As long as the “conversation” about guns concerns hypotheticals about fictions …
… I don’t see the harm in adding more fictions to the hypotheticals. Given that the opposition’s evidence is the “millions” of home-invasions that’ve been thwarted yearly, or most probably even hourly, by gun-savvy Common People Who Love The Constitution More Than Dirty Liberals Do, I don’t see why Dirty Liberals oughta restrict themselves to reality. And so:
Q.E.D.
SEK:
December 31st, 2012 at 11:10 am
Yes, I’ll be about three to four weeks behind the news for the next month, and yes, you’re welcome.
arguingwithsignposts:
December 31st, 2012 at 11:39 am
Maybe one with the new superman?
SEK:
December 31st, 2012 at 11:42 am
Superman lacks moral authority, what with invincibility undermining conviction and all.
Lee:
December 31st, 2012 at 11:50 am
SEK, while I recognize that Batman is the most well-known Superhero with a strong dislike of guns in cannon, I’d argue that Spider-Man is better liberal superhero that doesn’t use guns. Batman is a very dark, superhero with a pessimistic and ultimately nihilistic outlook on life. The exception being the Adam West interpretation.
Spider-Man is ususally more upbeat and positive and optimism has long been a feature of most prominent liberals in the United States. FDR, LBJ, Humphrey, Martin Luther King and others were not known for their dark pessimism. Spider-Man also has a stronger sense of community in both his civillian and super-hero life. Peter Parker works for living rather being a play boy and takes interest in the body politic. While both Peter Parker and Bruce Wayne both started on their super-hero career because of a desire for vengence, Peter Parker has developed more in his motivation and is currently a hero for the well-being of others. Batman is still primarily motivated by vengence. The evidence is pretty conclusive that Spider-Man is a much more appropriate superhero for liberals.
SEK:
December 31st, 2012 at 11:55 am
This would be concern-trolling if I didn’t actually agree with you. Unfortunately, Spiderman can’t scowl the way Batman can, so I went with the most disapproving look. But you’re right, damn it.
Dave:
December 31st, 2012 at 11:59 am
That is, surely, the most appropriate typo EVAR….
["Canon", dude, really...]
Hogan:
December 31st, 2012 at 12:03 pm
No skin in the game, as the kids say.
Lee:
December 31st, 2012 at 12:07 pm
Well, sunny optimism does bring along some disadvantages. Not being able to scowl well at villains is one of them.
Malaclypse:
December 31st, 2012 at 12:08 pm
Someone seems unfamiliar with Newspaper Spider-Man, the whiningest superhero ever.
Lee:
December 31st, 2012 at 12:09 pm
Spelling was never one of my stronger skills.
Lee:
December 31st, 2012 at 12:09 pm
The only good thing about Newspaper Spider-Man is that he still married to Mary Jane.
Bill Cross:
December 31st, 2012 at 12:10 pm
harrumphhh.
The Comics Curmudgeon covers this beat quite well. and Spidey chasing Kraken’s apes has been pretty funny
SEK:
December 31st, 2012 at 12:16 pm
You’ll have to excuse me, I so very rarely get to say this to people not in my mirror, but … NERDS! HA HA! YOU’RE NERDS!
I feel “better” now.
Lee:
December 31st, 2012 at 12:26 pm
It would suprise me if anybody on this blog didn’t qualify as a nerd in some way. Maybe Erik, at least in terms of his cultural tastes, is the least nerdy person on this blog.
I kind of thing of myself as an ex-nerd more than anything else. I used to really like science fiction, fantasy, comics, and video games but not so much anymore. My tastes have grown more towards literary fiction and away from genre. Currently, I’m trying to read the Yiddish canon, at least whats available in English translation. I still have fondness for some of my former tastes though.
SEK:
December 31st, 2012 at 12:32 pm
I’m not sure if makes me more or less nerdy to say that I’ve read much of the Yiddish canon in Yiddish. (But only because I was bored, and that’s all my grandmother had in her house. I’d have been reading comics if they’d been there.)
So yes, I think it’s safe to say we’re all nerds here. I’m just delighted that, on occasion, I can pretend I’m not the biggest one. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to re-watch the Doctor Who Christmas special …
Hogan:
December 31st, 2012 at 12:37 pm
Man, did I like that special. And it was especially sweet just after I surprised the mrs. with an Eleventh Doctor Sonic Screwdriver for Christmas.
