There is no limit to what can be said about sex. Such a simple, almost industrial an act, yet mind boggling broad in its implications. The wealth of films, TV shows, and countless songs about sex, even if subtle, is enormous. It would be almost impossible to list.

This is one of those times that quantity never equals quality. After all, there is a entire genre of film (pornography) dedicated to sex that has all the nuance and elegance of a dump truck. Sadly, comics use and depiction of sex is about the same level as the porn industry.

Don’t believe me? Allow me to introduce you to Power Girl.

She is everything our society says a perfect woman should be: blond hair in some sort of hip fashion, big pouty lips in red lipstick, a chest that would make Newton cry and she always appears to be in some sort of seductive pose.

This should by no means pass as an example of a mature sexuality. This is a caricature of sexuality. While the irony of my statement is not lost, I still would say creators can be held to a higher standard of excellence that doesn’t rely on creations that alienate/torment the burgeoning female readership.

It is nothing shocking to say that tits sell. They do. Isn’t this one of the reasons Power Girl sells at all? That her chest has what can only be described as Saturn’s moons made flesh? That she is an object for males to ogle over?

As I said above, this is not the sign of a mature understanding of sexuality. There are implications unraveling from these creations that beg to be discussed, yet most continue to pass a blind eye to how wrong headed comics depictions of sexuality can be.

Greg Land, for example, gets ripped on countlessly for his depiction of women or how he swipes from others. However, he continues to get work because he sales. It is not a hard leap to conclude that a majority of males are purchasing it from the looks of the cover below:

After all, what is it that is being conveyed here? Danger? Far from it.

While the demons gather behind her, mouths salivating as they stare beyond her. This whole image is confusing because right there is a woman, Madelyn Pryor, seductively biting her fingers. This posing is supposed to be a juxtaposition of sexuality with innocence cast against a back drop of demons.

There is nothing being said here behind hot women look hot. What else could we learn: demons are hungry? Demons salivate – a lot?

For those not in the know of X-Men history, Miss Pryor is something of a demoness. She controls the demons we see behind her. But back to the salivating demons. If Pryor is there as keeper or leader, this picture is basically saying that it takes a highly sexualized woman to lead.

Lord forbid that a woman in a full top be on the cover of Uncanny X-Men. After all, who can trust a woman who isn’t showing off most of her already exposed chest?

It can be argued though that female creators are becoming a larger part of the the comics field. This is an excellent, and welcome, change. We have wonderful, fresh books like Linda Medley’s Castle Waiting or Air by G. Willow Wilson. However, the tide has risen quite high that it will take more than a couple of female creators to help stymie.

But, not every female creator is working on positive works.

There are some female creators working on titles that are far from progressing a healthy sexuality in comic books.

But, this is not the fault of these creators. After all, there are not many female creators being offered main writing duties on the main X-Men titles or Superman.

I, for one, would truly be shocked and relieved if we ever get a woman writing a major title. But, the female perspective is highly under-represented.

There are plenty, countless, comics that depict women in sheer outfits with giant tits. But, where are the mainstream comics that show the pain that comes with 34 DD tits. After all, we can show the pain of women being bound by shackles but not the pain women endure day to day?

But back pain is a reality for a lot of women with a breast size of above average. There is also downsides like not being able to find a bra at Target. The running philosophy is that most men would find this topic unsexy and thus not marketable.

There needs to be more works that deal with sexuality on a level that isn’t a step away from tentacle porn. Works that depict a sexuality more realized and actual, than a representation of a diseased sexuality.

This is why works like Black Hole need to be discussed.  Masquerading as a book of mutants that become deformed due to an STD being passed around, Black Hole is far more.

If a reader learns anything about sex from works like those above, they could begin to presume that all women are just, underneath, objects ready to be fucked against by any male. This is a disgusting implication to even subtly suggest.

Creators like Burns show that comics can be honest and poignant about sex, without being insulting or detrimental.

Perhaps our maturity level, or attention span, is such that books like Black Hole will be judged as “too indie” and thus stay mostly ignored.

This only further develops the image that Burns is a bold creator. A creator that shines a light on, perhaps, one of the causes for our mistaken understanding of sexuality.

Subtly Burns reveals via Keith’s monologue during a sex ed class that perhaps it is our cold, sterile, and perfunctory manner of education that favors misogyny and objectification of women as we grow. That we taught this manner of sick sexuality in the beginning.

“We had to watch all these lame movies about human reproduction…those movies were always so safe & clean, everything simplified down to diagrams and animated cartoons…the weird part about those movies was that they never showed you the real thing, the actual sex part…fucking.”  - Keith’s Monologue, Black Hole# 10

Didn’t we all wonder this back in school? That is great you are showing me a side diagram of the penis, but no one showed you how to use the damn thing. This isn’t like changing the oil in your first car. This is sex and it has been built up in all its tragic majesty from early on. But, what Burns is exhibiting here is that we have a rudimentary way of “teaching” sex.

If someone showed you a slide of an engine block cut in half, would you then be expected to know how to drive a car? Of course not. You might be on your way to becoming a mechanic, but hardly a driver from such a shoddy education.

But, much like the sterile cartoons and diagrams only convey a simulation of human sexuality. The same kind of faulty simulation on display in covers where women are tied up, except for their heaving breasts which escapes the binding. There are some truly sexually disturbing covers out there that pass as the norm. But, what is really disturbing is that this is just the implication of what we were taught. That sexuality is simply objects and they collide and more objects come together and so on and so forth.

This is one, if not the most important, distinction between a work like Black Hole from Big Tit Girl comic book or even a real work like Craig Thompson’s Blankets, Burns is unafraid to show the real existential implications of human sexuality. That sexuality, especially during the teen years is a confusing, if not slightly morbid experience. After all, each birth reminds us of death on some level.

Which is another reason that Burns’s depicts sexuality in a horrific manner, because this is what is acceptable in our world.  In Black Hole, you can only catch this STD by passing bodily fluids, typically by sex. Once you have it, the carrier will begin to display abnormalities and mutations. Some of these mutations can be subtle as growing little pustules on your face to growing fin hands.

The metaphor is largely obvious in its message that sex scars you. It can rip you apart, it can deform you. How many comic book works have detailed the painful implications of sexuality so well? I would guess Black Hole may be the only one. But, why is that. After all, what is it that Burns is doing that is so different than say an X-Men comic?

Both are initially just tales of mutations as metaphor for changes in evolving from child to adolescent and then to adult. These are rocky times that are full of paradoxical, turbulent emotions whose meaning feels as distant as the edge of the universe. Burns does not stop at convention though. He does not stop just because the genre has never ventured down this path to much. Instead, he delivers a scathing, ribald, and genuine examination of human sexuality on adolescents.

Which leads us to what is, perhaps, the saddest implication of sexuality as it is currently in comic books. The fact that these hard-lined, impossible females are defenses of sexuality. That we as males continue to lust and draw these idealistic version of females because it keeps the truth of sex at bay. A truth that Charles Burns was, thankfully, courageous enough to explore and capture in Black Hole.

I do not suspect we shall see another work like Black Hole. I am even sure there are many who will be completely unfamiliar with the work itself. While I am not taste setter, I would suggest this to anyone interested in frank and honestly grotesque story about sexuality.

Sadly, I am not sure that is much of a sell. Then again, its hard when you are competing with tits that can crush whole buildings.