Why do so few comic book protagonists have kids? It's the

>>90312340
My first though was web comics and most people who draw webcomics are probably too juvinile in some form or another to actually want/take care of kids.
In the DC/Marvel leagues it's the audience they assume wouldn't want any.
I still say I want adventure DILF cutting his way through enemies and adventures while raising a baby strapped to his chest.

>>90312340
A lot of writers want their characters to be free from the constraints of the average person so they can fling them into danger and/or wacky situations without readers complaining about how they're neglecting their children. Additionally, getting married and making a nuclear family is traditionally put at the end of stories, when the hero/heroine's done smashing orcs or shooting aliens or whatever and they can settle down in peace.

It's the same reason why, when you do see a character who has a kid, the other parent's either dead or estranged. A writer wants a cute kid to be in the cast, but also wants as many characters to be DTF as possible.

most people dont have kids for 'approval' from society. they do it because its a biological imperative

>>90312340
the irony being that people like this are all ABOUT the approval and adoration of society, they just think that society isn't "society"
pro tip babe, we get married and reproduce because it's the strongest form of love you can have. and feeling-things is pretty much all that matters in life. I know you think you have feelings, things like "offended" or "annoyed at inequality", but real love means people you'd die for.

File: lonewolfandcub.jpg (57KB, 480x360px) Image search: [Google]

57KB, 480x360px

>>90312486
>I still say I want adventure DILF cutting his way through enemies and adventures while raising a baby strapped to his chest.
so western "lone wolf and cub"?

>>90312340
Some would say being super rich is its own reward.

>>90312486
So your fetish is older dad types.
Okay cool I'm trying to put together a character and he's supposed to be in his fifties but the concept I'm rolling with is most the MCs are supposed to be hot. I'm not into old men so what should I aim for?

>>90312661
really made me think

>Rewards: Having someone who cares about you after you're decrepit and incontinent

>>90312715
And imagine what you can do with that if everyone approves and adores you?

File: 1488260842517.jpg (415KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

415KB, 1280x720px

>>90312886
>reward
>having people who care for you when you're old and having the money that your retirement will be fantastic

I don't understand this comic at all, it's neither feminist nor conservative because the author's just going "fuck family fuck career". She's basically saying NEETlyfe4evar.

>>90312838
Not that anon but I can give some suggestions. Usually DILF types are muscled and rugged looking, if you're going for someone in their 50s you should have him with a bit of graying hair. Maybe a beard.

File: comfy.jpg (45KB, 409x409px) Image search: [Google]

45KB, 409x409px

>>90312989
and she's absolutely right.

get fucked, wagies.

>>90313029
Please fuck off to a more appropriate board for your style of posting.

>>90312340
Because parenting is one of the most mundane things that's its possible to write about so it's avoided unless showcasing mundanity is one of the goals of the comic.

File: 1448444144533.jpg (347KB, 853x1090px) Image search: [Google]

347KB, 853x1090px

>>90313077
you sound pretty cranky there, wagie.

better get to bed. tomorrow's an early start.

>>90312340
In DC/Marvel its because these characters are made to last through the ages. You want Batman to settle down with kids, read an elseworlds and be happy.

Also the big two tend to suck with heroes that have to juggle a family.

Independents you just aren't reading enough of.

>>90312340
>Approval and adoration of society
In what world is this true? Having a spouse and family has never won anyone awards. Politicians use them for approval points, but most of us will never run for office.

Billions of people have spouses and children. None of them are adored by society. Theven author is clearly just projecting.

>>90312661
>we get married and reproduce because it's the strongest form of love you can have.
Nice meme.

>>90312838
Healthy, fit, greying hair that's specifically like the Touch of Grey commercials, mature, chest-carpet-style manly, maybe like that guy in Barberella that saves her from the children's dolls.
Personality wise the ruggesh mountain man that's also caring. The type that bakes cookies for the community fundraiser and defends them from alien attacks with the boys scouts he helped train.

>>90312340
This comic is disgusting

>>90313221

Well, society as a whole isn't aware of someone unless they became (in)famous.

It's more about the approval of the surrounding community, though it's lessened in certain areas depending on the attitudes to procreation and marriage.

>>90312340
Ain't nobody got the time fo' that

>>90313126
All of that is the writers' and the companies' fault. For thinking that a child or marriage will limit the storytelling potential of a character. Oddly enough they still try to do it with some but then they take it back by removing the baby and /or marriage in weird ways. Most notable is OMD for Spider-man and Misty Knight's chi pregnancy. DC tends to be better in this regard with at least letting the kid get put up for adoption or giving that kid super powers.

