I've had a few comments about it show up, and I keep meaning to make an answer to them but I'm made of procrastination this week. So, to answer some of the comments I've had lately, I thought I'd let you guys know that I'm pretty pro-violence in my comic book reading. I am a Geoff Johns fan.
Nothing too graphic mind you, but I think my line is a little farther than a lot of people's. There's a spread in Powers that grossed me out once. Nothing that's appeared in DC, including the Pantha decapitation (and yes, that includes the rolling -- It reminded me of a Hunter: The Reckoning game I ran once where one of the player characters died of decapitation in a fight scene and another player character picked up her head and used it to bowl for vampires) has really struck me as shocking.
And yeah, I don't mind gruesome deaths because I know I'll really enjoy the creative leaps future writers will need to make to retcon them away. My first big fan obsession was Sherlock Holmes (which, coincidentally, I discovered through a "Classics Illustrated" version of "The Speckled Band" in one of my brother's magazines) so I tend to take fictional death as less of an offense than turning a character evil or crazy or weak or all three.
Just in case you were commenting because you actually wanted my opinion on death by decapitation, people being torn in half, and characters melting to death.
Really well-done violence is always fun! That's why pratfalls and occasionally, kicks to the face are so entertaining!
ReplyDeletethe only real time my stomach has really been churned was the jsa issue where the mother and daughter were buzzsawed in half. totally needless.
ReplyDeleteoh, nearly forgot - one of the world war 3 issues where black adam pulled some dudes face off. i mean, seriously - wtf?
To me, it's not so much the gore as its symbolism of the fact that DC and Marvel have almost entirely given up on child audiences and are content with selling superhero comics to a graying fanbase.
ReplyDeleteActually, what really grinds my gears are the creators who bemoan it, who write characters bemoaning it metafictionally, Yet indulge in it anyway.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's not jut because of money. It's not all about "us". On some level, it's them too.
A good splash or red certainly does create some visual excitement on the page.
ReplyDelete"characters melting to death."
ReplyDeleteIt's not the heat vision, it's the humidity.
Personally, I thought the Psycho-Pirate's fate was not only hilarious -- Nyuk-nyuk! -- but long overdue.
ReplyDelete