In last week's Captain America #28 by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Leonard Kirk,the long-standing Nazi villain of the comic, The Red Skull, went viral. The run has seen The Red Skull return to the fore of the title, but using new tactics to spread fear and hatred for the modern age, which he can then take advantage of in his usual might-makes-white supremacist ways. And with Captain America forced to take on a mob of average, everyday folk led astray. It's not the first time we have seen this kind of story in Captain America, but its parallel with modern social media issues has given the story a new twist.
But one of the parallels Captain America #28 seems to be drawing is with the right-wing psychologist, pundit, author, lecturer and commentator Jordan Peterson.
The Red Skull lines such as "Ten Rules For Life", "Chaos And Order" and "The Feminist Trap" parallel Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos from in 2018 which among other things state that "chaos is represented by the feminine." One might wonder if Jordan Peterson would be reading Cerebus more than Captain America.
There is also plenty to compare between Red Skull's speech and Jordan Peterson's views of masculinity. There's also a line regarding the Gospel message that "the meek will inherit the Earth" with Peterson station that "what it means is this: 'Those who have swords, and know how to use them, but keep them sheathed, shall inherit the world'."
Anyway, Jordan Peterson has his own swords of manhood to worry about. And has been posting to Twitter after the similarities were pointed out to him, saying "Do I really live in a universe where Ta-Nehisi Coates has written a Captain America comic featuring a parody of my ideas as part of the philosophy of the arch villain Red Skull?'"
Oh look, there's another one that he missed, "Barbarians at the gate" was the name of one of Peterson's lectures about protestors who broke a window at a university.
It may also be relevant that Jordan Peterson has a thing about witches. When the New York Times interviewed him, they reported;
Mr. Peterson illustrates his arguments with copious references to ancient myths bringing up stories of witches, biblical allegories and ancient traditions. I ask why these old stories should guide us today. "It makes sense that a witch lives in a swamp. Yeah," he says. "Why?" It's a hard one.
"Right. That's right. You don't know. It's because those things hang together at a very deep level. Right. Yeah. And it makes sense that an old king lives in a desiccated tower."
But witches don't exist, and they don't live in swamps, I say. "Yeah, they do. They do exist. They just don't exist the way you think they exist. They certainly exist. You may say well dragons don't exist. It's, like, yes they do the category predator and the category dragon are the same category. It absolutely exists. It's a superordinate category. It exists absolutely more than anything else. In fact, it really exists. What exists is not obvious. You say, 'Well, there's no such thing as witches.' Yeah, I know what you mean, but that isn't what you think when you go see a movie about them. You can't help but fall into these categories. There's no escape from them."
Well, in Captain America #28, Steve Rogers is assisted in his struggle with an old friend who has become known to many more people of late, courtesy of the TV show WandaVision. Regular Marvel Universe character, Agatha Harkness, Princess Of Darkness, who has her own coven of witches.
And finds that the Red Skull is using and abusing an old spell of her own to help women stand up and stand out at a certain time in history now being used to enrage and encourage men?
I don't think Jordan Peterson got to that part of the comic book yet. But he has now gone beyond parody and is tweeting his own inspirational quotes on images of the Red Skull from the Marvel movies. Who knows what will happen if he actually picks up a copy of the comic in question and reads it? Two more issues until this run ends. Captain America #29 will be out on the 19th of May.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #28MARVEL COMICSJAN210663(W) Ta-Nehisi Coates (A) Leonard Kirk (CA) Alex RossSKULL FRACTURE! Rated T+In Shops: Mar 31, 2021 SRP: $3.99
CAPTAIN AMERICA #29MARVEL COMICSFEB210626(W) Ta-Nehisi Coates (A) Leonard Kirk (CA) Alex RossAs ALL DIE YOUNG races to its climax, Cap faces overwhelming odds as he battles to vanquish the Red Skull and the Power Elite! Rated T+In Shops: May 19, 2021 SRP: $3.99
CAPTAIN AMERICA #30MARVEL COMICSAPR210914(W) Ta-Nehisi Coates (A) Leonard Kirk (CA) Alex RossTHE FINAL ISSUE OF TA-NEHISI COATES' LANDMARK RUN!"ALL DIE YOUNG" ends here! Ta-Nehisi Coates concludes his run on CAPTAIN AMERICA with an all-out fight to the finish with the Red Skull and the Power Elite!32 PGS./Rated T+In Shops: Jun 23, 2021 SRP: $3.99
Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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Jordan Peterson's Red Skull Vs Captain America and Agatha Harkness - Bleeding Cool News