The Cowboys and Indians language of evildoers and other Manichean simplicities beloved of George W. Bush once upon a time might have been compared to the moral verities of comic book super heroes. Except that the most interesting of the classic comics were always the ones where ethical decisions were taken in a gray zone, or where “good” and “evil” weren’t so clearcut and easily distinguishable. It’s interesting to observe that in a country where as even a recent report from the National Defence University observes, the media supinely served up a diet of propaganda, spin and lies, a lot of the truth telling is in the form of graphic novels.
There’s an absolutely fascinating article on this - sharp social satire in graphic novel form - in Print magazine.
Popular culture doing the work of critique the media doesn’t do.
The new wave of comics reflects our understanding of war’s miseries and contradictions.While there are still no mainstream comics set on the battlefront in Iraq, some of the best, and most popular, current series unflinchingly address the conflict and its effect on American culture by looking at both through transforming allegories. Rick Veitch’s Army@Love (also for Vertigo) pumps up glamorized militarism into a hyper-sexualized satire; Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s Civil War, from Marvel, frames the debate over domestic liberty as a clash of superheroes; and Greg Pak and John Romita Jr.’s World War Hulk (Marvel) makes a battle between monsters a vehicle for commenting on insurgency and blowback.
Go read.
I would also make a point of reading DMZ by Brian Wood. By and large, a well written and well drawn (by Riccardo Burchielli) comic that looks at the nature of modern warfare, media and society.
I’d have to consider this a mainstream comic, which is still based in contemporary Iraq.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_of_Baghdad