When JLA Classified premiered, my initial reaction was "Do we really need another JLA book?" The first story arc was passable, but what has hooked me is the second arc featuring a return of the Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire version of the Justice League circa 1986. I'm sure that it says a lot about me that I have such fond memories of that incarnation of the Justice League. Under Giffen and DeMatteis the stories were light hearted and whimsical. While full of adventure, they never took themselves too seriously and I often found myself laughing out loud. They were fun. So what does it say about me that I enjoyed this run of comics so? Probably that I am hopelessly out of step with the comics of today.

The current issues of JLA Classified aren't selling very well. I don't understand why. One running gag is that everyone erroneously thinks that Sue Dibney's pregnant. Mildly amusing, yes. But of course this story must take place before we saw her raped and brutally murdered in Identity Crisis, which sold very well, by the way.

Blue Beetle and Booster Gold would not rank as my favorite heroes but in this book they were used nicely. They always meant well, but somehow too many things just got out of hand, sending the entire team into some new sort of chaos. Beetle mostly played straight man to Booster, and together they served to make life miserable for Max Lord, who tried his best to run a superhero organization that constantly went from one crisis to another. Of course, all this was before Countdown to Infinite Crisis, where we learned that Max Lord is actually an evil mastermind who's intention is to stop superheroes. Yes, it turns out that he was just "hiding in plain sight". This was also before Lord graphically shot Beetle in the head, a silhouette of his brains splattering over the page. Countdown To Infinite Crisis also sold very, very well.

This is hardly the first time that comics have undergone a transformation towards more adult oriented fare. In the 1980's the work of Frank Miller and Alan Moore gave comics an edge that they had never before had. Of course, at that time the overwhelming majority of comics were still approved by the comics code. As the years have gone by and the perceived audience of comics has grown older, comic writers have upped the ante continuously with more and more violent situations and more mature sexuality. These ain't the funny pages anymore, kid.

DC is hardly alone in this practice. The word of the day over at Marvel is "Grim". The demise and rebirth of the Avengers has been a completely joyless affair that sends me scrambling back to the early issues to remember what I liked about these characters in the first place. Perhaps it is just me and my unreasonable desire to be entertained by comics. I don't expect every comic to be happy and drenched with sunshine. I just find that reading many of these comics today leaves me with the same sense of disappointment that I might get if I returned to the playground of my childhood and found it littered with used condoms and syringes. It's turned into a ghetto and I certainly don't want to take my children there.

Apparently I am not alone in feeling sadness watching characters that I loved get terrorized, scandalized and brutalized. There has been a great deal of talk lately that the current "darkening" of superheroes is killing the future of the comic industry. There is no question that the various publishers should be allowed to publish the kind of material that they want. I do not for a moment advocate any kind of censorship. Reluctantly, I have to acknowledge that the free market should determine what kind of material ultimately fills the racks. Unfortunately, the free market often acts like a child who would happily substitute chocolate ice cream for all of its daily meals. Quality material sells without the added edgy violence. Sadly there is a whole feast of material that simply lacks that quality and the publishers know that they can still sell it by imbuing it with a sense of darkness and despair. While a series like Identity Crisis may be well written, it will undoubtedly be followed by a host of lesser series, each one emulating the most lurid aspects of the successful mini series.

So the question has to be asked: How far is it going to go before we've had enough? Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to ask: Will we ever get enough? Are we becoming junkies, looking for a greater and greater fix of lurid material, with the major publishers all too happy to pander to us and make a quick buck? I'd certainly like to think that will not be the case. I'd like to think that people are basically good and will ultimately seek out comics that present a world that doesn't reek of utter despair and senseless brutality.

Yep, that's what I'd like to think. But as I said earlier: I could also be hopelessly out of step with the comics of today.