Culture

Marvel joins forces with UN for comic book

by Kaitlin | January 10, 2008 at 11:16 am

1218 views | 10 Recommendations | 8 comments

Picture it: Spiderman and the X-Men are battling an international foe responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. They can't do it alone, so they call upon...the United Nations? Well, yes--at least, that's according to a new comic book in development at Marvel intended to spin a positive PR web worthy of Spidey for the embattled organization.

The UN is partnering with Marvel Comics, on a comic book to be released later this year. The comic "is expected to be set in a war-torn fictional country and feature heroes including Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, as well as workers from UN agencies such as children's charity UNICEF and blue helmets of the peacekeeping forces. Eventually, the work will be translated into several other languages ... but it is American schoolchildren who the UN plans to target first. ... The comic will be distributed free to one million U.S. school children."

While the idea of boosting the image of a real-world body using the superhero universe may seem a relative marvel (ha!), the attempt to refine and redefine the concept of "hero" is not all that new; after September 11, both Marvel and DC paid tribute to the police and rescue workers of NYC in their comics, producing some pretty iconic imagery in the process.

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Jordan Yerman

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 12:02 on January 10th, 2008

The PR-driven comics never manage to retain the cool-factor of the characters they use, though...

sven_kraemer

at 12:29 on January 10th, 2008

This gun, i contributed to this story, can be seen in front of the United Nations Headquater in New York and is a present to the UN by Luxemburg.

sven_kraemer has contributed a photo to this story.

yuyang226

at 12:45 on January 10th, 2008

Thanks for choosing my photos for your story. I look foward to seeing it.

yuyang226 has contributed a photo to this story.

Fetusboy

at 14:05 on January 10th, 2008

A collage I made from an old copy of National Geographic. The text is from a camera lens advertisement in the same issue.

Fetusboy has contributed a photo to this story.

dansurrea

at 18:01 on January 10th, 2008

www.surrea.com

dansurrea has contributed a photo to this story.

Fran Costela

at 18:16 on January 10th, 2008

Feel free to use my picture of UN! I will be glad to read the 'Marvel meets UN' story

Fran Costela has contributed a photo to this story.

indeepdark

at 04:09 on January 11th, 2008

UN Headquarters in New York City.

indeepdark has contributed a photo to this story.

kingcams

at 16:04 on January 11th, 2008

hey, thanks for using my pics.
its amazing how many basic rights do not exist for so many people in so many parts of the world. it would be cool if the comic book can remind people of that fact and maybe do something about it.

kingcams has contributed a photo to this story.