How to defeat the Wall Street Pigmen

(I wrote this the other day while thinking about the Wall Street protests. It meanders a lot, but I decided to keep the emotional stream of thought thing. This was all typed off of the type of my head, mostly on my phone at work, without access to any references. It is what it is. But I like it.)

How to defeat the Wall Street pigmen

America is at the lowest level of unionization since unions became legal. We might as well start there. We need a union drive in America. These don't need to be the conservative ossified unions that have managed to survive. Like all institutions, there are good unions and bad unions. But the important part of the union is that it is a representative organization. A more informal structure is all that's necessary. This union drive could be focused in one city, at first. Let's just say New York for argument sake. All people would be needed to join. The IWW could fill this role, or a new union. Dues could be small, or non existent. People could join “One Big Union”, or separate unions that agree to cooperate with one another.

The important part is to get people signed up and agree with the program so the super weapon can be used. This super weapon is the general strike. The strikers could do a few things. One option would be to have a sit in strike at the workplace. A sit in could evolve into an occupation or even worker management, depending on the situation. Employees, again, depending on the business, could keep working and fulfill existing orders but distribute the payments more equitably. Or whatever they wanted. But the key is that "they" refers to the employees.

Now when we talk about sit ins and worker appropriation, it should be clear we're not talking about small businesses. The intent isn't for the three employees at a baseball card store to boot the old grampa who owns it into the street. The target of the strike is the state-corporate economy. But I fear we've gotten ahead of ourselves. If we want our general strike to be a revolution, a bloodless revolution, some ground work has to be laid.

There needs to be a recognition that the interests of the ruling class and the overwhelming majority of the country are not the same. If 99% of the country is sharing 65% of the wealth, then there is always going to be people without enough. The structural inequality, and the finite amount of wealth, means that as long there is a super rich class, there will be a super poor class. The one cannot exist without the other.

What we need is a country where 99% of the country owns 99% of the wealth. Or something close. To do this, we need to create a parallel economy. The way our economy works now, passive participation in it strengthens it. We need a parallel or counter economy. One that can outgrow the official economy. This doesn't mean we have to give up computers or high top sneakers, just that we can do better as human beings. There is more than enough wealth in the world for everyone, but that's not the world we live in. We need only organize ourselves differently.

Let's get back to that ground work. We need friendly banks. We need banks that can do something in the vein of the Grameen Bank, lending loans to people to get themselves in a better place. The innovation with Grameen Bank is that it lended to people without collateral, and found that people paid back anyway. Because the amounts we are dealing with in America are larger, and there isn't the same market for cottage industry, lending groups could be used. A group of people could take a loan out together, each responsible for paying off their part of it. If someone is delinquent the loss is much smaller, because everyone else is still paying. It's a risk pool for lending. People could set it up a few different ways. Someone behind on their payments could be covered by someone else, or bought out if they won't be able to make payments anymore. The goal is to let people get loans for economic projects (like starting businesses or installing solar panels on their house) easier.

Some could criticize this, saying excess lending caused the financial collapse. The lending I'm talking about isn't about lowering standards, only setting up a structure so that people can get a loan without explosive interest rates. These loans would be for improving people's lives, not just to snare them in mortgage schemes. Credit unions could be used for this, or new institutions. Proudhon used the term "People's Banks", which sounds right to me, but probably would make too many Americans uncomfortable. Americans are taught to fear anything with the words "People's" or "Liberation" in it's name.

It would be important to transfer money into the new “friendly” banks. If everyone withdraws their money at once, a run on the bank will happen. A “run” could be timed with the strike, the boycotts and everything else for maximum effectiveness.

To coincide with our People's Banks, we need to revive Mutual Aid societies. Mutual Aid societies were largely driven out of existence by the government around the first half of the 1900's. There are still things that can be done though. People with cash can pay a premium, and receive benefits back later. These benefits could be determined by a board, or a management team. They could be chosen, hired, elected or rotated in and out. People without money could access the society for barter service. An unemployed person could do work on someone’s house, and in exchange receive dental work or food. Hours and goods exchanged can be tracked, perhaps with a sharing ratio like Peer2Peer networks. A group of people can volunteer to run a daycare (an enormous expenditure for single moms) in exchange for work on their cars, groceries or what have you. The society could serve as a clearinghouse for simple user run insurance plans and for LETS style transactions. An existing fraternal society like the elks or moose could serve as a base, or a church group or school. Or an entirely new institution could be made. Whichever works best.

To go with our mutual aid societies and our People's Banks we will want a helping of self sufficiency. The more we disconnect from the state corporate economy the weaker we make it, and the stronger the parallel economy can become in comparison. If someone has solar panels on their house, they then don’t have to pay into the power companies. If you have an electric car, running from your solar panels, you can disconnect from the oil and energy industry in two ways.

Gardens and goods production can be quite prosperous on a small scale if well handled. Food produced this way can be used personally, traded at a community store or for labor. This unplugs you from the food and factory farm industry. To take this to an extreme, if someone were to have the necessary capital, a person could probably make all of their goods instead of working a job. If mutual aid societies could provide things like health insurance, communities structured around small self producing family units could be almost entirely self sufficient. Some people won’t want to take it that far. And that’s fine too.

Ok, so when our general strike hits, our parallel economy is already going. We’ve got self sufficient families with their own food and power. We’ve got mutual aid societies providing services, food, or helping people still get things done with out cash. A strike fund can feed and house those on strike who need to be fed or housed. Occupy Wall Street functions largely off of donations as far as I know, which people from the around the world can use to help. That could be a source of supplies.

There are three approaches the strikers can take, each with pros and cons. People can stay in their homes. Their physical presence is not felt on the streets but it is harder for the cops to attack them. A sit in can be used to occupy and appropriate a workplace. This makes it easier for the cops to know where to strike. Expect a SWAT team and flashbangs. There is the classic protest march, which gets the message out. Good for morale. Again though, you are an easy target for the cops. Obviously, different people and different situations can use different approaches.

While we are striking, it’s important to start a boycott. A boycott of all functions of the corporate-state economy. A list could be maintained of services and companies to boycott in turn. Each time a workplace is reclaimed that workplace is added to the list of places to favor over others. As the strike and boycott drives business under, those business can be replaced by comparable services, run in a more equitable fashion and join the parallel economy.

As the parallel economy grows, the issue of currency is raised. It could be beneficial to issue a counter currency. This is illegal under US law. The liberty dollars, based on gold, would have been great for this purpose. The government smashed that operation however. A way around the law is to have local towns issue their own currencies. Town councils are susceptible to local democracy and could be used to issue local counter currencies.

If we add all this up, the pig men won’t stand a chance. Each major city can be tackled with strikes and boycotts, one at time, as the movement slowly grows in the margins across the country.

