I'm still wondering where the two people falling to their death are.
I could be misreading this one, and I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt until the rest of the stuff started showing up later in the issue - like, on the next page.
Page 9, panel 6. I figure if there was supposed to be a rescue or a save, it doesn't count unless we actually see it.
That's Green Lantern and Hawkgirl, who can both fly, and who are both seen to be fine the next time we see them.
But I was serious when I asked about the Comics Code Authority seal - this issue had the CCA logo on it, and I did not want to see the gore, cruelty and suffering that those guards went through, nor see Lex rip out the Kryptonite Man's heart in such a "heartless" (hah!) manner.
There's nothing in this issue that wouldn't have passed the Code in the mid-1970s, though. TOMB OF DRACULA passed the Code, after all.
Since nobody actually falls to their deaths, and since Metallo's not dead and there's no actual "gore" involved in pulling a radioactive rock out of a cybernetic housing, your objectionable scenes boil down to guards who get their blood sucked out by monster fleas, and that's not a scene the Code would have objected to since it was revised in the early 1970s.
If I had known in advance that the comic contained such material, which I was certainly not expecting based on the previous 2 issues, I would not have bought it.
As noted, the first issue had two people burned to death in a lab explosion, a man beaned with a chunk of rock and our hero beaten viciously by the bad guy.
So who is in charge of adding the CCA seal, and what are the current guidelines?
The books are submitted to the Code before publication, and they accept, reject or ask for changes as they see fit. The 1989 version of the Code can be seen at:
http://www.geocities.com/athens/8580/cca3.htmlI don't know if that's the latest version, though.
Having it on the cover of this issue was extremely misleading.
I disagree. You don't like what was in it, but that doesn't make it "misleading." There's nothing in the book that is out of line with material that's been passing the Code for decades, so it's thoroughly in keeping with accepted practice, and shouldn't be misleading to anyone.
The Code was first revised in 1972 (or thereabouts). That's over three decades ago.
kdb