I grew up with heroes. Sun Wu Kong, Perseus,\u00a0Thor (the god not the comic book character), Bellerophon, the Eight Immortals, Justice Bao, Heracles, David. The list goes on and on. As I grew older, I found different kinds of heroes: Kusanagi Makoto, Batman, Okumura Rin, the Punisher, Deunun Knute. And, yes, Captain America.<\/p>\n
People need cultural heroes. They want to see the triumph of good over evil, virtue over vice. They want to see the wicked punished and the just rewarded. They want to see brave and resourceful people\u00a0overcome impossible odds. It’s a universal\u00a0trait, seen in every culture around the world.<\/p>\n
People want to believe. They want to be inspired. By reading of heroes doing great things, they can believe that they, too, can achieve great things. When they see heroes smite the wicked, they can believe that they, too, can be agents of righteousness in the world. When they see heroes outwit, outlast or outtalk the enemy, they can believe that they, too, can achieve such greatness.<\/p>\n
Belief in virtue is a powerful thing. From\u00a0such belief we have Martin Luther King Jr., Chiang Kai Shek, George Washington, the Righteous Among the Nations, Sophie Scholl, the Four Chaplains. The everyday unsung heroes.<\/p>\n
Never underestimate the power of belief. Never underestimate the power of stories to inspire greatness.<\/p>\n
And so, with a heavy heart, I read of Nick Spencer perverting\u00a0Captain America, turning him from incorruptible paragon to insidious mole.<\/p>\n
The Triumph of the Message<\/strong><\/p>\n Amidst the Sturm und Drang\u00a0<\/em>over the revelation of Captain America being a Hydra agent, one small detail was almost left out: the Red Skull, the leader of Hydra. Here’s what he <\/a>had to say:<\/p>\n \u201cI have just come from Europe \u2014 my homeland, in fact. And do you know what I saw there? It was an invading army. These so-called \u2018refugees\u2019 \u2014 millions of them \u2014 marching across the continent, bringing their fanatical beliefs and their crime with them,\u201d Captain America\u2019s nemesis says. \u201cThey attack our women, and bomb our cities. And how do our leaders respond? Do they push them back and enforce the borders, as is our sovereign duty? Of course not. They say, \u2018Here, take our food. Take our shelter. Take our way of life, and then take our lives.\u2019 Despicable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour entire culture is under siege,\u201d Red Skull continues to an American audience. \u201cThe principles your country was founded upon lost in the name of \u2018tolerance.\u2019 Your religion, your beliefs, your sense of community \u2014 all tossed aside like trash. And you cannot even speak out against it, lest you be called a bigot!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is the rhetoric of American conservatives, the alt right, and European nationalists. Spencer clearly wants to\u00a0criticise right-wing ideology in his comic. And he isn’t afraid of how much history he has to pervert.<\/p>\n