Card Joins Marvel Writing Stable; Political Essays Noted by Comic Book Fans

The comic book news site Newsarama picked up on a mention in Andrew Arnold's 2005 comics article at Time.comix that author and essayist Orson Scott Card would be writing a mini-series called Ultimate Iron Man, indicating this hadn't been reported before now.

Card, best known for his award-winning novel Ender's Game, has recently come under scrutiny in some circles for his writing on conservative social issues. The talback section of the Newsarama article focuses on this piece coming out aggressively against gay marriage legislation, although Card is perhaps better known for the essay "The Hypocrites of Homosexuality." A long list of Card's essay writing can be found here, including the standard pieces on election fraud and biased media. The latter is enjoyable as it casts liberal news elites as so many Snidely Whiplashes, fuming over the free market choices of average Americans. Many don't know of Card's essay-writing, and you can read one such dismayed profile from Donna Minkowitz at Salon.

Card's political beliefs gain some traction as a news story because of news leaked by Rich Johnston last month that Marvel was using noted conservative Karl Zinsmeister, an editor at American Enterprise magazine, as the writer on a war comic called Combat Zone; True Tales of GI in Iraq.

What this means is hard to say. Probably nothing. My take is that mainstream writers since 1970s have generally been Amercan liberals and most still are, but that the fan base for superhero comics is kind of wildly divided between the kind of left-leaning reader who prefers the social corrective elements of fantasy literature and right-leaning reader who likes moral parables that end with a sock to the jaw. Unless Marvel continues to recruit writers with these kinds of publishing records, the Card hiring may end up a more interesting story as an outside-writer hire, an extremely contentious issue in some circles that debates the merits of hiring those unfamiliar with the medium, perhaps in a stunt capacity, versus bringing the need to recruit talented fresh blood.
 
posted 8:44 am PST | Permalink
 

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