Anti-russian sentiments in Marvel Comics

[lordozone]

I just read Avengers #49 as well as X-force and I was a bit embarrassed.

First of all: I'm not a fan of Putin's Russia at all, but being European, knowing a minimum of the complexity of Russian politics and the way the opponents fight inside the country, I have the impression that Marvel treats the Russian situation in its comics in a totally caricatured way, a kind of evil empire a la star wars, even more than in the cold war.

Already, they show Russia as a dictatorship in the Star Wars style, without nuance. Russia is not a dictatorship, it is an Authoritarian democracy (the distinction is slim but important). There is a fragile freedom of speech, an opposition (which is often locked up and even killed sometimes, yes, but which can speak freely in some private newspapers). Moreover Russia, although still having a strong geo-strategic power in certain regions, and an important military force, is not economically what it was.

Marvel wants to talk about a geo-strategic, totalitarian adversary of the west, democracy or human rights with a real economic strength? Let them talk about China. But since they still have movies to sell them, it's not going to happen anytime soon...

[charliehustle415]

I just read Avengers #49 as well as X-force and I was a bit embarrassed.

First of all: I'm not a fan of Putin's Russia at all, but being European, knowing a minimum of the complexity of Russian politics and the way the opponents fight inside the country, I have the impression that Marvel treats the Russian situation in its comics in a totally caricatured way, a kind of evil empire a la star wars, even more than in the cold war.

Already, they show Russia as a dictatorship in the Star Wars style, without nuance. Russia is not a dictatorship, it is a totalitarian democracy (the distinction is slim but important). There is a fragile freedom of speech, an opposition (which is often locked up and even killed sometimes, yes, but which can speak freely in some private newspapers). Moreover Russia, although still having a strong geo-strategic power in certain regions, and an important military force, is not economically what it was.

Marvel wants to talk about a geo-strategic, totalitarian adversary of the west, democracy or human rights with a real economic strength? Let them talk about China. But since they still have movies to sell them, it's not going to happen anytime soon...

[the middle east has entered the chat]

[Hypestyle]

what, if any, are the markets for Marvel to sell comic books in the Russian Federation zones?

[Iron Maiden]

Black market would be my guess

[CitizenXXX]

totalitarian democracy

Authoritarian democracy.

There are several publishers in Russia that buy licenses and publish Marvel comics, a lot of Marvel comics have been published in Russian.
In addition, there are comic shops selling original comics. There is a market, though I cannot judge its scale.

https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%...81%D0%B8%D0%B8

[lordozone]

Authoritarian democracy.

There are several publishers in Russia that buy licenses and publish Marvel comics, a lot of Marvel comics have been published in Russian.
In addition, there are comic shops selling original comics. There is a market, though I cannot judge its scale.

https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%...81%D0%B8%D0%B8

Yes, sorry, Authoritarian, I have edited.

[the middle east has entered the chat]

? Like I said, not a fan of Putin or his middle east policy.

[Dreaded Porcupine]

[the middle east has entered the chat]

LMAO! People have a problem with Russia but not China? I wonder why. Marvel built their company making communists the evil villains. My how times have changed.

[MitchFox]

The reason why CCP-China is barely portrayed in Marvel comics nowadays is because of the marketing. Disney-Marvel has been marketing their movies all over the world and one of them is China. Since China is nowadays an economical giant (with shades of totalitarian background), they fear that not only they might lose their money when the film gets banned by China, they also fear that they get branded as racists when the majority of the heroes are Whites fighting against Mainland Chinese villains. And it doesn't help that there's the anti-Chinese sentiment during the pandemic period.
The 2012 remake of Red Dawn movie is the example which went through the production and marketing troubles since the villains were supposed to be communist Chinese villains but they were changed to North Koreans.
So far, Radioactive Man is the only supervillain from communist China and we barely see him in comics nowadays.

Note: I am a Eurasian (I am half-Chinese) Singaporean and I condemn the real-life actions from CCP China, not from the Chinese people.

[inisideguy]

I wrote about this on another thread. Its easy for the west to stereotype Russia. No one is offened for whatever reason. On the other hand, lets be honest here, the Germans get stereotyped to. So do the British, French ect. And in many ways even America is stereotyped within its own country. And everyone all over the world stereotypes Americans as well in their media.

