Yesterday, I wrote about how the latest Captain America comic book has Captain America's partner infiltrating the Teabaggers to get to a secret paramilitary organization using the Tea Party as a cover.

Today, the backpedaling begins. Bleeding Cool says that in trade paperback collections and future printing of the Captain America comics, Marvel Comics will remove a sign that reads "Tea Bag the Libs Before They Tea Bag You." Marvel, which will soon be officially owned by Disney, is freaking out now. You can read Marvel Comics' Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada's furious backpedaling over here, but here's the gist of it:

There was zero discussion to include a group that looked like a Tea Party demonstration. [Captain America writer] Ed [Brubaker] simply wrote in an anti-tax protest into his story to show one of the moods that currently exists in America. There was no thought that it represented a particular group.

And yes, what Ed said is absolutely true, he does shy away from labeling things and did exactly that in this instance. In Ed’s story, there was no connection to the Tea Party movement, that’s a screw up that happened after the fact and exactly what some people are getting upset about.
...
Our books are no one’s soapbox. I have always made it a point never to publically talk about my own political beliefs as I don’t feel it’s my place to do so and use Marvel as a bully pulpit. Our readers come in many shapes and sizes, and we need to be respectful of that. Yes, we have characters that have certain attributes built into them, like political beliefs and religious affiliations, but we try to handle those as carefully as possible, and when we present one side of a coin, I encourage my editors and creators to fairly show the other side.

That's really fucking lame, Marvel. What other anti-tax protests are going on? You're not journalists; you don't have to show both sides of the story; all this wishy-washiness is going to do is annoy everyone.