Absence of evidence is the most damning proof of all, my friend

And a couple more great superhero comics from the list:

3 - Animal Man #5 The Coyote Gospel: A cartoon character escapes from the plane of reality where his suffering is little more than amusement for his sadistic and godlike creator and presumably an unseen audience somewhere, and if that's not a commentary on the post-Frank Miller Daredevil era of the spectacle of misery that began to pervade comics of all stripes, I don't know what is.

There's no happy ending to be had but the message is far from a hateful one, as Morrison gives us the positive notion that while even the most harmless of entertainments can contribute to the idea of pain as an amusement, we're still pretty decent at heart and can sympathise even for fictional creations when we let ourselves.


4 - Superman - For the Man Who Has Everything - or 'the one where the immigrant realises there was a reason he left his home and came to America in the first place' story. In a delusional state induced by old foe Mongul, Superman is tricked into living the life he might have had if Krypton hadn't exploded, and far from being the romanticised notion he has of the place (thanks to comics writers in the Golden and Silver Ages making it a utopia), it's actually not all that.
It's a simple and effective analogy that trancends the USA-centric ideals that Superman supposedly represents, and naturally the Americans had to go and ruin it with a poor cartoon adaptation that eliminated the immigration subtext entirely to make room for the explosions and soundbite moments.


The problem with the above scenario is, of course, the idea that anyone would give a crap about Aquaman.