Brava, senora. I couldn't agree more. I'm the parent and I decide what my should and shouldn't know, and how that information is imparted.

It's a sure-fire way to cut off some of your readership. I'm a single mum and my kid's more well adjusted than most of the two-parent families. There's no way in hell I'd let my son read something like that.

When I see rhetoric about what kind of families are "right" for kids to grow up in, I twitch like a twitchy thing, because I feel strongly about it both personally and as part of my politics.

But if Dixon's got a different view, fine. I just don't see how him spouting his opinion gets a free pass when he attacks Judd Winick for the same thing.

Many years ago, when he only came up to Bruce's elbow, Dick stood before the cowled angel and made a solemn vow. Bruce administered the oath and Dick, who was blinking so hard his vision blurred, responded in a high, piping voice.

Thus did he commit himself to the eternal mission.

Some years later, when he was growing gangly and his voice had started to crack at the most *embarrassing* times, Dick found himself taking another vow. Again from Bruce, given not before the grave but below the Waynes' wedding portrait, he did not cry this time. He swallowed hard, forced himself to *stop* looking at the broad tilt of Bruce's shoulders and the flexible angles of his mouth, and repeated the oath.

Thus did he commit himself to a young adulthood of chastity, purity and integrity.

But now, when he's crouched just out of the rain on a parapet opposite the Gotham Municipal Complex, as he explains earnestly and carefully the situation to Babs, it all sounds...

"Really stupid!" Babs pushes back her cowl, shakes the raindrops off her face in sudden silver spray, and kisses him.

Kisses him *hard* and Dick's body responds well before his mind catches up. She's soft in the front, hard all over underneath that, and her lips taste like black-cherry pop.

Bruce'll understand, he promises himself. He *has* to.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE :D :D :D

I shall have my firstborn shipped to you as soon as I get around to having one.

Poor Dick. *giggles at his earnest little earnestness*

I love Mary for thinking of this, and you for following through. Immensely.

Oh, Dick. Baby.

Glossing, Petra and I are duelling for your favour as I type.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA YAYES.Bruce, you crazy FREAK.

Oh, DICK, my dear baby boy. Oh, Babs. *ahahahahahaha*

*smushes them together despite Dick's vow*

(The *details* in all of that break me. How it's so clearly Dick thinking, not Generic Superhero #42.)

*boggles*

Now I wonder what crazy stuff I'll find if I go and flip through my backissues.

Well, you certainly won't find a billionaire kidnapping a street kid and keeping him bound and gagged in a secret room under his house oh wait

homosexuality, heterosexuality, or sexually transmitted diseases

*blink blink blink*
I will give him points for including heterosexuality... and then deduct them again, because no children yet born into this society needed to be informed that heterosxuality exists.

the medium’s primary escapist, mass appeal genre.

Yeah. Get back to writing the rape and murder and naked wimmin. You know, fantasy.

Somebody please please please write the story of Bruce taking young Dick to a Purity Ball. PLEASE. I will give you my firstborn child, which will doubtlessly be born out of wedlock!

I'm not planning offspring, but I'll add virtual baked goods to that offer.

Imaginary cookies an an as-yet unconceived child! This is the best gift basket ever!

Maggie Sawyer, in Superman, was obviously being portrayed as a lesbian. But there was a level of deniability because she wasn’t always being shown in romantic clinches with her girlfriend...I much prefer this kind of characterization over Northstar’s “I’M GAY!”
Yes, because then you can ignore that it exists. And Northstar's coming out was a response to the AIDS crisis in the hopes that he could draw some attention to HIV prevention, not over some orientation equality thing.

Hypocrites and the self-righteous are so funny. ::pokes at the funny little dickhead::

Yes. Gay people are fine, so long as they don't do it in the street and frighten the horses! Why can't they all be *nice* and keep their icky, icky choices to themselves?

I especially love the part where he says he's open-minded enough to write a left-wing gay character because he can write Batman as not liking guns. Chuck, your Batman is fucking crazy, and you seem intent on making Midnighter fucking crazy too -- a 'sociopath', no less. Good job!

Chuck Dixon, who used Robin as an after-school special about teen pregnancy and had Dick wake up in Babs' bed, said this?! How can people be such hypocrites and not burst into flames?

And oh, my God, why is depicting normal human diversity seen as such a huge awful act of militancy by some people? Argh rage Ruby SMASH!

*breathes*
*hugs you*

*hugs you back*

I feel awful that I haven't been in contact properly with you lately, since I think we could both use a bud. Must be some evil cosmic alignment. I bet it's caused by letting non-straight, non-white people with their 'liberal rage' in comics! Lol!

Right, because comics are an appropriate forum to have people being decapitated and torn in half in full detail, but not to tell kids about homosexuality, no not at all!

ugh. suuure you did. *pats him on the head*

because it deserved to grow up with a mother and a father, not be raised by a young single mom?

