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Home , Backstory, Clayton Crain, Cliffhanger, Demon in a Bottle, Jackson Guice, James Stokoe

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Filip Hatala

We Live in a Society: The Social and Literary Relevance of Comic Books

Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Christopher Adam Rance, M.A. 2020

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

Filip Hatala

I would hereby like to thank my supervisor Christopher Adam Rance, M.A. for his patience, time and helpful input. I would also like to thank my family and friends who have supported me all throughout

these 5 years of my bachelor’s studies.

Table of contents

Introduction ...... 6

1 History of Comics: The Golden Age and ...... 8

1.1 The Caped Crusader in the Night ...... 9

1.2 World War II and the Super Soldier ...... 11

1.3 Social Norms Change and a Wonder Arrives ...... 13

1.4 World War II and the Great Depression Come to an End, but the Golden Age

Continues...... 15

2 The Cold War Picks up Steam, as Gold Turns to Silver ...... 17

2.1 Ok Boomer ...... 18

2.2 New Marvels Appear ...... 19

2.3 With Great Power… ...... 21

2.4 Science is the Sickness, Science is the Cure ...... 23

2.5 When one Super-team is not Enough ...... 26

2.6 Ending the Decade ...... 27

3 The Dark Side of Superheroes has the Color Bronze ...... 28

3.1 Drugs, Death and Demons ...... 30

3.2 Miller Time ...... 33

4 The Modern Age ...... 35

4.1 New Major Players Join the Industry ...... 37

4.2 Time for New Blood ...... 38

4.3 A Failing Market ...... 39

4.4 A New Decade of Fear ...... 41

4.5 When the 2010s Came Knocking ...... 43

4.6 Multi-media ...... 44

5 in all of its Forms ...... 47

5.1 and Adventure ...... 47

5.2 Horror ...... 48

5.3 and ...... 50

5.4 Crime ...... 52

5.5 Romance ...... 54

6 Adapting to the Sociopolitical Climate ...... 55

7 Everyone is Included ...... 59

Conclusion ...... 64

Works Cited ...... 67

Résumé ...... 76

Resumé ...... 77

Introduction

Comic strips, comics, comic books and graphic have been a part of society for over a century now and have become one the most far reaching and inclusive media available.

With stories ranging from galactic devastation, to personal stories about depression, coming to terms with oneself, or more political pieces about racism sexism and a multitude of other.

While there are countless different types of stories, either an illustrated re-telling of someone’s life and the events they had to go through, or a visually striking tale about the holocaust, where people are replaced mice and cats like in the graphic Maus, this thesis will focus on arguably the most popular type of comics, which are superhero comic books.

At first glance these stories may seem more child-friendly and even childish at times, due to them harboring a, for the most part, colorful aesthetic and crating larger than life characters who more often than not are tied to a cautionary tale about , doing what is right, being helpful, basically teaching a younger good , like for example a more modern take on Aesop's . In the time-span of over 80 years, ever since the man in the red cape, tights and a big “S” on his chest first inspired and leaped into the imagination of countless people, a lot of changes have happened in the way comics and characters are written.

Superhero comics have changed and evolved, adapted to the social climate and created a genre of great inclusivity and social commentary, that is why they should be regarded as a relevant literary source. The theoretical part of this thesis will concentrate on the progressing evolution of comics and graphic novels, from their relatively small and niche beginning, up to present day and their massive influence on multiple entertainment industries. It will be split into different chapters, each dedicated to different era of comic books, such as the bronze, silver and golden age of comics. Every age will discuss at least one or more comics symbolic

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of that time. The practical part will examine the modern age of superhero comic books, with specific stories and characters, demonstrating how comics tackle social issues and present the reader with a library of different stories and characters that include people themes and struggles from all walks of life.

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1 History of : The Golden Age and Superman

As mentioned before, in the introduction part of this thesis, comic or comic strips as a medium were well known and well established before the idea of first official superhero was put on paper. Characters with special abilities or skill sets from pulp magazines, radio shows, novels and comic strips predated the Man of by quite some time. The golden age of comics however, has its start directly tied to the creation of the first actual superhero type of , to Superman. What made Superman actually super, was that he was the first character who could be described as an amalgam of all these fictional heroes and vigilantes.

He was incredibly strong and incredibly fast, sharing traits with characters like Tarzan or

Popeye. He fought criminals under the guise of an alter ego, not unlike the Green Hornet or the Shadow. He even became entangled in off world adventures, similar to the works of Edgar

Rice Burroughs, like his famous series revolving around the character John Carter, a regular man who becomes a legendary hero to the inhabitants of the planet Mars. Now while all of these character traits and story aspects may not have been very original when Superman was created, what was original was to have one character encapsulate them all (Johnson 11).

