Marvel's Propaganda Problem

By Jaylyn Preslicka, Editor-in-Chief

Courtesy of MARVEL COMICS

Marvel Studios made $22.2 billion through box office revenue in November 2020ーthrough one of the most tolling economic depressions since the 2008 recession, and COVID-19 was worse.

Marvel has a loyal fanbase, allowing them to make billions through merchandise, movies, and other affiliated attractions across the entire world. Even though these lavish movies make billions, they also cost billions to produce.

A popular theory is that the American military, as well as the C.I.A., supports and funds many of the “pro-America” Marvel Studios products such “Captain American” and “Agents of Shield.” Recently, the Flag-Smasher, an anti-nationalist advocate for global liberation, has been introduced into the current Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The problem is that she is painted as a villain.

“Propaganda films are generally associated with faraway and destitute countries, made by tyrannical governments in scary-sounding places such as Soviet Russia, but they have a long history of being funded in America,” student journalist Anna Banerjee said. "America so strongly with ideals of freedom and democracy, it is often hard to admit that governments and political powers have strong hands on the mass media we happily enjoy and flock to in the hundreds of thousands."

The Flag-Smasher character made it's first appearance in Captain America #312 (December 1985) under the male figure name Karl Morgenthau. In the streaming show “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” the character takes on a feminine role (named Karli Morgenthau) as she collides with the two central characters on the show Bucky Barnes (a.k.a. the Winter Soldier) and Sam Wilson (the Falcon).

The trouble is that Karli is presented as a villain, just as the predecessor Karl was.

How is it possible that a character that advocates for freedom and anti-oppression is portrayed as an awful person when America prides itself on being "the land of the free?"

Morgenthau's values are those of a far-left ideology. America and its Western allies chose to be isolationist in the means of foreign aid and having a character that opposes that is good bait for American audiences to disapprove of that as well.

Using anti-left propaganda has been a common trope in many pro-American nationalist tales, such as the in the film “Red Dawn.” In the film, there are countless comparisons to Communists and Nazis such as in the scene when young girls are hidden under a floorboard so they wouldn’t get raped by Soviet guards. In the case of Morgenthau, the same is done.

American propaganda uses a tool of anti-anti-Semitism in order to make it seem that Americans welcome those of the Jewish faith and continue the myth that Americans alone were the ones who won WWII. By portraying anything radical to the left as anti-Semitic, the American propaganda machine upholds the lie all the while hoping viewers don't realize the comparison in itself is anti-Semitic.

The comparison is just another subtle way how C.I.A.-funded Marvel propaganda perpetuates a white nationalist state.

"The Bush administration wanted to get Hollywood filmmakers to rally around the flag, reminiscent of the early days of World War One and World War Two," Digital Study and Communications Professor Tanner Mirrlees said. "A spokesperson for the Bush administration said: 'I have great respect for the industry and its ability to educate at home and abroad.' As if war films are about public education."

Marvel has smart marketing though, bringing in topics of racial justice while carefully ignoring true themes of Black liberation and other pro-socially left ideas. The casual LGBTQ+ member is thrown in to keep audiences happy and their problem is solved.

However. with these giant war movies, the narrative of pro-military is carefully calculated, sometimes criticizing small aspects of war while ignoring the bigger picture. Marvel choses topics a general consensus would disagree with all while upholding the very strong American value system.