The Gutters
A poster on the Dear DC post pointed me to webcomic The Gutters where I’ve been comic-ed. I’m so tickled by this, even though it was clear the poster (who is not the artist) hadn’t read my post. I actually think the artist made a good point. An opinion is just an opinion. The only thing I’m truly disappointed with is DC’s response, which equated to “We don’t care you aren’t the customer we want” (and that’s what I think the comic was saying).
Let me explain why this is disappointing. Regulars here know I used to work for Borders. Their biggest problem was that booksellers tried to tell the company how to reach customers and the company routinely ignored them. Instead, the company came up with a number of schemes, including regional managers who routinely yelled at and threatened managers in their desperation. Managers meanwhile punished people who couldn’t get the failing customer base to buy the $20 loyalty card (to a business trading penny stocks who had been posting record losses for two years) at 50 or more people a day.
Borders didn’t want to meet the customers on their own terms, to meet the needs of the customers as they are. They wanted to force customers back into the mid 90s heydays. They wanted to force customers to buy whatever crap was on the shelves, not put stuff on the shelves that customers wanted. This is not a business model that can survive these days.
This is exactly what I feel DC is doing. They say they’re trying to improve their customer base, but they can’t if they aren’t willing to meet who their customers really are. It’s a business model that ends with good people getting laid off from a job they love because the uppers just can’t be bothered to listen.
So yeah, a little personal and a little disappointing.
But I also wanted to note, when it comes to the argument that my daughter shouldn’t have been reading a teen comic in the first place, DC defines “T” as 12 & up. According to state testing my daughter is reading at a 11-12 yr old level. Furthermore her teacher, her librarian and her dad and I feel she’s at a maturity level to read materials at a preteen level as well. She reads lots of other books aimed for 9-14 yr olds (she’s on a Goosebumps kick as of late, which is rated for 9-12 yr olds). Think the point here isn’t that I shouldn’t be letting my daughter read a “T” rated comics, but DC needs to rate comics with blatant violence, psychotic characters and clear adult content higher than for 12 yr olds.
Anyway, the comic tickles me. DC not listening irritates me and the world moves on.
I think (and this is definitely open to debate/modification, but off the top of my head…) that ratings should be determined by what’s alright for the potential audience to actually DO.
Would these comics creators/big-wigs/rating people be alright with their 12-year old having sex, wearing Starfire’s wardrobe or seeing someone’s brains blown out the back of their head (or doing it)? Then the comic shouldn’t be rated for kids that young.
Parents could then determine, based on their own assessment of their child’s maturity, whether to pick that mature-rated comic from the shelf and buy it for their child.
Not that it’ll save them from piss-poor storytelling. While I’m sure most mature readers wouldn’t have a problem with a scantily-clad Starfire engaged in activities that fit the character and add to the storyline, they’d still have to do better than the comic you displayed samples of in your article.
That’s a very good point, except that when is it ever okay to murder people like in many horror books?
The two big complaints I’ve heard is “You shouldn’t be letting your kid read T comics”–but she didn’t she just looked at parts of it.
The second is that Starfire was always promiscuous and scantily clad. Yeah, we know that. We don’t have a problem with the clothes, or sex because polyamory is fine. And really, I don’t even have a problem with Starfire becoming an anti-hero because I like anti-hero stories. But the girl’s a fan and she’s not happy with Starfire as an anti-hero when there are already so many out there (Batman touches on it, Punisher too–and she has seen the Punisher movie– and her other favorites Robin and Raven have some pretty dark bits.)
She’s not unfamiliar with the darker storytelling or the more adult Starfire. Which I thought made her disapproval of the new Starfire that much more significant.
As to your question… the military is one possible answer, as is self-defense. Now, there are obvious political modifications to this, but generally speaking, people tend to support their adult children serving in the military, which obviously puts them in a position where they might have to kill. However, anyone who’s okay with their twelve year old joining the military…well, that’s probably the least of their issues.
The answer for your daughter is to find her some better comics. The answer for DC…well, they need to do something, because as sophisticated as your daughter might be, the book’s intended audience *should* be even MORE discerning, and I can’t see that shit flying for long.