Rise of Arsenal Wins Award for Its Accurate Depiction of Mental Illness and Drugs Abuse

[espanolbot]

Link here,
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/05/02/rise-arsenal-drugs-wins-award/

For legality from Rise of Arsenal 3

Comments

[fifthie]

"Babysit for you on Saturday? I'd love to, I'm great with kids WAIT, you mean I wasn't supposed to set your neighbors on fire, WHY DOESN'T ANYONE EXPLAIN THESE THINGS"

[arilou_skiff]

SpectacularFeliciaSquee!

[turtlefu]

And, just like that, the Prism Awards have been discredited entirely.

Though, one would think maybe they're not actually looking for "accurate" more "most likely to scare kids aware from drugs" since that's what most drug programs are ACTUALLY looking to promote.

Portray a drug-addicted person as somebody just like you and me who has fallen into addiction, thus proving it can happen to anybody?
HELL NO, let's just show them as comically as possible and hope the laughing will keep the kids away from drugs!

[darkblade]

That sounded like the set up for a very bad joke. Then I realized you were serious.

[darkblade]

It worked so well for Reefer Madness.

[baxter2814]

I'm sudden craving something really badly.

Hang on...let me identify it...

Ah got it!

Hello, Linkara? Can you do me a favor....

[baxter2814]

Oh, and Flash can run the fastest.

I'm not a troll....

[screamsheet.wordpress.com]

I am unfamiliar with this story. A look through Scans Daily presents me with scenes of funeral shouting and angry fighty almost-sex. Ignoring the poor quality of the story and what they did to poor Roy, does this comic actually have scenes that could be considered realistic depictions of drug addiction?

In other words, are people angry that it won an award it didn't deserve, or are they just angry because a story they didn't like won an award of any sort?

On a completely different note, is Roy magically de-aging in the three panels above? From panel one to panel three he looks like he loses about ten years.

[pyrotwilight]

Honestly I think the idea of someone trying to be EEEEEVIL and failing spectacularly would make for hilarious mini series.

Like someone trying to snipe someone only for their gun to jam EVERY time. Or when they finally do shoot it the bullet gets blocked by something. Possibly as it could be fun in the DCU a Superman who's flying around and doesn't even notice the bullet etc...

[savok]

It's a meta award.

"Hey kids, this is what a writer on drugs does!"

[icon_uk]

Dr's Drakken and Doofenschmirtz have been filling that role quite nicely over the years.

[tsunamiwombat]

"In other words, are people angry that it won an award it didn't deserve, or are they just angry because a story they didn't like won an award of any sort?
"

BOTH, good sir.

And maybe. Maybe sex with supervillains does that. It would explain why Batma- I mean, Harley Quinn looks so young.

[icon_uk]

In other words, are people angry that it won an award it didn't deserve, or are they just angry because a story they didn't like won an award of any sort?

A little of column A, a little of column B, but it's as much a combo as anything, that such a wretchedly poor depiction of drug addiction is seen as realistic by ANYONE.

[pyrotwilight]

Well, Dr. Drakken IS hilariously awesome, though he does have pretty good success in his plans until the last second (like most villains).

Don't recognize the latter Dr. though.

[laddical]

They brought KP out of retirement to do a crossover with Lilo & Stitch... it seems only fair... nay, NECESSARY... that they do the same so she can pair up with Agent P.

[laddical]

Got Netflix streaming? Every episode of "Phineas & Ferb" is available (except the very newest episode that just aired on Friday... but that'll come in a week or so).

It is, without hyperbole, the greatest thing Disney Channel's done since ever. Or at least since "Kim Possible".

[espanolbot]

Eh, as people said it's a little from both sides.

It gets even the most basic things about drugs wrong (heroin makes you hallucinate in this comic, not act as a pain killer), and generally treats this mini series about a man's collapse after loosing both his daughter and his arm with the same subtly as Superboy Prime critiquing a comic from the 2000s.

His grief manifests in thinking that a dead cat that he finds in an alleyway is his daughter, and he beats up two guys who he thinks is trying to take her/it away from him.

Also, the fact that his maiming and dead daughter causing him to be impotent is used for comic relief...

Plus there's his new shiny cyborg arm, and considering that having a golden arm is slang for having a heroin addiction (there is even a movie starring Frank Sinatra on the subject), which is all kinds of "clever".

Oh, and it wasn't just for this mini, Slade Wilson is now dosing him with Bliss, a drug introduced in Cass Cain's original series that is made from DEAD PEOPLE.

[espanolbot]

No Batman still works, after all he had on again, off again sexual relationships with Catwoman, Talia al Ghul and Jezebel Jet in reason years.

Though in Jezebel's case, it's likely that he was doing it just to mess with her.