The social and political situation the U.S. found itself in had also an impact on

Superman’s creation. He was born out of a necessity for a new type of heroic character. By

1938 the U.S. had been facing one disastrous event after another. The Great Depression had been ravaging the country and its people since 1929 when the stock market crash occurred.

Millions of people were without jobs and most of America was witnessing the harsh and merciless fall of countless business and economic institutions. To add insult to injury, the U.S. as well as Canadian farmers were facing another major threat. The Dust Bowl, a series of long, drawn out and severely damaging dust storms was sweeping across both nations and was damaging to both the delicate ecosystem as well as agriculture. Countless people lost their livelihoods on top of the crippling economic crisis. All of these events led to the people,

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the citizens of the U.S. losing trust in their own government. They were left feeling betrayed and and most of all, hopeless. Out of these dire circumstances, a need for a hero, someone who would inspire hope in people, someone who would remind them that there is still good to be found in the world arose. This metaphorical calling for a hero led to the birth of Superman.

Superman was created in 1938 and had his published in May in Action

Comics #1. The publisher of #1 was National Comics Publications, Inc. or as the company is known today D.C. comics. National Comics Publications, Inc. was founded in autumn of 1934 by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson as a comic book publishing company. The company launched several lines of comics with each revolving around one , and thus the series Action Comics came to life and with it a milestone in popular culture was established with the subsequent creation of Superman. He was created by two young men by the name of Jerry Siegel who was the writer, and Joe Shuster who was working as an artist on the issue. Aside from being inspired by pulp and other popular media characters, Superman shares some strong parallels with biblical figures like Jesus Christ and

Moses. These parallels are not hard to perceive as the character has a tragic origin of losing his biological family and being raised as the savior of mankind.

It was a perfect of horrible circumstances, great inspirations and a dash of originality that led to the creation of one the medium’s most iconic characters. Superman appeared at the exact right time in the exact right place and ushered in a new age and a new type of character, and thus the first comic book superhero was born.

1.1 The Caped Crusader in the Night

With the massive success of Action Comics #1 it would not take long before another iconic superhero would see his debut. One of National Comics Publications, Inc.-’s other

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popular comic series, would soon be the birth place for one of pop cultures most beloved vigilantes. On March the 30th, Detective comics #27 was published, and with it the world witnessed the first full appearance of the nowadays iconic comic book character

Batman.

Batman, like Superman before him, was a product of the times and circumstances. He was created by the writer and illustrator duo Bob Kane and . While Superman stood up for the common folk, fighting injustices on a smaller scale while he himself was a larger than life character, Batman became the opposite. A normal, albeit very wealthy and skilled man. He, more often than not had to stand up against insurmountable odds by using his wits and plethora of skills. In this sense, Batman was a part of the common folk and symbolized a person fighting for himself rather than being the savior of everyone. Even

Batman’s origin, while drastically different from Superman’s, still carried the sociopolitical issues of that time (Finger, Detective Comics #33, 1-2). Being orphaned at a young age, Bruce

Wayne decides to avenge his parents deaths by becoming a one man army to fight against all criminals, and since he has no superpowers to speak of, he has to achieve all of his goals through hard and tiring training and expanding his knowledge on a countless amount of different subjects. Here Batman could be representing the common American citizen trying his hardest to succeed, while the criminals he fights could just as well be replaced with the social injustices that were plaguing the U.S. at that time. As stated previously, Superman was a character that came to save people from social injustices, while Batman was the common people, saving themselves from a terrible situation.

During the 1930’s U.S. citizens were subjected to a great number of sociopolitical problems and injustices. Thus, new heroes were crated to take up battle against these, either in a direct or a more metaphorical way. Both Superman and Batman became very popular in an arguably short amount of time. This in turn caused a massive surplus of new superhero

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characters that were undoubtedly inspired or even fully copied these two nowadays iconic comic book characters. In his book Super – History, Jeffrey K. Johnson states that:

“Comic book historian Mike Benton claims that over 700 new comic book

superheroes were created in the period from 1938 to 1954. Many of these heroes were

introduced in the late 1930s and early 1940s in order to capitalize on the perceived

superhero fad” (Johnson 26).

This fad, being born from a combination of bad economic and sociopolitical circumstances, only further strengthens the reality of how much comic books were influenced by real world events and in turn, how these comics became a part of people’s lives and how the demand for them steadily grew, due to a massively increased interest from the general public who could either indulge in fantasy where they could get saved from their terrible situation or become inspired and fight the unfavorable odds themselves. Soon these themes would change however, as not too long a time passed before another global crisis would appear and heroes would be needed more than ever before.

1.2 World War II and the Super Soldier

Another statement Jeffrey K. Johnson makes in his book is that: “one of the most important attributes of popular culture is that it quickly changes to meet a society’s needs.

