What can I do to get readers to accept this in a story?

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I've been told that my story is too comic-bookish and not realistic enough, but it's suppose to be I think. It's about a group of rapists that are going around committing crimes, and the police's efforts to catch them, but I was told that it's too far fetched that they wouldn't get caught a lot sooner, or how they operate. That they are too comic-bookish. But I think this is intentional and comic book-ish should not be an insult.

Is there anything I can do to let the reader know that it's suppose to be this way, and not have them assume the are reading a low key realistic story?

Could you include some kind of artwork / front cover with the story that looks comic-bookish so people have a better idea of what to expect? Or perhaps give the characters crazy names that people wouldn't have in a more realistic story.

Rape is a very serious topic, and for many people (especially women) it is more serious than murder -- murder victims don't go on living with the trauma of their deaths, for instance.  To treat rape as anything less that a terrifying act of violence is to diminish its significance to the victim, but to present rape in all of it's horrific detail is to engage in "rape-porn" which would attract perverts and offend serious readers.

This is why many writers of police-procedural dramas and detective stories focus on "murder most foul" instead.  "Silence of The Lambs" is one such work.  Many of the details of what happened to the women in the pit were not spelled out, but only stated after the fact or implied.

I suggest changing your rape-gang into a group of thugs who beat up, torture and murder for the fun of it, but who also seem to lead normal lives with their spouses.

Oh okay, it's just I can't simply swap out the crime for another crime. The characters actions drive the story, and if I change rape to another crime, I don't think the characters can keep the same actions, and everything in the plot is completely undone then.

I feel I need to keep the crime, in order for the plot still hold together, but somehow change the tone or presentation so the reader will accept it more. But how does one do that? I was told it is too comic-bookish cause the criminals are too smart and keep getting away with it, until the end, when they finally get caught.

But is that bad though, if they are a challenge for the police? How do I write that, without the reader critiquing the villains of being comic book villains?

So you don't want it to seem comic-bookish? Could you set it in the past when police techniques weren't as advanced as they are today?

Unfortunately no, because I want to write it to be shot on a low budget. I've also done filmmaking before too, and want to use it to break further into the business. But setting in the past, ups the budget too much. Plus a good amount of the plot has to do with computers and computer hacking, so it won't work in the past therefore, either.

You have my input.  Good luck with your story.

Well err...not sure if a story with the main characters being 'a group of rapists' is really going to help you break further into the film-making business. I mean not that rape is a crime that cannot be mentioned in books or films...but if the main characters being followed are rapists that may not gain much popularity.

I mean game of thrones had rape(didn't show it, but it was implied) but then of course the rapist characters got killed at some point...so yeah there were horrible bad characters, but they got what was coming to them. Game of Thrones certainly was not 'about' rapists.

Oh okay I see what you mean. But in my script, it's not the main characters who are. It's the villains. The main character is a detective trying to find out who they are and catch them. By the end of the story, some of the rapists are arrested and some killed.

So it's told from the detective's point of view mostly, and the rapists are the antagonists or foes.

Could the detective catch some of the criminals long before the others? That would show that the detective is actually getting somewhere. Also, if the criminals are always one step ahead, make realistic explanations as to why they always get away. In comics, the bad guys tend to get out of very dangerous situations with minor injuries yet the heroes would've died in the same situations, so if the bad guys can just get away from the law easily without any logical explanations given, of course it's going to seem like some cheap comic.

But yeah, I agree with the others that a subject like that isn't the best choice in the first place, not to mention it really might not help with whatever you're trying to achieve. How far along is this project of yours? Can you abandon it and start something else? Lots of people end up doing that.

I wrote the whole script and it's finished. So I want to improve it.

The detective arrests one of them early on but there is not enough evidence to make the case, so they are forced to let him go, but the detective uses the information he has to investigate more. I wanted them to all be caught in the end, cause I thought if they were caught as a group, it makes for a bigger climax, between them and the police.

But there are explanations for why they haven't been caught till the end, such as doing a good job to not leave DNA, erasing evidence from crime scenes, and whatever DNA they do leave behind is not on file, etc. So I thought those were good enough explanations to not make it so comic-book-ish, unless I'm wrong?

^ Not sure, I'm not too familiar with this stuff... though going to detail about how they avoid leaving behind DNA or other evidence might help.

Okay thanks, but I wrote it from the police's perception and they police say the perpetrators left no DNA evidence, or what little they did leave with some crimes, doesn't help since they are not on file. I wrote it so they wear gloves, condoms, and clean the crime scenes with bleach, but is that not enough?

Rape should not be used as a vehicle for entertainment purposes. It is an affront to women and should be to men everywhere. It is a grotesque and perverted example of men's unthinking cruelty towards the vulnerable. To wonder why people do not give whole hearted support for you story shows a lack of sensitivity.

Oh okay, and I definitely want to treat the subject matter right. It's just that rape has been used in fiction before, as the main crime in the story. So I thought it was okay to use as the main crime for a story, since it's been done before, but of course you want to handle it right.

Just because it was done before does not make it "Okay" to make it the main theme of your crime story. Do you have a sister? Ask her if it is okay. How about your mother? Have you run your brilliant idea by her? Do you have a girlfriend? Ask her. Treat the subject matter right? I don't even know what to say about that. Your continued pursuit of this topic shows that this is not something that you will ever understand.