The Ages of Superman This page intentionally left blank The Ages of Superman Essays on the Man of Steel in Changing Times Edited by JOSEPH J. DAROWSKI McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA The ages of Superman : essays on the Man of Steel in changing times / edited by Joseph J. Darowski. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7864-6308-4 softcover : acid free paper 1. Superman (Fictitious character) 2. Comic books, strips, etc.—United States. 3. Literature and society—United States. I. Darowski, Joseph J. PN6728.S9A37 2012 741.5'973—dc23 2011048458 BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE © 2012 Joseph J. Darowski. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, i ncluding photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without p ermission in writing from the publisher. Front cover design by Rob Russell Cover photograph © 20¡2 iStockphoto Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com Table of Contents Preface JOSEPH J. DAROWSKI 1 “Superman Says You Can Slap a Jap!”: The Man of Steel and Race Hatred in World War II TODD S. MUNSON 5 Supervillains and Cold War Tensions in the 1950s LORI MAGUIRE 16 Kryptonite, Radiation, and the Birth of the Atomic Age PETER LEE 29 Truth, Justice, and the American Way in Franco’s Spain LOUIE DEAN VALENCIA-GARCÍA 45 The Inflexible Girls of Steel: Subverting Second Wave Feminism in the Extended Superman Franchise THOMAS C. DONALDSON 62 Black Like Lois: Confronting Racism, Configuring African American Presence CHRISTOPHER B. ZEICHMANN 78 Red, White and Bruised: The Vietnam War and the Weakening of Superman JASON M. LATOUCHE 91 The Struggle Within: Superman’s Difficult Transition into the Age of Relevance PAUL R. KOHL 103 “It’s Morning Again in America”: John Byrne’s Re-Imaging of the Man of Steel DANIEL J. O’ROURKE and MORGAN B. O’ROURKE 115 v vi Table of Contents The New “Man of Steel” Is a Quiche-Eating Wimp! Media Reactions to the Reimagining of Superman in the Reagan Era JACK TEIWES 125 More Human than (Super) Human: Clark Kent’s Smallville and Reagan’s America MICHAEL SMITH 143 The “Triangle Era” of Superman: Continuity, Marketing and Grand Narratives in the 1990s MATTHEW J. SMITH 156 Searching for Meaning in “The Death of Superman” JOSEPH J. DAROWSKI 166 Death, Bereavement, and the Superhero Funeral JOSÉ ALANIZ 177 Superman and the Corruption of Power STEFAN BUCHENBERGER 192 This Isn’t Your Grandfather’s Comic Book Universe: The Return of the Golden Age Superman JEFFREY K. JOHNSON 199 In a World Without Superman, What Is the American Way? JOHN DAROWSKI 209 Traveling Hopefully in Search of American National Identity: The “Grounded” Superman as a 21st Century Picaro RANDY DUNCAN 218 About the Contributors 231 Index 235 Preface JOSEPH J. DAROWSKI Some may consider Superman quaint or outdated. There are certainly edgier and grimmer characters that have been created. But Superman has had one of the most profound impacts on American popular culture of any fictional character and to this day he remains a profit-generator. First published in the early days of the comic book industry, the Man of Steel gave birth to the superhero genre. This genre, though most closely linked to the comic book medium where it began, has influenced all aspects of the entire entertainment industry. And it all began in 1938 when Superman, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, first appeared on the cover of Action Comics #1 (Jun. 1938). The elements of the superhero genre fully came together for the first time when Superman first appeared, and he was soon followed by Batman, Wonder Woman, and hundreds of others. Costumed superheroes are among of the defining figures of American entertainment, as iconically American as the Western cowboy. Superheroes, though always present in some form in our entertainment, have enjoyed a resurgence in popular culture in the last decade. At the same time that superheroes have been the stars of children’s cartoons and live-action dramas on television, dominated the Hollywood box office, and taken another troubled step onto Broadway stages, the academy has given greater notice to comic book superheroes. Numerous books have been pub- lished looking at individual creators, the history of the industry, or topics such as superheroes and philosophy or superheroes and religion. This book will attempt to do something different. It will explore the evolution of a pop- ular culture icon, Superman, and how he has remained relevant for more than seven decades of uninterrupted narratives. One of the most intriguing aspects of Superman is that new stories have been told featuring the character continually since his creation. While many other franchises of the entertainment industry, such as James Bond or Star Trek, have had new chapters added across a long period of time, there are often years in between the new stories being produced. Superman comics 1 2 Preface have been published continuously since 1938, with a new story, or even four or five or six new stories, appearing on a more-or-less monthly schedule. This long-running narrative allows for a fascinating look at the evolution of Super- man. While Superman from World War II era comic books is easily identified as the same character as the Superman of Cold War era comics, there are clear and obvious distinctions when they