[danielsan52]

I just read Avengers #49 as well as X-force and I was a bit embarrassed.

First of all: I'm not a fan of Putin's Russia at all, but being European, knowing a minimum of the complexity of Russian politics and the way the opponents fight inside the country, I have the impression that Marvel treats the Russian situation in its comics in a totally caricatured way, a kind of evil empire a la star wars, even more than in the cold war.

Already, they show Russia as a dictatorship in the Star Wars style, without nuance. Russia is not a dictatorship, it is an Authoritarian democracy (the distinction is slim but important). There is a fragile freedom of speech, an opposition (which is often locked up and even killed sometimes, yes, but which can speak freely in some private newspapers). Moreover Russia, although still having a strong geo-strategic power in certain regions, and an important military force, is not economically what it was.

Marvel wants to talk about a geo-strategic, totalitarian adversary of the west, democracy or human rights with a real economic strength? Let them talk about China. But since they still have movies to sell them, it's not going to happen anytime soon...

Yeah okay. A simple Google search will show you Russian Government’s anti gay stance against LGBTQ people and how the general public hates and wants us gone.

How about google images of “Russia beating/starving/torturing Ukraine people”??

**** Russia.

[Spiderfan001]

[the middle east has entered the chat]

true LMAO

Yeah okay. A simple Google search will show you Russian Government’s anti gay stance against LGBTQ people and how the general public hates and wants us gone.

How about google images of “Russia beating/starving/torturing Ukraine people”??

**** Russia.

Dude comics are very-anti gov. and anti-cops and anti-corporations.Doesn't mean they are very anti-America.But Russia is treated badly for the whole country including population, it's very stereotypical.

Comics have mistreated LGBTQ+ people which I'm sure you're very passionate about, so why are you so casually okay w/ a medium portraying an entire country for something they are not.

[Triniking1234]

I thought OP was gonna talk about the old comics cuz Russia was up to some shady **** in the old Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America comics I had.

But yeah I forgot Marvel currently has the Russians farming metahumans for their army, working vampires and putting mutants in concentration camps. RIP.

**** Russia.

I mean the guy you're responding to doesn't like the Russian government either but Marvel doesn't have to make them look like all the Satans combined.

[danielsan52]

I thought OP was gonna talk about the old comics cuz Russia was up to some shady **** in the old Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America comics I had.

But yeah I forgot Marvel currently has the Russians farming metahumans for their army, working vampires and putting mutants in concentration camps. RIP.



I mean the guy you're responding to doesn't like the Russian government either but Marvel doesn't have to make them look like all the Satans combined.

To clarify, I also have no problem with Comics portraying the US govt be equally as corrupt and hate filled and racist. Henry Peter Gyrich and others are comparable to current US politicrits.

[JudicatorPrime]

Sidebar: I love that some folks keep insisting that there's no such thing as politics in comics, yet here we are once again reminded that there is very much a political facet to characterization in comics. It's a beautiful thing. Please carry on.

[Jabare]

I feel like this is an overreaction because you're not used to how Jason Aaron writes and how he's been writing the Avengers. Plus, he's been setting up this subplot for a while around Mephisto. If you've read the previous 48 issues, it should be clear. So this is more about Jason Aaron and where he is taking his story than Marvel as a whole. Plus, the Marvel Universe, while similar to our world, is also very different.

I'd say outside of Coulson going evil, with the U.S. government, the comic governments in this comic run don't come off that badly.

End of the day, this isn't that different than other stories comic stories with the sinister U.S. governments, European governments, African nations, fictional countries. Etc. etc.

I feel like it's just a talking point because of the recent political climate. What are the big Russian mainstream comic stories? Red Sun Superman and the Winter Soldier? How often do mainstream comics focus on Russia?

To me, this is one storyline out of thousands. It's a fictional Russian government. This comic isn't going out of its way to say anything about the Russian people. Just my two cents, I don't feel like this comic run is that complex; he's got Vampires in Chernobyl and Devils whispering to Namor and Coulson. I wouldn't take this too seriously.