My wife had NEVER read a comic book before Sandman and Preacher......Philistine. She liked The Death books too.

Maybe it's time for that adaptation of the Book of Matthew I have been threatening to do for so many years now!

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I was pretty young back then and that one went right over my head.

All of this nonsense stems from our society giving weight to every idiot who screams " I'm Offended " no matter how stupid the so called offence.

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(Edited to distinguish quote from response - JB)

Edited by JohnByrne2 on 01 February 2011 at 10:57am

I don't find the Swamp Thing idea offensive personally but I can see why DC'd have deemed it a commercial risk and I think the creators involved should've been mature enough to accept the decision. DC was footing the bill for it so it was the company's choice to make.

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You're forgetting the inevitable pendulum effect. During the Seventies, when everything was wild and crazy and nothing seemed to offend anybody -- or, at least, anybody of consequence -- I expressed my concern that the pattern of history would assert itself, and we would swing to the opposite extreme. My spider-sense tingled the first time I heard the term "political correctness".

50 or 60 years from now, we'll probably have swung thru another period of complete abandon, and be heading BACK into one of repression!

 I miss the days of a good offensive Richard Pryor or Redd Foxx album. It was funny because it was offensive. I was a kid so I did not always understand what they were talking about, but it sure was funny.

Thanks for the edit JB. My bad.

• It was the habit in the Office to refer to CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE FALCON as "Captain America and the Fowl Coon".

• Black Goliath was frequently referred to as "The Big Nig".

• One writer expressed his desire to do a Black Goliath story titled "The Jig is Up".

• Another wanted to put the credit names on furniture on the opening splash of an issue he scripted, so the name of a Jewish member of the team could be lettered on a lampshade.

• And, of course, the various examples of "fuck", "shit", and other such words worked into backgrounds are infamous.

And if there was anyone who didn't think these were "funny", they sure didn't say anything about it at the time!*

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* Altho in the PC world in which we live today, there are plenty of people now all to eager to talk about how "difficult" it was to work at Marvel in those days. Retroactive offense?

Mel Gibson's The Passion impressed me in the following way: I realized that the abuse the Christ endured -- the scourging scene was very grraphic and culminated in ribs showing through the flesh -- placed him in a superheroic position.

Assuming he had full "God abilities" at this disposal, he could have placed himself out of harm's way. He had the power but chose not to use it. Somehow, my exposure to scripture had failed to fully make me understand this point; seeing it graphically like that, brought about a stunning understanding.

It hit the same note that is struck when The Batman choses not to use deadly force on his opponents.

However, I don't think Christ could be a superhero with ongoing tales because it's a case of "I came, I saw, I conquered -- the end." The power of his passage would be diminished by sequel appearances. At best, you could do untold tales.

Makes me think of Adam Warlock under Jim Starlin. The 1977 Avengers Annual was probably one of the most thrilling comicbooks I<ve ever read because it lived up to it's premise of Warlock being with Warlock at the end. And it was intended to be and END. Further appearances of Warlock just serve to dilute the impact of what I consider the finale to the story.

The other thing is that, as depicted in the Bible, Christ only uses his powers ocassionally or not a all: mostly he talks. Not very interesting for fans expecting action.