The Nerd Without Content
The death of Len Wein drew poignant reflections on his contribution to comics, both as a writer of memorable characters, and as an editorial voice promoting younger creators.
It also occasioned a response from a user on Twitter disputing comments on Wein’s contribution to diversity in comics with the All New, All Different X-Men. In place of the New England blue bloods first introduced by Stan and Jack in Uncanny X-Men, Wein and Dave Cockrum assembled an African weather goddess, an Irish former supervillain, a demonic German acrobat, a Russian romantic, and a disenfranchised Native American.
There was also a Canadian government assassin with claws named Wolverine who would go on to dominate the worlds of comics and movies. It would appear Americans are slightly in awe of Canada. Possibly memories of 1814.
Back to our friend on Twitter. Their claim was it was poor taste to bring politics into reflections on Wein’s career. ‘Don’t bring politics into it’ is the new catch cry of a reactionary movement that has embedded itself in comics, gaming and cinema over the past decade. Nerds are being radicalized, in short, to reject any form of consumer entertainment that has the whiff of progressive politics.
X-Men has been consistently political, cultivating the seed of social commentary planted by Wein and Cockrum. Even in 2017’s Logan, we see our Canadian antihero stranded in a Trumpesque future where Mexico is a regulatory free-for-all exploited by corporations, or just a messy weekender for white frat boys.
There is an understandable tension at work here. Science fiction in particular is lovingly described as a progressive form of storytelling that sits neatly within liberal values. Where does the politically right find their entertainment without having liberal ideas shoved down their throat, the would-be apolitical nerd asks.
Except this is a false dichotomy. A reader or viewer may be challenged by the allegorical content of a work of entertainment, but that challenge is an invitation to engage with the issues that affect real people.
Just as it’s important to view the success of Noelle Stevenson as a sign of how different voices are finding success with readers as well as expressing experiences of gender largely absent from published books, fans have a responsibility to interrogate the values expressed in the writing of Moore, Miller, Bendis, DeConnick, Baron, Dixon, Simone. Comic writing after all complements our experience of an evolving society.
This summer’s Marvel Comics event Secret Empire is a case in point. Instead of using the character of Captain America to comment on the rise of fascist apologists in mainstream media and politics, writer Nick Spencer revealed the character was an agent of Hydra. This fictional fascist organization has within Marvel’s comic universe been associated with Nazism, though specializing in supervillainy. Not only did Spencer and Marvel refuse to have a dialogue with criticisms of the poor taste of making Captain America a fascist — a character created to inspire Americans to join the fight against Nazi Germany in World War II — they went so far as to claim Hydra was not Naziesque.
The controversy and social media-led blowout was the result of a failure to consider the real-world associations of this story. Instead Secret Empire’s status as a piece of fiction, as entertainment, was expected to wall it off from any such interrogation. Again — don’t bring politics into it.
The creative exercise set out by Secret Empire is an inward-looking one. It is a text written by an author which sets out to describe a subjective assessment of how politics and fiction intersect, while refusing to acknowledge the story as anything but pure entertainment. The comic presents a superhero plot neatly resolved over the course of a year, which is meant to be reassuring.
Wein and Cockrum with their emphasis on a racially mixed X-Men set out to challenge perceptions in the real world, while offering stories that entertained. Today comics rely on their status as entertainment as cover from criticism, or real world impact.
*tip of the hat to Giorgio Agamben for the title.