Popular culture often serves as both a mirror and molder in society and is frequently one of the best gauges of a society’s current hopes, fears, wants, and needs” (Johnson 34). Such an instance of a rather quick change came with the year 1941. World War II had been ravaging

Europe for 2 years, but the U.S. was relatively unaffected, until December 7th 1941, when the

Japanese attacked the U.S. Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor. It was at this point, when characters stopped changing gradually and began to change a radically faster , from fighters against the Great Depression, into patriots fighting for freedom and justice. However,

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one of, if not the most famous superheroes associated with the Second World War, Captain

America, appeared sooner than the United States joined World War II.

Captain America first appeared in March of 1941 in his own series titled Captain

America. Just like the title suggests, Steve Rogers also known as starred in it since the very first issue, and alongside him was his trusted companion and sidekick Bucky.

The Captains early appearance in comic books, well earlier than the U.S. actively participated in the Second World War could be attributed to multiple factors, some of them more logical than others. Once again, the U.S. did not actively participate in the war until the attack on

Pearl Harbor, which was about two years after the war has broken out over in Europe. The

U.S. did however help countries and people in need with multiple programs. The U.S. was helping the Allied nations with programs like Lend a Lease and even Congress was in favor of encouraging national propaganda to prepare its citizens for the coming war (Dummies).

What made differentiated Captain America from other super heroes like Batman or

Superman was his active participation in the war. Batman before may have battled megalomaniacal overlords, but the writers never included actual world leaders or in this case dictators in their books for Batman to fight. Captain America, ever since his first appearance was meant to represent America in the war effort. The first issue of the series symbolizes this mindset perfectly. On the cover the Captain is visibly surrounded by Nazi soldiers while he himself is punching Adolph Hitler in the jaw (Simon 1-7).

Captain America was published by , who would later on be rebranded as the world-famous industry , . created by the writer , and nowadays legendary comic book artist , whose name will appear multiple times throughout this thesis as he was responsible for the creation of many popular superhero and supervillain characters throughout the history of the medium, Captain America carried the traits of both Batman and Superman as both were very popular at that time as they were the 12

archetypical characters created to inspire hope during the Great Depression. While Steve

Rogers startes out as a normal human being, his selflessness and character strengths he is chosen to undergo an experiment which would grant him superhuman abilities so that he can and will become the perfect soldier, a symbol of America. Just like Batman he, as a normal human being, he earns everything has become through his will and positive character traits, but unlike Batman he is not merely human. In this regard, the Captain leans much closer towards a character like Superman, using his enhanced abilities to rescue the common folk and fight ne'er-do-wells and criminals, be it lowly grunts or a real-life dictator himself. This is where Captain America differentiated himself from the two previously mention superheroes, he did not only fight for or as the common folk, he also fought for a grand cause, a bigger ideology as it became in a sense necessary with many more nations of the world becoming increasingly entangled in war. As Johnson states: “although more comic book superheroes would fight against the Nazi threat before the U.S. entered the war, …, Captain America was arguably one of the first and most important. Soon the U.S. would go to war and most

Americans, real or fictional, would rally behind the nation” (Johnson 36).

1.3 Social Norms Change and a Wonder Arrives

As the war raged on, the U.S. needed to adapt to the continually evolving social and political climate. Every helping hand was welcome and needed. And thus, social norms had to change to allow for a greater effort to be applied in the fight against the enemies of the free world. Therefore women, whose social status usually did not go beyond housewife cleaning lady, secretary and so on, suddenly began to get more opportunities to join the war effort. It was decided that, while they would not join the fight directly, they actively participate in many necessary jobs that were traditionally occupied by men - since a great number of male

U.S. citizens were sent abroad to fight in the war, women now had the chance and the right to work in a new line of duty. Women were asked and expected to work in factories at assembly

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lines for weapons and munitions, they were expected to learn how to weld together aircrafts, ships and other military vehicles, which they also did. In general, women during the second

World War saw a change in social norms and taboos which led to them being one step closer to their male counterparts in terms occupational possibilities. Even war time propaganda started to focus on women, with the creation of Rosie the Riveter, a fictional strong woman whose encouraging words “We Can Do it!” are now etched into history books.

