My
best memories of childhood are inside comics. Each Friday afternoon my
mom doled out my allowance. Two dollars and fifty cents went a long way for
a boy of ten in Schenectady, New York 1976. It was the late seventies and
my entire world consisted of the neighborhood around my house. John Bigsbee
Elementary school, The Big N, Stewart’s Ice Cream, and the barber were all
just a short bike ride away and pretty much anything I needed could be found
at one of the afore mentioned business establishments. Everything except
for comic books. I fell in love with the four color stories and the related
activities of trading and searching for back issues to fill in the gaps of
my ever growing collection. The seventies was a great time to discover
comics. Marvel Comics Group was still a young company of ten years or so
and they were working harder than the other hero factory over at Detective
Comics (or DC). Superman and Batman were old news. The stories and art
were clean and tidy but the constant use of the following premises of dreams
and alternate universes made me skeptical of DC heroes. I was never sure if
the adventure was real or if I would spend three months following a dream
story that never really happened. Remember how cheated people felt when the
TV show Dallas pulled that stunt with Bobbie? Basically they said the
entire previous season was just a dream. Convenient for “fixing” story
lines but it really does cheat the reader or viewer.
Marvel
Comics Group did it differently. Their stories and characters lived and
hero-ed in a single universe, mine. Spider-Man, The Hulk, and Daredevil all
resided in New York City. Villains wreaked havoc in places I had heard of.
Actions and adventures had consequences and one hero could actually affect
another. It was controlled reality. This format increased the illusion
that the characters were real. The battles and challenges they faced were
important and dire. Often the fate of the planet stood in the balance.
Marvel also made each of their heroes human. They had many of the same
problems and triumphs as you and I. Peter Parker still had to face bullies
at school, try to figure out girls, keep a part-time job, and all the rest.
These heroes were more like me, more like reality…sort of. The idea of
bringing the comic world as close to ours paid off big for Marvel Comics.
They eventually surpassed DC in sales and today many of the Marvel heroes
are as iconic as the original leotards Batman and Superman. The writers at
Marvel tested boundaries by publishing stories about drug abuse, racial
discrimination, and even child abuse. The villain was always brought to
justice and back in the day if someone died it was usually the indirect
result of the villain. Debris or accidental exposure causalities were
common but outright murder was never considered. Comics through the
seventies had clear villains and heroes, the hero won and the villain was
punished. That was part of the appeal.
The
good guys won and the bad guys were brought to justice. It gave me hope
that maybe, just maybe, the world could be a fair place. No sad stories
here, but for me comics provided a distraction or escape from the bad things
that were happening in my reality. And at just mere quarter I could buy up
to eight a week if I budgeted. My parents didn’t support my hobby but they
allowed it. Fast forward thirty years and I am still attached to my
heroes. I may not collect but I do pick up new issues here and there.
Comics also make an easy gift for me. I will always smile big and say
thanks when somebody slips me a new comic. That was until last week.
It certainly is a new world out there. The kids love to play first person
shooters, women in media are portrayed as harlots, and we televise our wars
live. Reality is fed to us by cable and networks as fast as it happens. If
it ain’t real we don’t want it. I recently picked up an issue of The
Thing. The Thing, for those of you who don’t know, is part of the Fantastic
Four. He was mutated by cosmic rays and as a result his skin became hard
and rock like. His strength was great but the thing about The Thing was his
heart. He was a romantic and he always tried to do the right thing. He led
with his emotions and it was his emotions that allowed him to triumph many
times over stronger opponents. The battles would often level city blocks
but nobody died (hero or villain). In my new issue not only did people die
but the methods and depictions were very graphic. Torture and blood lust
culminating in the eventual death of the villain.
Isn’t
there enough reality in reality? Do we need to make everything “dark and
gritty’ in order for the population to like it? Living in state of war
changes life and I suspect that part of the changes we are seeing are a
result of the current state of the world. Comic villains have to compete
with the evening news and our real life criminals. I guess this means I am
officially old. I don’t understand what the kid’s are into anymore. I
still want my heroes to be good guys and my endings happy. It ain’t life
but then again when did comics have to reflect reality? They don’t reflect
reality and that’s what I loved. Today I am saddened by the medium being
reduced to just another outlet for over the top violence packaged for our
youth. Wow, I went there! I guess my point is that some things shouldn’t
be changed just because. Coke tried it and look what happened? They had to
go back and become “Classic Coke”.
Comics
can and should take advantage of the new technologies and artistic styles.
New story telling devices are fine and I can even take the new uniforms and
origin updates that periodically occur within the various titles. I mean we
can suspend reality in order to believe Spider-Man can cling to walls or
that The Thing can survive while covered with rock. Superman flies and The
Flash can out run planes, that’s just how it works in the comic book world.
If we buy all that why can’t we leave the extreme horrors of real life to CNN and
FOX News? Just my opinion. I am not suggesting that we ban or censor
ultra-violent comics. 
I just think we can do better. I learned a lot from the comics of my
youth. The vocabulary used in the Silver Surfer, the pathos of Thor, the
guilt carried by Spider-Man, even the re-telling of ancient myths and
legends helped prepare me to be a better person. Today comics are only for
entertainment and many are no more than a series of pin-up posters with
little story or text. Just showing us how it is, bloody and violent. Isn’t
that the excuse gangster rappers give for creating their hateful music? “We
are just putting a mirror to reality!” I propose a new measure, is it art?
In order for something to be art is has to do more than reflect reality.
Placing an object in front of a mirror does not make it art. Art makes a
statement by provoking thought from a new place or angle. Marvel used to
make art. The simple stories from the late 60’s and 70’s were reflections
of modern life but the writer’s and artists used this realism to make a
point or illustrate truth. Reality plus! That’s entertainment. Anyone can
copy the pain and horrors of our world, this doesn’t help in fact it may
just do the opposite. Some research indicates that our generation is
becoming more and more sensitized to violence since we view so much of it as
entertainment. I challenge the comic industry to be a little more than a
cartoon version of Headline News. Check back next week for part two of this
series “Killer Care Bears!”
Peace,
Sean