Captain America Gets Censored ; Sarah Palin Gets Vamped in REPUGLICANS

The concept of Right-wing political pundits like Anne Coulter,  Lou Dobbs, 'Mr. Fox News' himself, Glenn Beck, and former Alaskan governor, Going Rogue  author, and all-around loose cannon (or is that screw?) Sarah Palin being meat-puppet disguises for a horde of undead unfriendlies could be a little far-out -- but in a world with a Tea Party Movement, anything's possible. 

Boom Studios is taking our point and driving it home - like a proverbial stake right through the heart of the Grand Old Party.  Repuglicans, a “completely unfair and not balanced take on Republican Party leaders and apparatchiks,” is an upcoming 128-page, digest-sized book by artist Pete Von Sholly with “wry commentary” by writer Steve Tatham. From the comic's cover (below) -- on which Palin's a vampire and Fox anchor Glenn Beck's a zombie, it's more than obvious that the humor is much deeper than simply 'poking fun'.  Von Sholly, Repuglicans' illustrator, doesn't mince words over his comics intent -- to show "... the true face of the right, and it’s not pretty."

Here's BOOM! Studios' official Repuglicans press release:

If you're not used to seeing comic books go political like Repuglicans, there's a pretty good reason why. In fact, comics have almost always steered clear of getting to embroiled in party politics -- even 'real-world' stories set in the many fictional comic book universes would feature fictional presidents and political parties. But that was before Barack Obama. Since Obama's campaign victory, the comics industry and its creators have been vocal with their support - the President has appeared unauthorized in numerous comic book stories since his election, and his first such appearance in Marvel Comics' Amazing Spider-Man #583  resulted in the issue becoming last year's best-selling comic book.

The last twelve months have seen many Obama comics cameos - and some have featured him as the comic's main character. Moreover, Washington-based Bluewater Productions 

has found bona-fide success with their two biographical lines, the all-political Political Power and occasionally political  Female Force; Force published a best-selling biography of Sarah Palin last spring.

Most recently, Marvel's been back in the political cross hairs for the current issue of Captain America, which contains a scene depicting several militant, anti-tax protesters carrying signs that read "Tea Bag the Libs before they tea bag you!" While the scene (below) wasn't intended to reflect the Tea Party movement, widespread conservative protest over the issue's content prompted to Marvel's EIC Joe Quesada to issue a public apology to the Tea Party as well as to promise that the offending scene would be deleted from future printings of Captain America #602. [link]

Marvel's Captain America retraction pissed off many within the comics industry, including Marvel and DC Comics freelance writer and Boom Studios' Editor-In-Chief Mark Waid. Last week, Waid posted to his Twitter account that he felt "humiliated and mortified" that "Fox News is able to bully [the comics industry] into apologizing to lunatics." As you can imagine,  the topic is still being much discussed as Tweets both pro and con. 

 

As a series, Captain America was once known for tackling touchy topics like political (and Presidential) corruption, as in Issue #175's portrayal of a story that mirrored  (though  also tried to distance itself from) then-President Nixon and his involvement in Watergate. But times have changed: Nixon didn't demand a public apology from Marvel  for any unintentional similarities, the internet-media connection didn't exist, and Marvel Comics itself is no longer the idealistic rogue of its 1970's hey-day, but instead a cog in a monolithic corporate machine. 

 Controversial Captain America #602: Tea Bagging...and Getting Bagged

We'll go out on a limb and say that Waid's reaction to Marvel's self-censorship had  almost everything to do with Repuglicans becoming a reality. He didn't create it, but he made it very clear to the creators who did that their project could call Boom its new home. Soon, Repuglicans will be on the racks, a very large target for the same voices that protested and won victory over Captain America, as they'll undoubtedly assert similar authority again.   The talking heads at Fox believe that in this crazy and screwed up world of our's, anything's possible. And maybe anything is - except an apology from Boom. [Source]