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And who do we blame for that?

When the All New All Different X-Men were launched, there was an immediate negative response to Wolverine from the readers. The letters indicated they wanted him to LEAVE, so the Beast could come back.

Just a few years later, when we introduced Kitty Pryde, there was again a negative response, but this time the letter writers wanted her KILLED.

Milestone's array of characters is no different than any other. If written well, they're interesting. If not, then they're not. DC is making no effort with them, regardless. Blaming the characters does no good.

The audience for comics today is definitely showing up and paying for the overall increased level of violence. That so much of it is directed at women is not surprising, given how few are seen as the central character in any book. Torturing supporting characters or loved ones of the main character is familiar territory for writers of violent fiction, and making those victims female ups the emotional, and therefore the visceral, ante considerably.

Even when sticking to merely "soap operatic" or "super-heroic" conventions like losing super-powers and getting amnesia, falling victim to mental possession or being turned into mind-controlled puppets, the victims are most often women because it hurts the main character more (therefore hitting the audience harder, presumably) and costs the writer very little. If we kill the girlfriend Linda Laidback, replacing her six months later with Rita Relaxed, everything's hunky dory. No loss, no foul.

Plus, the potential for off-camera (or even on-camera) perversity is maximized. What did happen to Jennifer Jones all those months she under the Purple Man's spell? Or Stature when the Puppet Master had her? Or Dr. Psycho's victims? Or the Mad Hatter's? None of these villains target men is the same fashion that they target women, because frankly that wouldn't have the same illicit thrill for most readers. If that upsets feminists, well, okay. Feminists are clearly NOT the target audience when the writer hauls out Grimsbor and Charma one more time, or decides that Phillip Masters has a kinky fetish for women in gladitorial games.

The degree to which comics now seek literary validation with edgy, violent content and display their willingness to serve the needs of that audience at the expense of long-running characters has become truly frightening. It was intensely depressing seeing Dinah Lance strung up, bloodied, and mutilated by a serial killer, but hey, now everyone takes Green Arrow SERIOUSLY, right? To keep that interest level high, more women were strung up, tortured, and killed over the course of Grell's run on that series. After awhile, you begin to wonder if Ollie's actually any good at saving people...

And what works for Ollie works for other super-heroes. So Katma Tui, now playing the role of John Stewart's girlfriend, gets hacked to pieces on-panel. Supporting characters like long-time crazy Jean Loring and sympathetic, funny Sue Dibney get aced in a single mini-series. One gets Possessed by the Villain (tm.) The other, raped and killed. While Pregnant! Hey, no one ever got taken SERIOUSLY by being subtle, right? After a call to the brass to ensure that a headlining character wasn't being taken out of the game, Barbara Gordon was shot, crippled, and sexually assaulted. Only afterwards, are we then allowed to take her SERIOUSLY. Bring in Warren Ellis. And Garth Ennis. And Mark Millar. And all the other Superstars of TorturePorn. Cue up the Ultimates and Marvel Zombies. Those we don't verbally abuse, beat, spray with pesticide, torture and kill, we'll eat!

Ah, life is good when your medium of choice finally acheives literary maturity...! If doing so makes us misogynists, well... Fiction is general is pretty misogynistic, right? Society itself, too. We were kid stuff for a long time. Now we're just, y'know... Catching up...