We’ve blogged at length here about the culture war, and we’ve worked (as time and opportunity have permitted) to provide alternatives to The Narrative being rammed down our throats in every medium of pop culture. Comic books have been so blatantly cultural Marxist for so long, many people have given up on them completely, in disgust.
An alternative to the Leftist Hive Mind’s monopoly is long overdue. Maybe, just maybe, it is almost here.
After reaching its initial funding goal in only four hours, a new right-wing comics series, Alt★Hero, concluded its historic crowdfunding campaign by reaching the $245,000 mark. 2,190 backers signed on to help the alternative superhero series wage cultural war on the social justice-converged comic duopoly of Marvel and DC Comics.
Alt★Hero is being written by prolific Marvel and DC Comics veteran writer Chuck Dixon and six-time Hugo Award Finalist Vox Day. It will be published by Castalia House, Finland’s leading independent publisher.
The series is the creation of game designer Day, who is best known for being a member of GamerGate and publishing the political philosophy bestsellers SJWs Always Lie and SJWs Always Double Down. Alt★Hero features unconventional villains such as Captain Europa of the Global Justice Initiative and controversial heroes such as Michael Martel, a vigilante who drops off criminal undocumented immigrants at the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, and Rebel, a Southern girl whose superhero outfit incorporates the Confederate battle flag.
The breakout star of the campaign, however, has been Dynamique, a chain-smoking French model whose indifference to current events is only surpassed by her pragmatism.
“This is only the beginning,” said Alt★Hero creator Vox Day, who is writing six volumes of the series as well as co-designing the role-playing game. “Fans and retailers alike despise how Marvel and DC are trashing characters they have cherished for generations. That is why it’s not going to be too long before you’re going to start seeing Alt★Hero games, and eventually, movies.”
“I have an entire year’s worth of continuity funded to build a cast of characters in a brand new universe. Very inspiring, Very exciting,” said industry legend Chuck Dixon, the longtime Batman writer and co-creator of Bane, who is writing the first six volumes of the Alt★Hero series Avalon as well as a standalone novel entitled Avalon: Vendetta. “The city of Avalon is already a very real place in my mind. I think readers are going to enjoy visiting.”
“Astonishing demand,” added journalist Mike Cernovich on Twitter in response to the news that Alt★Hero had shattered the previous record for a new comic being crowdfunded.
In reaching 978 percent of its original $25,000 goal, the Alt★Hero crowdfunding campaign was the most successful in history for a new comics launch, and is the 22nd most-funded of the 10,553 historic comics-related crowdfunding campaigns.
What I hope is that Alt★Hero doesn’t descend into the poo-slinging, purity signaling “muh white nationalism” circlejerk that consumes so much of the “Alt-Right.” With writer Chuck Dixon involved at such a high level, I tend to doubt it, but we’ll see. I’m at least going to give Alt★Hero a chance. I continued to waste my hard-earned cash on irritating drivel from Marvel and DC even after being sucker-punched multiple times, so it’s only fair I give Alt★Hero the same chance(s). I’m a backer of the Alt★Hero crowd sourcing campaign, so I should get to see the first several comics, digitally, once they’re released.
I hope it is a truly right-wing comic, but actually, I’d be happy with an apolitical endeavor that just concentrates on good storytelling, without contriving all the obligatory sodomiphilia and Grrrrrl Power tropes tripe which usually causes me to stop reading /watching something, never to finish.
Unless drastic course corrections are made, the republic known as the United States of America will cease to exist in the near future. There might still be a country with that name; it might still have a red, white, and blue flag and a bald eagle for its symbol; and certainly politicians will pay lip service to ideals like freedom. But living here will be an entirely different experience than what our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents enjoyed.
I offer the following parable as an analogy, to help get across the point I want to make:
Ike the Idealist learned about fighting in kindergarten. Not only did he learn how to do it, he learned about how not to do it. Basically, he learned that the only honorable way to fight was by Marquis de Queensbury rules. Kicking was cheating. Biting, scratching, and pulling hair were how girls did it, which was out-of-bounds. Eye-gouging was unheard of. And, of course, using a weapon was cowardly.
Through elementary, middle and high school, these rules were reinforced. Any time Ike had to fight, he did so honorably according to these mores. He considered any departure from this combat etiquette to be despicable.
