Comics published with public messages

[Miyamoto Musashi]

I opened this thread to know how many comic books through time served for public massages. I was inspired for this thread by a magnificent issue:

Spectacular Spider-Man #71

http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/large/60930948398.71.gif

Written by:
1- Bill Mantlo
2- Tom DeFalco

Art by: Rick Leonardi

Cover: John Romita jr


It started with Spider-Man stopping a burglary by a couple of kids, one of them was shot by the shop owner and that made Spider-Man decide to stop a shipment of smuggled guns. While Spider-Man stopped the smugglers a series of shootings happened in the city by smuggled guns.

I usually use Spider-Man because this character alone uses so much of my time that I don't look at more characters. But now it is your turn to give about titles serving this cause.

[Xurk]

I'm mainly a Spidey guy myself :) Therefore, the issues that spring to mind instantly are all Spider-related ;)

I know there's a famous anti-drug issue of Spider-Man, except I can't remember which one that was... the same for the one where Spider-Man told stories to the fatally ill little boy [though I'm not sure if that last one qualifies as a "public message", although it is one of the greatest Spider-Man stories]. I can also remember a Spider-Man back-up story where Peter admitted to a child that he was [almost?] sexually abused when he was a kid, though I'd rather forget that bit :sad:

A really obvious issue would of course be:
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #36
http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/large/03188797534.36.gif
WRITER: Joe Michael Straczynski
PENCILS: John Romita JR
THE STORY: On Sepetember 11, 2001 something happened in America that shook the whole world. The events that happened that day had a profound impact on our world and this issue is Marvel comics response to those events.

And this issue of Spider-Girl:
SPIDER-GIRL #89
http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/large/77890870352.89.gif
WRITER: Tom DeFalco
PENCILS: Ronald Frenz
THE STORY: Fresh off of battles against Apex and Loki--the latter chronicled in "Last Hero Standing"--May now finds herself facing a much more common menace: Howard Kavanaugh. Can May stop Howard once and for all now that he's put two girls in the hospital, and can she stop one of her closest friends from making the biggest mistake of his life?

Both of these issues upon first reading them really got to me, so they are at the least pretty powerful. The AMZ issue is also criticized by many, but there are some sequences in that issue that still choke me up, even today.

Something else that I just remembered: the 'Nuff Said that Marvel had some years back, when most[?] of the comics for that month contained no dialogue balloons, but only images. In the back of the comics, the script was included. I'm not sure if that qualifies as a "public message" either, but it's worth mentioning at least as it was a pretty controversial thing to do.

Anyone know of any comics that carry public messages besides good 'ol Webhead's books? ;)

[Ed Liu]

There have been lots and lots of anti-drug messages in superhero comics, with the first two jumping to mind being Harry Osborn (http://www.marvel.com/universe/Green_Goblin_%28Harry_Osborn%29) in Amazing Spider-Man and Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy over on the DC side of the fence. Harry apparently started on illegal drugs in AMS #96 in 1971, with the problem becoming a sub-plot during the "Death of Gwen Stacy" arc. Not sure what or when Speedy was an abuser, but this Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowbirds_Don%27t_Fly) seems to say everything I would need to.

Actually, those 70's issues of Green Lantern/Green Arrow were packed to the gills with social commentary, including a very memorable exchange between an old black inner-city denizen and Hal Jordan:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6f/GLGA76BS.jpg

The reboot of Green Lantern in the late 80's kicked off with an anti-drunk-driving message, since Hal caused no small amount of suffering by driving drunk and getting into an accident that crippled one of his friends before he got the GL ring. This all happened in Emerald Dawn (still canon, as far as I know), and the 90-day jail time sentence he did for the crime was in Emerald Dawn II. The fact that this made Hal Jordan a drunk upset a lot of people, but I thought the entire point of the exercise was to show that he STOPPED being a drunk.

Speaking of drunks, Iron Man went on about the demons of alcoholism in the Demon in a Bottle storyline, which was the one that turned Tony Stark into an alcoholic.

GL seems to be a magnet for social issue soapboxing -- I just remembered the "Beating Up Gay People is Bad" issue during Judd Winick's run (GL #154) which taught us that, um, Beating Up Gay People is Bad. Beating People Over the Head with Social Lessons That Should Be Blindingly Obvious to Anyone with a Shred of Human Decency is Bad, too, but that's beside the point ;).

In the wake of Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraven%27s_Last_Hunt), the story drew some fire for an interpretation that suicide was an acceptable way to take arms against a sea of troubles, which led to the follow-up one-shot Soul of the Hunter, which was a thinly veiled Suicide is Bad message. It's dangerously close to letting the Moral Lesson overwhelm the actual story, but I find it touching in its own way. In the story, Spider-Man initially rejects assisting the spirit of Kraven out of righteous anger, but eventually gets past that anger and helps Kraven anyway because no matter what he did, Kraven is still a soul in pain and with great power &c. I find that to be a more valuable lesson than the "suicide is bad" message that kicked the whole thing off.

There was also an anti-gun Batman mini-series in the 80's. "Shadow of the Gun," maybe? Illegal guns shoot innocent people. Bad illegal guns! Bad!!

