The Post IC DC Universe: Official Word

[nightwing]

I agree the standard "kids have Johnny DC" line is a cop-out that betrays a condescending attitude towards kids and an insulting attitude to the rest of us (DiDio's answer to the audience member basically boils down to, "Grow up, you big baby").

DC apparently views their "kid-friendly" line as a way to hook kids on comics in hopes they'll stay around long enough to force the gratuitous sex and violence on them down the road.  Nice.

What's totally laughable is that anyone could think muscle-bound freaks running around in long underwear and knocking people's heads off is somehow "mature" reading.  Introducing rape, murder and mayhem to superhero comics doesn't make them any less childish, it just makes them more mean-spirited.  Comics have become a niche genre for people who (a) are too immature to let go of characters in funny circus suits, (b) too insecure to admit superhero adventures are inherently silly and (c) depraved enough to take delight in the suffering of others.

If comic book fans want to show how mature they are, they should start reading books without pictures, or at least comics without superheroes.  And if creators want to show how "bold and gutsy" they are, they should try writing stuff with some redeeming social value, something real grown-ups (not just 30-somethings living with Mom and Dad) might want to read, or at least something that's forced to stand on its own merits instead of leaning on the crutch of using established cultural icons.

DiDio's right about one thing; it is up to parents to decide what's right for their children.  When my kids are old enough, they're welcome to read my Silver and Bronze age stuff, but otherwise, comics are off-limits until they're old enough to pay for them themselves, at which point I sincerely hope they have better taste than to bother.

[ShinDangaioh]

I agree the standard "kids have Johnny DC" line is a cop-out that betrays a condescending attitude towards kids and an insulting attitude to the rest of us (DiDio's answer to the audience member basically boils down to, "Grow up, you big baby").

DC apparently views their "kid-friendly" line as a way to hook kids on comics in hopes they'll stay around long enough to force the gratuitous sex and violence on them down the road.  Nice.

And DC wonders why manga is kicking them around the block several times over.  Manga is filling the void that DC and Marvel left when they polarized into grim and gritty or kid's stuff.   A very big void.  It's not the art style, it's the content.  Too bad Marvel and DC look at the surface and not the substance.

As to DiDio's statement about the Johhny DC line, I have Flare and the other Heroic Publishing characters I can read who are firmly in the middle of Iron Age(Current DC) and childishness(Johnny DC)

[Anonymous]

my son will never read anything current by Dc until they clean up there act...

of course he will have the shwcase supermans/green laterns etc. of the silverage to read as well as anything i can find in the quarter bins from before the dark ages of comics.. i.e. before COIE and frank miller.

[KryptoniteKills]

Comics have become a niche genre for people who (a) are too immature to let go of characters in funny circus suits, (b) too insecure to admit superhero adventures are inherently silly and (c) depraved enough to take delight in the suffering of others.

In all fairness I think most of us fall under the first category to a certain extent or we wouldn't be here.

[Kuuga]

Comics have become a niche genre for people who (a) are too immature to let go of characters in funny circus suits, (b) too insecure to admit superhero adventures are inherently silly and (c) depraved enough to take delight in the suffering of others.

In all fairness I think most of us fall under the first category to a certain extent or we wouldn't be here.

I think what he means is too immature to let go of these characters long after they have passed a point where they can no longer can't (or are no longer willing to) suspend disbelief for them to have fun rolling along with it. Instead, they start demanding that pure fantasy conform to a narrow kind of "realism" that both the medium, and they are better off going other places to find rather than yanking superheroes out of the sky, stripping them of their color, and grinding them down to conform to it.