Tag Archives: al qaeda

Comics and Batman Inspire Terrorist?

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Convicted terrorist Tarek Mehanna was sentenced to 17 and a half years in prison on Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge George A. O’Toole.  The Massachusettes resident claimed in his statement during his sentencing that the values that lead and inspired him to support al-Qaeda came partially from comic books and specifically Batman.

Mehanna was convicted of seven counts, three for providing false statements to the FBI, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and conspiracy to provide support to al-Qaeda.  Mehanna translated numerous al-Qaeda documents into English and posted them online.

From his statement before the court:

When I was six, I began putting together a massive collection of comic books. Batman implanted a concept in my mind, introduced me to a paradigm as to how the world is set up: that there are oppressors, there are the oppressed, and there are those who step up to defend the oppressed.

I’m sure Frank Miller is cringing at this one.

The Fixer vs. Al Qaeda

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Frank MillerFrank Miller is finishing his next graphic novel, Holy Terror.  The story follows a new character The Fixer as he takes on Al Qaeda.  The story was originally conceived in the wake of 9-11 and was to star Batman.  Miller decided he’d taken Batman as far as he could and instead decided a new character should take the lead.

The Fixer is a special ops adventurer who takes off after Al Qaeda after an attack on his city, the fictional Empire City, which resembles New York.

The story is almost complete and Miller will then seek a publisher.

Choice Quotes

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Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #1

Vision – They call themselves the Sons of the Serpent — a paramilitary sect devoted to maintaining racial and moral purity.

Patriot – They’re white supremacists.

Hawkeye – To be fair, they also hate gays and lesbians.

Patriot – And uppity women apparently.

and

Random bad guy – “As the serpent drove Adam and Eve from Eden… so shall we drive out the unfit — the inferior!”

Hulkling – You’re actually using the Bible to justify murder?

Random bad guy – What would you know about the Bible sodomite?

Brightest Day #5

Aquaman – They said it’d take weeks to find something that could withstand pressures at 5,000 feet so they could fix this leak.  But they didn’t count on us, Mera.

Mera – The owners of this rig might be begging someone to clean up their reckless mess, but they won’t like our shutting down all their wells.

Aquaman – Too bad.  They’re done drilling offshore.  This fuel has done more damage than good to the world.  It’s perpetuated war, greed and corruption.

Sparta U.S.A. #5

Narrator – Here in Sparta, we love our homes.  “A Spartan’s home is his castle.”  The great Ronald Reagan said that.  If I’m remembering my American Patriots class right.  Folks around here’d die defending their homes.

X-Men #1

Wolverine – Hell.  Just when things were looking up.  Al Qaeda in San Francisco.

Young Allies #2

Reed Richards – … it would have been impossible to stop him from instantly committing a terroristic act of suicide.

and

Singularity – Personally, I’m appalled.  I thought we were supposed to be more sophisticated than those savages across the ocean from us.

Marvel’s Secret Invasion and the Middle East

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With use of words like jihad and schism between the Skrulls in their religious beliefs it has been clear Marvel’s Secret Invasion cross over has drawn inspiration from Islam and the current war on terror with Al-Qaeda.  Wizard Magazine has an article with Brian Michael Bendis on the latest issue of Secret Invasion #7 and Bendis touches on this point:

And as a final beat, we see Jarvis turning into the Skrull with the baby.
BENDIS: Now we’re getting that little bit of dialogue from Jarvis that sets up something that’s been beaten into our head in America. Why can’t we win the Middle East? Why can’t we reach them? And they always say it’s because we don’t think like them. We just don’t get it. There’s another thought process going on here that’s so foreign to us. That’s fascinating to me. So, not to say I’m making a statement about the Middle East peace process, but I am fascinated that there’d be such a cultural divide that the war cannot be won.

So, I kind of applied it here a little bit. And we also get the Jarvis turning into a Skrull face with the baby. And now I can say that the baby was a big red herring. We literally at one point had the baby’s green eyes staring at the reader in New Avengers. That was never the case, but for the purpose of the story it made you doubt everyone and everything. Even the baby could have been a Skrull. And I will now admit that I laughed when I saw the way Leinil drew the baby turning and looking at the camera. When I saw it drawn, it was so f–king hilarious to me. It’s like the end of “the Omen.” [hums “Omen” theme] I was just on the floor. It just felt so over-the-top.

Once the series has concluded we’ll be covering a longer entry looking at these parallels and what the writers are saying about the current state of global politics.

Choice Quotes

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A very light week for quotes.  There is one thing that consistently crossed my mind reading all of Marvel’s Secret Invasion tie-ins this week.  I couldn’t help but notice similarities between the motivation of the Skrulls and a certain real world religion.

Secret Invasion: X-Men #1

This is Holy war we’ve embarked on.  A crusade.  Only the very best — The bravest, the strongest, the most radiant in virtue — are fit to fight in a crusade.

To break it down more the Skrulls seem to be split into two factions who don’t get along and one is much more extreme and on a quest to liberate humanity from the oppression it views the super human community brings it.

Invading Skrulls = Al Qaeda?

Super Humans = the West/U.S.?

Hmmm….