Then one day, as an adult, Ike surprises some dirtbag in the process of stealing his car. Ike asks what’s going on, and the car thief replies by throwing his dent-puller, hitting Ike in the face, breaking his nose. Then the thief closes the distance between them. Ignoring Ike’s attempts at civilized discourse, he proceeds to beat Ike about the head. Eventually, Ike realizes that the thief can’t be reasoned with, and violence is in order. He assumes the classic pugilist’s pose and punches back.
The dirtbag knees him in the crotch, stomps on his foot, and pulls a knife. While Ike reels from the pain, and shock from such heinous disregard of the rules, the dirtbag stabs him repeatedly. Ike could have kicked the knife out of his hands, but kicking would violate his principles, so that was unthinkable. He peppers the dirtbag with jabs, hooks, and the occasional right cross.
Ike thought the fight should have been more like this.
The dirtbag tackles him and they both go down. Ike grabs the wrist of the hand gripping the knife, so he won’t be stabbed again. At one point that hand is right in front of his mouth, but Ike just can’t bring himself to violate his principles and bite it. Meanwhile, the dirtbag gouges out an eye with his thumb. Ike doesn’t know what to do, because grappling around like this is most undignified, and he just doesn’t want to engage in such distasteful behavior.
With sober, reasoned dialectic, he protests the dirtbag’s flagrant violation of Ike’s ideals. The thief slips on a pair of brass knuckles with his free hand and, between those and his elbow, breaks Ike’s jaw and knocks him out. He drives away in the car with barely a minor bruise or two, leaving Ike bleeding out in the street, half blind, with multiple injuries. Most likely, Ike will die right where he lays.
But at least Ike the Idealist can take comfort in the fact that he never sank to the enemy’s level.
I started confronting this dilemma after the election of President Trump when he promised to use Executive Orders to undo some of Obama’s damage. The Executive Order has been abused, beginning in earnest with the Clinton Administration. Obama used it to the point that the USA became a de facto monarchy. All legislation is supposed to originate in the House of Representatives. That is part of the law that all elected officials swear to uphold and abide by. By principle, Trump should not use this dictatorial outflanking tactic to reverse Obama’s illegal actions against our country.
It’s the job of Congress to chop down these treasonous hedgerows. But of course Congress has proven repeatedly that it will not do its job. Make themselves rich at our expense? Yes. Help unelected bureaucrats destroy our country while arranging golden parachutes for themselves? Yes. Do their job? You must be a crackpot for even asking.
That’s why I didn’t protest Trump’s use of Executive Orders to bypass the obstruction of the Deep State and plug some of the holes the last four Administrations drilled through the bottom of the boat.
In America of the current year, the full half of the glass is that the left’s stranglehold on the flow of information is slipping. Millions of people are aware of the globalist Deep State actively working to destroy the republic. They are aware of the utter corruption of the lapdog (“mainstream”) media, Hollywood, the music industry, etc. And a significant portion of those people are not happy about the betrayals and deception we’ve suffered for generations at the hands of those whores and traitors.
But instead of embracing the fundamentals that made our republic the most prosperous country in history, with unprecedented individual liberty, the wakening masses are instead seeking the answer by fetishizing “muh Westurn Civilizayshun,” and embracing identity politics. It’s truly disturbing how fast middle America seems to be becoming as race-obsessed as the minority subcultures have been since the 1960s.
If our public servants in government would just do what we pay them for, most of our problems would rapidly fade. But, as a rule, they’re not going to do anything that will slow our descent into a 3rd world police state. We’ve let a ruling class take power who see us as their subjects, and will break or ignore the laws they swore to uphold in the maniacal quest to accumulate more wealth, control, and power for themselves. They’ve infiltrated both parties and turned them into enemies of our freedom. We can’t vote them out because there are so few true alternatives, and there are so many people voting who approve of what they’re doing. Just a few more years of unchecked immigration, and the America-hating Marxists will have every election sewn up for however long elections are still held here. Evidently, even President Trump doesn’t have the guts to stop the invasion and send enough invaders back home to keep this from happening. If the wall ever does get built, it will be too little, too late.
They’re stealing our car. They’ve backstabbed us multiple times and gouged out our eye. And mainstream “conservatives” (whatever that means) are fighting back by drafting statements of support for the police and military. Wow–congratulations. That might have been a courageous stance to take during Vietnam (half a century ago).
If the people would rise up against the traitors and put them out of office, by whatever means necessary, it’s possible we could clean house, drain the swamp, and restore some of what we’ve lost. But that’s not going to happen, either. The government schools have done their job in spreading ignorance. And where ignorance runs out, apathy takes over.
