John Davidson You know what's great? When a supposed expert in something is revealed to be a total fraud who can't get the barest minimum of facts straight. Now, without turning this into a political debate, let's get into the absolute stupidity of Fox & Friends discussing Captain America comics featuring the current wielder of the shield, Sam Wilson, who previously went by the costumed identity of The Falcon. On the weekend of October 18th, Fox & Friends ran a segment where co-host Clayton Morris refers to a "PR stunt" by Marvel involving Sam Wilson in the first issue of the newly relaunched Captain America: Sam Wilson comic book. And just what sort of "PR stunt" was this? Well it involved Captain America, a super hero, battling a force of super villains. Outrageous, right?! What a bold and wreckless move by Marvel comics! Truly they stand by their nickname "The House of Ideas" with such off-the-wall notions. To be specific, Clayton, comic-book guru that he clearly is, is referring to Cap going up against a "new enemy", the Sons of the Serpent who he also calls "conservatives".
Wow, there's so much wrong in that single bit alone that I need some time to break it down. First of all, the Sons of the Serpent are not a "new enemy" for Captain America. They're an old enemy that Cap has had run-ins with dating back to their first appearance in Avengers #32 all the way back in September of 1966 as written by the always awesome alliterative author Stan Lee (who I'm shocked wasn't available for a cameo in this article). Oh and an FYI to all the hacks on the web that want to report on comic books: check your facts and check your sources because I've seen other articles listing the Sons first appearance as Avengers #33. WRONG! Copy-pasting posers. So, "new enemy"? Not hardly. Now "conservative"? Okay, I suppose you could call them that in the same way you could call the Nazi's "conversative". The Sons of the Serpent are, and always have been, a murderous group of racist occultists devoted to white supremacy. That is overtly their mission. To oust, harm or kill minorities. Keep that in mind throughout this article. Fox & Friends host Tucker Carlson then rhetorically asks if the Supreme Serpent (the leader of the Sons of the Serpent. Gotta love that thematic branding!) is "an Islamic extremist" or an "Isis member". Hmm, no Tucker, I'm going to guess that the guy that leads the group devoted to white supremecy probably isn't Muslim or Middle Eastern. He then describes the Supreme Serpent as "an American that has misgivings about unlimited illegal immigration". ... Okay. ... Let's do a quick look through some of my back issues here and see what sort of things the Sons of the Serpent under various Supreme Serpents have done. Well, in their initial appearances they committed violent hate crimes against US citizens. Later, they kidnapped Captain America and threaten to murder him. Alrighty. Oh and later they went on to destroy housing in Harlem (gotta drive out them minorities!) and take part in demonic rituals involving the serpent god Set, one of the foremost evil beings in the Marvel universe. Yeah. They're devil worshippers. But devil worshipping citizens that have misgivings about unlimited illegal immigration, right? I just hate when people get all hung up on the devil worshipping aspect of a group's politics... Anyway, back to this parade of misinformation, Clayton Morris goes on to ask what happened to "Captain America punching Hitler in the face". Yup, great point. We should definitely have more action involving Captain America combatting evil racists that want to further their own political agenda by rounding up and murdering minorities. OH WAIT! That's exactly what the hell is happening in this issue. Tucker then says that the new threat in Captain America is coming from "ordinary Americans". You heard that right. Apparently "ordinary Americans" are snake-garbed devil worshipping racists that openly espouse a platform supporting racially motivated violence whenever given the opportunity. When did Fox & Friends become satire? Co-host Anna Kooiman then goes on to say "keep politics out of comic books". Yes, what a brilliant statement regarding a comic book called Captain AMERICA. Geez, I wonder how a book like that could ever get political. Naturally, that flies in the face of the fact that comics have always been and will always be political. It's a necessity of story-telling especially as comic books tend to be on the forefront of the zeitgeist when it comes to social issues. Knowing that, however, would require knowledge of the actual medium they were discussing and that doesn't seem to be on the agenda. Fortunately it is on my agenda. Time for some real perspective on issue #1 of Captain America: Sam Wilson and the Sons of the Serpent. For that perspective, we need to go back to the creation of the SoS in 1966 by Stan Lee because one needs to understand that Mr. Lee was always a politically-minded individual when he wrote and tried to bring real world issues into his comics all the time. This was no different with the Sons of the Serpent. Having grown up a little Jewish boy, Stan Lee was familiar with bigotry and so that awareness was still with him as an adult in the 1960's. What else was going on during the 60's? Well, the civil rights movement also saw an uprise in the activity of the notorious Ku Klux Klan. The Klan, a group of costumed racists, were perpetrating violent crimes against racial minorities. Where have I heard that...OH SNAP! The Sons of the Serpent organization is the Ku Klux Klan! It's almost like some kind of direct allegory or something like the art of story-telling oh geez. Mind = blown! It's quite easy to see the parallels between the two groups because it's blatant and overt! Stan Lee has long had a history of supporting civil rights while shedding light on the unfortunate circumstances minorities often have to suffer (Oh hey, X-men, the walking-talking analogue for all minority groups. A book also written by Stan Lee) but he was also a shrewd comic writer that knew putting things out there at face value could be too overtly political and even dangerous. After all, when Captain America #1 depicted Hitler getting punched in the face that actually angered quite a few American Nazi sympathizers leading to death threats against the creative team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. So, of course, Stan invented the Sons of the Serpent to stand-in for the Ku Klux Klan. So, long story short, according to Fox & Friends, "ordinary Americans" are apparently the Ku Klux Klan? Oh no wait. "Ordinary Americans" are the Sons of the Serpent. Who just happen to be direct stand-ins for the KKK. Really seems like they should have done their research before making certain statements in that little segment. Oh and, by the way, Captain America debuted in 1940 before we ever entered World War II. It was an entirely politically driven comic that took a stand against Hitler, a view that not everyone in the United States shared at the time. It was a call to arms. One that co-creator Jack Kirby himself would answer when he went to fight in the war in 1944, later receiving the Combat Infantryman Badge and a bronze star for his efforts. This should be known by an "expert" though, right? Let the real experts talk about comic books and comic book politics. We comic fans don't need people on any side of a political fence working so hard to be offended by something that they inadvertently compare themselves and their viewers to a Klan analog (Klanalog?). In other words, sit down and shut-up. I got this. Thanks. *mic drop* John Davidson is host of 990WBOB's Geek Cred, premiering November 16 at 7:30 PM on 990WBOB |
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