10 Things Everyone Always Gets Wrong About Comic Books

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

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?