I betcha that Marvel in general did not know this was going on, and from passing familiarity with the industry this would be more the case.
What I expect is the case is that writer Ed Brubaker has a hard on against all them evil conservatives, and so he decides to be sly and put it in the book. The editor who has similar tendencies smiles and let's the references slide. The penciller, inker and colorist just do their job and put the words to art and try to do the best job whether or not the agree. Behind the scenes, Brubaker's probably yucking it up with friends on what he's gonna do to "take a shot" at those evil tea partiers and thinking he's so clever. Final editor go through during production, he likes it, and it slides by to press.
Then it hits the street, tea party fans suddenly see their favorite hero dogging on them and calling them racist nazi anarchists.
Commence freakout.
Joe Quesada, consummate artist, ******* useless Editor in Chief attempts to fix the problem and not only fails, but makes the whole company look bad with his half-assed apology a la lawyer BS. The solution has suddenly made this book a collectors item. Which I find disgusting That company and product has gone right into the shitter since Tom DeFalco left.
He serves a purpose dead. This is nothing surprising though (the Captain America thing). Cap has always been Pro-America, not for any certain political party.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooo
