Comics and Football

What could be better than to write about comic books and football?

First thing: comics. Specifically, Marvel's Civil War. Now, I guess we do have to drag politics into this, because Marvel's dragged its characters into politics, though in a particularly ham-handed way. I love that phrase, don't you? "Ham-handed." I can just picture the big lummox with hands like whole pigs.

Thing is, Marvel tried to set its liberal elements against its conservative elements. What it did, in fact, was set its authoritarian elements against its libertarian elements. In the series (and ongoing repercussions), Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic team up with the government and scads of heroes and villains to forcibly register all super powered beings and set them to work. And imprison those who won't go along.

Captain America leads the team that opposes them. Cap, a 50-year liberal, resists control by government authority. If he was going to be forced to live his life a certain way by government decree, why did he bother to fight all those wars?

But Marvel, in trying to 'get' today's politics, misses the point. In Marvel's math, both sides have an equal level of virtue. They're both trying to do good, and their conflict is therefore tragic in the finest Greek drama sense of the word. So far so good.

But it completely misses the point of what is happening in today's America. There aren't two sides of angels trying to make things better. There is the side of the truth and the people, and there's the Mayberry Machiavelli's - the Junta.

Look: Iron Man straightforwardly wants to do good by registering and organizing the heroes. And how does he go about it? He goes out and says "I'm trying to make things better by registering and organizing the heroes." That's not how things work today.

Today, the Prince Georgie administration decides they want something. It's almost always something that's to their political or economic benefit - if it's not some total foreign policy nightmare.

The do not have clean hands or clean motives for anything. Even their friends admit that they lie about most things just out of habit. As fair as you could possibly say about them - the most kind way you can put it and still garner consensus - is that they like their secrecy and like to do things away from the spotlight - even altering the spotlight with a few well-placed lies.

Like when the Prince fired Rummy. He spent a couple of months telling the press - the American people - that Rummy would be there for the whole term. He later said he'd planned it for months but didn't want it to be part of the mid-term elections. Yikes!

And so on - with the spying on Americans, the torturing of people, the indefinite holding of "enemy combatants," it's all behind closed doors. Nothing is what it appears to be. But not in Civil War. Marvel creates a fairness that does not exist in reality. Except when they do it subconsciously.

In fact, revealingly, the indefinite imprisonment of the non-registrees (like Daredevil) goes unquestioned in the series. The implication is that it's okay to lock these characters up for good because of who they are. No trial. You wear the red tights with "DD" on the front, and you get disappeared - literally to the negative zone - with no chance of a trial or a lawyer or a judge or charges.

So there is a similar lawlessness, and also a similar disregard for it. The American government thinks it's okay to throw people in prison for life with no charges and no chance to defend themselves - and you should too.

If Marvel had wanted to better reflect today's politics, even in the most general possible way, they were compelled to have the authoritarian forces act purely for their own benefit, and not for some faraway dream of do-gooding.

That's not partisan: it's just reality. And by playing off their two sides as equal - even having Dr. Strange and The Watcher sit it out and hope for the best because it was all so equal, they've fed into the lie that the media has been giving people for the past six years.

We are governed by the most radical anti-democratic government in the history of the nation. They are willing to do or say anything to hold their ill-gotten power. As the voters who had to line up for seven hours to voting the poor areas of Cleveland - and the rich white voters who didn't have to wait at all in the suburbs. They all know the score.

And generally people are waking up to it - in spite of the media and in spite of Marvel comics.

The meme that authoritarians are just trying to do good a different way is, in the context of today's politics, treasonous. Marvel has a history of being on the right side of issues like race and civil rights. They really let us down with the whole Civil War.

And that goes right down to the end - when Captain America saw that he was doing more harm than good and simply surrendered. What is he, ten? To write that he didn't think through his actions ahead of time is ludicrous.

And to think that a veteran of WWII wouldn't realize that some harm comes in the process of doing good is simply stupid. If Cap believed that fighting registration was the right thing to do, nothing would have stopped him. If he thought he could do it non-violently, he would have done so from the start.

But for Cap - or any character - to give up a cause because of some collateral damage is to misunderstand Americans. Rightists think Democrats boo-hoo about collateral damage and dead civilians because we lack will. They don't get it at all. For the cause of freedom - real freedom and true liberty - liberals have been the only true guardians.

That goes back to WWI and WWII, when we led the fight that destroyed Europe - for the cause of true freedom and the fight against evil.

What we object to is a waste of lives and treasure on pointless wars of choice. We're a cop who's willing to shoot his gun and take some bullets; we'll chop down a door and take some burns to put the fire out. But we're not unhinged gunmen looking for the next gunfight. We don't start fires to get the exercise with our axe.

Captain America would know this better than anyone. For a just cause, there would be no stopping him no matter what.

Now, a word about football: what the hell are the New England Patriots doing? They've signed their third free agent WR. They've signed Donte Stallworth, WR Kelley Washington, WR Wes Welker, TE Kyle Brady, and RB Sammy Morris to go along with LB Adalius Thomas. And they've franchised CB Asante Samuel. And they have two first round draft picks.

I've heard some rumours that his is Bill Belichick's last big shot at a SB before leaving the team, but I don't think so. First, where would he ever go to find a more supportive owner or an organization that will give him what the Pats have given him? Why change zip codes just to change?

Second, what's so suspicious about a guy using all the resources at his disposal to improve his team? He could sign those guys, so he did. Some in the media will see something sinister in everything he does - and they should cut it out.

My take is that he watched a team with a crap defense and as scary offense win it all last year. He knows that with a couple of tweaks t the defense and an upgrade to the offense, he can win it all. He understands that the league changes from year to year, from era to era. Sometimes that change is too subtle to see early on - but he's seen it. And he's adjusting before others are.

That's what winners do.

Plus, he has a Hall of Fame QB, and needs to put legitimate targets on the field to take advantage. Tom Brady isn't here forever - QB's careers can come to an end pretty quick. We can't have Brady get hit too much because he has to hold the ball too long because his receivers can't get open. He needs some talent in the WR group who can do what Deon Branch used to do - get off the line quick and be open in three steps.

We have that now. The additions from free agency (and Welker who was a trade) are enough - and on top of that we'll have two first round rookies in the mix.

Good times ahead in New England.