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Even The Ultimate Spiderman has some safe-sex references and such and such that could make some parents reluctant to give it to a pre-teen. I think the idea that children are "little adults" has pretty much taken over and artists no longer know where any lines are.

My biggest problem with comics / science fiction / fantasy (circle all that apply) is that a lot of the current writers are/were fanboys and fangirls. And it shows because they often seem to want to tear up the works they enjoyed as children or copy them exactly. Fortunately a few, like Kurt Busiek, understand how to do a good homage and make it original.

I don't even think they think children are little adults. I think they found out they could make comics for grown ups and have never looked back. Once they freed themselves from the shackles of the CCA they've gone nuts. At some point (hopefully before the industry dies outright) they're going to have to realize that while they never liked the CCA those restrictions were good for dealing with kids. Eventually I think they'll need to split each company into two sections, one that's CCA (or some equivalent) and makes comics for kids and ones that's no holds barred and makes comics for adults.

The big problem with the fanboy problem is that there's so little originality. Fantasy is ruled by people that want to be Tolkien when they grow up, comics are primarily done by Frank Miller wannabes, everybody in sci-fi is either worshiping Rodenberry or Gibson. Nobody seems to learn something from their mentor and go off in a new direction, everybody is instead trying to replicate. That's why in general I stick with the big names that are constantly being ripped off, or I break out of genre completely, I've read more Elmore Leonard in the last two years than all genre fiction combined, he's so much more entertaining and interesting, and if he is ripping somebody off I've never heard of them so I don't care.