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Sean Hannity, Cyborg Hero of the People

Donny Lin

G. Gordon Liddy, left, and Sean Hannity from the year 2021 in Liberality for All.

By J. Caleb Mozzocco
Columbus Alive | November 10, 2005
Here’s a question a lot of people have asked in the last four years: What if George W. Bush lost the 2000 election and President Al Gore had to respond to the September 11 attacks? Writer Mike Mackey attempts an answer with his new comic book series, Liberality For All (ACC Studios).

According to LFA, Gore would be traveling the country in a protective Popemobile preaching understanding of the terrorists rather than fighting back, to Sean Hannity’s disgust and al Qaeda’s delight. By the year 2021, America would be a liberal dystopia, where President Chelsea Clinton has surrendered sovereignty to the U.N. and invited Osama bin Laden to the U.S. as an ambassador.

The “Coulter Laws” have outlawed conservative punditry, so Hannity (now sporting an eye patch and cyborg arm) resorts to high-risk radio piracy to get on the air, and has joined forces with G. Gordon Liddy to save America from itself.

Is Mackey kidding? I honestly have no idea. He’s either parodying the victim’s complex of the ruling Republican right or promulgating that myth himself. Whichever, the politics of LFA are subtle enough to be read either way.

The sub-par art by Donny Lin offers no clues, and it’s really the book’s biggest problem: Rough and generic looking, it’s not cartoonish enough to suggest it’s all in fun, nor realistic enough to suggest any sort of satire. None of the celebrity stars, for example, look anything like themselves. The messy art is accompanied by confusing storytelling, with the narration and dialogue constantly cutting each other off.

All politics aside, it’s not a terribly rewarding read, but it is an interesting one. It’s safe to say that for all the futuristic, alternate realities you’ve seen in comics, you’ve never seen anything like this.
Tags: Coulter, G. Gordon Liddy, Liberality For All, Mike Mackey, Sean Hannity

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