The enemy is the “corporate-state” economy, though. How do you strike against the state? This one is much harder. The most obvious way is to refuse to pay taxes. A refusal to pay taxes will eventually put someone up against the IRS. A single person against the IRS will always end with the IRS winning. If, however, a huge number of people going up against the IRS together the government will find itself swamped in it’s own legal system. A loss of perceived legitimacy is more of a blow than the lost revenue. Will the government have the resources to send huge numbers of people to jail for non-violent tax protests? Any debate, delay or controversy will weaken the government position. Not everyone would be able to do this. If you have kids at home, you probably shouldn’t risk getting sent to jail. A covert tax protesters insurance society could be started via an Internet listserv. A large group of people pay a modest premium. They then refuse to pay their taxes. Anyone who gets roped in by the IRS would receive a benefit, either to pay off the audit or support their family if they get sent away. The larger the group grows the more powerful the tax protest becomes. This would also allow people who can not refuse to pay their own taxes to support those who do.

Other ways to resist state power are refusal to pay the standard fines, like drivers license tabs, or to serve on jury duty. But again, a single person will always get crushed. In large groups, the system will start to choke. A more direct approach would be to protest in front of government buildings to block the entrance, or use tow trucks to drop of scrapped cars in front of the entrances. Or denial of service attacks against government websites. Denial of service attacks against “bad” corporations could also be used.

All of these ideas are completely non violent. They are also non governmental. There are no candidates or platforms to vote for. It’s not a call for more or less regulation, more or less taxes. This is libertarian socialism. Some of it is illegal. This is true. Some of it might go too far for some people. But it is not dogma or an orthodoxy. Someone who agrees with one part but not others is not a heretic. It’s a living idea. If it is ever tried, and fails, then I will be the first to bury it. The important part is to imagine a better, more equitable, more just world. Then close your eyes. When you open them, you are living in that world. It need only be built.

Books:

Flight from the city by Ralph Borsodi

Community Technology by Karl Hess

sin patron by the Lavaca collective and Horizontalism

The conquest of bread by Peter Kropotkin

Post Scarcity anarchism by Murray Bookchin

Studies in Mutualist political economy by Keven Carson

Articles:

All power to the soviets by Murray Rothbard

Holy Terror

Frank Miller was once the wunderkind of American comics. While so many top comic writers are British (Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Garth Ennis being the most popular writers of the modern era) Miller created a uniquely American style of hard boiled sex, violence and pathos. DKR helped found the Dark Age of comics after all.

Looking at his works chronologically though, Miller's last home run seems to be That Yellow Bastard, written half way through his Sin City period. That was in 1996, fifteen years ago.

So here we have Miller, the American in a field dominated by Brits, over the hill and remixing his old style. The story's two main characters are obvious pastiches for Batman and Catwoman. The art is very reminiscent of Sin City. The content, according to Miller in interviews, is "a piece of propaganda". The reader is left to sort through these seemingly disparate elements.

Holy Terror, on a purely technical level, is very strong. The pounding urban rain has never looked better. Splotches of white amidst the downward lines suggest impressionistic artistic frenzy. Empire City's Lady Liberty strikes an imposing and majestic figure over the landscape. Close ups of the nails and razor blades packed into the terrorist's bombs lend an epic feeling to a scene that is just two people huddling on a rooftop. In fact, I thought the nail motif was a nice artistic touch.

The figures fall into the Frank Miller 2.0 mold, with the exaggerated hands and head from late Sin City and DKSA. For some reason, Miller seems intent to find as many excuses to draw the bottom of people's shoes as possible.

One of the most visually arresting sequences is when the casualties of the terrorist bombing are depicted with a series of grids. When it starts we have a grid with medium sized portraits. The second grid has smaller portraits, therefore more people, but has started to fade out. There is then two pages of increasingly more divided grids, completely empty, on a white background. This is an extremely impressive command of sequential art.

The sparse use of color is used to convey extra information, a green car and red shoe buried in the rubble reminds of the little red dress in Schindler's List. When "Catwoman" goes undercover by stealing a burqua, the audience can tell it's her because her eye's are always colored in green.

There are some technical flaws, though. The character designs feel old. Natalie is Catgirl from DKSA mixed with Gail from Sin City. The Fixer is Batman with a pair of Gats. A pair of girl assassins are Miho crossed with the twins from Sin City. There were honestly one or two panels where I stared at it, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. One remixed element that is improved upon is Miller's famous talking heads. Here, the heads are there, but they offer silent commentary. Miller doesn't waste space or time with political commentary. We know what they will say, he just shows that they are there and lets us fill in their rants.

The actual content is an entirely different matter. The story could be summarized thoroughly on a napkin, with room left for some illustrative doodles. A work can function without story if it has good characters. Holy Terror does not have good characters, though.

The story starts with "Batman" chasing "Catwoman", who has just stole something irrelevant. They take turns punching each other and making out. Then the terrorists strike! From there the plot functions basically like the first Sin City story. Our heroes steal a car to get around and torture bad guys for info. This leads us all the way to the final battle. Again, not much going on story wise.

Thematically, Holy Terror is a far right fantasy about the nigh omniscient threat that evil Muslims pose to Western civilization. The bad guys fortress? It's in a mosque. Truly. The narration tells us that this mosque was built by Saudi Arabia and is basically a sovereign nation inside America. Remember kids, mosques are scary. The first bombing is carried out not by a bearded Taliban looking fellow, but a cute Muslim college girl. A humanities student wearing pink. Second lesson kids, no matter who they are, how they dress or what they seem to believe, they might be a foot soldier in the Evil Muslim Conspiracy. Remember also that terrorists are evil untermensch, so it's totally cool to torture and kill them at will.

Once the bombs start going off, terrorists, bearded guys with ak-47s and burqa clad women with stinger missiles, come out of the woodwork to begin a military assault on the city. (They were probably hiding inside the Park 51 community center!)

This could maybe be dismissed as a fantasy if it wasn't for two things: the opening text is a quote from Muhammad about killing infidels, and the last page tells us the book is dedicated to Theo Van Gogh, who was murdered by extremists. Seemingly Miller wants the audience then to tie this violent paranoid exercise in far right wish fulfilment into reality.

Whether it's his intent or not, this and 300 would make a great start to a Neo-Nazi graphic novel reading list. In fact, if Legendary wanted to make coin on this, they should market it en masse to right wing reading lists. It's got all the required elements: Lady Liberty, who gets blown up early on, is wearing a blindfold, telling us society is blind to the terrorist threat. "Batman's" greatest help? A secretive guy named David with a Star of David tattooed on his face. (really) Translated, Israel is our only true ally! The police commissioner is corrupt and the police useless when the chips are down. Translation: Only hard violent men stand between us and the Islamic hordes. Only guys like the Fixer and David have the strength of will to torture and kill their way to victory.

