Tag Archives: george bush

George W. Bush Defines His Own Legacy In New Comic Biography

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BUSHGEORGE W. BUSH DEFINES HIS OWN LEGACY IN NEW COMIC BIOGRAPHY

Former President George W. Bush will define his own legacy in his own words as the featured subject of an upcoming issue of Bluewater Productions’ Political Power biography comic series.

Political Power: George W. Bush, scheduled for release in December, recaps the eight years of the Bush administration using excerpts from Bush’s speeches, interviews and public appearances, his autobiography and other sources.

Considered by many to be among the United States’ most divisive presidents, Bush’s reign in the White House was riddled with controversy from the start. From questions of the legitimacy of his 2000 election, to his inflexible stance on the ‘war on terror,” his administration’s definitions of torture and freedom, responses to domestic crises like Hurricane Katrina, and the declining economy, this issue lets Bush’s own words frame his story.

“People have strong feelings about Bush.  He’s both vilified and hailed,” said Bluewater president, “So we thought the best way to present a fair approach to his story, was to let the man himself tell it.  No editorializing.  We will let readers draw their own conclusions.”

The issue, written and drawn by Joshua LaBello, examines Bush’s entire life story, but the crux of the issue centers around his years in the presidency.

LaBello added, “This book is not for the supporters of George W. Bush.  Nor is it for those critical of him.  It is a documentary of Bush’s time in office for the benefit of future generations.  I want my children to read this book, see what happened during those two terms, and form their own opinions, for in the words of President George W. Bush, “history will judge.”

The comic book series, which launched in July with features on Presidents Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan, former-Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Senator Ted Kennedy.

Like its sister title Female Force, Political Power strives to tell even-handed stories of the individuals responsible for shaping our way of life,” Davis added.

George W. Bush Gets a Comic

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Coming in December from Bluewater Productions:


BUSH Political Power: Geroge Bush “In His Words”
Writer: Joshua LaBello
Pencils: Joshua LaBello
Cover Artist(s): Joshua LaBello


Born into a life of privilege, George W. Bush lived in the shadow of his father’s political career until finally joining the race himself.  In a Presidency riddled by controversy from the start,  George W. Bush’s reign was full of terrorist attacks and crashing economies and declaration of war.  Don’t miss this revealing look at the most controversial U.S. president in history as he recaps his two terms in his own words.

Choice Quotes

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DMZ #44

Cult Leader – The question is, do you think it can come back?  Do you think it can ever be the same again?

Tony – … probably not.

Cult Leader – I think you’re right.  I think whatever happens, whenever it happens, this city’ll be another Mogadishu, another Monrovia, another Port-Au-Prince.

Tony – That’s harsh.

Cult Leader – The sun is setting on America.  We’re just another failed state, our major cities turned into ghettos.

Fables #87

Bigby – There was no big threat.  No secret, evil group of all-powerful liberals.

Snow – Literals.

Bigby – Right.  Literals.

Green Lantern Corps. #39

Senator Diro – We now have powers — powers to protect ourselves from aliens — all aliens.  We want you and your ring off our world.

Arisia – Get your hands off me — you racist bastard.

Uncanny X-Men #514

Emma Frost – This is was, you cretins– and you’re either with us of against us.  Make up your minds and get out of the way.

Grant Morrison on Bush, Blair, and Obama

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IGN this week sat down with writer Grant Morrison to discuss DC Comics’ Final Crisis.  I couldn’t help but notice in issue #7 there was a distinct look and feel to the black President/Superman, guess I wasn’t that far off:

IGN Comics: How about the African American Superman/President in Final Crisis #7? It seems like you’re having some fun with the idea of Barack Obama as this conglomeration of hero, leader and celebrity.

Morrison: Completely. What I was thinking, because I wrote that obviously last year, was that Obama was getting in in February, and I realized this comic would be out right around that time. I knew it was going to happen. And so Final Crisis #7 has Darkseid defeated, and the good guys have won and everything is bright and optimistic again, I knew that the feeling in America was going to be the same. When Final Crisis started, I wanted to talk about the kind of crushing horror of the George Bush/Tony Blair axis we all had to live through. Final Crisis was my fictional diary of how it felt to live through the early years of the 21st century.

By the end of that, there’s this wind-of-change feeling that Obama brings to America and by extension everyone else – as to whether things actually change, we’ll see. I wanted to open Final Crisis #7 with that feeling that the weather had changed. And it’s the DC Universe, where anything can happen so here’s a black President Superman and we’re off! I think this guy’s a little better looking than Obama, though. I mean, Obama’s a fine-looking fella, but I don’t think he could fill out that Superman suit. [laughs] This guy is more Muhammad Ali. So we have him, and we also have Beyonce as Wonder Woman. That’s Beyonce at the microphone. [laughs]

Choice Quotes

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Big Hero Six #1

In the history of the world, only one nation has ever suffered a direct nuclear attack — the island monarchy of Japan.  The attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War 2 inflicted scars on the national memory that last to this day.  Like any nation, Japan needs to defend itself, but unlike the other great powers, it has forsworn the use of nuclear weapons.  They’ve found another way.

Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #3

Some gender politics:

Leave my fiancee alone.  Do you hear me?!  And I am not a tramp you chauvinistic $*@!!

