As I've mentioned before, this class has really opened my eyes, and forced me to notice things that I never would have paid attention to before. Like Byron Hurt, I'm trying to take a step back at times and take a hard and critical look at some of my comic books to see if they are really fair and appropriate.
I started thinking about one of my favorite DC books - "Identity Crisis". It's written by Brad Meltzer, who was already an acclaimed novelist before he made the jump to comic books for awhile. The story revolves around Ralph Dibny and the rape and murder of his wife Sue. Ralph's alter ego is the Elongated Man, and his friends in the Justice League track down the murderer - Dr. Light. They make the controversial decision to erase his mind of the event and to wipe away what happened. A lot of the book centers around this, but there is also a lot of attention paid to Ralph coming to terms with his wife's rape and death.
Meltzer makes us genuinely care about the characters and it's a really moving read. There were a couple different moments in the book where I had tears in my eyes.
Despite all this, I have to ask myself:
Is Sue Dibny just another Woman in a Refrigerator?
I don't want to think so, but it really makes me wonder.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Paradigm Crisis
Posted by David at 9:48 AM
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4 comments:
IC could have been a great story IMO, but I just couldn't get over the treatment of Sue Dibny.
Sure comics can feature rape however IMO such a graphic depiction of the act was unnecessary and disrespectful to a character who had such a long history in comics.
True that sir. I get that Meltzer wasn't pulling any punches, and really wanted the event to resonate, but it was a little too much at times. Ironically though, what really hit me was the death of Tim Drake's father. That was written and drawn so well that I had tears in my eyes the first time I read it.
Yes, that death was done really well.
I also really liked the scene in the where Ralph Dibny breaks down crying and his body is literally melting away.
That part hit me hard as well. I liked all of the scenes were he would still talk to Sue, even though she wasn't really there.
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