Hey kids! Comics!

(Page from Justice League #38, written by Scott Snyder, drawn by Jorge Jimenez and colored by Alejandro Sanchez)

Just the one...?

Well, it was either an extremely slow month for dismemberments, or I just didn't read any of the right comics, because the above image is the only image of an arm being cut or torn off of a character in a DC comic that I personally encountered in August.

As you can probably figure out, those two pages were part of a facing spread, and so the arm-ripping-off ran horizontally along the top of a two-page spread, and was thus bigger than my scanner. If you're wondering what the heck is happening in it, that's the Doomsday-possessed Superman (who I think they're calling "Superdoom," at least in the branding on the covers) ripping the left robot arm off of The Cyborg Superman.

This occurred in Superman/Wonder Woman Annual #1, which was written by Charles Soule. I couldn't tell you who drew the image, as there are five pencil artists and five inkers all credited; I'm pretty sure that Benes pencilled the above pages, but that's as close as I can narrow it down.

As to what's really going on, like, more specifically than Superdoom ripping off Cyborg Superman's arm, man, I don't know how to even begin explaining this crazy-ass plot.

Remember (if you are an old, like me, or if you have read the collections) when Doomsday first appeared and fought Superman to their deaths? (And by deaths I of course mean "deaths.") Remember how Doomsday was originally conceived as basically just The Hulk, but they gave him some bone spikes and a terrible haircut to differentiate him from The Hulk? Well, this current Superman crossover story, engulfing the whole Superman line except for the Geoff Johns/John Romita Jr. book, is going further with the Doomsday-is-basically-just-the-Hulk thing, positing a take where Superman is to Bruce Banner as Doomsday is to The Hulk. It's pretty dumb. But, on the plus side...

Well, I haven't found a plus side. It's pretty dumb.

(Thanks to Bram Meehan, an actual wizard, who somehow used his magical powers to make these two images into one animated, like image, so now I can sit and stare at the Dynamic Duo slapping one another for hours at a time.)

DC's July 2014 in dismemberments

DC's May 2014 in dismemberments

Dystopian Future Captain Cold (drawn by Ethan Van Sciver) and Dystopian Future Batman (Jesus Merino and Dan Green), The New 52: Futures End FCBD Special Edition #0, May 3rd

Hawkman (Mike McKone), Justice League United #1, May 14th

Power Ring (Doug Mahnke and Scott Hanna), Justice League #30, May 21st

A polar bear (Dan Jurgens and Mark Irwin), The New 52: Futures End #3, May 21st

Frankenstein (Aaron Lopresti and Art Thibert), The New 52: Futures End #4, May 28th

Swamp Thing (Paul Pelletier and Sean Parsons), Aquaman #31, May 28th

The latest news from the Oh My God Geoff Johns Comics Are Crazy Violent! beat

Here's a scene from DC Comics' Green Lantern #7, written by Geoff Johns, penciled by Doug Mahnke and inked by Mahnke or one of the other three guys who inked this particular issue.

For context, Green Lantern Sinestro has been imprisoned by the mysterious, purple energy-wielding band of aliens known as the Indigo Tribe. One of their members attempts to "cleanse" Sinestro of his green energy by generating some purple, glowing tentacles to grow all over Sinestro, which is the "violation" Sinestro is shouting about (not the other kind of violation that is sometimes screamed about in prison cells before, after or during acts of violence).

Sinestro responds by fighting off the tentacles, laser-beaming the Indigo Tribesman and then...

...repeatedly ramming his head against the metal bars of the prison cell until his skull caves in with a  "KRATCH" and gore showers Sinestro's face.

Green Lantern is rated "T/Teen," which, in DC's rating guidelines, means “Appropriate for readers age 12 and older. May contain mild violence, language and/or suggestive themes.”

That, then, is mild violence. Can you imagine regular violence, let alone extreme or hardcore violence? I'm at a bit of a loss myself, trying to think of a way that scene could have been made more violent.

I guess it could have gone on for another four to eight panels, and I suppose Mahnke could have drawn the final, head-collapsing panel in a slightly longer shot, so we could the victim's face and thus better assess the extent of the damage. 

DC has two ratings higher than "T." There's "T+/Teen Plus," which is "appropriate for readers age 16 and older" and "may contain moderate violence, mild profanity, graphic imagery and/or suggestive themes, and "M/Mature," which is appropriate for readers age 18 and older," and "may containe intense violence, extensive profanity, nudity, sexual themes and other content suitable only for older readers."

I realize that the system is set up mostly for cover, and that each book is assigned a particular rating that never changes from issue to issue ("Johnny DC" books are E, Vertigo are M, and DCU books are either T or T+), and that it is highly unlikely that anyone edits the books along those guidelines and forces changes to script or art based on whether or not the amount of violence exceeds that which the rating says is acceptable (and, if they do, cheif creative officer Geoff Johns is probably exempt).

Nevertheless, it's strange to read a scene like the one above and see how it's classified as "mild violence" instead of "moderate violence" or "intense violence." Maybe moderate and/or intense violence in superhero comics is as hard to define as pornography, a sort of "I'll know it when I see it" thing that different readers judge differently, but if DC really thinks the above scene is merely mild violence, I shudder to think of what their idea of intense violence might look like.

This concludes this the 456th installment of a 9,000,000-part series about how remarkably violent Geoff Johns' DC superhero comics are.

If this is Brightest Day, can you imagine what a dark one might look like?