Passive Aggressive Heroes: A Round Up

Passive Aggressive Hero of the Year – Independent Theatres

As you may or may not know, the comedy movie The Interview, starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, was pulled amid terrorist threats over its content. Related appearances have also been canceled. While I totally understand theatres not wanting to court danger, particularly with The Dark Knight Massacre still fresh in the public consciousness, allowing people who consider any movie with Seth Rogen in it to be something worth getting worked up about to dictate what movies can or can’t be seen in another country leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

However, some true American heroes came up with a truly passive aggressive and brilliant alternative. As they were unable to show The Interview, several theaters were instead planning (free) showings of Team America: World Police. However, unfortunately, Paramount has pulled the plug on that as well. I, personally, hope each and every one of those theatres just holds a home movie night with their friends and watches Team America anyway. Not that I’m recommending all of you do that or anything… No, never… Perish the thought…

Passive Aggressive Hero of the Year, Runner-Up – Saga

As you may remember from my review of Saga, Vol. 1, the sci-fi war story/adventure/feverdream Saga ruffled feathers over the cover of its first issue, which featured an interspecies alien couple, one of which was breastfeeding their baby. As I pointed out in said review, there was less boob on that cover than most comic book covers and breastfeeding is by no means what kept that book from being child-friendly. Saga is not a kids’ book. It is not intended for kids. It is not written for kids. Please, don’t see space and rocketships and assume it’s for kids. In any case, apart from all public discourse over breastfeeding in public and whether or not it is or isn’t okay, anyone who is offended by breastfeeding but has no qualms about exploding heads (so many exploding heads), should probably reconsider their priorities.

Thus, when I saw the cover of the new deluxe edition of Vol. 1, it brought a smile to my face and a song to my heart. It seems the good people behind Saga doubled down on the breastfeeding, as the new cover features a close-up of a disembodied boob and attached baby suckling away front and center, in a much more overt and in-your-face way than the previous cover that got people hot and bothered. This kind of refusal to give in to controversy and puritanical neuroses around body parts makes me proud to read Saga, although as a starving artist, I likely won’t be buying a spiffed up version of a trade I already have. However, if you do not already own Saga or have a friend who doesn’t, you just found the perfect holiday gift for all of the comic lovers, literary snobs who just haven’t found the right comic, and sex-positive sci-fi fans in your life.

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