That’s not to say civil war (or revolution, depending on how sloppy your semantics are) isn’t coming, because it is. But a significant component of the bloodshed to come will be racially motivated. Race will be the idol of every side. Preserving or restoring a representative government designed to protect individual rights will not be a priority for anyone with a voice loud enough to be heard. Look around–it’s already not. Attempts to educate simply inspire mockery from the bovine, low-IQ lemmings who surround us.
When the war comes, there is no fence you can safely sit on. We’ll have to pick sides. You can bet that I, for one, will not align with the Globo-Homo Hive Mind. But who does that leave me for allies? Generally, guys who have forgotten how to perceive anything beyond “muh Magic DNA.”
It shouldn’t be this way. It didn’t have to be this way. But it is.
Neither me, nor any other American idealist, can shout loud enough to derail this suicidal zeitgeist. So what do we do?
Some people believe the Income Tax is unconstitutional (hence illegal). Most of them pay it anyway. Some of us recognize random roadside “papers, please” checkpoints by law enforcement to be a violation of our rights (rights that law enforcement officers swear an oath to protect). But if you need to keep your job, don’t want to go to jail and be railroaded by the weaponized “justice” system, you grit your teeth and play the game.
Increasingly, I have to swallow ideals simply to provide for my family and retain what personal freedom I still have. Does that make me a hypocrite, or merely a pragmatist? Inside, I still cherish my ideals, and lament their abandonment. But who cares?
Nobody who matters. (Or, at least, not enough people who matter.)
When it comes to swallowing ideals, I suspect we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
I don’t want to associate with folks who blame Jews for everything wrong in the world, or value skin color over content of character. But what choice do I have in the conflict taking shape around us? Demographic groupings which are already consumed by identity politics, and already consider me their enemy–that’s who. Demographic groupings which are 80-95% sold out to anti-American causes (and BTW: what choices do the 5-20% outliers of those demographics have, in the brewing conflict?). Demographic hive minds which only care about what they believe will advance their collective interests. Their “radicals” are already demonstrating their willingness to rape and murder. Their “moderates” have no problem cheating and stealing. Their “liberals” are already in the habit of lying to advance the agenda they think will shepherd them to Utopia.
That’s how it stands now. How much worse will it be when bullets are flying and they face the threat of starvation or true oppression?
How important will my ideals seem when my choice is to be shot on sight by that side, or perhaps survive another day by holding the line with the side that shoots them on sight?
No, it’s not that bad.
Yet.
But we’re fast running out of options for a peaceful solution.
If I was a Five-Star Admiral in World War II, there’s a good chance I would be bent out of shape about all the losses suffered at Pearl Harbor. But as much as I wished I still had those ships and sailors, I would have to accept reality. And my strategic planning would have to reflect that reality. The debacle at Pearl Harbor could have been avoided in a dozen different ways. But it wasn’t. And lamenting it would not restore my Pacific Fleet to what it was before.
That’s where American idealists are right now. We’ll have to set our course according to the reality we face, and not dwell on what we’ve lost and how avoidable it was, if only _________ or __________ or __________. Frankly, I don’t know how successful I’ll be at this from day to day.
Vaughn Killian had risen to the top of the candidate class for Black Saber by the end of the first novel in the series. Now he’s ready to graduate…but the Brass isn’t happy with him.
Even in an elite unit like this, there’s an emphasis on by-the-book procedures. Killian is more of a field soldier–hands-on, seat of the pants. While that’s the kind of guy you want in combat, maybe he takes it a bit too far. And it turns out his instinctive warrior ways have backfired on him: because of his disregard for regulations, he’s being held back as cadre to train other candidates while his classmates get deployed. This is the last thing he wanted.
Nonetheless, he’s about to see action anyway. It seems the Carthenogans have somehow discovered the location of Black Saber’s secret training facility, and have dispatched a force of barbaric neandergrunts to capture some personnel and wipe out the rest.
With this second book, the storyline becomes increasingly complex. Murphy bounces around an ensemble cast to weave espionage, political intrigue, combat, and personal drama into the narrative. By book’s end, it’s still a mystery how some of these plot threads will tie together…and where all they will take us before they do. However it all weaves together in the third novel (???), it’s shaping up to be something huge.
