Family-Unfriendly Aesop/Comic Books

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Family-Unfriendly Aesops in Comic Books include:

  • An arguable implication of the editorially mandated last arc of the Batgirl series, and an inescapably blatant one in the Robin arc that followed up on it, was that no matter how much you try you cannot find redemption, even for "sins" born of ignorance, so of course you should give up on escaping your past and embrace it as your destiny. Several months later, this was revealed as a case of Brainwashed and Crazy, in a hasty Author's Saving Throw.
    • Or, conversely, don't even bother putting on the Batmantle if you're a minority because they'll resurrect a dead character and stick the cowl on her rather than let an Asian girl be a bat protege. African-American vigilante Onyx probably knew this when she, as the only person Batman trusted to watch Gotham in his absence, never once put a cowl on while a white character was created from scratch to serve as Batwoman several months later.
  • In the Marvel Comics Crisis Crossover Civil War, the moral, according to Word of God, was that sometimes a little liberty must be sacrificed for security, especially when it comes to people who can potentially destroy the world with their powers. But many fans thought the Word of God was being sarcastic, and didn't realize it was serious. Why? Several reasons:
    • Marvel Comics has done stories for over twenty years in which treating super-powered mutants differently is the same as racism. In the context of Marvel Comics fandom, this is a very Family Unfriendly Aesop.
    • Some of the individual writers in the story didn't agree with the Word of God. Their stories clashed badly with the central theme, and turned it from a Family Unfriendly Aesop into a Broken Aesop.
    • Most importantly, the entire pro-registration side (which Word of God essentially pointed to as being "right") consisted of a bunch of complete bastards who actively committed incredibly immoral acts in the name of their goals, freely interacted with villains, and were willing to fight with lethal force. Several of them were written out of character to be more evil, and were led by the most jerktastic version of Tony Stark ever to be written (which is quite a feat). Meanwhile, the anti-registration people were led by Captain America (who is consistently upheld to be one of the most morally upright characters and the most reliable moral barometer in the Marvel Universe), generally acted in a far more "heroic" manner, had a stance that echoed the "correct" viewpoint of 30+ years worth of Marvel continuity, and acted on beliefs ("government isn't always right," "persecution is wrong," and "sometimes, you have to fight for what you believe in") that would far more accurately reflect those of the target reading audience (ie, young males). There's almost nothing within the actual context of the story that would imply the reader was even remotely supposed to see the pro-registration group as being in the right.
      • The game (Ultimate Alliance 2) didn't help either. If you chose the anti-registration side, the next task is to thrash some Registration Flunky Robots. If you chose pro-registration, you have to beat up a teenage superhero.
    • This also ties into the Reed Richards Is Useless trope. The U.S. government on Marvel Earth-616 can build giant Sentinel robots, powered-armor suits, and flying Helicarriers. Yet when it comes to stopping super-villains, or alien invasions (as in the following Secret Invasion crossover) they are wholly dependent on super-powered vigilantes. Mainly because they devote 100% of their ultra-tech resources to oppressing genetically-enhanced superheroes, who are usually doing the government's police and national security jobs for it anyway.
      • There is also an obvious element of racism to this. Although it has been demonstrated countless times in the Marvel Universe that technology can do virtually anything that super powers can, and despite the fact that seemingly anyone with a bachelors in electrical engineering can pretty much become a super-villain using stuff from Radio Shack, the focus of government and public concern is almost exclusively on people with biologically-based super powers. This is epitomized by Tony Stark, a Gadgeteer, being placed in charge of the crackdown on metahumans.
    • Last but not least, Joachim von Ribbentrop who said, "they who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." No wait that was Benjamin Franklin.
  • Most superhero comics tacitly endorse vigilantism. "With great power comes great responsibility" is a nice message for kids; "so put on a mask and take the law into your own hands" is pretty questionable.