That pissed me off so much. My mom raised me and my brother on her own. Sure, dad was around from time to time but, all he did was fuck up our lives and I will always believe all three of us would've been better of if he wasn't around at all. I hate hate hate it when people start preaching about how a child needs a mother and a father and any other way is omg so wrong and the kid's life will be ruined. AUGH!

I, uh, have some strong feeling about this? Yeah.

I'm not even commenting on anything else, because that kind of logic tends to break my brain if I think about it too much.

He's icky!!

I guess it's okay for kids to learn about drug use, rape and murder in comics, just not gross pre-marital sex and gayness. That makes all kinds of sense that's not.

Oh Chuck Dixon.

When I created my own original teen superhero with unmarried-but-still-living-together parents (with a househusband dad and breadwinner mom, no less!), I didn't do it to annoy the crap out of him. Nor was I trying to piss him off when I created said teen superhero's best friend/sidekick, who is the very functional child of two daddies.

But you know what? Knowing that it would bug the hell out of him only makes me more happy with my characters.

...I need a Sekrit Virgin icon for Dick now.

(Obligatory "My momma raised me by her lonesome and I turned out awesome"-related indignation. Seriously, Chuck, shut up.)

Oh, and Connor Hawke is TOTALLY STRAIGHT and there is nothing at all erotic about two women in low-cut wetsuits clasping one another to their bosoms. Really for true!

....

I've given up counting how many of my buttons that pushes. Because it's okay to be gay, as long as nobody knows, and only a nuclear family can raise a child right But horrifically graphic rape and violence is unquestionably fine subject matter for kids to read.

If my parents hadn't divorced, there's no way I'd have the life I have now. I certainly wouldn't have been encouraged to university in the first place, let alone continue on to a master's degree.

I'd also like to take a moment to point at the most emotionally-balanced child (arguably, one of the most well-balanced people) in comics is Lian Harper, who could only have a worse background in Mr Dixon's eyes if Roy finally went and kissed Dick on panel.

Winick's issue writing does get to me, and I've bitched about him writing his issues, rather than the characters before. Gay Bashing, homophobia and child slavery are bad? HIV+ people are still people? ORLY? Never would have realised without his incredibly subtle and thought-provoking storylines. But the answer is not now or ever to swing to the opposite end of the scale, and never mention homosexuality, or child abuse, or any of the countless other real life issues. Or to be a hypocritical little snot.

Also: I suspect it's been a while since the last census of comic book readers, but I'll put money on the fact that the sub-13 readership of mainstream comic books is tiny in comparison to just about every other segment of the comic-reading population.

Ick, you can tell that was written under the influence of 3am and cold medicine. There's far more rage there than the situation deserves.

But I still feel strongly that asking homosexual people never display their sexuality in public is a homophobic act. Not as strongly a homophobic act as physical violence, or blatant hate speech, but a homophobic act nontheless. Saying that Maggie Sawyer was an acceptable gay character, because she was never overtly a lesbian, and you could ignore that aspect of her life, is just not right. And as most everyone else has said, you cannot say you hate issue-driven storylines, when you've written the biggest issue storyline ever to appear in Robin, (to the best of my knowledge) where you pushed your own agenda.

I generally like Dixon's writing - Connor Hawke is on my pull list, and it's a fun, if very shallow, read. I appreciate that he can usually keep his issues out of his work. But I won't be picking up this mini.

Nobody tell the kiddies, but there are straight people out there. Until they're thirteen, we tell them they're matched up like that, two to a house, as part of vast, grown-up, chess league.

Bwahahahahahahahaha!

I didn't see any of the pregnancy storyline as all that preachy. It seemed in-character for them to discuss options, and it was downright subtle compared to the typical issue comics (I remember one story about incestuous anal rape, which is apparently such an issue that it needs a comic about it, in which the lead character literally broke the fourth wall and quoted statistics to the audience). Asking for no "issue" comics when the majority of issue comics consist of stuff like John Walsh joins the Outsiders, X gets raped or was raped or might be raped at some time in the future, Batman fights Al Qaeda, or any of the oh-so-relevant malarkey going on in Civil War... doesn't seem that far out there in left field.

And then some of your commenters talk about what a "hypocrite" Chuck is for not wanting to write about homosexuality or heterosexuality (I think it's clear from the context that he's talking about the kind of thing you'd cover in sex ed) in comics when rape and graphic violence is okay... I don't think he writes those either. In fact, I recall that one of the selling points he himself used for Birds of Prey was that it wouldn't just be T&A, but would actually be about the characters. And now the same book is lauded as one of the most feminist on the market.

And isn't Steph deciding for herself to give the child up for adoption and not following Tim's reasoning proof of non-soapyboxness (soap operaness, maybe)? And isn't that storyline not so much "single mothers suck!" as "teen pregnancy sucks!" That's the way I interpreted it, at least.

Somebody please please please write the story of Bruce taking young Dick to a Purity Ball. PLEASE. I will give you my firstborn child, which will doubtlessly be born out of wedlock!

