As some of you know, I’m a huge comic book geek.
I don’t read a lot of the modern superhero comics, yet I was interested in Marvel’s ongoing relaunch of the X-Men titles.
The X-Men comics and movies are now owned by the same company – Disney – for the first time in a long time, so the X-Men comicbook relaunch may tell us something about where Disney could take future movies. Exciting, right? I was curious for a glimpse.
The new X-Men #1.
Thus, I picked up “X-Men #1,” published in October, and sat down for a read.
Imagine my surprise when on page 3, the character Storm, who is usually known more for controlling the weather than for hot air, took a moment to whitewash the horror of suicide attacks.
“Suicide bombs and serving the greater good are always the last refuge of a conquered people,” said Storm, while advising Cyclops to be wary of their foes.
Really?
Might Storm (or writer Jonathan Hickman) be talking about Israel, since some on the far left seem to think Israel is a conqueror? Some irony here – given that suicide attacks are actually not always the refuge of a conquered people, we can narrow down who this statement may be aimed at.
The reality is that Iraq, Israel and the territories, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka together accounted for 90% of all suicide attacks between 1981 and 2006, according to a Yale University article. There have been other sources of suicide attacks throughout history, including World War II kamikaze pilots.
Maybe Storm is upset that America was out to conquer Japan?
Sarcasm aside, my point: Suicide attacks are not always the last refuge of a conquered people. They are an infrequently utilized tool and have most recently and infamously been turned to by some radical Muslims with political grievances.
Is it Marvel’s message to the world that suicide attacks are justifiable? If suicide attacks are “always” the last refuge, does that make them ordinary and therefore OK? I mean, everybody does it, right?
This seems yet another example of the multiculturalism run amok that’s taken root today.
I believe President Trump planted this particular acorn, though I don’t think he’s really to blame, at least not directly. Basically, the problem is that the president has driven the far left over the edge of reality.
The president’s anti-Muslim rhetoric has so inflamed the far left that it now seems ready to accept anything that any Muslim does as OK. Suicide bombs? Yes, they’ve happened, admits the far left, but it adds that they Must Not Be A Muslim’s Fault. That’s Israel’s fault, or society’s fault, or a “conqueror’s” fault, or so we’re told.
And this creeps into our national media, including our entertainment.
We need a new framework. How about this? The God we all have in common has given us the wonderous gift of human judgment. He did not give it to the rock or to the ant. He gave to us, to people. I personally believe that with that gift comes an implied expectation of use.
We need to be able to hold three ideas in our minds simultaneously: 1. Most Muslims are good people. 2. Hating all Muslims is bad. 3. There is no justification for a suicide bombing.
I think it’s fair to expect this of all of us, and that includes even my beloved Marvel Comics.
Rob Golub is editor of the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle.
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