It was a watershed moment for comics, and one of the most surprising reveals of all time. and complete the contract the Terminator himself took up. Most comic fans know the basic premise of “The Judas Contract,” where Terra - a novitiate Titan portrayed as young, innocent, and victimized (in truth, she was indeed all three) - became the team’s greatest enemy by working undercover with Deathstroke to help deliver them to the H.I.V.E. We’ve seen a history of stories leave much to be desired (and leave agency or consequence out of the picture) - from both times Nightwing was raped, how the New 52 Amazons were portrayed as unrepentant rapists and murderers, when the Scarlet Witch molested a reconstructed Wonder Man, to the consistent undercurrent of rape and incest in Alan Moore’s “America’s Best Comics” line.īut to begin, I’m going to be looking at two incidents related to the Teen Titans: the Deathstroke/Terra debacle and the poor execution of Cinder from the “Brightest Day” Titans era. As you can imagine, the poor execution of rape and sex abuse in superhero comics is one of my biggest annoyances as both a comic fan and an assault survivor myself. These events clearly left a mark on me, and I still grapple with the guilty idea they weren’t as severe as what some survivors have endured. That’s three incidents involving SIX different people and I’m only 30 years old. I was sexually assaulted in middle school, molested by a classmate in 12 th grade, and sexually harassed by two coworkers a couple of years ago. To that end, it’s not surprising the big 2 comic companies have such a poor track record with talking about sexual abuse given how their staff and creators act behind closed doors. Knowing Lobdell committed multiple sexually inappropriate acts, only to begin his run on Red Hood and the Outlaws with Roy Harper legitimately considering taking advantage of Starfire’s memory problems to have sex with her will always enrage me. DC Comics especially has been notorious for having protected chronic abusers such as Scott Lobdell and Eddie Berganza, while prominent artist Cameron Stewart was exposed for grooming women and author Warren Ellis was exposed for years of sexually inappropriate conduct through his message board with multiple comic professionals having looked the other way or downplayed the incidents when they occurred. It truly doesn’t help that in recent years, multiple sexual assault incidents within the real-life comic book industry have come to light.
Meanwhile, Doctor Light became a grotesque sleazeball instead of simply a bumbling idiot. Both Sue’s death and rape have become defining elements of the character (without ever seeing events from her own point-of-view), not at all helped that she remained dead for over decade. One of the most infamous examples would have to be Sue Dibny, who was brutally murdered in Identity Crisis and then retroactively revealed to have been violently raped by Doctor Light. Yet when using preexisting characters with decades of backstory, sex abuse stories usually end up tainting someone in one way or another. It’s certainly possible to create a well-thought out story about superheroes and sexual abuse through a smaller, independent company and with original characters. Even more so when a character’s actions are largely glossed over or excused by the narrative. To no surprise, poorly written rape stories drive me up the wall.
More often, sexual abuse is used as a plot device for extreme shock value, yet neither company ever properly thinks out the ramifications of using it in their stories. DC and Marvel Comics have both proven they tend to lack certain… nuances in the ways they portray rape and sex abuse. Sexual abuse and rape are topics which are difficult to talk about in any format, but it’s especially hard when it comes to discussing it through superheroes.
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