Oh Beautiful, for Super Skies

April 11, 2011 5:29 PM

With Marvel Comics hinting that Black Panther will become "American Panther", a typical storm of controversy and speculation has occurred over the supposed Americanization of an African character. The artists over at The Temple of Cartoon Mojo on the other hand, wondered what would happen if MORE iconic characters were made patriotic. The results range from the silly, to the utterly awesome.
posted by happyroach (79 comments total)

American Goblin is awesome.
Racial issues aside, Black Panther's normal costume is awesome and iconic. the new one looks like something The Comedian would wear while committing war crimes
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 5:35 PM on April 11, 2011 [13 favorites]

Yeah, the American Panther looks like a vigilante that's been to too many gun shows.

Although who knows, that could be the actual backstory.
posted by GuyZero at 5:37 PM on April 11, 2011

I think I would pay money to see American Goblin made reality. Keith Giffin or Evan Dorkin, or Arcudi/Mahnke could probably create a book with suitable gravitas.
posted by lekvar at 5:38 PM on April 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Neither an Aquamerican nor a Namor, The Submerican in sight. Our country is safe for now.

I think I would pay money to see American Goblin made reality.

That was an easy favorite, yeah. American Hornet has a certain grotesque charm as well.
posted by cortex at 5:46 PM on April 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

American Hornet is the Uncle Sam reboot I would want to see.
posted by KingEdRa at 5:50 PM on April 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

I thought Guy Gardner already was the American Lantern.
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:50 PM on April 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

American Goblin is now my Facebook profile pic (with attribution and a link back to the blog, of course).

Chris Sims did a post ages ago about the whitewashing of DC's black legacy characters that might be relevant
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 5:51 PM on April 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

No love for an American Skull movie, where he protects us from Captain Europe and the imminent peril of socialized medicine?
posted by happyroach at 5:53 PM on April 11, 2011 [9 favorites]

You could do a Wonder Woman costume that looks like the American fl...oh. Nevermind.
posted by straight at 6:20 PM on April 11, 2011

This looks like something that they're going to do for a few issues, as an homage/crossover with Captain America kinda thing and hope for extra sales due to the excitement/controversy/ironic appeal, and then take things right back to the way they were.
posted by dirtylittlecity at 6:26 PM on April 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Damn, that American Panther outfit is just awful.

So. Marvel first ruined Daredevil with the whole bloated and incomprehensible "Shadowland" arc, shuffled a de-powered T'Challa over to take his place in Hell's Kitchen while Matt Murdock heads out west for no goddamn good reason, and now they're going to further fuck up Black Panther, perhaps the most iconic Marvel hero after Spider-Man and Captain America.

Fuck you, Marvel.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 6:33 PM on April 11, 2011 [9 favorites]

... and by "Fuck you, Marvel," I mean, "I'm dropping all Daredevil and Black Panther comics from my pull list and you just lost my money."
posted by BitterOldPunk at 6:35 PM on April 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Are Black Panther and Storm still married, or did that get forgotten/retconned?
posted by COBRA! at 6:37 PM on April 11, 2011

Cannot favorite BitterOldPunk's comments enough.
posted by josher71 at 6:42 PM on April 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Maybe black ops panther .. that would be very American (in a covert sort of way)
posted by sandiegoguides at 6:43 PM on April 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I was really hoping for Americtus.
posted by darksasami at 6:55 PM on April 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Are Black Panther and Storm still married, or did that get forgotten/retconned?

Ugh. I'd be ok if that wasn't there, because that was some pretty tokenizing stuff. ("Hey, the black characters must date each other!"). I mean, Storm + Forge was the hotness.
posted by yeloson at 6:56 PM on April 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Lame.

and now they're going to further fuck up Black Panther, perhaps the most iconic Marvel hero after Spider-Man and Captain America.

Really? I was a big marvel fan as a kid and actually I'd never really heard of this guy. (So probably I shouldn't complain). I would think Wolverine is probably more iconic, probably right up there with spider man.

