Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett responds to comments on the labeling/content issues he raised last week:

I want to thank those of you who responded to last week's column, especially Penny Kenny who made the point I was trying to make far better than I did.  If were smart I'd leave things at that, but I'm afraid that's just not in my nature.

I could have compared superhero comics to any successful primetime network television series but it would be hard finding an example better suited to my purposes than NCIS.  As Ms. Kenny suggested, it does very nicely for itself, being one of the highest rated shows on CBS, regularly winning its time slot in the 18-49 and 24-54 demographics, gaining its highest ratings ever with last year's Christmas themed episode*.  And repeats run regularly on the USA Network (who seem to have NCIS marathons on a weekly basis), Sleuth, and Ion networks.

Plus being broadcast at 8pm it's about as close to an 'entry level' crime drama as network TV has these days, its episodes usually receiving TV Parent Guidance ratings of TV-PG (parental guidance suggested) or TV-14 (recommended for people 14 or older).  So while it's clearly not intended for everyone NCIS still manages to attract a large, diverse audience while still being plenty dark and edgy.

The series strikes a nice balance between humor, drama and soap opera, and the episodes are usually self-contained, though each season usually has an 'arc', and while its band of flawed heroes have their doubts and crises of conscience, they never let them get in the way of bagging the dirt-bag of the week by the final act.  In addition, while the series does have continuity, and each of the characters a back-story, you needn't know any of it to enjoy individual episodes at random.

As 'edgy' as it sometimes gets, NCIS is as popular as it is because it always keeps audience expectations in mind.  This, ultimately, is why a three-way between these fictional characters will never happen.  Not just because it would be a failure of discipline that would interfere with the unit's missions and esprit de corps, but because it's not considered mainstream sexual behavior by most Americans.

Not something you have to worry about in the direct sales market, where it's seen as "fan service".

Now perhaps I've just been hit in the head too often (no 'perhaps;' I have), but why couldn't at least some superhero comics use shows like this as a template?  It seems to me it wouldn't be that hard to create comics which could appeal to a wider audience without alienating our base.

Either that or we can go right on creating material for that 13-to-40-year-old male demographic, and continue to be an ever-dwindling niche market.

I suppose what bothers me most about this whole threesome incident is that its further proof there's no longer a 'line' everyone recognizes shouldn't be crossed.  Which I suppose is how we got the scene in Supergirl #44 where Breast Implants Cat Grant showed up for work under the impression it was "dress like a middle-aged prostitute day."  I'm not what you'd consider a fashionista so I checked with a female friend with a proper office job, and her response was "Grotesquely inappropriate.  The only people you'd see dressed like that in public are porn stars."

As some of you have been good enough to point out there are plenty of comics which are specifically intended for kids and though some of you just won't believe me I really have no objection to "superhero decadence" as long as it's done well.  Just recently I've been enjoying some of the Marvel MAX titles, like Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker's revamp of Destroyer.  Ok, sure it's just Kirkman's Brit series wearing a rubber Skrull mask but its brutality (a 'bloody fight' means our hero walks away literally drenched in it) is actually kind of refreshing.

You can't confuse a Marvel Adventures title with a Marvel MAX one but in more and more of the main Marvel titles I see material that rightfully belongs in a MAX (i.e. Drunken Sex Peter Parker).  So I really can't see what would be wrong with publishers establishing consistent standards when it comes to content and keeping to them.

And though I'll never be able to convince Jim Crocker of Modern Myths of this I really do not pine for my lost childhood; I have too good a memory.  On the other hand I was sitting around wondering when I'd get my first letter from AARP when not fifteen minutes later (I swear) I got a robocall which started off with "Attention Seniors, do you have burial insurance?"

* Just Imagine a Christmas episode being popular, the very thing Marvel and DC regularly likes to tell us "you just can't do" in comics anymore.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.