Captain America & Suicide Prevention

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=30310

Marvel is proud to announce the release of Captain America: A Little Help, an all-new story free to all fans via the Marvel Comics App (for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch) and Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited in an effort to help raise awareness of suicide prevention. Written by Dr. Tim Ursiny, PH.D., CBC, RCC and illustrated by Nick Dragotta, this powerful story shows what happens when one man on the verge of suicide is drawn into a chance encounter with Captain America—and he may be the Avenger’s only hope! This story is also available in I Am An Avenger #5, in comic stores nationwide today—both digital and print versions include contact information for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

"Super heroes fight a lot of battles, but there are few more important than combating suicide," said Tom Brevoort, Senior Vice-President of Publishing. "That’s why we’re making Captain America: A Little Help available for free via our digital comics outlets. If even one person calls this number instead of doing something very tragic, we know that means we succeeded."

You can check out Captain America: A Little Help right now on the Marvel Comics App and Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited or pick up a copy of I Am An Avenger #5 at your local retailer.

To contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, please call 1-800-273-TALK or visit www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org



This is great. It's an issue that doesn't get enough attention. I think it will actually help people going through tough times. Well done Marvel.

Honestly, I'm torn here. Dating a therapist where this issue hit very close to home might make me more sensitive to things like this, but this doesn't sit right with me.

First off, yes, promoting suicide awareness is great. Taking this route to do though, I find alittle insulting. Captain America gets in trouble and the suicidal guy finds value in living by helping him? Frankly, this is weak.

Honestly, this promotes nothing. This will be forgotten by next week when Captain America fights whatever new Nazi appears.

If companies really want to promote suicide awareness, they should devote an entire arc (if not more) to it. Make it part of the organic storytelling within the title. Show the character going through whatever struggle that's causing them to consider such an act. Show the turmoil people deal with when trying to make that final decision. And if the company really had balls, show the aftermath of the survivors that have to deal with that loss. Maybe that would open some eyes to the matter.

Doing a one and done issue where the person has a miraculous change of outlook on life does no justice to the topic.

LordD3r3k wrote:Honestly, I'm torn here. Dating a therapist where this issue hit very close to home might make me more sensitive to things like this, but this doesn't sit right with me.

First off, yes, promoting suicide awareness is great. Taking this route to do though, I find alittle insulting. Captain America gets in trouble and the suicidal guy finds value in living by helping him? Frankly, this is weak.

Honestly, this promotes nothing. This will be forgotten by next week when Captain America fights whatever new Nazi appears.

If companies really want to promote suicide awareness, they should devote an entire arc (if not more) to it. Make it part of the organic storytelling within the title. Show the character going through whatever struggle that's causing them to consider such an act. Show the turmoil people deal with when trying to make that final decision. And if the company really had balls, show the aftermath of the survivors that have to deal with that loss. Maybe that would open some eyes to the matter.

Doing a one and done issue where the person has a miraculous change of outlook on life does no justice to the topic.

I see where you're coming from but I kinda understand why comic companies would be reluctant to tackle such a serious issue in a major story arc or anything. A lot of comic fans read comics for an "escape" so they may not take to something like that. IMO a one-shot or short story is the best venue for this kind of story.

As far as the actual story in this issue, I kinda agree it wasn't that great. With all the recent stories of young people committing suicide because of bullying and such, I think a story about that would have been best. But ultimately I think the goal of this was to raise awareness and maybe uplift the spirits of any person feeling like they're alone and have nothing to live for. I'd like to see more initiatives like this dealing with other serious issues as well.

Bigtymin504 wrote:I see where you're coming from but I kinda understand why comic companies would be reluctant to tackle such a serious issue in a major story arc or anything. A lot of comic fans read comics for an "escape" so they may not take to something like that. IMO a one-shot or short story is the best venue for this kind of story.

And I can totally understand the escapism idea, but then again, when you choose to talk about this topic escapism goes out the window. So if you're going to talk about, don't half-ass it. Just my opinion.

