Moving onwards, dialogue has gotten pretty tricky to execute. Readers are now sensitive to accents. If accents are executed in a derogatory manner – rike when Chinese storekeeper speaking broken Engrish and no say retter “L” properry, then we have a problem. Yes, it does lend to the illusion of realism, but this style of writing dialogue risks offending an entire race of people and not just Mr. Lee (because all Chinese people own small stores and have a last name of Lee. I’m being sarcastic.).
Rogue has always had a Southern drawl to her manner of speech. But how come Wolverine never got a similar treatment? Correct me if I’m wrong if you know what I’m talking aboot. The guy is Canadian after all. How about Captain Britain and Storm? The grammar is the same in the countries they hail from but to create the illusion of a diverse set of individuals conversing in one room, their accents have to be injected into their speech patterns. Banshee did get the Irish treatment to his dialogue at one point but what do the Irish think of it?
So maybe the olden times of comic books weren’t so backward after all. What they lacked in accents and differentiation, they made up for with the use of “pseudo dialects”. This is what I discussed earlier when educated villains had a wide vocabulary and made use of other verbal accouterments of the privileged. Even though “Doom has no equal”, their use of the third person to announce their presence categorized them to the readers’ mind. I also noticed that villains would usually address each other by their aliases while heroes, to lend a friendlier tone, would address each other by their real names. Finally, common hoodlums, henchmen, and Flash Thompson’s cronies always slanged their speech alla way to the end page if y’know whut I be saying.
There is no argument I would like to make, honestly. I just want your thoughts on this on the comments section below. Are things fine the way they are? Do the characters on the page still give the illusion of different voices, accents, pedigrees, and walks of life just like they did before? Or is it time for writers to start treating each and every character differently for a deeper and more engaging reading experience?
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