Comic Books: Waid's Shallow Waters
- Jul 19
- 5 min read
July 19th, 2026
Nothing sadder than an over-inflated sense of self-importance off an artist oblivious to their condition. Worse is when they had actual genius, erased with egotism. Clearly we ain't talking about me. Lacking any comments, views, or letters from home keeps my gargantuan psychological Johnson checked. Thanks y'all! No, this is Social Scientist me and the regular ground-to-a-nub axe, "Preacher-tainment" (© pending). Creators travel from provocative pleasure tool to indoctrination. Comic books are our joint de jour.
Please to remind you whos talking. Batmama, 40+ years out LGBTQ feller, Sociology near-grad Mid-American Honky from an Historically Black College in a prison I have dwelt a decade with all conceivable demographics.
Presently I'm plowing a pile of new (to we the locked down) graphic novels and trades that begun with a delightful DC Compact Edition of Batman: White Knight. Two into the Black Adam Box Set now, I'd unremembered the intricacies of Geoff Johns and crew through the late '90s - early Aughts JSA and "52" with ethically challenging big picture epics. Good as mainstream makes, I say without a whisper of snobbery. Unmistakably political minus politicking, so smart.
Pointing out today's Batwoman makes the scene in 52. Her own title inserted politics into her origin, already obsolete ("Don't Ask, Don't Tell") to me, superfluous. Kate never caught fire, becoming a political firestorm almost immediately over DC's Maggie Sawyer wedding refusal. Siding WITH the firm despite mixed mainly downward feels re: New 52, a road got paved, her as discrimination target day one is my assessment. Negativity enveloping her past the darkness of a standard Battyverse figure I think alienates wide readership rarely taking issue with lesbianism.
"Black Adam: Rise and Fall of An Empire" is INCLUSIVE. Unless you are a wing-nut of whichever stripe - a bloodthirsty utter Nazi, or you think calling a newborns "girl" and "boy" is a hate crime, dissenters being bloodthirsty utter Nazis, these graphic novels will entertain you, primary goal besides revenue. Also anybody thinking The Connors is funny, these are too good for you like most everything.
Commonality for White Knight and Black Adam is cerebral nature, ethical questioning, and inversions of the genre. Refreshing, the sophistication Marvel gave the scene in the 1960s with a two-page spread one of Kirkman's "History of Comics" shows I think it was I caught here dissected. Aunt May crying off to hawk jewelry to keep rent paid beyond Ben with baleful Peter crushed over the ripple of his pride. Quality storytelling for kids then anyone could empathize with. Bannered on each Marvel title shortly after sales agog DC couldn't wrap their action-drenched noggins around - "Sophisticated Suspense" the quintessence of comic drama we know culturally now that the box-office went underneath a tsunami carrying the female audience alongside those boyfriends with all other crowds on board. Stan, Jack, and Steve's brainy alchemy realized.
Here I've praised DCs "Kingdom Come" (truly - "Kingdom Comeback"!), the Godhead to such stuff I praised two paragraphs ago. Action Comics #1, the mother-maiden superstory gets took to its extent, any passengers betwixt riding along. Superman, Bats, and Wonder Woman exit retirement to solve youth crises. This tale Alex Ross in '95 painted so extremely most fans didn't read it, staring instead into Where's Waldo? level detailing to partial blindness. Nothing unilateral to this masterpiece yet a taut political thriller 100% relevant this nanosecond. No mean feat. Mark Waid gets to claim writing chores and better feel great about that. Can't put anything better myself on a comic scribe, facts. Nor speak positive re: whatever I've read in here by Waid for the competition Stan, Jack, and Pals built. I'm convinced they'd cosign this contempt.
"Champions" Vol. 1, came first. Teen heroes are boss every time. DC should install Titans and associated properties as masthead. Highest hopes I held for this quirky group of underage ass-kickers. Note, "The Marvels" is in my top three favorite MCU shows dependent on day. Her telling off the Avengers to build a team doing more than punchasizing baddies? Cool by me, Kamala. Batmama's gotcha back, Girlfriend. Problem? By its end this was an echo chamber for a politicized Khan written to be never wrong despite decades of inexperience. Nobody likes a know-it-all. Especially an inorganically grown, conspicuously correct epicenter for a crusading cult.
Most issues were passable, except the one with the middle American town naturally crawling with xenophobes. Whole police force, sheriff, everybody and their dog. Happening in regions I not only inhabit but spent a majority of my well-traveled life described above to minimum intolerance. Witnessed the same. Currently housed with everything Kentucky offers from Appalachian meth cooks to gangstas of Louisville I'm treated how any rational human would want. Brother inmates and guards alike, my proclivities on paper, reactions be damned. This ain't new to me, and neither is coastal creators telling particularly youth our areas are concentration camps or hate hotbeds, rankling me fiercely. Desperately I want work consulting for reasons like this. Curbing media instilling mis-beliefs in groups that I occupy 1965. "Roseanne" had flyover gays in the '90s trace-less of victimization. Racism occurred in a single ep showing it's there - EVERYWHERE. Herself, despite a friend circle including them. Young inmates have believed I lived the 90's closeted due to haters. Telling them about my life then rewards me sometimes simply to subtract such misnomers.
Waid worked with bright beloved Chris Samnee on "Captain America: Home of the Brave" me ebullient at that blurb. First book I tore into before getting it home, rapturous. Until... our villain revealed is a transparent cartoon of the current POTUS. Allow me to state that alone don't disturb me to distraction. Reminding this is the most vilified, attacked, and assassinated on myriad levels leader yet who invites it sometimes. My immense issue I'll discuss after an anecdote. Across an aisle slept an older cat from Louisville. We'd read many of the same books, watched similar TV and movies, plus 'Ville common culture. Finishing the trade, excitedly he received it. Free from opinion, I awaited his. Morning next, confusion swallowing his mug: "This aint a comic. This is propaganda ...Captain America belongs to EVERYBODY". Ditto. *
More to my point, impressionable sick people see our president leading a murderous gang of dystopian Nazi super-soldiers to what end besides voting blue? Shooting a father of two with a wife in his face, traumatizing a crowd of young folks. Such arrogance believing an individual has as smartest in the room they'd not CARE if something like that was a side-effect? Theres a word I go out of my way to avoid due to its overuse, and ridiculous credence society's afforded it. Me, that 40 years queer KY inhabitant, first time EVER will say Mark Waid, your work offends me. Be better, Disney. Stop rejecting those subjects who built your castles.
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