SEK:
December 31st, 2012 at 12:45 pm
As a belated Christmas present to you, then, I’ll tell you that I’m re-watching it to work up a post.
StevenAttewell:
December 31st, 2012 at 12:47 pm
I hate to nitpick, but Batman had that weird light-gun (that the cop shot at, so some strange symbolism there) and he’s happy with machine guns/rockets on his vehicles. Batman’s hardly consistent on the no-guns policy. Especially since this is what Batman used to look like.
Although…one could argue that Batman taking down Azazael after Jean-Paul had added what were effectively belt-fed machine guns to the Batman costume could be seen as an anti-gun message.
Hogan:
December 31st, 2012 at 12:54 pm
My birthday is in a couple of weeks, so no worries.
SEK:
December 31st, 2012 at 12:55 pm
Not to out-nerd you, but that Batman image is from Planetary, and it’s a version of Batman from before he had dead parents. (Which he only acquired after five or six years.) Moreover, I think that image is stolen from my site, since I clipped that panel specifically for that post. But whatever, you’re right about the early material, and about the big guns on his vehicles, but he only uses them to blow shit up, not kill people. That’s actually a not-very-fine line, when you think about it: sometimes you need to bust through a wall, but that doesn’t mean you want to kill the people behind it.
arguingwithsignposts:
December 31st, 2012 at 12:59 pm
He doesn’t have a gun, though. What about Captain America? He doesn’t carry a gun. And what could be more American than Captain America?
Bill Murray:
December 31st, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Is the Yiddish canon a new nickname for Ryan Braun?
JoyfulA:
December 31st, 2012 at 1:00 pm
I was wondering whether “in” should be “and.” Thanks for clarifying your intentions.
SEK:
December 31st, 2012 at 1:04 pm
Um … Captain America carries automatic weapons and shoots indiscriminately in the direction of anyone he believes to be a Nazi, alien, or both.
StevenAttewell:
December 31st, 2012 at 1:08 pm
Yeah, I figured as much. “1st draft Batman” is something of a different beast.
But if I recall correctly, doesn’t Batman really inaccurately shoot at the Joker with the guns mounted on the Bat-plane in the Burton film?
arguingwithsignposts:
December 31st, 2012 at 1:13 pm
Hmmm. OK, I’ll turn in my comic geek card. I didn’t remember that from my childhood. And I haven’t seen the Captain America movie. I’m about Super Hero’d out on movies.
DrDick:
December 31st, 2012 at 2:23 pm
Creative fiction is the heart and soul of conservatism.
steverino:
December 31st, 2012 at 2:38 pm
Not that it has anything to do with guns, but HERE’s a Batman:
David Willis’s Tumbler which then leads to this.
Bytowner:
December 31st, 2012 at 3:43 pm
At least there’s one spot in pop culture where that still holds!
GFW:
December 31st, 2012 at 5:11 pm
It’s also hard to visibly scowl through a mask that completely covers the face.
Halloween Jack:
December 31st, 2012 at 5:52 pm
“Indiscriminately”? Dude, please. By definition, he’s a better shot than any unmodified human on the planet, except maybe for Hawkeye.
Halloween Jack:
December 31st, 2012 at 5:57 pm
Uh… according to Wikipedia, it was more like five or six months.
Halloween Jack:
December 31st, 2012 at 6:03 pm
Also, too, the thing about Batman is that he’s got a large, very expensive, and in some specific cases exclusive armory and arsenal at his disposal.
LeeEsq:
December 31st, 2012 at 7:33 pm
Cognitive dissonance is not a valid form of literature.
DocAmazing:
December 31st, 2012 at 7:52 pm
Oh, please don’t bring up Tim Burton’s Batman. It’s too painful.
ddt:
December 31st, 2012 at 8:41 pm
Though… I mean, I recognize that gun violence shattered both Bruce Wayne’s and Peter Parker’s lives, leading to consuming obsessions on both parts, but I don’t think anywhere in the Spider-Man mythos is the gun as fetishized as it has been since at least Miller in the Batman literature. Parker centers on his guilt at not stopping the bad guy (stopping without a gun, by the way); Wayne can never not see the gun that killed his parents and broke his mother’s string of pearls.
Um, so my comic friends tell me.
Pestilence:
January 2nd, 2013 at 12:40 am
or anything else Burton fouled with his touch, really