While Rosie was a popular war time propaganda character, she did not have much of a character or a story to herself aside from visually representing strong women ready to help with everything that is necessary during times of war. A new female character, one that had not been fully explored in the comic book medium before was introduced in All

#8 in October of 1941. This character was given the fitting name of . Wonder

Woman was created by the mutual effort of William Moulton Marston, his wife Elizabeth

Holloway Marston, editor Gaines and was published by the same company that gave life to Batman and Superman years prior. While Wonder Woman may not have been the first heroic type of character in this medium, just like Superman was the first male superhero type of character, she was the first female superhero type of character. She is visibly inspired by the like of Superman and Captain America. She dresses in the same color scheme, loves democracy, freedom and justice and helps those who were in need. She fights against many of the same archetypical villains that her male counterparts fight against. What makes her different, aside from the obvious fact that she is a woman, is also her . Superman is an alien savior, Batman and Captain America are normal people whose actions and efforts enable them to become more than just mere men. Wonder woman however shares only little in common with these origin stories. As her origin is more mystical in nature, being created from mud and dirt by her mother and given life by the Greek God Zeus himself, she is a member of an Amazon tribe that lives on the hidden island of Themyscira (Marston). Her

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origins and abilities made her the quintessential powerful woman, as she was created as someone who not just women, but men too could look up to, while being also inspired by the

American war time propaganda and real life women who were participating in the war effort, once again demonstrating that while being inspired by real life events and circumstances, this medium could and would also inspire people in real life to do their part in the war effort, and would keep their hopes up in some of the most notorious time period the human race has ever experienced.

1.4 World War II and the Great Depression Come to an End, but the Golden Age Continues.

Before the war, superheroes were created as a sort of social , characters that would fight the social and political injustices carried out on innocent civilians. They were meant to represent the best in the human race as well as demonstrating that the common person is not as helpless as it may seem. During the war characters changed rapidly to suit the ongoing struggles and became more than fighters of social injustices, they became icons in the fight against a global threat. People believed that is this threat was not properly dealt with, it would not only change the way people lived but also the way they thought or were allowed to think. A threat that could possibly eliminate all traces of democracy from the civilized world.

World War II came to an end on September 2nd 1945, after the majority of the Axis powers were either defeated or they had given up on their pursuit of power, be it by or out of their own conviction. After the war the U.S., just like the rest of the world, had to change back into a more peaceful and tranquil state, and so did the comic book characters that were either created during the war, or went through some changes thanks to the intense political and social climate.

But the world never truly recovered from the horrors that the war created, just like the villains and criminals in comics would never cease to exist and post war a new threat had

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starting to rise. The real world as well as the world of comics needed to adjust itself to reality where the atomic bomb was deemed a success. A success in military armament. But a huge failure for a chance at an oppression free and peaceful world. One of the factors that helped ending the war also became a factor because of which a new war could arise in any time at any place and the world needed to deal with this reality. As Johnson mentions: “When the B-

29 bomber Enola Gay dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima, it not only destroyed the city, but also destroyed many citizens’ ideas about life itself. Suddenly, there was a weapon that could annihilate entire metropolises, and at first this new development shocked and dismayed much of the populace. Humans had developed a technology that could destroy the world and wipe out all of humankind” (Johnson 50).

Comic book superheroes also lost part of their appeal thanks to the invention of the bomb, as seemingly overnight a real-life weapon was birthed into existence, which was capable of not only wiping out entire civilizations, but fallen into the wrong hands, it could potentially end the human race. Suddenly the extravagant powers of superheroes did not seem that special anymore, as their destructive feats have now been overshadowed by mankind’s own weapons. This situation was not easy on comic book writers neither, as they did not know what kind of approach to take regarding the atom bomb. They could nuclear energy as a benefit for mankind, or they could point out the potential dangers such. The U.S government tried and even created positive nuclear energy propaganda for its new invention.

From board games, toys to even furniture patterns, nothing was safe from atomic propaganda

(Johnson 54).

Although there was a period of time where the world seemed to be at peace, it would not last for long. With of World War II, previously allied nations the U.S.A. and

U.S.S.R. came quickly to bud head due to their very different social-political views, and thus the Cold War between these two nations started.

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2 The Cold War Picks up Steam, as Gold Turns to Silver

Relations between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. started degrading soon after the second World

War ended and would remain on edge for the duration of the next 40 years. Comic book superheroes now had a new threat to face, which was not the Axis countries, but an adversary who, when it came to military strength, was matching the United States. If this was not enough, comic book writers still had to evaluate a way to handle the evolving nuclear power situation. One of the solutions was to create new characters whose origin would be energy related. In 1956 DC comics, back then still known as National Comics Publications, Inc. decided to re-introduce one of their more popular characters in a new shining coat of paint, the . The title of was given to a completely new character by the name of Barry

Allen, who is a forensic scientist and his powers are derived from a scientific accident. His first appearance was published in October of 1956 in the 4th issue of an anthology series titled

Showcase. His creators were writer Robert Kanigher and artist Carmine Michael Infantino.

With this re-introduction DC basically hit two birds with one stone, as the character was powered by an otherworldly and powerful energy source, while also being a law abiding and upstanding citizen who above all upheld and respected the American laws and American society. The birth of this character is widely considered to be the start of the comic book

Silver Age (Babic 11).