>>90312340
While parenting is one of the most rewarding things you can do in your life, from an outsider looking in, it's pretty boring. Children are, in the strictest sense of the word, a liability until they get old enough to be useful and skilled at things.
Additionally, it looks strange if a character values anything else above the well-being of their child. If they do, they're seen as a deadbeat parent.
So, with those things in mind, if you have two of your characters get pregnant, you have effectively taken the female character out of the equation for a long while, depending on the context of the story. Once the child is born, you now have both the father and mother completely beholden to this child for years upon years of that child's development.
You can see how that presents a lot of challenges from a narrative perspective. Characters are very much constrained in their activities due to their need to care for their child.
It can be done, but a lot of people just have no interest in shackling their characters to such a massive life event that necessarily changes their focus.

>>90312340
New quest: be useless and die

I hate whores.

File: Soldier76_portrait.png (406KB, 653x669px) Image search: [Google]

406KB, 653x669px

>>90312838
This, basically.

>>90313125
>tfw I don't have to get up early for anything but staying up late every night makes me fucking miserable and waking up at 3:00 PM feels fucking horrible
>tfw I can't stop
Not like this.

>>90318285
But the point is is that these characters are made to market and sell crap first. Status quo is god which is why it is inevitable that Peter be spider-man, Hulk is uncontrollable beast, etc, etc. Some changes may carry like lifting strength, but that is no different than the progress seen in movies to impress audiences since the 1900s.

The only way around this in a more permanent fashion is to make a new original character from the ground up with a family. But then we don't give a shit about new characters from the big two.

File: neil degrasse tyson.gif (699KB, 200x150px) Image search: [Google]

699KB, 200x150px

>>90312661
>I know you think you have feelings, things like "offended" or "annoyed at inequality"
I can't believe someone unironically typed this

>>90312886
>wanting to live decrepit and incontinent

take the lead pill gramps

I can get not wanting to get married.

I can get not wanting children.

But who in their right mind doesn't want to be suler rich? Literally every person alive wants to have more money and an easier life, and if they say otherwise they are filthy liars.

File: 7794360-handsome-old-men-9-582d7aeab5bf9__880-1479464177-1000-5d606c4e61-1479975699.jpg (188KB, 1000x628px) Image search: [Google]

188KB, 1000x628px

>>90312838
This man right here. What a hunk.

>>90312661
Wow you have recreated the wringy ramblings of every 13 year old in existence.

Truly insightful.

>>90312340
>It's the defining thing about becoming an adult over a juvenile
Unless that also implies "properly raising a kid" I disagree

>>90312340
There's only two ways you can write kids. Unrealistically, or just willingly insert a really fucking irredeemably obnoxious character into your comic.

>>90312340

A lot of them do, but you're right in that when we think of the most know ones... there really isn't a lot of kids. Reed is pretty much the only guy with children. Be aware that I am talking about characters normies would know.

Career mobility is the reason why.

Let's say that they are the "Justice 24/7" sort. Then they don't have kids because they're workaholics who have dedicated their life to being crimefighters, and it would be irresponsible to bring kids into the picture since they'd need to:

>A. Find someone willing to rear their kids.
>B. Make some time for the kids.
>C. Make room for the kids. (i.e. a home, school, etc.)

DC is pretty good about this, Marvel... not so much. Look at Hank Pym. He's got an alien kid, and he didn't so much as stick his nose into that business until they were like a year and a half old, and now it isn't really mentioned at all. CPS would have been all over his stupid ass.

Now let's examine the other side of the coin: alter-egos. These people literally don't have time for a family. They already have to make ends meet, and then on top of that all of their free time (and some of their professional/personal time) goes towards wearing costumes and shit. Look at Peter Parker to get a feeling for what I am talking about.

Bruce Wayne doesn't really count for a number of reasons.

>1. He isn't really a father, Alfred does most everything.
>2. Several of his "kids" were introduced as self-sufficient individuals. Basically, medieval homunculi, and not actual children. He never went through the whole baby, toddler, child thing with any of them. Not even Damien counts because of the aforementioned self-sufficient, non-child thing.

Then there is extraneous reasons beyond what I just mentioned.

>Physiologically can't have kids. (Robots, aliens, etc.)
>Concerned with villains targeting their families.
>Not fit to have children in the first place.

File: 1480905313580.png (545KB, 1335x829px) Image search: [Google]

545KB, 1335x829px

>>90312340
>that thousand yard stare in the bottom panel as a subconscious expression that in ten years her biological click will start ringing but by then it'll be top late and all that "independence" and "working up the ladder" got her was an empty life of feeding cats

>>90312712
where can i read that?

