“Marvel has always been and will be a reflection of the world outside your window.”

- Stan Lee

On the surface, comics as an entertainment industry and politics as a societal system couldn’t be more radically different from each other. While one concerns the language of art, abstraction, men and women in tights, and the daydreams of the human mind and heart, the other concerns law, everyday reality, men and women with rights, and the deeply rooted beliefs of the same human mind and heart. Two people arguing over comics can remain friends – God willing – because comics are material goods typically purchased with disposable income that ultimately reflect taste with no real-world consequence, but two people arguing over politics may never speak again because politics, on the other hand, reflect ideas that can be fundamentally at odds with one another with obvious real-world consequences. Occasionally, these two seemingly foreign worlds do dovetail, yes, but putting it in simple terms, the comparative stakes of opinion are much higher. And yet, in spite of the presumed chasm between them, comics and politics – including cultural and social issues – are inextricably linked throughout history.

Comic readers will often say, “Get your politics out of my comics!” Comic book creator and writer Kelly Sue DeConnick has been criticized in the past for saying, “If you don’t like my politics, then don’t buy my books.” Group me in the minority of viewpoints on this if you will, but I can see where both sides are coming from (sorry to disappoint). As a reader, I don’t want to be preached at but as a writer, I don’t want my voice to be shut out. So, is it possible to square this circle? I believe it is.

What the “Get your politics out of my comics!” crowd ninety-nine percent of the time actually means is “Get the politics I don’t agree with out of my comics.” Surely, if the politics within those comics didn’t offend them but rather validated their own outlooks, they’d be singing a more agreeable tune. I’d assume DeConnick in fact does want you to buy her books – just don’t complain if her political conclusions don’t line up with your own. I could be wrong and don’t wish to speak for her, but the point she was making within its context is that politics has always been a part of the DNA of comics publishing. And she’s correct. The fact that someone does not agree with her own politics doesn’t mean she doesn’t have the right to weave them into her own stories. Then again, it depends on how heavy-handed the political messaging appears within these stories and also if it’s a creator-owned property or a well-established character with seventy-plus years of history from which to draw. Let’s be clear, Superman or Spider-Man advocating for or against a controversial issue is far and away unlike an original character doing so.

At the end of the day, story should always come first, but to decry politics within the industry and try to remove them completely from comics is a fool’s errand. Comics have tackled all kinds of political and social topics over the years. If these readers and fans held this position and had their way in decades past, think of the many groundbreaking comics we may have never found on the newsstands: Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, Maus, The Dark Knight Returns, Brian K. Vaughn’s Ex Machina, Captain America Comics #1 (1941), Amazing Spider-Man #36 (1999), New Mutants #45, Chris Claremont’s X-Men, Alpha Flight #106, Incredible Hulk #420, Zot! #33, Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85-86, Iron Man #128, X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills, Superman: Red Son, Superman: Birthright, Kingdom Come, Civil War, Squadron Supreme/Supreme Power, Steve Englehart’s Captain America, Daredevil: Born Again, Black Panther, JSA: The Golden Age, The Sheriff of Babylon, Animal Pound, and the list is only getting started. It would be an outright lie and revisionist history to claim these books had no deeper message or observation about the world we live in. While comics may always not be at the forefront of political or social change, they have indeed always been engaged in it in some form or another.

Strip the political or social commentary from these books and they are no longer recognizable. I almost can’t believe there was a storyline when Captain America retired his mantle because of his disillusionment with the U.S. government during Vietnam and Nixon’s presidency. And the last time I checked, war comics was its own genre. Could you conceivably calculate the number of political cartoon strips that have existed? Me either. We can debate on whether social issues like racial or gender equality, the AIDS epidemic, drug addiction, alcoholism, or suicide qualify as “political commentary” but most would agree they’re closer in relation than not as these calls for social change to cultural norms are directly linked to political policies (or the lack thereof) of the times. Everything is up for grabs in creative fields, including in the field of comics.

