Lesson Two: Address Contemporary Issues with Intention

Comics are serial - they're a continuous story published periodically, normally monthly or bimonthly. This affects a comic in a few interesting ways. First, to account for the reader forgetting what happened in the previous issue, a new comic will contain a good chunk of exposition to bring the reader up to date. There's also the fact the writers and artists change over time, allowing each to contribute their own take on the character.

However, I would say the most important effect of its serial publication is that a comic is inherently tied to the time of its release: comics contain references to pop-culture, current technology, and most interesting for this post, metaphors for contemporary social and political issues. When done well, these are some of the best stories comics have to offer.

Take Civil War, the 2006-2007 crossover event.

As a recap, an inexperienced group of superheroes (the New Warriors) fight against a similarly inexperienced group of villains, resulting in the death of six hundred civilians. The public is devastated, and congress passes the Superhuman Registration Act to increase government oversight on the superhero community.

While heroes like Iron Man welcome the opportunity to take responsibility for their powers, others like Captain America fear the restriction of superhuman rights and the creation of a surveillance state. Sound familiar? Civil War is a metaphor for 9/11, the Patriot Act, and the public debate surrounding it.

I think this is a great way for the comic industry to participate in the public conversation. The story is intentional (10+ issues), nuanced, and carries the passion and opinions of the creators behind it.

Let's take a more modern example: Daredevil's imprisonment in Zdarsky's 2019 run.

For nonreaders: after not-fully recovering from a debilitating car crash, Daredevil accidentally kills a robber in a confrontation gone wrong. Matt decides to accept responsibility for his actions and pleads guilty in court, sentenced to two years in prison.

While proud of his decision, Matt soon realizes his experience is far different from his cellmates: he's allowed to keep to his mask and remain anonymous, his stardom reduces his sentence to a mere two years, and most importantly, his powers put him at the top of the prison hierarchy.

It's a really interesting metaphor for how people from different backgrounds can have drastically different experiences with the justice system. It's the perfect story for Matt Murdock, the idealistic lawyer.

Unfortunately, it's not all perfect. Writers can get lazy: sometimes, instead of a well thought-out story to act as a metaphor for a contemporary debate, we'll get a few panels of a background character monologuing to the reader. When the narration feels a bit preachy, disconnected from the main narrative, and the story itself has little to say on these topics, that's normally a good sign of this phenomenon.

The characters should feel compelled to speak by the story, not by the writer. If you can't create a story that naturally conveys the tension of a contemporary debate, using your characters as dialogue machines to explicitly speak on these issues is a poor replacement.