The way modern comics are is probably the reason I enjoy re-reading my old collections and buying back issues from around 1974 - 1985 as this was a far better period, IMO, than what we have now.

Hard-As-Nails Hero walks out of the room, closing the door behind him, visibly shaken. A young woman rushes toward him.

"My father -- is he --?"

"No. I'm sorry. It's bad. You don't want to go in there."

"I must see --!"

"No! You don't want to remember your father... like that."

As a side note, when my geeky middle school buddies and I werent playing AD&D, we were playing GAMMA WORLD ... and ripping off old Atomic Knights plots to use in our games.

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I'd never seen Atomic Knights before the new book came out but it reminded me a lot like an old RPG I used to play with my uncle when he came back from the Marines. Gamma World was the best. I was debating getting the book but you've just sold me.

I may have told this story on another thread before, but there was an issue of "Superman" where the villain was having an orgy with several women on the splash page of the comic, the women in several states of undress and clearly naked, and the man on the bed with a sheet covering up his naughty bits, but leaving his side exposed so that there was no question he wasn't wearing shorts.

I had to warn a few parents looking to pick up their young child a Superman comic about this scene. They all passed once they saw the comic. How sad is it that I had to tell parents that they migght find a Superman comic inappropriate for their child?

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And don't forget that infamous issue of ACTION COMICS written by Chuck Austen (who broke into the industry writing and drawing porn comics) where it was strongly implied that a Kryptonian villain raped a human woman literally to death. The bad guy even emerged from his headquarters covered with the woman's blood and one character saying that the girl was "screaming all night".

Okay, my memory was a bit fuzzy... the scene in that "Superman" comic that I referenced above was a bit off... there is no sheet covering his naughty bits, his leg is raised so as to not show it. I also forgot that one of the ladies he was having sex with was wearing a studded choker.

The scans below are from "Superman" #655 (October, 2006), written by Kurt Busiek and art by Carlos Pacheco and Jesus Merino. I like the artwork, but that scene does NOT belong in a Superman comic, period.

Also note that there is a Captain Underpants ad directly to the left of the splash page. Now, as I recall, Captain Underpants is not aimed at adults. I wonder if Scholastic saw the page next to their ad in the published comic and what did they think?

I'm not a prude by any stretch, but Superman should always be an all-ages comic. The editor should never have allowed these pages to be published in a "Superman" comic.

And just the issue before, the page below was the splash page. Notice Lois walking around in very skimy underwear, and how the character is posed in the bottom panel.

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That's how this particular slippery slope got started, tho, with the idea that it was possible to "layer" the characters, with books of different levels of "maturity". Remember DCs harcover/softcover experiment, with "deluxe" editions of TEEN TITANS showing Robin and Starfire in bed together, then the "regular" newsstand editions coming along a while later with such scenes excised? PLEASE let us not resurrect the incredibly-inbred, can't-see-the-forest-for-the-trees notion that the kind of PAPER the book is printed on should cue a potential reader as to the "maturity level"!!

It is not the CHARACTERS that should be "layered". A customer should be able to walk into a store and pick up ANY comic with BATMAN in the title, and know that it will have the same kind of content as every other comic with BATMAN in the title. S/he should not have to scan for "Mature Advisory" labels or the like.