Anyone following the Walking Dead controversy?

[Bravo]

about robert kirman's the walking dead-


SPOILERS:









this last story arc had michonne a black female, raped and tortured to the brink of death by the white governor.

people were outraged by this.

and then kirkman showed her brutally mete out vengeance. it was quite simply the most horrific and graphic scene ive ever read in a comic book.

but, IMO, it worked.

kirkman is getting blasted for being a racist and misogynist for this arc.

one letter writer even claimed that whites everywhere "jacked off" to the rape scene. that it played on historical racist fantasies, etc.

any thoughts on any of this?

did he go too far?

[veinglory]

Writers, IMHO, can write anything they want. Personally I think it was rape used to excuse gratuitous violence and vice versa. But if people want to read that, what do I care?

[Sheryl Nantus]

wasn't this news, like... about five months ago?

your time machine is in need of some maintenance.

[Bravo]

was there a thread on it?

i was reminded b/c of the letters in the last issue.

[PeeDee]

I thought it was really....really.....powerful. I mean, geeze.

Race issues just don't naturally occur to me until someone turns up and puppets "Aaaah, it's a racist book!" So that didn't even cross my mind until someone decided 'let's have a controversy about it!'

I just thought it worked really well.

Anyway, seriously, what do they expect? Have they failed to read the REST of the series? I mean, seirously, it's not like we went from G-rated comics to one sudden violent scene, for Pete's sake...

[Inkdaub]

I haven't read it but it sounds silly...any controversy I mean...from the way it's described here.

[Excelsior]

As a person who's read every issue, I was indeed disgusted by Michonne's rape/torture scenes, but not the way others might have been. I was disgusted because I felt that the whole story arc was contrary to what Kirkman had been doing so well up to that point, and it was so ridiculously over the top that it came damn close to ruining the series for me. It seemed so contrary to the points and themes the rest of the run had been expounding that it took me right out of the story.

The fact that it was a white man raping a black woman barely registered on me. To me, it was just rape.

[PeeDee]

You do make a good point. It was over-the-top, and perhaps unnecessarily so. It's a zombie book, so you expect over the top, but to a point, and in a way, and that was beyond both.

[veinglory]

I really only want rape used as a story event for a damned good reason. I was even put off Cerebus by the implied rape by the *hero*, and almost put off the Authority by implied rape of one of the heroes because in both cases it was just used an an 'aside'.

In book that are actually about a taboo issue it doesn't bother me, like 'Tale of One Bad Rat' which is about child abuse (not rape per se) and 'Maus'.

Maybe rape shouldn't be such as issue compared to torture, murder and other such things but for a lot of people--it is. I have a lot of trouble seeing it used gratuitously. But as usual, free speech and all that.

[PeeDee]

See, I don't remember it bothering me in Cerberus.I thought David Sims handled it pretty well, and the story was good enough that I wouldn't have quit anyway.

[Jcomp]

Anyway, seriously, what do they expect? Have they failed to read the REST of the series? I mean, seirously, it's not like we went from G-rated comics to one sudden violent scene, for Pete's sake...

As a person who's read every issue, I was indeed disgusted by Michonne's rape/torture scenes, but not the way others might have been. I was disgusted because I felt that the whole story arc was contrary to what Kirkman had been doing so well up to that point, and it was so ridiculously over the top that it came damn close to ruining the series for me. It seemed so contrary to the points and themes the rest of the run had been expounding that it took me right out of the story.

The fact that it was a white man raping a black woman barely registered on me. To me, it was just rape.

Good points both.

[onebadgungan]

I got here late for this one, but as an avid reader of The Walking Dead, I thought the rape scene was both incredibly brutal, and well handled. I disagree completely that it was contrary to what Kirkman had done up to that point - It was very well in-line with his previous stories in this world.

To think that every story is going to be about nothing but zombies without dealing with the decent people who have gone a little hardcore to the psychotics who use the epidemic to control and abuse is more than a little naive. Kirkman said repeatedly that he will be dealing more with the relationships and personalities than with the zombies every issue.

I guess I just understood that this was going to be an adult series that dealt with adult issues, and rape in a time of war by a lunatic, especially as a torture, is probably pretty common in real life, so it should be addressed as another of a long list of hazards to be more vigilant for.

Was I disgusted? Yes, as disgusted as I could be watching fictional events happen to fictional people as a reminder that it happens to real people. Was it excessive? I guess that's up to personal taste. But was it contrary? Not at all.

[Sai]

I didn't find it racist or misogynist. She wasn't being raped because she was black, it was because she had bitten the guy's ear off. If she had been a white man I'm sure something equally unpleasant and gruesome would have happened to her (well, 'him', but you get my point).

I did find the whole arc a drastic tonal shift from what had come before, and I wasn't a big fan of it. It seemed like bad things were happening o the characters for the sake of it. I mean, I know it was there to prove just how bad the bad guys are, but I found their means distracting rather than horrifying. I think the storyline for me would have had more impact if, ironically, the violence had been toned down.

Edit: yee-haw, 100 posts!