This has happened before. The X-Men were ostensibly about racism, but really more about anti-Semitism (notice the Nazi Germany allusions and parallels.)

OTOH, Batman as a crimefighting vigilante is arguably right-wing.

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I agree, the X-Men had a long tradition of speaking out obliquley against racism and discrimination. If you were different in any way and read comics, you probably loved the book.

Batman is more complicated. Frank Miller seems a rabid right-winger in the first Dark Night series, though i would argue the point. But he also displays a different side in the series Ronin which dates from the same period. And the Daredevil he worked on also displays flashes of left-wing/progressive thinking. (Daredevil lives in Hell's Kitchen and is a fundamentally working-class guy despite his moving up in the system).

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Okay, my tranformation to a llberal guy can't be solely pinned on a single factor, but comics definitely played a major role.

I was raised in an ultra-conservative, Republican family. But I discovered comics on Saturday mornings when I had to come down to church for confirmation classes. Afterwards I went to the corner drug store and picked up some comics.

In college I still read comics and that's what I would argue was the Golden Age of the medium when people like Frank Miller and Moore and others were really stretching the genre as a "serious" art form.

I came to college a Republican and graduated, four years later an avid liberal. I can trace a lot of my current views to insights I got from reading Frank Miller's stint with Daredevil as well as things like The Watchmen and Ronin.

I don't think any art form can make you think one way or another, but they can give a deeper insight into circumstances outside your own that can help you reach a deeper understanding of issues.

It's in that sense that I welcome this new Marvel series. I think right-wingers will probably be able to find characters to identify with but so will sane people.

I think anyone who is open to really expanding their understanding of the issues of security versus liberty, etc. will come to a more enlightened view -- and one that I think would be more palatable to freedom-loving patriots like us liberals ;-)

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I think it'd be awesome if Captain America kicked George Bush's ass in one of the comics.

Just a thought.

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I love that things I go out of my way to keep track of, comic books in this case, are represented on this site. And I am one to definetly preach the relevancy of comic books.

Oh and in response to the comment above about the politics of DKR, I think Frank Miller's politics are quite evident in the comic. I think that all of his comparisons and allusions were purposeful, as Miller in interviews and historically is a very political person, who is not afraid to make bold political statements in his comics : Thus the upcoming Batman/Al quaeda project. (which i am terrified to read, because the interviews about the project I have read have been very reactionary and a tad militaristic, borderline facist. (but what do you get from a guy that wrote one of the most facist batman stories of all time. his batman was somewhat of a sociopath.)

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