Generally a little shock value isn’t worth getting worked up over but 12 pages!?!? Who in their right minds thinks Superman and torture porn are a good combination?
Generally a little shock value isn’t worth getting worked up over but 12 pages!?!? Who in their right minds thinks Superman and torture porn are a good combination?
I absolutely hate Lois being killed to further Superman's plot. Saying I get him having some anxiety isn't me saying I want to read them murder her over and over let alone once just so they can show Clark's man pain. I'm not even a target market for these books because I live outside the States so DC/King isn't getting my money regardless.
Yep, this is escalating
https://www.supermanhomepage.com/wal...an-comic-book/
The one store where I finally found these (but they didn't have Superman; only saw Batman and Teen Titans there) had them in some aisles right at the very front, right by the registers, with some collectible cards and stuff (don't remember everything in that section) that I stumbled over on my way out.
The toys section and the general magazine/kids books section of the store is way in the back, nowhere near this area. (But then again, this Walmart had been doing some reworking of their aisles/sections, so I don't know if that may change in the future.)
Even if you went to a Walmart twice-a-day, every day of the week, you could easily skip this. Nobody came up to me and shoved them in my face or anything.
Anybody remember when John Byrne had Superman and Big Barda making a porno movie?
My reasons for hating Wal-Mart have nothing to do with this topic, ha.Even if you went to a Walmart twice-a-day, every day of the week, you could easily skip this. Nobody came up to me and shoved them in my face or anything.
Eh well no, writing is exactly where an artist is supposed to "bleed onto the page". Your art belongs to you. I'm all for Tom King pouring his soul into his comics. The Sheriff of Babylon and Mister Miracle both were great. It's just, I'm not sure BATMAN and SUPERMAN are the appropriate venues for this kind of thing. I don't read Batman or Superman to be absolutely miserable. There needs to be big wins along with big losses. Triumphs that make Bruce seem heroic. That sort of jazz is missing from his mainstream work.
Last edited by Flash Gordon; 01-21-2019 at 09:20 AM.
It's not a double standard at all.
Tom King is allowed to write whatever he wants. DC has the right to publish, not publish, or ask for changes in whatever thing Tom King writes for them.
Good publishers and writers—it is indeed a core trait of being any sort of good artist—know that they need to tailor their writings to the audience. What is suitable for publication in a Vertigo title is different from the mainstream DC comics, and again should be different to the Walmart comics, or DC Super Hero Girls. The readers are different, and reader expectations are different as well.
I really hate Lois, so I will tell a friend to buy it for me, and send it to me. It will be the first Superman comic I bought in months.
Because it's Batman and Superman, I feel like that's obvious. You need to know your audience. If writing my own stuff, I'm free to do what thou wilt. Writing Scooby Doo, there's limitations.
There's a way to tell meaningful stories with characters like Batman and Superman, but they don't belong to any one person and need to be handled that way. Lots and lots of Superman stories have metaphors for loss and anxiety, without going to the edgelord imagery that this goes to. Grant Morrison is different in The Invisibles than he is in Action Comics. The same writer, but he knows where he's standing.
Last edited by Flash Gordon; 01-21-2019 at 10:28 AM.
The article headline here is a bit misleading...it says "Walmart customers", as if these patrons were simply little Timmy & Tammy's parents on a shopping trip for cheap groceries and cheap clothes, who were blindsided by a Superman comic. But in the actual article, it makes it pretty clear that it is comics fans who are complaining, not your average Walmart customer. In other words, the people complaining the loudest A) know what most modern superhero comics are like on a violence scale, and B) know enough about Tom King to simply not buy something with his name on it if they already don't like Tom King. I guess the headline is technically right...if you hate Walmart with a passion, but go there only to pick up these new comics, then technically you are a "Walmart customer"...but the headline is still pretty cheap.
Anyway, I guess this whole "controversy" confuses me...the books are just sitting there on a shelf, not sealed, not bagged in any way. Do people not flip through books they buy anymore? I mean, at my LCS, all new floppies are bagged before they are put on the shelf, so I don't flip through them out of respect for the owner, but at Walmart or Barnes & Noble or you name it, I'm flipping through something quick to make sure there are no tears or damages to the pages. I think 12 pages of Lois dying would be easy to spot, and then not purchase, if people flipped through things first. Maybe I'm just weird (or not easily outraged over some ink and paper :P ).
"Darkseid...always hated music..."
Every post I make, it should be assumed by the reader that the following statement is attached: "It's all subjective. What works for me doesn't necessarily work for you, and vice versa, and that's ok. You may have a different opinion on it, but this is mine. That's the wonderful thing about being a comics fan, it's all subjective."