Wal-Mart Superman Comic imagines torture and death of Lois Lane?

[daBronzeBomma]

I understand that it's just a dream / nightmare / hallucination sequence in the Walmart Superman #7 comic, but it sounds brutal

Anyone else know anything about this story by Tom King?

[manwhohaseverything]

Visit the lois and Clark appreciation thread. They were having a discussion about this

[superduperman]

I don't think the Wal-Mart books are going to make it. They're supposed to be for kids but you have to buy every issue to follow the story. A better solution would be to have each issue be a stand alone story. Scenes like that one don't help. My guess is, this is something King may have had lined up for the mainstream books but did it here instead.

[Superlad93]

I can't fully speak on this because I haven't read it (or frankly any issue past King's first because they're damn hard to find still) but this didn't strike me as the best idea in the world.

From what I gather it's Superman having anxiety over the search taking so long, right? Conceptually I love that. I love it more because he's apparently in an intergalactic waiting room, but, and again I haven't read it yet so this could be an exaggeration (even so, maybe not do multiple pages of this here), 12 pages of Lois dying sounds strange.

I mean, if King was gonna go the anxiety angle then why not also anxiety over Lois moving on with her life because he stays gone for a decade, or the Earth blowing up, or him being on the quest forever, or his friends dying. I'd imagine all of those combined (with one of them being the prospect of Lois dying) could make for 12 pages of stuff Superman might be worried about during downtime in this particular situation.

[Yoda]

It alternates between pages of Lois being killed with pages of him sitting there worrying. The opening page is by far the most graphic and disturbing. But there is another where you see the Joker laughing and Lois is off panel begging for Clark. There's a 9 panel grids of her being killed in each panel with one of her being burned alive. She's blown up by toyman and a plane crash kills her and Jimmy. Its 6 pages of her death and six of Superman waiting. At the end they talk on the phone and it's actually a decent conversation. But the whole thing is so disturbing and why it's included in this line of books is mind boggling

[Superlad93]

I see. Then yeah, I stand by what I said, should've mixed it up more. Just general fear over everything that could happen, and then Lois' voice over the phone blowing all that away and kicking his butt back into gear.

[okiedokiewo]

It alternates between pages of Lois being killed with pages of him sitting there worrying. The opening page is by far the most graphic and disturbing. But there is another where you see the Joker laughing and Lois is off panel begging for Clark. There's a 9 panel grids of her being killed in each panel with one of her being burned alive. She's blown up by toyman and a plane crash kills her and Jimmy. Its 6 pages of her death and six of Superman waiting. At the end they talk on the phone and it's actually a decent conversation. But the whole thing is so disturbing and why it's included in this line of books is mind boggling

What the heck...

[superduperman]

I can't fully speak on this because I haven't read it (or frankly any issue past King's first because they're damn hard to find still) but this didn't strike me as the best idea in the world.

From what I gather it's Superman having anxiety over the search taking so long, right? Conceptually I love that. I love it more because he's apparently in an intergalactic waiting room, but, and again I haven't read it yet so this could be an exaggeration (even so, maybe not do multiple pages of this here), 12 pages of Lois dying sounds strange.

I mean, if King was gonna go the anxiety angle then why not also anxiety over Lois moving on with her life because he stays gone for a decade, or the Earth blowing up, or him being on the quest forever, or his friends dying. I'd imagine all of those combined (with one of them being the prospect of Lois dying) could make for 12 pages of stuff Superman might be worried about during downtime in this particular situation.

The only really troubling scene is one where Luthor shoots her in the head and you actually see her dead. The rest are more implied or you don't see anything. The one where she's burned at that stake was a little disturbing but you don't actually see her burn. In the main book this might not be such a big deal but this is something marketed to children at what is essentially a grocery store.

[MajorHoy]

I don't think the Wal-Mart books are going to make it. They're supposed to be for kids . . .

Does the comic book say they're specifically for kids?

I finally found some at one of the Walmarts I sometimes go to, and it was with the the slightly more expensive collectibles stuff, not in the kids/toy section or on the magazine racks with kid-friendly stuff.
I believe some of the reprinted stories they include are from the New52 books, and those were often rated TEEN, not the more kid-friendly "Everybody" rating.

[superduperman]

Does the comic book say they're specifically for kids?

I finally found some at one of the Walmarts I sometimes go to, and it was with the the slightly more expensive collectibles stuff, not in the kids/toy section or on the magazine racks with kid-friendly stuff.
I believe some of the reprinted stories they include are from the New52 books, and those were often rated TEEN, not the more kid-friendly "Everybody" rating.

Well, they sell them next to the Pokemon cards so you have to sort of infer that they were aimed at kids. They reprint mainstream books in them. In one Green Lantern story, Hector Hammond wanted to feed off of one of Hal's sexual encounters in his past. So it's possible they didn't think this out very well.

[Kon93]

Hey King should get a raise, more power, and more books to write, we need more ppl who have always been mentally OK, now shown to be fragile broken down shells of their past selves, oh and graphic killing.

DC look at the ppl you have in charge of your characters, is it all about "shock" comics now? Fast buck because of controversy, but turning more ppl off in the long run.

Think DC

[MajorHoy]

Well, they sell them next to the Pokemon cards so you have to sort of infer that they were aimed at kids.

No, you are inferring it; it doesn't mean everyone else has to, nor does it mean that's what Walmart intended.
Is everything sold in that are specifically kid-friendly / "aimed at kids"?

[adrikito]

I saw the image with Lois and Luthor.. I hate it.

[cookies]

we all know Superman will come to Lois faster than speeding bullet when shes in danger. Lois can die or injured in the story but those graphics was really unnecessary. tho i loled at the image she was eaten by a shark. really Clark? you think she has a time to go surfing in Great White territory? XDD

[Ascended]

Well, they sell them next to the Pokemon cards so you have to sort of infer that they were aimed at kids. They reprint mainstream books in them. In one Green Lantern story, Hector Hammond wanted to feed off of one of Hal's sexual encounters in his past. So it's possible they didn't think this out very well.

Not reading the whole thread, but this caught my eye.

I haven't read the comic, and I'm not going to. I spend enough money on comics without having to go to a damn Wal-Mart for one. From what I hear, it definitely sounds questionable, but without reading it what do I know?

But there's something to recognize too; that section that sells Pokemon cards isn't really aimed at little kids. If it were, they'd be sold in the toys section. The real target audience for the TCG's in that "collectibles" section are high school age to young adult; people with a little more spending money, since those cards ain't cheap. Little kids get pulled into Pokemon from the cartoons and toys, then find their way to the card game once they're old enough for a little strategy. I mean, no one is introducing a five year old to Magic: The Gathering. And the older kids are old enough to handle a story about a worried Superman imagining scenarios when his wife won't answer her phone (or whatever it is). Now, Im not saying little kids don't go into that section, because they do. But they're not the main target for those collectibles.

I haven't read the story, and maybe it crosses a line. I'm not commenting on that since I haven't read it. But it might not be as outside the parameters of the target audience as people think. Or were these comics marketed and labeled as being "for Kids"? And that's not getting into how what's considered appropriate today is a far cry different than it was twenty or thirty years back.

Apologies if anyone brought this up, like I said I wasn't gonna read the whole thread.