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SUPERHERO

                                
                                        December 28, 1992  
   
A brief history of superhero comic books:    
Back in the 50's, monsters were all the            
rage.  EC comic books were selling really       My favorite example:   
well, doing a lot of clever, graphic            a story about modern   
horror stuff.  A psychologist named             vampires with          
Frederick Werthiem decided that this was        specialized jobs.           
harmful to young delicate minds, and this       They don't all hunt    
being the Fascist Fifties, the idea of          for themselves, but    
censoring them caught on.  Thus the             rather go to                 
Comics Code was born, and the monster           restaurants where you       
was driven underground.                         can fill a glass from  
                                                a tap sunk into the    
The thing that filled the void                  neck of a fresh corpse.
left by the monster was the                                       
superhero.  A character with some                                        
bizarre capabilities that need to   
be hidden from other people, who     
only went out in strange skintight   
disguises, and worked outside of    
the law.  A Marvel comics innovation                     
in the sixties: rather than                When my Anthro 101 professor 
these heroes being beloved and             listed the characteristics        
respected by all, they're feared           of witches universal in all 
and hunted.                                cultures, it immediately            
                                           struck me that Spider-Man 
                                           fit most of them.                 
                                                                             
                                  
"The superhero is just the monster in bright light." 
                        --- Fritz Leiber 
                                  




The premise of a typical superhero 
comic is usually that some strange 
accident has occurred that confers 
great power on one single individual.  
                          
This is pathetic.

We have a need to believe in the
value of our own individuality, in
spite of the reality that almost
all people are _replaceable_.  

  An employee quits, you hire another one,     
  if a lover dies, you get another one.   

                               
                                              The difference between 
                                              fantasy and science fiction?   

                                              A lone magic sword             
                                              vs. a factory that manufactures
                                              magic swords, a world populated
                                              by people with magic swords. 






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