    • It's no coincidence that this has been the most frequently deconstructed and reconstructed trope in superhero (especially DC) comics, with superhero tropes such as "Thou Shalt Not Kill" changing from a family-friendly mandate to the standard way of making sure that all actual justice is dealt out by law enforcement and the courts, with superheroes being relegated to good Samaritans taken Up to Eleven who only foil super villains and criminals, never punish them. Of course, this causes even more complications: like, in case of Batman, what happens when the justice system is ineffective; or, in the case of super powered villains like the Flash's rogues, what happens when human systems can't contain the lawbreakers; or, in the case of Superman's Lex Luthor, what happens when you can't get the evidence to pin the rap for monstrous crimes on a Genre Savvy Villain with Good Publicity (and Plausible Deniability). These and all the other legally murky areas in the relationship between the justice system, superheroes, super villains, and regular criminals gives rise to has been the subject of many, many modern story lines involving characters espousing conflicting Aesops.
  • Chick Tracts:
    • The Bully: "Even someone whose bullying caused people to reject Jesus and end up in Hell might repent and go to Heaven."
    • Fat Cats: "Meet the New Boss, same as the old boss."
    • Gunslinger: "Sometimes the villain repents and goes to Heaven while the hero is self-righteous and goes to Hell."
    • Lisa: "Viewing pornography and a breakdown in one's marriage leads to child molesting, among other things--or vice-versa."
    • Little Bride: "Muslims are pedophiles, and cultural Values Dissonance is no excuse."
    • The horrifying truth is that these are not Family Unfriendly Aesops by accident, but by choice. Jack Chick appeared to really believe these messages. And so do hundreds of thousands of other people. That is why each of these moral lessons is classified as a Family Unfriendly Aesop rather than, say, as any kind of Accidental Aesop, Spoof Aesop, or Broken Aesop. (This is not to say there were not any of these in the tracts, however; see Jack Chick's main page for the details.)
  • Linkara once reviewed a PSA comic called Future 5, about a group of college graduate "heroes" who speak out in favor of higher education and battle a villain whose goal is to discourage kids from attending college and become the smartest man in the world by default. Though the comic is well-intentioned, it enraged Linkara to a surprising extent, thanks to several ways in which its message comes off as ignorant or outright insulting:
    • People who don't go to college are portrayed as idiots who are doomed to a lifetime of menial McJobs (which Linkara counters by mentioning people who either dropped out or never attended college and still succeeded in life, like Bill Gates and Patrick Stewart).
    • Dropping out is portrayed as always being a personal choice, ignoring all the reasons someone might have to get a job early (such as supporting their family in a time of sickness or loss).
    • People who do have menial jobs like flipping burgers are looked down upon as if they were a lower class of person, especially when compared to those who have "better" jobs.
    • At the end of the video, Linkara gets his student loan bill, much to his dismay. This pokes at the fact that the comic did not once address the tuition costs of college, which could leave someone paying well after college.
  • The following famous quote from Captain America sounds inspiring, until you remember that truth is quite often subjective, and that sometimes what someone sees as truth may not be clear-cut. In fact, it might be out-and-out false. Also, how is the world supposed to get to the River of Truth if one is standing in front of it and refusing to get out of the way?

Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world -- "No, you move."

    • Given the context of that quote, the meaning may have been intended as "don't compromise your beliefs simply because there is a great deal of pressure on you to do so" rather than "if you know it in your gut, than stick to your guns."
    • Also note that despite that badass speech, Captain America DID ultimately move.
  • This is a bit of a mix of Family-Unfriendly Aesop and Broken Aesop, but the moral of Birds of Prey: The Battle Within, the arc from issues 76 to 85, appears to be the fairly stock aesop of "You should accept your friends for who they are and not try to change them," except that what Oracle was trying to change about Huntress is her tendency to kill people. In the end, Oracle apologizes to Huntress, and, in the Dead of Winter story arc (issues 104-108), actually tells Huntress to use deadly force against the Secret Six if she thinks it appropriate, possibly making this the Family-Unfriendly Aesop that sometimes killing people is a good idea, and very headbangerish as well. Oracle is a Bat for heaven's sake. The one unwavering thing about the Bat Family is that "thou shalt not kill" is mandatory.
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