Gore Watch! 07/04/07

So what am I up to?


The horror!

I swear, my campaign continues to gain steam. Every week, the blood-splashed pages of your favourite superhero titles get fewer and further between. More and more we see the likes of Batman rescuing cats from trees, while Spider-Man and Superman shake hands and deliver lectures on fire safety to the Boy Scouts of America. It's a good time to be alive, and I'm proud to have delivered it to you.

Now I can read my adult material, secure in the knowledge that children no longer have the luxury of being exposed to material that I had to wait to adulthood for! Oh, and are growing up to be of good moral fibre of course.

Anyway, this week's slim pickings...

52 #48

Previous bastion of blood 52 nears it's end with, once again, a surprisingly violence-lite issue. All I can come up with is this:


Which, when compared against some of the shit that's gone on in this title before, seems positively restrained. Of course, I'm not sure what could be read into the fact that Batgirl and the new female Question, who were previously (and will be again by the look) LESBIAN LOVERS, have STABBED IN THE BACK the leader of a MAJOR ORGANISED RELIGION. Or maybe people can read anything from anything.

NIGHTWING #131

Nightwing beats a lot of people with sticks, knees and fists. Hence Nightwing is often full of that most innocuous of bloody panels, the "Blood Flying From The Mouth" shot. It's a nice way to get a visceral effect, kinda disregarding just what that might imply. Oh, and this issue he also bloodlessly knocks someone's tooth out. But the king hit this issue has to be KNEE TO KNIFE!


Nice one Dick! Not sure where he's going with that internal monologue though.

AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #1

I can actually recommend this as a pretty good read. Dan Slott, generally plying his trade on lighter titles, does a slightly darker teen team book here, and it works so far. And even the gore below (well, one of them) actually serves an important purpose. But first...the old "healer" cheat:


That, y'see, is Komodo: a woman who stole Curt Conners' Lizard formula. So she can (and next panel does) grow that arm back. However, as explained before, a severed arm is a severed arm. She wouldn't be saying "OWWW" if it wasn't.

(Personally, I'd have a little more to say than that if some fucker blew my arm off in a training exercise...)

And then, in the same disastrous exercise, Michael - who throughout the issue is set up to be the all-around good guy, and friend to the slightly shy and awkward Abby - gets some of this:



(That's the shy and awkward Abby, by the by).

Now, all gore aside, this death actually serves a purpose. One of my big problems with the gore and grue on show these days is that it really is for no reason other than a money shot. Pure violence porn. But, beyond actually being a genuine surprise to the reader when it happens, this death has impact: it gives our remaining protagonists a shock to their jaded teen know-it-all core, will doubtless have major implications for Abby, and also brings to light, through their callous treatment of the ZLACK attack, that this new Initiative organisation is not all sweetness and righteousness. And that, my friends, is good writing. A good first issue, and well worth your money.

And finally...

ALL NEW ATOM #10

Another good comic, and a desperate attempt by me to find something worth mentioning this week!


Okay, okay, so they're zombies. Does violence against zombies really count? It's a bit more ambiguous than violence against healers. They're already dead! But then, in my defence, LOOK AT ALL THE BLOOD!

I must admit though...if I were going to pick a comic up for my kid, this cover would probably tell me all I needed to know.


That's gotta suck.