Does anyone get annoyed or cringe when they see fictional characters, fantasy characters or superheroes wearing COVID masks?

[MCheetah]

Like, keep that stupid bullsh*t out of fiction. Unless it's realistic fiction meant to take place in "our" world. It's especially bad with superheroes, because it implies COVID happened in their universe and that their world leaders and politicians are just as evil, corrupt, and idiotic as ours and that the Chinese Communist Party exists and are just as evil, corrupt, and idiotic as they are in real life, and still let COVID spread across the world in early 2020. This is why you should keep real world politics out of fiction!

RAVEN! Look what they did to my girl!

Beast Boy looking extra soy, here.

This sh*t looks so stupid.

Dumb as f*ck. They're not even wearing it for health purposes, but as a political statement.

Why does COVID even exist in the Marvel universe? Does that mean the CCP exists too and have gone unpunished?

[ShadezMcgee]

I find it very annoying in the sense that they used established characters to push messages like this instead of providing escape like they are supposed to do. I would read comic books to stop seeing COVID in my face, not to see Superman or Batman wearing that.

Hell, COVID could be used as inspiration for a plotline for a book as a new type of bio weapon that fell into the hands of the Joker or something.

This just comes across as manipulative through the medium of entertainment.

[HighlyVolatile]

That's just ridiculous although I find it interesting that Superman is apparently vulnerable to COVID. :-D I always thought he was overpowered only being vulnerable to Kryptonite. Apparently, he can be defeated by someone infected with COVID sneezing on him from what that implies.

[HighlyVolatile]

At least this stuff is ripe for parody material! Have you seen this New Warriors comic? I thought it was supposed to be a joke at first and then realized it's a real thing:
https://youtu.be/5PCWUCv1rnU

[MCheetah]

They canceled releasing it, cause it was too cringe, even for woke Marvel Comics.

[HighlyVolatile]

That's good news! I'm hoping this stuff will just start to lose enough fans that the industry will finally realize that this is a very poor business strategy.

[BCA6010]

Context matters. It's usually just idiotic virtue signaling by creatively bankrupt writers.

The DC Universe is clearly not in "our world" considering pretty much all major American cities have been replaced by fictional representations:

Metropolis is NYC but with a utopian filter.

Gotham is Newark (but always portrayed as much closer to Metropolis than Newark is to NYC) and also the poorer parts of NYC, clearly meant to be opposite Metropolis. Gateway City is a mix of Californian cities San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles. Star (ling) City has been used as a stand-in for Boston and Des Moines (weird combo but this is what happens with disconnected writers). And so on... So in DC especially, it's dumb. Even if writers wanted to make a "pandemic" themed arc, but they should've gone in a different, more dire scenario directly related to battling malevolent villains instead of regurgitative propaganda. Marvel uses pretty much entirely real locations by their actual name and so it's a bit more forgiveable, but it's also insanely stupid from an entertainment marketing standpoint: when your entire industry is centered on consumer escapism, the absolute worst thing you can do is drag in real world events and people in real time as it is happening. You can get away with inserting Captain America and Wolverine into World War 2 because they had already come and gone, and their stories after reaching modern day for the time branched off into original, new problems that they were uniquely forced to deal with.

[MCheetah]

I agree with your sentiment, but technically, New York, Chicago, and other cities still exist in the DC universe. Metropolis is in Delaware and Gotham is in southern New Jersey. The closest real world city to both of them is Shazam's hometown, Philadelphia (also my hometown and it's a sh*thole no superhero would ever bother saving).

[MCheetah]

qph.fs.quoracdn.net/...6746491ee39c9a1e7d641e.webp

[SolitarySolace]

Its annoying because it's supposed to be fiction. Sure it's taking place in real world places but it's not OUR world. They have different issues to deal with and covid shouldn't be one of them. That's something we are dealing with doesn't mean made up versions of our own world has to mimic that. It's just propaganda trying to reach out to the fans of fantasy who I'm pretty sure just want entertainment for entertainments sake.

[MCheetah]

Exactly! Thank you.

[exitseven]

It is really stupid for Superman to wear a mask unless Covid came from the planet Krypton. Just shows how hollywood is tripping over itself to show how progressive they are.

[Anonymous]

They want to normalize this absurdity. It’s why so many of them are so angry that the mask mandates are going away. They WANT this lunacy.

[Daniela1982]

Wait, what?

[joeldalton]

Yeah, it’s propaganda, nothing more.

[DarkWinterNights]

Not so subtle programming.

[douride2]

Looks silly in my opinion.

[JesseJayNeak]

Yes. It annoys the heck out of me

[TheSpaceGnome]

Yeah its dumb.

[ALewis30]

No. It doesn't bother me.