Violence in the mainstream DCU
Ok – a little more detail – a while back Jamie from the CGS podcast complained about the increasing violence in mainstream superhero DC comics – particularly Green Lantern and Infinite Crisis – not so much condemning the acts themselves but moreso the gratuitous ways in which they were portrayed.
In a recent Green Lantern Mongul (I think) punched his sisters head off- the act displayed in all its glory. I read this at the time and just thought “What the hell?” – It just seemed so gratuitous and unnecessary to show it in a major splash panel ina ll its glory detail.
Jamie brought this up and also mentioned a recent issue of Infinite Crisis where Superboy Prime ripped peoples arms off, decapitated people and cut people in half. Again as I read this issue it just seemed unnecessary.
Jamies big concern was why. Why show this in such detail – why not show it in the background or off panel or something – why do we have to see Mongul punching peoples heads off? The others basically told him he was too old and they thought (essentially) it was cool to see someone punch someones head off.
Okay..
Jamie also stated how another concern is that this is happening in a Green lantern comic. Green Lantern people! He’s in the JLU for gods sake – now, I’m not saying sanitize it for kids to read but don’t make it unaccessible to them. It saddens my heart to think that a kid can no longer pick up a Green lantern comic…
Again the guys wrote him off saying that he wouldn’t find too many people that would share his feelings and comics aren’t for kids anyway.
Which is silly. Jamie asked what to do if his 8 year old nephew saw Green Lantern in the cartoon and wanted to read a comic of GL. Peter replied causally to give him the Showcase presents Green Lantern collection. Ooookay again. Yeah – give an 8 year old a 500 page book of old black and white Green Lantern comics from the 50’s. Now THAT’S a good idea.
So then the debate turned to how kids get exposed to that level of violence in video games and on tv so whats the problem. Its such a sad mindset.
I have such a problem with all of this. Now I don’t mind violenc ein my comics – I mean, Punisher I wouldn’t take any other way. However I don’t really want to see decapitations or heads being eaten in my spidey comics (oh whoops). You know what I mean? In the rght place its not a problem.
Just reading the Winter soldier trade and in the first issue someones executed via a gun to the head..th epanel is silhouetted from a distance. If this happened in a dcu comic (think Blue Beetle) we’d see it close up and actually see his brains being blown out.
This is the wrong way and DC’s been doing this WAY too much lately. I haven’t read the next issue of IC where Black Adam apparently punches someone though the back of the head with this fist emerging through the guys face.
Its all too much – seriously..what do you guys think. Excuse typos and such – its late, I'm tired, I have a 2 week old baby and an attention craving 2 year old. I’m very tired.
In a recent Green Lantern Mongul (I think) punched his sisters head off- the act displayed in all its glory. I read this at the time and just thought “What the hell?” – It just seemed so gratuitous and unnecessary to show it in a major splash panel ina ll its glory detail.
Jamie brought this up and also mentioned a recent issue of Infinite Crisis where Superboy Prime ripped peoples arms off, decapitated people and cut people in half. Again as I read this issue it just seemed unnecessary.
Jamies big concern was why. Why show this in such detail – why not show it in the background or off panel or something – why do we have to see Mongul punching peoples heads off? The others basically told him he was too old and they thought (essentially) it was cool to see someone punch someones head off.
Okay..
Jamie also stated how another concern is that this is happening in a Green lantern comic. Green Lantern people! He’s in the JLU for gods sake – now, I’m not saying sanitize it for kids to read but don’t make it unaccessible to them. It saddens my heart to think that a kid can no longer pick up a Green lantern comic…
Again the guys wrote him off saying that he wouldn’t find too many people that would share his feelings and comics aren’t for kids anyway.
Which is silly. Jamie asked what to do if his 8 year old nephew saw Green Lantern in the cartoon and wanted to read a comic of GL. Peter replied causally to give him the Showcase presents Green Lantern collection. Ooookay again. Yeah – give an 8 year old a 500 page book of old black and white Green Lantern comics from the 50’s. Now THAT’S a good idea.
So then the debate turned to how kids get exposed to that level of violence in video games and on tv so whats the problem. Its such a sad mindset.
I have such a problem with all of this. Now I don’t mind violenc ein my comics – I mean, Punisher I wouldn’t take any other way. However I don’t really want to see decapitations or heads being eaten in my spidey comics (oh whoops). You know what I mean? In the rght place its not a problem.
Just reading the Winter soldier trade and in the first issue someones executed via a gun to the head..th epanel is silhouetted from a distance. If this happened in a dcu comic (think Blue Beetle) we’d see it close up and actually see his brains being blown out.
This is the wrong way and DC’s been doing this WAY too much lately. I haven’t read the next issue of IC where Black Adam apparently punches someone though the back of the head with this fist emerging through the guys face.