Another hero that was subjected the re-imagining treatment and was replaced with a completely new character was . In October of 1959, Showcase number 22 was published, and with it the world got its first look at the new Green Lantern. He was created by writer and artist Kane. The new character is an Air-Force pilot going by the name of Hal Jordan who gains his powers from a mystical ring, gifted to him by a dying alien.

He, on top of being with the Air-Force, also becomes a type of space policeman, as he soon joins up with other Green Lanterns in the . Both of these character

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reinventions were prime examples of how the Cold War affected comic books. Instead of fighting the enemy directly, as it became the norm during the Second World War, these characters were fighting the socialist ideals by being exemplary members of American society, both men were serving their country and were protecting the U.S. way of life. On top of being archetypical fighters against communism, their powers and origins also fit the nuclear age, as both gained their powers from a potentially dangerous yet new and exciting unknown energy source.

2.1 Ok Boomer

While the Second World War brought many horrors into the lives of people, the post war era was one of major success. People’s hard work and efforts succeeded in a big way. The economy was experiencing a revitalization, all thanks to the survivors of the great Depression and World War II. They worked hard so their children would not have to experience the same terrible circumstances they themselves had to endure for over a decade. People were finally once again living prosperous and arguably happier lives, of course not all was well, but the living conditions for the majority of U.S. citizens had changed for the better. With this improvement of life came a wave of newborn children. This time period of increased birth rates would become known as the baby Boom.

This increase would last for almost two decades and the children born during this time would become the new target audience for many comic book companies, although this change would not start immediately as writers as well as publishers had to experiment to find out what type of story or character resonated with the youths in the best way possible. This led to some major changes in the way comic book characters and stories were written. No longer would superheroes be simply that, perfect human specimens with no virtual flaw, whose stories would always end with a happy ending and most, if not all, of their actions would carry

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no consequences. It was the baby boom that forced comic book writers to come up with new and exciting ideas. No longer were inspirational heroes needed. The new generation was not interested in characters that they could only look up to, as most of these children never experienced the horrible living conditions the pre-war and war era brought with themselves.

People wanted heroes they could identify with, or rather appreciated heroes they could identify and sympathize with much more, than heroes that were simply a personification of ideals. To put it bluntly, people were tired of idols and wanted more flawed and realistic characters. The different living conditions created for the baby boomers would also lead to the creation of a rift between them and their parents. The older generation knew full on well how bad things could become if people became careless, while their children would not understand their heightened sense of paranoia and strict approach towards certain aspects of their lives.

2.2 New Marvels Appear

By 1961 Timely Comics had rebranded their name twice. First it changed in

November of 1951 to , and in 1961 they changed their name once again to the nowadays world-famous Marvel Comics. Their newest success would be created by the mind of nowadays arguably most famous comic book writer of all time, . Stan Lee had worked at Marvel since 1939 but only started to garner wider attention in the eyes of the readers at the beginning of the 1960s. Marvel needed to come up with new ideas, so Marvel’s publisher at that time, Martin Goodman, tasked Stan Lee to create a team based comic book, inspired by DC’s . Stan Lee himself wanted to create a comic book that would not necessarily appeal to, in his opinion, outdated and cliché conventions, as the demands by the executives, for writing comics, were to not overcomplicate them, have a lot of action, little dialogue, no need for deeper and so on and so forth. Stan himself stated that he was about to leave Marvel Comics and wanted to write one final comic book, so he did,

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and he wrote it the way he wanted it, without the writing constraints that were present at most comics of that time.

And so, in November of 1961, the first issue of The was published.

Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Jack Kirby. It went on to become a huge success, despite lacking traditional comic book tropes and clichés. It even fit with the nuclear themes of that era. The characters were granted their powers by, once again, an unknown, cosmic energy force, similarly to how previous comics used this story telling device as alternate take on nuclear energy. Another thing that Fantastic Four did differently was its characters, as they are not people who chose or were chosen to be superheroes. They are rather thrown in to a situation that allows them to evolve into superheroes, which gives them more depth and makes them a bit more relatable to the reader. What however makes these characters fresh and very relatable, is the fact they are the first superhero family, one may even call them a nuclear family. The four members of the team all have ties to one another. Reed Richards is dating

Sue Storm, who is the sister to Johnny Storm, the youngest member of the group. The only one who is not directly related or in a relationship with another character, is Ben Grimm. His ties to the group were established through Reed, as Ben was his college roommate. These characters ushered in a new era for superhero . No longer would the heroes be flawless, perfect in virtually every way. From this point on, Marvel’s artist and writers would create characters that were more grounded in reality, characters that had their own issues and flaws to face, on top of saving the world.