Anyway, now that Marvel is owned by Disney it's no surprise they're fucking it up.
posted by delmoi at 7:00 PM on April 11, 2011

In the next cross company crossover he's going to become Steel Panther
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 7:01 PM on April 11, 2011

Hey, the black characters must date each other!

This always bugs/upsets me. In all pop. media, so often non-caucasian character are only ever paired with someone of the same race, or when and interracial paring occurs, a hugh deal is made out of it. It's like the media is running about 40 years behind meatspace social development.

It's only pretty recently that I've seen interracial parings on TV without it being remarked upon as a big deal. For example, that wheelchair kid and the asian goth girl on Glee (although she later pairs up with the kid initially known as, I'm not kidding, 'Other Asian'). Even so, when I see an interracial couple portrayed in pop. media, and the story doesn't make a big deal about it, it still comes as a (nice) surprise.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 7:04 PM on April 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

American Hornet is the Uncle Sam reboot I would want to see.

Do you mean to say that there is an actual superhero called 'Uncle Sam'? That wears the outfit from the "WE WANT YOU..." poster?

Seriously? What's his superpower?
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 7:06 PM on April 11, 2011

oh god AMERICAN SKULL *giggle*
posted by egypturnash at 7:19 PM on April 11, 2011

Uncle Sam's powers are proportionate to the country's faith in the ideals of liberty and freedom.

Looks like he was created by Will Eisner
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 7:21 PM on April 11, 2011

They really needed to gild the lily and just give the Americanization treatment to Captain America. So that every star on his uniform would be a sierpinski gasket of stars, every stripe a multitude of stripes, and hovering over him at all times a neon sign blistering eyeballs with the text AMERICA FUCK YEAH to blind evildoing non-Americans with its Americanly Americanness.
posted by adamrice at 7:29 PM on April 11, 2011 [7 favorites]

I would pay cash money to see an American Skull movie where he battles socialized medicine. And I am a cheap, cheap man.
posted by the dief at 7:33 PM on April 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

I'm sure this is just as permanent as Spider-Man's black costume and Superman's death (and every other dumbass, cringe inducing, character remix). Captain America has not been Steve Rogers for a while but, he's coming back soon. This is what happens when all of your characters are 30 to 70 years old and your most rabid fanbase would like nothing more than to keep reading those exact same characters, you have to figure out a way to mix things up without taking the players off the board or adding any new ones. Hopefully, this story arc will not involve upending the Marvel universe for a whole year and tying together every plot line in every book, sucking the life out them for the whole time. Marketing scams masquerading as plot lines is what readers should complain about (well, that and any sign of a comeback from Rob Liefeld).
posted by doctor_negative at 7:36 PM on April 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't understand why anyone cares about this. If this development sucks (and it's not a stunt that's intended to be short-lived anyway), it'll be reversed before long. Nothing is permanent in mainstream superhero comics. Read the stuff you like, skip the stuff you don't like, and don't get worked up over the shocking!changes! of the moment. It's all fanfic anyhow, y'know. Lee and Kirby created it; everybody else's just visiting.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:37 PM on April 11, 2011

In vaguely related news, I watched that new japanese anime version of X-men and while it's pretty atrocious stuff, they somehow managed to make Storm even hotter.
posted by nightchrome at 7:41 PM on April 11, 2011

Do you mean to say that there is an actual superhero called 'Uncle Sam'? That wears the outfit from the "WE WANT YOU..." poster?

The comics Uncle Sam was originally a Golden Age character who now resides in one of the DC Universe's parallel Earths with other characters of his era. He isn't so much a traditional costumed superhero as the actual personification of America. There was also an excellent Vertigo graphic novel by Steve Darnall and Alex Ross a few years back where Uncle Sam took a trip into the uglier side of US history, and battled his darker half for the soul of America.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:42 PM on April 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm sure this is just as permanent as Spider-Man's black costume and Superman's death (and every other dumbass, cringe inducing, character remix).

Jesus, Mom, Spider-Man's black costume was easily the greatest Spider-Man story arc, and lasted a year, to boot.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:45 PM on April 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

This phenomenon ought to go both ways.
posted by boo_radley at 7:48 PM on April 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

"Hey, the black characters must date each other!"

