POLL: Villain Round-Up: Aug. 29, 2008

When somebody spouts off something like that about comics or video games it just shows how little they know about the subject they are bashing.

I gotta tell ya, though... the "comics for kids" thing *always* frosts me. It never fails to put my teeth on edge!

I agree with you whole heartedly Brad. The problem is that people don't understand that certain media grows with its audience.

I have friends and family who look at me in disbelief when I say I 'still' read comics at 27. Unfortunately, their belief that comics are for kids mean they'll never pick one up and see that comics can have sophisticated storylines and themes.

Take Marvel's 'Civil War', for instance. I have a BA in English Language and Literature and firmly believe that 'Civil War' would not be out of place in high school English Lit class.

Unfortunately, most people hear the word 'comic', think 'Dennis the Menace' and that's the end of the discussion.

I'm much more of a video-gamer than a comic-booker, so when I see this, it's the same old song. Just because the parents lump all of X together, they think it's for children.

On the other hand, cartoons seem to made a smooth transition in the public eye to "Only for kids... or 'adult' humor on Comedy Central/Adult Swim" which honestly, I'm not sure is any better. At least there's imports from Japan, where they're well aware of the large population of adults with lots of disposable income, and the wide spectrum of tastes to appeal to. Sometimes, I just want to show these people what comics and cartoons and computer games they have there...

When I hear "comics are for kids" I agree wholeheartedly, but of course if you throw in the word "just" I roll my eyes as well.

Of course there are comics that aren't intended and simply don't work for kids (I think Watchmen would fit into this category) and there are some comics that work on more than one level (I think kids can enjoy Marvel's "Civil War" as a big superhero brawl, while adults can interpret it as a real world analogy. I can actually do both ;-)).

Btw. I ask myself where these guys have been all the years. A villain suited all "deviantly"? That's so 1980! Even for the X-men.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellfire_Club_(comics )

However I also think that kids don't need as much protection as some people seem to believe. I did read the x-men as as a kid in the 80s and for me the Hellfire Club's "uniforms" were not much different from other villains costumes - at least at first. By the time I saw them as what they are, there were far better and more direct ways to see some skin :) and neither that nor comics turned me into a deviant.

tl;dr- kids see the world (or comics for that matter) not as sexualised as "mature" people anyways, they'll most likely just see a villainess that tortures a captive and that works for their understanding of the story as. So get over it, the world has enough real problems, don't invent problems were there are none.