Gautam made a request thusly:
>>I only read JMS's ASM #36, the 9/11 issue, which was very good, >>except for the whole Doctor Doom crying thing. >I really wanted to read JMS's take on 9/11. Could you tell us >about it? I certainly can! I've been terribly lazy about bagging my books, and it's sitting somewhere convenient. I've included some quotes, too. I hope that I give you all a good impression of the story. This was written shortly after 9/11. Perhaps it will lose something in the light of the passing of six months; I leave that up to you to decide. Page 1: Black page with all white letters: "We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to bring you the following Special Bulletin" Page 2&3: Double spread, ground zero, Spidey holding his head in his hands, saying "...God..." Page 4: Recriminations from people on street, how could superheroes let this happen? Page 5&6: Various Marvel heroes helping the FDNY and NYPD in their work. Musings on how no sane person could have envisioned the scope of the act. Page 7&8: Spidey pitches in with FEMA work crew and other rescue units. Page 9: Even the bad guys pitch in, inluding the Kingpin, Magneto, and Dr. Doom. Doom has a tear in his eye, the only false note in the book, IMO, but then, that's only because I know the character. Page 10: Scenes of FDNY going into danger, memorials for firefighters. A quote: "We are here. But without costumes and our powers we are writ small by the true heroes, those who face fire withour fear or armor. Those who step into the darkness without assurances of ever walking out again. Because they know others are waiting in the dark. Awaiting salvation. Awaiting word. Awaiting justice." Page 11: The scene of the passengers discussing fighting back on Flight 93. Page 12: Dismissal of those that said that God wanted it to happen, both the radical Christians here and the radical Muslims across the sea. Page 13-14: Spidey sees a small child, tells him he shouldn't be there. The kid's dad, a fireman, went back into the building. There's a shot of him getting carried out, and a good reaction shot of Spidey and the kid. Page 15: A victim asks Spidey "Why did this happen?" He thinks, "I have seen other worlds. Other spaces. I have walked with gods and wept with angels. But to my shame, I have no answers." Page 16: Spidey sees Captain America, and thinks "He's the only who could know because he's been here before. I wish I had not lived to see this once. I can't imainge what it is to see it twice." (For the record, Cap lived through WWII in the continuity.) Page 17: "What *do* we tell the children? Do we tell them evil is a foreign face? No. The evil is the though behind the face. And it can look just like yours." "[Perhaps we tell them] that the burdens of distant people are the responsibility of all men and women of consience, or their burdens will one day become out tragedy." (Probably my favorite lines are on this page.) Page 18: Reaction shots of Americans and Afghans, and the suggestion of American troop movements, accompanied by these words: "We live in each blow you strike for infinite justicwe, but always in the hope of infinite wisdom. Because we live as well in the quiet turning of your considered conscience. The voice that says *All wars have innocents*. The voice that says *You are a kind and merciful people*. The voice that says *Do not do do as they do, or the war is lost before it is even begun.* Do not let that knowledge be washed away in blood." Page 19: More clean up crew shots. Another excerpt: "Because a message must be sent to those who mistake compassion for weakness...whatever our history, whatever the root of our surnames, we remain a good and decent people, and we do not bow down and we do not give up. The fire of the human spirit cannot be quenched by bomb blasts or body counts." Page 20: A shot of rescue workers of various root nationalities, all with a bandana of the American flag. "In recent years, we have been tribalized abd factionalized by a thousand casuall unkindnesses. but in this we are one." Page 21: A shot of the "American melting pot," men and women of all races and creeds. "They knocked down two tall towers. In their memory, draft a covenant with your conscience. That we will create a world in which such things need not occur. A world which wuill not require apologies to children, but also a world whose roads are not paved with the husks of their inalienable rights." Page 22: The superheroes are in the background, with the rescue workers, et. al. in the foreground. All it says is "Stand tall." Jim ------------------------------------------------
