Being "Unshockable"

CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS

I picked up the Unfunnies # 2 the other day. Mark Millar (http://www.millarworld.biz/) is one of the better writers in the industry today with his work on The Ultimates, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four for Marvel Comics and Wanted, Run, Chosen and The Unfunnies for Top Cow, Image, Dark Horse and Avatar Comics.

He recently became the highest selling independent writer in the last few years, and is currently working on at least two Superhero movie scripts.

The whole point to this is that The Unfunnies is a comic book with Disney type animated characters, but done in a most certainly not Disney manner. Dealing with the issue of child abuse slightly, and the situations that the wife of a convicted Child Porn user has to face. While many of the things she finds herself in are somewhat funny, they are intended to exaggerate a painful situation and how she deals with them.

Using decidedly smutty and stupid jokes, Millar attempts to make fun of the very serious problem of Child Molestation in our society. Using shock value jokes for effect instead of purpose is not what I would have expected from Mark Millar. In his previous works he has not restrained himself, but has explored many aspects of Comicdom and it's icons that some would have rather he left alone, but always succeeded in making the reader a part of that world.

Here, he has so far ignored the actual problem of child rape, going instead for humor about prostitution, prison rape and murder.

The second issue is more of the same thing, only now we get to witness the murder of a character who by all evidence of identification is only a child. We see that 'Chickie Chick Chick' is going around town cursing people, being rude to them, insulting them all to the obvious displeasure of many of the older characters.

Once we understand what is happening, it makes sense. However this does not deviate from what goes on to happen.

Now, I have spoken to a number of people about The Unfunnies and none of them agree with me that the book is not a Comic Book about animals. It is a horror story using characters you might have found in a Warner Brothers cartoon.

But, the question that I am going to ask now has more to do with a quote on the back of the book. From Rich Johnston, at http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg

Rich says "People say that America is unshockable now. That all the taboos have been broken. That after 9/11 nothing can make a real impact."

Why have we become a society that lives each day looking for something to shock us? Has reality gotten so banal that we have to strive to find things that actually do bother us in either a good or bad way? The Unfunnies is shocking, but is that what we really need?

Whatever happened to the days when a book was read for pleasure, or simply to be enjoyed? Not as something to make us sick to our stomach, or take our breath away or make us gag. And I tend to think that is what is going on in the Comic industry today.

Once, Comics were actually for kids. Then long about the time that Frank Miller did Dark Knight Returns, everyone jumped on the "Comics are not just for kids" wagon and now it seems to be turning into "Comics, not for kids anymore".

Our search will lead both writer and reader into a deeper and deeper ocean of the ‘Need to be shocked’. Now that Millar has set a bar, dozens if not hundreds of other writers, some with little or talent other then the ability to draw or write something that will pander to the most base elements are going to start showing up on the Comic rack.

Our ability to be shocked is going to become harder and harder to satisfy, constantly looking for that next feeling of repulsion, mortification or disgust under the guise of being entertained. And it is not just in the Comic industry.

The recent film ‘Eurotrip’ is an example of shock cinema reaching for a new and more extreme level. 30 years ago this film would have had all adults in it, people in their 30’s and even 40’s. Then to make it more shocking in the 1980’s it would have featured actors and characters in their late 20’s or early 30’s. The 1990’s had them heading out in their late teens or early 20’s.

“Eurotrip” featured a group of mid-teenagers, all just recent graduates of high school, involved in drugs, getting drunk and getting laid.

This summer, a film debuts with an 19 year old prostitute (here called a porn star) who becomes involved with a boy of seventeen and they fall in love.

How old will the next group be? 15? 12? 10?

Yes kids are aware of sex. We shove it in their face every hour of the day. They know about, and they are doing it. Is this a good thing?.

They are warned all the time of the dangers of unwanted pregnancy, unprotected sex and told to grow up and to act like an adult. And that is part of the problem, too many adults don’t know how to act like an adult.

We force them to grow up without giving them the chance to live and mature. I know kids today who have no problem with having sex at 11 and 12 years old. Their excuse? “Everyone else is doing it.”

Remember when you used that excuse on your parents? What was it then? Going to a party, watching a movie or a TV show that they didn’t want you to see? Was it wearing a certain type of clothing?

Today it is getting drunk and getting laid. I know parents who will buy kegs for their teenagers party. Is that acting like an adult?

I know that kids are becoming more aware of the world around them. The problem is, they are becoming aware of it in a negative manner. I know dozens of kids who refuse to watch a black and white movie because you “can’t see the blood”.

“How much more can we take? How much can we see, can we hear, can we do?”

These are questions that are asked every day in the creative mind. But, instead of coming up with an answer that might actually help people to mature, to give them something to work with in their lives, something of use or value in society we reach for the groin or mind-numbing gross out.

And entertainment can be useful tools to help people grow, to mature. It can help kids (and even some adults) to become useful. Where does Mark Millar think he got his ability to write Ultimates? Where did Chris Claremont get his ability, Stephen King, Alan Moore, Brian Bendis or any of the hundreds of truly gifted and talented people in the industry today?

From the entertainment of yesterday. From Science Fiction that was not porn hidden in a space ship. From Comic books that reached for the heart and not the groin. From movies that told a story, and not just shoved something mindless at you every twelve minutes.

So, why are we trying to destroy that which came before, just to create something ‘new’. Isn’t there a way to keep something honest and pure even in ‘reality’?

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed “Eurotrip”. But I can still come home and pop in an Abbot and Costello film and have a great time. I like modern suspense and thriller films, but watching Humphrey Bogart in “The Maltese Falcon” or “Casablanca” is still fun and gives me hours of entertainment without numbing my mind. I can enjoy a modern slasher film and still watch Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster terrorize a screen, or Lon Chaney as the Wolfman still sends a chill up my spine. And I have probably seen a lot more gore, a lot more blood and seen a lot more murder done on screen than many of you. But I want to keep that sense of magic, of mystery.

I understand a desire for realism in books. I want that when I read something. But, along with that realism I would love to see some sort of return to honor, dignity. In the name of ‘realism’ we have sold our innocence. In the name of ‘realism’ we have abandoned our morality. In the name of ‘realism’ we are destroying our future.

I would love to see the Good Guy win a battle with the bad guy and have him slither off into the wood pile.

Now, we have a Superman who is running from the President; Batman is paranoid about everyone, Hal Jordan is a murderer (seeking redemption). We have women and men in Comics with no moral attitudes except doing what feels good for them, and when a hero tries to be different and show some sense of stability or morality, a segment of the readership gets all angry that he isn't 'Flawed'.

I think we are afraid of characters that are too 'Good'. We fear that we can't live up to the ideal we have created.

Guess what? We can't. That is why it is called Fiction. Because It Isn't Real. It is make-believe, a fantasy. The 20th Century model of a Fairy Tale.

Do Comics have to be the same way they were in the Silver Age to be good? No, and they don't have to be so dang 'Real' all the time either.

Let's go back to some real Heroes for a while. Lets let Batman and Superman be good guys again. Let the Lone Ranger ride and the Green Hornet sting. Bring back Doc Savage and Captain America. And yeah, bring back Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the Road Runner.

Give kids a chance to see what Heroes were actually like. Bring back people who had standards and ideals, morals and beliefs.

We don't have to live in a rose colored world. But that is no reason to jump into a cesspool.