While I still respect Frank Miller for his past work, Sin City, Daredevil, Batman, Ronin, etc etc, he's been in a slump for a long time now, and I don't see it reversing in the near future. The man possesses technical skills, but even his short.dialogue.bursts lack the charm they once had. My hope is that if Frank Miller keeps making comics, he gets someone else to write them.

2/5

Three letter reviews of the nu DC

Action Comics #1 yay

Animal Man #1 yay

Omac #1 yay

Frankenstein: Agent of Shade #1 yay

Swamp thing #1 meh

Justice League Dark #1 meh

Demon knights #1 meh

Justice League #1 boo

Hellblazer #283

Peter Milligan's run on Hellblazer could be subtitled "The unintentional consequences of being John Constantine." To my pleasant surprise, after being assaulted by Demon Constantine, Gemma remains a supporting character in the title. To his credit, Milligan didn't just hop into the title, dispense rape and injustice to all the established characters and then toss them away for a lark. An unfavourable comparison could be made to the cheap way supporting characters are brutalized for a voyeuristic fix in Identity Crisis.

Speaking again of unintended consequences, our story starts with Epiphany and John waking up in the Thames. Their bed seems to have transported itself there while they were sleeping. A day in the life of John Constantine! The story is actually narrated by John's coat, which seems to have “awakened” after all the mystical jetsam it's been exposed too. The coat seems to exude an arrogant, amoral machismo, an extreme version of the air constantine uses to impress others.

Gemma is still dealing with the aftermath of her attack. She wants to turn to John for help, but she can't forgive him. And John, of course, refuses to admit he did anything wrong.

The stylized cartoony art accentuates the character's best characteristics, John's sneer and Gemma's crumbling innocence, for example. This same art previously gave us a rendering of a bird creature that was thoroughly nonthreatening, making the creature look less like an occult horror then something Superman would throw through a wall. This issue has an all human cast, so that concern is avoided.

On a side note, Epiphany's relationship with her father takes a weird turn when her father surprises her and John in the shower. He mentions that it's nothing he hasn't seen before when they were skinny dipping. I detect an incestous under tone here, something we might see explored in the future.

4/5

Sometimes I want to burn the comic industry to the ground

There recently has been controversy on the internet about the portrayal of women in the new DCU. Like here. I haven't read either of the issues in question, but assuming the description given of them is accurate, I agree completely with this author. (disclaimer: I am a straight white male)

Comics can do so much better than masturbatory wish fulfillment. As a medium combining pictures and word, studies have shown that information can be understood better than either pictures or words separately. That's why Will Eisner created sequential art army manuals.

Comics also have no budget limitations. We can enjoy stories of cyborg ninja pirates fighting alien spaces whales in the 12th zombie dimension without having to wait for 3 years of production and pay for 3D glasses. The medium is limitless. Think about that. Limitless. Any story can be told.

Comics should be the pre-eminent entertainment medium. But it isn't. Why? Because so much of the industry is caught up in making fan base wish fulfillment. So much of it is caught up making, for lack of a better word, shit.

It's like the industry is dominated by 12 year olds who just discovered breasts and market their products to clones of themselves. This crap has to stop. It's misogynistic, immoral and just plain gross. We can do so much better, and the medium can do better. Comics should be soaring through the sky, not wallowing in a fetid sexual gutter.

Colonizing America

Since world war 2, the neoliberal program has been pursued fervently by the Western powers, led by America. This economic hegemony is placed above all other concerns. Men are killed, in large quantities, to maintain these arrangements. The goal is to create a colony-empire relationship between the West and developing nations. The target country, under the rule of a sympathetic dictator usually, pursues a regime of business friendly laws, slashing social budgets, and increased control over the native population. Chile under Pinochet, Indonesia under Suharto and many others killed thousands, but were supported by America as long as they kept to the program. The list of countries under these economic regimes spans South and Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim.

One of the chief facilitators of the neo-liberal programs is the IMF and the World Bank. These financial organizations each have a controlling interest owned by the United States. They will give loans to developing nations if those nations undergo prescribed economic adjustments. The more loans they take out, the more loans they need. Similiar to NATO, which has abandonded any pretense of it's original anti-communist goals, the IMF and the World Bank were originally formed to help developing nations and stablize global economic markets. The goal of stabilizing markets has been discarded since the Bretton-Woods system was done away with by the Nixon adminstation. World Bank officials have repeatedly admitted that their stated goals of helping developing nations have failed consistently.

Under IMF austerity programs, countries are told to lower trade barriers and end subsidies. In a free world, these would be valid suggestions. In the real world, it's a different story. Third world farmers are forced to compete with heavily subsidized American agribusiness firms, like Archers Daniels Midland or Monsanto. The local farmers go out of business quickly. Instead of growing their own food, they can now find work in a Nike factory.

The perfect arrangement is for people who used to produce things for their own country, to instead work in a factory making shoelaces or soccer balls. In place of growing their own food, they are now forced to import food from the United States. They now import goods from the West and export piece work, the same arrangement that historical Empires used with their colonies.

All these changes have predictable effects wherever they are implemented. Poverty increases, malnutrion increases, life expectancy goes down, literacy goes down. Political violence increases and corporate profits sky rocket. Wealth spikes among the politically connected, while the overwhelming majority of the population find their standards of living drop precipitously. The economy will usually go under a series of escalating depressions, recessions and crisises. Either the cycle continues indefinetly into the future, or at some point the political anger is enough to change the regime. At that point, if it's feasibly to do so, the occupants will find themselves subject to violence from Western backed agents.

Starting with Ronald Reagan, these programs began to be applied to the Empire itself. In America, laws that could interfere with business were done away with. Social programs were cut and control over the population increased under the rubric of the War on Drugs. Unions were brought to their lowest levels, and continue to fall.

Since the Reagan adminstration, the predictable effects of neo-liberalism have been produced in America. Since the 80's, corporate profits and CEO pay have gone up sharply. Poverty has also increased. Emergency rooms report continued increases in child malnutrition. America has health care standards comparable to communist Cuba. American workers work longer hours, are more productive, get paid less and have less vacation time than comparable employees in Western Europe. Union membership continues to fall. America has now the largest per capita prison population in the world, and the increasing militarization of police departments leads to civilian deaths across the country. Since the 80's, America has continued to undergo increased economic shocks and catastrophes.

America now finds itself in the same economic position all other countries who follow the neo-liberal program eventually enter. Unlike other countries, the US has a controlling interest in the IMF and won't have to take humilating loans from the organization. On the other hand, the austerity measures will likely take the same route: slash social programs but keep the same structure.

