While DC and Marvel today are the two rival kings of comic and names like Batman, Captain America and Spiderman are thoroughly ingrained in every little boys brain, it was only in the late years of the depression and the start of World War 2, that comics went into their own "Golden Age". The 20s and 30s saw the first booms within the comic industry worldwide as Belgium printed copies of Tin Tin, Britain targeted the juvenile population through humor with strips called The Beano and The Dandy, and the States produced The Funnies (a reprint collection published in 1929). However to wasn't until the 40s when the first ever Action Comic was published that the Comic Industry sky rocketed.
On the Cover of the first Action Comic was non other than Superman-"Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall building in one single bound. The infant of Krypton is now the Man of Steel. SUPERMAN!" Superman aka Clark Kent, came into the comic scene in 1938 and "hit the ground running fighting oppression, bullies and petty dictators beginning with his first appearance in Action Comics #1" (Harrington). Due to the comic scene being heavily shifted by the government to wartime comics, Superman took a patriotic turn and the villains he was fighting evolved from ambiguous bullies and no name bad guys to the "Japanazis" in the Superman #18 (Sept-Oct 1942) edition as well as the evil mastermind Hitler(Dun Dun Dun). Ironic enough, Superman 's creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster are both Jewish, and the character of Superman or Kalel is also meant to be jewish, hence the focus of Hitler as the prime super-villan. From 1941 to the end of the war, Superman was in a propaganda alliance with the American Military as he walked hand in hand with navy and army officers, as well as throughout the war worked to increase war support by encouraging people to do things such as volunteer for the red cross and deliver medicine like superman in edition #60.
Another superhero who took the world by storm during WW2 was Wonder Woman. Created by William Moulton Marston(pen name: Charles Moulton), Wonder Woman made her cover debut in 1941 on Sensational Comics #1. Inspired by the two women in Marston's life as well as early feminists such as birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger, Wonder Woman and her lasso of truth were revolutionary as they broke feminine stereotypes including the common image of the "damsel in destress". While Wonder Woman made notable efforts in promoting the war as she fought the axis powers in many of her adventures, she was more famous as a feminine role model. According to Marston, "Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world". And in an issue of The American Scholar posted in 1943, Marston wrote, "Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength and power. Not wanting to be a girl, they don't want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman."
Bibliography
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/books/03/18/superhero.history/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Woman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman
http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/the-golden-age-of-comics/
https://www.supermanhomepage.com/comics/comics.php?topic=articles/supes-war
Interesting post Leah! It was a really fun read, and it's interesting to look at how the media and entertainment of the time were influence by the time period and the war, and how it in turn affected civilians and their war sentiment. This correlation was also especially intriguing for me because I had recently watched the movie Wonder Woman, and saw many elements from World War I, as well as hints of World War 2. The movie is set in World War I, but characters such as Doctor Poison parallel to people like Dr. Mengele, who performed his infamous experiments during the second world war. Also, the release of the recent Wonder Woman movie heavily influenced the feminist movement, as well as the Wonder Woman comics that you mentioned, so it's interesting to see how media and entertainment are able to shape public opinion.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.syfy.com/syfywire/why-wonder-woman-had-be-set-world-war-i
This post is very interesting and informative about the origins of an industry that has developed and exponentially increased in size and influence. Superman is a household name all across America, for all genders and ages. These heroic fictional characters begun their ascent by fighting Hitler, a real life villain to many. However, today's villains evolved to become fictional characters as well, which unnatural abilities etc. It is still interesting to know that a true threat and villain like person had started this campaign to encourage and educate people of all ages about the man that is taking over Germany and is fighting against their own families.
ReplyDeleteThe golden age of comics has some of the darkest comics of all time to the new silver age adding the concept of the multiverse and having different iterations of these famous characters such as a batman who would kill evildoers and hold firearms vs modern batman which would be unthinkable for batman to even do. It's an infinite amount of batmen, supermen, and other heroes that can span from nearly identical to completely different. There was a superman that fought alongside America and a slightly different superman named Kal-L that landed in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia and helped the Germans win WWII. A communist superman and so many more.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dccomics.com/blog/2014/08/18/the-map-of-the-multiverse