Fighting American: The Ties That Bind #1

Imagine if Captain America and Speedy were in reality Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson from Batman '66. Instead of operating in their time period of the nifty 1950s, the duo are transported to the present day. Here in the present, they find that the inventions of their most insane foe has fallen into the hands of sophisticated modern day criminals. 

That's the new take on the Fighting American and his youthful sidekick Speedboy by Titan Comics in a very large nutshell. 

The Fighting American was the creation of Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. It was created as a follow-up to Captain America after their tenure at Timely, then Atlas Comics, came to a terse end. The publisher had decided to bring back Captain America in the 1950s against the wishes of Kirby and Simon. In response a Fighting American was born.

By the second issue, Fighting American had become a satire of patriotic comics. That tongue-in-cheek approach is kicked into high gear in this latest series from Gordon Rennie (Dredd Vs Death.) 

I highly enjoyed the first half of this book. Fighting American and Speedboy are aided through a zombie attack by their FBI liaison Agent Rutherford. Fighting American is so firmly rooted in his time period of 1954 and is very troubled by the bad influence today's TV is having on his sidekick.

The art by Andie Tong was really cool. It had a Mike and Laura Allred quality to it. The amazing inks and colors (by Tracy Bailey) are definitely inspired by the House of Allred.

But around the halfway point this story goes from fun parody of old school crime fighters to full scale assault on Trump supporters, Republicans and Southerners. And does every comic book published in 2018 have to assume anyone from the South is an inbred idiot? Not everyone of us residents of the South owns a hat with the letters MAGA on it or pronounces education as 'ed-u-mah-cation.'

I was born and raised in the South and I have two degrees and zero guns. My walls are not wall papered with stained American flags. My home doesn't have more wheels than the cars parked in my driveway. Yet this is what writer Gordon Rennie will have you believe is typical of us Southern yokels.

Gordon Rennie is Scottish. Writers are supposed to research their material. Based on the second half of this issue, I think all Gordon Rennie did was study reruns of The Dukes of Hazzard and Hee-Haw. 

Regardless, this brand of stereotyping (and ignorance) really ticks me off! I see this cliche way too often in comics and graphic novels- especially British publications. Coincidently, Titan is based in the UK, thus tihs Fighting American series is British. It also makes me not want to pursue the adventures of the Fighting American further, no matter how much I enjoyed the first half.

Titan Comics- you had such promise with this title. But you threw it right in the toilet when you decided to allow the creative team behind this to assume anyone born in the American South is as ignorant as the characters you bias in this first issue. I challenge your writing team to visit me in Durham, NC and I will show you have wrong you are. Yes, some of us 'hillbillies' are as prejudice as can be. But I can show you how wrong your first assumptions are and that the South is way more progressive than you think!

There is satire and then there is stereotype. Sadly Titan, your new title gets the two confused at the risk of alienating readers such as me.

Not Worth Consuming!

Rating: 4 out of 10 stars.

Fighting American: The Ties That Bind #1 debuted in stores on March 7, 2018.