Roy Harper was not available to accept this award as he was aspirating on his own vomit in a Popeye's dumpster near the airport. Accepting on his behalf is DC comics and the creative team of J.T. Krul and artists Geraldo Borges and Marlo Alquiza.
That's right. Justice League: Rise of Arsenal, a four part story involving hate-sex, back alley brawls over stray cats, and enough freebasing to make Richard Pryor look like Ian MacKaye, has won an award from an honest to goodness organization known as PRISM.
According to their website, the PRISM Awards are dedicated to:
"…recognizing the accurate depiction of substance abuse and mental illness: prevention, treatment and recovery in film, television, interactive, music, DVD, and comic book entertainment. Established in 1997, the PRISM Awards honor productions that are not only powerfully entertaining, but realistically show substance abuse and addiction, as well as mental health issues."
Fellow nominees in the comic and graphic novel category include the depiction of the Sentry's descent into mental illness in Dark Avengers Annual #1 and Sentry: Fallen Sun as well as Neil Young's Greendale. Vertigo's Greek Street was also nominated and named a winner. Marvel's Iron Man II film lost out to The Fighter in the film category for accurate depictions of substance abuse. We're thinking the armor and the soundtrack had something to do with that last one.
We don't need to waste perfectly good eggs anymore. Kids? This is your brain on drugs. Apparently.
So, snap up those hardcovers of Justice League: The Rise and Fall and hand it out to neighborhood kids. Or just leave a box with your copies of the book outside a community center. With a football and a tennis racquet in there too.
Or better yet, let's take this opportunity to name some books with more valuable depictions of substance abuse and mental illness.
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The Safe Word arc of Y: the Last Man dealt with depression and suicidal tendencies pretty well.
Demon in a Bottle.
The original Arsenal heroin arc from Green Lantern (I have no idea if that’s available collected).
I was hoping PRISM was going to be like the Razzies. This was obviously given out by wikipedia skimming alone.
Dot dot dot perform. What a world. This was all ages right?
SHUT UP, JADE.
I loved how awful this story was. The trainwreck was very enjoyable to watch. Greendale should have won the award hands down.
Sentry: Fallen Sun was also in contention?! Haha what a joke.
Where are the panels of the businessmen chanting “Ass to Ass! Ass to Ass!“?
I always liked Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel.
This is just…..man this is depressing.
It makes me want to do some coke…..hey wait a minute.
Mutherfuckin Son of a Bitch! I bet that book won’t win an award from PETA!
“Most Accurate Portrayal of Animal Abuse: Rise of Arsenal!’
Son of a–!
That sexy Swamp Thing issue was pretty trippy and druggy but probably not in the way Prism would want to reward.
Jack Kirby’s Fourth World dealt with overcoming depression, and you can definitely read Morrison’s Final Crisis in that way (anti-life equation etc).
Is this the arc that you guys, on multiple occasions, said was the worst thing being published last year?
I’m trying to remember, but I seem to recall you guys destroying some arc (might have been one where someone gets their arm cut off as well… and daughter gets murdered… maybe) on a monthly basis.
No idea, either way I’m surprised they give out awards for this sort of thing
Wh-wh-wh-wh-wha-WHAT?
This is beyond awesome.
Besides Demon in a Bottle, there was a couple other Iron man stories that dealt with addiction. There was the story arc where Tony fell off the wagon after Stane took over hi company and he ended up basically a homeless wino. H befriended another homeless drunk woman, who was also pregnant. I remember the cover image of the two of them, disheveled in a snowstorm, huddling together for warmth, and the blurb said something like “In the morning, Tony Stark will be sober….or dead.” He basically had to deliver her baby during the storm, and she died in childbirth and he brought the baby to a hospital and turned his life around. It was a pretty powerful story, very well done for it’s time.
Another time Tony was addicted to something was when he was actually addicted to being Iron Man. He had been shot by a jealous ex-lover (because sometimes banging everything that moves backfires lol) and left crippled. He was confined to a wheelchair and made a new suit of armor that allowed him to walk. He hated being in the wheelchair so much, he started being Iron man almost all the time, never leaving his lab unless he had to go kick Crimson Dynamo’s ass or something.
Tony just has an addictive personality. Even today, when he is written correctly, he’s a bit of an adrenaline junkie. That’s part of why he is Iron Man. It’s part him wanting to make the world a better place and part him just getting a rush from doing it.
Are you guys talking about the same goofy Demon in a Bottle arc that took place in Iron Man?
“back alley brawls over stray cats” —–WTF?!? what’s the street value of a dead cat?
@Jesse1125 He thought it was his daughter.
@muddi900 Demon in a Bottle is pretty goofy if it was written today. Put in historical perspective, it was pretty groundbreaking and considered a very serious story. But I was actually referring to the “sequel” to Demon, where Tony falls off the wagon after being sober for a long time.
@PaulMontgomery The fact that your answer is true is probably the greatest thing in comics history.