I wish I could joke about stuff like this, but I'm past that point. You know what these guys, Breevort and company are? Thieves! Seriously. Maybe not in any legal sense, but artistically and maybe morally. They've stolen the concepts that dreams used to be made of and twisted them into groteque parodies of what they used to be. I'm serious. It hurts to see this happen, not for me but for the generations of kids for whom the Marvel heroes are now ruined. That may sound overdramatic, but those characters truly had a very positive impact on my life and I'm very grateful to Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Buscema, John Byrne, Roger Stern, Mark Gruenwald, and many others for that.

When I was a kid, I was a nerdy little intellectual boy and I got picked on, bad. This may sound silly to some people but imagination became a defense. I tried to be, in my mind, as brave and honorable and tough as Captain America or Spider-Man or Cyclops or the Thing, and it got me through some very painful days of school. And, in addition to that, it was the realization that real people, writers and artists like JB, actually made these stories that seemed so vivid and wonderful come to life through words and drawings that inspired me to create my own stories and eventually led to my being a writer. Everytime i write, part of the credit must go to those writers, those artists, and yes, those characters. And I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling that gratitude. Generations of kids were both entertained and inspired by those amazing creations. But the current regime has destroyed that and, making it even worse, they seem proud of that. It's disgusting. It's shameful. They should be ashamed of themselves and I wish they could understand what they've stolen from the current generation of kids and those who come along in the future.

"Dangerous. Edgy. Illicit."  Bullshit! They're churning out a bunch of crap that's been stripped of all its wonder, all its grandeur, and everything that was inspiring and great.

QUOTE: But make no mistake, one of the fundamental appeals of comics, and Marvel comics in particular, is the fact that they’re dangerous.

Seriously?  I thought one of the fundamental "appeals" of comics were that they were fun.  Not that I thought they were dangerous because, seriously, even at seven I knew they weren't.  It was because the characters were fun.  They were people I wanted to spend time with.  They were people I wanted to get to know.  My parents never thought they were "dangerous".  I never did.  I still don't even after reading the tripe Marvel has trotted out as "important" and "dangerous" for the last decade or more. 

Ridiculous.

Please? Dangerous, edgy and illicit?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Um, no.

Juvenile, pandering and impenetrable is more like it.

Okay, I read through the entire article in attempt to get the full context of what Tom is saying here, and this is the part that jumps out the most...

Tom Breevort wrote: The vast majority of our titles are rated at the T+ level or higher, which means that they’re aimed at a teenaged audience. And that audience is exposed to far greater amounts of violence and sexuality at an earlier age than anything you or I would have experience in our youth. Video games alone have redefined the standards for where the line is when addressing that audience. And it’s an audience that doesn’t want to feel talked down to, or that will accept a sanitized product. In a very real way, parents aren’t supposed to feel completely at ease with them -- that’s part of why kids like them! I do also want to say that I think it’s great that you’re monitoring this stuff, and making decisions about what you feel is and is not appropriate for you or your son to be reading. I wish more parents would be this conscientious.

Ah, Tom...  It's one thing to cater to a specific demographic that craves books with more sex and violence in 'em.  It's a whole another matter when you take well established, all-ages characters and saddle them with such baggage... Bluntly put, instead of creating new characters and storylines designed specifically to satisfy this niche market (and something this target age demographic can truly call their own), the whole Marvel Universe itself has been basically turned into a Dôjinshi version for short-term gain instead. 

I could once again hold up Sunrise/Bandai's huge Mobile Suit Gundam franchise as an example of successfully catering both to a new generation craving edgier stuff and older fans with deep pockets, but why bother.

The audience that comic books, specifically mainstream superhero comic books, should appeal to has never wanted to be talked down to.  Ever. Every kid since the dawn of time has hated people, specifically adults and especially their parents, talking down to them.  This is nothing new under the sun.  To say that Marvel isn't talking down to them and is, instead, being "dangerous" is insipid.  I didn't like Marvel Comics because they were "dangerous" , which they weren't...ever.  I enjoyed them because they had characters I could relate to.  I think that relation is universal and spans space and time...meaning, I don't think what relates to a kid now is really any different than what related to a kid 30 years ago.  Fun characters who you could root for.  How is that any different than any of us?  Were we really clamoring for characters that played against shades of grey?  Characters we didn't know where they stood?  Really?  That sounds like something adults clamor for, not kids. 

Breevort is all double speak and nonsense to justify the mindset of current Marvel.