FWIW, Luke Cage is married to Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist is dating Misty Knight. And there's very little "LET US DISCUSS THE TRYING CIRCUMSTANCES OF OUR BOLD INTERRACIAL LOVE" dialogue going on, which is nice.

And yeah, delmoi, I excluded Wolverine, because I don't follow the X-books or any of the myriad Wolvie solo books, but I'd argue that while Wolvie may be more popular, Black Panther is the more iconic character, being the first black mainstream superhero.

Or maybe it's just me. When we'd play superheroes as little kids, I'd always want to be Black Panther. Cuz Superman is dorky, Spider-Man's a whiner, Captain America was Not Cool, and, um, Green Lantern was usually already taken....
posted by BitterOldPunk at 7:57 PM on April 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

didn't it, for a bit?
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 7:57 PM on April 11, 2011

i'm just surprised he's kept the name for so long. pretty brave of Marvel
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 7:57 PM on April 11, 2011

This phenomenon ought to go both ways.

Marvel has a black Captain America knock-off, complete with old-skool shield, named Patriot.

His superpower is lameness.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 8:02 PM on April 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

American Panther looks like batman in patriotic neoprene.
posted by clavdivs at 8:34 PM on April 11, 2011

Do you mean to say that there is an actual superhero called 'Uncle Sam'? That wears the outfit from the "WE WANT YOU..." poster?

Seriously? What's his superpower?

Being Awesome. Except when he's not.
posted by KingEdRa at 8:36 PM on April 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

American Hornet is the Uncle Sam reboot I would want to see.

I can only see this as a musical, with Lenny Kravitz singing:
American Hornet stay away from me /
American Hornet, hero let me be
posted by happyroach at 8:41 PM on April 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Religious Affiliation of Comic Book Character T'Challa Black Panther of the Fantastic Four.
posted by clavdivs at 8:41 PM on April 11, 2011

oh god AMERICAN SKULL *giggle*

*cough*

I'm sitting right here.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:43 PM on April 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Also:

T'CHALLA BOMAYE!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:48 PM on April 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Re Uncle Sam: Thanks guys. This has been enlightening.

I can't imagine Uncle Sam doing anything without "Yankee Doodle" playing in the background. And that would make a really bad soundtrack for epic battles.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 9:05 PM on April 11, 2011

What, no Extra-American Captain America?
posted by No-sword at 9:06 PM on April 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also, am I missing something? Given that no story details are available, this looks basically equivalent to one of those fake-out covers that are, like, Superman holding a hamster and thinking "Oh, no! Lois has become a hamster... forever! And it's all my fault!"

Isn't it more likely that Black Panther teams up officially with the US for a while, for some reason, but then that crisis passes and everything goes back to normal? After an inspiring speech about the ideals of America being super-cool but re-corrupted in every age by fallible humans etc., of course.
posted by No-sword at 9:11 PM on April 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Isn't Black Panther supposed to be the sovereign of a foreign country? Coming soon, Elizabeth II, American Queen!


no Extra-American Captain America?

They could go the other way with it -- Captain White? (I don't want to know what symbol he has on his shield)
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 9:19 PM on April 11, 2011

"Hey, the black characters must date each other!"

FWIW, Luke Cage is married to Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist is dating Misty Knight. And there's very little "LET US DISCUSS THE TRYING CIRCUMSTANCES OF OUR BOLD INTERRACIAL LOVE" dialogue going on, which is nice.

And the Falcon has a falcon. I mean, I just assumed...
posted by doctor_negative at 9:21 PM on April 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

This phenomenon ought to go both ways.

It does. That "Black Cap" is a reference to Isaiah Bradley, I believe. The Patriot BitterOldPunk mentions is that character's grandson.

Also, am I missing something? Given that no story details are available, this looks basically equivalent to one of those fake-out covers that are, like, Superman holding a hamster and thinking "Oh, no! Lois has become a hamster... forever! And it's all my fault!"