As the political divide within the United States of America continues to magnify, I’ve been reflecting on the role politics does have and can have in comics. Could it be the social media technology at our fingertips has made any political messages within comics and the discourse surrounding them intolerable? Is escapism without a trace of political commentary too much to ask these days because of how polarized the country has become? Are superheroes untouchable vessels for lasting change? I haven’t been able to shake Stan Lee’s insistence that Marvel Comics reflects “the world outside your window” and what that means in today’s political and social climate. Being a comic book creator and writer myself, I continually ask, “What am I allowed to say and how am I to say it?” It’s a principle of mine to not tell a reader what to think or how to think but to think. However they feel about the work or whatever they decide regarding its direct or indirect message – whether political, moral, spiritual, or philosophical – is not up to me. I’d be writing essays instead of stories if that were the case. My job as a writer is to observe, explore, discover, and wrestle with truth, beauty, and meaning through the power of story. I heard Kieron Gillen once say something to the effect of, “Through the multiplicity of perspective, there lies truth.” To be honest, there are occasions that I don’t even know that I’ve said anything of import with my stories. Nevertheless, this doesn’t stop me from trying in the only effective way I know how: writing comics.

This brings me to the latest upcoming release from Foxhole Comics, Man-Child #3 – perhaps, dare I say, my first “political” comic. While I wouldn’t categorize it as such, there’s a relevancy in its subject matter to today’s current events that I felt was necessary – and timely – to address (it’s strange how something written a handful of years ago can become a part of a conversation in the not-too-distant future). In this issue, we catch up with Rufus as he voluntarily runs his favorite local comic book store on new release day as a favor to the owner. Unbeknownst to him, there’s a Pride Parade coming through and one of his friends is marching in it. Tragically, this parade will be targeted by a gunman.

This wasn’t an easy decision. I questioned myself day and night if comics was the arena to tell this kind of story. If I was able to tell this story. But as much as it breaks my heart, this is “the world outside our window” in not only 2025 but the last fifteen years in America. I believe comics can be anything and every story — horrific or joyous — can be told through this wonderful medium. This unthinkable event depicted in Man-Child #3 takes place literally outside Uncle Chester’s Comic Shop’s windows as is the metaphorical intent. How can it be that a small island of optimism and escapism can be shattered by the realities of the human experience?

This is the world we face as modern audiences. Every. Single. Day.

I’m only twenty-eight years old and still learning about the person I hope to be but for most of my life, mass shootings have predominantly invaded the conversations of my fellow Americans. I remember being fourteen-years-old in 2011 and watching the Sandy Hook shooting unfold in Arizona. I remember in June 2016 turning on the news and watching the reports of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida. There have been over 300 mass shootings across the U.S. this year alone. It’s an appalling fact that my generation has endured and the generation that follows mine will most likely have to keep enduring if our nation keeps heading in the direction it’s in. It makes me sick to my core. It must stop. And if my little comic can shed some light on this darkness, that’s all I can ask. If I can change the world in the smallest of places or open up a conversation with only one person, I can rest easy. In this way, I’ve found what role politics can play in the comic book industry. I’m grateful to be able to say my piece.

Man-Child #3 is first and foremost a story about heroism, but it’s not only about that. In addition, it’s about transforming our characters’ ignorance into enlightenment, apathy into action, and even the rising odors of bigotry into the blooming origins of advocacy. It’s an exercise in believing people can change. I pray it comes through on the page. The image above is what the world needs – a big hug to stop the bleeding. Unity and compassion for our brothers and sisters. We need dialogue. We need this especially in the face of senseless violence.

I’ll refrain from hogging the soapbox. Instead, I’ll leave that to one of my heroes and the chief inspiration behind Man-Child – Stan “The Man” Lee…

Stan’s words are from 1968. So, tell me. What have we learned since then?

Stay safe out there and hold your loved ones ever closer.

- Nandor Fox Shaffer