Defense Contractor comix: triumph of the robotic will

Defense contractor Northrop Grumman has published a comic book promoting drones and "nintendo warfare" for kids. Special Ops 5: UAS STRIKES! tells the story of a group of pinned-down US soldiers who extricate themselves by invoking satellites, robots, and drones that chase of balaclava-clad swarthy terrorists. Link (via Danger Room)

[#1 posted by Anonymous , September 7, 2007 6:01 PM]

Huh? "promoting drones and 'nintendo warfare' for kids"? How gullible are you guys? Have you read this thing?

It's obviously not targeted at kids, but at those who make the purchase decisions about weapons systems, both in the Pentagon and abroad. I mean the line "Those Americans have foiled our evil plan to rule the world" is so over the top that that even a kid can recognize it as parody.

Frankly, the only weakness or gaffe by N-G here (assuming this is a legitimate piece of theirs) is that they apparently never thought someone might mistake it for a kid's comic. As a former N-G employee, I've been embarassed by a lot of public relations screwups by them, but here even the "swarthy" terrorists have the same skin color as the U.S. soldiers. Frankly, they look more like COBRA commandos than anyone from the Middle East.

[#2 posted by certron , September 7, 2007 9:16 PM]

For a better combat comic, complete with "Nintendo warfare", I would recommend Spiders, an alternate history of the US war in Afghanistan. Who said video games and IM would never accomplish anything?

Still, this comes off as flashy war glam. "Zoom!"? "Kablam!"? Really. I love the idea of talking unmanned aerial vehicles, though. I can't really think of a legitimate audience for this work, although the X-47B is apparently used by the Navy (unless I am reading it wrong and the program was canceled).

[#3 posted by artomatic , September 7, 2007 11:34 PM]

Gotta love how the turrists dress like Diabolik!

[#4 posted by Binaryloop , September 7, 2007 11:47 PM]

Just wait! When Cobra Commander attacks you'll all be glad that Northrop was looking out for everyone.

[#5 posted by Anonymous , September 8, 2007 4:19 AM]

you always know terrorists by their unmanageable eyebrows. Some guy in met in a pub calling himself "the doctor" recons it's actually the eyebrows that are in control.