No, you're not missing anything, and yeah, that's pretty likely -- given that this is part of the Fear Itself event and the Red Skull has a major role in that, I'd guess that the "American Panther" is the outcome of "What If?" the Skull killed Cap and T'Challla replaced him as the patriotic hero of the US or whatever.

But never underestimate the ability of nerds to freak the fuck out at the slightest provocation.
posted by Amanojaku at 9:30 PM on April 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

I thought Guy Gardner already was the American Lantern.

You know there are entire star-faring cultures beyond NORAD's radar that resent the condescending way some people use the term 2814ian to refer to USAians only, as if there weren't a whole rest of a populated Space Sector out there...
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 9:54 PM on April 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Oh hai Marvel nobody cares about this dumb multi-title crossover event we just want the Alan Moore Miracleman reprint kthanx.
posted by tumid dahlia at 10:00 PM on April 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Yeah, American Skull definatly has some potential. I'm imagining freaky Pattonesque speeches feature strongly in his stories, lots of saving villages by destroying them too.

How comes the addition of some flag material makes Emma Frost suddenly look like Courtney Love?
posted by Artw at 10:08 PM on April 11, 2011

Allow me to duck into a broom closet, change into my Captain Crankypants outfit, and bitch about how this compulsive mashing-up is what passes for innovation at the comics companies these days (aside from giving the likes of Kate Beaton and Colleen Coover a few pages here or there). You've got a month here where everyone's a monkey, a month there where everyone's the Hulk, and there's some upcoming thing where apparently everyone in Manhattan gets spider-powers, including all the Avengers. DC already did the thing where there are now multicolored versions of Green Lantern (admittedly, they've done some cool riffs off some of them, particularly Larfleeze, the Orange Lantern, who wants everything, and I mean everything), and some of the legacy superheroes like Flash and Wonder Woman got to put on rings. Eventually, though, you'll be reduced to everyone having a mermaid tail or dressing up like Power Rangers, and then what?
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:57 PM on April 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Honestly, I smell misdirect. Looks like Fear Itself is going to, at least some extent, involve characters facing deep fears they live with. T'Challa's on a quest-for-identity thing right now, so I can see the prospect of his finding an identity which betrays his heritage being something worth fearing. I thought Marvel was taking a break from these big old crossover whoosiwhatsits for awhile? Is the break over?

Anyhow, this could be a Dark Avengers style identity swipe, a possible fate T'Challa will work against, some time travel situation, something he has to do against his will - it could be any damn thing - there's just this one picture to go by, and it's only a model sheet. There isn't enough information here to actually freak out about. Marvel's pretty expert at hype-building like this. All that's known for sure at the moment though is that someone drew some stars and stripes on the Black Panther.

(For the record, Black Panther: The Man Without Fear has been a tense, interesting crime comic with beautiful art and a really snappy story. I wouldn't mind Daredevil extending his vacation a bit so there can be more T'Challa-in-Hell's-Kitchen stories. He's way less emo than Murdock)
posted by EatTheWeak at 11:08 PM on April 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

(favorite so far)
posted by EatTheWeak at 11:11 PM on April 11, 2011

But never underestimate the ability of nerds to freak the fuck out at the slightest provocation.

Oh come now, if they didn't freak the fuck out at the slightest provocation, they wouldn't be nearly so much fun!
posted by happyroach at 11:32 PM on April 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Looks like Fear Itself is going to, at least some extent, involve characters facing deep fears they live with.

THE AMERICAN FLAG'S ALL OVER ME -- GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 12:30 AM on April 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

Allow me to duck into a broom closet, change into my Captain Crankypants outfit, and bitch about how this compulsive mashing-up is what passes for innovation at the comics companies these days...

Bat-Hulk...angry.
posted by tumid dahlia at 1:34 AM on April 12, 2011

The thing to remember about Bat-Hulk is that Bat-Hulk always smashes.
posted by No-sword at 2:16 AM on April 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

His thoughts were red thoughts: Re Uncle Sam: Thanks guys. This has been enlightening.

Uncle Sam in his President Goddamn America persona is also worth reading.
posted by moonbiter at 2:38 AM on April 12, 2011

Black Panther, perhaps the most iconic Marvel hero after Spider-Man and Captain America

Hmmm, I guess I've been away for a while.

