UN - COMICS - INDOCTRINATION OF CHILDREN

MARVEL COMICS [Parent Company] Marvel Entertainment, LLC (The Walt Disney Company) [Founded 1939] as Timely Comics [Headquarters Location] 135 W. 50th Street, New York City Spider-Man X-Men Wolverine Fantastic Four Iron Man Hulk Thor Captain America Silver Surfer Avengers Green Goblin Doctor Octopus Magnet Doctor Doom Loki Galactus Thanos Red Skull .. locations that mirror real-life cities. [wikipedia]

THE AVENGERS The Avengers are Earth's foremost major organization of costumed superhuman crimefighters, adventurers and heroes dedicated to safeguarding the world from any threat beyond the power of conventional peacekeeping forces or any which any of them can't handle alone. Founded several months after the incorporation of the hero team Fantastic Four, the Avengers became the first superhuman team to be granted full official government sanctions by the National Security Council of the United States, the General Assembly of the United Nations, and later by the international intelligence/law enforcement agency S.H.I.E.L.D.. [...] United Nations Charter Captain America, at that time called simply the Captain, immediately reorganized the team with the hero Gilgamesh and the temporary members Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four. Captain America soon reassembled all known members and associates to the rebuilt Avengers Mansion, claiming that all heroes may consider themselves on reserve and ready for service, although an active team of seven members (plus two reserves) would be the primary response team. Also at this time, the Avengers negotiated with the United Nations, earning global jurisdiction by pledging to serve under a U.N. charter as it had previously the United States. http://marvel.wikia.com/Avengers_%28Earth-616%29

2008 - UN - MARVEL COLLABORATION ANNOUNCED In 2008, Marvel announced plans to release a series of educational comics the following year in partnership with the United Nations, depicting Spider-Man alongside UN Peacekeeping Forces to highlight UN peacekeeping missions. [wikipedia]

BBC Article The UN recently announced a union with the comic book company, Marvel. Together, they aim to print a special comic that will see the superhero fight alongside UN aid workers and peacekeepers. Marvel scribes have offered to pen the work for free. The UN is now seeking private backing so it can distribute 1m free copies to American schoolchildren. The project's creator, the French producer Romuald Sciora, says he hopes it will then be translated into European languages. UN's top man on the project says critics are missing the point. Amir Dossal leads the UN Partnerships Office, which is putting up half the money for the project. He told the BBC it was not intended to promote the UN per se, but rather to inform children about UN humanitarian causes. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7172016.stm

2008 - Blogger - Jack Central Late last month, the UN announced it would be working with Marvel Comics to develop a comic book for youth set in a fictional war-torn country where superheroes work alongside UNICEF aide workers and UN peacekeepers. The UN initially plans to distribute its comic book to one million U.S. children, and then hopes to translate the comic in other languages and include a game and DVD to distribute alongside the book to children in other countries. To many people around the world, the image of the United Nations has been shaken due to a variety of accusations the organization has faced. In January 2000, the United Nations was sued for the first time in its history for alleged complicity in the crime of genocide, which drove hundreds of thousands Rwandan Tutsis from their homes. Two women claimed that the UN soldiers—whose task it was to defend their families—either handed them over to their killers or ran away, according to a report from the BBC in January 2000. Other alleged reports have sprung up against the UN, like the account of an Irish soldier serving as a United Nation peacekeeper in Eritrea, Africa in 2002 who was caught making pornographic videos of local women. So the idea to put this somewhat propaganda-like creation into the malleable minds of youngsters seems conniving. http://jackcentral.com/opinion/2008/01/un-enlists-marvel-spider-man-to-improve-image/

Perhaps this is old news for most people, but this Spider-man collaboration with the UN is news to me.


What's interesting is the subject matter of the comics overall and how the content of these comics may shape the minds of those being entertained by superheroes saving the day.


The references to government and political entities appear to be standard references (see Avengers above). 

The Spider-man and UN announcement made the news in 2008 because in the real world -- and not the Marvel comic book world of heroes and villains -- the UN arranged to collaborate with Marvel, and aimed to distribute Marvel superhero UN mission themed comics to children in the US and beyond.


The UN Partnerships Office said at the time that it was to:  

"... inform children about UN humanitarian causes."

Children need to know about UN political pursuits (slash humanitarian missions) -- why?

The United Nations organization Another supranational political system that does not precisely fit any of the conventional classifications of such systems is the United Nations, a voluntary association of most of the world’s nation-states. Its membership had grown from an original 51 states to more than 190 by the early 21st century. [here]

Might the UN be motivated to foster passive acceptance in younger generations of an ideal, purely altruistic, UN whose motives and aims shall not be questioned?

Without knowing more about international politics and the workings of humanitarian organisations and their role in international politics, I can't see the big picture.

However, I am highly suspicious of supranational bodies and of humanitarian organisations that play a role on the global political stage.