Truth, Justice, and the Communist Way

This book was tremendous fun. Over the summer I had an internship at G4's ATTACK OF THE SHOW, a Nerdfest of geeky proportions. I loved it. One of the many menial tasks I had to perform was scanning comics into the system for "Fresh Ink", a segment that features comic books. Although it would often take me more than an hour to scan in the damndirty pages, I really enjoyed reading the comics. Most were in color and very detailed--lots of action lines, blurs, blood, angry faces, etc. I read a great one where these evil guys kill Santa Clause's reindeer...so Santa Clause takes BLOODY REVENGE!!

I appreciated Mr. McCloud's constant reiteration that comic books are art. They definately are, on a plethora of levels. However, I was really hoping this book would cover the social implications of comic books, a facet it completely left out. As I learned (again and again, from one co-worker then another) over the summer, comic books are chock-full of social commentary. For instance, have you heard of SUPERMAN: Red Son? Superman fights for communist Russia and sports the hammer and sickle on his chest. Instead of fighting for "truth, justice, and the American way", Superman champions communist propaganda. This trilogy is political dialogue with punching and explosions.

I was hoping there would be a discussion about comics as political and social entities (X-Men and racism?), but perhaps this will be in McCloud's next installment. Although I got a taste of the comic world this summer I still don't know much, so i was hoping people more learned than I would throw in some interesting tidbits. I myself like Sailor Moon. I don't think there are too many politics in that one, except that Tuxedo Mask is hot and those skirts are too short to fight crime in.