In Memory of the victims of the 9/11 attacks
Today is September Eleventh. Eleven years ago that date held no significance but today it is remembered as one of the darkest days in American history. I was fortunate enough not to have any loved ones die in the attack but countless others were not so lucky. Today I pay tribute to the victims of that senseless attack the best way I know how, by reviewing a comic book.
God...no.
That is all Spiderman is able to say after witnessing the world trade center crumbling before his very eyes. He knows that even he could not have done anything to prevent this, nor could any of his powerful colleagues, but that doesn't do anything to ease the pain. These are people who have saved the world from countless cosmic threats, but no one could have prevented this. All that can be done is to help rebuild and save as many people as they can. The entire issue is a montage of various superheroes throughout the Marvel Universe aiding the Firefighters and other real life heroes at ground zero. Some probably wish that this was caused by a super villain. A super villain is easy, just fight and defeat them and throw them in jail, but what does one do when the enemy is senseless hatred, something that will always exist in the world no matter how hard we fight.
In my mind, the most powerful scene in the comic is not the scenes with the heroes, but rather the one with the villains helping with the relief effort. We see Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. Sure he may be a criminal and a corrupt business man, but an act of evil on this scale is beyond anything he could conceive. Besides, there were probably people who worked directly for him in those towers, people who he walked by everyday, never even bothering to learn their name, and now these people are gone and suddenly they become human beings instead of just subordinates. We see Magneto. As a holocaust survivor Magneto literally endured the very worst of humanity, and now he sees that the same sort of mindless hatred cause the deaths of millions of innocents, some of them probably mutants. Magneto may hate humanity, but even he would never wish this horror upon us. We see Doctor Doom. It's possible that many of the victims of the attack were from his home country of Latveria. As Latveria's ruler, he holds himself personally responsible for his people and has gone to great and questionable lengths to ensure that his homeland is one without crime or pain, but even he couldn't protect them from this.
There will be no What Works and What Doesn't for this review. I will say that this issue is well written, well drawn and very powerful, no surprise that it's from the dream team of J. Michael Strazynski and John Romita Jr. If you have lost friends or loved ones in the 9/11 attacks my heart goes out to you today. I don't have a profound way to end this review, all I can say is that today would be a good day to call your loved ones and tell them how lucky you are to have them in your lives. There are people in this world who think they can cause destruction and death by justifying it through some twisted interpretation of their religion and this world may never truly be rid of those people, but there are also those who have great love and compassion in their hearts, and those are the people who I thank today. The brave fire fighters who tried to prevent more senseless death on that fateful day, the valiant soldiers who are laying down their lives to avenge the innocents who gave their lives, and the humble comic book writers who paid tribute to the victims the best way that they knew how.
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