Potty Mouth Heroes - some raiting inside.

thalaw2 · February 23, 2008, 01:28:19 AM

[rant]I don't know if anyone has raised this before, but here goes. I just received some issues of World War Hulk...as a huge Hulk fan I couldn't wait to jump in and start reading some of the latest adventures of ol' Jade Jaws. I haven't read a new comic in nearly 2 years and I was shocked and appalled at the language used now. It seemed every other line had some "#$@%" marks to indicate the character was cursing. It just really interrupted my rhythm.

In the good old days it was rare to see cursing and when it appeared it was even entertaining, but to see it all the time just really turns me off. I'm almost disgusted to the point of vomiting. Can't writers find more creative ways of saying these things anymore? I'm not worried about this corrupting the youth. The lack of creativity is what bothers me. How can they pay some one to write dialogue where every other sentence seems has some explicative in it? I'm sick of the bluntness of the "hip-hop" era and hope it passes soon. I'm really considering writing a letter of complaint to Marvel about this trend even though I'm sure it will fall on deaf ears.

I don't care that they claim to be imitating life. "THEY DO NOT!!! WHAT DO YOU THINK I SAY WHEN I GO TO THE STORE? HEY WALLY, GET ME SOME OF THAT EFFING PIG FEED AND SOME OF THAT [explicative removed]LY COW CORN! AND WHEN I GO TO THE BANK? YEAH, SUE- HERE'S ONE BIG BASTARD OF A CHECK, GIVE ME SOME OF YOUR [explicative removed] MONEY." - Annie: Misery (movie 1990) How can that be a claim in a book that's about a Gamma irradiated Green skinned monster who came back to Earth to kick some tail? [/rant]

I'm not good at rants...but i do feel relief.

steamteck · February 23, 2008, 10:00:02 AM

You're completely on target ( or maybe we just underestimate how low-class , low-brow, styless sort of people they're supposed to be representing. :wacko:)

Talavar · February 23, 2008, 11:06:06 AM

Quote from: thalaw2 on February 23, 2008, 01:28:19 AM
I don't care that they claim to be imitating life. "THEY DO NOT!!! WHAT DO YOU THINK I SAY WHEN I GO TO THE STORE? HEY WALLY, GET ME SOME OF THAT EFFING PIG FEED AND SOME OF THAT [explicative removed]LY COW CORN! AND WHEN I GO TO THE BANK? YEAH, SUE- HERE'S ONE BIG BASTARD OF A CHECK, GIVE ME SOME OF YOUR [explicative removed] MONEY." - Annie: Misery (movie 1990) How can that be a claim in a book that's about a Gamma irradiated Green skinned monster who came back to Earth to kick some tail? [/rant]

But there are people who do talk like that. I know people to whom 'F-ing' has replaced the word 'very.' Whether that is bad or not isn't something I want to debate, but this is meant to be imitating life, despite being about a green-skinned super-powered monster. It's not realism, but verisimilitude: despite the fantastic elements people should act like people. If a character yelled, "Gosh darn it, the Hulk's destroying Manhattan!" I for one would be seriously jarred out of the story. I mean, kids in elementary school use stronger language than that these days to discuss day to day living. In any sort of heightened situation with violence, destruction and the potential loss of life, I'd expect the swears to fly like lightning.

the_ultimate_evil · February 23, 2008, 12:25:05 PM

and this will do nothing but fall into another argument of my generations comics are better that goes no where

i do feel it can have its place if it helps to enhance the story or the character but like most things if done just for the sake of doing its not worth doing

Zippo · February 23, 2008, 02:40:37 PM

Not saying I condone it, but IF some giant green thing was destroying your city, costing millions of dollars in property damage and a possibly very high body count, I think even the most reserved people could be caught uttering a &%#$ or two.

zuludelta · February 23, 2008, 02:54:41 PM

Quote from: Talavar on February 23, 2008, 11:06:06 AMI know people to whom 'F-ing' has replaced the word 'very.'

Ha ha... a former classmate/co-worker of mine secretly recorded a conversation we had one day and played it back for me... I never realized I swore so much in everyday conversation (I guess that's where I got the sometime sobriquet "F-in' Zed"... always thought my friends gave it to me as some obscure Pulp Fiction reference)... my groupmates in an advanced post-grad seminar class I took actually used a swear-jar with me the last couple of weeks leading up to a public debate we were involved in to "train" me not to swear so much :lol:.

GhostMachine · February 23, 2008, 03:18:32 PM

Someone pointed out that during JMS' run on Spider-Man, Peter cursed more than he had in all his previous comic book appearances....period, not just in his own titles....combined. Another reason I'm glad I avoided most of JMS' run like the plague.

Personally, I think foul language is overused, period. In movies, comics, tv, real life, etc. I even had an idea for a one-shot comic that would be done to show its overuse to the point of parody that would feature a hero called by a name I can't post here (hint: its one of Samuel L. Jackson's favorite curse words - just replace the er in the first part of the word and at the end of the word with the letter a and add "Man" after it) who only speaks in curse words - using symbols instead of the real words, of course - and in the comic no one even blinks when he does so.

thalaw2 · February 23, 2008, 06:30:32 PM

Quote from: Zippo on February 23, 2008, 02:40:37 PM
Not saying I condone it, but IF some giant green thing was destroying your city, costing millions of dollars in property damage and a possibly very high body count, I think even the most reserved people could be caught uttering a &%#$ or two.

I agree and that can be done tactfully. Having swearing every other line is just asinine. Does a character need to say "What the @!#$" more than once about the same situation? Comics and movies are different mediums. In a movie I would probably not notice it so much (I enjoyed Pulp Fiction), but while reading I find it disruptive to the pace of the story. The caliber of writing in these issues is not on par with QT.

Gremlin · February 23, 2008, 09:38:43 PM

Quote from: GhostMachine on February 23, 2008, 03:18:32 PMI even had an idea for a one-shot comic that would be done to show its overuse to the point of parody that would feature a hero called by a name I can't post here (hint: its one of Samuel L. Jackson's favorite curse words - just replace the er in the first part of the word and at the end of the word with the letter a and add "Man" after it) who only speaks in curse words - using symbols instead of the real words, of course - and in the comic no one even blinks when he does so.

HA! That's amazing.