… you might be reading too much into a silly superhero. He fights a man with mechanical tentacles named ‘Doctor Octopus’. He has an enemy who is literally just a stage magician called ‘Mysterio’. There are several animal-people. One villain is literally made out of sand.
The MCU is one of the biggest moneymakers in Hollywood. It is literally Disney’s flagship media line and curiously when they attained Spider-man from Disney, the first thing they did was pull Spidey out of poverty and put Aunt May on the Avengers payroll.
It may not be that deep in the comics, but it’s still teaching kids the way to fight crime is to punch them in the face, break their legs and put them in an impacted and inhumane prison system.
Just like Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Dan Quayle taught us we should do as they were subsidiIng the prison industrial complex and pushing the War on Drugs.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t enjoy Spider-man. I read Spider-man as a kid and my grandson does today. He also fantasizes about punching baddoes in the face, and I can only hope he’ll realize that’s fantasy before his first real encounter with law enforcement.
Alright but 99% of my memories of superheroes as a kid weren’t them fighting crime, but them fighting supervillains, which is generally the main draw for kids.
It still instills a dynamic that the best way to solve disputes is by force and that some parts of the public are undesirable by fiat.
Given the current affairs of the US in which half our federal officials are trying to outlaw trans folk, I’m hyper-aware that this is a bad message to give.
It still instills a dynamic that the best way to solve disputes is by force
How often is it that superheroes start the violence? Or are you suggesting that smiling as your teeth are knocked down your throat should be the reaction, here?
and that some parts of the public are undesirable by fiat.
… given the predilection of comics for redemption arcs, antiheroes, the struggle of being different, and the fucking X-Men, I’m gonna have to press X to doubt on that.
Given the current affairs of the US in which half our federal officials are trying to outlaw trans folk, I’m hyper-aware that this is a bad message to give.
You’re hyperaware that a message that isn’t being sent is bad. Okay. I’m very aware that Teletubbies advocating genocide is bad. Good thing that’s not at all relevant.
How often is it that superheroes start the violence? Or are you suggesting that smiling as your teeth are knocked down your throat should be the reaction, here?
Here in the US, law enforcement escalates to force far more often than they encounter someone who is already aggressive, so it raises a question why villains in comics so consistently engage first?
The propaganda is in what is implied. Redemption arcs are the exception not the rule, and the implication is that most villains don’t get redeemed.
Now maybe it’s because they know their audience wants to see brightly colored supers knock the tar out of each other, and that might be true, but in the context of police work or vigilantism, it does paint human civilization as a lot more violent than it is. How often do heroes see violence break out during their day to day life (rather than, say, tracking it by police radio?)
I get that you don’t want your hobby criticized too sharply. Still, have you seen Spider-man stopping Proud Boys from harassing a drag queen? Have the avengers interposed themselves between a BLM demonstration and the police armed with CS-gas and riot munitions? (I really don’t know if they’ve done these things. I’d be delighted to see right-wing culture wars cross into the MCU, but Disney has their own opinions about their right to continue capitalizing.
Do you actually read comics as it seems like a lot of your assumptions are taken from adaptations like the MCU. Of course these versions of the hero’s and their stories are watered down and the edges sanded off as they have to appeal to as many people around the world as possible to justify their production costs.
The actual comics deal with these kinds of issues a lot and tend to have a pretty progressive message thoughout these days.
Here in the US, law enforcement escalates to force far more often than they encounter someone who is already aggressive, so it raises a question why villains in comics so consistently engage first?
… because superheroes aren’t cops?
This is not in any way a normal reaction to a image of a woman in a catsuit called Black Cat singing showtunes from the musical Cats.
Except that superheroes fight crime that’s vigilantism or law enforcement. And yes, when they were fighting crime, the police did have a (well cultured) reputation of restraint, all the while releasing dogs on civil rights protestors. And yes, police in the comics were Andy Griffith police, not even COPS police.
Take your hangups somewhere else.
