Throughout the long history of comics there has been one unifying theme among heroes - they are usually pretty good at punching stuff. For proof of this we really not need look any farther than the big names characters in comics - Superman, Batman, Captain America, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman and maybe the most so the Hulk. There are certainly those with other powers like energy based ones, but even characters like Cyclops resort to puching the bad guys. Among the unpowered, punching is so necessary that even less potent characters like the Ted Kord Blue Beetle are said to be experts at unarmed combat. The sort of gun-crazy wave that swept the comic universes in the late 70s with the Punisher and continues to this day with the likes of Deadpool doesn't save those characters having a strong reliance on the ability to hit things with their fists. There are a few things not so relavant about punching. First of all from a physiological standpoint it does not really do much unless making the person you are hitting kind of upset. Of course there are knockout punches, but when Batman walks into a room and delivers ten in a row against a group of thugs it demands a bit of suspension of disbelief. This is kind of a minor point though, the issues I have with an over reliance on punching have more to do with what it represents. First of all most parents tell their children to try to resolve problems without resorting to fisticuffs using that as a last resort. Of course things like an excessive use of punching is what bullies do (at least the bullies who resort to physical violence). Secondly though I think we expect more out of our characters from the standpoint of thei mental acuity. There are a wealth of supervillains with very poor fighting ability (the Riddler or the Penguin for instance) but who prove to be completly adequate adversaries to their superhero counterparts. The exact reason is that they are engaging them in a battle of wits, not a battle of fists, and really I think as comioc readers we remember more the time when a hero had to solve a problem instead of having to fight their way through it. To take this to an extreme, imagine a battle raged Hulk was fighting (and mostly punching) a bunch of bad guys. He would be at a loss of what to do if he saw a man dieing of anaphylactic shock from eating strawberries. He would be almost useless, even Strawberry Shortcake who is made out of strawberries would be at least to administer an epi pen (though mouth-to-mouth resuscitation would be inadvisable). As comics have evolved over the years storylines and character complexities have evolved as well to the point (at least in my opinion) that comics represent one of the ebst forms of a fictional art form. The reliance on punching though I think is somewhat a relic of the past, still necessary at times but not at all times.
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