Dust: How Marvel Used Captain America to Deal with 9/11
September 11th, 2001 started off like any other day. People took the subway to work, kids got on a bus to go to school, they said hello and goodbye to friends and family alike, and for some (and yet still far too many) those were the last things they would do. However, by 9 in the morning, the country and the whole world was wounded by hate as the first of the planes hit the Northern Tower of the World Trade Center. It's a day that, for those of us who experienced it, has etched itself permanently as a moment that will never be forgotten. For many, it was a moment that forced those that were so young to grow up too quickly. Facing mortality on this scale will do that. The comic book industry is one built off of imagination, a world where good triumphs over evil, always. So in the wake of such horror, these characters were in a way more important than ever! In the year that followed the events of 9/11 both of the major companies released memorial books. Stories to commemorate the loss that occurred on that day. Stories that put the most iconic characters in comics side by side with first responders trying to pull survivors from the rubble. It was a dark time, and we needed our heroes to feel the pain we had endured, we needed them lost as we were, but most importantly, we needed them to overcome that pain, find the light through that darkness. We needed our champions of good to do what they always had, fight evil, fight hate, and win.
When I look across nerd pages on this day I see a lot of images, panels took predominantly from the Amazing Spider-Man 9/11 issue. Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic book. However, there was another comic made on the anniversary of 9/11 that often is overlooked, but in my opinion, is more important. This is a story that does exactly what we needed it to, although I don't think it got the focus it deserved. In part, I have no doubt it's because the opening of the first issue recreates the hijacking of one of the planes, but at the end of the day, it serves a purpose. Dust, the first chapter of the "enemy storyline" of John Ney Reiber and John Cassady's Marvel Knights run for Captain America, puts Steve Rogers in our shoes. He feels useless as he goes through the rubble of Ground Zero, only to be too late again and again to save people. He is angry, he is scared, but what's important is that even in the face of the hate, he remains steadfast in his values, his belief in us.
There is a moment in the book, shortly after Cap finishes what help he can give at Ground Zero, where Cap passes by a Food market being closed up by a young man. He's middle Eastern and it's late, Cap tries to offer him an assist home. That may be tonight's not the night to be walking alone. The kid says that he was born here on this street and that he won't be afraid. However, anger makes people compromise and so a man tries to stab him to avenge his daughter who just died. What is really brilliant about this, however, is that the way that John Cassady draws the knife of the mugger mirrors the box cutter of the terrorist who hijacked the plane in the first page. Yet as the man lunges in with his the knife to kill this boy, it's stopped by Cap's shield. Cap stands between the mugger and the kid:
This is only the climax of this issue, but it's everything we needed from a superhero book in a post 9/11 world, especially so soon after the events had shaken us to our core. We saw our hero struggle and overcome, but more importantly, we saw the world around him falling apart the way it felt for us. Yet, he pulls the world up and out of the dust around him, reminding both the people in the book and us as the reader that if we give an inch if we stray from the path of goodness, that they win. The moment we allow hate to push us forward, we've lost.
The issue ends with Cap going to liberate the town of Centreville, Virginia which has been taken over by a terrorist organization. Cap is not about to let another 9/11 happened. He's initially given a monitor to track his status, should he die a Delta squad will be inserted, and while they will likely succeed, there is a high risk of casualties for the hostages. Cap ditches the monitor and vows only success. No one will die today because he is there. Compassion conquers hate, light overcomes dark and good champions evil, as Cap runs off into the fray.
When I look across nerd pages on this day I see a lot of images, panels took predominantly from the Amazing Spider-Man 9/11 issue. Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic book. However, there was another comic made on the anniversary of 9/11 that often is overlooked, but in my opinion, is more important. This is a story that does exactly what we needed it to, although I don't think it got the focus it deserved. In part, I have no doubt it's because the opening of the first issue recreates the hijacking of one of the planes, but at the end of the day, it serves a purpose. Dust, the first chapter of the "enemy storyline" of John Ney Reiber and John Cassady's Marvel Knights run for Captain America, puts Steve Rogers in our shoes. He feels useless as he goes through the rubble of Ground Zero, only to be too late again and again to save people. He is angry, he is scared, but what's important is that even in the face of the hate, he remains steadfast in his values, his belief in us.
There is a moment in the book, shortly after Cap finishes what help he can give at Ground Zero, where Cap passes by a Food market being closed up by a young man. He's middle Eastern and it's late, Cap tries to offer him an assist home. That may be tonight's not the night to be walking alone. The kid says that he was born here on this street and that he won't be afraid. However, anger makes people compromise and so a man tries to stab him to avenge his daughter who just died. What is really brilliant about this, however, is that the way that John Cassady draws the knife of the mugger mirrors the box cutter of the terrorist who hijacked the plane in the first page. Yet as the man lunges in with his the knife to kill this boy, it's stopped by Cap's shield. Cap stands between the mugger and the kid:
We can hunt them down, we can scour every bloodstained trace of their terror from the Earth. We can turn every stone they've ever touched to dust, and every blade of grass to ash. And it won't matter. We've got to be stronger than we've ever been-- As a people. As a nation. We have to be America, or they've won.
This is only the climax of this issue, but it's everything we needed from a superhero book in a post 9/11 world, especially so soon after the events had shaken us to our core. We saw our hero struggle and overcome, but more importantly, we saw the world around him falling apart the way it felt for us. Yet, he pulls the world up and out of the dust around him, reminding both the people in the book and us as the reader that if we give an inch if we stray from the path of goodness, that they win. The moment we allow hate to push us forward, we've lost.
The issue ends with Cap going to liberate the town of Centreville, Virginia which has been taken over by a terrorist organization. Cap is not about to let another 9/11 happened. He's initially given a monitor to track his status, should he die a Delta squad will be inserted, and while they will likely succeed, there is a high risk of casualties for the hostages. Cap ditches the monitor and vows only success. No one will die today because he is there. Compassion conquers hate, light overcomes dark and good champions evil, as Cap runs off into the fray.
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