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Friday, May 15, 2009

Superheroes Need Not Apply...



...to the War on Terror.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I love comic books and have enjoyed this latest generation of superhero movies. (The above picture is from The Amazing Spiderman Variant Issue #583, or The Inauguration Issue).

However, there is one problem a couple of commentators pointed out: Superhero movies ignore our current jihadist enemies. It's as if they don't exist. Debbie Schlussel commented on this when the last Superman movie was released. Now Mark Steyn adds his comments in the wake of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/05/14/superheroes-are-starting-to-bug-me/

Ironman at least touched on our current operations in Afghanistan. Which maybe why I enjoyed it so much, even over my longtime favorite superhero Spiderman.

And while I still like these movies in general, Ms. Schlussel and Mr. Steyn have a point. Both Superman and Captain America came into being in the late 1930s. Captain America, a "supersoldier," was created to help fight our Axis enemies.

But times have changed and it's not politically correct to make inspirational movies about superheroes taking on real-world villains. That's the job of our real heroes--the men and women in our armed forces. However, "Hollyweird" has been hell-bent on vilifying our servicemen and women. It's been almost eight years since the 9/11 attacks and yet the only movies Hollywood cranked out are anti-war movies portraying American soldiers as torturers and rapists. Despite the unpopularity of our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan every one of these anti-war films flopped.

So not only have the superhero movies "let Hollywood off the hook," by avoiding our on-going war with the jihadist, but have recouped the losses from the anti-war films.

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