Darker and Edgier/Comic Books: Difference between revisions

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* Here's one way to kill the party: Turn [[Fun Personified|cheerful, bouncy]] Robbie Baldwin from the [[Personality Powers|playfully heroic]] Speedball into an apparent murderer with a [[Angst|guilt complex]] worthy of [[Angel]]. Now he calls himself Penance, and wears a suit with 612 built-in points of pain, one for each person killed that day. His new powers can only manifest when he is in pain.

** In ''[[Thunderbolts]]'', however, Penance has come to terms with the Stamford incident not being his fault. [[Batman Gambit|He reveals to Nitro the real reason for the suit.]] {{spoiler|The suit wasn't for Robbie, although his survivor's guilt led him to wear it [[Angst|as a form of cutting]], it was for Nitro. Robbie captured Nitro in Latveria to punish him for the Stamford incident, put him in the suit and proceeded to beat the CRAP out of him, after which he removes the last spike from his own chest to symbolize that he's freed himself of guilt.}}

* Much of Marvel's [[Ultimate Universe]] runs in this vein. A stunning amount of the process of its "updating" traditional Marvel characters for the modern era has involved inflating the sex and violence content (e.g. [[Incredible Hulk|the Hulk]] isn't merely violent or even murderous, but is also [[I'm a Humanitarian|cannibalistic]]; Quicksilver isn't just [[Big Brother Instinct|very protective]] of his sister the [[Scarlet Witch]], but is in a [[Brother-Sister Incest|sexual relationship]] with her; [[Iron Man|Tony Stark]] is a genius as expected -- due to a painful cancer-like affliction which has spread brain matter throughout his body and will soon kill him). "Updating" personalities means turning pretty much everyone into a complete and utter [[Jerkass]]. [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]] largely escaped, but [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]] and [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] were all turned into such vile bastards that... well... they wouldn't exactly look out of place on the new ''[[Battlestar Galactica ~~Reimagined]]~~''. Oddly enough, [[Iron Man]] is actually ''less'' of a dick in the Ultimate universe.

* Much of Marvel's [[Ultimate Universe]] runs in this vein. A stunning amount of the process of its "updating" traditional Marvel characters for the modern era has involved inflating the sex and violence content (e.g. [[Incredible Hulk|the Hulk]] isn't merely violent or even murderous, but is also [[I'm a Humanitarian|cannibalistic]]; Quicksilver isn't just [[Big Brother Instinct|very protective]] of his sister the [[Scarlet Witch]], but is in a [[Brother-Sister Incest|sexual relationship]] with her; [[Iron Man|Tony Stark]] is a genius as expected -- due to a painful cancer-like affliction which has spread brain matter throughout his body and will soon kill him). "Updating" personalities means turning pretty much everyone into a complete and utter [[Jerkass]]. [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]] largely escaped, but [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]] and [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] were all turned into such vile bastards that... well... they wouldn't exactly look out of place on [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|the new ''Battlestar Galactica'']]. Oddly enough, [[Iron Man]] is actually ''less'' of a dick in the Ultimate universe.

** The biggest example of this in the [[Ultimate Universe]] is [[Captain America (comics)]], who in the 616-universe is the embodiment of American ideals and values, including but not limited to equality, openness to political discourse, and dedication to international harmony. Ultimate Cap is a racist, sexist hardliner who calls the French cowards, ''despite the fact that he fought alongside the Resistance in WWII''. His characterization is more of a [[Deconstruction]] of the original idea: a man who's been frozen in ice since the 1940s and yet ''has'' to be the quintessential American hero for today, despite ''being'' the hero of (and thus holding ideals from) yesterday.

* Said Ultimate Universe spread to the 616-universe, as far as evil [[Iron Man]] and Reed Richards and Cyclops expelling Xavier from the [[X-Men]] (even though Cyclops utterly bombed as Top Guy at the school as far as Xavier saving the X-Men's asses during the Messiah Complex X-Over) and starting his own murder squad, a move even ''[[Wolverine]]'' found distasteful and only agreed to lead to try and keep Scott from turning Wolfsbane, [[X-23]], and Warpath into soulless murderers). Not to mention the whole "Spider-Man selling his soul" crap.