Superhero Comics, at their origin, did have some modicum of seriousness, before quickly becoming outlandish and for children. The characters and stories were one dimensional, the bad guys were just bad guys, the characters were one dimensional and like costumed parents, the situations were outlandish and whacky, and they were written for children. No one had psychological motivations for doing what they did, and even when they did, it didn't explain why they were dressed up in a technicolor costume and doing crime or fighting crime.
As time went on, and you got Marvel which made two-dimensional people with feelings and motivations and relateability, and as we get into the later 60s, and into the 70s with DC, comics became more serious, and their characters became more three dimensional. And that seriousness carried into the 80s when things like "Watchmen" and "Dark Knight Returns" and "The Killing Joke" came out that got deep and dark and really dug into the brains of these characters and their motivations and why this was what it was and why they did what they did and how these sort of people would really be. It was like a psychiatrist going through the Golden and Silver age and really examining these characters, and it was in that regards a reinvention of them to be true to themselves. Sometimes that wasn't always best when you have characters invented during the Golden and Silver age for kids, and then make them a deep psychological portrait where they're a rapist or something.
But what if that did not happen, and comic books remained one dimensional, *biff* *pow* *kaponk* stuff with zany, whacky situations that were meant for kids?
As time went on, and you got Marvel which made two-dimensional people with feelings and motivations and relateability, and as we get into the later 60s, and into the 70s with DC, comics became more serious, and their characters became more three dimensional. And that seriousness carried into the 80s when things like "Watchmen" and "Dark Knight Returns" and "The Killing Joke" came out that got deep and dark and really dug into the brains of these characters and their motivations and why this was what it was and why they did what they did and how these sort of people would really be. It was like a psychiatrist going through the Golden and Silver age and really examining these characters, and it was in that regards a reinvention of them to be true to themselves. Sometimes that wasn't always best when you have characters invented during the Golden and Silver age for kids, and then make them a deep psychological portrait where they're a rapist or something.
But what if that did not happen, and comic books remained one dimensional, *biff* *pow* *kaponk* stuff with zany, whacky situations that were meant for kids?
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