Polite Dissent

HIV is not just a disease, it’s an issue. This is unfortunate, because the human cost of the disease frequently gets lost among all the fuss and furor. Once, this stance was undoubtedly important, but now it’s become more of a hindrance than a help to patients. Ask yourself, would this story have been such a news item if it had been reported that Green Arrow’s sidekick was infected with Hepatitis B – another deadly viral disease spread the same way as HIV? HIV and AIDS need to be addressed, but not as a political issue or a statement. It needs to be addressed as a disease. This is true for comic books as well as the evening news.

Comics as a medium do not do a good job of presenting diseases. The only conditions mentioned seem to be colds, cancer, addiction/alcoholism and HIV. When was the last time there was a story about a super hero with high cholesterol? What about high blood pressure? I can name a handful of comic book characters of the top of my head that are HIV-positive, but I can’t name one who is diabetic.

Comics need to move from the “them” to the “us” in regards to HIV. This is nothing unique to comics; other media have had to make the same move, only they did it years ago. For instance, in the second season of St. Elsewhere, there was a city councilman who was diagnosed with HIV; everyone knew he just had to be gay because of the HIV and “only homosexuals had HIV” (and, of course, he was). This is an example of “them” thinking. However, by the end of St. Elsewhere, there were major characters that had become HIV-positive for other reasons including promiscuous behavior and needle-stick accidents. This is the change to the “us” thinking. HIV is no longer something that happens to other people, but something that can happen to us – either by our own actions or by unlucky coincidence.

Comic books are still stuck in the “them” mode for the most part. Most characters that have HIV have been purposefully infected with the disease. This is simply another kind of “them” thinking: “we don’t get HIV unless someone evil intentionally gives it to us.” Comics need to move on and join the 21st century (well, join the 90s really, but it’s already too late for that). There have been some writers who have already taken that step, such as Peter David in his Incredible Hulk run and Paul Witcover and Elizabeth Hand on Anima. More writers need to follow their example. If HIV is going to be addressed in comic books (and it should be, but so should many other diseases and conditions), then it needs to be done in as adult a way as possible.