This week’s one-shot Wolverine: Switchback included an unsolicited eight-page back-up story written by Gregg Hurwitz and illustrated by artist Juan Doe.
In it, our hero runs afoul of a trio of thugs, one of whom is wearing a pretty odd shirt, the design of which looks like it was rather hastily edited at some point after the art was completed.
Scans and questions, after the jump.
So check out this bad guy’s shirt:
Apparently he is wearing three-fourths of a swastika. And yet, because of the placement of the symbol within the white circle, it looks like the fourth arm of the swastika was simply removed, rather than drawn that way by Doe originally.
If that’s the case, I wonder what the objection to a swastika on a bad guy’s shirt was? Because Nazis are so often used as the heavies, swastikas are pretty commonplace in super-comics in general. Certainly Marvel’s Captain America is lousy with swastikas.
Is it perceived as worse for characters who aren’t actually real, war time Nazis to be depicted wearing swastikas? Because the above guy is in the company of two large white guys with shaved heads, which, when combined with the other guy, gives the trio the appearance of neo-Nazis. Still pretty bad guys, so it’s not like the swastika was glamorizing Nazism or anything.
Additionally, this particular comic has the words “Parental Advisory” over the UPC symbol, and contains some pretty adult material: In the lead story, Wolverine bloodily dispatches a serial killer who causes car accidents, takes gory photos of the results and keeps the mummified bodies and skeletons of his victims as trophies. The back-up, with the altered swastika shirt in it, is the story of Wolverine stopping three rapist/murderers from attacking a woman in a cave full of skulls.
Anyway, just something kind of weird that I noticed this week. Given what Marvel (and DC) allow in their superhero comics these days, I’m always fascinated by what they don’t allow.
Or, in this case, don’t seem to allow.
January 10th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
So to clarify. In Marvel Comics, it is acceptable to portray bad guys about to gang rape and murder a woman, but it is NOT acceptable to show them wearing real swastikas.
You stay classy, Marvel.
January 10th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
@Alexa: The first scene you are mentioning was in a MAX title, the second one don’t, IMO that’s a big difference. Peace.
January 10th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
@Ortiz
“The back-up, with the altered swastika shirt in it, is the story of Wolverine stopping three rapist/murderers from attacking a woman in a cave full of skulls.”
Sounds like it happened in the same story.
January 10th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
That’s… just stupid.
I need to go make a comic with lots of Nazis then. Hmmm…
January 10th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Gang rape’s OK, making deals with the Devil is OK, but smoking cigars (even though the character in question had smoked them for decades), having two characters divorce, and swastikas on bad guys are all not.
Whatever, Marvel.
January 10th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
@Ortiz
“The back-up, with the altered swastika shirt in it, is the story of Wolverine stopping three rapist/murderers from attacking a woman in a cave full of skulls.”
Sounds like it happened in the same story.
———————————————————–
Yeah, you are right, I didn’t read carefully the article, I thought you were talking about a similar scene (the gang rape)
in a MAX title (Foolkiller), but considering this, it was stupid erase the swastika. Peace.
January 10th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Wasn’t this one of the one shots done by international creators? If so, I would assume Marvel plans to sell these books abroad.
Maybe Marvel wants to sell the book in Germany. It is illegal to display a swastika in Germany. I don’t know how rigid the law is with respect to interior content and something as minor as a costume emblem, but I remember reading a story about a book about the holocaust that was stopped by German customs because it had a swastika on the cover.
P.S. When are you guys going to fix this site so that it will accept posts on the first try?
January 11th, 2009 at 8:44 am
This isn’t the first time this happened. Back in the ’90s, there was also a mandate to remove all swastikas from Nazi iconography–I believe it was just after Carl Icahn bought the company, and he didn’t like the notion of Marvel “promoting” Naziism in its comics.
That made it difficult for some of the Captain America merchandise that was being created at the time–a cover reproduction of the 1940s Captain America #1 (the one where he’s punching Hitler in the face) had to have the swastika in the background removed, and use of the Red Skull in anything was…er, verboten. (Sorry.)
That mandate was reversed after Icahn sold the company.
January 11th, 2009 at 9:59 am
“a cover reproduction of the 1940s Captain America #1 (the one where he’s punching Hitler in the face) had to have the swastika in the background removed…”
Did they think people might not know that Hitler was a Nazi??
Equally, if you choose to remove a swastika, why only remove PART of it? Bizarre choices.
January 11th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Rapping & murdering a women is bad enough, The swastika in modern times represent a rape & murder of over 6 million people. The half rendition is lame and Marvel should know better.
January 11th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
The rule about not displaying swastikas in Germany is waved for artistic works. It gets censored in video games but I’m not sure how it would work in comics.
January 12th, 2009 at 4:50 am
To be honest, I don’t know how it’s handled nowadays in Germany as I swichted completly to US-Comics a few years ago. But to my recollection the english comics are never censored. The swastikas the in german editions however were sometimes completly removed or edited (Marvel & DC – I remember the first german “Danger Girl” TPB being recalled for leaving one unedited) and some times not at all (“Maus”, although a ad for Maus was erroneously confiscated in the 1990s)
Normally, the german publishers are playing it safe by editing the Us-comics themselves – maybe Marvel wants to do their work?
For the german legislature concerning swastikas see Dr. W. Pedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafgesetzbuch_%C2%A7_86a
January 14th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Nazis are used too much in comics anyway.
January 14th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
The part that I like is not only is the image edited, it’s edited poorly – they removed a different leg of the swastika on the first pic, making it look like the thing’s rotating throughout the story.
Apparently Marvel does not know how to make a Nazi cross.
January 17th, 2011 at 1:42 pm
Wow, this is a problem that most people today face.Thanks for your great post.