[icon_uk]

Oh Lord yes!!! We could find out Rufus' secret past as Agent R before he went mercenary... :)

[espanolbot]

Weird, my head is awash with the realisation of the parallels between Drakken and Megamind, particularly in the light of the last episodes of the show.

[icon_uk]

Dr Heinz Doofenschmirtz, the antagonist in 98% of the B-plots from the awe inspiring magnificence which is Phineas and Ferb

[screamsheet.wordpress.com]

At the very least, this news has led me to look up information about the effects of heroin and how it totally doesn't work like the comic portrays. So I am being educated, albeit in a roundabout way.

[icon_uk]

"So now you know, and knowing is the half of the battle the writers of Rise of Arsenal seem to have forgotten"

[drexer]

After some googling around, it appears that bleeding cool asked PRISM regarding this evaluation. their answer:

There are three scoring criteria for the PRISM Awards, each rated on a 10 point scale. Our reviewers include PhDs and MDs in the field of the PRISM issues.

1. Accuracy related to the PRISM issues of substance use and mental health.

2. Accessibility of the message – the likelihood that the target audience will understand the aspects of the PRISM issues portrayed in the submission based on potential mixed messages, consistency of metaphorical representations, etc.

3. Entertainment value – the degree to which the submission maintains its entertainment despite the PRISM issues being addressed.

So there are 30 maximum points. Upon reviewing the submissions, reviewers discuss and debate them based on their individual points of view and perceptions. Then they each give their own numerical ratings for all three criteria. Based on these criteria and the subsequent scoring of the reviewers, the results are determined. Justice League: Rise of Arsenal and Greek Street scored very closely during the initial review. In a run-off debate and scoring of just these two the scores got even closer and literally became a numerical tie.

We like to say that within the framework of a potentially subjective process (each reviewer brings their own baggage and expertise), this process leads to the most objective possible result.

Among the things I can recall from observing the discussions was the way in which the series dealt with not just the drug issue but the way it intertwined it in the post traumatic stress of the loss of his arm and the slaying of his daughter, the link to his past addiction and how that might trigger a relapse, the tie to past continuity, and so on. Although clearly this could not match up to the original storyline from the 1970s from which it stemmed, that’s a classic – in part because it broke such ground at a time when these subjects were not commonplace in the medium (or even allowed, technically). We knew much less about drugs than we know now from the research, so there are ways in which it’s naïve in its handling of the subject compared to today, but at the same time, in the time capsule of when it was written and appeared, it was sophisticated stuff and brilliantly representative of the best ‘70s writing (and art) regardless of the subject. It’s hard to measure today’s comics against the Silver Age milestones and foolish to do so. The audience and its expectations have changed. [But] the story has held up marvelously in ways that not all comics do. it succeeded in its own mission of utilizing the PRISM issues as an organic story element that realistically (within the suspension of disbelief required of the medium) portrayed those issues.

Despite their comments I still don't buy it. The awful way with which substance abuse is portrayed turns it into a joke more than anything and lacks accuracy in any step of the way; 1/10.

The message is in no way accessible. It is disguised in a weird and roundabout way, forever skimming the issue with crazy and non-nonsensical events that just make it look silly and worthless; 3/10.

It is not entertaining. In any way whatsoever. Unless you count parody, but even so it hurts to read; 2/10

So, a total of 6/30 or 2/10. Can someone explain to me how this was tied with Greek Street when they tallied up the votes?

Also; another commentary regarding awareness of the controversy(heh...) around this comic:

Absolutely. I had noticed some of the controversy just at the nominee announcement stage with some things that were being flagged for us by Google Alerts. Obviously our criteria is a bit different from that of reviewers.

[espanolbot]

Actually, I read recently that it wasn't actually intended to be an anti-drug film, as so much that it was meant to be an exploitation movie, like the later movies Gone in Sixty Seconds (the original, not the Nick Cage one), Blaxploitation movies like Black Caesar, and the majority of Russ Meyer's catelogue.

They said that in the 30s,40s and 50s the idea was that as long as they put in a message decrying what it is that they're depicting, they can make it as lurid as they can. Like how the Daily Mail treats its stories decrying some sex scandel in some way.

An example of this law bendingness being used could be found in Ed Wood's movie The Violent Years (which can be seen on MST3K) which involves a bunch of upper middle class girls going out becoming armed robbers, commie saboteurs and gang rapists (yes, they rape a man offscreen after tying up his girlfriend).

The lead girl ends up dying in a prison hospital while giving birth to her victim's baby, which is sent to a home because the judge ruled that since her parents did such a BANG UP job with her, letting them take care of their grandchild is just asking for trouble down the line.

And this heartwarming tale is capped off with a warning to parents to make sure they keep their daughters under their thumbs at all times, least they go and vandalise a school (getting in a shootout with the cops in the process) and get pregnant via the dude your two friends just molested in front of his girlfriend.