With the election of President-Elect Barack Obama, there has been an upswell of good feelings and a general confidence — even, some argue, to the point of religious fervor — that this next president will bring us out of the current economic, political, and ecological slump.
DailyKos has posted an article titled “Superheroes in Love: Barack and Michelle Save The World,” and the Week has released their upcoming cover, seen below:
But with this feel-good mentality towards the White House — and many viewing the current administration as a lame duck presidency — what does this mean for politically-conscious comics?
Transmetropolitan hit its most vicious strides during the onset of the Bush presidency, and Brian K. Vaughn’s Ex Machina envisioned a sort of political “better world” with a dash of superheroics. But perhaps the most incisive political comic today is Brian Wood’s DMZ, which follows war reporter Matty Roth as he covers the war-torn island of Manhattan. On his blog, Wood poses an interesting question: with this new administration in the wings, are politically critical comics played out? According to the writer:
“[DMZ] will largely be unaffected by Bush going out and Obama coming in. My cynicism is still in full effect, since it is my job to look at politics in the most cyncical way possible… and I don’t think any of us expect that, come January 20th, Obama will flick a switch and everything from that point on will get better.”
You can read the rest of the post here.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:58 am
I think the big question is whether DC Comics ends eight years of marginally successful and often confusing alternative presidents. First we had Lex Luthor in the White House, used rather effectively for Our Worlds at War and rather ineptly the rest of the time, and then we got at least four different forgettable and interchangeable men in the job, including Peter Ross and a robot in disguise. I think that the experiment is over and that DC needs to get real again.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Political Comics will always have their place. Like Wood says DMZ shouldn’t be affected, nor should Ex Machina or Unknown Soldier. These books look at politics in different ways… Machina is set in the past during the presidency of Bush, it will make no difference to it. DMZ is in a future that does not point directly back to Bush. Unknown Soldier is about a politically charged situation that has nothing to do with who our president is. Good stories can still be told that are politically charged when there is a good President in office. However, we don’t know yet what kind of president Obama will be.