...and if you haven't yet; you may want to skip this.
I'm personally of a mind that there isn't any topic inherently taboo for writing into a story; but I do think some stuff needs to be dealt with carefully. Identity Crisis bothered a LOT of folks with it's content; although having read it I'm not sure it's for the right reasons. Storywise I can SEE what they were getting at; but I think they missed the mark.
First, having Dr. Light rape Sue. They needed something severe enough to warrant the heroes reprogramming the guy. Okay; but you'd think any supervillain has ALREADY commited enough attrocities to warrant this. Threatening an entire city isn't enough? Sure, they made it PERSONAL, but that sorta made the heroes seem like jerks more than anything. The whole thing is handled pretty shallowly. Mainstream comics always seem to want the shock value of heinous events; but never seem to want the responsibility of actually DEALING with them. (The term "rape" is NEVER used in the story.)
And ultimately lobotomizing the guy really doesn't have anything to do with the story! At it's core the whole thing is a murder mystery with the origin of a new bad guy thrown in. Lobotomizing bad guys is hardly dealt with at all! (Other than to imply that everyone knows, but nobody says anything.)
The story comes across as really REALLY depreciating. We see heroes and villains at their worse; but NOBODY ever rises above. For the most part, instead of humanizing them (which it SEEMS like the goal was) they come across as self-important chumps. Even the bit with Ralph at the end... almost that exact scene was used on the Simpsons to show NED AT A LOW POINT IN HIS LIFE!!!
To me; the trick with putting stuff like murder, underhandedness, dark secrets and such in a story is that you have to DEAL with them. SOMETHING is gonna happen. Except here. We get a somewhat interesting idea (what if the HEROES did something bad?) glossed over for a standard superhero story. Which I think is the problem with a lot of mainstream books; especially the "event" ones. They want the shock and awe of a truly heavy story, without thinking through a truly heavy story... leaving nothing but spectacle and hype.
Don C.
I'm personally of a mind that there isn't any topic inherently taboo for writing into a story; but I do think some stuff needs to be dealt with carefully. Identity Crisis bothered a LOT of folks with it's content; although having read it I'm not sure it's for the right reasons. Storywise I can SEE what they were getting at; but I think they missed the mark.
First, having Dr. Light rape Sue. They needed something severe enough to warrant the heroes reprogramming the guy. Okay; but you'd think any supervillain has ALREADY commited enough attrocities to warrant this. Threatening an entire city isn't enough? Sure, they made it PERSONAL, but that sorta made the heroes seem like jerks more than anything. The whole thing is handled pretty shallowly. Mainstream comics always seem to want the shock value of heinous events; but never seem to want the responsibility of actually DEALING with them. (The term "rape" is NEVER used in the story.)
And ultimately lobotomizing the guy really doesn't have anything to do with the story! At it's core the whole thing is a murder mystery with the origin of a new bad guy thrown in. Lobotomizing bad guys is hardly dealt with at all! (Other than to imply that everyone knows, but nobody says anything.)
The story comes across as really REALLY depreciating. We see heroes and villains at their worse; but NOBODY ever rises above. For the most part, instead of humanizing them (which it SEEMS like the goal was) they come across as self-important chumps. Even the bit with Ralph at the end... almost that exact scene was used on the Simpsons to show NED AT A LOW POINT IN HIS LIFE!!!
To me; the trick with putting stuff like murder, underhandedness, dark secrets and such in a story is that you have to DEAL with them. SOMETHING is gonna happen. Except here. We get a somewhat interesting idea (what if the HEROES did something bad?) glossed over for a standard superhero story. Which I think is the problem with a lot of mainstream books; especially the "event" ones. They want the shock and awe of a truly heavy story, without thinking through a truly heavy story... leaving nothing but spectacle and hype.
Don C.
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