I don’t think this is really a story about Tom King.
I. TRAINED TO BE GHOSTS
So, the other day, DC Comics announced a new publishing initiative called DC Rebirth.
(
The other day was 2016).
And when DC Rebirth was announced, DC also announced that the new writer of one of the
Batman comics would be a fellow named
Tom King.
What struck me as a little daffy at that time about the DC Rebirth hype was that it wasn’t trumpeting King as a wordsmith with a track record of praised books under his belt. King had a respectable reputation at that point, books received with some polite applause, a critical mass that they could’ve focused on.
But instead of focusing on any of that, the announcement was instead that “
King will be using his experience in counter-terrorism to bring new threats to Gotham.”
Counter-terrorism was the centerpiece for how King’s
Batman work was promoted. For example,
Newsarama published an article entitled “
REBIRTH BATMAN Writer TOM KING On His Own ‘Rebirth’ From C.I.A. To Comic Books,” where King explained that he was
“…
supposed to go into law school and then 9/11 happened and I did this CIA thing. […] I was big into counter-terrorism, loved going overseas and that’s a very good job and very rewarding, but I had a kid and to be really good at that job, you have to be around 15 hours a day. With the counter-terrorism you have to be able to go 24/7. So those were the options I was looking at.”
The interviewer was awed by King’s counter-terrorism credentials, asking some perfectly lovely questions like “
Were you at headquarters in Langley” and “
given your past as a C.I.A. operative, the stress level has to be somewhat lesser than that, right?”
In other words, rather than ask King about his plans for
Batman, comic interviewers were asking him to judge the job of writing The Batman
on a scale of 1 to CIA counter-terrorism.
This is “a thing”, now. I remember seeing a lot of fans excited about how Charles Soule was an Actual Lawyer. Fans similarly seemed overly-excited that Gerard Way was formerly in some ska band. Or if I understand recent comics news correctly, a lot of fans are thrilled that comic books about talking toads are being created by a Real Life Cryptofascist. Fans suddenly want comic creators to have impressive resumes outside of comics now– perhaps a logical consequence of an era of aggressive comic creator self-branding.
And so King mentioned his CIA credentials
often. It was part of his whole sales pitch to comic fans – it was why he was qualified to write about their favorite heroes.
But as I was reading all this hype about how Tom King’s past in the CIA had prepared him to write
Batman comics, I found myself asking myself a pretty simple question:
Did I really believe that Tom King was an actual CIA agent?
II. RED LIGHT! GREEN LIGHT!
By 2016, I’d spent some time writing a kind of schlocky
psuedo-commentary on comic news.
None of this writing was very impressive or interesting, according to Very Serious Comic Fans on the internet. If you missed it, you suffered no great loss. But I had wanted to explore the following premise: that maybe there was a toxic stew around the North American comic book industry of dishonesty, male insecurity, neediness, relentless careerism, selfishness, and silence, that (a) encouraged and excused bad conduct and (b) was therefore ultimately more significant in understanding why so many comics are terrible than anything one could learn reviewing some inconsequential issue of the
Discourteous Avengers.
And it had turned out that there was plenty to write about. Constant sex scandals– the
grodiest kind, frequently overlooked by the same comics creators who lectured fans online day after day. Intellectual property theft, that comic creators happily participated in. People claiming they were at the vanguard of creator rights, who had ripped off their co-creators. Creepy “
male allies” and other curious, charmless do-gooders.
Dumb scams. Lazy writing. Bad apologies.
It all grew very tiresome. I’d rather review some issue of the
Discourteous Avengers now, please and thank you.
But did I believe Tom King was a CIA agent?
*
Could* I believe that after what I’d written about?
…But of course, what did it matter what I believed?
Did it matter if I found it all a
little odd, that some funny-book writer would
super-casually volunteer that he had a history of being a CIA counter-terrorism agent just to sell
Batman comics?
Of course, it didn’t matter.
After all, it’s not like I could write a letter to the CIA, asking them if Tom King was a spook!
…
I’m not a Republic serial villain.
I wrote to the CIA nearly three years ago.
