Comics and Fascism

Little disclaimer, I'll talk about mainstream comics here (Marvel and DC, mostly). Everyone can publish a comics and yes, that include literal fascists so nazi comics do exist, that's not the point of this post. Lately there's a lot of "this hero would support ICE" "no they wouldn't, if you think comics is for alt right you can't fu

cking read" discourse and they're both terribly wrong, no, there's not a single hero who would support ICE and no, being alt right and into comics doesn't mean you lack basic reading skill and saying this is, in fact, adding to the problem. So today we'll talk about that. First of all let's bring a little reminder here, the Super Hero genre in comics was created and democratized by Jewish people during World War II as a mean to denounce fascism. You gotta understand that a lot of them got death threats in that time, by fellow americans. US (the Gov) wasn't anti nazi, they were pretty comfortable with them until they understood stepping in that war would actually profit them and then propaganda did its work. But prior to that they didn't mind and you had people like Walt Disney, who made anti nazi short movies, who were in fact pretty antisemitic and very ok with their methods. For too much Americans being anti nazi wasn't and still isn't about being anti fascism, it's about being pro US. They don't care about the supremacism, they like it even, all they care about is making their country the actual suprem country, they want to be superior to nazis, it's not a moral disagreement, it's a supriority contest. US is one of the most patriotic country in the world and one of the only country who see this as a good and normal thing. Don't get me wrong, everyone is a bit of a patriote, why else would we be fighting to improve our own country ? But US is another level or weirdness. You don't see so many flags flying everywhere unless you're in US or fucking North Korea. US being supremacist is nothing new, their whole history is about slaughtering people they saw as inferior and slavery and a country that would rather elect a convicted felon and rapist, allegedly a pedophile who murder and EAT childrens, over a WOMAN, like, c'me on. It's really not that surprising seeing USA, of all country, speedrunning their descent into fascism and having their own nazi crew (MAGA) in 2026. It's highly hypocrite, yes, given it's a country of immigrants, but not surprising. And that's the thing, for most people in the rest of the World, this form of patriotism doesn't exist. In US it's normal, even for leftist, it's an ok thing. Making a very huge dissonance between US and the rest of the World in their definition of supremacism, that's the first point.

Mainstream comics are pro US

Even in comics like Hulk where the whole point is Hulk vs the US army or cops you can still see (especially in the 60s) Bruce throwing "I love my country" and anti soviet discourse and arts. May I remind you that comics are about a bunch of overpowered perfect heroes with US flags on them protecting the statut quo ? That's why you often have people pointing out how the MCU is rotten by pro US propaganda and Americans being like "??? No wtf" (it is, by the way, like everything Americans make, we're just starting to get used to it too).

And PLEASE let's stop with "comics were made for outcasted", it's not true, it was made for white boys and even if it was "lame" at some point to read comics, it wasn't true when it was created and it's not true anymore nowadays with Super Hero being more present than ever in every cultures, it's an irrelevant point. Everyone is into it now, thus MAINSTREAM.

Second point is bigotry. Even if it was created by Jewish people in order to denounce supremacism, it doesn't mean it's not rotten by it. because it's no longer a handful of people but a crowded corporation, with everything it implies (and because being from an oppressed minority doesn't mean you don't oppress other groups through your education and system you live in). A few creatives (who are still working for Marvel) are well known anti LGBTQ+, sexual harrassors, pedophiles even. And it doesn't matter how much you yell "I dissociate arts from the artists" you can't. You can't because for one as long as they're alive the money you give them will directly finance the abuse and death of minorities they see as enemies, we have a very recent exemple with Declan Shalvey or J.K. Rowling. And second because their ideas will always be visible in their work, as bland as you think it can be. Joe Bennett hiding antisemitic messages in Immortal Hulk to the point of having Marvel not only recalling and reprinting this issue but also firing him (Marvel, firing someone over bigotry, can you imagine how bad BAD his bigotry was impacting them) is merely the visible part of that. You take John Byrne. Lots of people (men, mostly, how surprising) call his work on She-Hulk "feminist" but it's FULL of sexist porn fantasies. The first issue is fucking She-Hulk getting hypnotized and having men (and women) commenting her body, the second one she's tied up. In both case she's helpless and powerless. Not even mentioning all the occasions he undressed her in the name of "sexual liberation" (in which I strongly believe unless it comes from a man who can't restrain himself from slapping his rapist porn fantasies everywhere, btw). John Byrne who's seen as an absolute progressive icon while the same guy is transphobic and highly advocating for the normalization of falling in love with children under 15 (ah shit, here I thought transphobes were anti grooming ! Damn, it's like bigotry was the real reason behind it !). A lot of Marvel/DC comics artists (I include writers, inkers, colorists in artist, not just the people who do pencils) especially from the 90s are now comicsgaters and openly bigoted supremacists crying over "wokism" on X because they need to bark once in a while to remind people of their existence since they can't do that through talent alone. And not just them, take Neil Gailman who happens to be a rapist who's into underraged woman. People were surprised but, seriously ? Have you read his Snow White ? I got it prior to knowing, when he was still seen as a pro LGBTQ+ pro woman leftist and targeted by alt right transphobes and I sold it the second I finished it. It's FUCKING OBVIOUS he's into rape and underraged girls, it's disgustingly obvious. You can't separate arts from their artists because THEY CAN'T THEMSELF, that's it, end of that debate.