These government positions: anti-union, pro-business, pro-government interference in the economy, as long as it protects profit, and pro-defense spending finds a precedent in a familiar enemy: fascist itally and Nazi germany. The things we see in America, bail outs, massive defense spending, anti-union laws and subsidies towards politically connected industries would all seem standard fare to citizens of any fascist nation.

The USA is now getting to a point where cheap manufactoring will navigate from China back to the poorest parts of the US. The United States has undertaken a bizarre program to try and turn the interior of the nation into a third world country to enrich the smallest fractions of it's political and business elite. The economy will likely crash again and again, the dollar will sink in value and inflation will rise, but all of these are just hiccups in comparison to the goals of this system. Even if the program hurls the US into another Depression, they very rich will stay very rich, and will emerge from whatever new economy is hobbled together, still very rich. Will they push the program too far and destroy even themselves? Will the political will ever materialize to change course? Impossible to say for certain.

Debt

I supposed the other day what would happen to the deficit if the government simply cut all the programs and subsides that contribute to the violent and inequitable world we live in.

**2012 defense spending: 1 trillion**

cut by 75%

-$750 billion

**2008 Farm Bill $288 billion**

cut by 50%

-$144 billion

**War on Drugs approx $50 billion**

cut by 100%

-$50 billion

**Foregin Military and Economic Aid approx $12 billion**

cut by 100%

-$12 billion

**Federal Burea of Prisons approx $500 million**

cut by 50% or more by releasing non violent drug offenders and other petty criminals with no felonies or violent offenses

-$250 million

**Medicare Part D approx $70 billion a year**

cut by 100%

-$70 billion

**CIA budget approx $30 billion a year**

cut by 90%

-$27 billion

There are numerous things that could be cut, but that I can't find easy figures for. I came up with this in a couple minutes of internet research. It's possible the savings from the above cuts could be higher, I tried to be conservative whenever possible.

If a tax has to be implemented, the so called "Nader" tax on financial transactions of about 1/2 of a percent would raise a significant amount of revenue while having a small impact on world markets.

Revenue

1/2 of 1% tax on financial market transactions

+approx 350 billion

Total Swing- $1,403,250,000 or approx $1.4 trillion per year

aprox defecit $15 trillion

pay off deficit in approx 11 years

Of course, a person could cut any number of other things. Again, this is all very hasty and preliminary. To get these net savings, automatics increases in spending would have to be frozen, or made even with inflation.

The point is not how to magically fix the deficit (11 years is probably too long to take, although better than forever) but how much the US spends on things that are not only uneconomical, but morally unjustified.

Punisher MAX #15

Aaron continues to explore previously unknown aspects of the Punisher’s life, with good results. In flashbacks to the period when Frank returns from his last tour of Vietnam but before he loses his family, we see Frank flirting with his dark side. Offered a hit by a mafia boss, Frank asks for the best sniper rifle they can give him and turns the sights on his new employer.

Nick Fury points out something to Frank that is obvious to the reader: that he’s not a normal person and he is going to get his family in trouble. Here, the fault for the death of his family seems to be situated on Frank’s shoulders. His family died because he refused to admit what he really is.

The strength of the last issue was the jumping between the two time periods in the Punisher’s life. In this issue, we don’t see much of the current timeline, it ends only slightly advanced from the last issue. We do meet, however, another of what Ennis has bestowed as Frank’s new legacy: the memorable one-off villain. This time, it’s an evil cop who works for the Kingpin.

Aaron has advanced the MAX version of the Punisher to a point where Frank’s family wasn’t his last chance to be normal, but people who were caught in the cross fire in his inevitable fall into darkness.

Daredevil #1

Ever since Born Again, Daredevil has been the Job of the Marvel Universe. After his most recent life destroying events, Hornhead has been re-launced, for the second time, from #1. The first time this was done, Kevin Smith deliverd some half warmed leftovers scraped together from Born Again and Kraven's Last Hunt. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Mark Waid has started an exciting new era with a great first issue.

In his last ongoing series, Daredevil lost the love of his life to murder, had his secret indentity outed, got married, was sent to prison, got divorced and then was possessed by a demonic creature and nearly brought about the end of the world. What we have here is fresh start.

Waid's grasp of Daredevil's world is great and the art does an absolutely wonderful job of portraying, in a visual manner, the entirely non visual way Daredevil sees the world. We see Matt struggling with the public knowledge of his secret identity, we see him in court, we are reminded that despite his superpowers he does still have a disability. The pencils by Rivera show beautiful landscapes defined by Murdock's radar senses. At the end, Daredevil is surrounded by anti-radar chaff, blocking his radar senses. So often, Daredevil leaps and bounds like a horned Spider-Man, we forget he really does have a disability. For most people, being surrounded by confetti would be a minor nuisance. It leaves Daredevil helpless.

The back up feature gives us more artistic flourishes showing how Daredevil sees the world. It also addresses the past tragedies that have led the character to this point. Matt tells Foggy straight out, he's decided to live in denial. Which will end in tragedy, of course, it always does. But I'm excited to see how.

5/5

Siege

At this point I'm two or three events behind with Marvel. In fact, the last event I followed dutifully was Final Crisis, owing to Grant Morrison being the main writer.

Out of curiosity I decided to read Siege. Siege is a four issue mini-series with at least three times that many tie-ins. The tie-ins I read are Dark Avengers #25, the Sentry one shot, and maybe one or two others.

Bluntly put, Siege is a pointless mess. Norman Osborn, head of H.A.M.M.E.R. and the Dark Avengers, decides to invade Asgard. Asgard is now situated in the American Midwest, for reasons I'm not entirely clear on. Norman's stated motive is that having Asgard on Earth is un-natural and dangerous, which is probably true. Osborn's ultimate goals aren't entirely clear, though. Does he just want to level the place and kill all the gods? Or take it over?

Either way, Loki is seen manipulating him into acting. Does that make Osborn a tragic hero? An anti-villain who means well? A power hungry lunatic? Or just some poor sap being played like a fiddle by Loki? The story doesn't really specify. And what is Loki's motive? Presumably taking over Asgard, but again the text doesn't specify.

After the president denies his first request to attack Asgard, Loki tells Osborn he needs a galvanizing incident to turn public opinion , and thus the president, to his side. This is exactly how Civil War started, as Loki helpfully reminds any readers who may have forgotten this. The president remains steadfast after Osborn's manufactored event, however. Osborn basically says "Fuck it," and attacks Asgard anyway, rendering the entire plot point irrelevant.

Ares is wary of Osborn and doesn't want to join the assault. Osborn tells him Loki has taken over Asgard and Ares, who didn't trust him 30 seconds ago, takes Osborn completely at his word on this and takes his place leading Osborn's army.

