The Superhero Blame Mental Disorder.

[Littleredhat]

You know this thing. Where say a random tragedy or heck even a supervillain attack happens to some rando Marvel citizen and suddenly they attack a superhero that may not even be related to event.

This has got to be a recognized mental illness on Marvel earth right? I remember one issue where Spider-Man was almost murdered by a man because his kid lit himself on fire to be like the Human Torch. And then that Planet Hulk Mini with all the "victims"
of the Hulk agreed to have themselves turned into Gamma mutates only to find out the Hulk didn't to anything to them?

Can anyone think of some other examples?

[CosmiComic]

Well, it's not Marvel if superheroes aren't somehow persecuted for having superpowers

[From The Shadows]

Listen, people wanted to kill me and assault me for simply reading a comic where a super-hero was even remotely mean to the another hero or even a villain. instead of the writers. No joke. Mental illness indeed.I don't think Marvel minded it.

[The_Last_Czarnian]

I do find the "mentally ill means dangerous/out of control" trope to be infuriating and borderline offensive though.

They did it with Genis, with Wanda and Sentry. I suffer with similar problems to Sentry and was really pulling for him to come through. But nope. He's just too dangerous to be trusted or useful. Yeah, cheers for that.

[Huntsman Spider]

Generally, superhero comics don't handle real mental illnesses all that respectfully to begin with, a recent case in point being DC's Heroes in Crisis. While it could be interesting to delve into the kind of mentality that would drive ordinary people to blame superheroes for their problems and tragedies, I could also see it being twisted to further demonize mental illness, or dismiss the more negative aspects of how superheroes (sometimes) conduct themselves in the setting as inconsequential. It would be a hard needle to thread.

[CosmiComic]

Perhaps the creators should talk to experts who know more about psychology.

[babyblob]

Ive gone into detail on my mental health battles on this board at times. Comics is an escape for me but one thing I hate is how they handle mental health problems. Any bad guy with a mental health problem is criminally insane and cant be helped. And to be honest I do not think joker is insane at all. He knows what he is doing. His plans are well thought out and he knows just how far to push. But it is more fun to use that trope and stick him in Arkham.

And when a hero has a mental health problem it only lasts for a few issues and most of the time they get over it with a "Go get em, it;s not so bad." Speech from a supporting character.

or even worse it is some kind of plat by the villain and it solved busting a machine, taking the antidote, etc...

[davew128]

Hank Pym likes this.

[CosmiComic]

Yeah but he got turned into a cybernetic zombie

[Lukmendes]

Generally, superhero comics don't handle real mental illnesses all that respectfully to begin with, a recent case in point being DC's Heroes in Crisis. While it could be interesting to delve into the kind of mentality that would drive ordinary people to blame superheroes for their problems and tragedies, I could also see it being twisted to further demonize mental illness, or dismiss the more negative aspects of how superheroes (sometimes) conduct themselves in the setting as inconsequential. It would be a hard needle to thread.

HiC also makes therapy look self destructive at best.

So basically don't read super-hero **** if you wanna see even a decent representation of anything mental related, 'cause you're definitely not getting that lol.

[chamber-music]

For all comics supposed progressiveness they don't really handle mental illness particularly well. People suffering from any sort of mental illness becoming homicidal maniacs is a pretty common trope in comics. It often feels like mental illness is used as a lazy shorthand for some villains because writers can't be bothered to come up with a solid motivation or backstory for why a villain does bad things.

Mixing the fantasy of superhero comics and serious real life issues is often a challenging prospect. There is still a lot of unhelpful stigma around mental health issues that doesn't help us as a society.

[CosmiComic]

I'd actually appreciate a superhero series actually properly handling this subject matter

[The_Last_Czarnian]

I'd actually appreciate a superhero series actually properly handling this subject matter

The Sentry is there, begging to be used, but no.

I did enjoy the two volume series (I forget who published it) "After the Cape." I thought it handled superheroism and the effects of alcohol addiction quite well.

[babyblob]

The Sentry is there, begging to be used, but no.

I did enjoy the two volume series (I forget who published it) "After the Cape." I thought it handled superheroism and the effects of alcohol addiction quite well.

After the cape by Howard Wong It was published by Image Comics studio Shadow Line. I think it was well done.

[The_Last_Czarnian]

After the cape by Howard Wong It was published by Image Comics studio Shadow Line. I think it was well done.

That's the fella. Thank you for that! I need to get my hands on those again.