I can't figure out what the message is supposed to be behind this poster for a new comic book called War Heroes by Mark Millar, the scribe behind the pointed political series Civil War. Is it a pro-McCain poster? An ironic anti-McCain poster? An acknowledgment that Obama is realistic and therefore probably better at dealing with, you know, reality? A way of showing that political leaders have also taken a stance on superpowers? I'm only half-kidding here, people. I genuinely have no idea what the message is behind this thing. Please help. [War Heroes Poster via Newsarama]
I Am Confused By This "War Heroes" Poster -- Please Esplain?
4:20 PM on Tue May 6 2008
By Annalee Newitz
1,677 views
23 comments









Comments
Yeah...I don't get it.
So like, politics? And stuff? The comic itself looks vaguely promising, though.
"I genuinely have no idea what the message is behind this thing."
Since it's Mark Millar, I feel entirely comfortable guessing the message is: give me free publicity, please.
me either. Shouldn't he just be working on Kick Ass anyways? heh
Hmm...
McCain = Radioactive Spider Bite?
John Macain has no foresight on the destruction people would leave in their wake when given super powers. Obama does.
What super powers, like brain damage or no limbs or depleted uranium lung? Those are "super" "powers" I do not want.
@ManchuCandidate: Agreed - I'm thinking we need to be very narrow about the definition of "super" and "powers" in this case.
So Millar and Harris are repugnicans?
Millar is a hack.
Newsarama has an interview with Millar about the series and it sounds pretty good.
Basically the story line is that McCain wins the election and the war goes on for many more years. In an attempt to boost recruitment numbers several decades from now the army offers soldiers the chance to be boosted to super human levels. America is falling apart at the seams (just like now) and China and Russia have become the economic super powers so no, the comic is not pro Republican by any stretch.
The story focuses on a group of mates who join up to get super powers with an ulterior motive in mind. To me it sounds more like that great old Clint Eastwood movie Kelly's Heros only with super powers.
@Agent_spanky:
I hope that is the case because the poster was kinda stupid. It's also a bit irrelevant considering that John McCain will probably be long dead before US troops finally leave the Mess'o potamia.
I rather enjoyed Kelly's Heroes, too (as he whistles the tune of Burning Bridges.)
@Agent_spanky: When a year we'll know if this is alternate history or not. Which sort of reminds me of this alternate history of presidents and wars:
Patrick Farley's "The Spiders"
[saturn5.com]
@Mathmos: Ahh yes Repugnicans... Dumocrats.. Libertardians... Lets just keep bringing politics into everything... dividing us up even in sci-fi and comics.. /sigh
I just took it to mean that McCain will use nuclear weapons moreso than Obama.
Or something to that effect.
Meh. I'm more impressed by The Empire Strikes Barack --
+ Watch video
@Darkweave: Science fiction has been political since the beginning.
Wells was very political, being a Fabian Socialist and all. The Time Machine can be viewed as satire on the end result of stratification between rich and poor. Heinlein was also very political expounding on many views that US Libertarian and GOP intellectuals would agree with.
Sure it's possible to write stories, comics and movies that avoid commentary about the current political situation but if the authors themselves bring politics up, it's hard to avoid talking about it.
@bonniegrrl: Wow, that was awesome!
i have no idea what these artists political leanings are, but i think this is meant to be ironic. Falls flat to me.
I thought McCain was a Cylon.
@Agent_spanky: So he takes Matt Fraction's comic "The Order" (or the "Infinity Inc." plotline from 52) and moves it to Iraq?
@corpore-metal: Not just a Fabian socialist-- Wells was also quite enamored with *National* socialism.
@Agent_spanky: "the comic is not pro Republican by any stretch."
C'mon, it's an escapist fantasy, what do you expect?
@Daveinva: I knew that Wells, like so many during that time (HP Lovecraft just for starts.), supported the ideas of eugenics but I don't think he ever supported the Nazis. In his Outline of History he bluntly criticized both the Nazi and Soviet regimes.
But yeah, like so many idealists from the early 20th century, many of his political ideas seem rather embarrassingly old fashioned now.
But to derail the thread a moment, what I miss, as a technoprogressive at the dawn of this new century, is the good ol' days when the left wasn't so afraid of science and technology. Why can't we left of centers see technology as a liberating force like we used to? Sigh. I guess that all died in the clouds of Hiroshima, Chernobyl and Bopahl. Oh well.
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