New Joe Fridays: WEEK 100!

[Frico]

Sorry, Spec :

http://www.newsarama.com/NewJoeFridays/JoeFridays100.html

 

[Specter313]

Gah, I kept going to the main page but the darn article wasn't showing up. Dagnabit!

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

I like the tentacle rape.

What I like even more is JQ blatantly stating he doesn't even understand.


For someone who makes his life out of picture/text, not reading manga is one thing, blatantly knowing absolutely nothing about it, is another.

He reminds me of a totally sleazy guy who denies he masteurbates.

 

[Specter313]

I like the tentacle rape.

What I like even more is JQ blatantly stating he doesn't even understand.


For someone who makes his life out of picture/text, not reading manga is one thing, blatantly knowing absolutely nothing about it, is another.

He reminds me of a totally sleazy guy who denies he masteurbates.

You just made my mind go to Joe Q *********ing. Damn you to hell, Frenchie.

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

The only thing I liked about the entire thing is that he actually had a good quote from Theodore Roosevelt.

 

[GNR]

Geez,you ppl are so goddamn negative.

Loved the MarvelTV segment.I got quite a chuckle out of certain parts and I love how JQ is trying new things and finding new ways of interacting with fans.Good stuff.

And holy **** he lost weight.

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

Geez,you ppl are so goddamn negative.

Loved the MarvelTV segment.I got quite a chuckle out of certain parts and I love how JQ is trying new things and finding new ways of interacting with fans.Good stuff.

And holy **** he lost weight.

Welcome to the Hype. t:

 

[yenaled]

God I would have been so much better if Gravity had just become a new Captian Marvel instead of resurrecting Mar-Vel.

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

I actually like Gravity being his own guy. Or else we'll have everybody and their brother having a vs. fight between him and a green lantern, silver surfer, whoerever.

That, and I'm sure the whole Captain Marvel thing will go away soon enough.

Gravity as a cosmic person? Nah. He's interesting enough to keep around.

 

[Dread]

Glad to see Joe Q's getting healthy and losing weight, but he still didn't lose his ignorance. The thing that amazes me is that, well, he is doing well for Marvel and Marvel has been doing very well with his leadership. As iloveclones would say, it isn't a fluke. There have been relaunches, and even good events (ANNIHILATION) and some good ideas under his watch. That is what makes his blatent blunders, misconceptions and mishandlings mind-boggling.

That said, on the down side, sometimes I’m dumbfounded by the causes taken up on the boards by some readers. It boggles my mind that people want to support cigarette smoking in comics or in any shape or form. There are times that I just feel like folks just want to argue and rally behind something just for the sake of doing it. More than anything, that’s the one thing that has stood out in my mind over the last couple of years. It kind of makes me sad. It’s folks arguing about a particular trait of character that solely exists in the imaginations of our writers, artists and readers vs. the health of actual, flesh and blood, living people.

But this has always been the most confusing thing to me about a vocal minority within fandom. If they’re not happy with a creator, and editor, whomever, they will have no compunction with respect to calling them all sorts of sordid names, cursing their lineage and insulting them as if they were some two dimensional, mustache twisting villain in a comic book. Yet, they come to the defense of a character as if that character were a living breathing person with actual feelings, a real family and a real life to lead. I doubt I will ever be able to explain it, and maybe it’s not for me to do so, but it does bear some introspective thinking from the folks that feel that that’s appropriate behavior.

Just one man’s opinion….

Joe Q believes the opposition to his smoking ban is because fanboys just want to hate on him for any ol' reason. While that is indeed true of many, that is not the point. The main point of criticism is that, bluntly and simply, his "ban on smoking because it is bad for kids" seems to be bullocks when his comics and merchandise have no qualms about gorey violence or sexual images. Hollywood is doing the same thing, and it is still stupid there. A film can have decapitations, swearing, and even crude sexual humor, and be rated PG-13. One bare nipple, R. And now, apparently, one cigerette close-up, R. It makes little sense.

Quite frankly, I would rather kids see smoking than see gore. I actually am not so hard-arsed on sexual images because we're bipolar about sex in America anyway (always display it, joke about it, use it to sell stuff, but want a serious discussion on it, and everyone blushes, like a pimp who is suddenly embarassed when his mother brings up her romances).

