*SPOILER AHEAD* Alex Ross Justice #2!

[Super Monkey]

Can you imagine the scene that we would see?  Brainiac cutting open Aqua's head with no anesthetic?  I don't think DC would go for that.

umm which DC are you talking about? :?

Then there's also the fact that if it happened, it would mean that Aquaman dies or at least changes form - now that Brainiac has cities in bottles he wants to have brains in bottles?  Hey - that's copyright infringement of Futurama...  

LOL, brains in bottles are very old sci-fi gags.

[Brainiac44]

Right on both accounts Mr Monkey...

DC used to be a stone - now it's got the shape of liquid - diverse branches with adult themed comics, almost merging with regular comics - new Supergirl who looks more like Paris Hilton than anything else.

Brain in bottles - Frankenstein 1931 - http://www.superman4444.com/supermandvdreview.htm is the mother of all of these.  First b-movie sequel - my site has it all!

[Great Rao]

umm which DC are you talking about? :?

Certainly not mine!

I don't understand why no one else here is complaining about that page, but I must do so:

Brainiac wearing a bload-soaked apron, cruely contemplating cutting an unconscious and restrained Aquaman's skull open with a cerrated cleaver?  And get a look at that dripping fluid!  And the horror-movie angle and lighting!  Unbelievable stuff designed to terrorize the mind.  Where's Wertham when you need him?  This is almost like that picture of the severed-head and ax that he raised all the fuss with. It reminds me of DC's (comparatively) recent "Silver Age" mini-series event when Luthor smashed the Bottle City of Kandor and stomped on all the people, laughing all the while.

This stuff belongs in a 1950s crime comic.  Brainiac may have the correct "outfit" here, but neither this character nor this situation belongs in a super-hero comic.  I'm very glad that I did not buy this comic book.

Anyone notice whether or not it carried the Comics Code Authority seal?  I would assume not, I notice that Infinite Crisis sure didn't.  I guess I'll have to start keeping an eye out for it in deciding which comics to buy.

[ShinDangaioh]

Neither Marvel nor DC puts the CCA seal on their comics anymore.  They are pandering to fanboys who like horror and darkness.

I think only Archie Comics still use the CCA.  It's just too bad that they don't put out their super-hero comics anymore.

It is at this point I try to push the Heroic Publishing line of comics(Flare, Giant, Withcgirls Inc.).  

[Brainiac44]

Like I said, this is the only pic which is so graphic and yet, the horror of it is the suggestion rather than an act we'll never see (sure as it will rain again in Canada...).  The act he is suggesting, he suggested it in the past - if he was going to grasp cities and put them in bottles there would be a lot of casualties - physically and mentally.  It's just that DC had it clean and never "invented" or mentionned these "facts" that would happen in such a story.  
I think what is so shocking is the brilliant art of Alex Ross.  If you saw another artist doing the same scene it might not have such an impact. I'm not trying to defend AR but keep in mind that you are only seeing one image out of context.  The focus of this particular issue was on Batman.  The semi-complete image of Brainiac that you see is only shown at the end.  
Don't spoil yourself of something you'd like but don't go for it if it really bothers you or you want to protest because you don't like the imagery.  I will never argue another person's taste.

[nightwing]

Where's Wertham when you need him? This is almost like that picture of the severed-head and ax that he raised all the fuss with.

Actually, it's closer to the "injury to the eye" panel that got Jack Cole into Wertham's book (can't find it to include here...it's a close-up of a screaming girl about to get an ice pick pushed into her eye).

This image, like Cole's, derives its power from what seems ready to happen, rather than anything that already has.  As Brainiac44 says, we will likely not see Aquaman de-brained, or even cut, in the next issue, but  in the meantime we're left to conjure up all sorts of horrific mental images of precisely those things happening.  And that, in its way, may make this kind of image more disturbing, more horrific and yes, more pornographic than if they actually followed through.

I also agree with what (I think) Brainiac44 is saying about Ross' art.  It's so realistic that you can't get away with things you might in a more "cartoony" style.  If Curt Swan had drawn it...which I doubt he would've...I don't think we'd find it so jarring.  (And lest that come off somehow as praise for Ross, let me make clear I do not think Ross' brand of hyper-realism is at all suited to the comics medium.)

Still and all, Braniac is a kindly uncle compared to Ross' version of Bizarro...he's been remade into something from a Romero film.  I have to say, really, that I get less enamored of Alex Ross with every passing month.  At least with Neal Adams it took me 30 years to lose interest...

[Super Monkey]

It is at this point I try to push the Heroic Publishing line of comics(Flare, Giant, Withcgirls Inc.).  

I never read any of their books, but here is their site or one of them:

http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/logcnt.cgi?l=cc_heroic

[Kuuga]

I have to admit that I'm confused about some of the choices Alex is making with the villans. They don't seem quite as wise as choices he has made with the heroes.

As far as the story goes he said that this was going to be his answer to stuff like Indenity Crisis, which gave me the impression he was going to challenge it. I'd be less concerned and hesitant about it if it were Paul Dini writing with him instead of the Earth X guy. Earth X is bar none and beyond a shadow of a doubt my least favorite Alex Ross work. It's just an endless Marvel darkfic, the kind which you can read for free on ff.net.

I think sometimes the Ross obsession with realism works against it. I think he should focus more on what works best about his style which is not realism but the ability to bring the fantastic to life.