Comic Books have always had both feet firmly planted in the fantastic but sometimes the lines between fantasy and reality can become blurred and then we find comic books with one foot in the fantasy world and the other foot firmly grounded in reality. The industry has at times during its long and storied history reflected the political and social environment of the world around it, whether it was 1940s American or present day America. Everyone remembers the iconic cover of Captain America #1, released just months before Pearl Harbor. Captain America is pictured landing one heck of a hay maker on old Adolph Hitler. It’s just one of those things that are woven into the fabric of the American conscience. It helped to galvanize a country and a world at war.
Jump ahead to September, 11th, 2001. The terrorist attacks on the United States carried out by Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. This was a day that brought back for many the horrors of Pearl Harbor, a day that is now forever woven into the American conscience, a day that galvanized a country and a world at war.
Again Captain America was called upon to protect the American ideals, fair play, freedom of thought and speech, the needs of the greater good. So then too, inevitably came the many comic book issues of not only Captain America fighting the horrors of terrorism, but countless other comic book heroes as well.
This is for me where the problem comes in. Comic books are escapism, I read them and I am sure countless others as well, read them in order to escape from their mundane everyday activities as much as to escape from the horrors of everyday life. I remember reading Captain America comic books as a kid, the stories didn’t involve the all too true horrors of today’s world but instead were tales of the fantastic and an escape from reality. If, I wanted to be updated on the horrors of war and terrorism and the extreme loss of life, all I have to do is pick up my daily newspaper or turn on the nightly news on my television set. I pick up a comic book to get away from all of that. To be transported to another place were for the most part the hero, the good guy always wins, a place where for all intents and purposes my values and outlook on the real world are renewed. That for the most part the world is a good place and the majority of the people who inhabit it are good also. Comic books, give us the heroes that we need, the heroes that we believe in, the heroes that get us all through our daily lives. The heroes that reaffirm for all of us, that if you fight the good fight, then you will ultimately win. That’s what they are there for, to give us all hope. Comic book heroes instill in us at an early age values and character traits that are essential, they help to promote the knowledge of always at least trying to do the right thing or else there will be consequences to our actions, and that we should use whatever abilities we do have for the service of the greater good.
Honestly, is it not true that when comic books get to close to what is going on in the real world they ultimately fail? I feel that readers will generally back off from a book when it hits a little to close to home and, the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur. After all, if you are a parent and trying to find comic books that appeal to your young children are you going to hand them the most recent issue of a comic book featuring the hero fighting a real life terrorist? Most likely not, this all leads into another topic that I will be covering in a future column dealing with the comic book market and children. I think there has to be some distance between the real world and comic books. I understand placing Spider-Man in New York City grounds the book in reality and gives it an added level of credence. But having Spider-Man, or any other super hero fight Osama Bin Laden or any other of a countless wave of real nameless and faceless terrorists, only lends credence to what these terrorists are doing, and gives them what they desperately want attention. Not only that, but it also cuts deeply at the heart of what comic books truly were created to do, and that’s to ultimately entertain.
Trust me, I understand that comic books and the stories they tell, are true works of literature and in turn they tell us about our world. They are at times reflections and portraits of our country. They at other times interpret the political, social and cultural climate of our country and our times. In days of old characters and heroes such as Superman fought the good fight for all of us, for truth, justice and the American way, in a world that was much different than the one we currently inhabit. The heroes who fight these injustices and terrorists in today’s world are fighting a very different battle. A battle with the very core values of the American system. So, while it is nice to see our heroes inhabit the cities of our real world, I do not really care to see them battle our real world villains.
Let’s save the real world villains for our real world heroes, the men and women of our armed forces. Who diligently put their lives on the line for us each and everyday. In turn we’ll save the comic book villains for our comic book heroes. The comic book heroes who each day reaffirm for us as we read their truly amazing adventures and exploits that real heroes truly do exist, in a sometimes not so nice real world.
Anthony Zicari is a freelance writer/editor. He has been writing professionally for well over ten years, and has written for a number of companies and clients. His work ranges from writing comic books to animation, screenplays and for various other media and mediums as well. 
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