Comic books and cartoons were never for kids and if you look at them carefully, have always had adult themes. For example, the 80s Teen Titans relaunch was aimed at college-aged readers. Why? Because these are the folks who can afford to buy more than one comic per month.
Here is the shot from Catwoman#1 that caused an uproar when it was released in Sept. The implication is that they have sex and keep their masks on.
Now, I can show even more graphic scenes of comic book sex and rape through the years. As Hazzard said, this is nothing new.
But, this all did not just begin. Here is a pin-up of Starfire from the 80s:
And there have been several scenes of she and Robin naked in bed:
Now as far as Batman being drunk, Wolverine and Nightcrawler have been shown getting hammered since I was in middle school. Only in the last 7 years did Marvel decide and enforce a no smoking policy, which turned Wolverine into a non-smoker.
And of course there is violence. I remember this page from X-Men when Sebastian Shaw hit Storm when the X-Men first encounter the HellFire Club. The sheer impact of this moment will always linger with me and I think that was the point.
Even when comics are rated as mature, they can and do still sell them to kids.