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SUPERHERO

                                        December 28, 1992

A brief history of superhero comic books:

                                           ACT_OF_CREATION
Superman,
then Batman,
then World War II...

Then:

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 who have
Frederick Werthiem decided that this was        adopted specialization.
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

                                                Verily, even Godzilla
                                                became a superhero in time.


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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