So even when comics have leftists messages, it's always in a way that can be easily ignored, dismissed. It's subtle or ambiguous. "X-Men is about racism" and most of them are white cishet dudes while the guy who ended up in Auschwitz was (it's not completely true anymore, fortunately) the villain. And that's another point I talked about but will remind here : Most villains are leftits

And the more leftists they are, the more likely they are to be written as supremacist (Magneto, Doom, Sam too). Their ideas are deeply "woke" and their design too. They're always smart, because being smart and questioning your society is a "bad thing" (to people in power). They're always kinda gay, let it be through design features of attitude, they tend to be gay cliches without being really gay (because gay is so bad even evil gays can't be gays) that's why you have character like Sam with writers literally joking about his ambiguous sexuality who are always depicted as hetero. That's why villains often make a point but then go full dictator, because then you're being taught "these leftits are fucking dictators and the real supremacists here" and it works super well, as dumb as it sounds.

Comics are far from being the only medias where it's a normal thing, take Disney. Look at all the villains I put above. Let it be in their design with men being thin and elegant, which are usually women features. Sometimes it's racist, often antisemitic. Sexist also, take women who are often fat or old (Ursula being designed after Divine, a Drag Queen, even) and most importantly look how every evil woman is single. Each one of them. Let it be through choices or because they're widowed, they're single, loud and powerful, because a good woman is a silent young woman with a MAN. And if it's not in their design, it's in what they say. You have Hades and Ursula openly warning young women about men and criticize them but the hero are in the right for trusting the man anyway. here Ursula is saying Ariel won't need her voice anyway 'cause men only care about bodies and don't like a woman who can think.

During the Fall of the Hulks/World War Hulks era, Sam tricks Bruce into a "perfect world" made after his own wishes and dreams, where he's no longer the Hulk, where he's with Betty, where Ross is a good grandfather to his children. And Bruce also uses that trick on Sam at some point and so you also see Sam's wishes and dreams and in this world he won, obviously. But that's not the interesting thing, what's interesting is he created a perfect utopia, no more disease, no more wars, no more famine. Everyone is happy and everyone loves him, not because of an iron fist but because he saved the World. But idk, maybe the team working on that was like "oh shit he's supposed to be bad, quick, we gotta make him bad in a way or another" so they made him lie to Betty about Hulk's death (and honestly that's the least I care about, dude SAVED THE WHOLE FUCKING WORLD) so she would marry him and, URGGHHH, treat her well. But they also gave him an uniform designed after SS just so we remember he's bad. That's hilariously dumb when you think of it.

That being said, let's go back to the ambiguous part :

Incredible Hulk 258 (1980) by Bill Mantle and Sal Buscemi

I'll once again use Hulk to explain what I mean by it's subtle or ambiguous enough. Sabra is an infamous character now 'cause she's the reason Brave New World was boyctotted. I'll make a very short little off topic here but everything you've read about her is bullshit. She wasn't created to support Israel, everytime she shows up it's to criticize allegiance to the IDF, she's not named Sabra because of a slaughter, she was created BEFORE it even happened. Sabra means a Jewish person born in Palestine, it's no deeper than that. That's your little reminder to do your own researches and not trust a TikTok starting with the sentence "I've never read/seen this but-" since apparently it has to be said (in fact don't use Tiktok, like, at all, it's super bar for the brain and attention spawn but also for your critical mind). Alright, that being said, this specific page is not fully anti Israel either, it's more of a "war is bad" kind of obvious statement. In this page Hulk isn't just blaming Israel through Sabra, he's also blaming Palestine, he's blaming both, "TWO old books", not one, he's not picking a side so it's easy to interpret him as either pro Palestine or Pro Israel. Which is what people did and that's why you have absolute outlandish situations where this specific page is BOTH used to show that Sabra was created as a mean to criticize Israel and as a mean to support it. Because while the whole point is "the Israel-Palestine war is bad", they don't go as far as siding with one or the other so you have the freedom to make it align to your own side.

