Christopher Hitchens died – it's gloating time!

This has been a truly terrible year for comics fans. Living legends of the Golden Age like Jerry Robinson, Joe Simon and Eduardo Barretto have passed on, leaving with their tremendous talent and connection to our history. It's natural to be a little depressed as a result, and I sure am.

I thought nothing could take me out of this funk, but I was wrong. Vile Iraq War cheerleader and Bush toady bootlicker Christopher Hitchens just croaked from throat cancer.

This video should about summarize my reaction to the news.


This has truly been a great day. I feel like tap dancing. I'm more cheerful than when Bin Laden died.

Even in death it's impossible to muster sympathy for this bloated toad because his death was so obviously his own damn fault (constant cigarette use = throat cancer) so it's impossible to cough up the obligatory crocodile tears. It has a beautiful note of poetic justice. At least cancer got the guy to shut up.

Why does Christopher Hitchens deserve this kind of ire? Lots of pundits argued delusionally that Iraq was a clear and obvious danger connected to international terror with terrifying weapons ready to use at a moment's notice and any possible invasion and occupation would be one-sided, brief and cheap. He tirelessly suckered the public into a war I said from the beginning would be a giant clusterfuck…but a lot of other members of the scumsucker pundit class did what he did, too.

Why does Hitchens merit so much scorn?

Chris Hitchens wasn't just another arrogant talking head who was totally wrong about Iraq.

He was a self-appointed "leftist radical" (because he said he is one, not because of anything he'd done or views he's held, in that respect similar to his hero George Orwell) and because of that self-description he had a lot of credibility with hardcore liberals and moderates, and he lent that credibility to bootlick Cheney's scheme. Chris Hitchens made it possible for moderates and liberals to support the Iraq War. He was the sole example that could be pointed to in order to show all sides of the political spectrum supported invading Iraq. And finally, he demonstrated it was possible to be an "intellectual" and support the conflict.

His tireless support, in short, created the illusion of broad consensus, an illusion that made the Iraq War both possible and inevitable.

And Hitch has never apologized or admitted error for the bloody history his arrogance helped author.

I sincerely hope Hitchens is wrong, and there is a God, because the idea of a supreme being who holds human beings totally accountable for deeds they escaped punishment for in life is an extremely appealing one right about now. Did any neocon toady ever suffer even slightly for supporting Iraq? Have any of them lost any credibility for being totally wrong about everything?

I'm a patriot, not a sucker. Learn the difference, huh?

Oh yeah, atheism – the real reason faux liberals are crying crocodile tears over this sycophantic warmonger. Hasn't it even occurred to anyone else the two main targets of Hitchens' ire were the Catholic Church and Islam? Hitchens' atheism was nothing more than every petty hundred year old prejudice learned by the English in the nursery room, hatred of the Pope and the Irish, and hatred of immigrant groups.

His atheism wasn't Star Trek-style rational clearmindedness. All he did was drag rationalists into a long-standing, picayune tribal gang knife fight.

If all the shameful and disgusting eulogies have got you down, try reading this one. It was written a year before his death...but why wait?



I wonder…were Hitch's final moments rather like the death scene of the bad guy in the 1990 movie "Ghost?"

Eulogy for Dwayne MacDuffie

Dwayne McDuffie, a guy best known for writing for the DC Animated toons and then actually getting to write Justice League, died recently, which is an ugly shock because he was energetic, relatively young, and wasn't obese or anything. He's the kind of guy you figure can go the distance, and his death (due as I understand it, to accident) is the kind that makes you angry.

In his capacity at working at animated DC, particularly Justice League, he created some of the slickest, coolest cartoons ever made, the single best expression of DC superheroes in any medium ever. Dark, smart and old-school cool, Justice League was the first animated DC cartoon to use long-term arcs and is generally considered, along with the early seasons of Batman and Mask of the Phantasm as the high point of superhero animation.

Let me tell you the exact moment I realized Dwayne McDuffie was my kind of guy.

During the DVD of the Justice League episode 3-parter, Dwayne said he was absolutely shocked by the buzzkill, disappointing revelation that Hawkman's wings were some kind of strap on to his cosume and not actually a part of him. So, if you look closely at his Justice League show, at no point do any Thanagarians take their wings off, ever - even when by themselves...and if someone unfamiliar with DC were to, say, draw a conclusion from that...well, that wouldn't be his fault, would it? They don't say the wings are a part of them, they just heavily imply it!

This is such a clever way around outright contradicting canon that I have to give him props for sheer sneakiness.

Also, note that Nth Metal is onl mentioned as an engineering concept totally unrelated to flight.

I thought I was the only one this drove up the wall and it's nice to know I wasn't alone. People that are totally entrenched might wonder what the big deal is, but I started off a Marvel fan, reading Marvel-only as a point of pride. Naturally I got curious about DC because I liked superheroes, and one of the first I wanted to read was Hawkman because he looked so darn cool: he had wings and fought with ancient weapons. He looked like a DC version of one of Frank Miller's Ninja heroes.

Instead, we have a character that is an alien (huh - why is that necessary?), who uses ancient weapons for no reason except an insane whim, whose motive for coming to earth and remaining there is murky at best, and worst of all, his wings aren't a part of him. This final bit removes the element of fantasy and adventure. It makes him a phony, a sham, a lie...like a pimply faced, Doritos-smelling teenager pretending to be Santa Claus at a mall. The real Hawkman is a lame character like Wonder Woman, in that he makes absolutely no sense so it's impossible to like him.

Regardless, here's another thing that Dwayne MacDuffie have in common: we're both Englehart fans.

Here's the pudding...the very first story arc after the three-part introductory movie was actually based on Englehart's dramatic splash story in JLA 140-142 featuring the origin of the Manhunters and their attempt to steal the power of the Guardians, the inciting incident of which is framing Green Lantern for murder.

What's more, the two characters that were the best developed in the entire comics run were Hawkgirl and Jon Stewart. It was Englehart's idea to bring Hawkwoman into the JLA with the impressive logic that if Hawkman was a member, why wasn't Hawkwoman, anyway? Though it should be noted that it was Gerry Conway a few years later that had Hawkwoman as a member without her husband.

Finally, it was Englehart who established the character of Jon Stewart as a leading man. When Englehart took over Green Lantern, the expectation was he was going to bring Hal Jordan back. Which he didn't do for at least an entire year, doing to the one thing nobody expects: writing Jon Stewart as such an interesting and competent guy, when he finally got around to Hal Jordan, I didn't want Hal back.

Even one of Englehart's minor stories was adapted by the animated series, including a Batman/Aquaman team up in Legends of the DC Universe.

Thus, Dwayne MacDuffie was a guy on my wavelength. I know he will be missed, and in an era when people who just don't care or know anything about comics characters except campy water cooler jokes (ahem - Brave and the Bold) he was someone that loved the characters and took them seriously. He was a rarity and his enthusiasm will be missed.