While superhero team-up books were nothing new at the time Fantastic Four was released, being All-star comics #3 starring the Justice Society of America was released 20 years prior, it was this title that actually brought something new to the table. With the team consisting of more or less a family of characters, who would argue and bicker like friends and family would, but would also show love, passion and understanding for one another. The

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book would essentially harbor some soap-opera elements (Gabilliet 79). With the Fantastic

Four, Lee and Kirby had created a new norm for superhero characters. No longer would they be the perfect human specimens, flawless and larger than life, they would have issues as any other human being would, they would be flawed and their actions of sometimes have severe consequences. Going forward. this type of characterization was used to create some of the most famous superheroes in history. It was also the Fantastic Four title that brought us the first ever black superhero, the Black Panther, who will be talked about in more detail further into this thesis. The changes that started with the Flash’s re-invention were now at full speed and they would not stop for a long time.

2.3 With Great Power…

With Fantastic Four #1, Lee and Kirby ushered in a new era for comic books. But this success would not just be a one-time occurrence, as Lee set his sights on breaking another boundary with his newest creation. For the longest time, teenage characters in superhero comics were only considered for the role of a sidekick. Batman had his trusted Boy Wonder sidekick , Captain America had Bucky, and even Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four was not standing on his own as he was a member of a larger group. The sidekick stigma would finally be broken with the creation of one of the world’s most famous, beloved and arguably one of the most important superheroes, the Amazing Spider-Man.

Spider-Man was co-created by writer Stan Lee and illustrator Steve Ditko. His first appearance was in the comic book #15 which was published in August of

1962. Spider-Man was significantly different from most other superheroes. He was no chiseled billionaire, the descendant of a god, an all-powerful alien, a super soldier, or even an unfortunate genius scientist caught in an accident. Peter Parker was an ordinary teenager from

Queens, New York who lived with his aunt and uncle and visited high school like an ordinary

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teenager. This was a giant deviation from the superhero mythos that came before. Not even the Fantastic Four were this ordinary, with them being on board of an actual spaceship when they got their powers.

Peter was specifically created to be relatable and believable for the readers, someone they could identify as, and as mentioned before, the fact that he was an actual teenager broke the stigma of teenage characters being used only as sidekicks and not full on heroes starring in their own titles. What more, the origin of Peter’s powers was, like with the Fantastic Four or the Flash an accident, an accident that this time outright stated that it was radiation based, since Peter was bitten by a radioactively enhanced spider, from which he gained the abilities and proportional strength of a spider. Once again, keeping the trend of an energy source being the cause of a superhero’s powers. Now forgoing the mystery and ambiguity of said energy.

Expressing to the reader that comic book writers were once again becoming more and more comfortable with tackling real-life issues and themes, as it was during the second World War.

Only this time, they would not return to the status quo of the pre-war era.

What however elevates this story is Peter’s attitude towards gaining amazing new abilities and superpowers, as at the beginning of his story he does not decide to be a superhero, he is forced, by himself to become one. He neglects to stop a robber who will later on murder his beloved uncle (Lee, Amazing fantasy #15, 1-10). This is the moment that leads

Peter on the path of heroism, his own guilt over his inaction that led to the death of his uncle

Ben. Peter becomes the epitome of the reluctant hero, a person who does not choose heroism, but due to his responsibility and his powers, rises to the occasion. A large number of superheroes suffer a tragedy that led them to become a savior to humanity, but Peter is one of the first if not the first that is driven by his own sense of guilt. For example, Batman sees his parents get murdered right in front of him, but it is not the guilt that drives him, as early on he is not even characterized to show any guilt over the incident, but rather is driven by

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vengeance. Spider-Man became a massive hit and his popularity would only strengthen throughout the coming years, cementing him as one of the greatest characters ever put to paper.

2.4 Science is the Sickness, Science is the Cure

The use of radiation or other energy sources, which were most of the time labeled as unknown or cosmic, had become a rather big part of multiple origin stories for superheroes.

The Fantastic Four, Spider-man, Green Lantern, the Flash and many others shared this common trait even though as characters they could not be more different from one another.

So, it comes as no surprise that another duo of the most popular comic book characters in history were given powers and abilities as a direct result of their interaction with these energies. These two characters are the Incredible and the . Both would go on to become not just a positive as well as negative representation of the risks which came with energy manipulation, but would also go on to personification of social issues and topics.

The Incredible Hulk saw his debut in May of 1962, in the comic book titled The

Incredible Hulk #1. He, like the Fantastic Four was created by the joint effort of Lee and

Kirby. Iron man’s first adventure was published in Tales of #39 in March of 1963 and written by Lee, but was this time illustrated by . While, again, both characters’ source of power is some type of energy, their origin is not tied to an unknown source that both characters happened to fall victim to. Both of these characters are responsible for their newfound status, the difference is that one participated willingly and the other suffered the consequences of his own actions.

