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Monday, July 06, 2009

Facepalm Time


One Newsarama poster reacts to the announcement of the JLA/99 Crossover:

"Oh. God. No. Muslim pandering, anyone? Thank you, Time Warner, for showing us whose side you're on. I guess we can add you to the list of traitorous companies who have forgotten 9/11..."


Another poster, calling himself "The Mighty Dixon" (!) wrote,

"This is just further evidence of my criticism of DC political agenda that has driven this company away from solid stories of of the adventures of readers favorite characters that they we have always, no matter what generation, come the the shelves of our respective stores to purchase comics for. You would not have seen any comics reflecting German heroes during or proceeding World War II."


Of course, we cannot judge the majority of Newsarama users for the opinions or actions of a few.

17 comments:

  1. I seem to recall similar sentiments being expressed towards Marvel concerning the character of Faiza Hussain in "Captain Britain and MI-13". I facepalmed then and I facepalm now.

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  2. "I seem to recall similar sentiments being expressed towards Marvel concerning the character of Faiza Hussain "

    Yup, that's exactly what I thought of.

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  3. This is why we can't have nice things. :(

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  4. As the former COO of Teshkeel, I should note that we had Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and more working for us in our New York and Kuwait City offices.

    As a (southern) Irish Protestant, my family has seen firsthand the dangers of religious extremism. Too bad we haven't gotten rid of it in the US yet.

    Congrats to Paul Levitz and the team at DC for their openmindedness and willingness to support a project like this.

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  5. 'Jordanians took to the streets to participate in large demonstrations, shouting, "Burn in hell, al-Zarqawi.”'

    http://www.heritage.org/research/middleeast/wm919.cfm

    Folks like "The Mighty Dixon" consider the Jordanians our immutable enemy. Idiot.

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  6. Anonymous9:38 AM

    Wow. So ALL Muslims are the enemy and should be portrayed like Nazis were during WW2? This is a sad illustration of how America's general ignorance about the rest of the world can lead to bad stuff. We're not sure who we're supposed to hate, and we don't really feel like reading a book to find out, so we just hate everyone in the general vicinity. Scary.

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  7. Well, I'm happy to hear about the crossover, even if I had to learn about it through such negative connotations.

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  8. So... just wondering... how many non-Americans are in the Justice League of America?

    Corporations pander all the time. Generally, said pandering should be transparent and understated (the best kind, it doesn't require big advertising budgets).

    Don't like it? Don't read it. I've read the first issue of The 99, and aside from the origin story regarding the jewels, it really doesn't preach or embrace Islam like Spire or Jack Chick comics.

    In related news, the Statue of Liberty was opened last weekend. Tourists can once again climb the stairs and take in the view from the crown.

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  9. Wow, those comments are just terribly small-minded. How comforting. ;)

    It's funny, DC has always struck me as being much more politically right-leaning then Marvel. I guess "The Mighty Dixon" must be reading a different comic company.

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  10. "So... just wondering... how many non-Americans are in the Justice League of America? "

    In 2003 (I believe) we at DC editorial received a memo from Corporate asking us to include more diversity in our titles. I think adding more middle-eastern/Muslim characters were specified (mostly because we had little-to-none of them who were currently active in our books).

    That memo shaped both the direction of the new Firestorm series, as well as the lineup for the Kelly/Mahnke JLA & later for "Justice League Elite." For the latter, we introduced Naif al-Sheikh. Wiki entry, for refs on the character: http://tinyurl.com/nxeg9x

    Personally, I pulled for more gay characters in the active JLA as well. That was considered, at the time, "too over the top." Even though at DC eight, ten, fifteen years previous the idea of gay characters were not a big deal.

    Getting back to Naif al-Sheikh, his addition was simultaneously seen by Editorial as both a socially-responsible thing to do, and sort of a grumbly "we gotta do this because TW is twisting our arm" kind of thing.

    "The 99" crossover represents great progress, but I think there was no way something like that would have happened in 2003.

    I am thinking of the editor who got disgusted during our meeting for the DC 911 tribute book over a Paul Pope illustration of a Muslim woman in her traditional clothes holding a bag of groceries. The idea of the Pope piece was that all people were impacted by 911. But this editor felt the art, and the subject matter, had no real place in the volume.

    For all of Dan Didio's flaws, it wasn't until he got into DC that the closeminded grip of certain people at DC that had held sway for almost a decade was loosened; loosened pretty much by taking a hammer and bashing their fingers in.

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  11. It turns my stomach to think bigots like this still exist (but I suppose if they could be found anywhere, it would be the internet). Sadly, there are plenty of Americans who think Muslim = TERRORIST ZOMG and every time I hear any sentiment like that, I call them out on how incredibly ignorant they're acting. Just because a small segment of a given population commits a terrible crime does not mean everyone of that sect deserves to be punished. God forbid we try to overcome the mob mentality.

    Gee, if this attitude keeps up, can I get mad at people of European descent for wiping out the native Americans? Or colonialism? Or slavery? No, because I can't hold an entire ethnic group responsible for the actions of a few.

    Hmmm, I'm seeing a pattern.

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  12. Anonymous4:30 PM

    lol

    i lol at them

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  13. And THAT is why I don't read that site anymore. I'd have a permanent palm print on my face.

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  14. @DreadPirateMick

    Wait, seriously? The fact that Britain has a very large Muslim population, thus making it very logical that MI-13 would have Muslim agents, crossed no one's mind?

    Fellow Americans, why do you make me want to leave this country so much?

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  15. Guess I'm a traitor 'cause I bought and LIKED the 99. Idiots.

    I wish the damn comics were still available over here. Thinking I may relent and just pay to read all their books online. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to this crossover.

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  16. Anonymous3:34 PM

    Patrick:

    ...As a (southern) Irish Protestant, my family has seen firsthand the dangers of religious extremism. Too bad we haven't gotten rid of it in the US yet...

    And this is how I became Non-Interventionist. If it's b.s. when Then-First Lady Bush suddenly discovered women's rights just in time for us to bomb Afghanistan, it's b.s. no matter who makes these spurious discoveries at convenient moments-- while overlooking the Ick in our own back yards. If I don't believe in the cleansing power of bombs at home, then I don't believe in the cleansing power of bombs away from home. Period.

    -- cleome45

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  17. As idiotic as those Newsarama posts are -- and make no mistake, they are idiotic -- I also wonder how many positive portrayals of Jews or Americans are presented in Arabic/Islamic children's escapist literature.

    And no I'm not talking about Palestinian television showing a Mickey Mouse ripoff character spouting about how wonderful it is to blow up Jews/Israelis, but I mean in general. Exceptions don't define the rule.

    Diversity and tolerance are musts in our society, but it has to be a two-way street.

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