The Order #1

I read The Order #1 last night, and was pleasantly surprised but somewhat perturbed as well. First I liked the use of mythological types and functions conceit. I liked Tony's little speech about the importance of symbols contrasted with Ares's embrace of the royalties. Then all the traditional myth seemingly went away.

Second, I wish that they had tried to work in the American types such as the American frontiersman or the taciturn, practical Yankee. The list of true American archetypes may be small, but there are also dozens of stereotypes that could have been used. For example, the village blacksmith could have replaced Hephaestus. On television, Heroes demonstrates that stereotypes such as the cheerleader or the geek can be creatively used.

By setting the story in Hollywood and recalling Tony's bouts with alcoholism, they unwittingly developed the Star and the Born Again Sinner, and as far as I'm concerned, Tony is the Gangster writ large. And therein lies the problem. Everything that Tony is doing from sending the Hulk into space to the Registration Act to the 50 state initiative all violate the American myth(s).

No one is supposed to plan our lives for us in the way that Tony, the self-proclaimed futurist, apparently is. If we screw up, the consequences are administered through the through the rule of law. Five super powerful individuals are not supposed to disappear a powerful, albeit extremely dangerous, rival, even with government sanction. And the idea that the federal government is going to create an army of superheroes and station them inside the United States to protect citizens against domestic threats seems akin to the frontier forts that were used to subjugate Native Americans, a part of our past that I doubt Americans want to revisit.

Marvel keeps insisting that the correct side won in Civil War. They keep insisting that Tony is not a super-villain. (The comparison to Magneto does allow for some wiggle room.) If Marvel is right, then the types that others have found in the American culture are myths as the word is commonly understood--they are total falsehoods. I continue to believe that they're true symbols that Marvel can't use because their story line totally violates the American story.