Is Marvel at war with Donald Trump?
Over the last week Marvel Comics have began to publicly criticised Donald Trump in an unlikely move for the company.
Marvel Comics have a weird relationship with American politics. The problem is, when you have a super hero that literally wears the American flag as their costume it’s almost impossible not to make a political statement. Marvel have been forced to acknowledge this over the years and it’s become quite a common thing to see presidents and presidential candidates appear in the pages alongside the Avengers and the X-Men. In the Ultimates series George Bush made a fantastic appearance supporting Captain America whilst the week after President Obama took office we saw him appear alongside Spider-Man. However, This week Marvel Comics have had one particular political figure on their minds, Donald Trump.
It’s fair to say Donald Trump is an extremely controversial figure in the world of American politics at the moment and, while it looks unlikely he will achieve presidency, his campaign has become one of the most outrageous political events in recent history. It’s no wonder then that Marvel Comics want to come out against the Trump campaign as they pursue a more liberal and inclusive Marvel Universe with the All-New All-Different line up. With Trump, Marvel brought out the big guns, in the last week of comic book releases both Captain America and Spider-man, the futuristic 2099 version, have come out against Trump. It’s worth noting that Trump does have some supporters in the Marvel Universe as well, which I will get to in a minute, but first Captain America.
Captain America Issue One came out last week and represented a landmark for the hero as Sam Wilson, also known as the Falcon, took up the shield making this the first series with a black Captain America lead. In the issue, Sam Wilson was besieged by the public as he attempted to point out several things wrong with American society. This political criticism then reached a climax as Wilson flew down to the Mexican border to aid a group of immigrants who were under attack by the Sons Of The Serpent, a racial hate group. The Sons Of The Serpent reveal themselves to be Trump supporters, proclaiming loudly that they cannot wait for the ‘glorious wall’ between Mexico and America. Captain America then proceeds to give the Sons Of The Serpent a good thrashing before saving the immigrants.
The Trump reference in Spider Man 2099 was a little more on the nose as the main character, Miguel O’Hara declares that he’s worried about Trump. This marks a new decision from Marvel Comics as they have evolved from political reference, such as including Bush and Obama, to political commentary, with Trump. I, personally, like to believe this could herald a new era in which we begin to see Marvel tackle so truly big issues effecting the western world. Who know, years from now we could see Deadpool interviewing the president “Mr. President, how do you feel about chimichangas?”.
