If you’ve been keeping up with the buzz on the comics Internet–though Lord knows why you’d want to do that unless you were actually getting paid for it–then you’ve probably heard about the whole kerfuffle with Captain America fighting Teabaggers and Joe Quesada’s subsequent apology. The crux of his response was that the signs were mistakenly lettered to reflect real-life beliefs rather than some fictional group of entitled racists, but that begs the question: If they’re not Teabaggers, what are they protesting?
And as always, I’ve got the answer.
It’s worth noting that this article got me namechecked by the New York Times Culture Blog, which isn’t too shabby for my first week of full-time freelancing.
I think you already need to ask for a raise based on the NYT reference
Okay, this has been bothering me, and I cannot find the answer anywhere. I don’t read Punisher religiously, but the transvestite villain with the boobs from your CA article was in one of the first comics that I ever bought, and I have no idea what his/her name is.
THE NEW YORK TIMES?! You Ivy League elitist you! Like Brubaker wasn’t bad enough but YOU had to imply that they’re Whedon-heads, too! How does someone get like you, mister? Do you just wake up one morning, hating freedom?
Every one a winner. You’re on fire, man.
Okay, this has been bothering me, and I cannot find the answer anywhere. I don’t read Punisher religiously, but the transvestite villain with the boobs from your CA article was in one of the first comics that I ever bought, and I have no idea what his/her name is.
That was the Russian, from the Ennis run. Which means that you started buying comics in… 2001?
Nice work, Sims. Have a blank of that? I want to carry on your work and make it a full internet meme.
Hey Chris, it’s been awhile since I’ve visited your blog, and I’m disappointed to see you’ve replaced the nameplate graphic of the bear with the “What the hell is that, anyway?” expression. That alone was worth the price of admission. Oh well. All good things must come to an end, I suppose. Congrats on your new job opportunity. Hope that works out for you.
I gotta say, I’m deeply disappointed with Quesada. Captain America vs. the Teabaggers was an AWESOME idea.
That was the Russian, from the Ennis run. Which means that you started buying comics in… 2001?
Yeah, that sounds right, I was about ten. Well, that’s when I started buying *new* comics. Before that, I’d get Liefeld-infested three-packs from Walgreens. T’was a dark age.
It won’t belong before you’re writing for the NYT. About kicks to the face.
This shit never would have happened in the Ultraverse.
Aww, I liked Cap fighting Tea Baggers. Why did Quesada have to apologise to them?
Teabaggers.
*snicker*
Oh, you wacky Americans.
I don’t know what you’re playing at making fun of those people, Sims. Leno does suck, objectively, and nobody watched his awful show. Bring back Masturbating Bear! …And Firefly!
Actually, Mastrubating Bear would make a great addition to the FIREFLY cast.
Well, Firefly has been off the air for almost a decade. Perhaps Masturbating Bear could guest star on Big Bang Theory.
The notion of Captain America going after Tea Partiers (only d-baggers say teabaggers) never struck me as rational.
Think about it: we’re talking about a guy who led what turned into a defacto insurrection waging war in the streets of America because he didn’t like the thought of people with proven deadly superpowers having to register with the government. Is he really the right guy to get all pissy at ordinary Americans who think an overintrusive government is taxing and spending too much?
@Scott
Anti-tea party cap is a completely different cap. This is Bucky-cap.
Anti-Super Hero Reg cap is Steve-Cap.
And the Tea-partiers have their own cap, too. They Get 1950s-Cap.
Everyone has their own cap. He’s right there. In you heart.
The more you know…
Is there an apathy Cap that just complains on the internet instead of taking his cause to the streets? Because that Cap would have a huge silent majority.
I don’t know, I think Cap’s got a long history of taking on loudmouth racists.
Y’know, Chris, the only really violent act at any of these Tea Parties was when an African American tea partier in St. Louis was knocked down, struck and kicked repeatedly by anti-tea party protestors who, apparently, also yelled racial epithets at him.
Stick to talking about things you actually know about.
