Comics/Pop Culture Query for Murd

CageNarleigh

Listening to the CGS re-run episode of the Spotlight on Superman in the Silver Age, I have a question for Murd. Rather than post it on the feedback for the re-run, I figured I'd post it here since I wouldn't mind everyone else hopping in with their perspectives.

In the episode it was mentioned that Superman (that Action Ace) changed to fit the times (for the most part). The Golden Age Superman was a reflection of the times. The Silver age went more sci-fi as pop culture went that way as well. And so on and so forth.

So my question to Murd (and you fine folks): How have comics changed to reflect the current state of our culture? When people look back on this "era" of comics (like we look back on the Golden and Silver ages), what are they going to see about the comics we're currently reading that reflect the "sign of the times"?

Torchsong

Very expensive variant covers of women in various stages of undress not having anything to do with the actual content of the book inside.

nweathington

Is it any wonder that mainstream comics have gone so dark? Look at what’s popular in other media. The most popular video games include Grand Theft Auto, Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty, and Halo. And the top 50 most popular TV shows include Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, True Blood, Hannibal, and Dexter. That’s a whole lot of dark, a whole lot of violence.

But that’s what American culture has had on its collective mind since 9/11, if not slightly before. It’s what we see on the news every day with the continuing destabilization of the Middle East. There’s also a growing feeling of “us vs. them” within our own country as both the political divide and economic divide are becoming increasingly larger and more difficult to bridge. Trust in the government is at all-time lows (for our lifetimes at least). And so many of the “heroes” we thought we could rely on—Lance Armstrong, countless Olympic athletes and baseball stars—turn out to be cheaters and liars, if not worse.

With all of this constantly barraging our everyday lives, is it any wonder that Superman is now breaking necks?

CageNarleigh

nweathington said:

But that’s what American culture has had on its collective mind since 9/11, if not slightly before.

I've been thinking about that for awhile now. Prior to 9/11 (coming up on 12 years ago) were action movies filled with imagery of building being utterly obliterated?

I'm looking at 'Man of Steel', 'Dark of the Moon', 'Star Trek: Into Darkness', etc.

It seems, on the one hand, to be a progression of the level of destruction and death that modern people see as "disaster". On the other, it seems to be a morbid and cruel joke.

IDK, I'm only 26. So either my perceptions are starting to drift off early into the "get off my lawn" crowd, or things really ARE so bad out there that they're even disgusting today's youth.

RickM

Comics have always been a "lowbrow" medium, a literature of the working class and middle class. And the darkness in comics parallels the dark mood of the middle class, which is being obliterated before our very eyes.

fredzilla

Well then...

Adam_Murdough

Yeah, I'd concur with a lot of the points Mr. Nolen-Weathington makes above. The superhero comics of today appear to reflect widespread cynicism, insecurity, and pessimism in the broader American culture, brought about by a long economic downturn, pronounced distrust of / disrespect for the government, post-9/11 paranoia, and a perceived decline in our nation's relevance and influence on the global stage, among other factors. As an ever-growing percentage of the public comes to feel that the United States in the Twenty-Teens is perhaps not the winning team it once was, the occasionally pristine idealism and optimism of superheroes, avatars of American ideology and cultural self-image that they've always been, will inevitably tarnish somewhat. It's happened before, with some regularity, resulting in phenomena such as the "Relevance" movement of the '70s, the "grim-and-gritty" aesthetic of the '80s, etc. This time, the creeping fears & doubts of an uneasy America have resulted in comics set in a morally and visually murky landscape, rendered mostly in shades of gray and black, in which the villains are more vicious, more determined, more organized (note the number of villainous "Cabals" and "Secret Societies" popping up in comics these days), and more successful; and in which extreme violence and/or lethal force seems more and more like a necessary, acceptable, even desirable course of action for the continually beleaguered heroes as they struggle to counter their opponents' increasingly insidious (and effective) methods. As long as Americans, both as individuals and as a nation, continue to feel powerless, frightened and frustrated in the current sociopolitical climate, superheroes' never-ending battle will keep getting tougher, grimmer, bleaker and bloodier. They suffer because we're suffering, or because we think we are.

On a closely related note, I think this "era" will also be remembered for a major jump in the gradual, decades-long shift in the target demographic for comic books from children/young teens to adult males. In addition to the societal factors Eric and I mention above, comics have gotten "darker" because the major publishers are finding it more profitable to market their wares to a "mature audience" of older readers (primarily men) who are believed (accurately or not) to want more sex and bloodshed and angst and grueling intrigue in their entertainment, and who, more importantly, have more disposable income to spend on comics than would an All-Ages/youth audience (whom comics have been steadily losing to other entertainment media for years anyway). Future volumes of comics history, in chapters devoted to the 2000s/2010s, will probably cite the already-infamous "DC makes comics for 45-year-olds" anecdote, along with Joe Quesada's belief, as stated in an interview a few years ago, that young readers are "a myth."

I'll also throw out there the vogue for adapting the visual style and narrative techniques of comics to the conventions of other, higher-profile visual media, such as blockbuster movies (hence the "widescreen" storytelling style popularized in comics by artists like Bryan Hitch over the past decade or so) and THE emergent entertainment medium of the early 21st century, video games. Future historians may take note of that, too.