Actually, I think Koroush needs to brush up on good old American sarcasm.

Cracked being a publication for pop culture along the same vein as The Onion for politics/world new, correct?

Which is a long way of say that while CRACKED is a satire magazine,
sometimes it doesn't have to stretch too far. I have seen and heard some
variant of all those comments out in the real world -- if comic
conventions count as the real world.

SUPERMAN RETURNS wasn't gritty, it was creepy. I've seen zombie movies that creeped me out less.

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I've never considered it creepy. It was just not as good as I thought it could be.

Here'sa more serious review which gushes on about DKR and grim and gritty in much the same vein, making Frank Miller sound like the savior of comicbooks.

I don't think it does. It reads to me like a fair review.

IMP.

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If we read Stan Lee's scripts for Marvel Comics of the "Silver Age" about
the most politically oriented "message" we will find is "America good,
Commies bad!" Stan understood that the stage from which he addressed
his audience was not one for political diatribes, or much of anything else
beyond simple, straightforward entertainment. (Probably just as well.
When he did take a moment to ask us to think -- as with the
Watcher's description of Galactus, for instance -- he sometimes
presented a challenge to which much of his audience was not equipped to
rise!)

Stan's broad strokes about the "Reds" are dating (as would be most political stances, even presented quite generally), and yet can be dismissed ultimately as much as his one-time predilection for having sundry superheroes suddenly use Judo against larger opponents.

I didn't mind recognizing Senator Kelly in the JB/Claremont X-Men story as a stand-in for Ted Kennedy. But both back then and now a quarter century later, it didn't truly matter.

Politics can be in comicbooks, hopefully used intelligently, but its impact should be no more than Ben Grimm wearing a Beatle wig or Hank and Bobby visiting a beatnick Greenwich Village cafe. Just a colorful aside. Politics may be more "serious" than cultural fads, but, either way, great comicbooks transcend any one tale's trappings.

I have a degree in Economics and Political Science, I really don't need
"politically aware" comicbook writers to espouse their often ill-informed
beliefs to me in a medium I read for enjoyment.

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That's a good point. Some writers don't have a clue, and yet insist on trying to include some kind of political context in the story. If you are going to do that you have to know what you're talking about.

Koroush, I think DKR is powerful and important, and the review we're talking about is broadly consistent with my views. Yet I don't think the Earth revolves around Frank Miller, and I don't like All-Star Batman And Robin. It seems to me that you're exaggerating.

Your own review of 300 alleges that its purpose is to stir up hatred against present-day Iran. I understand your feeling, as a "Persian" (is that an ethnic classification, since Persia is no longer a political or geographical entity?), but I find the suggestion implausible - and the effect unlikely, since people susceptible to influence in that way will often be unaware that Iran was ever Persia.

If you're accusing partiality in a review, for credibility's sake, you should perhaps write less partial reviews.

IMP.

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"Sure, we're ALL AGES, as long as all the ages are over 40!"