I didn’t see any mention of violence in either this post or the CA article… but maybe I missed it.
@Dominique
Oh, Bucky-cap. The one who was a former Soviet stooge (okay, brainwashed, but still…). Definitely the person I’d want looking down on people for wanting government to leave them be.
Well, maybe Cap and the Falcon are thinking, “Where were these people during the Registration dustup anyway? If they’re so incensed against a tyrannical government,why weren’t they marching in the streets THEN?”
Not just during superhero registration, but where were the Tea Party protesters when Bush was actually violating the civil rights of American citizens with illegal wiretapping? For abuses of power, this administration could never catch up with the last one. Even on the spending issue, considering the completely unnecessary Iraq War.
Man, I had no intention of getting political, I just wanted to congratulate Chris on getting Brubakered, but insulting a guy on his own site takes some nerve. And insulting him incompetently worst of all. Chris never said the Tea Party protesters were violent. He said they were loudmouth racists, and there are plenty of signs and quotes that can back that up easily, one already linked here earlier.
Quesada has always wanted to tie Marvel into modern politics, and this was a perfect move. No for of fiction should need to apologize. Censorship is never right. The character changes depending on the writer, but I have seen Captain America go almost full hippy on some occasions. He’s much more often Liberal than Conservative.
Oh, and for what it’s worth, the “expect better” refers to the remarks in the comments board: the alternative protest pictures were kind of amusing (especially since I think I actually saw the Marlboro Man in front there at a Conan support rally).
WHY WON’T YOU LEAVE ME BE, GOVERNMENT?
By the way, Sims, I thought you knew better.
Don’t you know that free speech is the right to say things that don’t offend conservatives?
Oh, Scott. If you’re talking about the Kenneth Gladney hoax as the only incident of violence at a Teabagger rally, you really need to re-adjust your tinfoil hat. If you don’t want one of the few black superheroes to call you a bunch of racist nutbags, stop letting your “movement” be hijacked by a bunch of racist nutbags. I mean, if the Falcon tells you that you are full of crap, then you’re probably full of crap.
Actually, the last time the Falcon told me that, it meant that I was full of LSD. He just walked right off the page, man….
Chad, please do not let facts intrude on peoples’ attempts to set Chris straight. They muddy the water.
I was following this thread with some interest, and it seems like some posts have disappeared.
Prediction: After a year of freelancing, when Chris has to write the big check to the gov’t, and starts to realize “I pay that much in taxes…for what?”….then we just might see him walking around with a sign. Nothing slaps you in the face more about gov’t waste then when you are self-employed, and have to write that big check at the end of the year. It’s a real gut punch.
Funny, but I don’t recall seeing any news reports that the attack on Gladney was a hoax. Saw some left wing sites making that claim, but not reputable news sites (heck, not even MSNBC).
I suspect I appreciate free speech a heckuva lot more than many here, having been in academia, where saying the wrong thing (i.e., anything other than liberal pieties) will get you called every dirty name in the book, physically threatened, physically attacked, your writings burned, or your Social Security number stolen and put up on posters around campus (every single one of those things has happened to me or someone I know). And, in a particularly Kafka-esque twist, that sort of crap is usually justified in the name of being considerate to others (I won’t contribute to my alma mater because the president of the school defended burning newspapers on the grounds that they shouldn’t have published the offending article), So I darn well do appreciate free speech and the ability to call shennanigans without fear of retribution when I see people being unfairly slandered, because I know what the alternative is.
Of course, at least I can revel in the irony of catching grief over defending the Tea Partiers, given that I’m at best ambivalent about them. Populist movements of any political stripe kind of make me nervous even when I’m sympathetic to their cause (I believe in checking power, even that of the masses). I responded mostly because that application of an offensive sexual term to millions of ordinary people expressing genuine concerns by smug, self-righteous, and generally clueless dinks just pisses me off. As does painting those millions with the brush of racism, as if they wouldn’t mind government intrusiveness and crushing debt if a white guy were in charge.
