Getting Crap Past the Radar/Comic Books



"Julie-Su: Let go of me, you b--
 * The New Avengers are just learning of a new, villainous Avengers team. Carol leans forward to better look at the screen. Bucky... likes what he sees.
 * For good measure, the words CAPTAIN AMERICA are superimposed on his crotch.
 * In The Books of Magic from DC Comics, writer Neil Gaiman infamously has John Constantine swear "Bugger! Damn! Blast! Felching heck!" DC higher-ups apparently assumed that "felching" was a made-up word.
 * In Runaways, Nico says something about criminals filling the power vacuum left in L.A. when their supervillain parents died, and Chase suggests that "power vacuum" should be Gert's codename. Gert is Chase's girlfriend. Eleven-year-old Molly gets it; apparently, the censors didn't.
 * In Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic, Julie-Su gets into a personal confrontation with Rouge the Bat, leading to this exchange:

Rouge: Bat, dear. Remember it."

"Knuckles: You'd do that, Rouge?
 * And ten issues later::

Julie-Su: She'd do anything.

Rouge: Watch it, pinky."

"Rotor: Having confirmed my findings of the entropic effect upon Mobius with Cobar, an Echidna scientist possessing a formidable intellect with whom I enjoy a close personal relationship."
 * Earlier example: in the Spin-Off Knuckles the Echidna, one arc is centered around one of Charmy Bee's friends dying of Lemon Sundrop Dandelion poisoning. Take the first letter from each word and what do you get? Subtle, huh?
 * According to Word of Gay, they were forced to do this to get the Rotor / Cobar relationship through in the "Mobius: X Years Later" Alternate Timeline arc (though, in a subversion, on orders from the parent company to avoid the inevitable Internet Backdraft, than as a deliberate attempt to sneak it past the censors). Just look at these exchanges, and see for yourself:

"Espio: Well, Rotor wasn't forthcoming, but I suspect he was also here to see Cobar.

Knuckles: That's not surprising -- given their history!"

"Cobar: My dear Rotor, and I say this with affection and respect, but have you gone mad?"

"Antoine: *with a suggestive look on his face* "Will we be bored," he asks.
 * There was also a nod at the whole early 90s "Teen Talk Barbie" controversy with a story involving Robotnik building doll-versions of Rabbot and Sally that say phrases like "I belong in the kitchen".
 * When Tails takes Bunnie and Antoine to his secret island for their long-overdue honeymoon, he asks them "Won't you get bored out here?", and they reassure him that they'll be fine, but they'll visit him if they need to. We then get this gem:

Bunnie: You hush. He's still a young-'un."

"Arsenal: Nightwing, you can be such a...
 * And then there's this, which appears to date from the age of the Comics Code...
 * Wait, does that mean you can figure that one out? Then please, tell the rest of us. We're so confused! (Maybe "A stud with a big weiner"?) (It's "horse wiener".)
 * "I could eat a hotdog the size of a horse"? Others include  and
 * In a 1959 Archie Comics Christmas story, Archie tells Veronica that he's going to give her dad "the bird" as a Christmas gift. Veronica is understandably offended until Archie shows her the canary he plans to give to Mr. Lodge.
 * There's another famous example from Archie where one of the main characters runs through a magical hole in the wall that looks exactly like a vagina. It could have been coincidence, but...
 * In one issue we see right up the skirt of one of the girls, and either the colorist made a mistake or she was not wearing any underwear. The fact that her foot is positioned in exactly the right spot suggests that this was intentional. Pity the girl had to be Big Ethel...
 * One that falls between "Getting Crap Past the Radar" and "Double Entendre" was a story where Archie's fixing Betty's record player. Meanwhile, Veronica calls, and Betty's mother says Betty's up in her room with Archie. She then smirkingly says "He's fiddling with her turntable." and holds the phone away from her ear as Veronica yells "I'll bet he is!"
 * In an issue of Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison, the team fights an otherworldly assassin who talks in anagrams of what he means to say. When Rebis is about to destroy him, he says "This!" Think about it.
 * In Impulse, thought balloons frequently had pictures representing the character's thoughts. At one point, Max Mercury responded to an unpleasant surprise with a picture of a dam.
 * Impulse took this habit with him into Young Justice. Once, when Wonder Girl was nagging him, his thought balloon contained a picture of her as a dog.
 * The crossover arc Sins Of Youth had an aged down Aquaman informing Stargirl that he could hold his breath indefinitely. For bonus points consider that while physically Aquaman was a child and Stargirl an adult at the time give or take some magic based confusion mentally the opposite was true.
 * From an issue of Titans in which Dick "Nightwing" Grayson insists the original members have to maintain their secret identities in front of the new kids, which means full costumes and codenames to hang out and watch TV:
 * From an issue of Titans in which Dick "Nightwing" Grayson insists the original members have to maintain their secret identities in front of the new kids, which means full costumes and codenames to hang out and watch TV:

Flash: No real names, remember?"