III. THE LIST IS IN THE OPEN
I prepared a letter, and I faxed it into the CIA. I did it for the only reason really worth doing anything– I thought it’d make for a good goof for my prestigious tumblr blog. Here’s my letter:
And perhaps you’ll notice something in my letter– something that I had noticed when researching the topic:
People do this!
People make up being in the CIA for personal benefit. And they don’t just do it in small ways– they go on FOX NEWS– they lie big– they lie that they’re ex-CIA in spectacular ways, and at a
spectacular cost. It’s kooky, but this is a thing that happens.
It happens so often that it has its own name: "
Stealing Valor.“
And if this is a thing that happens, I guess that means you can’t just take people at their word when they say they’ve been in the CIA.
I guess…?
So, that evening, I sent my paranoid little letter off to the CIA. Then, I had dinner, and then I went to sleep, not expecting anything.
Heck, I probably forgot that I’d even sent it– it was just a moment of
tumblr-spurred mirth, after all. I had the notion that the CIA won’t actually tell you who its
Secret Agents are. If you’ve ever wondered if Tom King was fibbing about his CIA career, you probably didn’t take that extra step of writing the CIA because (a) you have that same notion, that being a Secret Agent is, uh, a
secret, and (b) unlike me, you tragically don’t have a sufficiently prestigious tumblr blog that you needed goofs for.
But I needed that goof-fuel, darling.
I certainly didn’t expect the CIA to write back!
…
Then, the CIA wrote back:
First, let me note that it’s an
extremely odd feeling to get a letter in the mail from the CIA. I always assumed the CIA didn’t communicate with people by ordinary mail. Based on a lifetime of bad movies, I just assumed that if I ever spoke with the CIA, they’d have a man in a black trenchcoat meet me in a park. Or I’m brown, so maybe I assumed that I would meet with the CIA under more “
caged” circumstances.
I never imagined the closest my life would come to a spy novel would be
“I got a form letter about a Batman writer”.
You kind of do a little ”
am I on camera? Is this a Jamie Kennedy experiment?“ move before opening an envelope that has “
The CIA” on it, too, which is great fun. All in all, I recommend having the experience.
Also an “extremely odd feeling”?
"We do not have a record of the individual.”
….
what?
But wait. Wait–
wait!
There had been news articles. News articles about how he was in the CIA! Actual journalists had looked at this– not just schlocky commentariat that the Very Serious Comic Fans on the internet frowned upon. Real, entertainment journalists–
the kind that write recaps of TV shows!
Entertainment journalism– that’s a proper thing, right? Isn’t that a thing?
This was an e-mail exchange I had in April 2016 with a journalist for a general-audience internet publication– not a writer for a comics-focused website. Let me type out the interesting bit, in case that’s a little fuzzy for you:
He and Geoff Johns mentioned that he’d worked for the CIA during the creators announcement at WonderCon. From that, I did an interview with Tom at the convention. It was a quick turnaround. All of it was taken at his word and supported by DC. There have been comic press articles in the past mentioning that background, though it wasn’t the main focus. If you have reasons to believe his claims aren’t true, I’d be interested in hearing.
Oh dear, “entertainment journalism” might not actually be a thing, you guys!
This was an e-mail to someone who had written an article with the word “CIA” literally in its
headline, essentially asking me (a random person e-mailing them) if perhaps *
I had any information* about whether Tom King was really in the CIA
.
Is that how journalism is supposed to work? I suppose that I don’t know. What the hell do I know about journalism? I just know what you know–
that if you have lunch with Bari Weiss, apparently the thrilling taste of a shrimp salad sandwich and the pleasure of her company will somehow magically make you forget how completely noxious and toxic her contribution to public life is.
But
maaaaaaybe, instead of “entertainment journalism,” all we really have are clickbait farms that are so desperate for “content” that they put a minimal effort into any kind of fact-checking, in order to more quickly churn out articles. In which case, we can’t rely on
any of the shit that gets published as actually having journalistic merit, as having been checked or double-checked, as having been vetted or verified– especially when it comes to a “
who really gives a shit?” industry like comics, since the point of the articles is just to generate clicks from a historically disrespected audience, not to challenge them.
