Ku Klux Kryptonite (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog)
Are comic books suffering because they are trying to emulate the action of videogames, rather than the edgy, thought-provoking content that only a fringe medium can provide?
In a striking series of radio episodes in the 1940s, Superman took on the Ku Klux Klan, after activist Stetson Kennedy spent time undercover with the organization, and fed the Superman producers information on the Klan’s secret procedures.
In Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner write,
The Grand Dragon tried to run a normal meeting but the rank and file shouted him down. “When I came home from work the other night,” one of them complained, “there was my kid and a bunch of others, some with towels tied around their necks like capes and some with pillowcases over their heads. The ones with the capes was chasing the ones with the pillowcases all over the log. When I asked them what they were doing, they said they were playing a new kind of cops and robbers called Superman against the Klan…. I never felt so ridiculous in all my life! Suppose my own kid finds my Klan robe some day?”
[…]
It happened because Kennedy understood the raw power of information. The Ku Klux Klan was a group whose power — much like that of politicians or real-estate agents or stockbrokers — was derived in large part from the fact that it hoarded information. Once that information falls into the wrong hands (or, depending on your point of view, the right hands), much of the group’s advantage disappears.
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I disagree with von Busack. Comic books are not emulating video game violence. Instead, it is the other way around, but with bad storytelling (or none at all) involved. Superman is not a good example of his point because our modern Superman refuses to kill, unlike his previous selves, especially the 1940s version. The science fiction elements of superheroes like Superman, Flash, or Green Lantern were necessary for those comics to remain in business. Bradford Wright says in _Comic Book Nation_ that focusing on building a fantastic mythos is what helped DC Comics stay around while other companies like Marvel revisited an overt approach to political campaigns such as Vietnam, resulting in losses of readership. Marvel would follow suit soon after. If anything, comic books are an exercise in recognizing hope along with distinguishing fantasy from reality, because I doubt any of us can shave using heat vision and a small mirror. Thanks, Dennis!
Superman is not only the longest running superhero of all time, but he is also the ultimate immigrant. His roots are deeply seeded in 1938, when Jewish-American high school students Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created him as a means of sparking American involvement in World War II, which instantly laces every Superman story with political undertones and opposition to all injustices. Interestingly enough, the 1940s Superman was much harsher on criminals, bordering on vigilante (like Batman) behavior. For another good view of the 1940s Superman, there are some old Max Fleischer cartoons pitting the Man of Steel against German and Japanese forces. Thanks, Dennis!