Secret History of Comics (TV Series) City of Heroes (2017) User Reviews

New York, Home to Heroes, Past & Present, Real & Fictional.

[vondiesel-1 · 4 December 2017]

As a longtime comic reader for over 4 decades, much of this series, whilst interesting is stuff I already knew but worth covering again and to educate younger and newer comic readers to the history behind our favourite books. This episode in particular stood out because whilst it has been covered in print, I don't recall almost an entire hour of TV where the impact of a tragic event in 9/11 on comics as been covered, I own books like 'Moment Of Silence' & 'Amazing Spider-man #36', it's a part of comics history I felt and lived and it is great to see it all talked about with the emotional level of the time that spawned those books. 'City Of Heroes' obviously is a reference to New York which many of Marvel's superheroes call home, so the happenings & moods of real life have resonated in the pages of these comic books over the decades which has helped integrate these characters as a relevant part of pop culture.

I should point out another reviewer had issue with Van Jones' comments which he erroneously pointed out that Van said 'Afghanistan had nothing to do with 9/11', he did not say this, Van said 'Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11' which is true. The episode is quite factually based and covers general feeling of the times pretty fairly.

Update to respond to the other reviewer: I did watch the episode a 4th time with subtitles on to be fair in my reporting, and Iraq is mentioned 4 times, Afghanistan is mentioned 0 times in the episode. The line disputed takes place at 21min 8secs, copied verbatim "Suddenly, we're going to invade Iraq, that had nothing to do with 9/11". People can check it out for themselves however. Take care.

Van Jones doesn't have a clue

[sitindc · 4/10 · 28 November 2017]

Update: In response to vondiesel-1, Van Jones did indeed say "Afghanistan had nothing to do with 9/11." The whole program was about Afghanistan and Iraq was never mentioned. I know the difference between Iraq and Afghanistan as I spent 27 months in Iraq and 7 in Afghanistan!!!"

I would have given this episode a much higher rating but it actually deserves a zero for a major error in fact. I couldn't believe that Van Jones makes himself look like a fool and a moron when it comes to 9/11. I'm not saying he is one or trying to insult him, here. Just saying he is ignorant, not stupid. Meaning he doesn't know everything. He said one of the stupidest things I've ever heard a journalist say. He said "9/11 had nothing to do with Afghanistan!" What???? OK, first of all, Afghanistan was Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban's staging area. The country of Afghanistan was taken over by the Taliban in the 80s. The guys who flew the planes into the World Trade Center may have been Saudi nationals but they were taking their orders from the bad guys....you know, Al Qaeda which was in, you guessed it....Afghanistan! Wow, wow, wow, Van Jones really lost his credibility on this one. Even President Obama, who was the biggest liberal ever to hold office, said the Taliban in Afghanistan were....were...were responsible for 9/11. Kirkman, you lose major cool points for a major error in fact. Most Americans know the truth...I served in Afghanistan for 7 months myself and I know Van is absolutely wrong.