James Nicoll takes a sadistic pleasure in inflicting reactionary crybaby rants by once respected writers on his readers, so it’s no wonder I first Frank Miller’s grandpa Simpson’s rant about Occupy Wall Street there. It’s bad:
The “Occupy” movement, whether displaying itself on Wall Street or in the streets of Oakland (which has, with unspeakable cowardice, embraced it) is anything but an exercise of our blessed First Amendment. “Occupy” is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness. These clowns can do nothing but harm America.
The only thing missing there are the whores, whores whores.
We really shouldn’t be surprised at Miller’s sentiments. He’s not just another supposed liberal driven loony by the September 11 attacks, but somebody who has built his career on writing increasingly outlandish rightwing revenge fantasies. Daredevil, Elektra, Batman: Year One, Ronin, The Dark Knight Returns, 300: none of these are leftwing stories are they? Not that they weren’t good rightwing revenge fantasies, but they did sort of indicate a mind not welcoming to leftwing shenanigans like the Occupy movement.
Therefore, should this rant matter for your enjoyment of Frank Miller’s …unique… brand of comics? Of course not. You knew what you were getting with Miller before: to get outraged now is a bit too late. Apart from that, this Randy Milholand Something Positive strip has it covered.