They Have Awakened a Sleeping Gimp

All spring long, the "comics blogosphere" - including this site - has been having great fun at the expense of American Power, CrossGen Comics' crass and blatant attempt to cash in on a hopefully now-dead wartime jingoism. The series was cancelled before it ever saw print (thus depriving me of a future Worst of the Worst entry, I suspect) but that hasn't stopped the laughs. If you read any comics weblogs or news sites at all, you probably saw this much-derided cover, in which an Osama Bin Laden lookalike is getting decked by a guy in, to use the preferred term, "a gimp mask."

In issue number 2, Muqtada al-Sadr gets beaten up by a Furry.

One criticism in particular that's been getting a lot of attention recently was delivered by another CrossGen writer, Ian Edginton, in this interview with Rich Johnston. And Edginton's comments put me in a difficult position. Because while I really don't like American Power, I don't much like the reasons he objects to it either.

I asked [Bill Rosemann] that if in the light of recent events, it was in questionable taste publishing a book that could be read by the husbands, wives, and more importantly, the children (it is a comic after all) of the victims of 9/11 and the Atocha station bombing? He said CrossGen intended it to be controversial hence the provocative cover and copy for the prequel. I added that since this book would not have been able to happen if 9/11 hadn't itself happened, that CrossGen were in fact cashing in on those people's deaths. He said no. I finally asked him if, human being to human being, he didn't feel at least a twinge of morality or conscience? He said, everyone's entitled to their opinion.

Except the poor souls who died in 9/11 and at Atocha.

Everyone should pay close attention to this quote, since it's rare evidence that liberals can be just as shamelessly ghoulish about invoking the silent dead to endorse their arguments as can conservatives. But this is the line that really slays me:

I added that since this book would not have been able to happen if 9/11 hadn't itself happened, that CrossGen were in fact cashing in on those people's deaths.

Of course! And since Guernica would not have been able to happen if the Spanish Civil War hadn't itself happened, wasn't Picasso cashing in on those people's deaths? And since Maus would not have been able to happen if the Holocaust hadn't itself happened, wasn't Art Spiegelman in fact...

No, no, I can't even finish typing that sentence. (Besides, I think Ted Rall's already gone there.) Edginton otherwise makes a lot of valid points about the crassness of American Power, but this one seems to imply that any artistic response to a tragedy is an exploitation of that tragedy. Obviously, some are - I think American Power probably would have been, given its writer, and given CrossGen's seizing upon it as the solution to their financial troubles like a drowning man clutching at straws. But plenty aren't.

Also, while we're on the subject of insulting arguments, let's all stop pretending that a work is insensitive or "of questionable taste" just because it could potentially be read by victims or survivors or, especially, the children!!! That way lies the complete muzzling of art and, even worse, the infantilization of the public. Joan Didion, in her (disappointingly slim) book on September 11th, calls this "a troublingly belligerent idealization of historical ignorance," but it's also an idealization of us as being ever so fragile.

Besides, if you're really worried about children reading something, the best thing you can do is to publish it as a comic book in the direct market. HEY-OH!!!!!!!!!

Look, I don't doubt for a second that American Power would have been obnoxious, exploitative trash. But if you're going to criticize it, criticize it for what it really gets wrong; take issue with its moronic politics, and its shameless attempt to cash in on its moronic politics, instead of its potential audience.

Comments

[Kevin J. Maroney]

I dunno. The fact that Gimpo is beating up an unarmed old guy surrounded by a bunch of Palestinian militia look on bothers me, since it's not the Palestinian militia who have (broadly speaking) attacked America.

You point out well, though indirectly, another reason the cover is annoying; Captain Gimptastic is using "American Power" more advisedly than the people who actually have control of it. American power is a frighteningly big thing, and it's not being used for good in the real world.

[Marc]

I guess I interpreted the "unarmed old guy" as being Osama bin Laden, and if that's the case I don't have much of a problem with anyone wanting to beat the shit out of him.

OTOH, at lunch today I listened to a set of stories, from a visiting job candidate who's taught at schools all over the Middle East, about the political differences between Saudis and Omanis and Lebanese and other Arab nationalities, and clearly none of those subtleties made it onto the cover.

Finally, I see that in this insipid Q&A, Chuck Dixon claims that "Bin Laden would only appear in the book once he was captured in real life." So, did the cover make a liar of him, or is the Gimp really beating up an old man? U-DECIDE!