"You're too old to read comics!"
by Phil

How many of you have heard this phrase? Did it make you stop and wonder if perhaps comics really are a form of entertainment only for the childish or immature? Don't let that bother you. It simply is not true.

What is a comicbook? A comicbook is a way of telling a story both through the written word and through pictures with the intention of entertaining, enlightening, and possibly educating us.

Since superhero comics are the best known, and most popular comicbook type in this country, let us start with them.

Superhero comics are allegorical stories. Take for example: Superman. The first and possibly best known superhero. Superman is the epitome of what we see as the perfect American. The old black and white television show even had the words during the opening sequence "...fighting a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way." Those few words sum up perfectly what Superman is about at face value. Superman fights tyranny and injustice. Ho goes out and saves the innocent and brings the guilty to the authorities. While Superman can go out and do what many of us would like to do every time we watch the evening news and hear of yet another shooting, he is also Everyman. Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, has problems just like you or I. Making ends meet, glasses, body odor, problems with the opposite sex. He fights the same problems you and I do every day.

The temptation to do wrong must have been there, yet he rises above this temptation. He does what I hope we all would do. The right thing. As Stan Lee once wrote, "with great power must also come great responsibility." I doubt that many of us can leap tall buildings in a single bound or catch criminals just like flies, but we all have the responsibility to do what is right. Something that I hope every child looking at a comic for the first time picks up.

Have you ever seen Superman 4: The Quest For Peace? Not a great movie, I grant you, but it illustrates my point perfectly. Since World War II people have had a fear of the atom. In Superman 4, Superman, the personification of all that is good in America, battles and defeats the personification of nuclear power. Symbolically, he defeats it for all of us, and we feel a bit better for having seen that which we fear vanquished.

Does all of this make a comic more mature? In and of itself, no, but compare this to other works of literature. Can you think of any other place where a hero defeats that which society fears? Beowulf, in the story of the same name, defeats the dark. A primal human fear. Jesus Christ defeated death.

The idea that comics are for the immature is something that would anger a great many persons. Carlos Santana, who recently Grammy's for best album, best song, and best artist, was an avid Spider-Man reader in the 80's. Why? He had the same adolescent problems everybody else did.

A man few would call immature, Nicholas Coppola, loved Marvel comics. Oh, I'm sorry, you don't know him? Well, after reading "Luke Cage" he decided to change his name to Nick Cage, known for various movies including "Con Air" and "8 mm."

The list of those who enjoy comics goes on. Leonardo Dicaprio (maybe he isn't helping my case...), Quentin Tarentino, Cameron Diaz, George Lucas, Stephen King. I would be proud to be among their ranks.

Superhero comics often deal with very mature themes. The federal government once asked Marvel Comics to do a few issues of "Amazing Spider-Man" dealing with drug abuse. Marvel obliged, and it became a very well known, often read, piece. After it's success Marvel, among other companies, made comics dealing with such subjects as child abuse, sex education, hunger, AIDS, and cancer.

Next...promoting tolerance in comicbooks.

Further reading:
Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics
The Amazing Spider-Man & Power Pack by Marvel Comics and the National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse
The Amazing Spider-Man and The New Mutants Featuring Skids by Marvel Comics and the National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse
Amazing Spider-Man, Storm, and Power Man by Marvel Comics and the American Cancer Society
Heroes for Hope
Rolling Stone issue 836
Amazing Spider-Man #96-98