Posted by
Daniel Crandall on Tuesday, February 13, 2007 12:52:55 AM
Marvel Comics, it seems, finds very little of worth in the United States of America. one can conclude little else after reading the anti-American garbage Garth Ennis writes in
Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears.
Trail of Tears is about Travis Parham, a Confederate soldier in the midst of America's War between the States. He is left for dead, following a brutal battle sequence and found later that night by Caleb, a black man scavenging guns from the fallen soldiers.
Caleb, we learn, bought himself and his wife out of slavery and now farm their own land. Presumably, events take place in the South. This leaves me wondering how a slave would have earned enough money to buy himself and his wife out of slavery. They were slaves after all, and slaves don't tend to get paid. Never let simple reason get in your way when trying to score points with
stunning dialog such as this:
Travis: "I am ... not yet myself. My head feels stuffed with cotton, or the like. Boy, fetch me som water..."
Caleb: "I'll take a moment alone with our guest. / Ain't nobody gits called boy 'round here. Ain't nobody gonna sir you, neither. / You best git used to that right quick. Don't think you can, start crawlin' an' good luck to you. Break youself off a limb to lean on, I see you makin' a mile a day, easy."
Travis: "I... I see... / but why... I am your enemy why even give me succor in the first place?"
Caleb: "You my enemy, huh?"
Travis: "I am a lieutenant in hte Confederate Armey. The men I fihgt would free you, or so they claim."
Caleb (scowling at Travis): "You see a like of Abraham Lincoln on these here walls?"
Travis: "Eh?"
Caleb: "I am free. Bought myself outta servitude ten years past. Bought Esther [Caleb's wife] out the same day. Earned the money fair an' square. Ain't nobody never done nuthin' for me." [Emphasis in original]
Wasn't there a single editor that could have asked Ennis how, exactly a
slave buys his way out of slavery? That means that someone would have had to be paying him for his work, which kind of flies in the face of the line: "Ain't nobody never done
nuthin' for me." It seems someone was doing something for him, like treating him as an
employee when all his brethren worked as unpaid slaves
.Let's put aside that rather nonsensical bit of storytelling and move along. Travis, as noted earlier, heals from his wounds and spends two years working for Caleb. One day, while out plowing a field he discovers a shrine Caleb set up to honor his ancestors and family's gods. Travis, the curious little goat, does what I'm sure anyone would do when seeing a burning skull in a tree stump; he sticks his finger in it. This sends poor Travis off to the land of hte dead, where we get our first, and only image of the Civil War era Ghost Rider in this issue.
Travis, seemingly lost for a few moments in the land of the dead, is saved, again, by Caleb. Cut to several years later and Travis, now that the war is over, decides to leave Caleb's farm for the promise of the wide open West. At which point we get a few lines from Caleb about the evils of the American Civil War and Manifest Destiny.
The Civil War, according to Ennis ... uh, I mean, Caleb was nothing but a "trap" set by the likes of "Mister Colt an' his freinds." How about that bit of American history. The Civil War was not over the idea that one man could own another man. Instead it was so the maker of the Colt 45 could get rich. The only problem with this bit of non-history is that Samuel Colt died in 1862. In the story, the timeline is the end of the war, i.e., 1865.
Caleb's sounds a bit like the anti-war Left as he tries to convince Travis to not head West, young man:
"You gonna go out West an' it gonna be just like the war. You gonna kill or be killed. Comes to the injuns, you gonna do a mess o' killin' -- 'cause that how it been in this country since the beginnin'. Gonna e them that goes out an' fights for the territory, an' gonna be them that provisions the fight. Come the end, won't be them that done the fightin' guts their hands on the spoils. ... I know a thing or two 'bout what folks gonna do to turn a profit." [emphasis on original]
One could go right from this to the Nation Magazine and not skip a single beat.
Travis tells Caleb that he wants Caleb and his entire family to join him out West after he establishes his homestead. Travis fears for them all since the South "is not a Christian place." Caleb, with something of a smirk on his face, tells Travis, "...what happens to them injuns you gonna see
not Christian then." Ennis closes the book with the required shot of three early members of the Ku Klux Klan staring down at the Caleb's farm.
Ghost Rider has become a work from which a British Leftist can peddle pathetic anti-American dribble while scoring points among his anti-war buddies in the Marvel publishing house.
The only good thing I have to say about this book is its art. I was initially intrigued by the book because of Clayton Crain's rather compelling work. Unfortunately, this can't redeam the anti-American message in the story.
Based on browsing future titles in this series it is easy to predict that Caleb and his family will be killed by the Klan, his wife, very likely will suffer a brutal rape and Caleb will be lynched. Travis will become the force of vengence, i.e., the Ghost Rider out to kill the evil white men responsible. I have little doubt that future issues will be chock full of evil white men abusing indians and blacks ad nauseum.