The Social Relevance of Comic Books in Western Society
Created | Updated Apr 13, 2014
In this postmodern age, where we have few role models, blurred guidelines, and an ever-quickening errosion of morality, there aren't many places to turn for stories filled with self-sacrifice, high standards, and life lessons, especially in the secular realm. Comic books are one of our last sources of heroes and values.
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Of course, like any form of popular culture, comic books have to keep up with the times and adapt. No longer are they just pop fantasy collections of good versus evil retold a hundred ways over. In the past three decades, three distinct classifications of comic books have come to surface.
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<b>Art over Content</b>
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Some of them have lost any relevance or respectability whatsoever, reducing themselves to glorified collections of violent and sex-drenched posters. (Not that there is anything necessarily wrong with that... It's just that too much candy and potato chips isn't a very healthy diet, and too much sex and violence can turn the stomach after a while as well). These artist and creator driven comics bypass many of the benefits of a good editor and glorify art over story. They tend to make incredible amounts of money when they are hot, but have a hard time maintaining an audience, since most of us grow out of being adolescent boys.
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<b>The Avant-Garde Comic</b>
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In direct contrast to this trend of glamorization, there has been another undercurrent in comics for the past thirty years, one towards increased social consciousness and the willingness to tackle tough issues. This is particular evident in the counterculture comic books that are aimed at specific cliques and niches of society. Some of these are just as trashy as the art over story titles, but many of them are incredibly original and highly-sophisticated. Some of the best modern writers and social commentators are comic books writers, particularly people like Neil Gaimen, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, and Alan Moore to name a few. However, just as you cannot make a meal solely of soulless violence and sex, too much gravity and sophistication will weigh you down quickly as well. These titles are best consumed in moderation as well.
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<b>Mainstream Comic Books</b>
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The third and most common classification of comic books would be the mainstream titles. These are mostly the heroes and villians we all know... Batman and Joker; Superman and Lex Luthor; Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, etc. However, these are the comics that have the most impact on our society, and best reflect our values as Westerners. They all yearn for the same things... power over hopelessness, self-reliance, vindication through self-sacrifice, taking a stand for what you believe in, etc. They all reflect the hopes and desires that are the foundation of the Western world... societies built upon an idea, a philosophy, an abstract goal. We may be the most advanced and prosperous era in history, but that may be due to the fact that we are living a collective life based on a dream, an ideal, namely freedom, equality, and liberty. And no collection of work better reflects this ideal in response to the current pulse and opinions of the citizens of the West than the mainstream comic book.
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Comic books have become our mythology, constantly rewritten and updated, a metaphysical mirror held up to our societal norms every month. If you want to learn about the dreams and values of your average citizen, read a year's worth of Spider-Man comics, or any other mainstream title for that matter. You will see characters trying to grow, trying to maintain relationships, trying to do what is right in a highly fractured and competitive (and often violent society) which is an exaggeration of our own. Like most of the characters, we also have two identities, two faces, one we show society in order to survive, and one we reserve for those we trust, our true self, our alter ego.
<BR/><BR/>
<b>Comics as a Moral Guideline</b>
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In the past three decades, mainsteam comics have approached every social issue you can think of in an evenhanded, openminded manner. This first started with Stan Lee writing about the dangers of hallucinogenic drugs in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man and Dennis O'Neil tackling racism in the pages of Green Lantern/Green Arrow in the Seventies, continued with Frank Miller's view of the superhero as a fasist in Batman: Return of the Dark Knight in the Eighties, and reappears today in the Nineties and beyond with Peter David discussing AIDS in the pages of the Incredible Hulk.
<BR/><BR/>
If you think of comic books as just funny, corny books aimed at fourteen year old males, then with the exception of the first category of art over content comic books, you are thirty years behind the time and missing out on a powerful indication of the moral and ethical compass of Western Society.
<BR/><BR/>
Of course, like any form of popular culture, comic books have to keep up with the times and adapt. No longer are they just pop fantasy collections of good versus evil retold a hundred ways over. In the past three decades, three distinct classifications of comic books have come to surface.
<BR/><BR/>
<b>Art over Content</b>
<BR/><BR/>
Some of them have lost any relevance or respectability whatsoever, reducing themselves to glorified collections of violent and sex-drenched posters. (Not that there is anything necessarily wrong with that... It's just that too much candy and potato chips isn't a very healthy diet, and too much sex and violence can turn the stomach after a while as well). These artist and creator driven comics bypass many of the benefits of a good editor and glorify art over story. They tend to make incredible amounts of money when they are hot, but have a hard time maintaining an audience, since most of us grow out of being adolescent boys.
<BR/><BR/>
<b>The Avant-Garde Comic</b>
<BR/><BR/>
In direct contrast to this trend of glamorization, there has been another undercurrent in comics for the past thirty years, one towards increased social consciousness and the willingness to tackle tough issues. This is particular evident in the counterculture comic books that are aimed at specific cliques and niches of society. Some of these are just as trashy as the art over story titles, but many of them are incredibly original and highly-sophisticated. Some of the best modern writers and social commentators are comic books writers, particularly people like Neil Gaimen, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, and Alan Moore to name a few. However, just as you cannot make a meal solely of soulless violence and sex, too much gravity and sophistication will weigh you down quickly as well. These titles are best consumed in moderation as well.
<BR/><BR/>
<b>Mainstream Comic Books</b>
<BR/><BR/>
The third and most common classification of comic books would be the mainstream titles. These are mostly the heroes and villians we all know... Batman and Joker; Superman and Lex Luthor; Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, etc. However, these are the comics that have the most impact on our society, and best reflect our values as Westerners. They all yearn for the same things... power over hopelessness, self-reliance, vindication through self-sacrifice, taking a stand for what you believe in, etc. They all reflect the hopes and desires that are the foundation of the Western world... societies built upon an idea, a philosophy, an abstract goal. We may be the most advanced and prosperous era in history, but that may be due to the fact that we are living a collective life based on a dream, an ideal, namely freedom, equality, and liberty. And no collection of work better reflects this ideal in response to the current pulse and opinions of the citizens of the West than the mainstream comic book.
<BR/><BR/>
Comic books have become our mythology, constantly rewritten and updated, a metaphysical mirror held up to our societal norms every month. If you want to learn about the dreams and values of your average citizen, read a year's worth of Spider-Man comics, or any other mainstream title for that matter. You will see characters trying to grow, trying to maintain relationships, trying to do what is right in a highly fractured and competitive (and often violent society) which is an exaggeration of our own. Like most of the characters, we also have two identities, two faces, one we show society in order to survive, and one we reserve for those we trust, our true self, our alter ego.
<BR/><BR/>
<b>Comics as a Moral Guideline</b>
<BR/><BR/>
In the past three decades, mainsteam comics have approached every social issue you can think of in an evenhanded, openminded manner. This first started with Stan Lee writing about the dangers of hallucinogenic drugs in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man and Dennis O'Neil tackling racism in the pages of Green Lantern/Green Arrow in the Seventies, continued with Frank Miller's view of the superhero as a fasist in Batman: Return of the Dark Knight in the Eighties, and reappears today in the Nineties and beyond with Peter David discussing AIDS in the pages of the Incredible Hulk.
<BR/><BR/>
If you think of comic books as just funny, corny books aimed at fourteen year old males, then with the exception of the first category of art over content comic books, you are thirty years behind the time and missing out on a powerful indication of the moral and ethical compass of Western Society.
