The Four Color Media Monitor

All attention of recent was focused mainly on Marvel, for the subtle bigotry they've been allowing into their products. But while they're every bit deserving of the flak they've got for the hidden messages in X-Men Gold, we shouldn't forget DC's own atrocious conduct. Namely, the leftist propaganda they've been stuffing into the Green Lantern books in the form of the new co-star Simon Baz. On which note, here's a recent entry on CBR detailing his origin setup from 5 years ago, and though sugarcoated, it does give an idea what's wrong with its picture of federal operatives in the Gitmo prison seen in the story (although it was made official some time later):

The ring settled on Baz in “Green Lantern” #0 (by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy, Keith Champagne and Mark Irwin), but it found him at a really odd point in his life. A factory worker in Dearborn, Michigan until the factory closed, Baz had become a car thief to help support his sister’s son (his sister’s husband was in a coma after getting into an accident during Simon’s time as an illegal street racer). The van he had stolen this particular day turned out to be about to be used as part of a terrorist explosion. Upon discovering this, Simon drove it to the factory he worked at because he knew it was now deserted. Nobody died in the explosion that followed, but as you might imagine, it was difficult to tell the federal agents who arrested him that it was just a case of really bad luck that led to him driving around with a bomb in a van. As a Lebanese-American, Baz’ race didn’t exactly endear him to some of the racist federal agents. While Simon is about to be tortured, the Green Lantern ring burst through the ceiling, picked Simon as a new Green Lantern, and the pair swiftly escaped.

And that's pretty much the vision Johns applied to how the authorities are depicted at the prison house. Even if there were no casualties at the factory, he still destroyed property, and that he even drove the vehicle there in the first place suggests contempt for the former employers who worked hard to build said factory.

Also notice how Islamism isn't mentioned in this article? Clearly, the writer didn't have the courage to bring up a challenging subject, did he? It's all reduced to a matter of "race". Nor is there any concern expressed at the choice of giving Baz a mask that looks like what Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists have worn.

Once he proved himself to the League, in “Green Lantern” #15 (by Johns, Manhke, Alamy, Champagne, Irwin and Nguyen), Simon’s sister helped him track down the identity of the man who initially stole the van. He had planned on it exploding under a train, killing hundreds. FBI agent Franklin Fed, however, showed up and was able to recognize that Baz wasn’t part of the terrorist conspiracy. This was just in time for the Third Army to show up, convert the terrorist to its cause, and almost absorb Simon and Fed. The pair managed to escape by blowing up the terrorist’s house using the various explosives on the property. Simon is then visited by Green Lantern B’dg (who happens to look like a squirrel), who enlisted Simon to help take down the Guardians. But first, as a sign of good faith, B’dg showed Baz how to use the Green Lantern ring to help bring his brother-in-law out of his coma, which Simon successfully did before heading off to battle the Third Army and the Guardians.

Also no mention of how the villain who packed the van with explosives was more or less a white supremacist cliche of a character. Pretty lame. The following is whitewashed too:

During this time, Simon also began carrying a firearm, under the theory that he wanted backup if his ring ever failed.

Oh, isn't that clever. After being accused of terrorism and in addition to his car thieving, how does carrying a firearm improve upon his record? Does he even have a license to own a gun in the insulting story? It shouldn't take a genius to point out that what Johns and company brewed up was a load of contempt for Americans and Europeans concerned about Islamic jihad, and how this doesn't exactly make Baz a character to admire, yet CBR plain glosses over everything in favor of PC dialect that's ultimately meaningless. "Theory" doesn't make this sugarcoated dud any better either.

While we're on the subject, they also bring up a Latina character introduced to the GL titles named Jessica Cruz. While adding a co-star of different racial background in itself is fine, the way this particular character's introduction is set up is disturbing:

In “Justice League” #31 (by Johns, Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy and Keith Champagne), we learn that it is not just Jessica’s fear that drew the ring to her, but also her anger. She became a recluse because she was attacked and saw her friends murdered in front of her. As a result, she cut herself off from the world because she was afraid that the men who killed her friends would also kill her. The ring (which is basically an Earth-Three entity also known as Valthoom, though a different Valthoom from the one who was the First Lantern on this Earth) saw in her the perfect tool with which to annihilate Earth. She resisted, but the ring, in effect, forced itself on her.

"Forced" could also describe the story's setup, as seen in the following panels:
Is it just me, or does this look an awful lot like a situation where a woman is being sexually harassed/threatened by a rapist, and fails to ward him off? If so, it only compounds all the sensationalistic writing DC's been foisting into their books for many years, particularly since Johns began writing for them. I don't know if he wrote this story, but it sure looks as loathsome as anything he ever worked on. As if that wasn't bad enough, since this story was published, they've also taken to depicting Baz as a trainer for Cruz, making me wonder why Hal Jordan and John Stewart aren't good enough to serve as coaches for a new recruit to the GLC.

Let's turn back to the Baz character now. More recently, the character was in discussion at a WonderCon panel with writer Sam Humphries, where the following came up:

[...] Humphries talked about Simon Baz, referencing his gun use. He mentioned that at first he didn’t think much of his gun use, but wanted to stop Simon Baz from using guns as a crutch.

What did he mean by that? It's hard to understand. What matters is that a character with a religious background who was created to represent a victimology stance is depicted using a gun that makes his characterization all the more absurd and insulting. And if the gun's a crutch, how come the ascribed religion isn't to his characterization, nor the fact that they're whitewashing everything?

The article also mentions that Johns is returning to comics writing, terribly enough. I've long rejected his work, which sure doesn't age well, and nobody in the right frame of mind should waste time on whatever he's got in store now either. He was a bad omen for comicdom, and there's no chance he's changed since. After all, he's one of the production staff on the TV shows based on DC superheroes, and as one can guess, is no different from many other narrow minded Hollywood types who don't care how much damage they've done to the world of art these days.

Labels: dc comics, Green Lantern, islam and jihad, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, politics, terrorism, violence