The Four Color Media Monitor

The Windsor Star interviewed artist David Finch, who's illustrating Batman: The Dark Knight, which - at least according to them - is not going to be as violent as some of the other stories with the Masked Manhunter. One of the things he says here, curiously enough, is that:

"We tend not to have any nudity in comics, but violence can get pretty out of hand at times and violence is an essential part of what comic books are," Finch said from his LaSalle home.

In fairness, he's cited a very puzzling problem that's been prevalent for many years - no nudity allowed (and maybe not even sex), but violence is sanctioned almost all the time. This double-standard has even affected the use of profanity: if memory serves, some of Marvel's most violent stories from the late 80s censored profanity, including some stories in the Punisher, yet the violence remained pretty raw. Why indeed do they have so much of a problem with 2 out of 3 in the mainstream titles, while the 1 continues to get steady protection no matter how far it goes?

And surprising as it is to learn that the artist who was behind some of the most violent stuff in the Ultimate line is now drawing a story where it's toned down, Batman really isn't the place that needs it the most. Rather, I'd say it's any comic written by Brian Bendis and Geoff Johns where the viewpoint was meant to be at least halfway to bright and optimistic, like Avengers and Green Lantern. Toning down the mayhem in the Caped Crusader's books is too easy.

Labels: Batman, dc comics, violence