Lipstick smudge
When I studied Reading Cultural Forms, one of the first things we were taught is that it is women who read romance. This entry should be right down their alley then..

Sure, the Bronze Terror is dated but do the, largely female, romance audience care? Does romance necessarily have longevity?. The combination of genres already implicit in the exploits of the Bronze Terror - notwithstanding a later profusion of western characters with secret identities and superheroes with spooky mien - is not romantic, unless you're a golden age buff. And, even then, the usage is as broad as that for adventure*.

Buff bodies and an air of mystery, ensures that superheroes do quite well in the romance stakes. Wonder Woman has her Steve Trevor; Wonderman his Wanda Maximoff (though, as you can see from these examples, they're no less fraught with complications than nonpowered relationships).

In considering the reading of relationships we consider our relationships with reading and in comtemplating writing romance we contemplate the romance of writing.

Spot the surreal drama in another suburban romance. Revel in the romance of detectives fighting crime; of men and women defending their country. Discover the romance in an engagement with the underworld or a seat in the saddle.

There will be romance in the future. Perhaps even beyond the grave.

Romance can be unrealistic, too realistic or too too realistic.
And, yes, love is a funny thing.




*though, and much as Terror we know too well to want bronzed into the process, the Bronze Terror is unique as a character in that later Native American supertypes like Red Wolf and Warpath fought general battles. He is the only one to fight specifically for the rights of his people and that years before it was 'fashionable' to do so.