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At last! The comics are safe enough for terrorism
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Bombs away, comics fans!
You know we're getting blase about guys with bombs strapped to their midriffs when they start showing up in comic strips and comic books.
Comics have long played two sides of the fence. On the one hand, they want to snare your attention with feats of bravery and derring-do, and on the other, they don't want to upset your delicate sensibilities. If the sight of people of Middle Eastern descent outfitted with bombs were going to cause any bifocal-ed reader even the slightest degree of discomfort, well, you just wouldn't see such images on the funnies page or in a comic book.
Shockingly, times seem to have changed. I guess terrorism is just sooooo 2001, because a new DC comic featuring the Justice Society debuted on shelves yesterday showing the colorful batallion of do-gooders taking on Kobra, an old DC Comics cult that hasn't been used in recent years but has now been reborn as a - yes, you guessed it - bomb-wielding terrorist cult. We even discover that two JSAers, Mr. Terrific and Green Lantern, have interrogated members of Kobra in the past, only to hypnotically implant secret codes in their brain that make the Kobra members do the heroes' bidding.
Why aren't we offended or alarmed by the appearance of such characters? I maintain it's because we've seen so many images of terrorism in mass media for the last eight years that we're no longer taken aback by their appearance. Why, just last year, the hyperbole-prone characters in ol "Judge Parker" had to duke it out with a female terrorist and her coterie of bombs! Imagine, Millie, the characters in "Judge Parker" just thwarted a headscarfed terrorist and her sticks of dynamite using only their wits and a good right hook!
There's nothing wrong per se with using terrorists as antagonists in comics. I don't think we'd be seeing such use if we all weren't freaking out about nuclear missiles in Iraq or North Korea or what have you; the comics seem to belie that fear. For my part, I'd rather see the Justice Society of America tackle some dude who shoots icicles out of his fingers, and I'd prefer that the cast of "Judge Parker" try to keep little Sophie out of trouble at her school. Leave the terrorism to Katie Couric and movies starring Jamie Foxx and Hilary Swank.
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