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

[Corrina]

I think the violence difference is like between
Hitchcock and Saw. New DCU is big BIG on blood splatters and the like.

[Slewo.O]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned that scene from Batman #8, where a Talon pushes a woman in a wheelchair off a building. Those Talons don't discriminate!

[Guy H]

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.

I'd agree. Some is the same sour grapes as the 8 months. Some is probably correct but in some cases with one of the groups being labeled dark it shouldn't be a surprise.

[Slewo.O]

I'd agree. Some is the same sour grapes as the 8 months. Some is probably correct but in some cases with one of the groups being labeled dark it shouldn't be a surprise.

"Whaddya mean a book named Resurrection Man has the main character dying often!?"

[Chris Jones]

I like Golden Age style violence, when the heroes would just kill and maim people in really creative ways and be super psyched the whole time. Rip a dude's arms off and be like "now you know the error of your ways!" I think if superhero violence were more like that I could get behind it, if there was a more ironclad moral resolve that was fueling it.

[Kingsmythe]

I like Golden Age style violence, when the heroes would just kill and maim people in really creative ways and be super psyched the whole time. Rip a dude's arms off and be like "now you know the error of your ways!" I think if superhero violence were more like that I could get behind it, if there was a more ironclad moral resolve that was fueling it.

Which completley would NOT work in the modern world. Can you say "lawsuit"? Every hero with any sort of even vaguely official connection would get hit with cease and desist orders if they operated like the ones in the Golden Age. Can you imagine the JLA having the Watchtower seized to cover court costs and judgements?

[Chris Jones]

Which completley would NOT work in the modern world. Can you say "lawsuit"? Every hero with any sort of even vaguely official connection would get hit with cease and desist orders if they operated like the ones in the Golden Age. Can you imagine the JLA having the Watchtower seized to cover court costs and judgements?

But are the actions really that different than what's going on now? That's my point. I think as long as superheroes are going to kill the shit out of people they can at least have a little confidence in their violence.

[EmarAndZeb]

I like Golden Age style violence, when the heroes would just kill and maim people in really creative ways and be super psyched the whole time. Rip a dude's arms off and be like "now you know the error of your ways!" I think if superhero violence were more like that I could get behind it, if there was a more ironclad moral resolve that was fueling it.

The hard part would be getting that stuff written nowadays with the same level of earnestness on the part of the writers. You practically have to look for "outsider artist"-types to pull that off unironically these days. Which I would be down for, incidentally.

[Corrina]

It's sort of like the deaths in Crisis on Infinite Earths--Supergirl & Flash--which were sad and tragic and more than a little scary versus the deaths in the various Infinite Crisis tie-ins. Like Pantha's bouncing head or Prime ripping off arms or in Flashpoint with Plas exploding out of someone.

When one starts counting how many kids are killed in the percentage of new DC comics and how many of those deaths featured on-screen bloody, gory ones (Firestorm, Demon Knights) it may make sense for a particular story but the totality of it is....that it loses any impact and it becomes...oo...what's the headcount now? And it's not so much Resurrection Man dying as, oh look, a whole planeload of people including (of course!) a baby! yay!

It's really one-note. At least, it became so to me. And that's not the way it was before.

[Slewo.O]

So context doesn't count at all? Perhaps instead of the invading army in Demon Knights killing people they should just push people down instead.

I understand where you're coming from when it's a book like Firestorm. But really, a book with subject matter like Demon Knights and RM should probably get a pass given where it's structured.