« Home | Tom Taylor puts hypocritical words in the Joker's ... » | Canadian retailer sells old pamphlets for just a q... » | Wonder Woman 1984 uses villainous take on Max Lord... » | Chuck Dixon explains why today's writers can't do ... » | Declan Shalvey says nobody knows who Jack Kirby was » | CBLDF tries to rebuild their image after the Brown... » | The experiences of somebody who went to the Warren... » | Disagreeing with Comicsgate is one thing, but usin... » | Some tweets by Mark Russell » | Jim Zub fortunately respects Scarlet Witch » 

Monday, August 24, 2020 

What kind of "fans" of Venom actually want a sequel film to be R-rated?

Here's a sugarcoated piece on Screen Rant about recent efforts to turn the notable supervillain from Spider-Man's world into a more profane one:
In the months leading up to the Venom movies theatrical release in 2018, it seemed no one knew whether fans would get their wish of an R-rated Venom on the big screen. While fans may have been disappointed when the film would release under a PG-13 rating, the film still was a smash at the box office. But, knowing fans are still holding out hope that Venom 2 will see an R rating, the House of Mouse and Marvel comics have finally given Venom an ability to earn that R-rating: a potty mouth.
Gee, what kind of "fans" are we talking about? Because anybody so desperate for crudeness can't possibly be that interested in merit, and profanity alone does not a good comic or movie make. To turn Venom into more R-rated fare for the sake of rawness runs the gauntlet of making fans look...insular.
Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote have been together a long time, but even long-lasting relationships can have surprises, like when the Venom symbiote decides to drop it's first ever cuss word. It is hard to believe the symbiote has never used foul language in the past, especially given its extensive time spent as a murderous villain and pain in the side of Spider-Man. But the symbiote does just that in Venom #27, deeming being transported to another universe's version of Earth ruled by Knull a perfect moment let out his very first profanity.
But it's not so hard to believe the writers assigned to telling stories about the symbiote never made use of raw profanity and vulgarity for over 30 years, or that the editors held back on such ideas. And if the following example is any indication:
They're still not going all the way, as all the asterisks, strudels and ampersands make clear. So why does this dopey film site think it's such a big deal? Obscured raw profanity and vulgarity has long been a common approach since the Bronze Age, even when milder forms of profanity became more accepted and noticeable, and even then, it wasn't all that frequently you'd see the milder forms either.

Come to think of it, the notion Venom and host Brock would acknowledge this as the first profane moment of the symbiote seems awfully forced too. When mainstream comics began using more profanity in the 70s, the writers usually didn't go out of their way to address the moments as though it was the first time, or was such a big deal. Certainly not if they weren't trying to break the fourth wall like She-Hulk's 2nd solo book did during its 1989-94 run. Venom was known at times for sporting a sense of black humor back in the day, and that angle worked well enough, so why these SR columnists think this is a major achievement is bewildering indeed. Mainly because, when you look closer and see no actual F-bombs or S-bombs were typed into the word balloons, you realize it's little different from past examples (i.e-the Punisher) where disguised profanity was put to use either.

And the story merit is bound to be as underwhelming as anything else Marvel's put out of recent.

Labels: , , , ,

About me

  • I'm Avi Green
  • From Jerusalem, Israel
  • I was born in Pennsylvania in 1974, and moved to Israel in 1983. I also enjoyed reading a lot of comics when I was young, the first being Fantastic Four. I maintain a strong belief in the public's right to knowledge and accuracy in facts. I like to think of myself as a conservative-style version of Clark Kent. I don't expect to be perfect at the job, but I do my best.
My profile

Archives

Links

  • avigreen2002@yahoo.com
  • Fansites I Created

  • Hawkfan
  • The Greatest Thing on Earth!
  • The Outer Observatory
  • Earth's Mightiest Heroines
  • The Co-Stars Primer
  • Realtime Website Traffic

    Comic book websites (open menu)

    Comic book weblogs (open menu)

    Writers and Artists (open menu)

    Video commentators (open menu)

    Miscellanous links (open menu)

  • W3 Counter stats
  • Bio Link page
  • blog directory Bloggeries Blog Directory View My Stats Blog Directory & Search engine eXTReMe Tracker Locations of visitors to this page  
    Flag Counter Free Hit Counters
    Free Web Counter

    This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

    make money online blogger templates

Older Posts Newer Posts

The Four Color Media Monitor is powered by Blogspot and Gecko & Fly.
No part of the content or the blog may be reproduced without prior written permission.
Join the Google Adsense program and learn how to make money online.