ちょっとイライラさせたんだけど。
I just wrote a freaking novel to post here, then deleted it all because I decided people could contradict my point too easily. Let me just sum it up: I found a picture of a Nazi!Nightcrawler on DA, and started thinking about how it bugs me that every popular German character gets portrayed as a Nazi at some point. It's one thing to dig deeply and find a way that could have happened and carefully consider the consequences - it's another to portray a modern German character as an outdated stereotype just for kicks. Personally I think it's belittling both to today's Germans and to the people who struggled through World War 2. Kids in school who are of German descent get called "Nazi" and other cruel little nicknames, and, guys, it's hurtful. It's a stupid thing to do. Why do it with art?
Nightcrawler has been portrayed as basically Gestapo, in the front of the villainous Lightning Squad in Excalibur fifteen or twenty years ago. But the sensitivity of that portrayal, as well as that of the other members (particularly Shadowcat, who is Jewish, and in Lightning Squad was a tormented, mute Jewish girl being used by the Squad) is questionable.
I think the likelihood that Crawler could have ever been a Nazi, had he lived during that time, is slim to none - but as I was writing out why, I came up with a few ways it could have happened. Personality and ethnic background (and sometimes even parentage) are completely arbitrary in the magical world of superhero comic books. So that's why I decided against the rant.
But my main point wasn't just about Crawler; it was about such depictions of German characters as Nazis in general. I still stand by that. It makes me sad. =(
Nightcrawler has been portrayed as basically Gestapo, in the front of the villainous Lightning Squad in Excalibur fifteen or twenty years ago. But the sensitivity of that portrayal, as well as that of the other members (particularly Shadowcat, who is Jewish, and in Lightning Squad was a tormented, mute Jewish girl being used by the Squad) is questionable.
I think the likelihood that Crawler could have ever been a Nazi, had he lived during that time, is slim to none - but as I was writing out why, I came up with a few ways it could have happened. Personality and ethnic background (and sometimes even parentage) are completely arbitrary in the magical world of superhero comic books. So that's why I decided against the rant.
But my main point wasn't just about Crawler; it was about such depictions of German characters as Nazis in general. I still stand by that. It makes me sad. =(