The battle starts as Osborn throws an army of super villains at Asgard. Ares realizes he's been tricked about two minutes in, and the Sentry rips him in half. Then Captain America counter attacks with an army of super heroes. The bad guys are defeated and the Sentry loses control and kills Loki. That's about the whole plot, basically some text written to string together the splash pages showing every possible character diving into the fray.

The Sentry has finally succumbed to the Void, his evil half, and in the end of issue #4 Thor kills him to stop that threat. That's pretty much it. The only point of interest is the final fate of the Sentry, a Miracleman clone created by Paul Jenkins.

Remind me in the future to not break my fast of crossover events.

Hellblazer #280

Gemma has always been a survivor in Hellblazer, managing to avoid the grisly fate of many of Constantine’s other supporting characters, like her father, grandfather and mother. She has always straddled the line between normal person and occult mage, a female Constantine if John hadn’t been quite so screwed up.

Milligan has pushed her over the edge and the results are mostly promising.

Gemma attended John’s wedding, and was sexually assaulted by Demon Constantine. This is classic John. He let Demon Constantine loose as a decoy for himself, knowing Nergal would be gunning for him at his wedding. And in protecting himself, he wasn’t very concerned about letting an evil version of himself run around on Earth for a short period of time. Something bad always happens, and this time it happend to Gemma.

Hellblazer #280 is probably one of the only issues narrated entirely by someone other than John, and Gemma’s internal struggle concerns whether she will become a “Constantine” or stay a normal person.

Milligan does a good job with this monologue, especially considering we already know the outcome. She still seems to care for John, even though she believes he abused her. Notice how she still takes his advice about not making deals with creatures, even when it’s a creature she summoned and is ostensibly in control of. Although at the end, she proclaims she is now Gemma Masters, what she has done is classic Constantine. She wanted revenge, and didn’t consider any of the possible consequences.

My one concern is the conclusion of this storyline. “It was all a big mis-understanding!” seems like a poor conclusion to a story of sexual abuse and attempted murder.

And a part of me is afraid that Gemma will finally bite the dust, leaving Chas the only surviving member of John’s original cast.

The art is servicable, a halfway point between cartoony and the more realistic art we usually see on the title. The bird monster looks unthreatening, but Gemma is wonderfully drawn with her black mascara running down her face. Kudos are deserved to both writer and artist for showing restraint when referencing Gemma’s assault.

This being a Vertigo title we could have seen a graphic depiction of John raping his neice. Thankfully, such shock value was avoided. Overall, Milligan’s run has been good, but not great, and this issue falls pretty squarely into that description.

Punisher MAX #14

Every now and then, a writer and a character are matched with such precision that the work defines that character permamently. Examples would be Frank Miller writing Daredevil, Alan Moore writing Swamp Thing, and most recently, Garth Ennis writing the Punisher.

Several writers have tried the Punisher MAX comic since Ennis left and so far nobody has been able to move out of Ennis’ shadow. If anyone can make Punisher MAX their own, in the wake of Ennis’ historic run, it’s Jason Aaron.

His first storyline took a bold step to officialy remove the MAX stories from standard Marvel continuity by creating a new backstory, and a new version, of the Kingpin. This first storyline seemed to blend elements of Ennis’ Marvel Knights run on the character with the visceral carnage of the MAX run. The Mennonite assassin was reminiscent of the kind of villain Ennis was so great at creating. The second storyline created a MAX version of Bullseye. Again, Aaron seem to aping Ennis. The stories were good. After all, a poor man’s Garth Ennis can still be worth reading. Steve Dillon’s art is better than his original work on the Marvel Knights run, as his people don’t all seem to have the same facial features, a complaint I sometimes have with Dillon’s art.

It’s in the this third storyline that Aaron is making the Punisher is own. The storyline cuts back and forth between Castle in prison, feeling the weight of his age, and the time after he returned from Veitnam, but before he became the Punisher. Both of these storylines give us glimpses of Frank Castle we rarely see. In prison we see him weighed down with age and regret, and truly vulnerable. In Ennis’ run Frank could seem like a superhuman killing machine. Alone, weak and surrounded by vicious enemies, Frank seems more human. In the flashbacks we see a part of the Punisher that no one (to my knowledge) has ever told before. Here, Frank has come home from Vietnam and has, for all intents and purposes, turned into the Punisher. Only he wants to pretend that he is a normal person again.

At his work he injures a foreman harassing a female coworker, but backs down when he is tempted to kill the man. Instead he moves to a different job.

Whenever he is presented with an oppurtinity to revel in what he has become, he flees. His wife cries because she knows he hasn’t really come home from the war. It’s amazing no one has explored this area of his life before. Punisher: Born showed us Frank going over the edge, but there’s still a gap from then until his family actually dies.

I eagerly wait to see Aaron’s frailer, more human Punisher deal with his tormentors in prison while the mechanical and dark Frank Castle struggles to deny his true self.

Dillon’s art is well known, especially on the Punisher. As usual, the art is simple, there aren’t a lot of shadows or complex actions. Dillon’s art was better suited to the Marvel Knights version of the character, but works in the MAX version well enough. I can’t help but prefer other past MAX artists, however, like Leonardo Manco, for example.

Overall, Aaron and Dillon seem like the first team capable of averting the inevitable collapse of the character after Ennis left, while still moving into new directions.

Occupation Tourism

There is a tourism industry, for people, largely from the Western First World to tour the occupied West Bank. The ostensible purpose, other than making money, is to cultivate positive press for the settlements there. The article quotes a number of participants in this industry, as well as tourists, praising the entire project. However, even the rudimentary re-statement of the facts by the news article dashes all their assertions apart.

"We are not monsters," Ilana Shimon told a clutch of tourists this week, leading them through Havat Gilad, a small settlement outpost built without Israeli government authorization.

"I'm against violence. All we want is to sit on our land and we want you to be our ambassadors," Shimon told her visitors near her home in Havat Gilad, where she lives with 30 other families, making up about 250 people, most of them children.

The quoted person claims to be "against violence", and yet the settlements exist only due to war. As the article explains:

About 300,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, occupied by Israel in a 1967 war and home to 2.5 million Palestinians. The World Court has ruled the settlements illegal.

Occupied land is, by definition, land taken and maintained by military force. International law, and common morality, clearly state that territory seized during war is not legitimate. And even though the quoted settler is against violence, and I'm sure he is a perfectly nice person, his choice to live in the militarily occupied West Bank is a voluntary participation in an illegal, and by defintion, violent enterprise.

The tour took the group through several small settlements, some of them built without official permission by settlers who see themselves as pioneers exercising their claim to a Biblical birthright to the land.

