Quick thought on violence in comics

I've been complaining on a regular basis about the increased gore that writers like Geoff Johns and Judd Winick (and Charlie Huston on Moon Knight) use in their comics. While flipping through some old Superman comics, I noticed that George Peréz didn't shy away from it either back when he did a fairly short-lived stint on Action Comics (his appreciation of bloodiness reaches a boiling point in the never-finished, twice-canceled Crimson Plague series starring DiNA: Simmons--yes, she's really called that!)

In the opening scene of "My Lady Maxima!", published 17 years ago (my, how time flies!) this new arrival to the Superman universe shows she can blow a man away in her very own way:



Note, however, that unlike the recent dismembering and brain-popping in Infinite Crisis and 52, we're left more with the clear impression of gore rather than the exact depiction of it. It's obvious what happens, but it's not as detailedly sick as the images we are presented with these days. Both art and coloring hide as much as they show. It could be argued that comics are "growing up" but I feel like it's more of an adolescent downslide, that phase were kids get all giddy about doing gross stuff.

Me, I definitely prefer the example above, obviously. It says something about DC at the time though that Maxima actually got to be part of the Justice League! (although I admit that I don't remember whether she was in her own mind at the time of this story, but even so...)

As an aside, those few Perez-drawn (and plotted!), Brett Breeding-finished issues of Action (including Annual #2) were awesome to behold. Such tight art, it deserves a post all of its own on a later date.