For readers with certain political beliefs, a scene from last month's "Captain America" #602 wasn't their cup of tea, so-to-speak. In a crowd shot depicting an anti-tax protest, one sign bore the slogan "Tea Bag Libs Before They Tea Bag YOU!" which seemingly linked the group to a real-world political movement rather than a more generic mirror of the real world.

Today in an interview at Comic Book Resources, Marvel Editor In Chief Joe Quesada explained that the signage was not part of writer Ed Brubaker's script and not part of a deliberate editorial decision, but rather a last-minute art correction gone wrong. Apparently the lettering was added to blank signs at the last minute and slogans were pulled from actual protest signs culled from around the Internet.

Quesada responded specifically to an editorial by Warner Todd Houston that ran on PubliusForum that criticized the inclusion for generalizing tea baggers in a negative light. The EIC contended that he stood by the story in its correct 4-issue context, but apologized for the offending signage.

"Where Mr. Houston is correct is in our accidentally identifying in one of the held up signs, the group as being a part of the Tea Party instead of a generic protest group. That's something that we need to apologize for and own up to, because it's just one of those stupid mistakes that happened through a series of stupid incidents."

Quesada also explained via Twitter that the offending lettering was discovered almost immediately and deleted from future use (including trade paperbacks) in the future.

More From ComicsAlliance