JOHN OSTRANDER: America, George Bush and … Marvel Comics?

John Ostrander

John Ostrander started his career as a professional writer as a playwright. His best known effort, Bloody Bess, was directed by Stuart Gordon, and starred Dennis Franz, Joe Mantegna, William J. Norris, Meshach Taylor and Joe Mantegna. He has written some of the most important influential comic books of the past 25 years, including Batman, The Spectre, Manhunter, Firestorm, Hawkman, Suicide Squad, Wasteland, X-Men, and The Punisher, as well as Star Wars comics for Dark Horse. New episodes of his creator-owned series, GrimJack, which was first published by First Comics in the 1980s, appear every week on ComicMix.

You may also like...

7 Responses

  1. Rob says:

    and, to this day, Marvel still hasn't been able to regain what they once had. Most of what comes out nowadays feels like a one shot unconnected to anything that came before. Thank God for the trade and HC compiling the days of old!

  2. Brian Taylor says:

    Vary well put John,neither party cares about the common man or our country.

    • Mike Gold says:

      I disagree with that, Brian. There's always some corruption, but historically this is usually from underlings whose activities are covered up in order to keep the path clear for reelection.I think both parties have a number of visions of and philosophies for America, and within each party these factions can overlap. I believe that each faction and both parties are sincere about their beliefs.Sadly, those beliefs have little to do with the sundry beliefs held by the populace. That's what you get with a republican democracy: reps are elected to vote their conscience, not that of the electorate.I've worked with all kinds of politicians — senators, representatives, governors, mayors and their ilk (and some are pretty ilky indeed), and as much as I might dislike many of them I do believe they're sincere.

  3. Mark Behar says:

    From what I've observed as a Canadian, born and raised watching American TV, the common American voter's idea of who deserves to run the country is flawed at its core. I'm not the first one to point this out, of course, but Americans have this funny idea that the president should be a man with whom they can sit down to dinner. It doesn't matter if the person can govern, mind you, or make sound decisions with the fate of the world's most powerful nation in hand. These considerations are secondary at best, and I don't need to reference the times of Warren G. Harding to prove my point. Voting citizens of any country will gravitate to the most charismatic of the bunch, mind you, but I can see why Americans elected Bush and even why they re-elected him in 2004 after some of the worst decision-making we could possibly imagine. Within reason, Americans would rather elect a straight-shooter who is wrong most of the time, than a brilliant decision-maker who doesn't look or sound the part. Both Al Gore and John Kerry beat Dubya so soundly in their presidential debates that they ended up making themselves look like artistoctratic bullies. Kerry, especially, could not have seemed more removed from the common man, due to his intelligence and impressive speaking style. And doesn't that say a lot?… he alienated himself from the mass audience by sounding too intelligent. I still think that he would have made an amazing President, but the mass populace just couldn't see themselves identifying with this guy. The same goes for Gore. The funniest thing about it is that Americans, especially in the run-up to the 2000 election but still to a certain extent now, thought of George W. Bush as a down-home kinda' guy. Most of us realize that he was raised with MORE privilege than John Kerry and Al Gore combined. I know George W. likes eating barbecue and putting criminals to death though. Yee-ha!

  4. Brian Taylor says:

    I do belive that most are sincere at the start of their {public lives} however the things they must do to hold on that power ends up making a good man or woman just another part of the problem. the status quo

  5. Vinnie Bartilucci says:

    We need another James K Polk. Do what you promise, and get out. Hell, "Do what you promise" would be a good start.If only politicians would tell the people clearly and distinctly what they planned to do and the laws they plan to pass, and hold themselves accountable if they don't. Kind like a Contract of some type…with America.Nah, that'd never work.

  6. Mike Gold says:

    Do what you promise? To whom? Follow just about any campaign and you'll find all sorts of contradictory promises.