Captain America Goes to a Tea Party

In Captain America 602, Cap and the Falcon pursue the evil, intolerant, right-wing group the Watchdogs to that hotbed of subversion, Idaho. While there, they find the streets full of Tea Party protesters. The Falcon (who is black) says, “So I guess this whole ‘hate the government’ vibe around here isn’t limited to the Watchdogs.” and “I don’t exactly see a black man from Harlem fitting in with a bunch of angry white folks." See it for yourself here.

Marvel's Editor in Chief, Joe Quesada, apologized for the protest signs that clearly identified the protesters as Tea Party members. He explained that it was a last minute addition. Someone realized that some of the signs were blank and had a letterer fill them in quickly. He stressed that the letterer is apolitical and didn't realize how it would be taken.

That's fine as far as it goes but it completely misses a couple of other points. Since the Tea Party began last year, the left has characterized it as being a racist reaction to a black president. So what did Marvel do? They sent Captain America after some racists and he finds the streets of fly-over country full of anti-government, angry whites (at least they threw some women in). This comes across as an affirmation of everything bad the left has said about the Tea Party and Quesada didn't even realize it. Making the protest more generic would not remove the message that "red" states are full of angry white bigots.

I hate it when a general medium starts preaching or being judgmental, especially when they use someone like Captain America to do it. Steve Englehart did the same thing during Watergate. A master villain turned out to be Nixon (it was only implied but there was no doubt). After being revealed, he ran into the White House and killed himself. Steve Rogers gave up being Captain America for some time after that. It was a poor storyline.

After the Iran/Contra scandal, some operatives in the basement of the White House tried to force Captain America to take his orders. Steve Rogers refused and stopped being Captain America again. This plot was more balanced. Rogers got to be Cap again after President Reagan stumbled on the operation and ordered them to end it.