I'd like to take a moment to talk about something dear to me that isn't politics.  As you might tell from some of my earlier posts, I am a rabid fan of popular culture.  One of my biggest indulgences of pop culture is in the world of comic books.  I feel that in recent years comics have come up in the world.  Once thought to be something just for kids and teens, comic books now have story lines so complex and detailed they often cross over entire "universes" or shared worlds wherein the various characters whom belong to a particular publisher cross paths.

Once, the dynamic of comic books was such that; Superhero saves city/country/planet from impending doom and comes home to much praise from grateful citizens who can now go about their normal lives and not have to worry about pesky asteroids or maniacal geniuses bent on world domination.

But Marvel Comics changed that in the 60s.  It started with Spider-Man.  Peter Parker was the first Superhero who didn't want to be a Superhero.  He gets bit by a radioactive spider which bestows upon him spider-like abilities and because his uncle Ben was killed by a criminal Peter could have stopped but didn't, he vows to never allow harm to come to any other innocents.  He doesn't like the job, but with great power comes great responsibility.

Then you had the X-Men.  Unlike most Superheroes, who gain their powers through accidents and happenstance (Daredevil was blinded by a radioactive isotope that also, ironically, enhanced his other senses to compensate; the Hulk was created by a Gamma radiation bomb; the Fantastic Four are exposed to - you guessed it, Gamma radiation - while on a space expedition), the X-Men was comprised of mutants, people born with abilities and powers.  They represent humanity's next form of evolution, what the human race will eventually become:  Homo Sapiens Superior.  As a result of this naturally-occuring gene, people come to hate and fear them, as they represent not just the next step in evolution, but the fact that humanity will eventually be extinct.  The X-Men represented the "other" in our society, the gay, the black, the person who just doesn't quite fit in with everybody else.

This was a truly inspiring literary leap forward for comics.  Instead of having staid and true heroes like the eternal Boy Scout Superman, or the stoic black-and-white simplicity (if not noirish sensibility) of Batman, readers were given anti-heroes, costumed characters who did not appeal to a fictional mainstream, who did not always do the right, or necessary, or most meaningful thing.  They made mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes got people killed or had other dire consequences.  They were more realistic.

Most importantly, the masses of the Marvel Universe that has spiraled out of those early Stan Lee stories of the 60s, who are themselves representative of contemporary American society, sometimes wanted to get rid of the Superheroes.  This was Marvel's take on the world, that if some Superhero were to come out of the sky and stop a falling airplane from crashing into a packed stadium, saving hundreds if not thousands of lives, people would be skeptical, frightened even, of the implications.

It started in the pages of X-Men.  Giant robots called Sentinals were created to deal with the "mutant problem."  Later, senators attempted to introduce legislation that would  have required all mutants to register with the government.  It was shot down, but has always been on the back burner, ready to boil over.  Eventually, this anti-mutant sentiment turned to anti-Superhero sentiment.  Battles between super-powered people became more and more costly and destructive.  Things came to a head in Marvel's Civil War storyline, when a group of young heroes attempted to take on a group of villains in Stanford, CT.  One of the villains, Nitro, whose ability is to send out explosive pulsewaves from his body, did so near a school, killing hundreds of children, nearly destroying the town, and killing  hundreds more of adults.  Thus, the Super Human Registration Act (SHRA) was born.

This act not only forced all people with super powers (mutant and human alike) to register and train with the government, it also put some former villains on the front lines with the heroes.  In many instances, those who refused to register were hunted down and treated like terrorists.  Captain America took offense and sided against Tony Stark (Iron Man) and other SHRA proponents.  Stark put Norman Osborne, who had in the 60s and 70s plagued Spider-Man as the villainous Green Goblin, in charge of the Thunderbolts, a group of "reformed" villains who hunted down unregistered super humans.

As all of this was happening, a race of aliens called the Skrulls, shape-shifters who could assimilate into almost any walk of human life, planned an invasion of the planet Earth.  Heroes, registered and unregistered alike, stood shoulder-to-shoulder and defended the planet against the threat.  In the final battle between earth's heroes and Skrull forces, the fact that the heroes saved the day went unrecognized by most people because everyone remembered one single instant:  The moment when Norman Osborne killed the Skrull queen and ended the invasion.

Practically overnight, he was in and Tony Stark was out, touted as an extremist who possibly knew about the impending invasion.  According to Norman Osborne, who had been given the keys to everything super human-related in the Marvel Universe by the American government, long-standing figures like the Fantastic Four and Iron Man were wanted for questioning over the whole Skrull plot.  Even Superheroes who had been held hostage by the Skrulls while operatives impersonated them were called into question by this guy.

This is Marvel's commentary on the societal decay that has occurred since George Bush took office as President.  In Norman Osborne's America, the true heroes have been made enemies of the state, mutants are being persecuted again in spite of having city officials in San Francisco defend and grant them safe haven, and even gods like Hercules are on the lam.  And all of this has been orchestrated by one man:  Brian Michael Bendis.

This genius writer has done more damage to the Marvel Universe than any single writer before him, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  I've fantasized about it, and I know most of you have:  What would happen if the bad guys finally got their way?  The answer is the gripping, tense, and exciting storytelling of Dark Reign, wherein Osborne has re-invented the Avengers by sending out "reformed" villians in classic and iconic costumes, The X-Men are a stone's throw away from being kicked out of San Francisco and some of the most-beloved heroes as Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and Thor have been twisted out of their natural environments and sent on the run from law enforcement.

I would love to get back to the old days of Spidey swinging around New York, taking out bad guys left and right.  I would love to get back to the normalcy of the Marvel Universe as seen in great stories like Secret Wars, Infinity Gauntlet and X-Cutioner's Song.  I would like to see Norman Osborne and his fake Avengers taken down.  When Tony Stark stood behind the SHRA, I wanted to see him taken down for his arrogance so badly, but not like this.  Not to the detriment of the fabric of the Marvel Universe.

According to ads, Osborne will be taking some kind of action against the heroes of the M.U. who are still standing.  I look forward to reading what's next.  I hope you do, too.