How can anyone exercise a "biblical birthright" to land occupied by someone else? To achieve such a birthright requires the removal, or disenfranchisement, of the people who are already there. Why should the current inhabitants respect someone else's religious claim? It's their religion, after all, and not the current inhabitants. The same logic was used by the conquistadors, who politely informed the Natives of South America that the Pope had given their lands to Spain.

Daniel Lippert said he and his wife come to Israel two or three times a year, but this was their first visit to the West Bank. "We donated money to Havat Gilad last year because it is the right thing to do," Daniel said. "God promised the land to the Jews. The Palestinians should become Israeli citizens or leave."

God promised the West Bank to the Jews, we are told. Such a simple explanation. But why did God not announce this promise to all, surely a great deal of confusion could have been avoided. And where is the evidence of this? In a religious book, of course. I could write a religious book that Portugal is promised to the Daoists or Russia to the Rastafarians, and the only rational differences between our claims would be the number of people who believed each.

"There is no other explanation to our success other than divine providence," Ben Saadon said. "We didn't come here to make a business profit, we came here for the love of the land and as the years go by we see God is rewarding us."

Again, the same logic, applied universally leads to absurdities. There is no other explanation for the success of the CEOs of the financial giants who crashed the world economy, and were protected by government largess, than God favors them.

There is no other possible explanation for wealthy Communist bureaucrats in China or child millionaires enriched by their parent's stock options then God! Clearly God is rewarding all those who are successful, and by extension, punishing all who are desolate.

Thus, the entire occupation is a continuous reward by God onto the settlers and a punishment on the Palestinians. Reversing the religions and areas involved could bring to mind all sorts of different historical atrocities, but people seem to be able to convince themselves that in this case, all the absurdities people usually say are actually true. It wasn't true when everyone else throughout history claimed it was their right to occupy such and such or land, that God favored their violent endeavors, but it's correct this time. Even in this fairly benign Reuters piece, the impossible logic of imperialism is exposed.

Full Relaunch List

DC has now released the full relaunch list, and most of it looks like the same old crap with new numbering. The only things that look interesting, in my opinion are:

Batwoman finally getting released. JH Williams III is a god.

Wonder Woman by Azzarello.

Justice League Dark by Peter Milligan. Milligan writing Shade and Constantine? Worth a shot.

OMAC, for the Kirby nostalgia factor.

Action Comics by Grant Morrison. Morrison's All-Star Superman is one of the best superman stories ever.

Swamp Thing. I love Swamp Thing and Scott Snyder has a lot of positive buzz.

Frankenstein Agent of SHADE. Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth is one of the best ongoings right now and Morrison's Frankenstein is an interesting enough character to look into it.

That's seven out of 52 I plan on picking up. There's a few I have some interest in (Animal Man by Jeff Lemire, Red Lantern Corps by Peter Milligan) that I might pick up if they get good buzz. We'll see what happens. Cheers.

Flashpoint!

I remember reading an interview with Alan Moore where he stated that comic companies will try anything to bring in sales except have good writers and good artists. Flashpoint is a perfect example of this.

Flashpoint is DC's new event, which follows Brightest Day (which followed Blackest Night), and it has over 40 tie in issues. Trying to come up with the biggest marketing blitz in comics history apparently, DC has also decided to cancel all but two of their ongoing series (Green Lantern and Batman Inc are spared) and launch 52 (!) new ongoing series at issue #1. Re-launching a series from #1 with a new creative team isn't new, but nobody's ever done it for an entire line. The more important question to ask, however, is whether any of this will be worth reading. And if the stories will be good, why the re-numbering gimmick?

Not all of the new series have been announced, but a few sound promising. Grant Morrison writing Superman and Brian Azzaerrelo writing Wonder Woman for example. But again, these series would be good regardless of whether they were numbeed #1 or not.

Within three years, most of these new series will probably be cancelled and the old standbys (Action Comics, Detective Comics, etc) will have returned to their original numbering. How much continuity will be altered remains to be seen. Altering continuity is fine if it's in the interest of a good story, but if it's done at the behest of crass editorial policy (Younger! Hipper!) then it tends not to last and be badly received.

DC is trying awfully hard, but so far they haven't gotten me interested enough to buy a single issue of Flashpoint.

Mice Templar #4

Like many young adults, I consumed the Redwall series of books by Brian Jacques. The stories took place in a quasi medieval setting and featured mice, otters and other critters fighting wars against hordes of rats and other nefarious creatures.

Based on those fond memories, and on the cute title, I bought The Mice Templar #4 on a whim.

I love the art. It manages to be both cartoony and serious at the same time. Floppy eared mice fight to the death and discuss honor and religion. I was a bit lost on the plot, though. Jumping on at this point means I don't know much of what is going on. I'm going to try and follow this one though.

Batman Inc #6

I love Grant Morrison's run on Batman. It's one of the best stories by a single author on a company owned property in a long time. And as much as I want to love every single issue of Batman Inc, the sixth issue feels like a holding pattern.

We just finished getting introduced to Dr. Daedalus, meeting our main cast and learning a bit about the new enemy, Leviathan in the last five issues. This feels like a bridge issue. A pause while the action starts up again in number seven.

Not that it is bad. The art is great, reminiscent of Frank Quitely's art on Batman and Robin. Cassie is back and in action in Hong Kong. Red Robin joins the Outsiders. And Batman starts assembling his master plan. The reader just doesn't get to know what the plan is. And again, in the overall scheme of things, that's okay. All of Morrison's reveals so far have been great. But it feels like a bridge issue.

If this were any other comic, I would have thought the Average Joes were a cute addition. I would have liked seeing Batman trolling people on an Internet message board. And those are nice touches, but not enough to carry a whole issue.

Morrison has sometimes been accused of writing "for the trade." Having issues that only seem great when you read the whole story line together. Batman Inc #6 suffers from a bit of this. It's still enjoyable, but probably the weakest issue so far of Batman Inc. If you have been following Batman Inc steadily, then by all means pick it up. If you're looking for a jumping on point though, this isn't it.

Free Comic Book Day #3

Amazing Spider Man- I actually got a couple laughs out of this. The art is fresh and although I have no idea where Spider-Man's current continuity is supposed to be at I enjoyed it. And it has Shang-Chi! Where has that guy been?

Kung-Fu Panda- Cute story, but I didn't really find it funny.

Richie Rich- Lame, no real adult appeal.

Baltimore- Mignola's art is great as always. Vampires feel a bit played out but seeing the story from a civilian's perspective, instead of the hunter, made it interesting. I would pick this up.

Green Lantern Secret Origins: A reprint of a story I've read before, that wasn't that good the first time. Yawn.

Flashpoint: A crossover starring Barry Allen. Something about a messed up timeline. Presumably the end will involve the restoration of the canon timeline. Double yawn.

