Skip to main content

More on the subject of the Disney Marvel purchase.

I see many people in many places speculating that Disney purchasing Marvel will result in a "softer" Marvel. On one hand, I must point out that in one of our Disney comics, we included:

A son killing his father.
A man beating his wife.
A woman transforming into a haggard corpse shrieking for the death of her child.
A man having his eyeball removed.
Physical torture.
Psychological torture.
Police brutality.
War. Death. Insanity.
And more...

On the other hand, I must say: Great. Let's scale it back a notch. What is wrong with making these comics acceptable for all-ages again? It worked fine for decades. Now we face a dwindling and aging readership. A medium that is a shadow of what it once was. And what do people cry out against? The idea that characters that were created as all-ages entertainment might actually cater to all-ages again?

Seriously?

I'm all for adult entertainment. Personally, I like to read comics where girls with ridiculously inflated breasts in chain mail bikini's kill their enemies with razor sharp weapons carved from baby skulls. Or whatever. But there is an appropriate time and place. I'm not sure that the mainstream comics world is where the "edge" people fear Disney will curtail should have ever been honed.

It really doesn't matter. Disney isn't going to force mouse ears on Wolverine and Spider-man won't be in the next High School whatever. But maybe down the road we'll see the company edge back over the line a bit.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

FROM YEAR ONE TO DARK KNIGHT RETURNS: A BATMAN CHRONOLOGY - REVISED

FROM YEAR ONE TO DARK KNIGHT RETURNS: A BATMAN CHRONOLOGY Back in 1986 I picked up a comic off the shelves that changed my perception of sequential storytelling. I was 15 years old at the time and had been reading comics for as long as I could remember. Batman had long been my favorite character. Well, more specifically Robin had been - ever since I was three years old and I encountered re-runs of the 1960's Batman TV series. I was even lucky enough to meet Burt Ward (in his Robin costume) at a car show in 1976. Considering where my career has landed, it is easy to argue that this exposure was impactful. To clarify: I'm a professional comic book writer, and have been producing stories since around 1992. I managed to write a few Batman related comics in the late 00's. But long before this, dating back to that day in 1986 when I found a copy of Dark Knight Returns on the shelf, I have been trying to formulate in my own head a complete and functional Batman chronolog...

Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 9th Grade - Concept art

Been sitting on this for a couple of years now. Figured might as well let people see a bit of what we had been thinking for Supergirl's future as she enters the turbulent world of high school. One of the things I would like to point out about these images is the evolution of Kara's design. When the first series was announced (along with an image never intended for the public) the common complaint was that our Supergirl was boyish. That she was rough looking. That she looked awkward and maybe even a little weird. Eric could have drawn Supergirl as the epitome of style and grace. But that wouldn't have been our Supergirl. Our Supergirl was a character who needed to grow. She was overly self-aware, insecure and gangly, that's part of being a young teenager (particularly as younger teens see themselves from within) and therefore an important part of the storytelling. I think with the slight changes to the artwork here we really begin to see Kara's self confidence manife...

Little Gloomy - the Super Scary Monster Show.

Before it was the Saturday morning cartoon series Scary Larry, it was a creator owned comic in the pages of Disney Adventures. This is back in the mid-2000's, I'd say. Art by Eric Jones and colors by Rikki Simons. Meant to evoke a bit of the old Harvey Comics vibe. Sadly, most of my files on this stuff seems to be corrupt. So unless you have an old issue of Disney Adventures, it is likely lost to the ages...