Before coming to Millennium City, “legacy hero” John Battle operated in the American Southwest, working with various communities, including the various tribes of the Native Americans. Having a long family history of being a hero and friend to the Indian Nations, this included making deals that should benefit the tribes.
However, as it was revealed in “Future’s Guardian” #15, John’s now being accused of exploiting that connection, making deals that sell out the tribes to big corporations like ARGENT.
In this exclusive preview of Issue #16, that charge of exploitation gets even stronger thanks to TV station WCOC…
But is it true? Did John Battle arrange for a tribal community to be pilfered by ARGENT? And if he didn’t, then who did?
That is what John’s teammates will have to figure out for him.
Writer/creator David 2 says that the media’s crusade against a local hero brings up some old memories.
“Back in 1996, I was just starting my commentary column online when the Olympic Games were being held in Atlanta,” he said. “Just a few days in, the games were rocked by a terrorist bomb. It wasn’t long before the media focused on one individual as the bomber. He was a security guard who had spotted the bomb and tried to get as many people away from the area as possible before it went off. But the local media, radio, television, and newspapers, all decided that Richard Jewell was the bomber. They dissected his life, interviewed everyone who ever knew him, and they even pulled out experts who tried to justify how he could carry out the act. They basically tried him in the public before it was revealed that he wasn’t the bomber and that he was really the hero.”
“I was one of the few voices that warned against the rush to judgement. Obviously I wasn’t heard. Even when the man was publicly vindicated by the U.S. Attorney General, the various media groups still claimed that they were right in what they did. Jewell had to file lawsuits to get his name restored because he couldn’t find work, never mind work in law enforcement, which was his dream.”
Jewell died in 2007. The real bomber, domestic terrorist Eric Robert Rudolph, was eventually captured and convicted.
“Even to this day,” David 2 said, “one of the biggest media outlets in Atlanta refuses to acknowledge they screwed up.”
Richard Jewell’s story is the subject of a forthcoming film directed by Clint Eastwood. David 2 says that the sad moment in time is a harsh reminder of the power of the media and how easily it can destroy lives.
“The media has a tremendous power,” he said. “They can make or break people. And if they decide to break people, they can be downright ruthless. And the question they should be asking themselves is ‘What if you are wrong?’ Because if you are wrong, then you ruin lives for nothing. And that’s something that gets raised with this storyline.”
“Yes, things seem pretty damning for John Battle… but what if the media is wrong about him?”
Find out when “Future’s Guardian” #16 goes online on August 30th.
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