I think guys just need something else in their soap, so to speak. True, for me, 90% of the time I couldn’t give less of a shit for romance/relationships in comics – especially when they are poorly done, but 5-10% of them are done well and thus interesting. Once in a while they are done well though – the above mentioned one wasn’t really done well at all, which was sort of my point. Well, it ended horribly at least – for years of investment the audience deserves some payback.

However, the unfortunate case with big name comic characters is that they pretty much 100% absolutely positively never ever change anything about them. And Johnny Storm’s “thing” is that he is a hotshot single guy (a la Maverick…hmmm). They decided they liked him that way, and his “romance angle” was the perpetual state of falling in love, as opposed to dealing with mature love like Reed & Sue (they are one of the few comic couples in this position). Which makes me wonder how long the Storm & Black Panther marriage will last. Hopefully at least 5 years. The way they built it up it sounds like he needs a child from her first at least though. ;) Which would be cool, kids in comics are also very rare. Unless they are hyper-aged future versions of those children. Because otherwise their parents would have to age too…

Oh right, my original point – guys need something else to make drama interesting: sci-fi or fantasy settings (Star Trek, Conan, etc.), super-powers, or…in the case of the …”differently enlightened” (low-fuctioning? :P) beefy men & women in bathing suits hitting each other over the heads with boards.

Me, if I want violence I’d just as soon watch a martial arts or action movie where it’s much better done and if I want T&A I might as well just watch some porn or something where it’s not dressed up trying to pretend it’s not appealing to the same part of your brain.