The Hulk was based on character of Dr. Jekyll and his alter ego Mr. Hyde. Bruce

Banner would turn into the Hulk when he got angry, later on this would change from purely

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anger based to stress and or situation related. Bruce Banner transforms into the Hulk after he is exposed to gamma radiation from his own bomb exploding, he is however, shielding a teenager from the devastating blast wave, so in a sense, while it is an accident, the accident is a result of Banner’s own actions. The theme of consequences would become a mainstay of comic book storylines, as seen in later titles like The Amazing Spider-Man.

Hulk, being a character created through nuclear power is a perfect representation of the dangers which nuclear energy can bring about. He is extremely powerful, prone to anger outbursts and impossible to control even for his alter ego Bruce banner. A lot of his villains could also be used as cautionary tales regarding nuclear energy, as a large portion of them are by the same means as the Hulk. His main adversary is an army general by the name of

Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross, who is obsessed with capturing and or defeating the Hulk to a point where he loses most of his humanity and concentrated solely on the downfall of the jade giant.

However, the cautionary tale about nuclear energy and radiation was not the only core theme with the character. Lee characterized the Hulk mostly as a misunderstood creature that only longed for solitude, but kept being hunted for his appearance and destructive capability.

This theme actually resonated with a large number of adolescent readers since they themselves felt that they were misunderstood or did not belong anywhere. At its core it was the identity struggle of the character that appealed to them. Another statement by Johnson exclaims: “He was a character that spoke to a changing society and to many Baby Boomers that felt that American ideals and values were too rigid and outdated” (Johnson 93). While this may not have been the intention of Lee and Kirby, the Hulk would soon become a sort of symbol for a new generation of Americans.

In the year 1954 America invaded Vietnam as a bi-product of the , which started shortly after the end of the Second World War between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. 24

Countless young men were once again being sent into a foreign country to risk their lives.

However, the social situation was completely different than it was before and during the

Second World War. Back then people, young and old, saw a reason to keep fighting, to joining the effort in stopping the Axis countries. Now however, people, especially the younger generation did not completely understand nor support Americas actions in Vietnam.

They simply found it pointless and needless.

With Iron Man, Lee set out to create a character that he himself thought that the readers would dislike. As mentioned before the character debuted in Tales of Suspense #39, written by Stan Lee. Tony Stark was the poster boy of American capitalism. He made a fortune from manufacturing and selling weapons. He supported the war in Vietnam and was a conservative symbol. He blindly trusted the government and the military. All of these character traits were highly unappealing to the comic book reading youth, or at least they should have been. What made Stark in the end one of comics’ most beloved characters was his and the writer’s willingness to gradually change his change. Tony Stark becomes Iron

Man after suffering a nearly fatal injury from shrapnel, is kidnapped and forced to build weapons of mass destruction by America’s enemies. He and another prisoner by the name of

Ho Yinsen firstly build a metal chest plate powered by some sort of reactor, which will stop the shrapnel from reaching his heart and killing him. Both then secretly start to work on a suit of armor that will be used in their escape. Yinsen is killed and Stark takes revenge on their kidnappers. When he returns home, he finds out that the shrapnel in his chest cannot be removed and therefore is stuck wearing the armored plate. He then takes on the identity of

Iron Man. As Iron Man, Stark fought adversaries that can be categorized as communist opponents, as most of them originated from communist countries.

The early Iron Man stories can be described as extremely anti-communist, as it were communists who injure Stark and murder Yinsen and later on he has to face opponents like

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the Russian super spy the Black Widow, or another armored adversary from Eastern Europe who goes by the name the . As time flowed and the publics opinion on the war in Vietnam changed, so did Tony Stark. He gradually loses his trust in the military and government, starts to despise the war and even gives up his weapon manufacturing. This gradual change of character, on top of him being written in a rather charismatic way from the start, was what made readers fall in love with the armored avenger.

2.5 When one Super-team is not Enough

The writers at marvel had already experience writing a superhero team book, with the

Fantastic Four book selling very well at the start of the 1960s and two new team would soon join the Marvel library. In September of 1963 Marvel would release The X-Men #1 and The

Avengers #1. Both written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Jack Kirby would soon find success with , although The Avengers would soon outshine The X-Men in terms of sales and popularity. The X-Men however would become one of Marvel’s most important titles as well as one the most influential superhero comics of all time (Darowski 19).