"Ninjara: Just me and my two Raphs. What could be better?
 * Don Rosa started practising this after he gained Protection From Editors. Example 1. Example 2. We still haven't figured out how the ending of The Prisoner of White Agony Creek ever saw the light of day.
 * Rosa wrote that he would slip these kinds of things into his scripts to amuse his editor when he caught them, "or give him heart attacks later if he doesn't."
 * The original Golden Age Wonder Woman comics had Bondage & Domination subtext so blatant and frequent that it would qualify as Refuge in Audacity in modern times. Diana was as big a Heroic Sociopath as her male counterparts of the time, but her psychosis lent itself to tying people up and being tied up in return, bouncing people around until they submitted, and singing the praises of occasional slavery. It was pure Author Appeal, to be sure, but still...
 * That's nothing. Blatant bondage scenes on the cover have been known to slip past the Comics Code Authority in the Silver Age. To wit.
 * In American Flagg the subversive organization American Survivalist Labor Commitee. Say the acronym fast.
 * Tame by the standards of its animated counterpart, The Boondocks nonetheless has some naughty moments. One scrip has Huey and Cesar talking about Puff Daddy changing his name to "P Diddy," and they talk of how it's a stupid name because few words can be made to rhyme with it. When asking for suggestions, Cesar offers, "How about sh--" before being cut off by Huey. Also, the "N word" is alluded to countless times throughout the strip; often the necessary censorship is utilized for extra humor. However, it is debatable whether The Boondocks can be counted under this category, as it has frequently been censored, pulled, and even canceled by many papers.
 * In the recent Muppet comics, it was revealed just how adult Floyd and Janice were. In one comic that explored the question "Just what is Gonzo?" Floyd answered with "Man, he can swing any way he wants. That's cool." In the comic spoofing Robin Hood, Janice plays a character named Willa Scarlet who is an expert on herbs.
 * Jonah Hex, who somehow managed to be a violent anti-hero in the days of the Comics Code. The very first issue ends with him dropping an unarmed villain off a cliff.
 * A lot of the 70s series of Conan featured instances of getting past the comics code. One issue features man-eating flowers (It Makes Sense in Context), and the flowers start out white, but as someone falls into them, they slowly turn red. Another has Red Sonja noting Conan's wall-climbing abilities, and wonders if the other tall tales about Cimmerians are true. As she's looking up at him, and he's basically wearing a loincloth...
 * The Adventures of Superman #542 contains numerous references to LSD.
 * Though most often booed for their horrible puns, the host-characters of horror comics like Tales from the Crypt or House of Mystery often threw in a Double Entendre during various stories' introductions and denouments. Having previously been driven underground by the Comics Code, graphic writers of horror tend to see Getting Crap Past the Radar as a badge of honor, if not a moral duty. The Cryptkeeper from the televised Tales From The Crypt continued this envelope--pushing tradition, with punning references to bondage, masturbation, S&M and the like, taking full advantage of the looser standards applied to pay cable programming.
 * This comic strip based off Batman: The Animated Series. Why did Batgirl think they were "friends" when Harley mention "playing"? Notice the fingers.
 * That book spun off a DCAU style Harley and Ivy miniseries, in which Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy wash each other's hair in the prison shower and sleep in the same bed once they break out. Word of Gay has said it was exactly what it looked like.
 * Notice Harley's wording too. A "special shot" so they "won't get sick" from 'playing'?
 * This actually makes perfect sense, in-universe; the shot is to protect Harley. They don't call her Poison Ivy for nothing.
 * What sort of "playing" does she mean though? Also in the same comic strips there's two gay lumberjack villains named Slash and Burn, and that issue was heavy on the gay.
 * Pink Chickens by Patrick Alexander doesn't so much sneak crap past the radar as heave shovelfuls of it past and hope it gets hidden in plain sight. Take a look at this comic, panel 3 in particular. This was originally published in a magazine for children, until an irate parent actually read it and complained.
 * In fact now I think about it, you can pretty much just pick any page.
 * In the Colleen Coover story in the King-Size Spider-Man Summer Special, the Enchantress calls for her laptop computer. "Why?" asks one of her henchthings. "The usual. To look at ladies." (It's part of a diabolical scheme, but given the givens ...)
 * The adult comic Viz had an entire strip built around this. "Sweary Mary"'s appearances in the comic revolved around her efforts to get crap past the radar so she could swear as much as possible without being censored. In her last appearance she finally achieved her life's dream of being allowed to swear on the cover, but lost her voice and was ridiculed by the other characters.
 * In Amazing Spider-Man #598, Spidey infiltrates the Dark Avengers using a special Venom disguise. Unfortunately, he is captured and Bullseye tortures him (with a high tech device meant to simulate drowning) to get the password necessary to remove his mask. After quite a bit of torture Spidey tells Bullseye that the password is "Bowl...Psi...Isad...Oosh. You say it all together." (In case you didn't get it: )
 * In the Archie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comics, Ninjara is with both Future and Young Raphaels:

Future Raphael: (Thinking) Another Ninjara.

Young Raphael: (Thinking) Some whipped cream."

"Minerva Mink's boss: Miss Yum-Yum, is this year's model more robust?"
 * This panel from an Animaniacs comic book, which is linked from the Very False Advertising page:

"Foreigner: I'm disappointed. Felicia (the Black Cat) said you were formidable.
 * The Entire Page sounds like they're describing some new-fangled sex gadget.
 * People tend to forget it since it was the issue Venom debuted in, but at one point in the story, Mary Jane actually allows Peter to take some nudie pictures of her. As if that weren't enough, the caption for the scene says "Peter's spirits begin to rise."
 * Seen here
 * There was a ''Spider-Man"" comic in the 80's where Spidey was fighting an old villain named the Foreigner. The Foreigner was dating the Black Cat at this time after she had previously been with Spider-Man. The following exchange took place:

Spider-Man: Yeah, what else did she say?

Foreigner: There were other comparisons. I'm afraid you came up rather short."

"Darkwing: Now all those orders I filed for chains and cowboy hats make sense! *muttered* All this time I thought someone had a unique way of enjoying the weekend."
 * Darkwing Duck #2:


 * Here's one that's absolutely ridiculous. In an issue of New Mutants the characters go to Hell and fight demons who speak a seemingly nonsensical language. It is, however, translated at one point. If you follow each letter precisely, you can actually find the demons saying things like, "Fuck nuts" and "Hey dick-breath".
 * Sounds like something Alan Moore must have referenced in Book II of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In it, there's a Martian dialect which, when read in a mirror, is English. Through this, Moore is able to get across a great amount of profanity.
 * Sergio Aragones likes to sneak penises and bare-breasted women into some of his background scenes, particularly Groo the Wanderer. Given the cartoonish style of his work, it's more comedic than titillating.
 * Teen Titans got away with the very underaged Terra having a sexual relationship with the much older Deathstroke. To make it worse, he's older than he looks.
 * It's not known if it was so much this trope or more the editorial letting things slide since it was the last issue of the series, but in the final issue of Secret Six Gail Simone got away with including a polygamous lesbian marriage.
 * In the Marvel series Civil War the Thing takes a sabbatical in Paris, and of course ends up fighting alongside a French superhero team. He celebrates his new allegiance with the warcry "Il est temps de battre!" (Strictly, it should be "C'est l'heure de se battre," but this is Ben Grimm.) In the next fight scene he gets a little confused and yells "Il est temps de foutre!" and the sexy superheroine alongside asks if that was exactly what he meant. Well she may, since the English word would only appear in a comic with stars after the F, and probably not even then.
 * There is an Archie story from the 80s which involves Archie using his finger to stop-up a hole in a cracked aquarium to stop it from flooding Mr. Lodge's pool room. The story features one of Mr. Lodge's business associates who is clearly huffing Amyl Nitrate numerous times during the story; he even offers one to Archie, saying they're "smelling salts".
 * During Cross Gen's first run, Obregon Kaine's Catch Phrase in Negation is BOHICA. And when Evinlea asks what that means, he replies point-blank that it's short for "Bend Over, Here It Comes Again". For comparison, actual swear words were rare in the entire Sigil-verse, never stronger than "damn", and in a few places expletives are obviously censored.
 * There's a short Batman written by Brian K. Vaughn which has the Joker breaking into a factory and rearranging the chemicals to spell dirty words. For example, boron, argon, and fluoride become B-Ar-F. Then he mentions he also did copper and niton.
 * In the original X-Men Phoenix Saga, one of the first hints you have that Phoenix was really getting off from using her enormous power was subtly slipped in by artist John Byrne. During her duel with The White Queen) judging from her chestal region, she was either really turned on or it was really cold in Chicago that night. And since they had already established a few issues earlier she didn't even feel the cold anymore, well....