Sidebar
 
Character Search
 
SuperMegaMonkey's Marvel Comics Chronology
Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
  Secret: Click here to toggle sidebar

 Search issues only
Advanced Search

SuperMegaMonkey
Godzilla Timeline

The Rules
Q&As
Quality Rating
Acknowledgements
Recent Updates
What's Missing?
General Comments
Forum

Comments page

1989-07-01 00:08:21
Previous:
Marvel Comics Presents #24-31 (Havok)
Up:
Main

1989 / Box 27 / EiC: Tom DeFalco

Next:
Marvel Comics Presents #44 (Dr. Strange)

Marvel Comics Presents #27 (American Eagle)

Issue(s): Marvel Comics Presents #27 (American Eagle)
Cover Date: Sep 89
Title: "Just another shade of hate!"
Credits:
Scott Lobdell - Writer
Ron Wilson - Penciler
Jeffrey Albrecht - Inker
Mike Rockwitz - Assistant Editor
Terry Kavanagh - Editor

Review/plot:
Ron Wilson returns to American Eagle, a character he introduced in Marvel Two-In-One annual #6 and who has since been relegated to crowd scenes.

One new thing we learn about him immediately is that he has the power to knock out a whole group of racists at once with a simple pull of a rug.

Right away you can see that we are going the "For every white racist, there is an equal and opposite nonwhite racist" route. American Eagle tries to explain it to the "famously biased" newspaper columnist that knew him from earlier days.

The next day, while the leader of the Movement is giving an incendiary speech at the Washington Monument, the columnist confronts him, and he freaks out and becomes the Peace Monger.

As they fight and the Peace Monger says obvious racist things like Native Americans should join African Americans in the struggle for equality, the Peace Monger alienates his followers, which reduces his strength.

We end with the message that we ought to cut out all these "movements" and "get things done".

No one will say how things will get done without a movement to push them along.

I understand the impulse behind this kind of story. Tawana Brawley would have been in the news around this time. But it just reeks of concern trolling at best. Gee, we'd like to see more racial equality, but acting like that will never help your case. Maybe just be more civil, wait your turn, and surely things will work out ok.

At a minimum, a theme like this needs a lot more exploration and nuance than 8 pages in Marvel Comics Presents could have given it. There isn't really a strong case for American Eagle (tagline: "the moderate super-hero!") in this story either.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Inbound References (2): show

  • Marvel Comics Presents #104 (USAgent)
  • Marvel Comics Presents #128 (American Eagle)

Characters Appearing: American Eagle, Peace Monger

Previous:
Marvel Comics Presents #24-31 (Havok)
Up:
Main

1989 / Box 27 / EiC: Tom DeFalco

Next:
Marvel Comics Presents #44 (Dr. Strange)

Comments

"What the?" did a fun send up of all these 4th stringers from MCP joining up and founding team "the Obscurity legion"

http://marvel.wikia.com/Obscurity_Legion_(Earth-9047)

Sadly I'd have loved to have had that in the real MU.

Posted by: kveto | November 17, 2014 3:52 PM

The Peace Monger has another appearance, in which he fights US Agent, which has more Unfortunate Implications. So he should probably get a character tag.
I realize that this story has a lot of unfortunate implications but OTOH, criticism of the way Al Sharpton, for example, acted in his early years is definitely legitimate. You're right in that it needs more nuance.

Posted by: Michael | November 17, 2014 9:25 PM

Added the Peace Monger; thanks.

Posted by: fnord12 | November 17, 2014 9:59 PM

Unfortunate implications? Yeah, I suppose MCP #104's complete divorce from suspension of disbelief counts as an unfortunate implication...

Posted by: Luis Dantas | November 17, 2014 10:07 PM

Why the heck does this story have an almost four star rating?

Posted by: Jay Gallardo | December 4, 2014 4:23 PM




Post a comment

(Required & displayed)
(Required but not displayed)
(Not required)

Note: Please report typos and other obvious mistakes in the forum. Not here! :-)



Comments are now closed.

UPC Spider-Man
SuperMegaMonkey home | Comics Chronology home