Spider-Man UnAmerican?

[clobberintime]

I swim laps for about 40 minutes every day which is fairly boring but gives me time to think about all sorts of trivial things. With all the press lately about what W and Kerry did or did not do in the early 70s, I was wondering why Peter Parker didn't get drafted or simply sign up to be shipped off to fight the evil communists? Was he 4F? Did he devise some scheme to get out of the draft? Did he go to Canada? Did his rich daddy get him deal with the Alabama natl guard? I can't remember many bronze age marvels really dealing with Vietnam - I guess it was just too difficult unlike WWII where all the heroes fought. I think it would have been though if marvel had stories where there teen characters were drafted or joined up - the X-men at a draft review would have been great.

[Red Hook]

Wasn't Flash Thompson in the armed forces?

[ArnoldTBlumberg]

To be honest I read those stories a million times over, my all-time favorite era of Spider-Man, and I can't recall any specific mention of how Peter avoided service. There was the famous two-part "Steve Canyon"-inspired post-Vietnam story that Romita loved so much, but before that...

 

Could it be that his supposed near-sightedness was enough? But wouldn't a doctor have detected his bizarre biochemistry? I'm stumped and I can't believe I can't recall a reason.

 

Arnold

[Wally's Comics]

Crack open ASM issues 108 and 109.

 

Flash Thompson enlisted on his own free will. These issues deal with Flash's struggles of

not only fitting back into a civilian lifestyle, but there were Vietnam thugs that wanted to

use him as a sacrifice for a mistaken military accident.

 

Pete/Spider-Man wasn't involved and I can imagine why. Spidey was the main character in the Marvel universe at the time and pretty much still is today. In that time the Nam war was pretty contraversal and I'm sure you'll notice that many of the main character in all comics stayed way because of this.

 

I would say Spidey isn't patriotic and I definitely wouldn't say he was unamerican.

I mean heck look at the only comic dedicated to 9-11 ASM 36 V2. America had the worst

tragedy to ever happen on our soil and you guessed it Spidey was there to help.

 

And there were many issues throughout the years were Spidey fought terrorists even before they became so common place news like they are today (like in ASM issue #95).

 

I admit Spidey ain't no Captain America, when it comes to war decorated combat

but he's All American to me!

 

[Stronguy]

I think what Clobber is trying to ask (please correct me if I'm wrong Clobber) is, if it's less than noble to serve in the Guard during war time (as some people have suggested) then is it even worse to not even go at all -- especially during a draft.

 

BTW, since America was a seething put of racism during the 70's wouldn't Luke Cage have been on the first boat over there? Of course they would have had a hell of a time getting his blood work done...

[Kevin Boyd]

I think what Clobber is trying to ask (please correct me if I'm wrong Clobber) is, if it's less than noble to serve in the Guard during war time (as some people have suggested) then is it even worse to not even go at all -- especially during a draft.

 

BTW, since America was a seething put of racism during the 70's wouldn't Luke Cage have been on the first boat over there? Of course they would have had a hell of a time getting his blood work done...

 

This of course, is conjecture, as we are talking about fictional characters, but he probably would have been sent over, except for the fact that he was in PRISON, which is where he got his powers. In an illegal experiment with prisoners being used as guinea pigs.

 

He escaped and set up a new identity in NYC as a private investigator. With his newfound strength and abilities it would have been tough for the authorities to bring him in to ship him off.

 

Since Cage was very strongly based on Mohammed Ali, and Ali was publicly against going overseas to fight, Cage probably adopted a similar stance. He was fighting a war in the ghettos of Harlem and not interested in participating in a war that didn't mean anything to him overseas.

[Aces]

Didn't the draft end in "72?

 

In was in college during the whole time right?

[The Brain]

did i say somthing bad(post not here anymore)

[WEBHEAD]

EXACTLY

 

 

WEBHEAD

[Wally's Comics]

THANK YOU ARCH!

 

For clean the Political hogwash out of this thread!

 

U DA MAN!

[Mephisto]

Parker didn't have to go to NAM because he went to college just like Bill Clinton.

[FlyingDonut]

Parker didn't have to go to NAM because he went to college just like Bill Clinton.

 

And George Bush. And Cheney. Knock it off with the political [!@#%^&^], please.

[deathlok]

THANK YOU ARCH!

 

For clean the Political hogwash out of this thread!

 

U DA MAN!

 

I don't think it was Arch. Although I could be mistaken. The mods seem to have a quick trigger finger. There have been quite a few post deletions over the past week.

[BachelorOfComix]

THANK YOU ARCH!

 

For clean the Political hogwash out of this thread!

 

U DA MAN!

 

I don't think it was Arch. Although I could be mistaken. The mods seem to have a quick trigger finger. There have been quite a few post deletions over the past week.

Tell me about it. They deleted half of my #&%*ing posts this week!

[deathlok]

THANK YOU ARCH!

 

For clean the Political hogwash out of this thread!

 

U DA MAN!

 

I don't think it was Arch. Although I could be mistaken. The mods seem to have a quick trigger finger. There have been quite a few post deletions over the past week.

They deleted half of my #&%*ing posts this week!

They deleted a few of mine also. Although I don't think they deleted enough of Ian's posts, I can still read them.

[Illiterati-migration]

THANK YOU ARCH!

 

For clean the Political hogwash out of this thread!

 

U DA MAN!

 

I don't think it was Arch. Although I could be mistaken. The mods seem to have a quick trigger finger. There have been quite a few post deletions over the past week.

They deleted half of my #&%*ing posts this week!

They deleted a few of mine also. Although I don't think they deleted enough of Ian's posts, I can still read them.

 

It's late; shouldn't you be crying yourself to sleep about now?

[deathlok]

THANK YOU ARCH!

 

For clean the Political hogwash out of this thread!

 

U DA MAN!

 

I don't think it was Arch. Although I could be mistaken. The mods seem to have a quick trigger finger. There have been quite a few post deletions over the past week.

They deleted half of my #&%*ing posts this week!

They deleted a few of mine also. Although I don't think they deleted enough of Ian's posts, I can still read them.

 

It's late; shouldn't you be crying yourself to sleep about now?

I still have some whiskey left in the bottle. Why? Did you need your diaper changed?

[BradleyX2]

It's late; shouldn't you be crying yourself to sleep about now?

I still have some whiskey left in the bottle. Why? Did you need your diaper changed?

 

 

Would you two *please* be quiet and pass me my binky?!?

[Illiterati-migration]

It's late; shouldn't you be crying yourself to sleep about now?

I still have some whiskey left in the bottle. Why? Did you need your diaper changed?

 

 

Would you two *please* be quiet and pass me my binky?!?

 

 

You mean Solar's sweet, sweet Binky?

 

[greggy]

It's late; shouldn't you be crying yourself to sleep about now?

I still have some whiskey left in the bottle. Why? Did you need your diaper changed?

 

 

Would you two *please* be quiet and pass me my binky?!?

 

 

You mean Solar's sweet, sweet Binky?