10 Things Everyone Always Gets Wrong About Comic Books

6. They're Either Just For Adults OR Just For Kids

Simpsons Comic Book Guy
Fox

Ironically, these two mistakes get levied by people who are and aren't comic book fans. Some critics tend to the medium as childish, and something that adults shouldn't be reading. At the same time, adults who do read comics like to claim that they aren't for kids. Naturally, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Since the beginning of the Bronze Age, superhero books in particular have strayed into adult territory, and have largely remained there for the last four decades. They're often violent, dark and mature, dealing with themes that would've otherwise been censored during the height of the Silver Age and the Comics Code Authority.

Those who grew up on the Bronze and Modern Ages of comics have known a medium that's catered almost exclusively to a more adult market, and while that continues to be the case even to this day - with Marvel, DC and other publishers all pushing the envelope when it comes to mature storytelling - to say that comics are just for adults would just be ignorant.

The problem isn't so much that comics are just for kids or for adults - they aren't - it's more the fact that recent trends have neglected younger demographics. Both Marvel and DC have undertaken corrective measures to restore that balance, but the actual reality is that the medium - like any other - has content for specific age-ranges.

Ultimately, people who take issue with video games wouldn't label that medium as being 'just for kids' with the release of a new Pokémon title, and neither would those who criticise cinema deem it a purely adult hobby with every 'R'-rated release. Why is that so difficult to grasp with comics?

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.