AvengersAssemble

When I was 9 I saw RoboCop and Terminator I uncut, when I was 12 a friend offered me to play Doom on his Dad's computer. I saw it and was like "uuh...the shotgun looks so realistic!! You really kill all these things, do you? No, I don't want to play this". When I was 14 I played hardly anything else but first person shooters. My point is, children often can decide for themselves what is ok and healthy for their age group and what not(not always, I admit it)... and after all I turned out pretty nicely - even if you ask my parents.

But you see... rating systems based on rules are bullshit. It's the context of the violence that's important. Is it there to be a fun of it's own or is it there to glorify amorality and/or just look COOL with no connection to the scaryness/fun of the story? That should be the criteria!

  And let me add, the american rating system is the most bigot, corrupted one anywhere on the planet when it comes to language and nudity. Women HAVE breasts and people SAY fuck, but they normally don't shoot other people's limbs off.  How can non-pornographic nudity be more harmfull to teenage development than injust splatter executions?!?? [btw I'm European]

Uhm... about the "SLOW DOWN!"...

This is only a good advice most of the time. There ARE books, created by masters of the medium, that "direct" your reading speed through panel size, organisiation of the panels, amount of text and so on and so on.

Whith those books, just go with the pacing it was made to be read!

There are other books, that have a big problem witth that. I totally hate it to see a greatly choreographed fight scene that feels dynamic and explosive and awesome, but is SOO DETAILED and BEAUTIFUL that you have to decide: "Do I break with the pacing and let the whole beauty of each panel sink in, or do I just go with the pacing this scene was meant to be read?".  Of course you can just revisit that fight scene, but it still feels wrong to just go with the flow and ignore the beauty on the way.

Everything goes through waves. I had the feeling that with Civil War at Marvel and during 52 at DC things got better, could be just me, but to my real point here now:

I think never before in history have so many absolutely BRILLIANT people worked on comics, so why am I so often disappointed lately. Maybe my standards have risen, but I really think it's this MONEY WAVE HIGHPOINT that Marvel and DC seem to be surfing on right now. The greatest writers and artists are LURED with money to assignments their heart isn't really on... Yes, probably they say "wooHOO, I'm finally THERE! The big BUCKS and the superfamous superguys with MY name on the cover!", but shortly after that they will realize, that the control over the major players is not really in their hands. The companies dictate them what to write and what not.

That way the only thing that keeps them happy enough to carry on like that is the money and as soon as money-motivation is not alligned with the feeling-of-purpose motivation of a job anymore, art stops being art.

Hey SirCox,

 What's wrong with liking Watchmen and Killing Joke?

If a girl just names Filthy Rich, Casanova, 100 Bullets then >I< think "Really? You're  sure you don't just want to come off sexy, alternative and bad-ass cool?"

I can't see ANYTHING wrong with saying "Watchman is favorite comic of all time"! Ok, it doesn't tell you shit about that girl, but at least she didn't come up quickly with some rushed out Top3 just to impress me with her comic knowledge or not to come off uncool-nerdy.