The Incredibles is a good example of a conservative film, but notice how the superheroes didn't leave individuals in trouble to their own devices-- they used their skills and abilities to make society as a whole a better place. Mr. Incredible didn't kowtow to his insurance company's bureaucracy when it meant that he could help people, even if it meant making a dent in their bottom line. And it's also, frankly, a far more Christian way of living than anything the American Right stands for these days, no matter how loudly they all proclaim their faith these days.

[Chadbourn]

I'm glad Darin specifies 'American Conservatism' because US politics skews heavily to the right compared to a good portion of the rest of the world. US Liberals are closer to European centrists. And a lot of European Conservatives would balk at the US brand, which would be considered extremist, if not Far Right. So if he turns out comics based on his own country's particular definition of conservatism, they really aren't going to sell - as there won't be any global market for them. He'll be left with the rump of the 36% or so of US citizens who identify with that political position.