No, people find the smoking issue silly because it seems hypocritical. Especially since, well, smoking is a legal activity, while violence is not. It may not be healthy, or encouraged, but it is legal. Where does it end? Drinking causes more crimes than smoking, how about we ban scenes in bars or drinks in character's hands? Censorship is a slippery slope, and even our Founding Fathers knew that. Having no qualms about violence or superheroes-as-softcore-porn-actresses-in-poses yet getting righteous about smoking just doesn't gell well. America's morality is out of wack, and this is simply part of the problem.

It's not always just about people disliking you, Mr. Q.

: Not really. When fans saw the statue was exactly the same time I was made aware of it, I have no involvement in that stuff and haven’t kept up with the brouhaha. It kind of floors me in a way because Adam Hughes is brilliant and is known for his amazingly sexy portrayal of strong women, so I’m not quite sure what people are up in arms about? Seriously, fill me in because I’ve literally been out of town and out of the loop.

This is another example. MJ is bent over, in full "doggy style" pose, revealing a THONG and shoving he **** out barely enough to cover the nipples (Nippes are R!), and washing the costume. Admittedly, we have seen simular fare in comics quite often, even at DC too. But, I'm not surprised people, especially women, are offended. When was the last time they saw a statue of some male hero, maybe Sentry, wearing low ride jeans so you can just barely not see his package or rear, shirt off, handing a box of chocolates to the audience. That would be a simular equalivent image. But we don't because comics are assumed to be for men by men. As a man I understand this, I wouldn't want to see that imaginary Sentry statue, but I also don't put my head in the sand and wonder why women would be offended. Perhaps it simply shocks the EIC to get reminded that sometimes Marvel enforces all of those ugly stereotypes people have of the comic book medium, one of which is that is it sexist and misogynist. Granted, to be fair, Marvel is usually the offender when it comes to sexualizing heroines; DC does that too, but DC is far more likely to butcher them these days, in vivid detail.

Plus, it was a slow news day.

Newsarama: How about the Heroes for Hire #13? This has caused some controversy of its own, with some people likening it to a very unsavory recurring element in some more adult-themed manga?

JQ: This one I can answer to. First, I think people are reading way too much into that cover than was ever intended. I heard terms such as “tentacle rape” being thrown around when that in no way is what’s happening, nor does it happen in the book. Those tentacles are the arms of the Brood who appears in the issue and is a major story point, the Brood have tentacles, sorry about that.

Secondly, the concept for that cover, soup to nuts came from a female artist. Thirdly, not being a deep follower of manga, I have no idea what recurring theme people are referring to or concerned with. While I appreciate the sentiment and the feelings that some may have about this, I honestly feel that there is way too much being read into this cover.

Also, HFH is a book that features two strong, lead female protagonist who kick major ass; somehow folks have forgotten to focus on that.

When some people are confronted with something, they might stammer and admit it. They might lie. But the way Joe Q can cooly come up with complete and utter baloney is sometimes staggering. I envy and yet loathe it. It's the stuff of politicians.

Women can like hentai, or at least know men enough to know they like hentai. Artist Adam Warren sometimes would joke that his bondage artwork always sold better and garnered more attention. Secondly, it is easy to forget about how powerful your heroines are when they are bound, arms overhead to make the breasts more apparent, while moist tentacles menace them. To deny the hentai accusation is the most blatent disregard for the reader's intelligence I have seen in a while. Just admit it. "HEROES FOR HIRE sells like garbage, so we resorted to using sex to sell it. As these are comics, half the time sex is not consensual. Just as my good friend Kevin Smith who uses rape in most of his stories." But instead, he goes with the "What, me worry?" approach.

So, Joe is trying to say that despite not reading manga, and being the EIC of the world's biggest comic company, and having grown up in Queens and been in the biz over a decade, he has no clue what hentai is. Bull. Spit. It wouldn't be the first time someone use such a theme to sell a copy. What about that cover of WW being arrested with her panties halfway up her rear? Just admit it, really.

- and then JMS literally quotes from TEDDY ROOSEVELT to justify SINS PAST. Really, how self-righteous is that? It would be like if I jusified over-analyzing MIGHTY AVENGERS by quoting from The Book of Genesis. It just continues the trend of most A-List writers believing none of their stories are flawed. It is very true that JMS brought ASM up from the Top 60 into the Top 10, but that tale is almost universally panned. Even the suck-ups at WIZARD called for a retcon of it. Get over yourself.