are looked at closely. By exploring how this popular culture icon has changed through the years we can track how our entertainment mirrors the changes in American society. Superman began as a crusading social avenger at the end of the Great Depression, became a patri- otic hero during World War II, saw his powers increase in the early years of the Cold War, entered a period of flux during the Vietnam War, was killed and returned at the end of the Cold War, and has looked for his place in the superhero world since the turn of the century. Near the end of 2011the char- acter experienced yet another reimagining, this one a more serious break from his previous stories. This collection will analyze the character, primarily through his comic book adventures, in chronological order until this most recent reimagining of the Man of Steel. Stories from each decade of his exis- tence will be analyzed in the context of society at that time. Our popular entertainment does not exist in a vacuum, and though it may serve as escapist fare it still reflects the real world. The collection begins with Todd S. Munson examining the Superman comics from the World War II era in “‘Superman Says You Can Slap a Jap!’: The Man of Steel and Race Hatred in World War II.”While the comic book stories themselves rarely touched on the war effort, Superman was an agent of American propaganda. Especially on comic book covers and adaptations into other media, Superman was frequently shown battling America’s ene- mies. Lori Maguire and Peter Lee each look at Superman stories from the 1950s during the Cold War era. In “Supervillains and Cold War Tensions in the 1950s,” Maguire examines the villains Superman faced in relation to the fears that dominated American society at the time. Lee explores the relationship between Kryptonite and the nuclear age in “Kryptonite, Radiation and the Birth of the Atomic Age.” Louie Dean Valencia García provides a different view of this American icon, by analyzing Superman’s influence in Spain during the 1950s and 1960s. “Truth, Justice, and the American Way in Franco’s Spain” looks at translations of Superman comics at a period when Francisco Franco was attempting to control as much of Spain’s popular culture as possible. While Superman may often be seen as an unproblematic symbol of virtue in America, in Spain at this time the American ideals embedded in Superman comic books were con- Preface (Darowski) 3 sidered radical and often censored. This alternative view of Superman allows for an understanding of how the American values Superman embodied could be perceived from different perspectives. Thomas C. Donaldson and Christopher B. Zeichmann each look at Superman’s supporting cast in comic books published in the 1970s. The char- acters experienced significant changes and revisions in apparent reaction to social movements in America. Donaldson’s “The Inflexible Girls of Steel: Lois Lane, Supergirl, and the Subversion of Second Wave Feminism” explores the expanded Superman family in the context of the feminist movement. While in “Black Like Lois: Confronting Racism, Configuring African American Pres- ence” Zeichmann looks at a story in which Lois Lane becomes African Amer- ican for a day in relationship with the Black Power movement. Jason M. LaTouche and Paul R. Kohl examine a story published during a time when DC Comics attempted to make their characters more relevant in relation to real-world events. In “Red, White and Bruised: The Vietnam War and the Weakening of Superman” LaTouche examines a Superman story arc called “The Sandman Saga” and uses the United States’ increasingly unpop- ular involvement in the Vietnam War as a means of interpreting the message. Kohl examines the same story in “The Struggle Within: Superman’s Difficult Transition into the Age of Relevace,” but with a different societal parallel. Kohl uses the changing role of the news media and the counterculture move- ment as societal touchstones that inform the story. Both analyses are equally thorough and insightful. One of the most significant eras for Superman comic books is a reboot of the character following DC Comics universe-altering event Crisis on Infinite Earths. Following this event, the character’s origins were reimagined in a mini- series by writer/artist John Byrne. Daniel J. O’Rourke and Morgan B. O’Rourke analyze that mini-series in light of the Reagan era in “‘It’s Morning Again in America’: John Byrne’s Re-Imaging of the Man of Steel.” Jack Tei- wes’s essay, “The New ‘Man of Steel’ Is a Quiche-Eating Wimp! Media Reac- tions to the Reimagining of Superman in the Reagan Era,” also looks at the mini-series, but more specifically the media’s reaction to it in light of American attitudes towards masculinity in the 1980s. Michael Smith examines the stories that followed this reinterpretation of Superman, but still were firmly entrenched in the American culture of the 1980s in “More Human than (Super) Human: Clark Kent’s Smallville and Reagan’s America.” Entering the 1990s Superman comics became more closely connected and told larger, more inter-connected narratives. Matthew J. Smith discusses this era in general and why America was particularly well-positioned for this type of grander storytelling at that time in “The ‘Triangle Era’ of Superman Comic Books: Continuity, Marketing and Grand Narratives in the 1990s.”