Feel free to block me if you truly think I’m being hyperbolic. I’m far from the first person to make these observations, though.
You do know that spider-man is famously hunted by the police and is rarely on their good side. They often open fire on him before even shouting freeze. Not only that but when spider-man was the ceo of a corporation he hired someone who he caught doing a crime instead of leaving him for the police because he was doing it for his family.
There are a ton of stories of spider-man just talking to the regular “criminals” he’s going up against and helping put them on a better path or pointing them towards FEAST, a soup kitchen that also helps people find jobs. You’re making massive sweeping judgments on a medium you literally haven’t read based off of the most watered down, focused tested, US Military approved versions that exist (and anybody who has read more than 2 comics in their life can tell you’re doing that)
And if you wanna talk about cops in comics how about you read The Punisher or Batman and tell me they don’t deal with corrupt police
And before you pull the “billionaire does nothing but beat up poor people to fix things” card with batman (saving you from embarrassing yourself some more) he does put his money into making the city better in every way he can. The city’s problems are just so deep that Bruce Wayne’s money can’t fix it all (ranging from things like corruption so deep the money goes back to the mafia to the city is literally cursed.
Pick up some of the better Green Arrow runs and tell me what you see is right wing propaganda
Read The Flash and act like it’s anti-rehabilitation when it’s literally a meme the community that when he shows up he makes his villains feel bad because he’s disappointed in them
Or just read the freaking X-Men and tell me that shit ain’t progressive
You know literally nothing about what you’re talking about and “your” observations are as shallow as they come. Baby’s first leftist comic critique
Everyone in this thread is now dumber for having read your posts. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Sure, but that could be said for any media, and saying that superheroes as a whole are just pro-cop propaganda is way over the line of what is a reasonable interpretation. I’m not even a big superhero guy and I recognize that. Shit, a big part of a lot of these superheroes is that the cops aren’t their friends and are part of the reason why they hide their identity.
Yeah definitely. But it’s still good to examine the assumptions of the paradigm to know what it’s viewpoint is. I agree, I don’t think it’s intentional and I wouldn’t call it propaganda. But it’s always good to try and find the pov things are written from.
… you might be reading too much into a silly superhero. He fights a man with mechanical tentacles named ‘Doctor Octopus’. He has an enemy who is literally just a stage magician called ‘Mysterio’. There are several animal-people. One villain is literally made out of sand.
It’s… generally not that deep.
The MCU is one of the biggest moneymakers in Hollywood. It is literally Disney’s flagship media line and curiously when they attained Spider-man from Disney, the first thing they did was pull Spidey out of poverty and put Aunt May on the Avengers payroll.
It may not be that deep in the comics, but it’s still teaching kids the way to fight crime is to punch them in the face, break their legs and put them in an impacted and inhumane prison system.
Just like Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Dan Quayle taught us we should do as they were subsidiIng the prison industrial complex and pushing the War on Drugs.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t enjoy Spider-man. I read Spider-man as a kid and my grandson does today. He also fantasizes about punching baddoes in the face, and I can only hope he’ll realize that’s fantasy before his first real encounter with law enforcement.
Alright but 99% of my memories of superheroes as a kid weren’t them fighting crime, but them fighting supervillains, which is generally the main draw for kids.
It still instills a dynamic that the best way to solve disputes is by force and that some parts of the public are undesirable by fiat.
Given the current affairs of the US in which half our federal officials are trying to outlaw trans folk, I’m hyper-aware that this is a bad message to give.
How often is it that superheroes start the violence? Or are you suggesting that smiling as your teeth are knocked down your throat should be the reaction, here?
… given the predilection of comics for redemption arcs, antiheroes, the struggle of being different, and the fucking X-Men, I’m gonna have to press X to doubt on that.
You’re hyperaware that a message that isn’t being sent is bad. Okay. I’m very aware that Teletubbies advocating genocide is bad. Good thing that’s not at all relevant.
How often is it that superheroes start the violence? Or are you suggesting that smiling as your teeth are knocked down your throat should be the reaction, here?