And, is this an Obama reference?

To not believe in you, the savior, the uniter… is to not believe in hope.  I choose to believe in hope.

Ex-Machina #38

The Great Machine – Effective immediately, I am retiring from volunteer community crimefighting.  And running as your independent candidate for Mayor of the great city of New York.  I’m hoping to be part of a truly grassroots campaign, one that will finally utilize the internet’s true potential to reach all voters.  Starting today, contributions as small as one dollar can be made directly to my new website at http://www.hundred4mayor.net.  That’s the word hundred and the number four, so please don’t–

And on speaking to the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City:

Deputy Mayor – You’ve officially lost your mind.  You’re really going to deliver a speech from the same stage where the worst President in my lifetime is about to ask this country to give him another shot?

Mayor Hundred – I’m just being a good host, Dave.  Now which one of my stupid old “trophies” do you think I should present to the Vice President tomorrow?

Deputy Mayor – You’re letting Cheney inside Gracie Mansion?

Mayor Hundred – Believe it or not, New York doesn’t belong to the Democrats.

Deputy Mayor – And 9/11 doesn’t belong to the Republicans, no matter what the out-of-towners they’re busing into Madison Square Garden think.  Are you at least going to tell these people to start allocating more antiterrorism funds to the cities that actually need it?

And on Mayor Hundred running for Governor:

Deputy Mayor – You mean… you’re thinking about running for Governor?  Because, no offense, once that seat opens, everyone knows it’s going to Spitzer, unless somebody catches Mr. Clean in bed with a dead girl or a live boy.

X-Men: Magneto Testament #1

From the writer Greg Pak

In the three years editor Warren Simons and I have been developing “Magneto: Testament,” we’ve struggled with the complicated, rich, and contradictory information the comics give us about Magneto’s life during the Nazi rise to power and World War II.  Different comics give different accounts of Magneto’s name, his age, his ethnicity and religion, his hair color, and even his Auschwitz tattoo number.  But as dedicated Magneto fans have documented, the most compelling and essential material indicates that Magneto was a Jewish boy in Europe during the Nazi ascendancy and provides several key details about the fate of his family and his experiences in Auschwitz.

We’ve done our best to remain true to these elements while fleshing out the rest of our hero’s experiences based on research into the actual historical record.  Longtime readers will notice a wealth of surprising new details — for example, for the firs time, we’re revealing Magneto’s birth name.  And sometimes, because the comics record is contradictory or conflicts with historical fact, we’ve had to choose one detail over another.  But at every step, we’ve done our best to remain true to the key moments that have contributed so much towards making Magneto the deeply compelling character we know today.

But most importantly, in an age in which Holocaust deniers still spread their lies, we’ve done our best to ensure that the real-world history we explore in the series is entirely accurate and that we deal with this unfathomably harrowing material in a way that’s honest, unflinching, human, and humane.  In later issues, we’ll provide citations and suggestions for future reading.  For now, we offer a thousand thanks to Mark Weitzman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for his expert advice and historical fact-checking.

Secret Invasion a Parable on Iraq?

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We’ll explore this idea further in a more fleshed out post, but the parallels are something I noticed in the latest issue of Secret Invasion.  It seems I’m not the only one.  In a round up of Secret Invasion #6, Wizard Magazine has this exchange with it’s writer Brian Michael Bendis:

Despite the recent drawbacks the Skrull Queen still seems rather confident of their campaign.
BENDIS: They’re still on the winning side of the fight. Obviously, she’s not being stupid about it, but don’t start whining that it’s over because it’s not over. It’s hard. As they said, “We’ve done this before. This is what it feels like.” And I think we can all relate to invading a country taking a long time and having ups and down and debating of whether or not we should have been there in the first place.

That does sound familiar.
BENDIS: Huh? What?

Obama and McCain Both Want to be Batman, What Does that Say About Them?

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The St. Louis Dispatch runs an excellent commentary about about Entertainment Weekly’s recent interview with Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.  In the EW interview both candidates chose Batman as the super hero they’d most like to be.

In it the author Jonathan Keim dissects what makes Batman tick.  He is in fact a vigilante who works outside of the law.  He would be the first to ignore the Constitution and the rights it entails, but also does have a moral code and line of which he won’t cross.  McCain sites Batman’s fight for justice against the odds while Obama mentions his humanness (he also likes Spiderman for the same reason).  Both candidates admire a character for two different reasons.

Is this the comic book hero to admire though?  As mentioned above, he works outside the law in an almost Machiavellian way.  His is the law and enforcement we know exists but choose to ignore until it affects us.  President Bush’s expansion of FISA, and the trampling of our Constitutional rights and due process are the real world equivalent of a masked vigilante.  Both candidates endorse the FISA program.

Is there a better super hero to admire?  One with god like powers who chooses not to abuse them?  One that follows the law?  One who shows human frailties?  Green Lantern might be a better choice, maybe Superman.

My choice would be Captain America, a man who defends his country when needed and questions it when it’s wrong.  A person who served his nation and inspired people not just in comics, but the real world, to serve as well.  And in the comics world, stood up against it’s equivalent of FISA and National ID cards.  Spiderman didn’t even do that.

Maybe the real answer from the candidates required even less thought and was whatever comic book movie was playing in the theater that month….