That's why people are crying over "wokism" in their comics and movies and shit, because while it was always here it was subtle. That's why I don't believe in subtlety. Subtlety is a fucking hypocrite way to shut you down, it's a way to tell you "hey I'm not a prick, I see you, but I don't want to see too much either 'cause you make me uncomfortable". It's not about intelligence, it's about comfort. And I think it's time we drop the subtlety. We need to stop wanting to make fucking nazis comfortable in fear of losing some sale. "wokism doesn't pay" sure it doesn't if your public is mostly supremacist motherfuckers who are used to be pleased with a little patting on their head and who can't stand self questioning because you never invite them to think.

Why do you think minorities are most likely to be inclusive to other communities ? Because we're used to it, we're used to getting slapped in the face by medias depicting us as monsters and villains, to question ourselves and our beliefs and to deconstruct what the system told us to believe in. Supremacists aren't. When Trump's Coup happened you had people CRYING ON TV because "why are policemen against us ? We're the good guys" or that dumbass who cried "they maced me because I was trying to make a revolution", they're so used to be pleased they don't even understand why they're getting punish by the Gov they're trying to overthrown while admitting and understanding they're doing a FREAKING REVOLUTION. Because to them they're doing the right thing, so they're good people, so they shouldn't face consequences. Every single MAGA and nazi shit stain you see is a person who think they're doing what they're doing for greater good. Because they're not used to questioning themselves, they're not used to be blamed, they're used to hero fighting to protect a social ladder that abuses minorities. It might not be the message of comics, but it's how they see it. Because in the end it's always a world of white cishet men written by white cishet men. So even when you have strong female characters or black men, they always stick to a white cishet male norm. They're always silent and ambiguous enough. Because it's like I said about disability, how a good disabled person is a disabled person who behave like a valid one. It applies to everything. A good gay is a gay who looks hete, a good black person is a black person who try to look and behave like a white, a good woman is a woman who's useful to men, a good trans is a trans you don't notice because they have a strong passing (and a pretty privilege, it's part of the supremacist package) and you go on and on. You can throw pages of these heroes denouncing injustices, I can too, there's plenty. But in the end these are pages that can either be ignored or misinterpreted or "it was out of character". That's why Immortal Hulk was SO criticized (and it's still one of the best selling comics ever so you can eat your "go woke go broke" and choke on it), because every single leftist message was impossible to ignore. It was loud, it wasn't subtle, it was visible, it was part of the plot. You couldn't ignore Charlie and how her transidentity helped defeated Xemnu, you couldn't ignore Bruce's Banner neuroatypies and how Sam called it a strength, you couldn't ignore Jackie reminding Bruce that as a white man he will always be allowed anger while she has to shut the fuck up, you couldn't ignore Bruce wanting to destroy capitalism. And it's disturbing not because it's dumb or woke, it's disturbing because you CAN'T ignore it. It's disturbing because it forces you out of the comfort zone media created for you by having you face and question the legitimity of your own beliefs. That's why people yell "I don't want politic in my comics/games/movies", because being apolitical is a political statement. Being disturbed by a political statement means you don't align with it, it's really no deeper than that and there's no "but I like it when it's subtle", if you like it when it is, it means you like it when it's not visible enough to disturb you. Every time I see someone throwing a statement that annoys me that's because I disagree and it's the same for you, that's it, it's not even debatable, that's how it works. If you disagree with the method but not the message it's the same shit, there's still a reason you don't like the method. It could be because something is violent and you're not into violence (which is understandable, debatable, yes, but understandable), so ask yourself why you want to things to stay subtle and preferably out of what you consume, why it bothers you when something is harmless but loud. That's because what is shows is against your own belief. There's more far right losers boycotting shit than leftists and it was always this way. Dumbass burning down their nikes the moment they put a rainbow on it is not something new, it's as old as fucking youtube. And before they burnt their shoes on Youtube, they burnt books (and not just any books, btw, LGBTQ+ books, feminists books, like trump censoring US history and science). And before they burnt books, they burnt people (feminists, Jews, black people, gays etc...) and in the end it was always for the same reasons, heretism, to "protect" the sacrality of the blood, of the country.

So it's funny to see them calling leftists "snowflakes" when historically they're the one boycotting and cancelling whatever makes them uncomfortable or question their power. Maybe that's why fascists are so into ICE though, because that's what a snowflake is made of. Because it's as fragile as their power and ego.

