Sex in the City of Metropolis

Here's a little excerpt from Bill Schelly's book which I plugged earlier here. It's about what Bill, as a young gay man, found interesting in the comic books he was reading way back when. I wonder how much young kids today find arousing in comic books.

When I was twelve, I did have some low-level fantasies about Supergirl and Lana Lang and a few others, especially as they were drawn by certain artists. But I didn't really have access to anything much stronger the way a twelve-year-old boy today can probably find his way to porn or even just Sports Illustrated models in body paint without a lot of trouble. I recall at around that age reading the story where Superboy got transformed into a girl and I don't think it struck me as much different from a story in which he was transformed into any kind of person or creature other than himself. Today, I'd probably think, "Well, now he's not going to go out and fight crime. He's just going to stay home all day and play with his own breasts."