The Tick: Who doesn't love the Tick? I should really pick up a trade or two of the Tick.

Captain America and Thor: An all ages Cap/Thor book. Shameless summer movie tie in? Odds point to yes.

Super-Dinosaur- This was pretty awesome.

Daredevil Reborn #4

Andy Diggle burnt Matt Murdock's life to the ground in Shadowland, and now he wraps up the four issue mini-series meant to transition the character into a new ongoing series. Daredevil Reborn #4 intentionally parallels Frank Miller's origin story in Man Without Fear. Matt dons a block costume and a wields a baton, using it to deflect an enemies bullet at the climax of the story. It is pretty undeniable that Miller's influence is more stark than probably any other writer's take on a character they didn't create themselves, and most Daredevil fiction always ends up aping Miller at some point.

The standard arc for poor Murdock, post Born Again, is for the writer to torture him relentlessly, drive him to the brink of madness and let him crawl on his fingernails back to a functioning human being. Kevin Smith copied it studiously to ill results in Guardian Devil, Bendis inverted it a bit by having Murdock declare himself Kingpin in his moment of rage, and Brubaker broke his marriage up to pitch him into a massive depression. Andy Diggle, deciding that our intrepid hero hadn't suffered enough, turned him evil, had him get possessed by a demon and utterly ruined his life. At the end of Shadowland, Murdock packs his bags and leaves Hell's Kitchen in disgrace.

Throughout Reborn, the reader keeps waiting for something climatic and life affirming to happen. Matt confronts some backwoods arms dealers and only when he meets their super powered crime boss, Calavera does the story start to show potential. Striking an iconic pose as a white skinned dealer of evil, Calavera forces Matt to confront his inner demons, shoots him in the head and pushes him off of a cliff. That's where issue four opens up.

Matt has inexplicably survived. He's a superhero so we knew he was going to survive. The interesting part of the scenario is trying to figure out how Matt will get out of this. The answer remains a mystery. Matt pulls himself out of a river, bleeding from his head, and wonders how he is still alive. So does the reader. Is this the "rebirth" we've been waiting for? Mysterious is one thing, but this feels lazy.

Calavera has the power to bring out the darkness in people's souls. His use of this power on Matt lasts only a single panel. Murdock easily defeats his enemies and is back in Foggy's apartment by the end, promising that they will get their practice back, presumably bringing everything back to the status quo.

The whole series was disappointing, and the last issue lands with a wet thud.

Hal Boredom

Hal Jordan is played by Ryan Reynolds in the Green Lantern movie, and there is a new set of Green Lantern animated shorts coming out featuring him prominently. I, for one, find Hal Jordan to be an insufferably boring character. I read all of Geoff Johns' run on Green Lantern up through the end of Blackest Night before finally realizing that nothing interesting about the title had anything to do with Jordan.

Having never read the original John Broome stories, I couldn't say whether they are sublimely awesome or not. Maybe they are are work of art comporable to the 7 Seven Wonders of the World.

What I have read leaves me yawning enthusiastically. Jordan is a courageous hero who plays by his own rules and always gets the girl. He never seems to suffer any personal or emotional trauma. In other words, he is the same as every character in every action movie and pretty much every superhero that was never re-tooled for the Modern Age.

DC seems to struggle with what to do with Jordan, who has a paradoxical combination of ultimate power and a total lack of personality. Dennis O'Neil teamed him up with Green Arrow quite extensively, Jordan playing the straight man to Green Arrow's radicalism. O'Neil also created John Stewart, intended to be Jordan's back up in the Corps.

Deciding that a Green Lantern with recognizable character traits would appeal to a younger audience, DC had Hal try and blow up the universe, murdering the entirety of the Green Lantern Corps in the process. Kyle Rayner stepped in to the black and green spandex.

In another failed attempt to make Jordan interesting, he became the new Spectre, on a mission of redemption after trying to kill everyone and become God. This petered out a little after two years.

Geoff Johns decided that the world need Hal again, because straight white men with type A personalities were becoming a rare commodity in the comics industry. It turns out murdering all of his comrades and trying to erase existence only happened because he was possessed by an evil space entity. Apparently, someone forget to tell God, who let him become the Spectre to redeem himself. Or maybe God thought that was funny, Hal redeeming himself for things that weren't his fault.

As all characters and situations in continuity must revert to some arbitrarily chosen point in the status quo, so too did Green Lantern. Hal came back to life, was forgiven by everyone, become a fighter pilot again and started dating attractive women without missing a beat.

So it goes in the comics industry.

Free Comic Book Day #2: Witches and Wizards

I had no idea what to expect when I picked up Witches and Wizards. It appears to be an anime, written by some one named James Patterson, who apparently writes young adult. It's drawn and styled like mange, but created to read left to right. The plot seems to involve Nazis hunting down magic users, and our heroes are a family of witches targeted by the "New Order".

The purpose of the free preview is to get a person to buy more of that series. I don't plan on checking this one out, although I didn't have any real problem with it. It just seemed very conventional.

Free Comic Book Day #1: The Darkness

Never read any of the Darkness before, though I am vaguely aware of the concept. The Darkness free preview was fairly interesting. My impressions from afar of the Darkness was a humorless 90's "demons, guns and tits" type of character. That feeling was entirely dispelled, but I find myself tempted to buy a trade or two and see if further interest develops.

Jennifer Blood

After having read the first three issues of Jennifer Blood, I am disappointed to report it as thoroughly second tier Ennis work. The concept comes across as a one joke premise, a joke we already get after the first page of the first issue. While reading Jennifer Blood, I can't help but imagine the story as a series of re-tooled Punisher scripts.

The "woman we all thought was dead" concept reminds of the Punisher: Widowmaker storyline. The disembowelment by automobile brings to mind the Punisher disemboweling a gangster in The Slavers. The villains, mobsters from the "Old Country" remind again, of the Slavers and every other Punisher story. While doing reconnaissance, she accidentally catches a disgusting display of public sex between an old man and his porn star wife. The Punisher ruefully admits he wishes he hadn't seen "the money shot" while spying on a gangster cheating with his boss's girlfriend in the MAX series. Drowning her enemies aboard their yacht brings to mind the Punisher sinking the cruise ship full of evil shareholders in Barracuda.

The harmless doap of a husband recalls Soap from the Marvel Knights run, and Jennifer imagining how she could kill the philandering husband has shades of Frank Castle attacking a man who left his wife in In the Beginning. And so it goes. Some interesting threads seem in the work. Just what did happen to her? Will the no good husband across the street try to blackmail her? But ultimately it feels like Ennis has done this material before, and better, in every imaginable configuration in his lengthy run on the Punisher.

