Showing the flag... or not

[khaosworks]

Remember the Haunted Tank? It was the main feature in the pages of DC Comics' G.I. Combat book for a long time. Basic premise was that Lieutenant Jeb Stuart, a tank commander during World War II, had his own personal ghost: the spirit of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart, his namesake, who was able to give him warnings and advice during battle. Jeb's men thought their looey was a nutcase, but they continued to follow him anyway because nutcase or no, he got them through alive. It was probably my favourite war comic, even over Sgt. Rock or the Unknown Soldier.

DC's just reprinted a volume of Haunted Tank stories under their Showcase imprint, in black and white. It was pointed out to me when I picked it up that one very important feature of the Tank is missing from the pages: that Confederate battle flag Jeb used to fly on his tank. For the reprint, DC have managed to remove every instance of that flag appearing.

I can understand to a certain extent the sensitive nature of flying the Confederate flag. Americans who understand history know that the Civil War has never really gone away, even after 140 years, so I can understand that. But it seems to me that the flying of the Confederate flag on Jeb's tank was never meant to be offensive, but simply appropriate, given the identity of its guardian ghost. I really don't see anyone being offended by it; they certainly weren't when it was being published in the 70s.

I can still enjoy the stories without that flag, I suppose, but something in me still says that's just so wrong, and it sticks in my craw.

Comments

[cheshyre]

I can still enjoy the stories without that flag, I suppose, but something in me still says that's just so wrong, and it sticks in my craw.
It's revisionism.
The stories were the work of a particular time, and this is trying to rewrite that ever so slightly with modern sensibilities.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

Except it's not a rewrite. It's a reprint. The historian in me also reacts against the idea that what is ostensibly a piece of history is being tampered with for the sake of political sensitivity.

[ratmmjess.livejournal.com]

Erm...maybe it's because I'm a born-and-bred Yankee, but that &*#$! Confederate flag, symbol of slave-holding traitors, was offensive back in the 1970s, when I started reading comics. Of course, I was in a suburb of Boston, so it was natural that everyone I know would find the Confederate flag a symbol of evil (which it was). Certainly the flag's presence on the tank was appropriate (and I was always glad that the insane murderer Jeb Stuart was forced to spend eternity as a ghost rather than being able to go on to whatever lies after life), but it didn't make me like the Haunted Tank (the characters, not the strip, which, I agree, was a pretty good comic).

Nonetheless, no good is done by altering the past in a revisionist manner. They'd have been better off with an introduction talking about why the flag was there, and leaving the originals as is.

[ex-prunesnp.livejournal.com]

Evil? It really torques off that much emotion that you say 'evil'? Interesting.

I am from the South originally, but I do not live there anymore. The best thing I can say about it is that it is a misguided symbol of a misguided time used by misguided people. I have come to the conclusion that I just can't just a different time period by cirrent moral standards--it's a shoe that doesn't fit.

I was actually about to make a post in my journal today about how I think I've finally come to terms with W.T. Sherman, so I think it's interesting that you call J.E.B Stuart insane and a murderer--is that how he is portrayed in the comic?

[ratmmjess.livejournal.com]

No, Jeb's not portrayed as anything but wise in the comic. I was referring to the real, historical Jeb.

The Confederacy does provoke enough emotion in me that I use the word "evil," yes. Throughout my life I've heard people justifying and excusing the Confederacy, with a variety of arguments, none of which I've found convincing. The Confederacy embodies America's Original Sin, and while the intent of some or perhaps many of the Confederacy's soldiers, and some of its modern defenders, is benign, at the bottom, the Confederacy fought for the right to keep slaves--which is evil, and is the kind of evil which doesn't vary in moral turpitude from era to era. Slavery is like rape--it's *always* evil. It's a sin. And the way to deal with sin is not to excuse it, or justify it. It is to admit wrongdoing, and if possible to take steps to rectify the wrongdoing.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I appreciate your moral stance here, but I have to ask, doesn't the Stars and Stripes represent the same thing? Isn't the American flag, at least in the forms it took up until 1861, also representative of a social order that condoned slavery?

