The comic-book community is in a state of upheaval. Major publishers, Marvel in particular, are controlled by “social justice” leftists. Unfortunately, the deplorable fans haven’t embraced the new diverse characters, they want their favorite white male superheroes back, and some of them (gasp!) voted for Donald Trump. The left calls this fan revolt “#comicsgate”, which is according to the Daily Beast, an “anti-diversity harassment campaign.” Nevertheless, fans are voting with their wallets, leading to the cratering of Marvel’s sales and the emergence of new independent series such as Arkhaven’s Alt-Hero. Is Alt-Hero, as many people (even #Comicsgate figures like @DiversityAndCmx) allege, the right-wing equivalent of SJW Marvel?
I’ve recently obtained an electronic copy of Alt-Hero #1, and I’m happy to say that those fears were unfounded. Alt-Hero is definitely intended to trigger the hardcore left. But it’s not a screed, it’s a brilliant satire that takes on the oh-so-progressive European Union. The premise is that superheroes are emerging as the next human evolution – Homo sequens. The EU conscripts everyone with superpowers into the Global Justice Initiative, which fights social ills such as hate speech and smoking – though not Islamic terrorism or illegal immigration, of course.
The story follows the abduction of Janelle Jeanneret, an ill-tempered French model who’s been concealing her super-powers, by the imperious blue-suited Captain Europa. Janelle’s new superhero identity is Dynamique, and her first mission is to arrest and rough up right-wing dissidents and Internet trolls, whom the heroes water-board for information on their co-conspirators. All is going well until super-speed hero Redshift encounters a dissident who is able to fight back.
The book is a hilarious sendup of progressivism, with each member of the Initiative representing some kind of diversitarian stereotype, such as the hard-partying gay superhero Rainbow. I’m looking forward to the next issues and sincerely hope writer Vox Day can maintain its light-hearted over-the-top tone. I have my concerns about that because I used to follow Day’s blog “Vox Popoli” until he became more obsessed with ideological hair-splitting than cheering on Europe’s nationalist rebellions. Sad! I’ll keep you up to date as I get succeeding issues. As for the artwork, it’s not bad (Cliff Cosmic, with coloring by Matteo Mystic), though the panels appear a bit rushed in places.
Speaking of ideology, I remind everybody that an author’s politics has no relevance to the merits of the work, no matter what those obnoxious academic “deconstructionist” nitwits say. I will never retract this position, no matter how much it may upset those of a sensitive nature.
Alt-Hero #1 is a brilliant satire of today’s intolerant progressive establishment, with a great storyline and fun characters. My only complaint is that the art quality could be a bit better. Despite this, I give it 4.5 stars and highly recommend it to any comic fan who doesn’t identify as a Social Justice Warrior.