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Complaint With Modern Comics For Possibly Causing Stigma

velociraptor said:
Your thread is titled complaint with modern comics yet you are criticizing the films and say you don't know much about the comic books? The title of your thread may need tweaking.

I recall comics getting dark and violent about thirty years ago, actually. This is not anything recent.
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I think this problem of the villains having mental problems is mostly a Batman problem.I mean I dont think you can find articles like this about Superman, or X-Men...

10 Batman Villains & The Real Life Mental Health Conditions They Represent

Funny enough that link agree that the Riddle represents autism.

It is so prevalent that there is not way this is accidental... it is almost as if the creators of batman designed each villain around an specific diagnosis.

That said, I have not seeing this problem with other comics... they have different approaches on character design... I guess.

This other link starts up with reminding us that Batman villains go to an asylum...

Batman's Rogues Gallery & Disorders

I mean, I can keep giving links... there are thousands of results on google...

batman villains and their mental disorders - Google Suche
 
velociraptor said:
Your thread is titled complaint with modern comics yet you are criticizing the films and say you don't know much about the comic books? The title of your thread may need tweaking.

I recall comics getting dark and violent about thirty years ago, actually. This is not anything recent.
Click to expand...
Any recommendations on how to word it?
717 said:
I think this problem of the villains having mental problems is mostly a Batman problem.I mean I dont think you can find articles like this about Superman, or X-Men...

10 Batman Villains & The Real Life Mental Health Conditions They Represent

Funny enough that link agree that the Riddle represents autism.

It is so prevalent that there is not way this is accidental... it is almost as if the creators of batman designed each villain around an specific diagnosis.

That said, I have not seeing this problem with other comics... they have different approaches on character design... I guess.

This other link starts up with reminding us that Batman villains go to an asylum...

Batman's Rogues Gallery & Disorders

I mean, I can keep giving links... there are thousands of results on google...

batman villains and their mental disorders - Google Suche
Click to expand...
Yes. And it can be so frustrating. I never even watched "The Batman" movie and don't care to. The trailer convinced me of that. But I think a lot of people in society at large judge us by comparisons to these characters. It was so flustering here back watching part of "Gotham" for the first time on Tubi and seeing that shows version of Edward Nygma ( who was easily recognizable as aspergers)change towards the end of season 1- beginning of season 2. I know it would have been a major variation from the comics, but it would have been nice if he had stayed a good guy. Even if Ed had to become a villian, I don't remember Frank Gorshin's Riddler ever actually harming anyone for real so I don't see why Cory's version had to become quite so psyco.
 
The characters in The Watchmen represent half of the DSM, I'm sure (hat tip to Rorschach). We're allowing Osterman's God complex, however - it's legit.
 
Jonn said:
Who here doesn't know a fellow autistic who has PTSD?
Who here has PTSD?
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Yes to both. Though the PTSD in my case was a childhood vehicle accident I was in. Can't say that I was ever really bullied growing up, but certainly never had that warm welcome feeling either.
 
Comic-style villains have to be far enough away from normal humans to be interesting, especially Batman's villains, because Batman himself isn't a simple, well-balanced character. And that lack of balance is a large part of Batman's lasting popularity.

In general villains have to lack empathy, or they'd never do anything bad enough and on a large enough scale to be worthy of the role and a cool name/title. And in many cases they have to display some or all of the outwardly dramatic behaviors of the Dark Triad to be interesting.
So many of them are going to be "within a stone's throw" of ASD.

The question, which I don't think has been fully addressed here, is whether many/most of them are perceived by the audience as ASD. One example (Riddler - a Batman villain) doesn't establish a general pattern.

IMO Narcissists (who have become much more common, perhaps (probably) surpassing ASD) and Machiavellian manipulators have significantly more to complain about than we do.

If we reverse it: I don't personally favor our being associated with the Dark Triad just because we all have an empathy deficit of some kind.

Ours is communication/understanding-biased. We care about other people. Aspies don't deliberately harm people, and we love our kids.

The Dark Triad weaponize not caring about harming other people to their own advantage. It's a big difference.

If we have a PR problem in the 21st century it's not on us or the medical profession.
The source of almost all the "Aspies are bad" implications I've ever seen (mostly "drop-ins" here, so not a lot of evidence) is identifiable (but I won't - either you can see it or you can't).

In my professional life (IT), where there are relatively many ASD and ASD-adjacent people, it's not considered a bad thing at all.
 
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@Hypnalis It seems like where I live, people automatically assume dark triad when they recognize social awkwardness at all and also when they hear the word autism. The only other common response is to assume your don't comprehend anything, baby talk you, and hold you back from learning making your decisions ect. because they think you are incapable even if shown evidence to the contrary. Then those people seem to treat any evidence of intelligent thought that you demonstrate much like someone acts when they are pacifying a two year old who thinks their little scribblings are a great work of art.
 
Hypnalis said:
Comic-style villains have to be far enough away from normal humans to be interesting, especially Batman's villains, because Batman himself isn't a simple, well-balanced character. And that lack of balance is a large part of Batman's lasting popularity.
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I dont think mental health issues is the only way to create villains. There are many ways to go around this...

An obvious example is Captain Planet, each villain represents a threat to the environment.

Superman villains seem to be in a way or another corrupted versions of superman... they are powerful in their way, and sometimes in the superman way, but their morals are not right, and that is why they are the bad guys. At the end Superman is not a hero because his powers, but because his morals and the decisions he make... Must be that conservative american rural education he got from his adopted family. I understand Superman is based on German philosophy, but I have never study this any deeper.

Spiderman seems to be similar, just morally wicked villains.

Disney seems to shape the villains after the 7 sins... but that is not comics.

I try to look into Marble, but it seems like they are more interested in Anti-heroes, and villains with redeeming qualities?
 
FayetheAspie said:
. Then those people seem to treat any evidence of intelligent thought that you demonstrate much like someone acts when they are pacifying a two year old who thinks their little scribblings are a great work of art.
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I have the same reaction when they demonstrate some independent thinking. 😏
 
I do see how it could get up your nose if the character is obviously a tacit depiction of an autistic person, if the inference is that autism is the driver of the character's antisocial behaviour. I expect there is a lot of subjectivity in that determination. I don't watch movies much so can't really comment. There is the further complication of there being real life autistic super villains. (With all the usual disclaimers attached)
 
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