Saturday, June 2, 2007
This isn’t tentacle rape, it’s reproduction by means of forcible tentacle infection
Joe Quesada once again touches upon the controversy surrounding the cover of HEROES FOR HIRE #13. Will this be a weekly thing until he admits that it’s wrong and pulls the cover from publication? This from Newsarama:
So once again, no tentacle rape was intended, implied, or even in our thought processes as we were doing this cover nor was it in the thought process of the artist who created the cover. If some have chosen to see it that way there is nothing I can do except to say that I’m sorry.
And yes, if that was indeed what we intended the imagery to be, then shame on us, but that is not what happened and certainly not the case.
What did they intend the imagery to be? Remember, this is a book intended for ages 9 and up. I would love to see what written instructions the cover artist was given when she was assigned the job of painting the cover. That certainly would go a long way in establishing the actual original intent of Marvel Comics. Not that the intent is really all that important. At the end of the day, they still have a cover showing tentacle rape.
Joe Quesada can tell Newsarama each and every week that the cover was never intended to show rape. The problem is that he told Newsarama last week that the creature molesting the women was the Brood. I’ll be honest. I didn’t know what the Brood was. I do know how to use Wikipedia. This is what it says about the Brood:
The Brood possess wings, fanged teeth and a stinging tail. They have a hive mentality and mindlessly follow a queen. To reproduce, they must infect other races with their eggs.
So there you have it. This isn’t rape. This is forcible reproduction by means of tentacle infection.
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I’m sticking with what I said before: Tentacles or not, Brood or otherwise, there isn’t any sexual intercourse happening in that illustration. That means labelling the illustration as “tentacle rape” assumes a few things (not the least of which being that there is penetration happening somewhere out-of-frame, because there isn’t any happening in the image itself). I’m not accusing anyone of “seeing what they want to see,” but I could do. If I was a total jerk.
I don’t think there has to be any sexual intercourse to be considered tentacle rape. Wikipedia has an entry for the concept. It states, “Tentacle rape is a concept found in some horror hentai titles, where various tentacled creatures (usually fictional monsters) rape or otherwise penetrate women (or, less commonly, men). Much of the genre also consists of humiliation and bondage fetishes, since the victim typically is restrained by the appendages.”
It might not be sexual intercourse, but it is a creature with tentacles attempting to forcibly reproduce with women chained up to a pillar.
Call it whatever you want to call it, but there’s a pretty obvious implication of sexual violence in that picture. It’s kinda hot. But not for kids.
I agree with Jace. Who’s to say that the creature isn’t just going to eat those women? Then again, I wasn’t familiar with the ‘tentacle rape’ concept before, so I could be way off.
I think the most outrageous claim Marvel made is that nine year old kids read comics. Who’s going to believe that? Besides, I’ve seen far creepier things going on in funnybook shops than are on this here cover.
He may be planning on eating them, but according to Joe Quesada, this creature is a Brood. They reproduce by implanting their eggs into a victim. I guess that is what the whitish goo on Black Cat’s breasts is supposed to be. Brood eggs.
I never heard of the ‘tentacle rape’ genre in anime/manga before this started to get attention. Though technically these women are not being raped, they are being sexually assaulted. By a tentacle.
I also agree this isn’t the best entertainment for nine-year-olds. So re-release the thing with a “12 and up” advisory instead of “9 and up.” But every tentacled animal I can think of is slimy by nature, so I think it’s overly predatory to call that transparent slime anything other than “slime.” If I had a nine-year-old and he brought this comic home, I’d be more alarmed by the appearance of blood in the cover image. (Ah-ha, bet you perverts didn’t even notice the blood until now! Shame on you all!)
I was too busy looking at the hot tied up bitches to care about the blood.
And to be honest, if I had a kid, I wouldn’t care if he were reading a comic with blood in it. But I certainly wouldn’t like the idea of my 9 year old reading something with implied sexual violence in it.
This book hasn’t be published yet. The cover image was made available to retailers so they would know how many to order. Not just for this book, but every other comic too.
I was serious about wanting to read the notes sent to the cover artist. I don’t believe that the writer is the one that comes up with the cover. I’ve read some very detailed scripts for comics and I don’t remember ever seeing anything pertaining to the cover. I think that is one of the reasons the cover often times doesn’t have anything to do with the actual story in the book. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that HEROES FOR HIRE #13 didn’t have a bondage scene showing a creature with tentacles groping a woman’s breasts, getting mystery goo on them in the process.
I used to catch octopus back in the day. I once even had a big one wrap his tentacles around my arm. There was no goo. Ink, but no goo.
“I agree with Jace. Who’s to say that the creature isn’t just going to eat those women? Then again, I wasn’t familiar with the ‘tentacle rape’ concept before, so I could be way off.”
I think Sloofus’ hit the nail on the head. If you aren’t familiar with tentacle rape, you aren’t going to assume that’s what’s going on. However, as Rick pointed out, that is how the Brood reproduce, so that is what’s going on.
“I don’t believe that the writer is the one that comes up with the cover.”
For the most part that’s true, but I know that Grant Morrison gave notes to his artists for the Seven Soldiers megaseries, so it does happen.