American Skull

I first read that as American Skrull. WTF?

I'll slink quietly back to the '60s now.
posted by DarkForest at 5:39 AM on April 12, 2011

Disnet Exec: "Look guys, I have Will Smith on the phone every other day asking about a Black Panther movie, but nobody knows who he is. You all need to get cracking on making America notice the dude so we can greenlight this thing and make a ton of money..."

Marvel: "Mmmm... Panther... America... Money..."
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:59 AM on April 12, 2011

Allow me to duck into a broom closet, change into my Captain Crankypants outfit, and bitch about how this compulsive mashing-up is what passes for innovation at the comics companies these days...

This isn't what passes for innovation at the comic companies. This is like a theme episode of Glee or American Idol. The innovation's generally found at the smaller companies or side-labels like Vertigo. In the same way that network TV's mostly boring, stale and predictable, and the gems found on HBO, AMC, etc., mainstream comics are mostly boring, stale and predictable.

No one really accuses ABC or CBS of ground-breaking comedies, and no one should mistake the monthly schlock of DC and Marvel's headline titles as ground-breaking either.
posted by explosion at 6:07 AM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

This isn't what passes for innovation at the comic companies.

I'm not going to claim them as pinnacles of innovation, but some of these super-crossovers are really great. The Sinestro Corps War was fantastic. Planet Hulk, and the World War Hulk followup, were pretty great. They just tend to follow up super-events with awful events.
posted by graventy at 6:45 AM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

My wife thinks American Skull is an end-run version of Ollie North. I think she just turned the concept from humor to horror.
posted by happyroach at 8:16 AM on April 12, 2011

Wolverine #159's subtle commentary on Joe Quesada.
posted by mikelieman at 8:21 AM on April 12, 2011

*peeks over newspaper*

Oh, superhero comics are still fucking ridiculous? Well I'm glad that's settled.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 9:01 AM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

lolololol

newspapers
posted by shakespeherian at 9:04 AM on April 12, 2011 [4 favorites]

AMODOK!
posted by battleshipkropotkin at 9:10 AM on April 12, 2011 [2 favorites]

You should try reading newspaper superhero comics some time. Spiderman has spent most of the last several years battling with the forces of Preventing Him From Relaxing In Front Of The TV.
posted by cortex at 9:12 AM on April 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

American Skull could be a post-Cheney/Guantanamo/Homeland Security-era American equivalent of Judge Dredd (a character created in the 1980s by a Spanish emigré and referencing the brutality of Franco's fascist regime, as well as Thatcherism). Of course, critiques of fascism and thuggery often fall flat in comic books, as the majority of readers ignore the subtext and just grab the "he's a total badass who doesn't take prisoners, and wears a kickass uniform" angle.
posted by acb at 9:17 AM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

They could create plenty of new and interesting story arcs without having to change the core nature of the characters so dramatically as to kill them off and replace them with new people or new identities. Things like this are a failure of imagination.

If we, the comic-buying public, weren't so silly as to make lots of noise when these things happen, and if we would drop the titles while these stupid things go on, then there wouldn't be such stupid stunts like killing Superman or Cap, or breaking Batman's back, or retconning one of the coolest relationships in comics.

(I will buy the first issue of Steve coming back as Cap, but only to make the point of approval...)
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:19 AM on April 12, 2011

Black Panther should stay African if only because of the obvious casting choice for the inevitable movie (n.b. Not actually African by birth, but most of his prominent roles have been as Africans, and he nails it physically).

If he is American, who ya gonna cast? 50 Cent? Will Smith? Omar Epps, maybe?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:37 AM on April 12, 2011

I'm going to repeat something I've said in several comics threads:

Christopher Priest's run on Black Panther from '98-'03 is one of my all-time favorite moments in superhero comics, and it's a damn shame that relatively little of it has been reprinted.
posted by Zed at 10:03 AM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Zed is correct in his estimation. That was a great book.
posted by jtron at 10:08 AM on April 12, 2011

explosion, that's true, and even the Big Two still have their moments (many of the scans_daily crew prefer Marvel's all-ages Marvel Adventures comics to the regular "616" continuity*), but the subject at hand is the regular Marvel continuity, and even though I haven't invested much in the way of either time or money in it for many years now, it's still a damn dirty shame, in the manner of a restaurant that you used to hang out at going downhill to the point that you wish they'd just close it up.

acb: see also the Comedian from Watchmen; also, the 616 Red Skull, at one point, inhabited a clone of Steve Rogers' body and was a Washington power broker.

