Remember last month when Ned Beauman wondered on The Guardian’s book blog why comic writers aren’t tackling global politics? Apparently, Steven Wells didn’t get the memo, as he laments the lack of “great Iraq war novels” while noting that “the comic — that much despised naughty monkey cousin of the novel — has been all over the war on terror from day one.”

By far the most memorable fictional image of the war to date is the action figure of the zombie Colonel America. Or more specifically, the image on the side of the packaging showing the gore-smeared former embodiment of liberty with bald eagle chicks nesting in his sliced-open skull. In the comic series Marvel Zombies (from which the action figure is taken) the Colonel and his fellow zombie American superheroes rampage across the planet, eating mankind. Then they kill and eat the cosmic superbaddy Galactacus and use his mojo to fly off and eat the rest of the galaxy.

In another graphic take on the presidential prerogative, British writer Warren Ellis’ Black Summer, a mentally ill liberal superhero walks into the White House and kills the president. “If a self-identified crime fighter lives in a country where a president can be said to have prosecuted an illegal war and therefore can be said to have killed a great many people in the enactment of his criminal enterprise – what does that masked man do?” asks Ellis.

But it’s not all gore-slinging peaceniks. The fence sitters have also been out in force. In Pride a post-Disney family of lions are liberated from Baghdad zoo by US bombing. They then fight and kill a nasty fascist bear (with a penchant for torture), and are promptly gunned down in the street by US troops. The motto — freedom can be fatal. Or something.

I haven’t read any of Marvel’s zombie books, but the idea of zombie-Captain America & His Decaying Friends as a metaphor for American aggression is kind of interesting, if perhaps unintended. Or maybe it is intended? I don’t know.

Anyway, take that, Ned Beauman.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 8:22 am and is filed under Books, Comic Books, Creators, Graphic Novels, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.