I'm not usually put off by violence in comics but....

[Lester C.]

I wish comics were like the new 52 back when I began reading in the mid 90s as a teenager. Now I'm just too old for the majority of the books but credit to DC despite all the hate they are kicking ass and taking names eight months later or whatever it is.

[zemo]

I was really aware of the increase in violence after the first month of the new DCU. Not only in titles, like Animal Man, or Wonder Woman, which are intended to be horror like, but across the line. And we're not talking Ennis-type of violence here, where it's so over the top you kind of don't care anymore. Best example was the Joker's face being cut off. And then shown. Sorry, but that's just not necessary. It's writing as a slave to art, which wanted to ahve a cool and graphic picture. And nearly all of the new books suffer under this. It's the artists having taken more than their due, and it's shock and awe arond the hour.

[C.B. Nerdlinger]

I don't think they're any more violent as a whole than they were pre-boot or than Marvel is. They just aren't.

And Grunge is definitely supposed to be Asian. If he doesn't look like it in the new Superboy it doesn't mean he's not anymore.

[Lester C.]

He might not be anymore, this is not the Grunge that was created twenty years ago but a new character.

[Craig C]

My problem with this current incarnation of The Suicide Squad is that the characters feel like cardboard cutouts I realize it's a new universe for DC but could it have hurt them to have read through Ostrander's run at least. Yes it had its share of violence, but it also had character development something I'm not seeing in this one yet yet being the operative word here.

[killingyouguy]

Yeah, I agree. It's odd too, because in a Marvel book, generally speaking, I can see/read a depiction of over the top violence and my response is usually "cool!" - what that says about me, you be the judge. But I'll read a similar scene in a DC book and it just feels wrong/off putting for some reason. I don't know why. I find it impossible to put my finger on.

Exceptions being Batman and Animal Man/Swamp Thing/any Vertigo-esque book. Violence/horror feel at home there.

[Shurato2099]

My problem with this current incarnation of The Suicide Squad is that the characters feel like cardboard cutouts I realize it's a new universe for DC but could it have hurt them to have read through Ostrander's run at least. Yes it had its share of violence, but it also had character development something I'm not seeing in this one yet yet being the operative word here.

I have that issue with a lot of what I'm seeing in the DCnU: lots of characters hastily 'adapted' that just feel flat.

[Craig C]

I have that issue with a lot of what I'm seeing in the DCnU: lots of characters hastily 'adapted' that just feel flat.

Yeah one of the few that I did see that had a bit of character development in the DCnU has been Batwing as for the rest well this sum's it up for me

[Shurato2099]

Yeah. At not even six months in we're seeing character development subjugated to crossover mini-events. For instance, I want to like the Titans book (for old time's sake if nothing else) but the only people with any personality are Bart and Bunker.

[RobStaeger]

I figure violence (or disturbing horror) are part of the Dark & Edge books' raison d'etre, so they pretty much get a pass from me for violence. I might not buy many of them, but if people's heads get blown off in Suicide Squad, well, it's not like "suicide" isn't in the title. And Ostrander surely did it better*, but that's more a matter of quality than violence. Back when Ostrander blew Slipknot's hand off, that was pretty much right on the edge.

*Actually, I'm just assuming this from other people's comments, and the occasional flip-through. I haven't read the new Suicide Squad, so take my opinions of it with a grain of salt. It might be better than I think... or worse, I guess, but I don't think that highly of it already.

And some other violence, for instance, just doesn't strike me as all that violent. The one instance I'm thinking of is Static losing his arm at the end of his first issue. Yes, his arm was cut off -- but electrical energy was leaking out, instead of blood. That's the superhero equivalent of Daffy Duck getting shot in the face and the force of the blast pushing his beak to the top of his head. It's quasi-violence, not real, and it produces more excitement than revulsion. (Although not enough excitement to get me to buy issue 2, sad to say.)

But certainly, there's a high level of violence in the new 52. I saw a picture of Catwoman biting someone's ear off. That was gross. But then again, didn't someone get drilled to death by Black Mask in Catwoman several years before the reboot? It doesn't seem like extreme violence is a new thing for Catwoman. (I don't know the details; I didn't read Catwoman then, and don't now.)

For the most part, I'm pretty happy with the violence level in the books I'm actually reading. (Although I did wince at Starfire incinerating a couple of thugs in the most recent Red Hood & the Outlaws, even though they were holding the children's ward of a hospital hostage.) But for the most part, I think the violence fits the stories being told.