I can't believe I've had this blog going for almost a year with out mention Shade The Changing Man yet. He first appeared in Suicide Squad #16 and was last scene in issue 37. Shade is a security officer from another dimension who coincidentally encountered the Squad on a mission in the "Shadow Zone" and through a twist of fate got stuck on Earth after the Squad made good their escape.Shade somewhat reluctantly agrees to join the Squad under the promise that the resources of the govt. will be put to use in an effort to return him to his own dimension. But over time due to the inferior technology on Earth he becomes increasingly frustrated with the prospect he may never get back. Despite being a pretty noble guy he goes against his better judgement and helps Duchess a.k.a Lashina abduct the Squad for her Apocalypse mission for which in return she's supposed to get him back home using the superior technology of the New Gods. But he eventually turns on her as his conscience gets the best of him after witnessing her cruelty to the population of Apocalypse as well as to the Squad http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/08/11/almost-hidden-the-suicide-squad-travels-to-apokolips/ Shade is returned to his own dimension when Darkseid expels the Squad off of Apocalypse with his omega beams returning everybody to where they came from.
Shade wore a special vest that detected the fears of others around him and projected a force field in the image of those fears. The force fields appeared to mimic his body movements. In the clip art here you can see him pummeling Peacemaker who sees Shade as his abusive military father who apparently bullied him through out most of his child hood. On Apocalypse we see the vest project the image of Darkseid for a brigade of parademons that Shade was fighting.
Probably my all time favorite moment with Shade in the pages of the Suicide Squad is in issue 32 in which the Squad under takes a mission in iran. During the battle with iran's military Shade's vest projected the image of the ayatollah khomeini to the soldiers. As you all may or may not be aware of the ayatollah khomeini is the fanatical islamic religious cleric who took power in the late 70s during the iranian revolution. Today the iranian people still live with the legacy of being in the grip of a religious dictatorship under the tyrant ahmedinejad and the mullahs (religious ruling party).
This is not only another a case of how art imitates life but also how insightful of a writer John Ostrander was when it came to weaving real world facts and politics into the stories of the Suicide Squad. And keep in mind this was long before the "arab spring" this year in which we're seeing one tyrannical regime after another fall in the midst of uprisings all over the muslim world in the Middle East. Just recently gaddafi's reign of terror for over 40 years in libya finally came to an end last weekend and we can only hope the bashar assad regime in syria will be next. Of course despite all this most any moronic useful idiot liberal of the San Francisco Bay Area will be quick to blame the United States and Israel for the decades of turmoil in the Middle East. Thank goodness John Ostrander was a more intelligent and objective thinking person who didn't suffer from the social disease known as political correctness which has infected most of the world and Europe especially.
I guess I could go on and on about all that, but that region/part of the world seems to simply breed those type of tyrannical leaders. I don't know if it's due to the lack of technology, the agriculture, or simply the land issues, but contries like Iran, Iraq, etc, seem to always be hotbeds of strife and political upheaval.
ReplyDeleteOf course, those who leave in the west think this is a somewhat recent development. It's not; this same pattern/cycle has been going on since Biblical times, and thus it's all that part of the world seems to know and understand. I wish peace could finally be achieved, but the rebels/opposition to these tyrants aren't always as organized as the people they're opposing, and may in fact over time, be just as bad.
I hope one day peace and reason will rule the day, but that's just a shallow dream.
can't argue with that Dale. especially the part about what you said in regards to the ones uprising against the tyrants being just as bad over time. that certainly was the case in the iranian revolution and the muslim brotherhood consolidating political power since mubarak's ousting doesn't bode well for not just Israel and The West but also for the whole region. the attacks in Southern Israel last week may be just the beginning. since this is a PC free zone i'll tell you what the problem is it's not complicated. this largely stems from a certain thinking that is engrained in the muslim world. for example, we figured out a long time ago that mixing religion in politics is a disaster. most of the muslim world still haven't figured that out. when i say "muslim world" i don't mean every last muslim on the face of the planet but more specifically the culture of most muslim majority countries.
ReplyDeletefor example, we figured out a long time ago that mixing religion in politics is a disaster
ReplyDeleteUmmm, you might want to try pointing that out to most of the contenders for the Republican Party nomination, particularly Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann :)
no doubt we have our own fare share of religious screw balls here in the U.S. who try to mix faith with politics and yes you find most of em on the right end of the political spectrum. which is one of the many reasons i have never and will never vote republican. and i don't pretend that we practice the separation of church and state as thoroughly as we should. but by comparison to nearly every country of the muslim world we certainly do a much better job of not letting religious values dictate political policy. but it's also important to keep in mind that most of the tyrants of the Middle East are only muslim in name. gaddafi is no more a man of Allah (God by any other name) then saddam hussien was. these guys are just homicidal psycho paths with egos bigger then the moon.
ReplyDeleteHere, here. Sure Gary, we're just as bad(well really the republicans/religious right are just as bad/extreme in their views. No one in congress/office has any common sense anymore, and if they do, they're outvoted by rich and ignorant, money-hungry idiots and their lobbyist lap-dogs/yes-men.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the problem is with having religious views if you are running for office, but if you are going to use those religious views to subject your citizens to terror and abuse. And it doesn't have to be religious deity that makes you a dangerous extremist, any idealism, held in direct opposition to what logic is showing to be true and right,can make a person into a tyrant. Religion is just the easiest to see. And certainly in the middle-east these men use it frequently as a stepping stone to their power. Good post Dave!
ReplyDeletei'm a secular Jew which means i'm Jewish by birth but not especially religious. but i have no problem with people who feel that their faith gives them some sort of center in life and helps them get through hard times. but rather your a famous politician or common folks like us, religion should never be anything more then a personal matter. as to all this talk about the religious nut jobs in the republican party and what not rest assured (as i think Dale implied?) the religion of EVERYONE in the land of D.C. which trumps any deity is money and power. not too mention most everyone these days is a total hypocrite. look at bin laden, mr. fucken radical muslim anti-Western terrorist with his Coca Cola six packs and his hidden porno stash. rumor has it some gay porn was found in one of gaddafi's under ground bunkers it's just a rumor at this point but it wouldn't surprise me.
ReplyDeleteso when all is said and done, these leaders on their high religious horses are just regular people like everyone else.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a good situation when you let religion dominate politics (They don't just mix the two) and the religous groups in power preach that they are the one true religion and discount all others. The easiest way to piss everyone else off? Aggressively preaching that they're wrong.
That's why I'm glad my grandparents/great grandparents came here. Why they picked Maine is anyone's guess, moving from a desert climate to a semi-arctic one, but I'm glad they did.