My thoughts after reading both of your points:

If people read comics to escape, something *must* suck, right? Lots of people have problems other than boredom so if you can relate to something while escaping, it'll impact you better and be more meaningful to you, like a band or an album. And on top of it you'll hold that arc in higher value. Having a message within a message is a good thing and shows the writers ability to weave in things.

Look at Requiem For A Dream, it's the PERFECT movie to show people what happens and how it just might end when you start to abuse and depend on drugs (or whatever) too much, either literally or metaphorically. You could totally build a script on a downfall of a character and consequences of suicide with it's chain reactions.

prescribeddrone wrote:My thoughts after reading both of your points:

If people read comics to escape, something *must* suck, right? Lots of people have problems other than boredom so if you can relate to something while escaping, it'll impact you better and be more meaningful to you, like a band or an album. And on top of it you'll hold that arc in higher value. Having a message within a message is a good thing and shows the writers ability to weave in things.

Look at Requiem For A Dream, it's the PERFECT movie to show people what happens and how it just might end when you start to abuse and depend on drugs (or whatever) too much, either literally or metaphorically. You could totally build a script on a downfall of a character and consequences of suicide with it's chain reactions.

Well said buddy. One thing I'd say is that "escapism" with comics doesn't necessarily mean something *must* suck in one's life, although it very well could. It could just mean you have a busy and hectic life and sitting down with a stack of comics for an hour or two once a week is your sanctuary. That said, you're totally right that the best writers are able to inject real world lessons or anecdotes into their work without it overwhelming it. Superhero comics often do that and I love it.

prescribeddrone wrote:My thoughts after reading both of your points:

If people read comics to escape, something *must* suck, right? Lots of people have problems other than boredom so if you can relate to something while escaping, it'll impact you better and be more meaningful to you, like a band or an album. And on top of it you'll hold that arc in higher value. Having a message within a message is a good thing and shows the writers ability to weave in things.

Ehh.. I have to disagree. Having some kid start to value life because he helped Captain America devalues the real issues kid face when contemplating suicide. Does helping Cap stop his dad from abusing him? Does helping Cap stop bullies from making you feel like shit on a daily basis? etc.. etc..

Again, this is a half-assed attempt at something that deserves more. This is not good writing because it's generic instead of committing to the issue. But that's just my opinion.

LordD3r3k wrote:

prescribeddrone wrote:My thoughts after reading both of your points:

If people read comics to escape, something *must* suck, right? Lots of people have problems other than boredom so if you can relate to something while escaping, it'll impact you better and be more meaningful to you, like a band or an album. And on top of it you'll hold that arc in higher value. Having a message within a message is a good thing and shows the writers ability to weave in things.

Ehh.. I have to disagree. Having some kid start to value life because he helped Captain America devalues the real issues kid face when contemplating suicide. Does helping Cap stop his dad from abusing him? Does helping Cap stop bullies from making you feel like shit on a daily basis? etc.. etc..

Again, this is a half-assed attempt at something that deserves more. This is not good writing because it's generic instead of committing to the issue. But that's just my opinion.

I honesty didn't expect anyone to have such a negative response to this lol. You're right that the story isn't the best but I don't think you're giving enough credit to the overall message this is trying to get out. Its more about raising awareness then about the actual story in the comic.

LordD3r3k wrote:

prescribeddrone wrote:My thoughts after reading both of your points:

If people read comics to escape, something *must* suck, right? Lots of people have problems other than boredom so if you can relate to something while escaping, it'll impact you better and be more meaningful to you, like a band or an album. And on top of it you'll hold that arc in higher value. Having a message within a message is a good thing and shows the writers ability to weave in things.

Ehh.. I have to disagree. Having some kid start to value life because he helped Captain America devalues the real issues kid face when contemplating suicide. Does helping Cap stop his dad from abusing him? Does helping Cap stop bullies from making you feel like shit on a daily basis? etc.. etc..