*The habit of numbering different branches of Marvel continuity with different numbers, probably derived from DC Comics' Earth-1 and Earth-2, was started by Alan Moore, very early in his career, in his run on Captain Britain. It's probably not a coincidence that 616 is, in some texts, the Number of the Beast.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:33 PM on April 12, 2011

616: The Area Code of The Beast
posted by KingEdRa at 12:54 PM on April 12, 2011

it's still a damn dirty shame, in the manner of a restaurant that you used to hang out at going downhill to the point that you wish they'd just close it up.

I'm not sure I understand your complaint. Is it "mash-ups" specifically, like Robin is the new Batman while Batman is lost in time and Iron Fist is the new Daredevil, because Matt Murdock is trying to prove he isn't DD, or is it ... schtick? Like, we're being attacked by Skrulls and there are a Skittles rainbow of Lanterns now?

Because the fact that the companies suddenly realize how fluid (read: underdeveloped) most of superhero identities are isn't a bad thing in my book -- only the fanniest of fans would tell you that the most important thing about Green Lantern is Hal Jordan's personality, or that Daredevil's distinctive trait is him being a dude named Matt Murdock.

As for schtick, well, if they're not all apes or being invaded by zombies or whatever, they'd be getting taken to torn warworlds where they get to fight the Beyonder, or the Anti-Monitor, or there are demons attacking the city, or all the mutants are being killed, or somebody's changing the timeline, or they're giving Superman a dog, or whatever. Yes, it's schtick, but schtick is what happens in comics. It's what they do.
posted by Amanojaku at 2:24 PM on April 12, 2011

You're right, dammit. But I reserve the right to hate and bitch about given examples thereof.
posted by Zed at 4:21 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Daredevil's distinctive trait is him being a dude named Matt Murdock.

This *is* an important part of Daredevil, though.

The largest problem comics have right now is that every goddamn character has to be PUSHED TO THE EXTREME. In a good writer's hand that turns out really well, like, say, Brian Michael Bendis's Daredevil run Decalogue.

In a bad writer's hands we get Daredevil killing Bullseye uncharacteristically. Or Superman walking around America being a dick to regular people. Or DC killing off basically every minority character they have because death has 'impact' and they weren't selling all that well.
posted by graventy at 4:42 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

You're right, dammit. But I reserve the right to hate and bitch about given examples thereof.

It is your privilege as a fellow nerd, my friend. Also, Priest's Quantum and Woody was pretty awesome too.

This *is* an important part of Daredevil, though.

Well ... yeah, fair enough. I was really trying to list a character from each company, but I've got to say, it was significantly tougher to come up with a Marvel example of that particular problem. I hate to pick on Iron Fist, who I love, but outside the powers and costume, his most pronounced trait seems to be "some of my best friends are black." I don't know. The Punisher? Deadpool?

The largest problem comics have right now is that every goddamn character has to be PUSHED TO THE EXTREME.

At least it's not the ’90s.

In a good writer's hand that turns out really well, like, say, Brian Michael Bendis's Daredevil run Decalogue.

In a bad writer's hands we get Daredevil killing Bullseye uncharacteristically. Or Superman walking around America being a dick to regular people. Or DC killing off basically every minority character they have because death has 'impact' and they weren't selling all that well.

Agreed. I'd be plenty worried if, say, Jeph Loeb were writing it. But sans any other info, "American Panther" doesn't seem particularly indicative of "everything that's wrong with comics, now or ever" to me. The actual premise is rarely the issue, which I guess was kinda my point in a rambling way.
posted by Amanojaku at 6:34 PM on April 12, 2011