And
maaaaaaybe that’s a situation getting infinitely worse since even talking about the wrong guy could get you
sued, including where
comics are concerned.
But wait, wait, wait, wait– look, there’s DC Comics. The entertainment journalist I had contacted said DC supported King’s story– Geoff Johns himself had vouched for that story. It’s not like DC would do all that without
checking– right? It’s not like DC Comics would allow one of its star writers to steal valor–
right???
Sure, we could say DC Comics has an imperfect history when it comes to “
women” or “
treating women like human beings” or “
looking the other way for years and years after getting complaints that its employees mistreat women” or “
hey they never fired any of the high-level executives who looked the other way for years and years while one of their editors preyed upon women, even though those high-level executives had thereby created an unwritten company policy to tolerate and thus ratify sexual misconduct, irreversibly damaging the culture around comics”.
Heck, we’d all say that they’re terrible people enabled by cowards, where that topic is concerned. All of us. Every single one of us. No hesitation.
But who is saying that DC Comics has a history of not catching that one of its writers was lying about having served his country?
…Oh, except True Believers might remember: DC Comics
tooooootally has a history of failing to catch that one of its writers had lied about having served his country!
Back in about 2004, there was a comic called
Stormwatch, and the writer of that comic claimed to have liberated Panama while working for the Army Rangers. All of which was true,
except (whoopsie-doozy!) for the part about a comic book writer having liberated Panama while working for the Army Rangers, because
duuuuuhhhh of course that wasn’t true– were you dopers all stoned on grass??? He was some frumpy comic nerd; that was
obvious bullshit; he got caught (though not by DC, who did not give a shit, not enough to check); it was remarkably embarrassing.
But this is completely different than that.
This isn’t some comic guy ridiculously claiming to have liberated Panama while being an Army Ranger.
This is a comic guy claiming to have liberated Iraq while being a CIA Counter-terrorism agent.
Completely different!
But wait a second, Tom King also wrote for Marvel Comics. And it’s not like Marvel comics has a history of letting writers lie about who they are…
…except for when Marvel’s editor-in-chief lied about who he was, when bizarrely
impersonating an Asian man, astonishingly without there being any real consequence for having done that, whatsoever.
So…
…
…
what?
IV. RELAX YOUR CRACK, FOGHORN
Anyways, after I got this letter from the CIA, nearly three year passed.
(
Let’s just say if your question as you read this is “why didn’t you do better comics journalism”, the very most I am able to answer that question at the moment is to just wave my hand vaguely at those three years and then kind of shrug confusedly. The reasons for that will presently have to remain as secret as the truth about the CIA’s contact with UFO’s).
Three years is enough time to take a deep breath.
Is this letter I received from the CIA three years ago evidence of…
anything, really?
The answer is obviously no.
After all, the CIA also checked a box that says “
A release was not provided from the individual. Please provide his/her authorization and resubmit the request.”
Because my letter didn’t attach some kind of release from Tom King authorizing the release of his personal information, perhaps the CIA was not in a position to really answer my question. Maybe they have to say they don’t know an employee if the employee hasn’t provided a release.
Who knows? I don’t know how the CIA works. What do I know about the CIA??? I just know what you know
– that George HW Bush had them invent AIDS.
Obviously, some form letter plus me fussing about comics history are alone not sufficient evidence to conclude anything. Not really.
Or when the CIA suggests that it doesn’t know anyone named “Tom King” – heck, maybe he didn’t use the name Tom King while he worked for the CIA. Maybe he had a cool spy name, like spies have in the James Bond movies. Maybe the CIA knows Tom King only by his Official Spy Name of Patty Myvagina or Vani LlaNipples. Or maybe Tom King is just his pen name, and his real name is Tommy Godemperor–
maybe Tom King is his more humble pen name.
Or maybe the CIA forgot who Tom King was– maybe the CIA was just really hammered while he worked for them.
Bitch, you don’t know the CIA’s life– you don’t get to judge us!
