Over at SciFiPulse.Net, I wrote a Comix Portal column about a child psychologist’s dislike for Iron Man and some other recent super-heroes. One of the things that I disagreed with the lady about was the apparent feeling that children (particularly boys) are way too stupid to figure out that bad behavior shouldn’t be emulated on their own–they need comics to preach to them about what to do and what not to do.

Right on the heels of that story comes another one about groups failing to understand just how smart and imaginative kids can be. Here’s an article about protesting toys of the Fantastic Four now being given out at McDonalds restaurants by Dan at themovieblog.com:

>>Alright, so I stumbled upon a press release for CCFC (Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood) while reading a few articles on Cinematical’s website this morning.

The CCFC is targeting Happy Meals at McDonalds with good reason, their goal is to prevent McDonalds from using toys to entice kids into eating at their restaurants. Now so far I’m on board somewhat, I do think it’s a good idea to stop McDonalds from using toys as bait for children but then again if a kid does eat the crap at McDonalds don’t you think they deserve at the very least a cheap toy as a reward for keeping it down?

Now the part I 100% disagree with is their attack on the Fantastic Four toys. The CCFC does not have a problem with Invisible woman or Mr. Fantastic, what they do have a problem with is The Thing and The Human Torch. Complaining about idiotic things like the Thing’s pre-recorded roar yelling “It’s Clobberin’ Time!” each time the child presses the button on his back, and the fact that the Human Torch is a man on fire…

“It’s bad enough to use junk toys to sell children on junk food,” said CCFC’s Director Dr. Susan Linn. “But now, for preschool boys, a so-called happy meal at McDonald’s features the horrifying spectacle of a man engulfed in flames and a menacing figure that explicitly spurs them to violence.”

Okay I am sorry if I am not sympathetic for these over protective parents cause, but if your child opens a happy meal and after playing with the toy jumps on the tables smashing customers heads into their meals yelling “It’s Clobberin’ Time!” and then proceeds to light himself on fire to become The Human Torch then man you are most likely a horrible parent.

The Fantastic Four have been around since 1961, thats a good 50 years of children growing up with these characters. Kids haven’t been getting stupider, instead each decade children have been growing up seeing a lot more at a young age. For example, if you were a child of the 60′s you might have heard about The Fantastic Four through a friend or if you actually read the comics yourself. Now kids have toys, movies, TV shows, comics, coloring books, video games, board games, etc. They are well aware that The Human Torch has super powers which allows him to ignite into flames and doesn’t simply put a lighter to his jacket and wait a couple minutes.

In conclusion, I am not completely insulting the CCFC for I do believe they have their hearts in the right place trying to prevent huge corporations from abusing an innocent child’s mind into begging their parents to spend their hard earned money on crap that ends up in a garage sale selling for 50 cents a piece. I just have always been a strong believer in choosing ones battles, and when they complain about things like this it just makes me feel like the people running the organization aren’t even aware of what goes on in a child’s mind, or even research the toys their kids play with.<<

Kids have a lot more imagination and intelligence than some of us give them credit for, I think.

Speaking of the Fantastic Four, here’s the title sequence for the latest cartoon:

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