Now you know why anti-comic book crusaders thought there was something unhealthy about the relationship between Bruce Wayne and his youthful ward Dick Grayson.
Thank god they’re taking cold showers.
Sure this recurring feature on the blog is Comic Book Odd, but there’s really nothing odd about the history of female characters being treated as punchlines for jokes.
It’s not a surprise, really. Comic books were mostly written and drawn by guys, particularly in the Golden Age and even into the Silver Age. And although girls bought comic books at a much greater rate back then than in later years, boys were still the targeted readers for comic books.
So you have panels like the one above, poking fun at Janet Van Dyne – AKA The Wasp, one of the founding members of The Avengers.
And this one, taking a shot at everybody except Wonder Woman.
Thank goodness the days of treating women as second-class characters in comics is over, huh?
Right?
Here’s another of those odd little comic book moments.
One of the most fun things about the Marvel Comics is that almost anybody can – and has – run into almost anybody.
The panel above is an offbeat moment from “Luke Cage: Hero for Hire” issues 8 and 9, in which Cage is unknowingly hired by agents of Victor Von Doom, monarch of Latveria.
And when you hire Cage, you know you have to pay him for his trouble.
So, “Where’s my money, honey?”
Classic.
Another in our series of unintentionally funny comic book moments.
Above we see Supergirl suffering from the fate of so many comic book females.
Sure, she’s blonde, beautiful and has, I don’t know, super powers.
But she’s not dating a guy! She’s just sad. Sad, I tells ya.
Maybe meeting another young hero would help. What about Robin? They could sympathize about being the “no respect” juniors to headline-hogging heroes. Yeah, Robin! That’s the ticket!
No. Bad idea.
Ah, the Golden Age of comics.
Such an innocent time. A time when Batman’s arch nemesis the Joker could talk about boners and nobody would snicker.
Fast forward a few decades. Let the snickering begin.
These panels from old “Batman” books from DC prove that the English language is a living, ever-changing thing.
Now where’s that Bat-boner-repellant when we need it?
You know, I could do a whole website with odd moments from the Silver Age of comic books.
Actually, the good folks at Superman is a Dick do a wonderful job of highlighting strange covers and panels from the entire history of comics.
And the Comics Should Be Good section of Comic Book Resources does a good job with offbeat and funny moments.
That’s where I saw the panels above, from Lois Lane 14 from 1960.
“It’s almost as if Superman is punishing me for being a bad girl!” Lois says.
There’s so much to love about those panels. So many unintentionally funny lines. So … Silver Age.
Really, somebody should do a book with psychoanalysis of the writers of Silver Age comics. Or a “Mad Men”-style TV series.
keithroysdon 