So did anyone read the Robot 6 Quote of the Day yesterday by Roger Langridge called "R-Rated Superheroes" -- read it below:
I really don’t think Marvel and DC are helping things by having gritty, R-rated versions of their superheroes in their main comics – what they sell as the “real” versions – while simultaneously selling those exact same characters in kids’ comics and plastering them all over lunchboxes and animated cartoons… Casual readership by kids, or by parents for their kids, is effectively impossible the way things are currently structured. And I think the waters are muddied too far now to claw that ground back. I think it’s insane that DC have spent 70 years making Superman as big as Mickey Mouse, and branding him to be understood by parents as being pretty much as kid-friendly as Mickey Mouse, only to piss that brand away in a decade. Nothing wrong with doing mature content in comics – in fact, it should be encouraged as often as possible – but doing it with characters who are on your kids’ lunchboxes is kind of moronic. Take a lesson fromWatchmen and come up with new characters for that stuff. And then go back to Superman and Batman and put the same kind of love and effort and craft and intelligence you’ve been putting into all those rape scenes and body mutilations into something kids can read, and adults can also be proud to read because of all the love and effort and craft and intelligence you’ve put into it, and make those the “real” versions.
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with Roger? Regardless of your opinion on the matter, this topic is definitely food for thought.
Discuss!
Please also enjoy this work-in-progress snapshot below:
Great expression in the last panel Denver!
I totally agree with Langridge. It could very well force comics in to an every growing niche market if they keep their current decision making.
Goodness knows I can barely find anything in print for my daughters to read anymore.
What a great strip! The middle sequence of him fretting over the article works stupendously! So lively and fun!
I agree with Chad. Watching him pace back and forth in the second panel is a little slice of awesome. Also, I am a big fan of the use of the word “BAH!”
I agree 100% with that quote. It’s largely why I stopped reading mainstream comics a decade ago and more. It’s sex and violence, and it’s stupid.
On the plus side, love the strip today! Agree about panel 2.
If they are being excessively graphic in their depiction of the character and the universe they inhabit, it does not seem “real”, it is merely the other extreme from Saturday morning kids cartoons. Real in the same sense the Jerry Springer show is real. It is a way to sell comics, but really unpalatable compared to other approaches.
Beyond the sheer cost of monthly comics today, I too have been less impressed with the movement to make mainstream superhero characters “real”.
It can work mind you, and I don’t feel Roger is dismissing the concept of work for mature audiences for all kid-fare. However, throwing in extreme violence, sexual content, and language for the sake of making something more “real” is silly and trite and more often than not handled poorly. I typically don’t read comics for realism. That’s a funny notion to me. I like comics for escapism, same as many other forms of pop culture like TV or film. I don’t want a “real” Booster & Beetle…they’re not meant to be “real” and gritty. Killing off Ted Kord how they did, in the wake of Identity Crisis (which was bad enough)…that was pretty much it for me and monthly mainstream comics.
I love the 2nd panel with the fretting too. It really works well with the ballons and different poses and locations of CM in the frame. Pus the last frame is great. You nailed his expression.
I couldn’t agree more with what was said in Langridge’s article. I was reading a recent issue of The Amazing Spider-Man (which I hadn’t seen in years) and was saddened by seeing all of the really bad sex jokes. Very descriptive and bad sex jokes. There’s a time and place for everything and that certainly wasn’t it. It just seemed to me like they hired an immature writer who just discovered his inner potty mouth and thought that he was relevant.
Oh, btw, good strip! Love that first panel!