Race & Class in Comics: The New Superman

For those of you that don't usually read comics, you should know that there is currently a big event going on with one of the two big comic-book company's, DC Comics. They are re-numbering ALL their titles and even re-imaging some of the characters to try and bring in new readers who are not familiar with the years of story-lines and confusing continuity.

One of these books is Action Comics starring Superman, who is getting somewhat of a whole new origin story in this first issue. Almost instantly you realize that this is not your father's Superman. This new Superman is younger, brasher, and totally aware of class status! Even Entertainment Weekly noticed this in their review of the book. Below is what they had to say:

"Superman is something of a wiseguy and, dare I say it, a radical: In the first few pages, Superman seizes a super-wealthy law-breaker, holding him helplessly aloft, as the police ask him to put the guy down. 'Sure, officer, I’ll put him down, just as soon as he makes a full confession. To someone who still believes the law works the same for rich and poor alike. Because that ain’t Superman.'"

Another great scene involved a building that i s getting demolished. At the moment that a wrecking goes crashing into a building, Superman comes in to rescue the inhabitants--many squatters, including kids, dogs and whole families. However, right after he rescues them he is suddenly attacked by military tanks. (All part of the uber rich and super smart Lex Luther, who is working with the military). Superman destroys one of the tanks but is weakened, and before one of the tanks can deliver another blow, the masses of people who he just saved come to his rescue! One of the squatters, standing in front of the tank's cannon, yells at the tanks, "Enough! This guy just saved our Lives! My Kids!"

I'm not saying this new Superman is totally class-conscious or anything, but this new take, written by one of the best comic-book scribes out there, Grant Morrison, is worth checking out. There is also great art by Rage Morales who does some great work in this issue, drawing mostly people who are not in costume.

The story of Rayhan Mazin

*SPOILER ALERT!!!*

Of course, once again, I am late on informing you all of an interesting story! I just recently caught up on my issues of Power Girl and was surprised to read a really great two-issue story arc involving a super-powered individual named Rayhan Mazin. He is very unusual because he's one of the few Muslim-Americans I've ever seen presented in a comic-book. He is from the fictional country of Qurac, and had never used his powers because he feared what people might think of a super-powered person of Middle Eastern descent in America. Basically, the story is about how exactly right he was!

The story starts six months ago when he is on a plane that is about to crash. Knowing how it might look to the other passengers, he decides to use his power (of controlling the weather) to lift the plane up and prevent it from crashing by increasing the wind speed. Unbeknownst to him, Power Girl and Batman have arrived on the scene to be heroes. So, when the plane lands, everyone blames him and we see him cuffed and scurried away.

The next scenes in the book deal with him being constantly interrogated and being denied contact with any friends, family or even a lawyer. Through the whole situation he keeps thinking that if he just keeps cooperating, they will eventually realize that he is not some kind of terrorist and that they will just let him go. They don't; and to make matters worse, he finds out that his father is dying of cancer and they won't even let him visit him in the hospital. That proves to be the last straw and he decides to breakout. (He had the power to do that all-along)!

This is where Power Girl and Batman jump back in the story because they have been asked to capture him. Telling more would be ruining the ending, so I'll stop here. But, this was an obviously great story that's a current reflection on U.S. policy and the way people of Middle Eastern descent are treated in this country. The ending was a little rushed, but still a nicely-written story by Judd Winnick. I strongly recommend you look for Power Girl #24-#25 in your local comic-book shop.

Green Arrow vs Christian Fundamentalists

The bad thing about having a lot of different things to do is that often times I don't a chance to read my comic-books until weeks after everyone else has, so I'm constantly catching-up. The worst part is when I'm late on discovering interesting things like this current issue of Green Arrow, (which went on sale June 22).

I wanted to bring it to your attention because in this issue, Green Arrow is up against some Christian Fundamentalists extremists who are using "high-tech equipment." Near the beginning of the issue we meet Federal Marshal Haley Donovan who has recruited Green Arrow to help them transfer a prisoner, the Reverend Billy Miggs. Green Arrow, being the bleeding-heart liberal that he is, knows the Reverend as the head of a church called, "The Southern Order of Change." Donovan says, "Yup. Except it's not a church anymore. Two months ago, my office classified it as a militia. A couple of days ago, they became terrorists."

Apparently, the Reverend and his followers killed nine people when he "orchestrated the simultaneous attack of several organizations that he targeted as 'sinful.'" What they don't tell us, but what is very clear, is that one of the "organizations" that was targeted was an abortion clinic! In fact, the very first page of the story, is composed of four panels, in which the first three, we see a young woman and a doctor talking about medical history. Then, all of a sudden, there is an explosion in the last panel. It is not until about four pages later that we can piece together how that first page fits into the rest of the story. I find it pretty interesting, although not unusual, that they just couldn't say that the Reverend was blowing up abortion clinics and killing doctors because that is what these extremists right-winger types do!

Anyway, when I last left Green Arrow, he was not doing so well. He has a hell of a fight coming at him next issue, which should be out July 27. Stay tuned, or better yet, get the issue yourself when it comes out.