Sometimes subtext can be as dangerous to a crusading superhero as death rays and ultra-powered lunatics. In comics, everything from coloring and inking to the juxtaposition of panels can send out subtle messages, messages that sometimes slip right past comic creators themselves.
case in point: This week’s issue of Amazing Spider-Man, the latest episode in the ongoing “Gauntlet” storyline. ASM #621 pits Spidey against Yin-and-Yang powered Chinatown crime-boss Mr. Negative. Mr. Negative, an ex “snakehead” turned crime kingpin may be a more nuanced ethnic Chinese villain than the repulsive “yellow-peril” villains that have plagued comics all the way back to the very origins of the super-hero genre, but Negative’s modus operandi, which combines super-science with Chinese martial-arts mysticism, still leans heavily on cultural fears of the other and western stereotypes of eastern exoticism. Mr. Negative has never been portrayed on the same level as overtly racist creations like The Yellow Claw or The Mandarin, but a sequence of panels in the latest issue of ASM leaves room for some pretty xenophobic interpretations of the rivalry between Spidey and this fan-fave, post “Brand New Day” villain:
On the script page this scene probably played out pretty benignly, a clever moment of Spidey retorting to Negative with some tough-guy dialogue, pitting his scrappy attitude against the twisted, honor-bound villainy of Mr. Negative. However, the scene’s final page breakdown intimates something a little less straightforward. That bit of dialogue about Mr. Negative being an invader in Spidey’s city is juxtaposed with a striking image of Negative standing on a New York street dominated by neon signs in Chinese script. Spidey’s feisty assertion that negative has “invaded” his home, takes on a definite subtext: the subtext of a white male hero with a working class background referring to an Asian immigrant as an “invader”, an interloper who somehow has less right to live in the Big Apple than a native-born caucasian.
That arresting panel of Negative on the Chinatown street is the key because its composition, intentional or not, makes a strong visual connection of representation, i.e. Negative as a figurative representation of Chinatown, a Chinatown characterized by those eye-catching neon signs. Spidey’s defiant assertion that New York is His home and it has been invaded by illegal immigrant Martin Li, a.k.a. “Mr. Negative” can be extrapolated to that lonely Manhattan street “invaded” by the generations of Chinese immigrants who have made it their own. Mr. Negative’s position in that frame, establishing him as a stand in for Chinatown, ups the metaphorical ante so to speak, imbuing a conflict of hero vs. villian with the second meaning of white privilege vs. the rights of immigrants. Even the lettering in the sequence, with Spidey’s dialogue appearing in disembodied word balloons like some secret voice of higher truth, intimates an authority beyond mere superhero banter. Its not much of an interpretive step to situate Negative as more than just a symbol of lawlessness but also as the avatar of a neighborhood unjustly “invaded” by Asian immigrants.
I really doubt this is the overt intention of either writer Dan Slott or penciller Michael Lark, but as a Spidey fan with no vested interest in taking shots at one of my favorite books, this subtext smacked me as strongly and as blatantly as the pimp-slap negative lays on Spidey earlier in the issue. At the very least, bandying about charged words like “invaded” in the context of a villain who is aligned with undocumented immigrants is something that should be done with extreme delicacy, especially when the hero is mouthing dialogue that hews so close to the privileged assertions of the most conservative anti-immigration activists.
Maybe a slip like this is not a big deal. Maybe. But this visual faux pas left me scrutinizing the thematics of Mr. Negative as whole. The grosser stereotypes of the past are absent in this popular villain, but when you strip Neggy down to the basics, what you have is a rather problematic comment on Immigration. By day Martin Li is a picture perfect example of the “model minority”, a succesful businessman, and philanthropist, but under that veneer of ideal assimilation is a monstrous, violent sociopath. Combine that with the current subplot of Negative’s bloody war with the Maggia, an organization traditionally aligned with the working class aspirations of a long-entrenched ethnic group, i.e. Italian Americans and what you have is a multi-level narrative of duplicity, a recurring theme of the seemingly benign immigrant as bringer of chaos and social unrest annihilating the established order.
With the recent, (and overblown) controversy regarding a bit of satirical signage over in Captain America, it is this sort of unintentional, yet still evident, subtext that really should concern readers, and cue writers to be on their guard for the slippery, multifaceted meanings that can emerge when combining words with images, whether by design or unfortunate chance.
February 19th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Interesting perspective, and I totally see your point. I agree with you that your conclusion may not be what the artist and writer were trying to convey, but it certainly comes across that way. Good analysis.
– Nick
from City of Kik
http://nickleshi.blogspot.com
February 19th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
I’m not currently reading ASM but I saw some preview pages for the issue.
As a New Yorker and a Chinese-American, I found the idea that Mr. Negative has an almost rustic compound hidden behind the stores and buildings in the middle of the Manhattan Chinatown as utterly ridiculous.
The character itself seems to fall into comic book cliches and stereotypes [as opposed to racial ones] as if the writers and editors have seen too many Hong Kong action films.
A more interesting and realistic scenario would be to have Mr. Negative based in Flushing, Queens and the Flushing Chinatown. That’s where the majority of new Chinese immigrants and related businesses are settling. The close proximity to Forest Hills, Queens where May Parker lives would even more of threat to Spider-Man.
The subplot between Mr. Negative and the Maggia is similar to the decades long turf battle between an expanding Chinatown and dwindling Little Italy in downtown Manhattan.
February 19th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Playing out NYC ethno-politics on a global print-media stage?
February 19th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
I agree with this article up to the point where the whole tea partier thing is brought up. The whole tea bagger thing resulted from some readers interpreting that thing as offensive based on what they perceived as unfair stereotyping. Whether or not it was intentional, the point is that a group of people felt caricatured and misrepresented by the teabag thing, just as people of Asian descent can interpret this as caricature and misrepresentation. Is one more acceptable because it reveals a prejudice of ideology rather than race?
I am a Democrat and, quite frankly, strongly disagree with the agenda of Tea Partiers, but I do think they have a right to be offended by being connected, however tenuously, with white supremacy and terrorism. I understand that our country has a long history of institutionalized racism and xenophobia, but this country has a history of ideological prejudice and harassment as well (McCarthyism, anti-Islam sentiment, etc.).
Quite frankly, either both are wrong because of their potential to stereotype a people group unjustly, or both are acceptable because the intent was not to offend and the subtext was unintentional.
February 19th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Somebody was an English major.
February 19th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
There’s a big difference between satirizing someone’s political beliefs, especially an activist group that intentionally brings their point of view forward as an element of public dialogue through protests, etc. and what is going on beneath the surface of this little scenario.
Poitcal satire, crude or not, is as patriotic and American as Apple Pie. Its a comment on someone’s beliefs regarding how we govern ourselves. Our system relies on people making their beliefs about that known, eloquent or ineloquent.
The subtext in ASM wasn’t simply a political statemnet, or a point of philosphical debate. It was a message about ethnicity, notjust politics. Argually, neither message is right or wrong but there is a racial/ethnic element in the ASM story that goes beyond fair-game political commentary IMHO.
February 19th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
I don’t find the art even remotely an issue here. He’s in Chinatown! *gasp* There’s no racial/ethnic element to the art. It would actually stand out to me more if the signs WEREN’T in Chinese, given where he is.
But the dialogue is a different story. He INVADED Spider-man’s home? Is that something he says to every villain he faces? Because if Spider-man is “protecting his turf,” so to speak, then he SHOULD say that to every villain he faces, yes? And if he doesn’t, then you do have to ask, why is Mr. Negative different?
February 20th, 2010 at 9:53 am
+1 to Rudy.
February 20th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Nice of you to skip over what Negative said before this, “You have invaded my home. I cannot let that pass.” It’s just Spidey being a smart-ass
February 20th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
Journalism major
February 22nd, 2010 at 9:47 am
I have to say I agree with Captain Trips; this is the reachingest reach that ever reached. Spidey went into Negative’s house, Negative reacted with appropriate force, Negative talks appropriate villain-smack, Spidey retorts with appropriate, clever comeback.
Those signs are there because Negative is based in Chinatown. I don’t think anything was added to the scene because they were there, other than to place Negative out on the street near his home.
Since we’re revealing out qualifications, I was an English and History major. I used to write reviews myself for another site, and I like to think I’m sensitive to the kind of subtext discussed here; I wrote a review of an issue of the Authority after Robbie Morrison took over in which I took the author to task over a pretty heavy handed World Trade Center allusion that was published less than a year after that attack.
I saw subtext there; I don’t see it here.
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:56 pm
With all due respect Kyle, this was a totally misinterpreted and overblown “read” on your part. I worry that characterizations/editorials of this type screaming “racism” just undermines the instances when REAL stereotpying and cultural prejudice occur.
I fear that this was a far-too sensitive read of the scene. I find greater debate to be had in the dialogue characterization of African-American characters in Marvel’s comics.
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:38 pm
Also, as a sidenote, does Mr.Negative know Peter Parker is Spiderman? If not, that reduces the racial subtext even further…for all Mr. Negative knows, another Chinese American could be under Spidey’s mask.