Correspondence

More on Smoking Superheroes

N Engl J Med 1995; 333:734September 14, 1995

Article

To the Editor:

The Journal was recently praised by the Columbia Journalism Review 1 for its part in persuading the Marvel Comics Group to remove cigarettes from its trading cards (May 5, 1994, issue).2 Although Marvel may look like a hero for doing this, its behavior says otherwise. In the pages of its comics, heroes and villains continue to smoke and model this behavior for children and youths. Recently, teenage smokers have been added whose behavior goes unquestioned. Their smoking becomes part of the story line and serves to emphasize their personalities as tough, cool characters.

As important sources of behavior modeling for children and youths, comics that show smoking need to be examined, questioned, and criticized. Marvel needs to live up truly to its hype as a company whose “spokespeople will never smoke.” 3

Michael Lippman, M.D.
Washington DOC — Straight Talk about Health, Seattle, WA 98102-1165

3 References

1. 1

   Cooper G. Darts & laurels. Columbia Journalism Review. January/February 1995:20.
   

2. 2

   Blum S. A letter from Sammy Blum. N Engl J Med 1994;330:1321-1321
   Full Text | Web of Science | Medline

3. 3

   “These spokespeople will never smoke, drink, take drugs, retire or do anything to embarrass a client.” (Print advertisement.) New York: Marvel Entertainment Group, 1994.
   

Author/Editor Response

Dr. Lippman's letter was referred to the Marvel Comics Group, which offers the following reply:

To the Editor: We believe that Dr. Lippman's charge that Marvel “models” smoking as behavior for children is unfounded. Although it is true that a small number of our characters smoke, Marvel has never proffered any suggestion that smoking is desirable behavior. We are storytellers, and we make our stories compelling by creating credible characters who are not without foibles and flaws. These characters — even those with the most enviable powers — suffer from human failings and weaknesses like the rest of us. They are not immune to bad habits, and we sometimes depict these all-too-human imperfections in our storytelling.

Gerard Calabrese
Marvel Comics Group, New York, NY 10016