tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966063958139138370.post1939740861130156784..comments2023-10-01T11:31:45.593-07:00Comments on CRACK! POW! WHAM!: INTERREGNUM (ii): Comic Book Logic and RapeA. Sherman Barroshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11993841605520936806noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966063958139138370.post-60210791987578401152020-06-15T07:54:14.630-07:002020-06-15T07:54:14.630-07:00Superhero comics are for kids, or for adults who h...Superhero comics are for kids, or for adults who haven't quite grown up, so rape is entirely unnecessary in such publications. The best superhero comics are about the triumph of good over evil, and wanting to take over the world is evil enough for such purposes. There are certain scenes we don't need to see - like people in the toilet emptying their bladders or bowels, and rape, or even the specific suggestion of it, is a step too far. No wonder sales are plummeting year after year. What we need is for comics to be fun again - in an 'all ages' way - not this grim-dark stuff that deters more readers than it attracts. 'The Secret Of The Waiting Graves' is a classic comic, yet with not a rape in sight. Something to be learned there, I think. Kidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07224781868125924337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966063958139138370.post-10737116257840378122016-10-21T14:35:00.796-07:002016-10-21T14:35:00.796-07:00Hey Sherman,
I wanted to mention that I'd fina...Hey Sherman,<br />I wanted to mention that I'd finally got round to responding to the comment you made on my ELEKTRA post last month. For some reason I really wanted to wait until I found, read, and reviewed DAREDEVIL LOVE AND WAR before so doing. So I've analyzed that one for my post-series as well as making my long delayed response.<br /><br />I tried to broach the subject of Silver Age villains with "romance motifs" on a CBR thread, prefacing my thread by saying that I knew such villains couldn't be allowed to be erotic evildoers in a straightforward manner. The thread went on for a bit until I mentioned that I was wondering if there was a good substitute for Doctor Light to be found in their ranks. Answer: absolute silence.<br /><br />It's also occurred to me that Light might've been selected because he seemed to go through a lot of mental problems, and as far as I recall those problems were supposed to be "explained" by the brainwashing in INFINITE CRISIS.<br /><br />The one Silver Age villain that seemed nasty enough to let it all hang out, IMO, is Sinestro. Maybe I think of him because in his origin tale, he's seen lording it over his alien people. Not too hard to imagine him taking advantage of a "droit de seigneur" custom. But he was probably too important a villain to be subjected to those mind games. Gene Phillipshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11495562795211277146noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966063958139138370.post-68466381711153795882016-09-23T09:05:01.737-07:002016-09-23T09:05:01.737-07:00Hello again, Gene.
Yes, I see your point about th...Hello again, Gene.<br /><br />Yes, I see your point about the forced/illicit marriage being a trope, and I agree with that. However, my point was that by 1962, and in a Marxist dictatorship, I'm sure the Executioner wouldn't need the social masking of the forced sex by means of marriage. He would just do it. It is curious (although I didn't reproduce that panel in my post), that in the panel that immediately precedes the one of the "marriage proposal", the Executioner in a gesture of rage, takes Dr. Blake's cane, thus stopping him, innadvertently, of becoming Thor (which, I guess, can be read as a symbolic castration - Blake rests unable to get to his "power source" and thus is also unable to prevent the ravishing of the woman he secretly longs for.).<br /><br />And speaking of ravishing, you are of course right as to the need of the rape (or any other heinous crime) in the story, as a trigger to the less than heroic retaliatory measures. When I was drafting my post, I considered rephrasing the reader's complaint as follows: “My primary problem with Identity Crisis, which I mostly liked, was the infiltration by Dr. Light of the satellite and hacking of their computers and threat to all their loved ones, because it wasn't necessary to the story. Dr. Light being crazy dangerous and vicious enough to rape Sue Dibny was enough.” It rests just as true an oration as the original one, which, to me at least, puts it on the level of mere personal opinion or political bias, for it really is not a matter of literary technique. She is not objecting to the necessity (or not) of the rape, but to the rape itself. Should one substitute rape for murder, it would still be an oration with the same truth-value, but it would not trigger the same reaction.<br /><br />One hillarious comment that I came across in the same context, and that I'm keeping for a future and more detailed post about rape in comics (that I intend to title A FATE WORTH THAN DEATH... LITERALLY), argued that rape was a lot worth than death, because you could always retcon the death of the character, but you could not erase rape. How's that for logic?<br /><br />Otherwise, you write that "Despite the Comics Code, a few Silver Age villains are a little "sexier" than Doctor Light, and so any of them might have fit the bill better. (Now I'll be compiling a list of potential Silver Age rapers in the next few days, O joy!)"<br /><br />Well, it's needless to say I'll be eagerly waiting the list, with curisity greatly aroused...<br /><br />Cheers,<br /><br />Sherman A. Sherman Barroshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11993841605520936806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966063958139138370.post-22060425108006741122016-09-22T14:32:16.100-07:002016-09-22T14:32:16.100-07:00Well, I may be anticipating your next essay somewh...Well, I may be anticipating your next essay somewhat, but as I see it, "comic book logic" applies to your Thor example in that the creators signal to their intended audience-- which as you say, would have been conceived as being no older than 12-- that rape itself can only be a threat, because the hero's ability to intervene will never be compromised. This parallels what you've said about the trope of superheroes rescuing people, like jumpers from high buildings, without causing them any resultant injuries.<br /><br />The Executioner's threat of illicit marriage is, as I think you're implying, a strategy to soften the threat of real-world rape itself. Still, it certainly appears in entertainment throughout pop culture, and Kirby himself was possibly exposed, even in the early 20th century, to stories in which the villain threatens to force the heroine into marriage to obviate some debt. It's been said that the immediate source of the trope is from the so-called stage "mellerdramas" of the late 19th century. Only specialists in this pop-cultural period might know what these plays were, though the trope survived into the 1940s MIGHTY MOUSE cartoon, where villains are frequently trying to marry the heroine first before they get down and dirty. For what it's worth, though, the trope also shows up in more consciously "literary" work. Dickens' 1849 DAVID COPPERFIELD builds to a storyline in which the villain Uriah Heep wants to do the same thing to David's potential beloved.<br /><br />I would disagree with the critic who thought the INFINITY CRISIS rape "unnecessary;" it was as necessary as the similar abuse in Burgess' CLOCKWORK ORANGE and the resultant movie, from which I would bet Meltzer did some swiping. The idea of the heroes retaliating with extreme measures had to be based in some visceral response, and while it didn't absolutely have to be rape, rape makes as logical a threat as any other one, such as murder. <br /><br />I have wondered at times why Meltzer chose Doctor Light. Since he might for some represent the essence of the superhero as juvenile adventure, being a Silver Age villain, I suppose the author thought himself clever to give such a character a nastier, more "realistic" outlook. Yet I think he might have chosen better, even from other Silver Age villains. Despite the Comics Code, a few Silver Age villains are a little "sexier" than Doctor Light, and so any of them might have fit the bill better. (Now I'll be compiling a list of potential Silver Age rapers in the next few days, O joy!)Gene Phillipshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11495562795211277146noreply@blogger.com