For mature audiences: Comic book superheroes, fans are growing up

Kirk Baird

Thursday, Nov. 8, 2001 | 8:22 a.m.

Iron Man with a drinking problem? Batman operating as nighttime vigilante? Superman wrestling with marital woes?

Holy moral crisis! What happened to comic book superheroes?

Simply put, the heroes and their audiences grew up, said Jim McLauchlin, senior editor of Wizard: The Comics Magazine, a monthly publication devoted to the comic book industry.

"I think over the march of time from the 1950s to the present, (comics have) grown up ... as a reflection of the society we live in," McLauchlin said recently from Los Angeles. "They've become adult-oriented."

Gone are the days of Superman foiling a bank robbery just in time to make a dinner date with Lois Lane. Gone is the era in which the roles of antagonist and protagonist were as clearly defined as black and white.

In today's grittier comic book realm, superheroes face a morally gray world where they are often seen as outcasts, and the villains are saviors.

And while the notion of good ultimately triumphing over evil still applies to most comic books, the idea of an "invincible" superhero doesn't, as Robin, Supergirl and Superman, among others, discovered.

All told, the ethical ambiguity and questionable tactics of many popular heroes such as Batman or Spawn have led some to the conclusion that comics are no longer for children.

It's a notion with which McLauchlin disagrees.

"To say comics are for kids is an ignorant statement. It's like saying all television is for kids. Portions are," he said. "There are networks devoted to children's programming and there are networks devoted to adults. It's the same with comics."

It's just that the comic book industry is adhering to supply and demand. And the biggest demand comes from males ages 20-35, said John Brocius, who, along with his brother Jim, owns Cosmic Comics at 3330 E. Tropicana Ave.

It's not that comics have abandoned the youth market, he said, rather the youth market has abandoned comics as they have reading in general in favor of video games, computers and television.

"Of my average customers, 19 out of 20 of them have credit cards," Brocius said. "The guys who grew up reading (comic books) are the ones who are still reading them. But they don't want the same stories they read when growing up. They want more in-depth storylines."

Which means more "true-to-life" stories and situations that more accurately reflect those of the readers.

"That's a big reason you're seeing the change, because (the comic-book industry) realizes that your average comic book reader is in or near their 30s. And they want a better story than when they were 10 years old," he said.

It's the same principle for those who write and draw the comics as well.

Most of them grew up reading comics and are anxious to try different approaches for story and characterization, rather than emulate the almost paint-by-numbers plots of earlier comics: superhero meets the villain, superhero fights the villain, superhero beats the villain.

"I think they got tired of reading those same storylines," McLauchlin said. "When they're writing now, they realize they've seen this before and want to try something different."

Back in the day

It was a different world in 1954.

Television was still an expensive novelty, movies weren't a national past time, and Bill Haley and the Comets' watershed "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" was still a year away from changing popular music.

In short, three of the so-called culprits responsible for the downfall of America's youth were not yet in place.

So the reigning authorities of morality focused on something else: comic books.

Led by psychiatrist Dr. Frederick Wertham, whose publication "Seduction of the Innocent" held the comic book industry responsible as a leading cause of juvenile delinquency, the anti-comic book campaign eventually reached the level of a Senate subcommittee hearing on youth and crime.

As a result of those hearings, as well as mounting pressure to clean up its act from within, the comic book industry created the Comics Code Authority.

A self-governing body created to monitor comic book content, the Code established such rules as: "In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds"; "policemen, judges, government officials and respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority"; "passion or romantic interest shall never be treated in such a way as to stimulate the lower and baser emotions"; and "although slang and colloquialisms are acceptable, excessive use should be discouraged and wherever possible good grammar shall be employed."

That's the way it remained for mainstream comics through the '50s and '60s -- not always by choice, but for survival.

For a comic book to receive nationwide distribution in supermarkets and department stores, the comic had to be OK'd by the Code, which stamped a small seal of approval on the cover. If the comic broke the code, it didn't get the seal and, therefore, wouldn't be carried by most businesses.

So in 1970 when Marvel Comics broke rank and published a comic without the Code's approval, it caused quite a stir in the industry.

At issue was a three-part "The Amazing Spider-Man" series in which a friend of Spider-Man's uses illegal narcotics. The tone was decidedly anti-drug and was based on a suggestion from the U.S. government.

Nevertheless, the Code objected to the use of drugs -- negative or not -- in a comic book and refused to provide its stamp of approval on the cover.

Marvel, undaunted, printed and sold the three issues anyway, experiencing higher-than-average sales for the comics. DC Comics later pushed the envelope further by having the Green Arrow's sidekick, Speedy, addicted to heroin.

The Code was then rewritten in 1971 to allow for the use of drugs if used in a negative way. It has been updated once since then, in 1989.

Changing times

Marvel, however, no longer sees the need to adhere to the code.

In a recent decision the world's largest comic company decided to drop the Code, leaving only three other comic book companies that still publish by its guidelines: DC, Dark Horse and Archie.

Instead, Marvel is implementing its own rating system, which mirrors the Motion Picture Guideline Association of America: "All Ages," "Marvel PG," "Marvel PG +" and "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content," which is essentially an R-rating.

Routinely publishing comics without the Code is nothing new. Both DC and Marvel carry a successful line of more adult-themed comics without CCA's seal of approval.

Other comic companies, such as Image, which features the extremely popular Spawn comic series, also have opted to forgo the Code for the freedom to create darker and more complex characters and themes.

These new style of comics are, in many ways, a direct response to the success of two classic limited-run DC titles from the late '80s: "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" and "Watchmen."

Both series featured vivid characterization of their heroes as both super and human, and proved so popular they were re-published as graphic novels, or what the industry calls "trade paperbacks."

For some, such as Las Vegan Gary Bauman, the comic industry's movement to more realism among superheroes is not particularly welcome.

Bauman, 35, grew up reading comics, beginning with Richie Rich and later Spider-Man and X-Men. Over the years he has collected more than 4,000 comics -- mainly the older comics of his youth.

He said he misses the days of comics when the superheroes and supervillians were clearly defined, with few characters in between.

"I'd like to have a kid grow up the way I did. You start out at 7 and see superheroes and that's what's good in life," Bauman said. "Nowadays it seems heroes are more on the darker side."

But that's the way it's almost always been, said Jim Brocius. Even as superheroes were introduced in the 1930s-'40s, the plotlines and characters remained more for grown-ups than children, he said.

In one Superman issue, for example, the Man of Steel squared off against an abusive husband, and during Batman's first year of comics, the Dark Knight carried a gun as part of his arsenal against crime.

But for every dark avenger, there remains the long-running, kid-friendly Archie, as well as newer titles based on popular TV cartoons, "The Simpsons" and "The Power Puff Girls."

While not nearly as popular as the superhero line of comics, they sell well enough -- mainly among adults -- that Cosmic Comics and most other comic book stores still carry them.

For Brocius, the lighthearted nature of cartoon-based comics are an occasional -- and welcome -- relief from the stark reality of many of today's superhero stories.

"Sometimes I'm in the mood for Bugs Bunny," he said. "And I certainly don't want Bugs Bunny to develop a drinking problem."

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