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Comics and age appropriate content / ratings (or the lackthereof)
Lucascraft
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've been thinking about this subject lately and thought I'd make a thread here to discuss the topic of age appropriate content in comics.
Both of the "big two" publishers are every bit as guilty in this, so this isn't an exercise in finger pointing.
The thing that really got me thinking about this was the latest issue of Daredevil which came out this past Wednesday. Issue #507. In it Matt has a pretty intense battle with a squad of ninja assassins. Now. Don't get me wrong. I love me some Daredevil and I love me some ninja action. But this issue was particularly brutal, bloody, and violent, and I found myself thinking about who these books are being marketed towards.
Being a guy in his 20s, I personally don't have any issue with blood, gore, or violence (or nudity, language, or sex) but these are comics that are sold pretty much everywhere and can be picked up by kids of all ages.
To use an example from the DC side (just to keep things fair), the first two issues of Brightest Day, which is being marketed as a new, brighter direction for the DC universe, has implied child rape followed by a fairly brutal murder in one issue, followed by another very brutal murder in the next issue as a mother beats her family to death with a guitar hero guitar.
Now. Like I said, I personally don't have anything against violence or blood. But it seems irresponsible to me to not have any sort of filtering system in place to keep this sort of content away from children.
And these two books aren't the only example of raw, brutal violence. Take a look at any flagship title, whether it be Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, or Superman and you will find that basically every mainstream comic in print today contains content that would be considered "R rated" if it were a movie.
I haven't really thought this through enough to have any sort of proposed solution. I'm mostly just thinking about how raw and uncensored mainstream comics have become. The stuff that is in these flagship titles would have been put in a MAX or Vertigo book as little as 5 years ago, and now its mainstream. The need for an adult MAX/Vertigo line is almost nonexistent these days since you're basically getting the same blood and gore content either way.
I realize that there aren't a whole lot of new readers coming into the comics medium, and the majority of the readership are males between the ages of 18 and 40, but that doesn't mean that kids don't read comics. And when you have at least 1 summer blockbuster super-hero movie per year, its very likely that a few kids will want to get into comics. But there isn't a whole lot of content available for that age group.
Both of the "big two" publishers are every bit as guilty in this, so this isn't an exercise in finger pointing.
The thing that really got me thinking about this was the latest issue of Daredevil which came out this past Wednesday. Issue #507. In it Matt has a pretty intense battle with a squad of ninja assassins. Now. Don't get me wrong. I love me some Daredevil and I love me some ninja action. But this issue was particularly brutal, bloody, and violent, and I found myself thinking about who these books are being marketed towards.
Being a guy in his 20s, I personally don't have any issue with blood, gore, or violence (or nudity, language, or sex) but these are comics that are sold pretty much everywhere and can be picked up by kids of all ages.
To use an example from the DC side (just to keep things fair), the first two issues of Brightest Day, which is being marketed as a new, brighter direction for the DC universe, has implied child rape followed by a fairly brutal murder in one issue, followed by another very brutal murder in the next issue as a mother beats her family to death with a guitar hero guitar.
Now. Like I said, I personally don't have anything against violence or blood. But it seems irresponsible to me to not have any sort of filtering system in place to keep this sort of content away from children.
And these two books aren't the only example of raw, brutal violence. Take a look at any flagship title, whether it be Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, or Superman and you will find that basically every mainstream comic in print today contains content that would be considered "R rated" if it were a movie.
I haven't really thought this through enough to have any sort of proposed solution. I'm mostly just thinking about how raw and uncensored mainstream comics have become. The stuff that is in these flagship titles would have been put in a MAX or Vertigo book as little as 5 years ago, and now its mainstream. The need for an adult MAX/Vertigo line is almost nonexistent these days since you're basically getting the same blood and gore content either way.
I realize that there aren't a whole lot of new readers coming into the comics medium, and the majority of the readership are males between the ages of 18 and 40, but that doesn't mean that kids don't read comics. And when you have at least 1 summer blockbuster super-hero movie per year, its very likely that a few kids will want to get into comics. But there isn't a whole lot of content available for that age group.
Lucascraft on
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And we have DC's current gore kick and Marvel's past actions. It's kind of hard to beat the Vertigo or MAX label or banner, where you know what you're going to get.
It's shouldn't be a matter of the reader having to police the works but the publishers themselves, and it seems to get ignored enough to be more than one-time snaffus.
His answer was "brian bendis has a really foul mouth and the things we block out would disturb you man!!", which translates to "i don't have an acceptable answer, sorry"
I'd rather my nephew glance a boob or a dirty joke when he digs thu than some of the overboard violence we've seen of late , or at least keep it contained to the M/R titles.
( and not saying stop the dark stories, it just doesn't have to be so graphic, more subtle instead of the Gorn overload that's come with SAW and such)
edit: also what Keith said about language fits this too.
I'm not sure why anyone's surprised at the violence/sex disparity, it's true in TV and movies, why wouldn't it be true in comics?
But if I'm honest, there is no limitation in terms of read literature on age and explicitness, a kid could buy Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan with no problems in England and that has hardcore sex and violence. But I have no problem with this, it's a parent's responsibility to ensure what their child is reading is suitable. Often complains about this kind of thing are made by parents who don't want to make those choices, and I believe that kind of parenting to be a problem.
It's a mess because it's horribly written though, which might be what you're saying. It's not inherently a terrible comic because of those themes or level of violence/sexual content.
I'd much rather see a crusade for comics that are well written/edited than a crusade for comics "for the children", which already exist in spades.
And here I thought it was largely the 20 plus crowd with the industry having an unhealthy obsession catering to those that remember what was made 30 plus years ago.
Which is another thing, I don't think any of the places I found my comics as a kid would even carry any these days.
And then they still couldn't leave well enough alone so they bring characters back to life who clearly were dead and dead, so they had to change it up a bit and make it more intense with rape pages (they're in!).
Which I think is sort of bullshit. Powers had a dude fucking a monkey, and Deena Pilgrim's superpowered vagina, and I don't recall hearing any kind of outcry.
Personally, I don't worry too much about explicit content in regards to offending minors or people with more conservative values. It should probably be labeled to reflect the content, it should have a good reason for being in the story, and it should, in the case of corporate characters, probably take into account the character's place in pop culture history.
I'm perfectly fine with seeing the Punisher shooting people in the face, complete with full gory detail, but I don't really want to see Spider-Man in that kind of scene. Not because I'm opposed to that kind of content, or even opposed to kids seeing it. I just don't think it fits the character, or the universe he lives in.
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