Deus Ex

Deus Ex was recently listed as the best game of all time by PC Gamer. What makes it so great? Part of it is the interactivity. Each level gives oppurtunities for stealth, action, or some combination of the two. Do I sneak through the air vents? Stun my enemies unconscious? Or just rush in and aim for the head? A door is locked. Do I blow it up with explosives, or pick the lock? A computer... do I hack it or find the log in?

A player could complete each level with speed if desired, or instead spend hours exploring every nook and cranny. But what really seperates Deus Ex from other great games is the actual content of it. Most video games are meaningless. At the end of the day, they are ultimately about nothing. Deus Ex is different.

The player is presented with a world that has the same problems as ours, only exagerated. A ruling elite, a violent underclass, terrorism, national security. The ending of the game allows one to make a choice. Do I compromise with the system and try to improve it from within? Should I conquer the system and force peace and prosperity with my gentle, yet iron, hand? Or blow it all to hell, destroying civilization but ensuring human freedom?

I natually chose the latter, but the beauty of the game's three endings is each choice has it's ups and downs. Joining the system, as your in game brother warns you, will lead to a return of "20th Century capitalism" a system of monied elites protected by the tax code and the like. But it is the safest option. You know what will happen.

Installing a worldwide ruler is a scary, off putting idea. And yet, if I were that ruler, couldn't I make it work? And preserving human freedom by destroying civilization en masse sounds good, but would likely cause death and suffering on a massive scale in the short term.

If our main moral principle is to do no harm, the "Anarchist Ending" is out. Too many people would be inevitably hurt. Trying to do the most good for the most people would likely lead us to the benevolent dictator route, as most people suffer deprivation and worse under "20th century capitalism". Respect for autonomy means we would have to refuse to make a choice, because all options involve affecting others without their permission.

But which is the just option? An argument could be made for each ending. And that is an amazing thing for a video game.

Prospects

Currently Reading: Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

Just Finished Reading: Year 501: The Conquest Continues by Noam Chomsky

Watching: Mushi-shi

Mad Men Season 4

Comics I'm Following:

Hellblazer

Batman Inc.

Daredevil: Reborn

Game: Jade Empire

Just Finished Playing: Deus Ex

Collecting:
Legend of the Burning Sands CCG

Goldstein is dead

On Sunday, U.S. special forces stormed a compound in Pakistan where bin Laden was staying. Bin Laden and several of his cohorts went down fighting, and the body was washed and buried at sea, apparently Muslim custom for a corpse that cannot be received by family.

Celebrations erupted around America, as people crowded the front of the White House and set off fireworks. Where does this leave us?

Osama was obviously a rat fucker of the highest order. The terrorist attack on 9/11 killed 2,750 people, including his various bombings and the thousands of civilians massacred by the bin Laden headed 055 Brigade after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, the total death toll for this one man's endeavours could approach 10,000.

The unfortunate part of his death is it won't change much. Al Queada was loosely organized, using a sort of franchise model. Bin Laden was largely a symbolic leader and his death is a symbolic victory only. His goal was to draw America into a larger world conflict, get new recruits and make us spend huge amounts of money to fight against hastily trained fanatics with old AK-47s.

Considering the tens of billions, if not hundreds of billions, spent in the war in Afghanistan, the 15-30,000 dead civilians and the ten years of growing terrorist activity it took to catch him, bin Laden may be having the last laugh in Hell. The US military complex and American Nationalists play right into the hands of bin Laden and the people like him.

Kryptonians steal our jobs

In a recent issue of Action Comics, Superman threatens to renounce his US citizen ship. I won't comment on the story in any way, I don't follow Superman very closely and don't plan to do so in the near future. The interesting part for me is the reaction by American nationalists. Apparently, people who otherwise have no interest in comic books or Superman in general find the idea absurd.

From the article: "Does he believe in British interventionism or Swiss neutrality?" Last wrote. "You see where I'm going with this: If Superman doesn't believe in America, then he doesn't believe in anything."

Nationalists seem to ascribe to a curious and unspoken notion that popular culture owes some kind of allegiance to the nation it originates from. That Superman, who is an alien, would not be a diligent representation of American values (whatever those are) seems to break some kind of unwritten agreement. Of course, Superman must be a icon of America's benevolence! He is after all, written by Americans and published in America. That someone could write a story of an alien super being with god like powers, created by two Jewish writers, one from Canada and one from America, without having him bow obediently to the flag is an apparent violation of cultural loyalty.

Nationalist writers can be pictured scouring fiction for any deviances from the party line, so as to publicize and denounce things they otherwise don't care about. Not entirely dissimilar, perhaps, in attitude from Soviet censors.

Another example would be blog posts and message board discussion of Wonder Woman's costume change. She has lost her star and stripes themed swimsuit for a pair of pants and a leather jacket. Again, that a character who is culturally Greek and from a fictional matriarchal utopia should stop dressing like a Miss America contestant is seen as a grave affront.

I can't think of any reasons for those who don't read comics to get outraged by such things other than a thin skinned cultural sensibility that all things must ultimately came second to America, the nation, the state, the culture or whatever institution the term "America" is considered synonymous with. This sensibility is based in deluded nationalism and is entirely without merit.

Moto Sahir

(homebrew new path for Legend of the Five Rings pen and paper role playing game)

Moto Sahir (Unicorn) (Shugenja)

There are some few Unicorn shugenja whose ancestry owes more to the lands beyond Rokugan than the Empire itself. The blood of djinn and demons runs in their veins, giving them the ability to command the elements in such a way that seems bizarre and even blasphemous to normal shugenja. The number of such individuals has increased slightly since the Moto joined the Unicorn clan. When casting magic in such a fashion, the Sahir must use care to avoid drawing scrutiny from samurai outside the Unicorn clan, traditional shugenja may even accuse the character of heresy.

Technique Rank: 1

Path of Entry: None. This is an entry level path

Path of Egress: Iuchi or Horiuchi Shugenja 1

Benefit: +1 Willpower

Skills: Horsemanship, Lore (Burning Sands), Meditation, Spellcraft, Theology, any one Skill

Honor: 1.0

Outfit: wakizashi, gaijin riding horse, kimono and sandals, scroll satchel and traveling pack, 5 koku

Technique: The Blood of Djinn

The Moto Sahir's unique outlook on magic allows them feats other shugenja would envy. You have no Elemental Affinity or Deficiency. You may choose to cast any spell of Mastery Level 3 or lower (4 or lower of your Elemental Affinity) in one round without the need for raises to reduce casting time. In fact, you can not make raises of any kind when casting a spell in this manner, although you may use any Free Raises or other benefits that are applicable.

Casting a spell in such a manner does not require any scrolls or other objects. Using a scroll, or having an innate ability, provides no additional benefit.

Affinity/Deficiency: none