Its all too much – seriously..what do you guys think. Excuse typos and such – its late, I'm tired, I have a 2 week old baby and an attention craving 2 year old. I’m very tired.
posted by Mike @ 8:34 PM
6 Comments:
At 11:00 PM,
mark said…
You're absolutely right. There are titles that obviously use gore and wanton violence to move issues. And generally people know what they're buying and are ok with it. I mean, I’m not against violence at all. I ‘grew up’ on Evil Ernie and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. I know what goes on.
But I didn't imagine this is what we'd be seeing at the forefront of the DCU. Crisis can be a huge event without pulling out cheap gimmicks like this. It's completely gratuitous and unnecessary. Especially when they have such a great selling-tool like Justice League Unlimited. Which I know is not aimed directly at kids, but it would definitely help in getting them onboard. I mean damn, it’s what got me into DC and I’m 26!
And simply putting it down to ‘well, they’re going to see it on TV and in videogames anyway’ is just far too flippant. If you’re trying to parent your children, they’re not going to see these things if you don’t want them to. Sure, some parents don’t care, but those that do will want to be involved in what their child does and doesn’t see. And to then have to usher them away from GL, Spiderman and the potentially the Justice League comics, that’s kinda sad.
At 12:16 PM,
Travis (SLX) said…
My feelings on the subject are this:
If a super being like Superboy Prime went all crazy and evil, ripping off arms and knocking off heads is what he would do. We make jokes about old-school villains monologuing and then we complain when modern ones actually take action. To paraphrase the Incedibles: "These aren't your Saturday morning cartoon villains. They will not hesitate to hurt or even kill you."
As far as showing it on panel, I agree you might have a point there. On the other hand, though, if we are going have these things happen, maybe it would be better to show them in their "full glory". Death is not pretty or glorious, especially not like it is on TV or in the movies. To see Blue Beetle shot or Sue Dignby (SP?) raped and killed is showing real life consequences to the choices other characters make. Honestly, in my opinion, I think it's more harmful to children to say that there is always a neat and happy ending then any violent image.
And, finally, there are plenty of comics out there for kids. If your kid likes Green Lantern on JLU, don't get him Green Lantern. Get him the JLU book. If he likes the Teen Titans cartoon, don't get him the issue of Infinite Crisis with half of them getting killed. Get him Teen Titans Go. It's like the parents who take their kids to see an R rated movie and then complain about the content when they should have been seeing the Disney flick all along.
At 1:44 PM,
Mike said…
heh..are you from the CGS boards as most of the people there were making the same argument. I think we'll have to agree to diagree on ths one but I'll cover each of the points ;)
Actions: I dont mind the ripping of limbs etc so much as the potrayal of it. I can acknowledge that some baddies are scary and bad enough that they'll just do that. And thanks for seeing my point on displaying it and in turn i can see your point as well. Seeing it actually happen in 'graphic' detail makes it realer to the reader..and this is fine in a lot of comic books - i just dont think Green lantern or Infinte crisi is the place for this.
"I think it's more harmful to children to say that there is always a neat and happy ending then any violent image."
Ok, but I dont think i actually made that point anywhere.
As for the comics themselves, i really have to diagree on that one. I should be able to buy my son (he's 2 at the moment but later on..) a Spider-man comic, i should be able to buy him a Superman comic, I should be able to buy him a Green Lantern comic. I really think theres somethign wrong when we can;'t give a 12 year old any of these comics due to the material within. I mean all these comics had the comics code of approval stamped on them. BUt that's a whole other point.
I certainly wouldnt let me kid buy something like The Punisher and then complain about the violence, heck even something like Batman, Daredevil, Green Arrow or even any of the other harder edged books I'd be more lenient with but having to buy the JLU comic (which is damn good btw) instead of he Proper GL comic just bugs me..
At 2:54 PM,
Gary said…
I thought Marvel stoppped using comics code authority approval when they started their own rating system? Comics code authority approval was always voluntary anyway wasn't it?
At 3:13 PM,
Mike said…
Yeah i know the code is basically meaningless these days but DC still displays it on comics where peoples heads are punched off? What the..?
At 10:40 PM,
WildCard said…
I am just ashamed to be a DC fan sometimes. The books should have a Mature Readers Only label on them, they are NOT being done for who should be a large part of their target audience. There is a huge difference between seeing violence in a Sin City comic and one in a comic with Superman. And the ending to the story is even sadder, since that the proper punishment was NOT done given the horrific crimes commited. I'm sorry, but this was another Doomsday situation and the same solution, bad as it is to have to use, should have been done here as well. Instead, we know he will be back, probably even worse than we've already seen him. *mega-sigh*
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