Comics are awesome.

[138 Scourge]

Probably not gonna be picked up in the now-cancelled "Agents of Atlas". Possibly in "Hulk" or "Herc", though, if there's a Jeff Parker or Van Lente connection to the books.

God I fucking miss comics. The last couple months have been the super-financial crunch game that I always get in around the summer (I don't know why, maybe it's the crack addiction?) so I haven't been to the comics store forever.

The last comics I got were out of a trade box with Dom, but they were ultra-rad.

[138 Scourge]

Hah, neat. So, awhile back, Jeff Parker, a fine writer, had a deal going. The first 70 people to email and promise him they'd buy "Hulk #25", the first issue in which he takes over the writing of it, he'd send a random signed comic he'd written. Well, I figured I'd buy that Hulk anyway, so I emailed him with the promise and my address. Never heard anything, email or like that, so I figured that I'd missed out, but no big deal.

So now I just went to my mailbox, and what do you think was in there? "Avengers Vs. Atlas #3" signed and completely rad. Good fun book, and a backup feature with the work of Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk, so I'm happy about that, too. This is a very cool thing for dude to do, it's a really nice personal touch kind of thing. And you can damn well bet I'll be buying Hulk #25 now, so it worked.

[andersonh1]

Very nice! It's always enjoyable to connect with a writer or artist that way. Good for him for sending the promised comic as well.

[andersonh1]

What a load of garbage. Have a look at this article. What is this, the 1950s? Do we need a new comics code?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... ce+News%29

Today's Superheroes Send Wrong Image to Boys, Say Researchers
ScienceDaily (Aug. 15, 2010) — Watching superheroes beat up villains may not be the best image for boys to see if society wants to promote kinder, less stereotypical male behaviors, according to psychologists who spoke Sunday at the 118th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association.

"There is a big difference in the movie superhero of today and the comic book superhero of yesterday," said psychologist Sharon Lamb, PhD, distinguished professor of mental health at University of Massachusetts-Boston. "Today's superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he's aggressive, sarcastic and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity. When not in superhero costume, these men, like Ironman, exploit women, flaunt bling and convey their manhood with high-powered guns."

The comic book heroes of the past did fight criminals, she said, "but these were heroes boys could look up to and learn from because outside of their costumes, they were real people with real problems and many vulnerabilities," she said.

To understand how the media and marketers package masculinity to boys, Lamb surveyed 674 boys age 4 to 18, walked through malls and talked to sales clerks and came to understand what boys were reading and watching on television and at the movies. She and her co-authors found that marketers take advantage of boys' need to forge their identity in adolescence and sell them a narrow version of masculinity. They can either be a "player" or a "slacker" -- the guy who never even tries -- to save face.

"In today's media, superheroes and slackers are the only two options boys have," said Lamb. "Boys are told, if you can't be a superhero, you can always be a slacker. Slackers are funny, but slackers are not what boys should strive to be; slackers don't like school and they shirk responsibility. We wonder if the messages boys get about saving face through glorified slacking could be affecting their performance in school."

Teaching boys early on to distance themselves from these images and encouraging them to find the lies in the messages can help, said Lamb. "When you crowd out other types of media messages, you promote stereotypes and limit their options."

I think I need to go beat someone up. Grrr.

[Dominic]

Uh, and comics (or related movies) or appreciably worse than other forms of entertainment how? So, anyone want to talk about parenting, or the lack of?

[138 Scourge]

I think I need to go beat someone up. Grrr.

Someone's been picking up violent messages from their superhero role models, eh?

[andersonh1]

I think I need to go beat someone up. Grrr.

Someone's been picking up violent messages from their superhero role models, eh?

I'm macho, and I owe it all to comic books. Wooo!

[Sparky Prime]

"There is a big difference in the movie superhero of today and the comic book superhero of yesterday," said psychologist Sharon Lamb, PhD, distinguished professor of mental health at University of Massachusetts-Boston. "Today's superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he's aggressive, sarcastic and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity. When not in superhero costume, these men, like Ironman, exploit women, flaunt bling and convey their manhood with high-powered guns."

Makes me wonder how much research this Sharon Lamb actually did when her own views of superheroes seems to be highly generalized and inaccurate based on these comments she made. Seriously, using one of her examples here, how does Tony Stark convey his manhood with high-powered guns when he's not in costume? I don't recall Stark ever handling guns or really any weapons beyond what's part of his own Iron-Man technology. Maybe she's referring to his company selling weapons to the military? But then she's conveniently forgetting he changes the direction of his company to get out of manufacturing weapons once he sees what legacy that has brought him.

And since she seems to hold "the comic book superhero of yesterday" in such high regard, I wonder if she's seen Superdickery.com which predominantly features Silver Age comic books.

[andersonh1]

A variant on the same article. Talk about inaccurate generalization!

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-an ... -27069424/

Radio presenter and comic-book fan Roy Noble said the change was visible in comparisons of the original Batman and his modern-day equivalent, played by Haverfordwest-born Christian Bale in the new Batman franchise.

“Maybe I’m biased because of my age, but the superheroes of my youth, like Batman for example, were clean-cut and were all on the side of right and morality,” said the BBC Radio Wales presenter.

“These days they shoot 10 guys a minute and their morals are questionable to say the least.

Yeah, Superman really needs to stop gunning down the bad guys. It's getting out of hand.

I have to question just how much of a "comic-book fan" this guy really is. If you want to judge characters on a case by case basis, you can find plusses and minuses to any given character, and even those will vary from writer to writer. The problem with this article and the first one I posted is that they make a very broad generalized statement about the genre as a whole, and thus are extremely inaccurate. "They shoot 10 guys a minute"? How many superheros even use guns?

Set up a straw man and knock them down. Typical. And of course, this is a dated argument as well. The "grim and gritty" superhero phase was going on back in the late 80s and early to mid 90s. Kingdom Come was a reaction against it. Elements of that time still persist, but are hardly predominant as far as I can tell. If these 'fans' and psychologists were going to make this argument, it seems like they ought to have been doing so 15 years ago.

[Onslaught Six]

Because Baleman didn't specifically not kill the Joker, or try really hard to make sure those news reporters and civilians in clown costumes weren't hurt. Hell, he didn't even try to save Two-Face, he just pushed him off a building.