5 Times Comic Books Went Too Far

We've seen Krypton in many forms over the years in comics, television, movies and more. But one thing that almost never gets brought up is that Krypton, in most incarnations, is full of white people and not much else.

Sure, this is an alien race and all, but there is actually a reason for this that was brought up back in the Superman comic book that hit comic racks in 1971. It seems all black Kryptonians were sent off to live on an island away from everyone else.

These black Kryptonians were sent to live on the island Vathlo (the comic even provided a map of where the island was located) and we learn that they are a "highly developed black race" of Kryptonians.

The comics never really dove into this island of black Kryptonians and just sort of moved on; probably for the best all things considered. Over the years black Kryptonians have popped up in Krypton proper so either DC just ignores this "weird" era, or they were incorporated back into the world which would make for an interesting story arc.

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are major players who have were originally evildoers before eventually earning Avengers status. It's quite the arc that even led them to feature in the MCU Avengers film(s).

But comics are a weird world and when Marvel launched the Ultimate Universe they started everyone off from scratch to draw in new readers who thought the years and years of past issues were a barrier to entry.

This actually worked well and titles like Spider-Man earned lots of praise, but then Marvel lost their minds and took things into some weird places. One of those places was making the twins Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver lovers. Wasp makes fun of Captain America saying his 1944 brain can't handle the modern day; as if incest it totally cool now.

This whole arc, and much of the later era of the Ultimate Universe, was pretty crazy and did nothing but take two well-established characters and make them creepy. Seriously, who is this change for? Is there a large portion of comic readers that are into the incest thing? Let's hope not.

Superman has been around for a really long time, and with that comes tons of weird moments. Heck, and entire "age" of comics is dedicated to Superman being a jerk to people. It was almost always chalked up to mind-control, but still.

Back in 1987 you'd think the people at DC would have known better as we were only a few years away from "The Death of Superman" arc and had seen three Superman movies, as well as a terrible Supergirl film.

But instead of being normal people, DC decided to jump on the porn bandwagon. A character by the name of Sleez, yes, Sleez, brainwashes (and there it is) Superman into making a sex tape because this was the pre-Kardashian days where such a thing makes you a star.

But instead of some ManyVids type wank fest, Sleez forces Superman to doink Big Barda, who was the wife of Mister Miracle. As the pair are doing their best fake passion faces, Mister Miracle sees them through a window making it even creepier. Thankfully he saves the day before they do the nasty.

Making characters ride the beasts with two backs who have no reason to do so seems to be a trend in comics. Gwen Stacy was Peter Parker's first serious girlfriend and her death at the hands of the Green Goblin changed comics forever.

That's not just my high praise as her death ushered is one of the events that led us into the bronze age of comics. This was a big deal, and one that Marvel left alone because of the impact it had on Spider-Man and the whole of comic book history.

Then they decided to throw it all away in a story that did nothing but negate decades of stories because it was the 2000s and that was Marvel policy at the time. Or at least that's my theory. Marvel decided that Gwen Stacy had cheated on Peter before her death, the man she loved with all her heart mind you, and bump uglies with Norman Osborne.

She shagged Spider-Man's greatest enemy and even had twins from the affair. It was retconned in the arc that the Green Goblin killed Gwen not to get in Spider-Man's head, but because he wanted to raise the babies himself. Marvel fans try to forget this ever happened.

What is it with Superman books and dropping the ball with regards to black society and culture? In issue #106 of Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane, Lois Lane jumps into a machine that will turn her black for 24 hours.

She does this because she's doing a story on Metropolis’s "urban area" and every black person there refuses to talk with her. So it only makes logical sense she'd use a magic machine to become black...

Lois gets to experience life as a black woman of the time, and there is an effort, if really misguided, made to show how things are, even if the whole idea sort of misses the mark and she was only doing it to win a Pulitzer. And at the end of the story Lois asks Superman is she'd marry her is she was black.

She asks Superman right to his face if he loves her even if she might not be able to turn white again. He, of course, stalls answering the question until Lois turn back into a white person and goes on to probably win her award