Frank Quitely colored that piece.

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I was sure someone else did the coloring.

I'm comprehending what you're writing, Chad. I just don't understand why you dwell on sexual gratification when it comes to the comics you read. Maybe you can enlighten me. Why do you think of getting a hard on when it comes to a ten year old Robin? What are you seeing in that picture that sexually excites you?

No, Eric, you're not comprehending. Here's what I said. Watch closely now:

"It's flat-out creepy to have 10 and 12 year old kids as superheroes nowadays. Especially considering who is reading the superheroes, and the very prevalent moron mentality that questions Batman's sexuality and motives with his "ward." Adults aren't reading Batman and "Robin" to get in touch with being a kid again. Why would a badass 10 year old give these people such a rod? What is "Robin" to them?"

So, Eric, am I calling myself a moron? Am I questioning my own feelings toward Frank Quietly's Batman, or Batman and Robin in general? 

Obviously "adults" refers back to "who is reading" with the implied "the superheroes" referring to Quietly's work and the work of the rest of his gang of tw*ts.

I'm not remotely questioning myself on this topic. The fans want to slaver over this Quietly freakshow, that's their problem, but I'm pointing out how irksome it is to be reminded (via critics and fanboys) of what a Special Artist Quietly is, simply because Morrison proclaims it and the clowns follow on their squeaking tricycles. With a little perspective, anyone can see the loss of the dynamic fundamentals of comic book art over the last decade and more. Frank Quietly becomes a kind of poster boy for this because, well, he's the "hot" guy and he's the one on the biggest books. He's a renowned target.

Reading COMPREHENSION. Learn about it, Eric. Trust in it to see you through, sir.

Eh.  I don't find it creepy in the least to have 10 and 12 year old characters starring in mainstream superhero books even if the majority of the audience for these books is over 20.  There's nothing creepy about it unless you figure that such characters will always "give these people such a rod" as an adult.  An odd thing to think, that, given the numbers of adult readers of kid and tween lit like HARRY POTTER and the TWILIGHT series.  What, do all adults get a "rod" when they read about the adventures of Harry Potter? 

I don't think you can or should stop publishing characters that are of a certain age only to stop that small segment of the reading audience from questioning their sexual motives.  I do, however, think it says something about a person when they assume that a character like Robin couldn't possibly have any interest to an adult outside of the sexual.

If adults are reading Batman and Robin, and ignoring the baggage associated with the relationship between the characters as is often joked about by the people I'm talking about (not every adult, certainly), then there's an issue. The joke refers to sexuality, but the reality-based approach to comics by the Adults Creating Them tells me I have to think about adult ramifications of a ten year old boy fighting crime. Because I don't see an idealized Robin, I see a reality-based Robin according to Quietly and his ilk. And I have to wonder about the motives behind a reality-based Robin, how irresponsible it is for a superhero to have a sidekick, how stupid it is for Batman to allow a ten year old in the middle of a full-for-all in Gotham.

You give me the idealized "youth" of Johnny Stom or the old Robin, then you're showing me a "fantasy" I can suspend disbelief by. This horsesh*t with an adultified ten year old is twisted without that suspension.

I don't think it is at all.  Certainly not every pre-teen and teen character throughout the history of comic books has been idealized.  Some have been, absolutely, but others have tragic pasts.  One need only look to the original Robin, whose parents were murdered in front of him, to see that. 

I get the feeling that you haven't read much, if at all, of anything to do with this new Robin, Chad.  Not really sure how you can say he's an "adultified ten year old" without reading it and only going by a cover that you think makes him look older.  Yes, Damion is 10.  Yes, he was trained by the League of Assassins because his mother is Talia.  But he's also a petulant ten year old, like most his age, who thinks he's adult but is decidedly not.  He's not in Batman's league where fighting is concerned because he's not adult enough yet to be so.  He's got a lot to learn and in that respect this relationship is similar, in a teacher/student dynamic, to the one between the original Batman and Robin. 

Hey, if you can't suspend your disbelief, I'm not going to ask you to do so.  But I think it's a weird question at best, and at worst saying a lot more about you than it does of the people you're questioning, when you can't see that just because you can't suspend your disbelief, that must mean any other adult who is reading the book, myself included, must not be reading it because they enjoy seeing that dynamic, but that it must have something to do with some perverse sexual feeling or questioning of motives between the two lead characters.