Stock up on the brain bleach
Jul. 15th, 2010 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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scans_dailySo, um. Here's a thing.
As near as I can figure, this is from what started out as a magazine called Rampaging Hulk, later shortened to The Hulk!, that Marvel published in the late Seventies. This particular selection is from a story called "A Very Personal Hell," from issue #23, published in 1980, and was written by Jim Shooter and drawn by John Buscema and Alfredo Alcala.
In it, Bruce is on the run following a botched attempt to steal some information that might give him a clue how to reverse his transformations into the Hulk. He checks into a YMCA to spend the night, and, uh...
Perhaps a word of explanation here. This was right around the time of the smash success of the Incredible Hulk TV series, the whole reason for the Rampaging Hulk magazine's existence in the first place, as Marvel tried to use the series' popularity to capture an upscale market. In that vein, then-editor Shooter apparently decided the magazine would be a good showcase for more "grim-n-gritty" storytelling; less Silver Surfer, more Starsky and Hutch. In that vein, he decided to make his first story for the magazine especially hard-hitting and realistic.
So. Bruce at the Y.
It caused quite a commotion at the time: Comic Book Resources reports that the story "lit comics fans on fire...It was all over The Comics Journal for months." Shooter's reported reaction? "If I offended rapists, I'm GLAD." Yeah. Another one for the "no lessons were learned" file.
As near as I can figure, this is from what started out as a magazine called Rampaging Hulk, later shortened to The Hulk!, that Marvel published in the late Seventies. This particular selection is from a story called "A Very Personal Hell," from issue #23, published in 1980, and was written by Jim Shooter and drawn by John Buscema and Alfredo Alcala.
In it, Bruce is on the run following a botched attempt to steal some information that might give him a clue how to reverse his transformations into the Hulk. He checks into a YMCA to spend the night, and, uh...
Perhaps a word of explanation here. This was right around the time of the smash success of the Incredible Hulk TV series, the whole reason for the Rampaging Hulk magazine's existence in the first place, as Marvel tried to use the series' popularity to capture an upscale market. In that vein, then-editor Shooter apparently decided the magazine would be a good showcase for more "grim-n-gritty" storytelling; less Silver Surfer, more Starsky and Hutch. In that vein, he decided to make his first story for the magazine especially hard-hitting and realistic.
So. Bruce at the Y.
It caused quite a commotion at the time: Comic Book Resources reports that the story "lit comics fans on fire...It was all over The Comics Journal for months." Shooter's reported reaction? "If I offended rapists, I'm GLAD." Yeah. Another one for the "no lessons were learned" file.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-16 07:10 pm (UTC)Because when that negative portrayal isn't balanced by positive portrayals, the negative portrayal is presented as the norm, implying that minorities never do anything good.
As people have already pointed out, this comic was published at a time when homophobia was much more common and gays were much more discriminated against than they are now (that's not to say that there is no homophobia and that gays aren't discriminated against now, but at the time it was much worse).
In that context, the comic doesn't show two rapists who happen to be gay, it shows two men who are rapists because they are gay. That's pretty damn offensive.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-17 02:00 am (UTC)