yeah its really dumb there on the sensor wagon. dont make q lehal that you say is more edge and mature then be like oh to far sensor its bs
1 Like
Defeats the whole purpose. They lost my interest now. And my friends gave up on black label.
1 Like
The next issue will be in transit to me soon. Some controversy does not take away from the quality and presentation that The “Black Label” books provide.
1 Like
I don’t agree that DC’s reaction (or overreaction) is a reflection on the entire country. I think people react to depictions of sex, rather than violence, because “unacceptable” sexual behavior is more likely to happen.
For example, the Joker cuts his face off; but no one’s concerned that real people are going to start cutting their own faces off, or find that behavior acceptable. This gratuitous violence is laughable and ridiculous.
But, Batman shows his penis, and that certainly seems more plausible. My teenage daughter has recieved d!ck-pics. So, not only is it possible, it’s actually probable. Therefore, parents (and others) tend to get upset about these things.
If DC, a large corporation which presents icons of entertainment, starts promoting their new, edgy line of comics by engaging their most iconic characters in unacceptable (yet probable) behavior, then DC’s just asking for bad press.
I’ve seen other comments about, “but Dr. Manhattan; but Vertigo comics.” Neither Watchmen or the entire Vertigo line is anywhere as iconic as Batman. You can take your 10 year old to see a Batman movie, and you can be relatively safe assuming the movie won’t go too far. However, this type of comic damages that assumption. (Maybe that’s good; maybe that’s bad. But there’s no denying that damage is done to the reputation of the icon of “Batman.”)
Personally, I think DC made a bad move by advertising, publishing, and then censoring. If the DC president, publisher, or editor had a problem with it, I’m guessing they had ample opportunity to censor in-house. And I agree that a “Mature Readers” label is more than enough warning for parents who actually uses their brain. But, censoring after the fact makes you look inept.
2 Likes
I had initially agreed with the assessment that it was asinine to censor the book when the entire point of Black Label was to provide a Mature Readers imprint where creators had the freedom to tell the stories they wanted without the constraints of operating within the mainstream DC Universe (something akin to Marvel’s MAX line), but then I read Jim Lee’s statement about it and I kind of understood where they were coming from. When he said “it wasn’t additive to the story,” the penis was never the problem, the conversation was. And the simple fact of the matter is that willful ignorance rules the roost on the Internet.
Nobody bothers to check that “hey, this is part of a Mature Readers book.” 90% of the people talking about it probably had never even heard of the book nor read a comic before seeing a headline somewhere, yet, because everyone was like “LOL! BRUCE WANG!” and because Stephen Colbert was making jokes about full frontal Batman on the Super Friends, all of the work that Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo did on the book was completely and utterly overshadowed by a barely visible depiction of male nudity in their book.
This isn’t a case of “we’re backing down and saving face to fulfill the demands of the market,” this is “you guys clearly aren’t equipped to handle this sort of content, so, we’re just going to pack up our toys and go home.”
1 Like
God it’s just a penis
1 Like
WARNING!!! IDEAS THAT WILL OFFEND FOLLOW.
The fact that they didn’t set the tone of keeping it in perspective by just coming out and saying, “Grow up and deal with it,” means that they very much did back down. They’re not taking their toys anywhere. If anything they’re begging that those offended continue to buy their toys. It netted them a short term win with the spike in the issue’s value, but they were fearful of the long term impact to the company’s bottom line.
Batman is an American institution, though. It’s hard to believe that it would be that damaging. It’s was a punchline for a short period and has already been forgotten by the mainstream world. Comic fans were the only ones that were going to buy it anyway, so it’s frustrating that self-censorship was imposed because of so-called forces from without. Besides, the dick is out of the bag already, so what difference does it make after the fact? It just serves to drive up demand on the uncensored issue, which is in DC’s favor, and claiming they’ll never show another penis again makes it seem like it was indeed just a stunt. Does anyone really believe that at any moment an erect phallus may erupt in their face when consuming Hollywood entertainment starring the Batman, or that a stray testicle could pop out of his tights and speedo, exposed in a children’s show? No. Of course not. So why the pandering to the fake outrage?
All due respect to Jim Lee (of whom I’m a big fan) and DC editorial, but the only thing it seems like they packed up and took home was their balls. Brian Azzarello would never have broken under pressure. How could it be “additive”, or subtractive for that matter, to depict a penis? It’s a NATURAL part of the human body. It has no need to contribute to the story. It is simply a part of the man. Did Michelangelo need to ask himself if it was “additive” to allow David his manhood in his nude sculpture? No, because it was simply representational.
Nevermind that the internet is full of actual pornographic material for all the little victims to be assaulted by if they so choose to seek it out. No one is shoving this in the face of any child or self-ascribed soul of delicate sensibilities (as if a person could actually claim to be “damaged” by the mere sight of a penis). It was clearly labeled MATURE READERS.
NOTE: If you are a child, first of all; or an adult that is sent into an epileptic seizure upon seeing a penis; or are otherwise embarrassed to the brink of life-support by nudity; you can take yourself out of that category, that is, the “mature” one, and no retailer will sell you this life-destroying, bound, stack of papers that was manifested by the devil, while masturbating in hell.
The truth is that the only people interested in buying anything from the Black Label were comicbook fans, who, by the way, would have already been aware that it was for mature readers only. The outside world only had contact with it by way of the uproar and were never going to buy it to begin with. If this attracted the attention to a mature readers line from anyone outside interested in mature subject matter, then it may have been immediately squelched by the censorship, thus defeating the intention of the line in the first place. This could have all been avoided if DC had censored before publication or stuck to their guns, after the fact. But the opportunity must have seemed too lucrative to pass up, which is why it is eye-rolling to listen to them apologize and speak of regrets now.
It is worth reminding that penises, vaginas, and breasts belong to human anatomy and that any parent’s child may daily see their own, which is attached to their body. There doesn’t seem to be an epidemic of PTSD among children each time they change their clothes or visit the bathroom. If it bothers adults, they should have quit a while, ago. When is it time for the country to get over its terror of the human form? Maybe when it gave all of its children cameras in their phones. It should be expected that the next thing they might do is drop their pants and click. It’s only natural.
1 Like