It’s Iimi! Americana

Things seem to be coming together. Carl is beginning to set emergency measures in place. Meanwhile, Iimi and Vicki might have a semi-civil conversation on the American institution of comic books. But news from Della in Puerto Rico makes them seem unimportant. These are elements of… Americana

Post-Comic Notes:
The events for Acts 3 + 4 caught me by surprise. While I added “Puerto Rico” to the topics I follow in my news apps for things that might involve Della, I rarely see any updates. So, I didn’t expect a “Della in a natural disaster” to happen unless there was a hurricane. But during the outlining phase, I learned of a severe drought that has been going on for a while. Please pray for the inhabitants of Puerto Rico.

In terms of the story, the drought restrictions were accurate when I scripted the comic. It wasn’t something I could ignore, even though it disrupted several of my long-term plans. Della is in a situation Carl would have to bump to the top of his priority list, even though he was already in the middle of several things demanding his attention. While San Juan is the worst affected, Ponce was also seriously impacted. So, if you think things are getting “over the top,” think of it as an unexpected curve thrown at the worst possible moment for the family.

Geek Alert: Regarding the comic book arguments, briefly (for those not familiar), the Captain America run Iimi preferred ran from 1964-1996. The comic was rebooted in 1998 with the unpopular “Heroes Reborn,” which was retconned a year later. Between 1998 and the present, Steve Rogers has been killed, returned, lost his powers, regained them, been trapped in alternate dimensions, returned, lost faith in America, been replaced by an evil version, and had many people wear his costume or use his shield. Most recently (I’m up to “Cold War” at the time of writing), Sam Wilson (formerly the Falcon) shares the name and has his own shield. “Not My Captain” appeared in the comic (originally as a strawman of fans unhappy with the change) and was later adopted by those targeted fans.

The controversy is that many people believe Marvel is trying to replace Steve Rogers with Sam Wilson for reasons of “representation,” saying that the original is being turned into a minor character in his own comic. True or not, some actual racists have emerged, allowing defenders of the changes to use the “guilt by association” and composition fallacies to claim all who dislike the changes do so because of race. I avoid using it myself because it gets tied to accusations of racism.

Kamen America is a conservative comic by Mark Pellegrini and Timothy Lim. What I read was okay, but it has the same problems as what Iimi observed in this comic, just in the opposite political direction.

This is the context behind Iimi and Vicki’s conversation.

Image Credits

Cover Image is © 2015 Dean Spencer, used with permission. All rights reserved.

All Map images are © OpenStreetMap contributors.

AI Disclaimer

I used AI to generate covers and background scenery for Issues 184-277. I still use it to create logos, doodles, and symbols, simply because there are no non-AI logo-creation programs (suggestions are welcome). I kept some previously used images for consistency (iconic buildings and “historic photographs”), and I intend to replace them when possible. Any other appearance of AI means the stock art seller I purchased from misrepresented their product.