A Pretend Hero Stars In Comic-Book Commentary

Kevin Ferris of the Philadelphia Inquirer (here) interviews Darius LaMonica, one of the creators of a new comic book superhero named Santiago Matamoros; he is based on the patron saint of Spain inspired by St. James who defended that country in the battle of Clavijo against Muslims in 844.

The local angle here is that LaMonica and his writing partner are from nearby Conshohocken, PA, and as he tells Ferris…

LaMonica says he has already received hate mail about the comic and its title, but he likes the idea of St. James inspiring Spaniards to defend their homeland. He sees that as a natural role for his own Matamoros - and for Americans in general.

"In the mind of [9/11 hijacker] Mohamed Atta, civilian targets in the United States are as much of a legitimate battlefield as the house-to-house fighting in Fallujah," LaMonica says. "We need guys to step up, take them on and resist."

In a sense, Matamoros is carrying on the homeland defense work of the late, great Captain America. Dig up a copy of "Case No. 1," published in the 1940s. The captain is born of a World War II medical experiment that is designed to create a corps of superagents who will "become a powerful force in the battle against spies and saboteurs."

By the way, Ferris tells us that “In true superhero fashion, LaMonica and (co-author) Sleet prefer not to reveal their true identities”; somehow, though, I don’t think Ferris would ever consider bloggers who are known by “handles” other than their real names as “superheroes” unless their content was sympathetic to Ferris’ point of view.

And I really don’t think it’s wise for Ferris to regard LaMonica’s hero as someone who could “carry the mantle” of Captain America, by the way, considering that Stan Lee (who created that character and many others with Marvel Comics) has stated here that he thinks pretend superheroes fighting real villains is “corny propaganda” that is “outdated and inappropriate.”

And to get an idea of just how much of a dyed-in-the-wool freeper LaMonica truly is (I mean, he’d have to be, or else why would Ferris even give him the time of day?), I would ask that you take a look at this interview with LaMonica conducted by Front Page Magazine…

When we began the writing process, we wanted a story that would address today's threat of radical Islamism but would also point out that today's jihadists see themselves as the successors to the Islamic armies who rode out from the Arabian desert to establish a Caliphate which stretched from Persia to the Atlantic Ocean.

…

These creeps are already talking about the "tragedy of Andalusia (Muslim Spain)" and how they want it back. And they're not basing these threats on some "root cause" of poverty - they're basing it on their notion that they have a religious duty to re-conquer any areas that once were held by the Caliphate. This is the same basis for their desire to conquer Israel and the people in Spain who voted Jose Aznar out of office had better realize that if Israel falls to radical Islam, Spain is going to be the next country in the jihadists' crosshairs.

I don’t see the state of Israel “falling” anywhere but in the imagination of hopeless partisans such as LaMonica (we should support them and be vigilant, but also intelligent about it, and Bushco has utterly failed on that score).

And today's jihadists do see their mission as reestablishing the Caliphate. All one needs to do is read the source writings of today's jihadists-like in Ray Ibrahim's "Al Qaeda Reader"-in order to find this motivation. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was especially fond of talking about trying to establish an Islamic state in the old heart of the Caliphate-modern day Iraq-until a bomb from an F-16 finally shut him up.

And our use of this word in the title has nothing to do with a desire to start some type of religious war. I've already dealt with fools raising this straw man against the book.

Oh, right, we’re “fools” to wonder why LaMonica would invoke the name of a legendary Catholic saint in a comic book against Muslims that has nothing to do with religion, of course.

Also…

“…here's some information which doesn't fit the left's view of a happy, peaceful world which was ruined solely by the European colonial powers (he’s talking here about Islamic military forces destabilizing conquered countries).”

And…

“It's amazing to me how Hollywood completely ignores the valor of our men and women in the war with radical Islamism and Arab tyrants.”

Oh yeah, right…Hollywood “ignored” our military so thoroughly that Tom Hanks made sure that five of our service people stationed in Baghdad presented the Academy Award for Best Documentary a week ago last Sunday (here).

And never forget, everyone, that, as LaMonica tells us, it’s all the fault of those “academic elites” for not recognizing what Norman Podhoretz does, and that is that we are currently in “World War IV” (somehow I missed World War III – I must have been walking a precinct in Northeast Philly or attending a Greenpeace demonstration or something…by the way, LaMonica is also a fan of Mark Steyn and David Horowitz - surprised?).

Finally, I should note that Stan Lee (whose mantle LaMonica pretends to carry in a way with his comic book) started his career through the WPA, a program founded by FDR (and had LaMonica lived during that time, I cannot imagine that he would have ever been sympathetic to this country’s only four-term president). Lee also is broad minded enough to have recently authored a book in the vein of political satire, and he also produced a comic about a gay gunslinger (here, earning the wrath of Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition, which I’m sure bothered Lee not one bit).

In a way, though, I’m glad that Ferris discovered this comic book created by LaMonica and his cohorts. I can see how therapeutic it is to retreat to a fantasy world when the complex realities originating primarily from the wrong war waged in response to the worst terrorist attack in our country’s history become too difficult for him to comprehend.