Prediction: After a year of freelancing, when Chris has to write the big check to the gov’t, and starts to realize “I pay that much in taxes…for what?â€â€¦.then we just might see him walking around with a sign.
Just when I thought this comments section could not possibly get any dumber…
As does painting those millions with the brush of racism, as if they wouldn’t mind government intrusiveness and crushing debt if a white guy were in charge.
They didn’t say one word about it when Bush II was in charge…
Howdy y’all (did I get that right?) non-american here. Just wanted to ask something, the Boston Tea-Party was a protest about the results of the removal of a tax not the imposition of one, wasn’t it? So, why do the new tea-partiers call themselves that since the connection is so illogical? Or have I got something wrong?
Scott,
Polite euphemisms for the Tea Baggers include “Republicans” and “conservatives.” To suggest that they are in any way comparable to the real people who were really revolting against a real monarchy, one which had sent a real occupying force of real soldiers with real weapons, is to suggest a staggering lack of pride in and respect for American history and the awesome responsibility bestowed upon those who live here by those who came before. The actual patriots who participated in the real Tea Party back in Boston those centuries ago were participating in a movement that would produce actual democracy. The Tea Baggers, on the other hand, are pissed off democracy got in the way, and the dream of a permanent Republican majority turned out to be hubris.
Dorian: About half an hour after I posted that, I realized someone would bring up Bush, so I decided to wait unti it came up.
On government intrusiveness, there’s a big difference between listening to the communications of suspected terrorists and the government getting more deeply involved in controlling 1/7 of the economy, including forcing people to buy insurance even if they don’t want to.
As for the spending, all sorts of people squawked about the spendihg under the Bush administration; those objections played a considerable part in Bush’s approval numbers tanking, there being a Democratic Congress elected in 2006, and Obama getting elected in 2008. The massive deficit then doubled at the end of 2008 with the TARP program, and what seems to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back was the nearly 800 billion dollar stimulus bill that even supporters seemed to have been embarrassed by the pork in it. That’s when you started to see the protests, and they only intensified when the health care debate started.
Probably the most interesting discussion of the Tea Partiers I’ve seen is Glenn Reynolds’ piece posted on the Wall Street Journal website yesterday, where he starts off arguing that they organized to try to bring about the changes Obama promised but failed to deliver.
Earl,
The Boston Tea Party was protesting an imposition of a tax (technically, a retention), not the removal of one.
But it’s simplistic to think the real Tea Partiers were protesting taxes in general. The specific tax on tea was one of many levied on the colonies by the British Parliament, which had no representatives from or directly elected by the colonies, betraying the British constitution’s principle of no taxation without representation. The revenues were used to pay judges and governors in America, as well as occupying British soldiers. Massachusetts in particular had been a leading voice against the inequities imposed by the British. They were rewarded with the dissolution of their House of Representatives, the establishment of a Board of Customs dedicated to imposing British rule in Boston, and a sizable occupying British army. While other colonies sent tea-bearing ships back to England or refused to let them unload their cargo, the people of Boston destroyed the tea. It was at night–protestors were being shot at, and even Massacred. And in response, the British Parliament and population were unified against the Americans, and war would soon become a reality.
The Tea Partiers of old were in a very, very different situation than the Tea Baggers today, but the Tea Baggers (and they are mistaken), they like to think of themselves, and only themselves, as the True and Virtuous Real Americans, and they gravitate towards undeniably American iconography.
Scott,
That’s cute…you think the people who disapproved of Bush are the same ones showing up at Tea Parties.
“The massive deficit then doubled at the end of 2008 with the TARP program, and what seems to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back was the nearly 800 billion dollar stimulus bill that even supporters seemed to have been embarrassed by the pork in it.”
That would be the stimulus bill that contained billions of dollars in tax cuts, right? The one that helped bring the national economy back from the brink of total collapse despite conservative efforts to obstruct its passage and render it as impotent as possible? You’re right; that must have been what angered all these protesters. It’s just an incredible and unfortunate coincidence that they only started to care about deficits when a liberal, black president was elected.