'Nuff Said: American Graphic Media

That's right folks! After reading Volume I of the Green Lantern/Arrow series, I am officially a fan. I remember seeing the John Stewart Green Lantern on the Justice League and always taking a liking to what he could do, but this is the first time the Emerald Hero really shined on me. What makes him so awesome is his source of power, the power ring. I just love how he is able to perform practically anything with the ring provided that he had enough concentration and the object is not yellow. I think the whole "yellow is not effected by the ring" is kind of bogus. I'm sure there must be a good reason, but I have yet to hear it. Aside from the amazing power ring, I was really taken by the writing of the Green Lantern's story. (By the way, I don't really like Green Arrow. Sure, he may be "cooler" than the Green Lantern in his personality, but I know in a fight Green Arrow would stand no chance against the colossal might of Green Lantern's power ring....

As Marvel became an increasingly influential entity in the 60s, it was apparent that as a comic book company, it would really be creating a new dynamic both with its characters and its content. I'm actually really happy that Marvel went the route it did because without it, we really wouldn't have the very human and often somewhat dark/tortured personas (such as Spider-Man, the Hulk, and the X-Men) that just weren't present in the other superheroes of the time. They also adopted a much more personable and close connection with the readers, which really helped people identify with them in a personal way. Despite the fact that these new heroes were also representative of the mood growing in the nation at the time, it really surprised me that the children of the 1960s, the same children who had always been pampered and hadn't ever had to toil as their parents had, were rebelling against the very systems that had created and nurtured them. I guess that no revolution is compl...

I have always believed Catwoman to be this fierce criminal and after reading batman last week I feel that she is kind of schitzophrenic.  I mean literally.  She has these series of times where she is a completely different person and yet has no recollection of what she did during that time, these are specific illness traits of a schitzophrenic.  Moreover, and on a more serious note, I believe that Catwoman turning to the good-side makes for a lame story.  I was very disappointed reading that she became good and was going to help Batman and Robin, she was always the most exciting villain and was such a weak excuse for a crime fighter that it was actually quite depressing.  She seemed much less powerful when she was good, she was captured and Batman and Robin had to save her.  Brining me to my next point of sexism.  Even this comic book portrays woman as being less capable.  Had it been an undercover male villain he most likely would not have been captured but because Catwoman is a woman...

As we have watched Batman comics progress, we have seen the number of villians that have come out of the wood work. Some of the main villians are The Joker, The Riddler, The Penguin, Two Face, Catwoman, ect. These villians all have something in common. They all suffer from some sort of mental illness. it seems that every villian that Batman has faced suffers from that. Lets look a little closer. The Joker was dropped into a vat of chemicals and permenantley scared. He lost his mind and became Batman's ultimate first villian. He mostlikely suffers from some post partum depression and schizophrenia. he suffered a tramatizing event that has left him both physically and emtionally scared. The Riddler was a scientist, very intelligent, who was somewhat enamored by Bruce Wayne and enjoyed experiementing and inventing things. We see in the late 90s version that he becomes to obsessed with his inventions that he loses his mind when Bruce Wayne thinks that they are too dangerous. He has sev...

It is interesting how these past few classes and readings has shed a lot of light on what life was like for people our parents age. I always have known that the 60s was a period of rebellion, but I never considered why. As best as I understand it, the people who came back from WWII had tons of babies. When those babies grew up they rebelled (to an unprecedented scale) against the generation their parents had lived through. It may seem like common knowledge, but I also did not know the saying "If it feels good, do it!" was a product of the 60s. As far as comic books are concerned, I am thrilled to see Spiderman succeed as a superhero. In a time of anti-war demonstrations and race riots it makes me feel good that our friendly neighborhood Spiperman was able to web-sling his way into the American psyche. I guess heroes like Spiderman, the X-Men, and the Hulk do reflect people in the 60s than they do more today. In my humble opinion the people from the 60s were lost individuals. ...

It seems like everyone thinks that the idea of censoring comics in order to protect children is ridiculous. I think there are some pros and cons to this theory. First of all, one must ask the question of why comics should be censored. Do children think it is all right to do everything that is done in comics? Do kids really imitate the crimes and violence they observe in comics? If it is not the fault of the comics, what are the alternative sources of children’s violence? Next, one must assess why it would be good to censor comics. Or, why it might be harmful to children to censor comics. One might argue that it is bad to censor comics because comics do not sell as well and children won’t want to read them anymore. Another explanation might be that censoring comics might shield children from reality. I think that children must know the true reality of life, and should not be censored from it. However, from what I have read in Comic Book Nation, most of the suggeste...

Comic books were seen as entertainment for the youth. Many parents didnt see too many issues with their kids reading the adventure dime store books but as our society evolved, so did the characters and the stories that existed in comic books. Gruesome horror and gore were now being introduced, along with violence and crime. Parents began to worry that what their children were reading was somehow going to affect how their children acted in society. Today we have seen this type of concern with music, like that of Marlin Manson, and video games. Like the comics code, music and video game distributors are required to put stickers that indicate violence and adult content. This is something that prevents children from buying these products, without parental consent. Comic books were strongly censored because parents were becoming scared of their children and what they couldnt control. They felt that outside entities were going to turn their kids into criminals and violent offenders. They wer...