Here in the US, law enforcement escalates to force far more often than they encounter someone who is already aggressive, so it raises a question why villains in comics so consistently engage first?
The propaganda is in what is implied. Redemption arcs are the exception not the rule, and the implication is that most villains don’t get redeemed.
Now maybe it’s because they know their audience wants to see brightly colored supers knock the tar out of each other, and that might be true, but in the context of police work or vigilantism, it does paint human civilization as a lot more violent than it is. How often do heroes see violence break out during their day to day life (rather than, say, tracking it by police radio?)
I get that you don’t want your hobby criticized too sharply. Still, have you seen Spider-man stopping Proud Boys from harassing a drag queen? Have the avengers interposed themselves between a BLM demonstration and the police armed with CS-gas and riot munitions? (I really don’t know if they’ve done these things. I’d be delighted to see right-wing culture wars cross into the MCU, but Disney has their own opinions about their right to continue capitalizing.
Do you actually read comics as it seems like a lot of your assumptions are taken from adaptations like the MCU. Of course these versions of the hero’s and their stories are watered down and the edges sanded off as they have to appeal to as many people around the world as possible to justify their production costs.
The actual comics deal with these kinds of issues a lot and tend to have a pretty progressive message thoughout these days.
… because superheroes aren’t cops?
This is not in any way a normal reaction to a image of a woman in a catsuit called Black Cat singing showtunes from the musical Cats.
Take your hangups somewhere else.
Except that superheroes fight crime that’s vigilantism or law enforcement. And yes, when they were fighting crime, the police did have a (well cultured) reputation of restraint, all the while releasing dogs on civil rights protestors. And yes, police in the comics were Andy Griffith police, not even COPS police.
Take your hangups somewhere else.
Feel free to block me if you truly think I’m being hyperbolic. I’m far from the first person to make these observations, though.
You do know that spider-man is famously hunted by the police and is rarely on their good side. They often open fire on him before even shouting freeze. Not only that but when spider-man was the ceo of a corporation he hired someone who he caught doing a crime instead of leaving him for the police because he was doing it for his family.
There are a ton of stories of spider-man just talking to the regular “criminals” he’s going up against and helping put them on a better path or pointing them towards FEAST, a soup kitchen that also helps people find jobs. You’re making massive sweeping judgments on a medium you literally haven’t read based off of the most watered down, focused tested, US Military approved versions that exist (and anybody who has read more than 2 comics in their life can tell you’re doing that)
And if you wanna talk about cops in comics how about you read The Punisher or Batman and tell me they don’t deal with corrupt police
And before you pull the “billionaire does nothing but beat up poor people to fix things” card with batman (saving you from embarrassing yourself some more) he does put his money into making the city better in every way he can. The city’s problems are just so deep that Bruce Wayne’s money can’t fix it all (ranging from things like corruption so deep the money goes back to the mafia to the city is literally cursed.
Pick up some of the better Green Arrow runs and tell me what you see is right wing propaganda
Read The Flash and act like it’s anti-rehabilitation when it’s literally a meme the community that when he shows up he makes his villains feel bad because he’s disappointed in them
Or just read the freaking X-Men and tell me that shit ain’t progressive
You know literally nothing about what you’re talking about and “your” observations are as shallow as they come. Baby’s first leftist comic critique
Everyone in this thread is now dumber for having read your posts. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
But you still get people’s unconscious biases influencing their work.
Sure, but that could be said for any media, and saying that superheroes as a whole are just pro-cop propaganda is way over the line of what is a reasonable interpretation. I’m not even a big superhero guy and I recognize that. Shit, a big part of a lot of these superheroes is that the cops aren’t their friends and are part of the reason why they hide their identity.
Yeah definitely. But it’s still good to examine the assumptions of the paradigm to know what it’s viewpoint is. I agree, I don’t think it’s intentional and I wouldn’t call it propaganda. But it’s always good to try and find the pov things are written from.