Tangents: Comic book superheroes v. the evil-doers

TANGENTS by John Saccenti: The war coverage has been sold to the public just like a brightly illustrated comic book.

By: John Saccenti
   Good news. Iraq’s Dr. Germ turned herself in last weekend. Apparently, she couldn’t stand the heat coming from a nation of do-gooders.
   Her capture is especially good since her Iraqi sidekick, Chemical Ali, may have bit the dust a few weeks ago.
   That these evil-doers have been done away with is cause for celebration, something America actually may have started a few weeks ago, when President George Bush landed on a U.S. aircraft carrier at sea off San Diego to proclaim victory over Iraq. He was dressed in military garb, clearly a man with a mission, intent on facing down evil wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head.
   He also thanked the good citizens of America, but warned them that the fight against evil is a never-ending battle and that if truth, justice and the American way are to prevail, we will need to be vigilant and prepared.
   All the while, Vice President Dick Cheney was presumably in his underground lair plotting America’s next move.
   I hate to trivialize important, life-or-death moments by comparing them to, well, comic books. Unfortunately, I’m not the one doing it and before I’m accused of plagiarism, I should say most of these words and images are not mine. They are words and images used by the president and the administration to explain American foreign policy and garner support for their actions. I do admit to a little embellishment, but surely nothing written above surprises you, true believers.
   Over the past 20 months, world news, the war on terror and the search for WMDs has been as neatly packaged as a limited-edition, mint-condition comic book, all wrapped up in an acid-free Mylar bag and backing board. I feel so heroic, like a legitimate member of the Justice League of America, which is probably how I’m supposed to feel after watching and hearing it all.
   But there is a problem. While comic books aren’t usually limited in their color, what we have been presented with is usually in black and white.
   France, liberals and anyone who doesn’t wholeheartedly embrace America’s theory of pre-emptive self-defense is a bad guy. Those who support us are the most super of friends, regardless of their motivation. And there is no in between.
   As anyone who reads comic books, or even those who just watch their favorite heroes come to life on the silver screen, knows, there is always a gray area. Bad guys aren’t always bad guys and good guys aren’t necessarily heroic.
   Take Magneto, a villain in the summer movie "X2: X-Men United." He is clearly a bad guy. But, his motivation is based his experiences as a child, when his parents were carted off to a concentration camp by German soldiers. His methods are twisted and wrong, but there is at least something else there other than, "madman bent on world domination," which frankly, is very boring. Conversely, Batman is motivated to cripple and maim bad guys because his parents were murdered by street criminals.
   There obviously is nothing good that can be said about Saddam or Osama. But that doesn’t mean everything we do is necessarily pure and good, which is how much of the news is presented these days. And, apparently, some people don’t think we can handle knowing that, so we’re given the good and the uplifting, sans warts.
   Thinking we can do no wrong is our own fault. It’s what happens when we don’t look behind the quickly drawn characters and porous plot lines we are presented with.
   We scream when news outlets cover the seamier side of war, the kind where features about children with shrapnel-filled legs are covered and stories about U.S. cluster bombs are talked about. Others get bent of shape when someone dares question the motivation behind the war with Iraq, or criticizes our handling of the post-war reconstruction.
   But that’s part of the story as well and they’re things we did. We should know about them. Not mentioning that stuff is OK in a comic book, especially if you want to make a bad, boring one. But this isn’t a comic book, and just because President Bush was on an aircraft carrier doesn’t mean he can do no wrong.
   After all, he’s our president and they’re our military forces. We should know what’s going on and we should buy into everything we see and here.
   Sanitizing coverage of the world into a pre-packaged rallying cry of "U-S-A" doesn’t do any good. Our acceptance of our faults is one of our strengths. Focusing, on occasion, on our mistakes can only make us stronger. Much stronger than the fictional superhumans we have brainwashed ourselves into thinking we are.
   And, if this all really were a comic book, presenting the realities of war might make for a better story. Or at the very least, one we can hopefully learn from.
John Saccenti is news editor of the South Brunswick Post and the Cranbury Press. He can be reached via e-mail at
href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected].