DragonI

Some Watchmen fans are mad that HBO’s version is political. But Watchmen has always been political.

www.vox.com|Alex Abad-Santos

Despite glowing reviews from critics, HBO’s adaptation of Watchmen is proving to be divisive among [right-wing snowflakes]. It’s not the acting or cinematography of the TV drama follow-up to the influential superhero story that they have a problem with. Instead, some disdainful viewers are outraged that showrunner Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen is too “political,” too entrenched in “identity politics” — too “SJW” (“social justice warrior”) — in ways that they think writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons’s original comic wasn’t.

Watchmen currently has a 46 percent audience approval score on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to its 96 percent critic approval rating. On Metacritic, it has a 6.8 positive audience score, with 35 negative reviews. In contrast, not one professional outlet listed on Metacritic gave the show an outright negative review…

[Right-wing v]iewers who bash the HBO show for being too political seem to ignore that the source material itself was a politically charged text, and that Moore was deliberately admonishing American power politics. But in Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen, those scathing criticisms that Moore embedded into the comic series become impossible to ignore.

AOC Is Officially a Comic Book Superhero

www.teenvogue.com|Condé Nast

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has been a fixture in the news since she assumed her seat in Congress. The first-time congresswoman’s willingness to take on trolls and the powerful political establishment may make her a hero to some, so it seems only fitting that she’s now the star of her very own comic book. And she’s bringing the entire bad-girls caucus with her.

As reported by CNN, AOC is the star of the new comic book Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Freshman Force: New Party Who Dis? On one cover, Ocasio-Cortez is rocking a suffragette white pantsuit while holding her phone; another cover features her in Wonder Woman–esque “Washington Warrior” armor with a sword in hand.

“There’s just something about Alexandria that resonates with so many people,” creator Josh Blaylock told CNN. He said the comic book isn’t just about AOC, though; the “Freshman Force” is a nod to the various women who have just started their congressional careers. That means readers should be on the lookout for appearances by Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), Sharice Davids (D-Kan.), Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), or Ayanna Pressley(D-Mass.), among others.

“Some of the stories are really sweet,” Blaylock said. “Some are completely absurd and satirical; some are cathartic and venting.”

“When you’re an artist, and you want to celebrate or express something happening, you make art,” Blaylock told Forbes. ”There has never been such an energy seen for a candidate at the legislative level before, not even when President Obama was first being elected to the Senate — and I’m saying that as a Chicagoan, and someone who published a comic about him.” Blaylock also worked on Barack the Barbarian, a comic about former president Barack Obama.