The panel used as an illustration in the original New Guard article. From Tales to Astonish #60; written by Stan Lee, penciled by Dick Ayers, inked by Paul Reinman.

Bigger than the Birch Society, YAF and the Americans for Constitutional Action all rolled into one, there has recently emerged on the contemporary scene a new potentially right-wing organization of formidable power—the Merry Marvel Marching Society. This extremist group, cleverly disguised as an innocent venture in comic-book publishing, is busily undermining the minds of our nation’s youth and indoctrinating them in a set of beliefs which can only be described as patriotic and wholesome. As Perry White of the old Superman comics would say—“Great Caesar’s Ghost!” What is the world coming to?

Yes, unbeknownst to the Liberal Press, the minds and hearts of America’s college youth are being subtly spirited away by a group of tongue-in-cheek artists and writers in New York City.

Thanks again to the indefatigable researches of Sean Howe, another historical oddity has been drawn to our attention: a 1966 piece on the (admirable, in the author’s view) right-wing subtext of Marvel Comics. It was originally published in The New Guard, the official publication of the Young Americans for Freedom, and the author, David Nolan, went on to co-found the Libertarian Party and is currently campaigning for a senate seat in Arizona.

This is interesting from multiple angles, whether considered in the context of Marvel legend Jack Kirby’s JFK liberalism, Alan Moore’s condemnation of superhero comics as connected to American militarism, or the current climate of “realistic” superhero comics—to name just a few possibilities.

The full article can be read after the jump.

From The New Guard, June 1966:

BIGGER THAN BATMAN

Bigger than the Birch Society, YAF and the Americans for Constitutional Action all rolled into one, there has recently emerged on the contemporary scene a new potentially right-wing organization of formidable power—the Merry Marvel Marching Society. This extremist group, cleverly disguised as an innocent venture in comic-book publishing, is busily undermining the minds of our nation’s youth and indoctrinating them in a set of beliefs which can only be described as patriotic and wholesome. As Perry White of the old Superman comics would say—“Great Caesar’s Ghost!” What is the world coming to?

Yes, unbeknownst to the Liberal Press, the minds and hearts of America’s college youth are being subtly spirited away by a group of tongue-in-cheek artists and writers in New York City. This seduction into the ranks of the right-thinking is being accomplished by the insidious use of the most dangerous weapon available to any propagandist—humor. For the Marvel Madmen have managed that most difficult of all tasks—encapsulating their message in an irresistible package of entertainment. Every month, they are flooding our nation’s newsstands with not one but seventeen twelve-cent packages of palatable patriotism, and selling their pulp masterpieces at the staggering rate of 33 million issues per year. These Technicolor extravaganzas, ladled out with a generous ring of ridicule, are snatched up practically before the ink is dry by hundreds of thousands of readers, mostly college students, and absorbed with undisguised glee.

Produced by an uninhibited bunch of writers and artists who kid each other (and their readers) mercilessly, the Marvel Comics, as their efforts are collectively known, are both suspenseful and amusing, combining the best elements of science fiction and Mad magazine into a single package.

Their basic formula is simple—good-old-time slam-bang action, pitting superheroes against super-villains. But unlike “straight” superhero comics (e.g. Superman, Batman, etc.), Marvel Comics are funny as well as epic. Their characters are human, as well as superhuman, and their dialogue is peppered with wisecracks. The characters refuse to be stuffed shirts—and when an unwary Marvel hero assumes a “holier than thou” attitude, his colleagues are not the slightest bit reluctant to take him down a peg.

But despite their lightheartedness, the heroes are indeed heroic, and the villains villainous. This in itself is not amazing—but the fact that the heroes run to being such capitalistic types as arms manufacturers (Tony Stark, whose alter ego is Iron Man), while the villains are often Communists (and plainly labeled as such, in less than complimentary terms) is a breath of fresh air in a world such as ours, where all too often “good guys” and “bad guys” are portrayed as being indistinguishable.

And it is in their frank recognition of the difference between good and evil that makes Marvel Comics, at least in my opinion, “right wing” in tone. The “Bullpen Gang,” as the Marvel staffers refer to themselves in print, is not afraid to say that good and evil are mutually incompatible. Furthermore, they equate good with freedom and evil with totalitarianism, whether Communist, Nazi, or inhuman in origin. This is the “message” so assiduously repeated in all their sagas—and with such a message, no YAF member should have any quarrel.

But, as the Marvelites are quick to point out, their primary purpose is simply that of entertainment. In keeping with this goal, they have come up with an unending succession of both heroes and villains over the paste few years, using such science-fiction devices as mutation (both natural and atomically induced) time-travel, space-travel, and magic.

These characters, hero and villain alike, flicker from one to another of the Marvel titles (almost every major character has appeared in almost every other major character’s adventures), and it is all but impossible to keep track of what is going on without reading all the different titles regularly; hence, the real devotees do just that. More than once I have seen a bunch of Marvel Maniacs sit and talk for hours about the “world” of the Marvel characters.

Of all the Marvel comics, my own favorite is X-Men, primarily because of The Beast, a semi-simian genius given to remarks like, “Personally, I have always felt that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent” (delivered in the midst of a pitched battle with some cavemen), but many of others are almost as much fun: Fantastic Four, Spider Man, Daredevil, The Avengers, Strange Tales, The Mighty Thor (with his long blond hair, he looks like a girl) … the list is nearly inexhaustible.

Next time you have twelve cents to risk on a wild fling, cast your fate to the wind and buy yourself a Marvel comic. If you get really hooked you can always send Stan Lee a buck and become a member of the Merry Marvel Marching Society—without any fears that it will conflict with your YAF membership.

David F. Nolan is a recent graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is now a communications research analyst in Boston.

Labels: David Nolan, Marvel, propaganda, Sean Howe, superheroes