Oh.

Wait.

There was no outrage, was there..?

Gee, imagine that.

Ultimately it’s a cop out! If you Don’t want your kids to smoke, talk to them! Explain the dangers and how whats on the screen is fiction. In short…PARENT! Teach your children and hope for the best!

I am the youngest of Six Children. I was born in 1962 and grew up with depictions of smoking everywhere. Furthermore both of my parents smoked heavily.

Not one of my siblings or myself smoke cigarettes. I will admit to having a cigar every few years or so (literally ONE cigar every couple of years!)if the mood hits me.

People always seem amazed that none of my sisters or I smoke and we simply tell them that our parents made a point of telling us they regretted taking up the habit and wished they could stop.

My Mother finally DID stop when she was diagnosed with Esophageal and Stomach Cancer…both directly related to her Smoking (It’s a misconception to think Smoking ONLY causes Lung Cancer. It can, in fact contribute to virtually ANY kind of cancer including the aforementioned Pancreatic cancer. You are ingesting carcinogens into your body which can propagate anywhere).

My Mom died from her disease and said to me at one point that she had “Done this to herself”.

Also, the person that said Cigars were somehow less harmful is also mistaken. While you don’t inhale cigar smoke, thus limiting the impact on your lungs, the affect on your lips, gums and throat are significantly higher than cigarettes. Throat cancer is one of the leading forms of cancer among regular cigar smokers.

SO I understand the passion behind their requests I think it’s misguided.

On the other hand I DO fully support smoking bans that have been put into effect. There is no reason I should have to breath someone else’s second hand smoke when I go out somewhere in public. Furthermore my wife has Asthma and frankly COULDN’T go to most places before the bans were enacted because she could suffer pulmonary arrest.

Depictions of smoking and being subjected to someone else smoke are two different things!

BRIAN Smoking Regulations are not a partisan issue but it is true that the support is more universal among Democrats. Primarily because many Republicans accept contributions from the tobacco companies.

As far as the loberal thing goes, I don’t think it is as much liberal as Democratic. The Democrats are the ones behind most of the smoking bans in cities and states.

Second, “Hitler”? Really?! Comparing a silly group of people trying to stop people from smoking to a man who performed mass genocide?? Are you guys out of your flippin’ minds?!

That said, I am a proud non-smoking liberal and I think this whole thing is whack and stupid. I grew up watching tons of movies/cartoons with tons of character smoking all the time and it didn’t effect me in the least. This is yet another bunch of people that think kids are mentally retarded and can’t make choices without these groups “protecting” them. Doesn’t matter what political agenda they have (and why does it matter?). Both liberals and conservatives smoke last time I checked. If you don;t believe me, just ask the President.

censorship is A OKAY!! if it’s for the kids…

Speeding kills more than smoking. No more car chases in PG-13 movies!!!

When did Fred Flintstone ever carve up evil mutants?

Seriously, though, I saw Wolverine, the Thing and Nick Fury (and Howard the Duck, don’t forget him) smoking in comics when I was a kid, and I was NEVER even remotely tempted to start smoking. Kids I knew in school and even my own Mother smoked all the time, but I never felt compelled to do the same because my parents taught me to think for myself. Try it sometime, you may like it!

1) This is Blog@Newsarama. Every single piece can be opinion, as it’s the blog section.

2) I think you’ll find very few people in this thread that label themselves as “pro-smoking”. While Wolverine is the flashpoint, to demand an R-rating for ANY film that features a real-world, easily viewable in public, seen-daily, legal-even-if-banned-in-certain-buildings activity is, at best, silly as hell.

I’m all for removing smoking from movies in comics. They don’t make Wolverine or Nick Fury any cooler, and IMO smoking doesn’t belong in movies, comics, etc. that are viewed by kids. I support Joe Q’s removal of smoking from Marvel.

Ever notice how the anti-smoking zealots never want to allow us the benefit of not being complete morons? they think we can’t think for ourselves that our children are utter morons and only they can save us from the presumed dangers of smoking.
I say presumed because all I’ve seen are studies that give a possible link between smoking and anything. There seems to be no hard evidence and don’t get me started on the total BS that second hand smoke is.

To dictate what we see in movies is bad enough, for a group of self righteous, holier-than-thou medical ‘professionals’ to come along and tell us YOU can’t see smoking in a movie because WE think it’s bad is just plain stupid.
“But smoking causes cancer and it kills” you say? MAYBE. But people get cancer every day without the help of smoking and people die every day who have never smoked a day in their lives. If someone enjoys smoking, let them. If someone wants a character to smoke in a movie for 5 minutes let them. If you don’t like it then go back to your cave of safety and leave the rest of us alone.

I remember when movie theater popcorn was tasty until another group of people who know better than we do came along and claimed it would kill us if we eat it and they forced theaters to change the oil they use to pop their popcorn and now it makes me sick every time I’ve tried it.
Like this issue, no one normal ever died directly from eating it. It was just a scare tactic used by a group of people who think the rest of us are morons and need nurse maiding.
If you don’t like smoking, that’s good. For you. It doesn’t bother me either way and I’ve never see it linked directly to anything other than smelly clothes at the end of the night.
I say we comics fans unite on this and email the hell out of this group and the MPAA (another group we really don’t need. a bunch of people we never see or even know telling us what is appropriate for us to see in movies? Something’s wrong with that)and tell them to get off it. There are far more important things to worry about than is a fictional character smoked a stogie for a few minutes in a movie.
I miss when they smoked in comics. Ending that was a lame idea to.
“But if kids see this they will smoke too!” Listen, kids aren’t that stupid. If yours are then maybe you shouldn’t have anymore and put down the ones you have. This is just as stupid as saying there shouldn’t be a Wolverine movie because then kids will start shoving knives in the backs of their hands.

Get off it. Get a life. And let the rest of us live ours.

I agree this thing is silly, but artistic vision and character development has nothing to do with this. Have you seen the Wolverine movie? Also, I hate to burst your bubble but Wolverine is a character created FOR kids. Kids aren’t going to smoke because of him, but let’s not pretend he’s some mature character created with adults in mind.

I’d guess most (not all, mind you) posters on here who read comics as kids thought wolverine was cool. I wonder how many of us started smoking cigars at 13 because he did? Or started wearing flowery cowboy hats and wife-beaters in grade 8? We should have a poll.