Sex, violence, and … superheroes?

EDITORIAL | Derrick Z. Jackson

October 19, 2011|By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist

(dc comics )

CHILDHOOD HAS been handed another nugget of Kryptonite. DC Comics, which for nearly 75 years has given us superhero adventures such as Superman, this fall relaunched its action series with 52 new first issues. Facing declining sales in the wired era, it is targeting a more mature audience with stories so apocalyptic that even comic bloggers say they contain some of the most gruesome images ever.

As for women characters, the exaggerated size of women’s breasts, the exposed cleavage, and the paucity of plot lines have sparked serious online debate between comics writers, artists, and editors. Some artists say they are still waiting for the female superhero who is a nerd instead of a Victoria’s Secret model. One of the few women comics writers in the business, G. Willow Wilson, wrote that she now has to rush to her comic book pile when children under 14 start rummaging through it because some issues constitute soft porn.

“Never before did it occur to me how bizarre that is,’’ Wilson wrote, “having to keep a kid away from comics.’’

What an All-American irony. While superhero comic books have never been about tiddlywinks, the new DC Comics series is not your 8-year-old’s comic-book line. DC, to be sure, still has a superhero line called DC Kids, and just announced a deal to put old-school comic books in boxes of General Mills cereals marketed to children. But it is still a sad commentary on modern culture to see sex and violence play a marquee role in what once was a safe haven for childhood fantasies.

I took DC’s reboot personally because I had a collection of 1,000 comic books as a child. With Superman coming from Krypton, the comics fueled my curiosity about the stars. With Batman being an orphan of murdered parents, the colored pages forced you to think about what constitutes justice. Most of all, they were the source of endless hours of creative play at recess and lunch hour on my elementary school playgrounds.

They even were partly responsible for my best friendship. My friend, Rod Luhn, who today is a telecommunications network analyst in New Jersey, said, “You were Superman and I remember being Green Lantern, because he could do pretty much anything with that stupid ring. We were both the good guys, which is what I remember the most. We would just run around the playground, defeating the bad guys. It’s hard for me to think kids get that today, playing solitary games.’’