File: Laughing Luthor.jpg (64KB, 573x273px) Image search: [Google]

64KB, 573x273px

>>90312661
>pro tip babe, we get married and reproduce because it's the strongest form of love you can have.

I bet you actually believe this, but I really hope you don't.

>>90323663
Any manga reading site.

Kids require a stable relationship. Comic book relationships are built on drama, and that means they're constantly rocky at best, and often end suddenly.

File: 130992-18668-110257-1-duckman--the-mob-fr.jpg (70KB, 425x640px) Image search: [Google]

70KB, 425x640px

>>90312340
A few do have kids, depends whether it fits the story the creator wants to tell. Taking an an existing story and tacking on kids as an afterthought rarely works IMO.

- Beauty by Kerascoet
- Duckman
- Prophet, for various values of "did"

Some where non-protagonists have kids

- Gunnerkrigg Court, the Donlans
- Stand Still, Stay Silent - but I'm not up to date

File: 07985487580.png (264KB, 538x512px) Image search: [Google]

264KB, 538x512px

Since when is /co/ filled with breeders?

>>90324306
Childhood is when you think sleeping with a million guys and having some cucked sugar daddy is love

Adulthood is when you realize that's just empty hedonism that will ruin your life and you would have been better off just marrying someone good enough when you had the chance

That's what an entire generation of women raised on the strong independent woman narrative are starting to realize

They're realizing they got fucking robbed and now men are the ones with the upper hand in dating. They ruined their fucking lives

>>90312340
Because it's hard to write about something you'll never experience.

File: Batsondemon.jpg (34KB, 300x403px) Image search: [Google]

34KB, 300x403px

>>90329071
some more depending on definition of protagonist
- Maus by Art Spiegelman
- King Leonidas I had a son, Pleistarchus, unsure if shown in 300
- Silk Spectre in The Watchmen

>>90313126
>Batman

>>90329595
>King Leonidas I had a son, Pleistarchus, unsure if shown in 300
He did have a son in the movie, dunno about the comic or if his name was mentioned.

File: just fuck my meme up.jpg (54KB, 700x472px) Image search: [Google]

54KB, 700x472px

>>90318847

>>90329128
They saw some frogposter post something feminist-contrarian with the word biology in it and printed out a degree in REAL Women Studies then and there.

>>90312661
>We get married and reproduce because it's the strongest form of love you can have.

So that's what arranged marriages are about. No wonder Muslims are so great

Kids suck. I read comics to escape the terrors of life to include having to raise others with my unearned time and money.

File: saga.jpg (52KB, 800x452px) Image search: [Google]

52KB, 800x452px

>>90329846
I read the comic years ago but cannot now recall.
I do remember the film had substantial differences from the comic and couldn't understand claims it was "a shot-for-shot adaptation" (wikipedia still does).
Anyway pic related is another with protag parents.

File: MikeDoonesbury.png (122KB, 236x318px) Image search: [Google]

122KB, 236x318px

>>90329595
yet more:
- Will Eisner's A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories features parents with one or more children
- Doonesbury
- Fun Home

>>90312340

This is some really lazy bait, Anon. You can do better than this.

>>90312886
She's being realistic. Americans leave all their old parents to die in their own houses or in nursing homes, and pray for the death of other olds within their lifetimes. If some old fart had their own list it'd have stuff like "secure wealth for future generations", "accept all youth trends" and some topical shit, with the same result.

I'm in a profession that pays a shit ton, so I'm well on my way to the rich part. However, I just never felt an imperative to be in a relationship. To be honest, I have a hard time picturing what a relationship even is. You just... spend time together? Cooperate on stuff?

>>90332019
Isn't Mike's daughter the same age as his current wife?

>>90332854
Imagine being roomies with your bestie but you also fugg sometimes

File: 1468994876235.jpg (61KB, 600x450px) Image search: [Google]

61KB, 600x450px

>>90312661
Now THIS is shitposting
You have to be 18 or older to post here

File: mafia_apocalypse.png (354KB, 1054x502px) Image search: [Google]

354KB, 1054x502px

>>90332876
Not according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doonesbury_characters
> Alex (Alexandra) Doonesbury (born 11/30/88, named 8/9/89)
> Kim Rosenthal (5/5/75)

I expected crime and detective novels (not superpower hero based) to have protags and antags with children because they do in real life, but hard to find examples in English. Pic related is from the badly drawn Mafia Apocalypse.

Dick Tracy is another example, he adopted but also supposedly had two children after he married his girlfriend Tessa.

Maybe the US comics code also affected portrayal of cops and criminals with their own children? Or censoring unmarried parents?