Do you prefer your capeshit dark and gritty or light-hearted and fun?

Both, however the dark and gritty stories have the most impact when contrasted against a usually lighthearted character, so I'd err on the side of comics being usually light-hearted but still having the occasional dark story

I prefer them to tell a enjoyable story
What kind of instagram filter is secondary

Comfy, light-hearted and inoffensive.

>>88442330

Depends on the character.

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I like a nice mix. Say, like, a 70/30 fun-to-grit ratio. Batman: The Brave and the Bold did this pretty well, I thought. For the most part, the show's a love letter to the Silver Age of comics, but it never went so far in that direction that it became farcical. In terms of Batman media, it really went against the grain, because it was willing to depict a Batman that was campy as well as effective.

And occasionally, you'd get an episode like Chill of the Night that would skip the Silver Age entirely and head right into Bronze territory. The show wasn't afraid to get dark when the story necessitated it, and because it didn't happen very often, it always had a ton of impact when it did.

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Like Frank Miller's Daredevil

It's gritty and spooky, but also colorful and humorous

Dark and gritty
Just like real life

Also : Dark Knight Trilogy pretty light-hearted actually

>>88442330
WHATEVER BEST FITS THE NATURE OF THE CHARACTER NEITHER. IS GOOD NOR BAD. THEY JUST NEED TO BE USED CORRECTLY.

>>88442330
I enjoy both to an extent. I like it best when you can have them in the same series.

>>88442330
light-hearted and fun, because light-hearted can dip into dark and gritty and go back again a lot easier than the reverse.

>>88442330
Depends on the character.

I like stuff that isn't either of those, too. Stuff that's tonally where the original Star Wars trilogy is, where it's fun and pulpy but also sincere and serious about itself.

The greatest artistic heights have always been occupied by works that are complex and serious, and often quite dark, and comics are no exception. Take a look at the most critically acclaimed comics of all time: Watchmen, Swamp Thing, Arkham Asylum, and so on. All of these take a more realistic view of the comic world, and the fact is that the harder you look at reality, the more ideas of morality and justice start to fade or become obscured.

Maybe that's why works that simplify or ignore reality never reach that same level of acclaim; it's easy to distract oneself from the complexities of the real world, but to make a reader face that complexity and force them to think about it is difficult to do, and requires the deft hand of a skilled artist.

Every year more comics come out that get held up as "fun", and it is true they're hugely enjoyable, but how many do we actually remember later down the line? Mark Waid's Brave and the Bold was lauded everywhere when it was being published, now nobody even remembers it, yet we still remember Kingdom Come. To call "fun" books "junk food" would probably be insulting, because it implies they are bad for you, but there is some kernel of truth in the statement in regards to their fleeting nature.

>>88443979
All Star Superman is still remembered favorably.

>>88443979
>Mark Waid's Brave and the Bold was lauded everywhere when it was being published, now nobody even remembers it

That's because this is the internet and people would rather talk about something they hate. It's the reason why books like Mockingbird get more attention than books like Hellboy.

>>88443979
Kingdom Come is remembered for the art and because casuals memed it into being "totally the end of the Dark Age, dude"

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>>88443979
Checkmate

>>88443979
In addition, perhaps the term "dark" to describe something serious is improper. Most of the "dark" comics of the late 90's were extremely silly, for example, though maybe not intended as such. But also something like Invader Zim is clearly not intended to be taken seriously at all, despite being unbelievably dark in content and subject, which is exactly what makes it so funny.

Conversely, All-Star Superman is another highly acclaimed comic, perhaps one of the most acclaimed of all, but nobody would ever conflate it with Watchmen. The optimistic and uplifting tone of the story often confuses people into seeing it as a "lighthearted" comic, when in actuality it takes itself just as seriously as anything Moore or Miller ever wrote. A serious art piece like All-Star is actually an extremely rare example of a serious, mature look at the world that comes back more assured of justice and morality than ever.

Basically this is all to illustrate that "dark" and "light" are not two ends of a spectrum, but rather one axis of a gradient. A dark or light tone can be combined with either a serious or lite theme to create a multitude of different worldviews to base the artistic work on, and anyone who would say they definitively could choose one of these four combinations over all others every time is someone I'd call a simpleton.

>>88442435
So, made for 8 years old?

>>88444240
You're trying to tell me the comics that started the idea of superheroes living shitty lives are good examples of "lighthearted"?

>>88442330
Somewhere in the middle.

>>88444017
>>88444240
Perhaps I should have put "cont" at the end because that was only one half of my argument.
>>88444346

>>88444379
You don't find the FF light hearted, anon? It's a long way from gritty.

>>88442330
Either or, as long as it's good.

>>88444432
It's no Watchmen but FF was basically combining horror and sci-fi with superheroes. Thing is one of superhero comic's first tragic characters.

Compared to say, Green Lantern or Superman coming out at the same time in 1963, FF is quite gritty, which is exactly why it became so popular.

>>88444515
>at the time
You're using a different criteria than I am. no point in continuing.

the brave and the bold

I like both. What I truly prefer is short stories. I hate how all comics these days feel like ongoing arcs that never ever end. I really miss stories told in one to three issues. Jonah Hex vol 2 was amazing because it featured so many one shot stories. They were fantastic.

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Dark and fun

>>88442330
both have a place

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>>88442330
Dark and fun.

If you think that you can't be both, you are an idiot.