Quasi-psuedo- official Atop the Fourth Wall thread

Viga's youtube channel was deleted by Youtube for False Advertising and Spam. Or so Youtube claims.

Sad to hear.

There is a new Batman comic that shows Batman's... junk.

Can't wait to see Linkara ripping into that one.

Here is an article on the comic, and the comic in question is Batman: Damned No. 1.

Edited by Redmess on Sep 22nd 2018 at 12:13:37 PM

Linkara indicated on Twitter that the dick wasn't enough of a reason to review that comic.

I am a bit baffled that these comic creators think "mature" constitutes showing Batman walking around naked. That seems pretty I Mmature to me, honestly.

And really, do adults really feel a need to see Batman's junk?

Interestingly, the panel actually got CENSORED in newer issues, apparently because it didn't add to the story. So much for being more "mature".

It got removed because men complaining.

Of course, when it is a MAN getting sexualized in a comic...

Bare genitalia is still a no-no in the Big Two.

The whole thing is a publicity stunt. The way it's drawn, I'm pretty certain that the penis was added in later, to get some cheap publicity and turn the first editions into collector's items

The Vox article mentions Watchmen as a notable exception.

Nikolai Dante also had a couple of visible penises, but never generated too much controversy since attention wasn't especially drawn to them and they made sense in the context of the scenes.

Man, Yanks really freak out over penises. It's just a penis, in a comic that doesn't even pretend it's not aimed at adults.

4xIf I was DC I would say we heard what you want no nudity so were cutting the full front nude scene with Wonder Women,Cat Women and Power Girl just to troll them.

I'm not really freaked out, I just don't think pandering to "mature" audiences with nudity in stories that don't really do anything with it is not a good way to create "adult" comics.

And that's not even going into whether or not that is what adult fans actually want. I would rather have a good story than nudity or excessive violence or swearing.

Oh I get that. I wasn't saying you specifically were freaking out about this penis, I was making an observation about how Americans in general tend to react to things like this. I agree this does look like a publicity stunt.

The whole thing feels rather...90ish in what it thinks constitutes maturity.

Yeah - they're okay with women getting sexualized.

"Guys are supposed to yearn and girls are supposed to be yearned for". That is I think the mentality. When it's switched, and girls yearn for a hot, muscular guy, we get very offended nerds who then pretend to care about male objectification if only to stop this from happening.

Having seen the panels in question, I can definitively say that any amount of outrage at Batman's bat-penis is too much.

For starters, the book in question is a "mature readers" title: nobody 16-and-under is supposed to be reading it in the first place, so it's pretty pathetic for anybody out of middle-school to consider a penis "shocking" in this context.

Secondly, we don't even really get a good look at his penis anyway - it's more of a silhouette of his penis than anything (a bit of light is reflecting off of it, but again, we should all be adults here). Frankly, it's the kind of thing that if I hadn't been notified about it beforehand, i probably would have just brushed past it without even noticing.

And finally: as others have already said, Batman is not being sexualized in the scene in question. If anything, the layout of the shot seems to be trying to hide his member as opposed to showing it off. Compared to the way that clothed female characters are usually portrayed in superhero comics, this is less than nothing.

tldr: Nerds be trippin.

PS: All this talk of penis an not a single "Joker's boner" joke? For shame...

My point was more that this is a rather immature way of pandering to a mature audience. It also smacks of desperation to be recognized as a "mature" medium, employing shallow means like nudity or swearing to be able to pass for "adult" comics, instead of having a complex, engaging story.

So how is the story of this new comic? Is it any more "mature" than its non-nudity predecessors? Or is that dick pic really the only thing going for it as far as mature content goes?

All this talk about the Batpole reminds me of a similar controversy a few years ago regarding Spider-Man: Reign. The first issue featured a panel where you could see Peter's crotch in full display (don't worry, the image is censored in the link). That issue was also recalled and reprinted so now the hero's genitals were obscured in shadow.

And yet, that's only the second most memorable thing Spider-Man: Reign did with Peter Parker's crotch◊ (again, link is mostly SFW). Now there's a comic Linkara should cover on the show.

And maybe you shouldn't speak to soon about a comic you haven't read.

As for the story, it's a psychological thriller. Batman has finally killed the Joker, but it is clear that the event has left him shaken and potentially traumatized; as it progresses, the people around him notice that he is starting to become more unhinged, and Batman (as of the first issue) is trying to convince himself that there is nothing wrong with him, even though what appears to be a specter of the Joker is appearing before him. It's drawn and co-written by the guy who drew Batman:Noel.

As for the scene in question, all it is is Batman returning to the cave after doing the deed. He strips down, dropping each piece of his suit onto the floor of the Batcave as if in a daze, then, fully nude, his face hidden in shadow, stumbling aimlessly into the darkness of the cave.

Perhaps my description gives it more gravitas than needed, but eh, it's what the comic did, and the symbolism and framing are pretty easy to spot stuff.

Its the classic double standard

Male nudity is something to be avoided at all costs!

That's why I'm asking. I'm not saying it is one way or the other.

Maybe, but the fact that they retracted it as soon as there was criticism shows that it was little more than a publicity stunt. If they really felt that this nudity was okay, they should have stuck with it.

I don't know, maybe it is fine, who knows? If you really want to see the Bat Pole THAT badly, you are free to, I guess.

Edited by Redmess on Sep 24th 2018 at 2:24:41 PM

Sounds a bit like Batman: Arkham Knight.

It sounds like something that could be good if handled right, but is also in danger of landing squarely in the overly dark and edgy camp.

While we're talking about things that might interest Linkara, Rob Liefeld's back to working at Marvel.

Star Trektember comes to a close with the Enterprise fighting a bunch of plants.

The October reviews are going kick off with a return to Silent Hill.

Plot-wise, Linksano did in fact create the clone. He helped Linkara create the Spoony clone, but wiped his memory afterwards so he attempt to take over the world with an army of clones. He became impatient and moved on to other things, leaving the Linkara clone as the only survivor of his tests. It's an interesting plot development, and I hope it develops Linksano's character more significantly. He's definitely changed a lot as a person since his first appearance all those years ago. It'd be interesting to see if he was regrets or remorse over what he's done prior to his Face–Heel Turn.