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I forgot about Cooke speaking out against the content being put in today's comics. I also recall hearing about him debating Mark Millar about The Ultimates on Millar's own message boards.

That being said, I wouldn't exactly call the work Cooke has done for DC "all ages". Some of the language and violence in DC:The New Frontier and his run on The Spirit, was definitely not suitable for little kids. I'm a firm believer that one should practice what they preach. However, I strongly believe that Cooke would have toned down some of the content in those books if DC asked him to. Of course, the current TPTB at DC would never ask for the content of their books to be toned down since they are so hellbent on impressing their existing (and rapidly shrinking) adult readership and non comic book reading adults by showing how "mature" and "adult" their superhero books are.

Stephen just touched on something that I think we've been missing for some time...

   I liked the "Marvel Way".  It seemed so much more flexible and easier to understand.  I wonder what the current crop of writers find so hard to understand about that?  Could it be that they're all phoning it in from Hollywood and that the artists with whom they're paired up (if they haven't chosen them on their own) are that unwilling or unable to meet face-to-face?

   If so, it shows once more that there was a time when you actually had to have a physical presence at the office in order to get things done.  Stan and Jack and the crew were practically neighbors, in those days.

There's no trick at all to writing good, fun comics with intellect and maturity while not straying too far into "adult" territory.

A lot of European writers have managed it, such as Jean Michel Charlier, Jean Van Hamme, Francois Corteggiani, Pierre Fourtain, Greg,  et cetera.  And that's aside from the people who do actual adult work as well as work for a younger audience.

There are probably  more world class comics writers in Latin America than there are in the US at present, and I think it mainly has to do with the lack of commercial support for what would otherwise be considered mainstream fiction, crime stories, thrillers, solid sci-fi, historical dramas etc.

Superhero comics have an inherent "escalation" factor in the genre, where it relies on a sense of wonder, since corrupted to a "coolness factor" and writersand artists  keep upping the ante.

It's like with Porn.  It all starts with pictures of naked ladies. And while there are lot of people who think "picture of naked lady" is a cool thing in itself and plenty enough to build a genre around,  sooner or later you'll have someone bringing in a few extra guys,  tools, farm animals, chains and leather, a football team, then the guys in the stands and finally the world's largest ball of twine and some kitchen utensils.

Ruining a perfectly good genre.

I don't want my superhero comics to have the "coolness factor". I want them to have a sense of wonder.