Why Random Thug Number 1234781-q Never Got a Speaking Part Again

Okay, I don't want anyone thinking that I'm going to go out of my way to find ammo for Seduction of the Innocent: 2007. I'm not one of those guys that pipes up "That's what SHE said!" just because the opportunity presents itself. I will often pass up the cheap laugh because.... well, I like to think I'm better than that. Beavis and Butthead was great, but that's not what I'm about here.

Comics were a different medium back in 1968. They were cheap, for one thing. But more than that, they were meant for a different audience. Your average comics reader today is well in his or her 20s, while back in the day, they were obviously catering to a younger crowd. We had short attention spans, and if a story wasn't finished in an issue or so, we'd generally get a little antsy.

So, there were lots of shortcuts. One of those was to rely on dialogue to tell the story. The artwork often wasn't enough to let the reader know what was going on, so someone often had to come right out and say "GASP! He's unwrapping a breakfast burrito! It's got HAM in it!"

Lots of pressure on the writers, you know? And no one was cranking out more stories in the 60's than Stan "The Man" Lee. We know and love the guy for creating Spider-Man, X-Men, the Hulk, the Avengers, etc. ETC. And the guy was scripting most of these at one time or another, so you've got to cut him some slack. And, for the most part, I do.

But the choice of words here in Captain America #101 is a temptation I simply cannot resist, nor can I ignore Cap's response. If you don't get it, I'm not going to explain it to you. Suffice it to say, if there was ever an exchange between a thug and a hero that deserved a "That's what SHE said!", this was it.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.....