Or after that
Stormwatch fracas, maybe DC Comics actually learned a lesson and put in place
some kind of system (any kind!) to make sure none of its writers were possibly engaged in stealing valor before supporting and vouching for their service, rather than just trusting in the “
moral character of comic book writers.” Maybe that’s a no-brainer that they should have such a policy given their history of dealing with some
rather scummy-sounding individuals. And therefore, maybe it’d be extremely unusual if they were
unable to answer (a) whether such a policy existed or (b) how Tom King’s claims about being in the CIA were checked on by them (if at all).
Maybe that’s what this story would actually be about, in an ideal world!
(Put me down as being hypothetically curious about that, if anybody wants to ask, as I would sure expect that DC would be extremely cooperative with promptly answering such reasonable questions!)
If you stop and think, there’s a million reasons why some CIA form letter is potentially meaningless– a million ways I could be made to look
offensively stupid, in short order.
Pay stubs! Medals and certificates! Employee ID! Friends from the service! Or maybe the CIA already has said something contrary to their form letter, that I somehow missed, or Tom King put some evidence out already that I’m blissfully unaware of. All in all, Tom King and/or his super-fans can most probably make me look very small and very foolish, very easily.
So am I saying you should not believe Tom King’s story or “official” biography? No, I am unable to say that, and am definitively
not saying that, at this time. You are urged to continue to believe whatever it is you may have believed heretofore.
(
Based upon the foregoing, and in order to make the foregoing again 100% clear, here is a little DISCLAIMER, affirming that I am neither stating nor implying that I have any substantive knowledge of any unique kind as to Tom King’s affiliations with the CIA or the veracity of his representations relating thereto, or DC Comics’s actions with respect to that subject, or the knowledge of any party in relation therewith. At best, I am offering only mere opinions on this topic (which I understand to be a matter of public interest) and in fact, my ultimate opinion on this topic is that any documents attached hereto are unreliable. Such documents and opinions are presented herein purely for entertainment purposes, and not to be relied on beyond the purposes presented herein, within these United States or elsewhere, from now until the end of time. I am further adding that though I have quite disliked the one or two Tom King comics I have read at present date and may have said so in an animated fashion for entertainment purposes, I have no personal malice towards Mr. King and in fact, wish him the best, in all of his future endeavors. Nothing contained herein shall be deemed as a waiver of any of my rights at law or in equity, all of which are hereby expressly reserved).
V. A RADAR TOWER IN ALASKA
And so once this gets properly snope-d,
(*if* that should happen… shrugs confusedly), it’s more likely than not that
- the CIA’s form letter will be proven to be an innocent mix-up;
- my suspicions will be proven paranoid, disgraceful, dull;
- DC will be happy to explain all the things they did to properly investigate Tom King’s claims before vouching for them in the media;
- I’ll somehow be made to look even more buffoonish than ever before– which is no small feat.
It will be a great day for everybody –
except terrorists, who would have to continue to fear the writer of The Batman, day and night.
(And I guess I’ll have made an enemy of a counter-terrorism specialist– Jack Bauer might take a break writing about the Penguin to set up a perimeter around my one-bedroom apartment. That might suck, but
wheeeee, life’s an adventure!)
But regardless of what happens next, regardless of what embarrassment may be coming my way, I will say this: watching Tom King for the last three years, and getting to ask “
But What if He Weren’t” has been delightful. Just getting to ask that question has been a gift.
“There used to be a bounty on my head from the fucking Taliban– I can deal with a few Twitter followers.”
These quotes have been weirdly entertaining for me, in a very dark kind of way, difficult to verbalize. I’ve gotten to see these (
possibly innocuous) statements as fun clues to a Mystery that other people weren’t even trying to solve.
Does this sound like a real-life CIA Agent to the rest of you?? How am I the only person going “W-w-wait a second” here??? But maybe that
iswhat a CIA agent sounds like– probably that’s what we ultimately learn from all this! After everything, why would I expect the Deep State would sound any better than that???
Wheee!
It has been a singular experience for which I am enormously grateful to the CIA and Mr. King. It’s been a real crack-up.
The part that I actually keeping coming back to, though, the part that’s been the most interesting part for me hasn’t been what job some guy had before writing
Batman. No, the part I keep coming back to is the part we started at:
Why do comic fans want Batman to be written by a CIA agent?
