Another Round of Counter-Spoliation!

Fighting Back in the Culture War Means Creating a New Pop Culture

Back in October 2021, I wrote one of my most popular blog posts, The Spoliation of Pop Culture, where I explained how our pop culture is being spoliated:

Spoliation works like this:

1. A conqueror defeats a rival.

2. The conqueror identifies the defeated rival’s most valuable cultural expressions (artwork, artifacts, buildings, monuments, stories, etc.).

3. The conqueror appropriates those expressions and reuses them in its own cultural expressions, thereby transferring power to itself.

Does that process seem familiar? It should.

With near-total control of the arts, entertainment, education, and media industries, America’s progressives have won the culture war and begun to claim their spoils of war. They have identified every valuable expression of American culture and are busily repurposing these expressions for their own use. And, again, who can blame them? Spoliation is what conquerors do.

Perhaps the most visible example of today’s spoliation occurs when old characters are replaced with new counterparts operating under the same mantle or brand name. For instance, Clark Kent has been replaced with Jon Kent as Superman; Peter Parker with Miles Morales as Spiderman; Thor with Jane Foster as Thor; Tony Stark with Riri Williams as Iron Man; James “Logan” Howlett with Laura Kinney as Wolverine; James Bond with Nomi as 007; and on and on.

The spoliators claim for their causes all of the power and majesty that accrues to the spolia, while denying the vanquished the value of what has been taken. When Superman becomes a champion of cosmopolitan globalism, Superman stops being a champion of American patriotism.

Woe to the vanquished and spoils to the victor. That has been the way of history.

But what if you are today a consumer, or — God forbid — an artist, writer, or other creator, who does not share the new values and new views that are appropriating and replacing the old? What if you want your truth and justice the American Way?

You have three choices. First, you can seek to enjoy the best of what is offered by the new, while ignoring the parts that offend you…

Second, you can find solace in the great works of the past…

Third, you can create and/or consume new works made with the values of old.

In a follow-up article, The Destruction of Legacy, I wrote:

It is up to us, those who want to create, consume, and enjoy timeless art, to ensure that today’s great works get the support they deserve. If you want to do something to resist the dystopian trend in our world, you can start by finding content creators who uphold timeless values and support their work, publicly, forcefully, and often.

Have I ever created timeless art? I don’t know. Every creator loves and loathes their own work in equal measure, and its excellence is for the audience of the future to decide. I’d like to think some if it will withstand the test of time.

What I do know is that I have put my all into every work I’ve undertaken. What I have created might not be the best games or comics ever made — but everyone of them is the very best that I could make at that time. I have had sleepless nights and long hours and bouts of existential despair. I have, as they say, “eaten my own dog food” and single-handedly written the sort of content I want to consume.

Today I’m humbly asking you to put some of my dogfood on your wish list! Today I’m announcing a new product, Ascendant: Star-Spangled Squadron Volume II, now in pre-launch at BackerKit. Please sign up to support the project!

Since this is Volume II of my counter-spoliation, I want to take a minute to explain what the series is about, for those of you who missed the first volume. (You’ll be able to pick up the first volume in the crowdfunding campaign, don’t worry.)

Ascendant: Star-Spangled Squadron is set in our world in the current year, with one decided difference: In 2016, superhumans with incredible destructive powers emerged onto the world scene. The process of gaining superpowers is called “ascension” and it can be a spontaneous event brought on by stress or a deliberate outcome of certain secret scientific programs.

The sudden appearance of humans of mass destruction posed a tremendous problem for the US government. They needed super-soldiers to defend the nation, but the thought of government police who could kill with their eyes polls rather badly with the American public. Therefore, the Department of Defense decided to create a literal “superhero” team, all dubbed with outlandish codenames and garbed in extravagant costumes, because they know that this is what the American people would expect to see because of pop culture. In short, superheroes were a hyperstition that the government has made into reality.

The US team, dubbed the Star-Spangled Squadron, is made part of the Coast Guard — because the Coast Guard is the only Armed Service that can fight overseas and also enforce laws domestically. This instantly makes the US Coast Guard the most powerful and prestigious armed service in the world. (Heh.)

The leader of the Star-Spangled Squadron is American Eagle. In his civilian life, American Eagle is a man named Bill Goddard, a married churchgoing father of two, a decorated US Army veteran, a Little League baseball coach, and a firefighter for the town of Freedom, Nebraska. He’s also the most powerful superhuman in the world. American Eagle is who Superman used to be, and who Homelander is pretending to be. The plot twist is that there’s no plot twist. He’s exactly the sort of hero that Hollywood won’t offer you.

He’s a man who loves his family as much as he loves his country, and even when he’s confronted by a dangerous ascendant with lust-inspiring pheromones he’s unmoved:

American Eagle takes his duties seriously but he’s an inexperienced hero and things don’t always work out as he hopes…

The other members of the Squadron are less powerful and, perhaps, less serious about their jobs. The Department of Defense has carefully “selected” the heroes to represent America…

The heroes themselves aren’t sure whether the government supports them because they are heroes or because they are good for the approval ratings.

I have no idea how many of the readers of this blog are gamers or comic fans. Most of you come here, I assume, for a daily dose of despair and desiccated wit. But I’m always surprised at how many “closet geeks” there are out there. If you’re one of them, I hope you’ll check my work out. If you have friends who are geeks and gamers, please send the link over to them. I can’t save America, but maybe with your help, I can save American comics.