Again, this is a half-assed attempt at something that deserves more. This is not good writing because it's generic instead of committing to the issue. But that's just my opinion.

I wasn't really saying that helping Cap would do that, I just meant that a long arc meaningful would work. A character helping a super hero in one random issue wouldn't really help somebody that's super depressed, but it could cheer them up for literally a few seconds until they shrug it off. Something more wouldn't be bad at all.

And BT: That's true, escape could mean getting away from hectic schedule's, didn't think of that... but while reading I'd wish I was a millionaire and didn't have to escape from my busy life to read comics

Bigtymin504 wrote:I honesty didn't expect anyone to have such a negative response to this lol. You're right that the story isn't the best but I don't think you're giving enough credit to the overall message this is trying to get out. Its more about raising awareness then about the actual story in the comic.

Well, don't get me wrong. Like I said before, I applaud that they want to raise awareness. I just think if they were really serious about it they'd put more effort into it.

It's like saying Teen Mom is raising awareness to stop teen pregnancy when all it's really doing is providing entertainment. If the show really wanted to impact the issue they'd show some of the real deep shit teens go through instead putting the Mtv spin on it. But instead people watch it, laugh about these girls and their bad decisions and go on about their day. Which is pretty much the same effect this comic will have.

Again, this issue hits home, so maybe I'm just more sensitive to it than others. But this approach insults me, which I why I spoke up.

Will a book like this stop teen suicide? Of course not. But if it even helps on kid? I mean, not everyone needs a deep introspective, people find inspiration in different places. I highly doubt theres a single athelete in the NFL who has never heard Vince Lombardi's famous "What it takes to be number one" speech, i'm pretty sure its in every locker room in the country. But I watched a piece today talking about the Jets locker room being moved almost to tears by LaDainian Tomlinson reading it aloud to them. Same old message, but brought to them from someone they look up to, and it had a profound effect. Who says some poor kid, who looks up to Cap, won't read this, and it have the same effect?

Basically, I'm saying Kudos to Marvel for at least making an effort to help.

And BigTymin, where is your sig. art from? That shit's fantastic.

But when do we start demanding more? Why settle for one instead of aiming for many? I'm not trying to put this all on Marvel's shoulders by any means, that's ridiculous. But again, if you're going to do something, why not do it right?

LordD3r3k wrote:It's like saying Teen Mom is raising awareness to stop teen pregnancy when all it's really doing is providing entertainment. If the show really wanted to impact the issue they'd show some of the real deep shit teens go through instead putting the Mtv spin on it. But instead people watch it, laugh about these girls and their bad decisions and go on about their day. Which is pretty much the same effect this comic will have.

People laugh at Teen Mom because some of the girls on there are just attention seekers looking for their 15 minutes. This comic not only raises awareness but maybe cheers up some kid out there feeling down on himself, not to mention getting out information for the national suicide prevention lifeline. I'd say its a good start.

goatt wrote:Will a book like this stop teen suicide? Of course not. But if it even helps on kid? I mean, not everyone needs a deep introspective, people find inspiration in different places. I highly doubt theres a single athelete in the NFL who has never heard Vince Lombardi's famous "What it takes to be number one" speech, i'm pretty sure its in every locker room in the country. But I watched a piece today talking about the Jets locker room being moved almost to tears by LaDainian Tomlinson reading it aloud to them. Same old message, but brought to them from someone they look up to, and it had a profound effect. Who says some poor kid, who looks up to Cap, won't read this, and it have the same effect?

Basically, I'm saying Kudos to Marvel for at least making an effort to help.

And BigTymin, where is your sig. art from? That shit's fantastic.

Agreed, goatt. And the art is by the amazing Marko Djurdjevic. He did a couple of awesome posters recently of X-Men, Avengers, Spidey, and Iron Man. I hope he does more! Here's a link to the image

http://www.emmafrostfiles.com/wp-content/uploads/X_MEN_POSTER-FINAL-small.jpg