- Joe Q at least gives a reasonable explaination as to why the kids in THE INITIATIVE are fighting The Hulk in WWH by comparing it to 9/11 when everyone's help was allowed. Of course, years later, plenty of those volenteers are dropping dead of illnesses caused by the dust and the city/feds are denying coverage, or at least making it difficult. The lesson is disasters breed collective heroism, but once the dust settles, everyone else forgets you existed.

: the plan was simple, motteditor, Gravity was to die in Beyond or at least appear to die. He would later be resurrected as the new Captain Marvel. We would discover that he had this secret destiny, but in the end, we decided against doing it.

There it is again. Joe Q has done a lot of things right. Yet this smacks of the conception that Joe's Marvel is a company that can't stick to their guns for anything and where one hand doesn't know what the other was doing. Gravity was meant to become the new Capt. Marvel, but then they decided to revive the real deal, 20+ years after anyone gave a damn about him, in the most boring and dull one-shot written in a year, and then had to cobble together some way to undo the damage done to Gravity by McDuffie playing along. No wonder it seemed pointless in FF in the end. It was. Why can't these guys have a meeting and keep all of their crap in line for a year? These mistakes, blunders, and rewrites happen all the time. Lord knows CIVIL WAR reaked of some last minute rewrites and misconceptions (the pro-SHRA's were supposed to be the heroes, so why overplay your hand and have them appear to be fascists in not only the beginning of the story, but half the major tie-ins?). It's like a boxer who can win 50 matches TKO and yet can't defend himself from an unarmed mugger. When Joe's Marvel does something incredibly well, it boggles the mind to see them utterly mishandle something.

Don't get me wrong, Gravity is more interesting as a street level hero than a cosmic demigod, especially as Nova already is doing that thing. But then why off him just to pretty much have him revived with no change over than the loss of his secret identity? It just seems pointless, and miscommunicated, and poorly planned, which it was. About the only benefit was it kept him out of CW. But it just reaks of many of the pointless deaths in X-Books. Someone dies, there is over-the-top emoting, then they return in some mundane way and it results in a collective shrug. Gravity never should have died in the first place in BEYOND if the plans had changed. Marvel delayed CW books for months on end, the last issue of BEYOND could have been altered to avoid this mess.

 

[Kevin]

He lost his... sexy fat.

 

[Specter313]

He lost his... sexy fat.

*vomits*

 

[Kevin]

*vomits*

Yup, that's another way to lose sexy fat. x 3

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

Women can like hentai, or at least know men enough to know they like hentai. Artist Adam Warren sometimes would joke that his bondage artwork always sold better and garnered more attention. Secondly, it is easy to forget about how powerful your heroines are when they are bound, arms overhead to make the breasts more apparent, while moist tentacles menace them. To deny the hentai accusation is the most blatent disregard for the reader's intelligence I have seen in a while. Just admit it. "HEROES FOR HIRE sells like garbage, so we resorted to using sex to sell it. As these are comics, half the time sex is not consensual. Just as my good friend Kevin Smith who uses rape in most of his stories." But instead, he goes with the "What, me worry?" approach.

So, Joe is trying to say that despite not reading manga, and being the EIC of the world's biggest comic company, and having grown up in Queens and been in the biz over a decade, he has no clue what hentai is. Bull. Spit. It wouldn't be the first time someone use such a theme to sell a copy. What about that cover of WW being arrested with her panties halfway up her rear? Just admit it, really.

First thing, exactly what I was saying. It's like some greasy nerd who denies masteurbating.

Second, even the f'ing ART was manga-esque. JQ is either a 'tard who's lived in mars, with his eyes shut and his fingers in his ears his entire life to nothing but apparently a single picture of Spider Man, oooor, he decided to ignore this thing some call "The World" through nothing short of a miracle class strength of will.

 

[Darthphere]

Glad to see Joe Q's getting healthy and losing weight, but he still didn't lose his ignorance. The thing that amazes me is that, well, he is doing well for Marvel and Marvel has been doing very well with his leadership. As iloveclones would say, it isn't a fluke. There have been relaunches, and even good events (ANNIHILATION) and some good ideas under his watch. That is what makes his blatent blunders, misconceptions and mishandlings mind-boggling.



Joe Q believes the opposition to his smoking ban is because fanboys just want to hate on him for any ol' reason. While that is indeed true of many, that is not the point. The main point of criticism is that, bluntly and simply, his "ban on smoking because it is bad for kids" seems to be bullocks when his comics and merchandise have no qualms about gorey violence or sexual images. Hollywood is doing the same thing, and it is still stupid there. A film can have decapitations, swearing, and even crude sexual humor, and be rated PG-13. One bare nipple, R. And now, apparently, one cigerette close-up, R. It makes little sense.