:|

Uncool.

:|

Uncool.

Why? I've made it clear in the past that I find purity balls a totally noxious concept, and my understanding of the character of Dick Grayson has been that he's a very physically affectionate and expressive man. It seems absurd to me to suggest that someone like him would be saving himself for marriage, so I expressed it in the most absurd terms I could think of.

If you're referring to the 'out of wedlock' aspects of what I said, well, okay. Think that saying that was uncool if you like. I stand by it, and the snark therein.

Asking for no "issue" comics when the majority of issue comics consist of stuff like ... doesn't seem that far out there in left field.

Except that he was referring specifically to issues of sexuality -- something he doesn't shy away from discussing from his own soapbox when it suits him. That's hypocrisy.

Chuck, Chuck, Chuck... you're like Orson Scott Card, with less talent, and slightly less ability to work me frothing mad.

Sigh.

Eh - I quite like Chuck Dixon as a writer. But I quite like Winick's Green Arrow run even while I have to facepalm as he clumsily pushes his issues into his writing.

But - keeping sexuality OUT of the comics? Let me quote some of my LJ entries. Here's one where I assemble, in my mind, a bunch of possible DC Porverse writers. First on the list?
Chuck Dixon - The guy created Double Dare (tell me he wasn't thinking of this when he did) the twin female acrobatic thieves with a crush on Nightwing. (http://mildredmilton.livejournal.com/4901.html)

And here we go one better:
you know how I wrote that entry about The Pornverse, and suggested that Chuck Dixon be the guy who does the fun het entries? In Robin #91, Dixon shows me a disturbing slashy side that I looooooove. . . . In practice, it's a big shirtless guy with pierced nipples, and a tattoo on his chest of a snake biting one of said nipples, advancing on Robin in a setting that may very well be copied from one of those sixties harem movies, saying things like, 'Don't worry little one, I want to enjoy this. I won't finish you all at once.' Or, 'Is that fear, boy? Is that fear that I see?' Snerk! Oh, that is slashy and satisfying. (http://mildredmilton.livejournal.com/20875.html)

Dude writes slash. Dude writes it well. Dude just doesn't know it yet.

Sorry to add links, mary, but I thought it was so hilarious that he's genteely homophobic - I'm fine with straight people having public relationships but gay people doing the same is WRONG. - when he dishes out the best slash in Robin-dom.
-mildredmilton

Hey, Mildred, you should log in!
And I'm not Mary, but I think links are just what we need.

Also, to whoever it may concern, while everyone else was bashing him, I went to Chuck Dixon's message board and asked him upfront.

Chuck, you say "I’ve never backed away from my disdain for agenda-driven comics in what should be the medium’s primary escapist, mass appeal genre. Stand on your soap box all day long. But don’t stand on the shoulders of household-name icons. Write the characters in character and don’t write your world-view through them."

But yet, you wrote a Robin storyline in which Stephanie Brown coped with teen pregnancy that some would call preachy (I'm thinking specifically of a scene where Tim Drake urged her to give up her child for adoption).

How do you reconcile that? (Post.)

I didn't see Tim as being preachy. I saw him as being practical and caring. Stephanie had already rejected abortion as an option (mostly as a hormone-driven reaction to being "told what to do."). She reacted the same way to the adoption lawyer she went to. Her decision to keep the baby was strictly emotional and not thought-out. All of this was in keeping with what happens to teen moms and how they wind up making a bad choice worse. A lot of girls don't have anyone who cares enough about them to talk sense to them.
But this was a comic book and superhero comics are about heroes. So Steph had a caring, strong friend who was willing to confront her with the truth.
It worked dramatically for the characters and I think made for a very compelling sub-plot. It is also, sadly, a very real issue for boys and girls of the age that I was writing for on the book.
My editos at DC and I talked a long time before introducing this subplot. I was reluctant to introduce what was an "issue" to the book but felt that ignoring this too-common occurence in teenagers' lives would be a mistake. I would only do it if it were presented as a part of the story and NOT marketed as a cautionary or message tale. I didn't want any Seduction of the Gun treatment. The guys at DC agreed. (Post).)

And, as he's challenged, his argument quickly breaks down into a hypocritical, homophobic double standard, as pointed out here.

Sex on-panel in superhero comics in the aid of heterosexuality is fine, other sexualities aren't.

This man is writing a six-issue Midnighter mini.

Mid. Night. Er.

Aside from the obvious fact that anyone who chooses to write for a Wildstorm title abdicates any right to talk about his dedication to comics what are good for the children ...

MIDNIGHTER! BIG GAY SUPERHERO WITH BIG GAY WEDDING RING (well, we never see a ring but we assume) AND A UNIQUE ANGER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. Oh, Chuck.

(I'm here from ... somewhere, by the way. I woke up and this tab was open, so probably I wandered in sometime before work yesterday, and work then ate any memory I had of the outside world.)

http://tramadol-sqllt.blogspot.com/
Dont forget!