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GLADIATOR

                                                         July 14-21, 2008

   Philp Wylie's "Gladiator" (1930).
                                         Originally written: 1926.
   The superstrong and nearly
   invulnerable hero of "Gladiator"           A little too weird for a
   is well adapted to war time --             first novel, so they held
   he leaps from trench to trench,            off for a few years.
   running through them crushing
   human skulls in his hands as he                             [link]
   goes; but in peace time, he has
   no place in the world, and ends     He releases someone trapped
   up a pathetic figure, working as    in a bank vault, and is
   a circus strong man.                regarded with extreme
                                       suspicion rather than
      "Gladiator" is a grim            gratitude -- obviously, a
      vision of the absolute           satire of the O'Henry story.
      futility of being a
      "super-hero", though
      it was published
      decades before they
      were invented.            Or "invented":

                                          MUTATION

   Superman was essentially a
   flattened out "Gladiator";
   "Gladiator" with the                  Arguably, Stan Lee's
   intelligent themes subtracted.        great innovation in
                                         the '60s was to add some
     The Siegel and Schuster Superman    of them back in.
     is a little kids impression of
     being the "Gladiator" --
     enthralled with the surface, and
     missing the point.                      WASTES

                                             THE_FALCON
               And yet, if
               you're going to
               apply a measure
               such as "the
               test of time",        Did Jerry Siegel have
               with Superman         "something to say"?      MAKING_WRITERS
               up against
               the Gladiator,
               there's no doubt
               who'd win.



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