Thursday, March 11, 2010

Is It Just Children?

Over at the 4th Letter, David Brothers quotes Tucker Stone on the differing approaches to violence against children in two comics from last week, one from DC (Cry for Justice #7) and one from Marvel (Ultimate Comics Avengers #5). Now, I didn't even pause in UCA #5 when I read it and the Red Skull tossed a baby out of the window. He's a bad guy. That's what bad guys do. But, as I asked in the comments section of David's post: are people just offended by the killing of the baby? After all, prior to that, a man is killed with a pair of old scissors, which, I have to believe, is much worse than being tossed out a window. If the man's death doesn't bother people, why does the baby's? It's far less painful and graphic... if anything, it adds a slightly comic touch to the scene with the baby seemingly safe and then, aw what the fuck, the Red Skull just tosses it out the window. Tim and I touched on this a bit in the podcast this week, but, really, is it just that killing kids is 'wrong' or what?