This Magazine Kills Fascists

Secret Wars by Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic and Ive Svorcina is about as fantastical and traditionally superheroic a story as we're likely to cover in this column. However, when you break it apart and look at the pieces, there's a certain parallel to the state of the world as it stands today that's interesting to note, and it reminds us that men with the most power are usually the sorest losers, even when they think they've won.

Greg Rucka, Michael Lark and Santi Arcas' Lazarus is a dystopian possible future where corporations have replaced countries, and a small number of a families have all of the power. While the series is decidedly science fiction, there's a grounding in reality and our own world's potential for catastrophe that makes Lazarus one of the scariest comics on the stands.

This week, like a lot of people, we're in the mood to punch some Nazis and see some Nazis get punched, and there's no better comic on the stands for that than DC Comics: Bombshells, which takes the iconic heroines of the DC Universe and recasts them as World War II resistance fighters. The great thing about Bombshells is that it doesn't just extol the virtues of smacking a Nazi upside the face with a baseball bat; it reminds us there's more than one way to fight back.

This Magazine Kills Fascists looks at times that comic books and superheroes have dealt with tyrannical, corrupt and outright fascist world leaders — not because we think we can find a solution, but because art can provide inspiration in the face of oppression. Today, for absolutely no reason at all, we're going to talk about the time a violent and unqualified businessman was raised up to a position of global importance and how he used it to give his unqualified criminal friends jobs, swindle America and was ultimately brought down by his own fragile ego. Like I said... no reason at all.

In the 2016 Marvel mini-series Vote Loki, readers see what happens when a strong personality with no real beliefs outside of their own narcissism runs for the highest office in the land, and how easily a large portion of the voting public can be swayed into voting for someone based on buzzwords and a perceived common bond.

This Magazine Kills Fascists looks at times that comic books and superheroes have dealt with tyrannical, corrupt and outright fascist world leaders — not because we think we can find a solution, but because art can provide inspiration in the face of oppression. So far, this feature has focused on big villains, big world-altering plans, and how they reflect what's going on in the world today, but this week we're going to talk about a superhero comic being published right now that takes a stand against all that from a ground level. The current Green Arrow series, relaunched as part of DC Rebirth, is a rare superhero comic that challenges authority and addresses real world concerns of corruption, violence, and the exploitation of citizens by the moneyed elite.

This week, we’re journeying to the Fourth World to talk about Jack Kirby’s The Forever People #3, which sees radical extremist Glorious Godfrey preaching the good word of Anti-Life, and helping the brainwashed masses justify their hatred, all in service of Darkseid.

One of the best things about the holiday season is how packed with wonderful and positive messages it is. It’s a time to be a little bit kinder, a little bit more understanding; a time to come together with friends, family and loved ones and celebrate the best in life. Also, as shown in Grant Morrison and Dan Mora’s Klaus, it’s a time to stand-up to oppression through carefully planned civil disobedience.

This Magazine Kills Fascists looks at times that comic books and superheroes have dealt with tyrannical, corrupt and outright fascist world leaders — not because we think we can find a solution, but because art can provide inspiration in the face of oppression. This week we’re looking at a Captain America story that serves up corporate corruption, Russian meddling in US elections, and out-and-out Nazis, in one unsavory package.

This week we’re going back to 1976 to talk about The Panther vs The Klan from Don McGregor and Billy Graham’s Jungle Action. Over the course of a three issue storyline, Black Panther got a firsthand look at institutionalized racism in the American South. Too the eyes of the contemporary reader, it's clear that things haven’t changed as much as we might have hoped over the past forty years.