Quite frankly, I would rather kids see smoking than see gore. I actually am not so hard-arsed on sexual images because we're bipolar about sex in America anyway (always display it, joke about it, use it to sell stuff, but want a serious discussion on it, and everyone blushes, like a pimp who is suddenly embarassed when his mother brings up her romances).

No, people find the smoking issue silly because it seems hypocritical. Especially since, well, smoking is a legal activity, while violence is not. It may not be healthy, or encouraged, but it is legal. Where does it end? Drinking causes more crimes than smoking, how about we ban scenes in bars or drinks in character's hands? Censorship is a slippery slope, and even our Founding Fathers knew that. Having no qualms about violence or superheroes-as-softcore-porn-actresses-in-poses yet getting righteous about smoking just doesn't gell well. America's morality is out of wack, and this is simply part of the problem.

It's not always just about people disliking you, Mr. Q.



This is another example. MJ is bent over, in full "doggy style" pose, revealing a THONG and shoving he **** out barely enough to cover the nipples (Nippes are R!), and washing the costume. Admittedly, we have seen simular fare in comics quite often, even at DC too. But, I'm not surprised people, especially women, are offended. When was the last time they saw a statue of some male hero, maybe Sentry, wearing low ride jeans so you can just barely not see his package or rear, shirt off, handing a box of chocolates to the audience. That would be a simular equalivent image. But we don't because comics are assumed to be for men by men. As a man I understand this, I wouldn't want to see that imaginary Sentry statue, but I also don't put my head in the sand and wonder why women would be offended. Perhaps it simply shocks the EIC to get reminded that sometimes Marvel enforces all of those ugly stereotypes people have of the comic book medium, one of which is that is it sexist and misogynist. Granted, to be fair, Marvel is usually the offender when it comes to sexualizing heroines; DC does that too, but DC is far more likely to butcher them these days, in vivid detail.

Plus, it was a slow news day.



When some people are confronted with something, they might stammer and admit it. They might lie. But the way Joe Q can cooly come up with complete and utter baloney is sometimes staggering. I envy and yet loathe it. It's the stuff of politicians.

Women can like hentai, or at least know men enough to know they like hentai. Artist Adam Warren sometimes would joke that his bondage artwork always sold better and garnered more attention. Secondly, it is easy to forget about how powerful your heroines are when they are bound, arms overhead to make the breasts more apparent, while moist tentacles menace them. To deny the hentai accusation is the most blatent disregard for the reader's intelligence I have seen in a while. Just admit it. "HEROES FOR HIRE sells like garbage, so we resorted to using sex to sell it. As these are comics, half the time sex is not consensual. Just as my good friend Kevin Smith who uses rape in most of his stories." But instead, he goes with the "What, me worry?" approach.

So, Joe is trying to say that despite not reading manga, and being the EIC of the world's biggest comic company, and having grown up in Queens and been in the biz over a decade, he has no clue what hentai is. Bull. Spit. It wouldn't be the first time someone use such a theme to sell a copy. What about that cover of WW being arrested with her panties halfway up her rear? Just admit it, really.

- and then JMS literally quotes from TEDDY ROOSEVELT to justify SINS PAST. Really, how self-righteous is that? It would be like if I jusified over-analyzing MIGHTY AVENGERS by quoting from The Book of Genesis. It just continues the trend of most A-List writers believing none of their stories are flawed. It is very true that JMS brought ASM up from the Top 60 into the Top 10, but that tale is almost universally panned. Even the suck-ups at WIZARD called for a retcon of it. Get over yourself.

- Joe Q at least gives a reasonable explaination as to why the kids in THE INITIATIVE are fighting The Hulk in WWH by comparing it to 9/11 when everyone's help was allowed. Of course, years later, plenty of those volenteers are dropping dead of illnesses caused by the dust and the city/feds are denying coverage, or at least making it difficult. The lesson is disasters breed collective heroism, but once the dust settles, everyone else forgets you existed.



