UN Calls on Spider-man

The United Nations knows it has an image problem in the US. To solve that problem, it has made a deal with Marvel Comics to produce a new comic showing the UN working with Marvel’s stable of superhero characters in solving world problems. It will be given away to 1 million American kids. Many will probably wait for the movie and videogame versions (which aren’t planned, yet).

The Financial Times reported, “Camilla Schippa, chief of office at the UN Office for Partnerships, told the Financial Times the script was being written now and the final storyline was due to be approved in February. The illustrators are working for free. After publication in the US, the UN hopes to translate the comics into French and other languages and distribute them elsewhere, Ms Schippa said. The idea came from French film-maker Romuald Sciora, who had been working on other UN projects and is making a DVD about the international organization [no superheroes in this] that will be distributed to schoolchildren along with the comic books.”

In the US, the UN is reviled in many quarters because it is full of small, new, poor countries that always vote against whatever stupidity Mr. Bush is trying to ram through. Among conservatives, the world body is credited with making a decent Christmas card, but no more. Former US Ambassador John Bolton famously said that if 10 stories of the UN building in New York vanished, no one would miss them.

So, the UN figures that if 1 million American kids get a free comic book along with Mr. Sciora’s DVD, a new generation of internationalists will grow up and ensure that those diplomats from the small, new, poor countries can continue to park illegally in New York without fear of a ticket. Why does this seem far-fetched?

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Kensington Review Home