The Weird 9/11 Pop-Culture (Released Before The Real One)
9/11 was one of the most traumatic and scarring events this century because all of us have decided to just kind of ignore 2020.
The New York Times
The event rippled through all media that came out for ... ever since? It's been over 20 years, and we're still riding that wave. But the thing is, if you're not careful, you'll end up watching something you think is about 9/11 only to find out it came out years before. Yeah, it turns out we've been making things about 9/11 long before it happened.
You got a slew of pre-9/11s. Do you want a Tom Clancy 9/11? We got you hooked up. How about a Superman 9/11 published on 9/12? How does that one grab you?
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It grabbed the DC suits by the wallets, and they offered a refund immediately (that almost no one took them up on because "Who doesn't want a prophetic comic book?" said the lead in a 70s horror movie).
DC Comics
The Lone Gunmen, X-Files' more comedic spin-off about conspiracy theory nuts, found the heroes going against a false flag operation, attacking the World Trade Center to kick off a war. The fact that Chris Carter is still alive today is a miracle.
The fact that no one watched The Lone Gunmen must've helped.
The video game Deus Ex removed them and said they had been taken down by a terrorist attack the year before the towers fell. The Coup had to change their album art, depicting the towers exploding. The second impact of Evangelion, which alters the world forever, was on 9/13/2000. Michael Bay's Armageddon even had to edit out their WTC destruction from the television broadcasts.
Could you keep editing, though?
Books, movies, television shows, video games, even a Beavis and Butthead article -- all were depicting the towers falling. Hell, the original Super Mario Bros. movie got in on it.
People say that ghosts are just moments of tremendous emotion that leaves an echo, but that echo is not locked into time linearly -- such was the pain and devastation of 9/11 that the echoes of pain it sent out reverberated back in time, inspiring art not merely in the present and future, but the past itself. Either that or a bunch of people all decided at once it'd be cool to blow things up in New York. And who would ever do something like that?
You can find Tara Marie @TaraMarieWords, get the comic she wrote part of here Trailer Park Boys: Bagged and Boarded and read more she's written at Panel X Panel, the Hard Times, or by just scrolling up and reading this article again.
Top Image: Touchstone Pictures, DC Comics