So yes, you can read comics and have supremacist ideas (most people who do have these ideas don't know it's supremacist propaganda, in fact, thus the word "woke", waking up and understand it). And if you want to either change their mind about minorities when they still have a chance to question their beliefs or kick out the definitely rotten apples you have to drop the subtlety, you have to be louder, louder than them in fact and you have to silent them. And to silent them you also have to STOP answering to all their fucking ragebaiting. Why do you think they fucking hate BlueSky and call it an echo chamber ? Because ragebaiting isn't a thing here, you can remove quotes and deactivate them either so no dunking and when you block someone nobody can ever see any of the posts they sent you or you sent them, it's like you never interacted ever. They hate BlueSky because nobody share their voice. Because when you answer or QRT a racist online to tell them "you're racist !" they won't go "oh noooooo, I didn't notice thanks for the head up mate", they'll either go "yes" or strongly believe they're not no matter what you say and you won't change that. But you WILL share them and give them an audience and support from people like them and an importance (and worst, on X you'll give them money). If you debate with a bigot then you admit their ideas are debatable and so relevant. You don't debate bigotry, you shut it down. I'm not telling you to stand up and fight, not everyone can do that, I'm telling you to SHUT THE FUCK UP, it doesn't require any courage or strength, it requires a bit of modesty and the understanding that no, your nobody ass won't save the World from bigotry through a tweet. The only reason you're doing it is because you like being hyped by your friends and their likes in a "hah, I really showed 'em" way (no, you didn't show shit except how your need for recognition is more important than actually shutting down bigots). You can talk about bigotry and their mecanisms and explain how it's wrong without actually engaging with one of them specifically and giving them the importance they don't have.

And you can use your voice to share and support oppressed people. Being an happy passionate fan and ranting about what you're into, especially when it's cancelled by bigots, is also a strong form a resistance and a way to shut them down. There's a reason everything is designed to make you hate on shit you don't care about rather than sharing what is important to you and why. So using your voice to focus on what you love doing and have the happy life they don't want you to get through the medias they want to radicalize is resistance too. These are two very efficient way to fight fascists without actually putting yourself in danger, silencing them through ignorance and by being louder than them in your support to everything you love and by finding happiness. Because if you thinks the World is doomed then you'll accept every shit coming at you.

So does that mean comics are conservative right winged medias ? No. Does that mean heroes would support ICE ? No. There's no hero or villain who aren't directly nazis (like Hydra) who would support ICE. Thinking any fucking hero would support a literal gestapo and concentration camp is not just insulting for their creators, it's also inaccurate.

Because while comics are too subtle, that's still what they are about. Because if it's deeply pro US, a lot of US citizens understand how US is a melting pot of immigrants and different cultures co-existing and learning from each others, so to them being a pro US patriote is about supporting this idea. And that's what heroes are. They might protect a statut quo but that's because in their eyes that's what they're defending, this multicultural ideal. That's why Super Hero comics are so popular after all, because it's an ideal, an utopia, a world we dream of where heroes would descent from the sky to save us, like angels. That's why comics are about, they're about hope and acceptance.

That's why comicsgate is a thing, their whole existence proves it, because they know their nauseous ideas cannot exist in a mainstream scene atm. And the reason to that isn't because "comics are becoming woke", but because they're becoming less subtle and because they actually push you to questioning now, in a loudest and loudest way. So while comics (and most medias in pop culture) are still too shy about their progressist messages because capitalism is inherently supremacist and they need it for profit, they're still about progressivism and everytime someone yells about wokism it's the proof of that. Comics ARE leftists, the problem is in the definition, it's the US definition of leftism and let's be honest, leftism doesn't really exist in US, their leftism is basically our centrism/moderate right while their right is our far far far very far away right. Thus this dissonance between people who think it's 100% leftist and shouldn't appeal to bigots and bigots who fail to see how it's against them. Because they're no real leftism in US. But it's not an immortal truth, comics could very well turn full fascist if that's what the World chose to see as "right". Everything we have, we can lose. That's why it's important to allow your medias to question you and the World, to be uncomfortable. Because the more silent you stay to protect your comfort, and the more you'll actually lose it. Do you know the frog allegory ? Put a frog in a boiled water, it will jump away. Put a frog in an average tempered water and slowly boil it, it will stay and die because the increase in temperature is slow enough to have the frog getting used to it and not noticing it. Invite a nazi at your table, they'll take your bread and you won't say shit because you still have everything else. But then they'll take the wine because you didn't complain about the bread and again, you won't say shit in fear that they might take everything else. But then they'll take the cheese and what's in your plates and slowly you'll lose all your comfort and right and you won't realise it because they'll left a spoon and you'll do anything to keep that spoon instead of trying to get back everything they took. That's how fascism work, it's insidious and slow. That's why it's important to recognize the appeal of our comics for fascists. Because by ignoring the problem to feel moraly superior about our taste, we're allowing it to exist and spread. And once it's visible you will scream "but how did it happen ????" and ultimatly "but it's too late now, I don't want to lose what I have left". That's how fascism works.

So do stay woke. Do keep your mind open and do question everything, even and especially when you deeply love it. Until next time, enjoy~