There it is again. Joe Q has done a lot of things right. Yet this smacks of the conception that Joe's Marvel is a company that can't stick to their guns for anything and where one hand doesn't know what the other was doing. Gravity was meant to become the new Capt. Marvel, but then they decided to revive the real deal, 20+ years after anyone gave a damn about him, in the most boring and dull one-shot written in a year, and then had to cobble together some way to undo the damage done to Gravity by McDuffie playing along. No wonder it seemed pointless in FF in the end. It was. Why can't these guys have a meeting and keep all of their crap in line for a year? These mistakes, blunders, and rewrites happen all the time. Lord knows CIVIL WAR reaked of some last minute rewrites and misconceptions (the pro-SHRA's were supposed to be the heroes, so why overplay your hand and have them appear to be fascists in not only the beginning of the story, but half the major tie-ins?). It's like a boxer who can win 50 matches TKO and yet can't defend himself from an unarmed mugger. When Joe's Marvel does something incredibly well, it boggles the mind to see them utterly mishandle something.

Don't get me wrong, Gravity is more interesting as a street level hero than a cosmic demigod, especially as Nova already is doing that thing. But then why off him just to pretty much have him revived with no change over than the loss of his secret identity? It just seems pointless, and miscommunicated, and poorly planned, which it was. About the only benefit was it kept him out of CW. But it just reaks of many of the pointless deaths in X-Books. Someone dies, there is over-the-top emoting, then they return in some mundane way and it results in a collective shrug. Gravity never should have died in the first place in BEYOND if the plans had changed. Marvel delayed CW books for months on end, the last issue of BEYOND could have been altered to avoid this mess.

So much hate and bitterness. Incredible.

 

[Dread]

So much hate and bitterness. Incredible.

I had to make up for an overwhelmingly positive B/T week, I guess.

I just...like I said, Joe Q does a lot of stuff right, so it always strikes a chord when I see him just pooch stuff here.

I can understand him being cocky about stomping DC every month. I know I would in his position. I mean, they've tried new ideas, old ideas, and everything in-between and Marvel always outsells them.

So long as I have my SPIRIT, though...

 

[Harlekin]

A lot can be said about Joey Q, but I actually really really really like the Marvel TV "In the House" idea. This could be pretty awesome (and they were pretty funny too).

 

[Kevin]

I like Joe. Seems like a good guy.

 

[Fading]

This is another example. MJ is bent over, in full "doggy style" pose, revealing a THONG and shoving he **** out barely enough to cover the nipples (Nippes are R!), and washing the costume.

Not a big deal, but actually she's pulling his costume out of a basket setting on a small table. Unless she's washing clothes the old fashioned way. Also I'm pretty sure they said in the description that this is more of a MJ discovering Pete's Spidey moment by finding his costume in the laundry. Also that's more of a classic pin-up look, doggy style may come to mind looking at that, but that pose has been used for awhile.

I guess I just don't get all the rage over it, it was covered by like 3 news organizations, they even brought on that guy who won Who wants to be a Superhero! . If they were selling this in a Wal-mart and had it next to the toys then I can understand somewhat, but this is a limited 2000 piece set that probably won't be seen outside of a comic shop or off the net, and I'm sure there have been more revealing far worse statues of her to come out.

It's just a case of a group of fans looking for something to vent on, that it was pushing back women's rights because she was being subserviant, and that she was dressed to sexy ruining MJ's clean image. In reality she's not washing his laundry tho so the first complaints out, and about the second, you can turn on TV and see worse any time of the day, and MJ has no doubt been shown atleast dressed this skimpy sometime in the past in one form of media or sculpt or another.

Nothing against you Dread, it just surprises me to see so much out lash over something so small.

 

[Kevin]

But her boobs were huge.

 

[Fading]

But her boobs were huge.

True, and it's not that I can't understand that some ppl would be offended, it's just that I can't understand it being a huge event worthy of being on 3 different news stations and so much outrage.

No one complained like this for the White Queen statues which probably were sold the exact same way, and Frost is packing some cleavage.

 

[Darthphere]

I had to make up for an overwhelmingly positive B/T week, I guess.

I just...like I said, Joe Q does a lot of stuff right, so it always strikes a chord when I see him just pooch stuff here.

I can understand him being cocky about stomping DC every month. I know I would in his position. I mean, they've tried new ideas, old ideas, and everything in-between and Marvel always outsells them.

So long as I have my SPIRIT, though...

I really can't argue anything you said other than the smoking thing. That's really the one thing Joey Q hasn't been a hypocrite about really because he said from the beginning it was his personal decision based off the loss of a loved one. So it's not like he's picking on smoking because he just randomly chose it. COmmon sense entails that he should ban violence and drinking in comic books too if he's going to do that, but I can see where he's coming from.

