Where were you on September 11, 2001, when the whole world saw the fall of the Twin Towers in New York live? Surely you remember it.
That is the first question posed to us by the comic September 11, 2001. The day the world changed (Editorial Standard), by journalist Baptiste Bouthier and illustrator Héloïse Chochois. An exciting reconstruction of the attacks that day, which claimed the lives of almost 3,000 people, but also an interesting journalistic analysis of how that event has changed the world in the last 20 years.
And it is that these attacks brought global terrorism, the invasion of Iraq, the human rights violations in Guantanamo, mass surveillance, the war in Afghanistan, the Islamic State... and, in general, a feeling of insecurity at the national level. world, which is still going on and which has given some governments, such as the North American, an excuse to curtail individual liberties.
The comic is narrated from the point of view of Juliette, a young European who, in September 2021, travels to New York for the first time and recalls how she lived through the attacks on television and the subsequent events that we have all experienced during these last 20 years.
Highlight the excellent journalistic work, both by the scriptwriter and the cartoonist, who make us go back in time, to those moments that will always be part of our collective memory. And the drawings by Héloise, who reconstructs the attacks with all the drama, but none of the sensationalism. Both achieve that, despite the spectacularity of the attacks, the main protagonists are the human beings who lived through them.
And the main message of the comic, which has been demonstrated in light of the recent events in Afghanistan: War is never the solution.
The day the world changed
The comic begins with a journalistic reconstruction of the attacks, since American Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC), at 08:00. 46:30 in the morning, local time. At first no one knows what happened, but suspicions of an attack are confirmed when a second plane, United Flight 175, rams the South Tower just 19 minutes later.
A shock that we all saw live on television, since by then the whole world had connected to New York to see what was happening.
From here, the comic is based on testimonials from survivors to tell us about the rapid intervention of the firefighters, which saved hundreds of lives, and recreates how some people managed to escape, by sheer luck, while others chose the path mistaken. It also recreates the testimony of a French journalist who obtained some of the first photographs of the event.
The comic is also a tribute to the victims, including the 343 firefighters who lost their lives that day, most crushed when the first tower fell. And it is that nobody expected them to collapse.
Of course, it also recreates the other attacks of that day, that of American Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon. And that of United Flight 93 that went down in a Pennsylvania field after crew and passengers clashed with terrorists.
And we cannot forget the image of George Bush Jr., the most powerful man in the world, who was reading a story to some children in a school, an activity that he did not stop even when he was informed of the attacks and that the United States was under terrorist attack.
The comic also reminds us that the victims of that 9/11 are many more than those who died that day, since many men and women who were on the front line that day, such as firefighters or policemen, breathed toxic smoke that It has caused the death of another three thousand people. In addition to the fact that there are another 10,000 cancer patients, who have to cover their medical expenses. A serious health and legal problem that remains unresolved. They took 5 seconds to respond to the attacks, but they have been waiting 20 years to be compensated for the illnesses derived from the event.
The consequences of the attack
This first part of the comic will awaken many memories, but journalistically we are more interested in the second part, in which the authors analyze the consequences of the attack that, as we say, we continue to live 20 years later.
Beginning with the wave of terror that was unleashed after the attacks, especially in a United States that had never suffered a terrorist attack of this magnitude on its territory.
The United States began its response to the attacks, which it called the "War on Terror." George Bush promised to kill off al Qaeda and bin Laden and even all international terrorist groups. Just 72 hours after the attacks, Bin Laden was already the most wanted man in the world.
That operation would be followed by the war against Afghanistan, dubbed 'Operation Enduring Freedom,' because his government refused to hand over bin Laden to them.
Bush then signed one of the most controversial laws in US history: the Patrior Act, which curtailed the fundamental freedoms of Americans, authorizing the government to tap anyone's phones or enter suspects' homes without prior notice . And worst of all: they can imprison you for terrorism without evidence, only on mere suspicion, and for an unlimited time (they tell the prisoners in Guantánamo). A controversial law that is still in force 20 years later.
In 2003 the United States would start another war, this time with Iraq (which Saddam Hussein governed), a country that it also accuses of collaborating with Al Qaeda and of having "weapons of mass destruction." Something that turned out to be completely false and just another excuse for the Americans to start the war and, incidentally, drag some of their European allies into the war, such as Spain.
And in 2013 Edward Snowden revealed to the world that the National Security Agency of the United States was systematically spying on everyone (including world leaders), from emails to phone calls, including Google data and the social networks such as Facebook or Twitter.
Madrid suffered the first major international attack
While the Americans got into wars they could not win, the terrorists counterattacked by sowing terror with attacks in countries allied to the USA. The first and one of those that recorded the most victims was that of the Madrid Atocha station, on March 11, 2004, where 192 people died.
It would be followed by the attacks of July 7, 2005 on the subway and on a London bus (56 dead); Brussels (32 deaths in 2016), those of Paris on November 13, 2015 (90 deaths in the Bataclán theater, 39 on several terraces and 1 in a stadium) and that of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo (13 deaths, on November 7). January 2015)... to name only the most remembered.
The Americans supposedly drove the Taliban out of Afghanistan in 2001 and the Barak Obama government killed bin Laden on May 2, 2011, although the war never ended and these days we are witnessing, stunned, the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the withdrawal of international troops.
This shows that, as the authors reason, war is not the solution in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
All the facts that I have narrated, and many more, you will find in this comic, which is essential to understand what has happened in the world in the last 20 years. And what can happen from now on, after the return of the Taliban to Afghanistan.
Another 5 essential comics about 9/11
We want to end this article with another 5 essential comics to understand 9/11, starting with a masterpiece: Sin la sombra de las torres (Norma, 2004), by Art Spiegelman, in which the famous author of Maus, who was a direct witness to the attacks, uses the comic to recount his own personal odyssey and how this fact changed his vision of the world. In addition to reflecting on the attitude of the Americans towards the catastrophe and making a fierce criticism of the Bush administration. He also used this comic to overcome trauma through art.
The 9/11 Report, published by Panini but currently out of print, is a fabulous graphic novel by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón, which described the events of 9/11 in a rigorous and objective, almost documentary way. An excellent work that was a true best seller, in the United States, for its ability to shake the entire society with the objective description of the facts.
The famous South Korean artist Kim Jung Gi (South Korea, 1975) paid homage to the victims of the attacks with a spectacular collector's comic from the Magnum agency: McCurry, NY September 11, 2001 (Diábolo editions), starring the photographer Steve McCurry, who that day gave testimony of the tragedy with his unforgettable snapshots. The mixture of the photographs and drawings of these two artists gives rise to unforgettable images and one of the most beautiful tributes that has been paid to the victims of the attacks.
On November 14, 2001, Marvel would pay homage to the city and its true heroes (firefighters, doctors, policemen...) in The Amazing Spider-Man No. 36 (with a script by J. Michael Straczynski and drawings by John Romita Jr. ). A story in which Spiderman and the other superheroes were powerless in the face of the catastrophe and could only help in the tasks of searching for victims and cleaning up debris. In the following months the publisher also launched comics dedicated to police officers, firefighters, etc...
And finally we would like to recommend a very interesting comic that speculated with the possibility that the attacks had never happened, in the style of Marvel's What if.... It is about The Prince of Darkness (Ponent Mon, 2019). The protagonist is John Patrick O'Neill (1952-2001), an FBI agent who warned for years about a possible attack on Bin Laden and who, ironically, died in the Twin Towers. But... what would have happened if they had listened to him and stopped Bin Laden before the attacks. An interesting possibility that gives rise to a great comic, but which, in reality, unfortunately did not happen.