And for the 40547642572467827151457567824562364536th time, books from RADICAL are something to keep in mind, especially for the subjects mentionned in this artical. I truly feel they have revitalized the comic books in the past 2 years and all for the best. The way the books are written, drawned and presented in different format, they bring the whole ''inspiring hero'' to a brand new level since all of the books are with unknowned characters so every read is with someone new which makes it even more fun to read.

Scarlett from Marvel is a new type of inspiring heroin and is great also (but that was covered last week right ???).

The problem is that comics are written for adults who's view on the world is already formed as opposed to the idea that comics were originally for kids who's view on the world was a work in progress.  My thought is that kids are more open to new ideas and concepts while adults are already hard coded to like Hero X or to say make my comic book company Y.  As long as comic books are geared toward an audience who already have a pre-conceived set of notions there won't really be any true room for growth or imagination.

 jedibanner - that may be the case with RADICAL, but, as Chad stated in the article, "And we’re not talking about Hellboy or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or other indie darlings here; we’re talking about DC and Marvel."  This is about mainstream characters, not characters from books I have never heard of until your post.  I will, however, look into them the next time I'm in my local comic shop.

Nice article Chad.

true lusiphur, I admit I overlooked that part about the big 2.

For good suggestions from Radical, try:

- Driver for the Dead

- Earp

- Abattoir

- Last Days of American Crime

OR, from Avatar:

- Crossed

- Caligula (this one comes out this week)

And Goldeneyez, it's tru today's comics are for adults but remember when they were created, the era itself was that those characters were directly made to inspire and educate those kids in the '40s.

At that time, there wasn't that much other choice of mediums for kids to learn and be inspired as far as fantasy goes. So when comics were written then, it was easier to write a superman issue with inspiring thoughs and ideas.

Today's kids have so many choice as far as tv, comics, web, books, web books, PS3, WII, Nintendo DS, remote control helicopters, etc..., with all that, comics themselves have taken a step back into the ''inspiring'' not because the message is different but, because kids have moved on to something else (in my view anyway).

Which is why yes, adults rule the comic medium because we've ask that our beloved characters are more realistic and less ''preachy'' (if we still had stories of Superman helping a cat out of a tree, let's be honest, we would all whine about that issue for sure).

I still believe there is a way to inspire within the constraints of the small world of comics: Preacher comes to mind, Scarlett comes to mind, Kick-Ass comes to mind. All these books from the big 2 (although on the DC side, from what I've read, there isn't much on the new stuff but can't fully comment on DC since I don't read hardly any).

And if you want to go back a while, look at the Peter David stuff he did with the Hulk, it was clear in those days Bruce Banner was 100000 times more inspiring then the Hulk ever was...and then came WWH which showed both sides of the same coin could be true heroes.

That's why for me the story of Secret Invasion falls in that category of good heroes movies because following all the crap they've gone through (Secret war, Civil War, WWH, Annhihilation), they pulled together like real heroes would, put aside theyr differences and fought together for the greater good. THAT is what real heroes do.

Those were my 2 cents, now I need to go have a cup of coffee. 

Kick Ass and Scarlett really aren't Marvel, they're published under the Icon imprint for creator owned material and it doesn't take place in the Marvel U

IMO the reason we won't get any new superheroes besides  Chad's sensible reason of creators wanting to own their creation. I'd say is that need to push the envelope. You see everytime we had a new "chapter" in comics is because it took a turn for the dark and gritty. We want them darker, dangerous and more willing to step over the line to mete justice. From Superman to Batman to Marvel's X-Men, Spidey and Hulk to Wolverine and Batman's darker rebirth. But you can only go so far down this line and we may have hit the end of the road.

Now writers just need to be creative with what we have and that's entirely possible. Look at Bendis and Johns works for example. They just need to either re-invent or peel some layers of the characters to expose something new.

Truth be told... whether we like it or not... it's all getting old.  It's all been done before.  People got tired of Cowboys... they got tired of Spacemen... and they will get tired of Superheros.  It's hard to be original when we've seen it all before (not saying we will never see an original idea again, but when we do, even it will draw comparison to something).  I think the goal now is to justmake as great a story as you can with what everyone has seen before.

I agree with GoldenEye's point about who comics are written for these days. Wise is also right about how the comics industry has to contunually push the envelope , if they want to sell comics that is. I mean, years ago DC would never do half the things it does now with content. Marvel hasn't changed all that much but they are always trying to one up themselves with these big events, where they tease the readership with some big heroe's death. This year alone they going to have killed the human torch and now it looks like Thor (again) with this Fear Itself event.

One little correction regarding comics produced in the 1940's.  They were in fact produced for adults - take a closer look at all the S&M references in Wonder Woman, and yes, both Superman and Batman did kill in those days.  Although they may seem tame by today's standards, comics were in fact considered incredibly violent and racey - much like the pulp novels of the 30's.  In fact US troops made up a rather large portion of the readership in the 40's, as they wished to escape the reality of war around them.  After the war readership decreased as the returning troops did not want to be reminded of battle (readership would later decrease further because of Dr. Fredric Wertham).  To get those adult readers back, comics produced super-heros books that focused more on the domestic lives of the super-hero.  As WWII vets were getting married and becoming "domesticated", we see this reflected comics as Superman goes shopping with Lois, and Batman has to answer to Batwoman as to why he was out so late - its what the adult reader could relate to at that particular period in their life.  The idea of comics for kids/young people would come later with high-school and college kids relating to Spiderman's "complex" and frustrating life.

BTW, great points made throughout.

jedibanner you bring up some excellent points about there being so many things that kids are into today.

One other thing I just thought about.  There was a recent time when new comic book heroes were being i conceived, the 90s.  From the characters of Image (Spawn, WildC.A.T.S, etc.), Top Cow, Milestone, and probably more that I can't think of right now.  I'd argue that the characters that had the most lasting impact from those times were Spawn (Image) and Static (Milestone).  This was a time of a comics being really popular because of the spectators.

Contrasting that time to now, movies have become a place where the sky is the limit as far as the imagination goes.  Almost anything that people can dream up can be put to screen through use of computer animation.  Given that, who would want to read a comic book, except the entrenched comic reading fans, when you could watch a movie?  Maybe the innovations and new characters will be born from these new mediums... in fact they probably already are or have been.  The last "new" superheroes I can really think of that were really popular and recent where the folks out of the Matrix (Neo, Trinity, Morpheous).