 

[PhotoJones]

I really can't argue anything you said other than the smoking thing. That's really the one thing Joey Q hasn't been a hypocrite about really because he said from the beginning it was his personal decision based off the loss of a loved one. So it's not like he's picking on smoking because he just randomly chose it. COmmon sense entails that he should ban violence and drinking in comic books too if he's going to do that, but I can see where he's coming from.

I can see where he's coming from, as could anyone if they know the circumstances behind the situation. But that doesn't change the fact that his smoking ban makes no sense whatsoever, when you compare it to the violence and sexuality of comic books. I get that Joe blames tobacco for his father's death. It's a sad, sad thing, and I can genuinely sympathize. The reason I quit smoking was because I don't want to be the cause of my own death, and I'd like to stick around a few more years and spend some time with the people I love and care about.

But by banning that and that alone, it's almost like saying a big "**** you" to everyone else who's had a loved one murdered. Like that kind of death isn't good enough to ban or something. Bullseye kills people for fun. Nitro blew up a school full of kids. Why is that acceptable, but smoking's not? You see the logic failing us, here?

It's also making the assumption that if a child decides to emulate something from a comic book, they're going to choose smoking over everything else. That's pretty ludicrous, in my opinion. I can tell you from my own experience, that myself, and all the kids I grew up with that eventually started smoking, the choice was not made because Wolverine likes a nice stoogie every now and again.

In the end, it's just one thing and really doean't affect my comic book reading experience in the slightest. I just think for all the good Joe thinks he's doing, he's really not. If it makes him feel better, then so be it, I suppose.

 

[Darthphere]

I can see where he's coming from, as could anyone if they know the circumstances behind the situation. But that doesn't change the fact that his smoking ban makes no sense whatsoever, when you compare it to the violence and sexuality of comic books. I get that Joe blames tobacco for his father's death. It's a sad, sad thing, and I can genuinely sympathize. The reason I quit smoking was because I don't want to be the cause of my own death, and I'd like to stick around a few more years and spend some time with the people I love and care about.

But by banning that and that alone, it's almost like saying a big "**** you" to everyone else who's had a loved one murdered. Like that kind of death isn't good enough to ban or something. Bullseye kills people for fun. Nitro blew up a school full of kids. Why is that acceptable, but smoking's not? You see the logic failing us, here?

It's also making the assumption that if a child decides to emulate something from a comic book, they're going to choose smoking over everything else. That's pretty ludicrous, in my opinion. I can tell you from my own experience, that myself, and all the kids I grew up with that eventually started smoking, the choice was not made because Wolverine likes a nice stoogie every now and again.

In the end, it's just one thing and really doean't affect my comic book reading experience in the slightest. I just think for all the good Joe thinks he's doing, he's really not. If it makes him feel better, then so be it, I suppose.

Violence in comic books is an essential tool to the story making process. I mean you want to see the big ol brawls. Now you can argue to the heavens about the level of violence and how gratuitous it is and you would be right to do so, but violence isn't going anywhere, neither are shocking deaths or anything of that like.

Also, it should be noted just for kicks, that the MPAA is considering giving different ratings on movies based on the level of smoking in them, so Joey Q isn't alone in this.

EDIT: And on your two examples, Bullseye, up until recently, or not even has always been a villain, so you expect him to kill people for fun. And it's a lot easier to pick up a cigarette than blow up a schoolbus full of children for a child.

 

[PhotoJones]

Violence in comic books is an essential tool to the story making process. I mean you want to see the big ol brawls. Now you can argue to the heavens about the level of violence and how gratuitous it is and you would be right to do so, but violence isn't going anywhere, neither are shocking deaths or anything of that like.

Also, it should be noted just for kicks, that the MPAA is considering giving different ratings on movies based on the level of smoking in them, so Joey Q isn't alone in this.

Just because Joe isn't alone on this doesn't make it right.

The MPAA is a joke anyway. Have you seen This Film Is Not Yet Rated? Throwing yourself in with the MPAA is only going to take away what little credibilty you have to begin with.

My point is that to ban smoking is to presume that it's this horrible thing, and that kids aren't going to start smoking if it's not in a comic book. That's insane logic. If you don't want kids to smoke then all you can do is talk to them and tell them what they already know: Smoking is bad.

But, like I said, if Joe wants to make this his own personal crusade, then let him. He's suffered a terrible loss, and it probably makes him feel better.