Why is that a selling point?
“
What does it take to be good at writing? Oh, a career in counter-terrorism.” – Charles Dickens.
Wait, wait, he never said that because that’s not a thing people go around saying!
And yet comic fans seem to believe it.
Why?
Counter-terrorism experience has very little to do with the job of crafting characters, believable dialogue, solid plotting, interesting page layouts, etc. I don’t read his comics, but I’m not sure I understand how dreaming up “
What if Batman got engaged to Catwoman?” ever necessarily required a jaunt to Mahmoudiyah, how one informs the other. It just seems to be a
non-sequitur.
During those same nearly-three years, some left-leaning guy was
fired from writing GI Joe, allegedly because he clumsily expressed some (very dumb sounding) 9/11 sentiment online (though IDW disputed that). And Marvel Comics during that same time tried to publish a team-up comic with military contractor
Northrup Grumman, that it had to cancel after a backlash.
Maybe for comics fans, having a leftist write G.I. Joe wasn’t America enough, the Northrup Grumman comic book was too-America in ways that it’s uncomfortable to think about, while the guy who writes Batman being a CTU agent is just America-enough, in some kind of psycho Goldilocks scenario.
I subscribe to a certain level of “
Support the Troops”, at least as I define that phrase for myself. I don’t know how positively I feel about the CIA’s history generally or in Iraq specifically (
some of that torture stuff sounded pretty uncool!)– I don’t know what I make of our foreign policies generally. But I had a Midwestern upbringing and as such, I suppose that I do believe to some extent in certain old-fashioned ideas about sacrifice and there being a respect owed that. At least, I had a friend who didn’t quite survive Iraq, not really, so I feel a certain way about that. And perhaps that’s a feeling or an experience shared by many comics fans.
But my gut’s saying that’s not the whole story, though, about why fans would get so turned on by the idea of a CIA
Batman writer.
Comics– you pick up sometimes on a lot of messy relationships with the concept of masculinity. People might not remember, but comics used to have these utterly grotesque message boards where comic people would yell “
LOOK AT ME, I LOVE WHISKEY” at each other, night after night, role-playing He-Man at each other. And it certainly bleeds into the contents– it’s a lot of characters solving problems through fight scenes; a lot of orphans who never knew their dads because
OH EXQUISITE PAIN; a lot of women who have to die because they don’t understand how hard it is to Man.
Ahhhh, to Man– so difficult!
You pick up on this being a hobby particularly beloved by people with damaged relationships with their father figures.
Maybe a story about the writer of
Batman being a CIA agent gives those fans some feeling of being macho-adjacent, that fills some hole for them, that satisfies some fantasy, for reasons maybe too dark to really talk about much.
VI. THIS TAPE WILL SELF-DESTRUCT
But I don’t think this is really a story about Tom King.
When you look at the whole structure of things, when you look at
How the World Is, with comics, with anything…
How much do you see a system that can be easily gamed?
Put another way: do you believe you live in a world where people have it in them to be dishonest? Do you live in an ecosystem that gives people a motive to lie?
And if so, do you believe you live in a world where our systems work, and our institutions work, a world where dishonest people will be caught and not allowed to promulgate falsehoods without being stopped? Do you believe you live in a world with journalism in it and not just hot takes? Do you believe you live in a world where
anyone’s checking the hype, besides creeps on tumblr who Very Serious Comic Fans all gave up on eons ago?
Do you believe you live in a world where the truth matters to anyone?
And if not, if your answer to any of these questions is no, then who do you trust? Who can you trust if you fear that you live in a world where dishonesty is a winning strategy? Why trust anyone? Why trust anything?
I’m not a comics journalist (generally)– comics journalism probably just gets you sued. And to the extent I might have liked for actual “comics journalism” to have been done here, (
waves hands at three years and shrugs confusedly).
But maybe we can both at least marvel at what’s possible,
how much might be possible, in these confused times, among these sometimes-troubling people. All the bizarre and uncanny possibilities, in this strange place where we hope we are awake.
