World War Hulk Gamma Corps Issue 1
Writer: Frank Tieri
Artist: Carlos Ferreira 

I recently started reading the Gamma Corps spin-off of World War Hulk. I honestly never had interest in reading it, but the series was on sale at the local comic shop recently at a price that was practically impossible to pass up (see Conan post — I’m a sucker). Issue #1 was more setting the tone than anything else. What bugged me about this issue was the censorship. Fortunately for the kiddies out there, all swearing was $%@’d out. Unfortunately for me, it sort of ruined my reading experience.

Why is that even used, anyway. Especially when reading, it’s so obvious what they’re trying to say. They even bother to write out the proper number of symbols for each letter. This kind of reminds me of extremely stupid dubbing on TV. Like when “I’m feeling wired, what you say we go back to my place and I eat your pussy” is replaced by “watch Lucy” in Shark Attack 3 as it plays on the Sci Fi Channel. Or some of the other memorable moments on such channels as Comedy Central, USA, and TBS. Every time, the expletive that they’re replacing is so obvious that it defeats the purpose of being replaced.

Another thing I don’t get is why violence apparently gets a pass. For example, in this book, someone’s skull gets crushed by a gamma corps’ member’s bare hands. Yeah. Badass, right? But why is that allowed when the word “ass” isn’t? That seems like such BS to me. Shouldn’t it be the other way around. I mean, I could be wrong and all, but wouldn’t our world be a better place if people were walking around saying bad words all the time instead of killing each other? I feel that it would be.