I can't think of any state that was in the Union in 1860 that didn't have a great number of sins to its credit. Claiming that the North was morally superior to the South is, I think, an opinion unsupported by facts.

[ratmmjess.livejournal.com]

Yes, the Stars and Stripes represents the same thing. Like I said, slavery is America's original sin.

But the Stars and Stripes doesn't have people claiming that it justifies a grand old tradition, and that the slave holders in Massachusetts weren't really bad people, and that slavery was an economic necessity, etc. Only the Confederacy has people trying to do that.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I'll agree that the Southerners saying it are more visible, but I have indeed met people in Massachussets who think slavery and segregation were both good ideas.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

Of course, I found out in later years what a complete psychotic J.E.B. Stuart was, but that's by the by. As a Singaporean kid reading the book, I had no connection with the Civil War, so I took it at face value: the Haunted Tank wasn't really about the Civil War, in any case, and it never made reference to it except in the most oblique of ways.

Certainly the Confederate flag itself I understand can be as offensive as the Nazi flag to some people. Arguing about whether it is or isn't, though, really is beside the point. Removing it is as much revisionism as the Lost Cause arguments that are trotted out everyu now and then.

Even Disney had the decency to let their wartime propaganda films go uncensored and have Leonard Maltin and Whoopi Goldberg explains why on the DVD. People are smarter than publishers give them credit for, sometimes.

[ratmmjess.livejournal.com]

I agree with you, as I said: revisionism does no good. For anyone.

[ratmmjess.livejournal.com]

As a side note, I agree with you, somewhat, about judging previous time periods by current moral standards. I don't think you can judge people's characters like that--I think you can say "She was a good person by the standards of her time." But I think you can judge actions by current standards. I'm sure there were good people among the slave holders, who tried to be Christians and never raped their slaves and whipped them only when they thought they had to, and tried not to take children away from their mothers and sell them to other slave holders. These people were trying to be good people, and by their own lights succeeded. But their actions were still evil.

[ex-prunesnp.livejournal.com]

I do not disagree with you that slavery is a great wrong. It is indeed part of America's original sin (believing that whites were superior to all other races--remember how many natives were killed over the years, as well).

So I say this not in a way of justification--the US certainly wasn't the only country, society, or civilization that took years to reach that point.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I understand what you're saying. I also feel a little sympathy for the DC editors, because no matter what they decided to do, someone would have been offended by it.

What I thought when I originally saw those comics was, "Did J.E.B. Stuart actually fly the battle flag? Or did he fly one of the other banners of the Confederacy?" I don't know the answer to that question. I do know that the battle flag became the symbol of the KKK and other white supremacist groups during reconstruction and on into the 20th century, permanently besmirching it with the baggage of all that. If, perchance, Stuart used another banner, then I think the best thing to do now would be to show the proper banner.

[ex-prunesnp.livejournal.com]

Erf. This book (using Amazon's search inside feature for 'stuart cavalry corps' indicates that he did indeed use the second national flag.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Which book? Did you intend to provide a link?

[ex-prunesnp.livejournal.com]

I did, rather.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1841761737/102-2641661-4941767?v=glance&n=283155

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It makes for interesting reading. Lots in there about the First National Flag, though I couldn't find any mention of the second. Was the second the one I think of as "the battle flag?" The popular "stars and bars?"

[ex-prunesnp.livejournal.com]

Yes. If you 'search inside the book' for only stuart cavalry corps, there should be one hit with a representative photo of same.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I see it's the flag I know as "the stainless banner." It has the battle flag as its union on a white field.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Here's a nice image and description: http://www.civilwarhome.com/2national.htm

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Thing is, I forget just where, but this came up in the comics blogosphere already. And folk with the original comics reported that the Stars and Bars weren't present in the comics that this collection reprints (the earliest ones). So DC doesn't have to make this decision until subsequent collections, if any.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

Well, I feel stupid now. :)