Comic Book Crime: Truth, Justice, and the American Way

3. The World Is Shifting: Terrorism, Xenophobia, and Comic Books after 9/11

40 3 THE WORLD IS SHIFTING TERRORISM, XENOPHOBIA, AND COMIC BOOKS AFTER 9/11 The post-9/11 age of comics is devastatingly crystallized in the graphic novel Shooting War, which is deeply informed by real-life events on the ground, as well as by the ways in which digital technology and blog journalism have transformed the coverage of world events. Rogue journalist Jimmy Burns blows open the story on American military war crimes through the release of his video clip of a lieutenant executing an elderly Iraqi. The video shows a woman in traditional Iraqi garb being shot in the head at close range, her blood splattering, and framed by the familiar YouTube tool bar and logo. Shooting War is one of many graphic novels that explicitly tackled the events of 9/11, challenging our ideas about heroism, the concept of evil, and responses to criminal threats such as terrorism. Though comic book narratives were saturated with crime-and-justice themes before the attacks, this chapter illustrates the unique ways in which post-9/11 comic books deal with threats of terrorism as a signpost of the age. Terrorism fits comfortably within the prototypical comic book plot formula. This is not the first time comic book writers have modeled their storylines on wartime hardships as they unfolded in real life. During World War II, for example, Superman valiantly fought crime alongside patriotic Americans . Yet there are distinct differences to be found in the ways in which comic book writers after 9/11 shaped their plots. For example, how in the The World Is Shifting 41 Many post-9/11 comic books explicitly feature the global war on terror. Here, a YouTube video shows an American soldier shooting an Iraqi woman at close range in Shooting War, a post-9/11 graphic novel. (Shooting War, Anthony Lappé and Dan Goldman, Grand Central Publishing, 2007) aftermath of 9/11, the comic book industry began to rethink the relevance of comic book superheroes, often portraying the characters as deferring to the real-life heroism of police officers and firefighters. In contrast to the unwavering patriotic fervor found in comic books during World War II, comic books in the post-9/11 era are more varied in their political leanings. They are, at times, reactionary and jingoistic, while at other times they are not afraid to address the perceived controversial tactics employed by thenpresident George W. Bush and his administration during the so-called war on terror. We contend that these comic books resonate in a political climate polarized by ideology and are important cultural expressions of an American society caught off guard and struggling to make sense of an uncertain future. The events of 9/11 also created an opening for mainstream comic books to experiment with weaving into their plots Muslim and Arab heroes. We consider how the Arab and Muslim world began constructing its own mass-marketed comic book heroes. Although it is too early to entirely assess the era’s impact, it appears that the post-9/11 age in comic books is a bipolar moment of both reactionary formulas and new, 9/11-related innovations in storylines and characters. Notable post-9/11 innovations include Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon’s 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation. This book represents the first time an The World Is Shifting 42 actual government report—in this case the report by Thomas Kean’s 9/11 Commission—was recreated in graphic novel style, allowing Americans to engage in a more readable version of the results of the extensive investigation into the causes of the attacks. As Kean explained in the preface, the commission “hope[s] that this graphic version will encourage our fellow citizens to study, reflect—and act.”1 The hope that readers would engage in a public discourse about 9/11 in response to a graphic novel shows how the medium had become respected enough to carry important, nonfictional, government-generated information. It also suggests that the meaning of this comic, or any other, rests in the ways in which the text is used. Several college courses incorporated it, including a graduate class in policy analysis at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and an English class called “Literature and Culture after 9/11” taught by James Mulholland at Wheaton College . In online discussion forums, the graphic novel received mixed reviews as to whether a graphic version...