ShareThisHave you ever wondered how Batman would vote? Wonder no more, if you pick up "DC Universe: Decisions" No. 1, which arrives Sept. 10.According to Dan DiDio, grand pooh-bah of the DC Comics superhero books, this four-issue, bi-weekly miniseries will reveal the political affiliations of most of DC's major spandex characters in September and October."(It's) a story where the American election process is threatened by terrorist activities," DiDio said, "and in the process of trying to maintain the election process, our heroes are forced to discuss their own choices on how they would vote -- and more importantly, what they feel are important factors in determining the direction of the country."Also, he said, the characters must discuss whether "coming out" politically serves a good purpose, or the terrorist's purpose. After all, if a superhero endorses a candidate, doesn't that change things?"Once (our heroes) find out what the ultimate goal is of the assassin, the heroes then gravitate to the candidates who most closely match their own personal affiliations," DiDio said. "Ultimately, that creates problems along the way, and creates conflict not only in regards to where they stand politically, but also whether or not what they're doing in making a stand, or (if) expressing who they stand for, is the right thing (to do), and how that disrupts the political process as well."This story started back in the '70s, when DC broke ground in the comics world by establishing a liberal-conservative argument between two of its major characters, Green Lantern (a conservative cosmic cop) and Green Arrow (a liberal community activist). Those stories won countless awards, and are the grist for many a fan argument to this day. That more or less created the context in which DC's heroes still act."To nobody's surprise, Green Lantern and Green Arrow are the centerpiece of the story," DiDio said. "They've probably been ... our most vocal characters in regards to presenting either conservative or liberal opinions in their actions. And they become the center of it, and then it starts to spread out to the other heroes and they start to give people insight in regards to what drives them and what motivates them to do what they do."So, naturally, Green Lantern and Green Arrow. But who else?"Bruce Wayne (and) Wonder Woman play key roles in the storytelling," DiDio admitted. "You really get a good cross-section of the DC Universe with the number of characters. A lot of fun cameos through the series."So we're talking about half of the Justice League, and most of the Big Guns. But what about the biggest gun of all? What is Superman's political affiliation?"One of the key players in the whole story is Lois Lane," DiDio said. "And you find out that Lois, in her role as a reporter, is set off on a story to basically get the heroes to reveal who they stand for and who they are, and, naturally, the biggest catch would be Superman. So we have an interesting dynamic between Lois and Superman throughout the story."Meanwhile, we're left asking a lot of questions. Like: Will the series use real politicians like Barack Obama and John McCain (no)? Will the series use real political parties, like Republican and Democratic (yes)?And the biggest one: What's the point?"What I'm hoping it does -- more so than simply putting in a political agenda throughout the series, which was never our intent -- is to flesh out the motivations of the characters, (so) people have an understanding of who they are," DiDio said. "So when they do act and move in certain ways, behave in certain fashions, you have a better understanding of them. Because you've seen where they've built ideals from."One last question: How does the reader know the story's honest?"The interesting thing about building this book," DiDio said, "it's not told from one perspective or one person trying to tell it. When we brought the writers in, both Bill Willingham and Judd Winick, both of those writers have strong points of view on opposite ends of the spectrum. Bill's conservative by nature, Judd's liberal. What happened is that with both guys writing the book, we wanted to give that quote-unquote fair and balanced approach to the storytelling."Which makes "DC Universe: Decisions" a lot more fun -- and a lot more honest -- than cable news.(Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics(at)aol.com or visit www.captaincomics.us.)
Superheroes 'come out' politically
Paying taxes unites us. It also divides us. People can pay five and even six times more in state and local taxes than other folks in similar circumstances making similar incomes.
Who's got your number?
In one of the fastest-growing forms of identity theft, crooks are stealing tax refunds by swiping personal information and using it to trick the Internal Revenue Service.