It’s probably impossible for any author to write something I can’t nitpick in some way (myself included). But my biggest complaint here has to do with storytelling technique. Specifically: the cliffhanger ending. I think some plot elements could have been tied up a little better…there could have been a bit stronger sense of resolution…and likely we’d still want to read the next book. As is, it kind of feels like a much longer novel that was cut in half.
You may have read military sci-fi with similar elements before (Ender’s Game is one that comes to mind), but chances are you haven’t read a series with as much going on as this one.
With NFL millionaires flaunting their hatred of America, and contempt for at least half of their fan base, now looks like a good time to plug one of the best comedy jock flicks ever made.
“Every athlete dreams of a second chance,” proclaims Coach Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman) in voiceover toward the end. Second chances is what this movie is about, at it’s core. All the jokes, action, and Sports Movie Formula might distract you from that central theme; but those frills are not what resonates with the masculine soul while watching it.
Inspired by the NFL players’ strike in the late 1980s (before Joe Gibbs’ Washington Redskins went on to destroy the Denver Broncos in the Superbowl), the story begins with crybaby millionaire star quarterback Eddie Martel throwing a game in order to avoid getting tackled. The end of the game marks the beginning of the players’ strike.
The owner of the “Washington Sentinels,” hungry for a playoff berth despite the strike, woos “controversial” (old-fashioned) coach McGinty into putting together a roster of replacement players to finish the season.
Turns out, McGinty has been tracking some former players with great potential who, for various reasons, never made it in the pros. “If nothing else,” McGinty says, “they should be fun to watch.”
And they are.
Unfortunately, there are only so many plots available for a sports movie. It is a credit to the director that there are enough twists in The Replacements to make it stand out despite the formula.
The movie does have flaws. The romantic subplot, for instance, comes off as tacked-on and superficial. I suspect the scenes that might have fleshed it out wound up on the cutting room floor. It probably should have been left out altogether, so that other scenes didn’t have to be pared down for the sake of running time (Shane Falco’s first pass in the first practice was obviously two scenes cut together). But the compromises that weaken the film are not why the critics hate it.
There’s none of the obligatory LGB-pandering anywhere in the film (except, perhaps, in a tres risque pantomime by the strippers-turned-cheerleaders on the sidelines at one game). The screenwriters didn’t contrive some way to put a female on the team–even as a kicker. Comraderie and male-bonding are celebrated throughout, and men act like men. When a female reporter invades the locker room, she gets little cooperation from the players and is ultimately convinced to give up and leave the “male space” intact. The bulk of the entire movie is an unapologetic celebration of masculinity guaranteeing that it could never get made today.
In fact, it’s amazing it got made 17 years ago, because the culture was deeply pozzed by then, already. Instead of watching the anti-American NFL bite the hands that feed them on Sunday, check this flick out.
In this third novel in the Homeland series, there’s a turning point in Civil War II. Some Americans saw the writing on the wall, and bugged out just before “The Second Founding.” They organized while in hiding, and are now coming out to tangle with the forces of the new regime.
The state governments have been dissolved, and what was once the continental USA has been divided into 10 regions under the totalitarian government of President Tophet. But in Tennessee, there are enough surviving patriots (even in the legislature) that resistance to the takeover is made official. Tennessee will not lay down without a fight.
Sergeant Cole has found the organized resistance–in this instance led by LTC Lee, his old battalion C.O. But concern over his family leads him to undertake his own mission to find them even as the flames of civil war spark to life across the country.
There is significant character development in this book–not just of Cole, either. Eduardo Garcia has quite the interesting character arc, which culminates here.
Author Mathis has masterfully woven a tale of one possible future history of the USA in the Homeland trilogy, which doesn’t bog down in technical details at all, or read like an advertisement for gold, survival supplies, or anything else. What this third novel does deliver is hope. The collapse of the USA as we know it may be inevitable, but it’s comforting to imagine there will be enough people with the wisdom, courage, and competence to mount an effective resistance.
I recommend you read the entire series. And speaking of that: the three novels have been combined into one omnibus edition now.
Red-Blooded American Men Examine Pop-Culture and the World
In this 
Author Mathis has masterfully woven a tale of one possible future history of the USA in the Homeland trilogy, which doesn’t bog down in technical details at all, or read like an advertisement for gold, survival supplies, or anything else. What this third novel does deliver is hope. The collapse of the USA as we know it may be inevitable, but it’s comforting to imagine there will be enough people with the wisdom, courage, and competence to mount an effective resistance.