InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Why is snow so hot!"

superfan1 (superfan1) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-11-11 17:39:00

Entry tags:

char: booster gold/michael jon carter, char: wonder woman/diana of themyscira, creator: dan jurgens, creator: matthew sturges, creator: mike norton, creator: norm rapmund, publisher: dc comics, title: booster gold

Booster Gold #26
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ladymirth
2009-11-14 06:13 am UTC (link)

Wiley Coyote is a kid's cartoon character. Adults like kids' characters to, but they are not directly marketed toward adults and teens the way the comics in question are. Marvel Adventures is also a book that's more fantastic and targeted at a younger reader demographic than their mainline books.

I didn't tell them to get gritty and realistic and adult. They decided to do that all by themselves in order to appeal to a wider adult audience, because those children who had followed them in the 60s and 70s had grown up and moved on. Personally, I like the more complex storylines and greater character depth they bring out in modern comics, but they appear to think that "realism" equals the worst gore and murder and darkness the real world can conceive, which crosses the line from realism to outright cynicism. Not to mention, this is a world protected by super-powered beings and magic ninjas, who nevertheless cannot seem to stop the world being a pretty shitty place to live. I feel this is even more depressing.

What I find the most outlandish, however, is that even in the face of a failing system and clear evidence that their ideals are not in fact making much of a difference, the heroes continue to be idealistic and sanguine. Sure, it's great that the character has some inner reason to continue believing in their methods, but the reader is just not seeing it, therefore the reader cannot relate to the character and all the reader can see are the heroes trying to pretend that they didn't just get their asses handed to them. So basically, your escapist fantasy becomes even worse than the real world, because at least in reality psychos like the Joker would have been killed by now and no actual city has been subjected to plagues and earthquakes and city-wide gang wars that cut the population in half.

The reason fantasy appeals to me is because the bad guys usually get punished and the good guys win. That's not something you get to see in the real world.

It's easy to sneer at people who complain about the lack of realism in superhero stories without actually thinking about what they're saying. Even in fantasy, there are ground rules. The reader agrees to suspend their disbelief as long as the story plays by those rules. In this world, there can be superpowered aliens and undersea empires martial arts are near-magic. But in exchange for that, the characters must play within the scope of of their powers, must stay true to their characterization and there must remain some parallels in the way their world and ours works. Meta-humans can wear spandex, but non-meta heroes must wear Kevlar. The Justice League can exist but you can't rewrite the US constitution to allow Gotham to be forcibly abandoned. Without these rules, any lame deux-ex-machina (which the comic bok world knows as retcons) can replace the integrity and ingenuity of good story-telling.

In this way, comic books have to balance themselves on a fine line between realism and fantasy. So just because the fantasy rule is that a guy who dresses up in a Batsuit can scare the crap out of hardened criminals, doesn't mean they don't need to explain why said criminals would continue to be frightened of him once they cotton on to the fact that he won't kill them or harm their families and the worst he can do is drag them off to the revolving door of Arkham.

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jamspread
2009-11-15 01:43 am UTC (link)

Yes, this was the point I was trying to make, and thank you for taking it a step forward and pointing out the real problem. Comic books are trying to mature to keep up with their aging audience, but they're still stuck on the old rules. As a result, the villians can get grittier but the superheroes have to stay "pure" and kiddy-friendly.
What I mean when I say I like the no-kill policy is that I like it when the heroes aren't forced to kill. There's a big difference between a mad-cap, crazy scheme to steal forty cakes and a serial kller, and there's a different set of rules to deal with each situation.
So, in the case of superheroes having to deal with the latter, yes, I argree that the "no-kill" policy is ridiculous. Foolishly noble, but fultile. On the other hand, I personally would rather read a story about tracking down a crazy cake stealer, because comics books to me are suppose to be fun and optimistic.

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	ladymirth 2009-11-15 05:29 am UTC (link)
	I find it very telling that out of all the comics I have read so far, Young Justice remains my favourite. It's everything a comic book should be, IMO. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jamspread 2009-11-15 09:34 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, I absolutely agree on that. Even though looking back some of the jokes are not as cool as I remember, I can read it now and it's still the most fun I've had reading a comic book. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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