The entire principle of the X-Men could be viewed as a social message, too, in that being a mutant and anti-mutant hysteria can be viewed as a metaphor for any kind of -ism you'd like (racism, sexism, homophobia).

The Dark Knight Returns has loads of social commentary about all kinds of things.

Stretching past superhero comics, you can read a whole lot of Osamu Tezuka's manga for some pretty deep social messages about what it means to be human, for starters, and other stuff about redemption and faith and grace and all sorts of other good stuff. James (http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=13744) and I both (http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=13749) reviewed Ode to Kirihito, and we both liked Apollo's Song a lot (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=200602), too.

Gee, this went on a lot longer than I thought it would. I started this post just to write up the 2 drug examples way up at the top.

-- Ed

[Miyamoto Musashi]

I wonder if this one counts for holding a public message:

http://www.samruby.com/AmazingSpider-ManA/Large/AmazingSpider-Man054.jpg

Story: Stan Lee
Art: John Romita sr.

May Parker takes Doc Ock as a border for the room she and Mrs Watson rent in their house
Landlords and landladies; always check about who rents a room or a house from you to make sure this one isn't a criminal. And not everyone who smiles and speak as a decent gentleman/lady is a good person

[Tobias]

I'm mainly a Spidey guy myself :)
I know there's a famous anti-drug issue of Spider-Man, except I can't remember which one that was... the same for the one where Spider-Man told stories to the fatally ill little boy [though I'm not sure if that last one qualifies as a "public message", although it is one of the greatest Spider-Man stories]. I can also remember a Spider-Man back-up story where Peter admitted to a child that he was [almost?] sexually abused when he was a kid, though I'd rather forget that bit :sad:



I remember that issue. Spidey teamed up with Storm and Captain America(?) to save a promising teen athlete before he got into drugs. I remember one store was giving out free copies of it.

Then there the one printed in the Sunday comics about Spidey teaching a lesson about child molestation, but I don't know if it ever appeared beyond that. It was just a short normal sized strip.

Other messages:

There was a Superman one shot that spoke out against cruelty to animals.

Impulse had an issue very early in it's run where Imp dealt with learning that his best friend was being abused. There was a message about 'looks can be deceiving' as well.

[Anthonynotes]

In the mid-90s, there was a one-shot Superman comic released for Serbia/Bosnia teaching kids how to avoid landmines. The comic was published in the native languages of the country only, and released via the United Nations. I actually own a copy of this comic (thanks to an Army uncle who served in Bosnia), but not knowing the language, I can't actually read it (from the pictures: some children stumble near an area with landmines, Superman shows up, gives tips on landmine safety, and even uses his x-ray vision to find a few mines/IIRC detonates a few with his heat vision).

[Zorak Masaki]

Heres a site with a bunch of what could only be described as "PSA comics" (though only one involves an actual superhero):

http://www.ep.tc/problems/

[Miyamoto Musashi]

Heres a site with a bunch of what could only be described as "PSA comics" (though only one involves an actual superhero):

http://www.ep.tc/problems/
The star of the comics is not necessarily a superhero, I said comics which means you can even add Archie comics; like when they talk about the use of recycled paper for their stories and how much water and electricity they save with this action

[Robin2099]

There was also an anti-gun Batman mini-series in the 80's. "Shadow of the Gun," maybe? Illegal guns shoot innocent people. Bad illegal guns! Bad!!


That was "Batman: Seduction of the Gun" which was a 64 page one shot. The plot was that someone was leaking automatic firearms into the streets of Gotham and killing each other with them. Eventually they realize that the main source is coming from a school that Robin goes undercover at.

Other's I can think of off the top of my head:

Batman: The Ultimate Evil focused on child abuse and children in the sex slave rings.

Iron Man became an alcoholic.

Stephanie Brown(Spoiler) got pregnant and subsequent issues focused on her choosing between either aborting the baby or giving it up for adoption(she gave it up for adoption).

A team member of Alpha Flight came out of the closet.(I barely remember that though so I can't remember who it was).

A recent issue of Robin focused on teen suicide.

Spider-man helping Black Cat deal with how she was raped in college.

Captain Marvel dieing of Cancer.

Also the Paul Dini/Alex Ross comics all focused on social issues as well. The Superman issue featured Supes trying to end world hunger. Batman's focused on kids of criminals becoming criminals themselves. Shazam's
focused on child abuse.

[Miyamoto Musashi]

*

Iron Man became an alcoholic.

It is ironic that with all the warning about the dangers of drinking alcohol people still waste money on it like the smokers do to cigars with all the boards and campaigns against smoke threat

After Triathelon joined the Avengers he and Hawkey went on a mission and he explained his origin, he talked about abusing Steroids as an athlete.

*AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #385

Image too large, see the cover in the following link:
http://www.samruby.com/AmazingSpider-ManD/Large/AmazingSpider-Man385.jpg

Artist: Mark Bagley
Writer: J.M. Demattis

After Mary Jane sees how Nick Katzenberg is dying because of lungs cancer and heart attacks she sees how fault it is to smoke and drops out her cigars.

*Moon Knight v1 26 (http://comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=36927&zoom=4)
Parents; be nice to your kids and do not hit them and abuse them, cause this will have a very bad effect on them like the guy held by MK who kept hitting people on his way to his fathers grave