As my original post noted, I wasn't bothered by the cussing in a MAX book, I was bothered by the unimaginative writing that accompanied it, which I find often does accompany excessive swearing. You are entirely right in that swearing IS part of the English language - but just like any other word in that English language, if you overuse it, it loses its meaning. It becomes trite and uneffective.

Your Warren Ellis example also helps illustrate my point. You note that In other words, Ellis writes similar types of characters who use a similar style of dialogue and vocabulary (whether he does so because he prefers to write that type of character or because he's ineffective at writing any other type of character is left for you to decide). I've read a few of Ellis' series, and find them to be rather derivative in terms of an extremely constant set of themes and character archetypes which he explores and does not deviate from. To each their own, but personally, I find that lack of character differentiation and lack of character development quite boring.

Again, let me be clear, as I apparently failed to be in my first post. I do not object to excessive swearing by itself. However, I find excessive swearing to often be used as a refuge for poor writing and scripting skills; that substitution of plenty of cussing for actual dialoge and character traits that differ between characters - THAT is what I object to.

Welcome to the Internet.

In your defense, eddy, I've noticed it seems to happen far more frequently here than it does on other msg boards.

And, previously:

Allow me to take this opportunity to thank you for your contribution in making this world a crappier place.

A question which can also easily be applied to Howard Chaykin's writing. I've been wondering that about Chaykin for years.

The stigma attatched to them was the only thing that made them a
worthwhile option in the appropriate situation.
Removal of the stigma through overuse also removed their whole point in
my opinion.
More often than not I just find it lazy and tiresome these days.
Like hearing a joke you've heard 3 or 4 times a day for the last 5 years,
when it stopped being funny 4 years and 50 weeks ago.

I'm usually with you on Garth, but you lose me when you compare Preacher to his other work. Bad dax!

oh the Irony, I just started reading Bendis's POWERS & then I see this thread!

I don't see nothing wrong with swearing at all. in matter of fact, I support it. I mean it's known fact, there are people in this world that swear up a storm. So why wouldn't there be (people like that) in a fictional world that is trying to imitate the real world? 1st amendment rights grant us that power to do so! So if you don't like swears in your Avengers, there is always Johnny DC & Marvel Adventures line!

Also on another note, I always see certain swears as just a shorter way to get a point across or something you say to vent your anger! I hate when people try to candy coat sentences when they are not in a professional situation! Everyone cusses, there can't be a soul in this world who has not said the word damn.

damn, I didn't even get censored on that!

I'd imagine the stigma is still there to some degree considering that I'm making the world a worse place to live in because I say #### without care for whom is listening. (Unless children are around)

See, saying it without a care would quickly become very boring to me, and
devalue it to my ears.
Any impact it ever had would be lost, and I'd probably start to view you
in the same light as a Valley Girl that couldn't make it through a sentance
without, like, using the word "like", like 2 or 3 times, like.

Don't get me wrong...I swear, and can be entertained by it.
To draw from sources mentioned here, I find Jay and Silent Bob funny, and enjoyed
Deadwood a great deal.
But as I said, hearing used without the appropriate impact gets really dull.

I can't possibly agree that using a profanity shows a lack of anything other than a regard for the sensibilities of those who think that using profanities shows a lack of something or other.

That assertion is so mind numbingly circular that I've never really been able to wrap my head around it. A cuss is just another word, heck, if anything it shows that I'm willing to use a broader range of words than those who don't use cuss words. I could understand if, like, in, like, NotYou's example, I, like, used ####, like valley girls used like. But good god man, that's just not the way I get my swear word on and the inference that I do is just, ####, silly.

I've never understood using a curse as shocking either. Maybe in Pleasentville a curse word is crazy and edgy, but not in my happy new millennium.

Ellis should probably tone down on his crazy violence, as it doesn't really serve much purpose. His stories are still fairly solid.

Ennis I've just lost any hope in. I thought he could possibly do survival horror well when I heard about Crossed. I gave it three issues and found an amazing lack of character development. Hell, even the shocking moments I didn't find shocking, it's kind of what I expected going in, but without any kind of emotional resonance, the ####ed up death scenes didn't hit me in the gut like they could have.

french is a language. #### is not it is a root taken from ####e, meaning exitement not extrament