On the surface X-Men seems like an ordinary superhero team up book. Multiple new heroes were introduced as members of team of a superhero team who battle against evil doers who threaten innocent civilians, a standard for superhero comic books. What however was not standard about the book was its underlying themes. Until X-Men most superhero comics did not deal with themes of prejudice towards as certain ethnic group, or at least not in the same way X-Men would (Darowski 2 – 6). The characters in X-Men belong to a race of genetically advanced humans known as mutants. It was this decision to make the team members as well as their villains mutants that made the team out. Mutants in the comics do not get their powers through accidents or chose them, they are born with them, so the mutants practically became an for minorities and oppressed groups of people. Be it gender, disabled

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people, people of a different race. Their leader Charles Xavier is a wheelchair bound telepath, while the rest of the original team consisted of , a character who has to wear specialized glasses in order to control his powers. , a genius scientist with a disproportionate body which makes him look more primal. Angel, character who has grown angle-like wings. , a character that can manipulate ice and last but not least, , the female member of the team and also a telepath. The biggest foe and main villain of the series is named Magneto, a Jewish holocaust survivor who fights against humanity in order to instill supremacy, while the goal of the X-Men, besides protecting innocent civilians, is to create a world where mutants and humans are equals.

The creation of this team would usher in a new era for Marvel Comics, as they would progressively become more and more inclusive, later on even relaunching and rebooting the team with a wider cast of ethnically and racially diverse characters. On top of already tackling issues that not many other comics would tackle at that time, the members were also teenagers, which made the book instantly more appealing to young readers, as they could sympathize with the diverse cast of characters much more.

2.6 Ending the Decade

The Silver Age, as well as the 1960s in general were a massive changing point for superhero comics. After an initial decline in sales after the Second World War, comic book writers started to experiment more with the genres. Characters would be re-introduced in a new shining coat of paint, and new characters which would go on to become some of the most famous and beloved saw their start in the silver age. Writers started to tackle more serious themes and created characters that became much more appealing to a new generation of young readers. New superhero hero teams were created, and would become a mainstay in the industry rather than a being a unique premise. Suddenly teenagers would become major

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heroes, superhero teams would consist of character that had familial bonds and relations and minorities would be the center and heart of many comic book storylines. Just like the real world, the world of superhero comics would go through some major changes during the silver age. In summary, the world of superhero comics became much more complex and a bit darker, as suddenly characters had to face consequences, they became flawed. But all of these changes led to people showing more interest in the medium and writers being given more creative freedom. The maturing of superhero comic book would only continue as a new age dawns.

3 The Dark Side of Superheroes has the Color Bronze

The time period from 1970, up until 1985 became known among comic book fans the bronze age. Super hero comics in this time period would once again undergo some major changes, but this time they would be much more thematic changes than in the previous ages.

Leading industry giants, Marvel and DC comic, would also go through a few shake-ups. The change of themes and a darker that super hero comics headed towards during the silver age would come to full fruition in the bronze age, as real-life events once again had a major role in shaping comic book characters and storylines.

The 1970s were a turbulent decade not just for comics. The U.S. saw its fair share of controversies. In 1972 the Watergate scandal shook the entire nation. Burglars broke into the

Democratic National Committee headquarters and it was found out that the burglars were tied to the then current president, Richard Nixon. This meant that U.S. citizens were losing trust in their own government even more rapidly than it was the case during the 1960s (Burns,

Novick). Nixon stepped down from his position in August of 1974.

Before that, in 1973 a peace treaty was signed with Vietnam, which meant that U.S. soldiers were finally able to abandon what for most people was a pointless war and return

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home. These men however would often return broken, traumatized and suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. So, while the war ended, the events that transpired during the war took a heavy toll on U.S. soldiers. The last soldier would leave Vietnam in April of 1975.

During 1973 and 1974 OPEC, The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting

Countries, created an oil embargo which cut worldwide oil supplies and cause massive oil shortages as well as an increase in oil prices. This in turn played a huge factor in the stock market crash and economic recession of 1973 and 1974. By the middle of the decade, people were truly returning to a pre-war era status-quo. With the government failing its people in multiple ways, the U.S. citizens truly had some hard times ahead of them (Johnson 112).

One positive change regarding comic book however was the loosening of the strict rules that the CCA dedicated, The CCA, known by its full name as Comics Code Authority was created in 1954 by the Comics Magazine Association of America as an alternative to government regulation of comic books, which at that time were getting criticized for being violent and brutal content. In the following years the CCA had basically become a censoring tool for U.S. comics. By the start of the 1970s the CCA started to loosen its grip on comics, and writers were once again getting more creative freedom with their stories (Gabilliet 117).

As a direct result of this loosening, comic started to become darker and started handling much more serious themes. Comic books about drug abuse suddenly started to hit the shelves, as before it was not allowed to even write stories that condemned drug use. Characters like

Spider-Man (Lee, The Amazing Spider-man #96 - #98), Green Lantern and Green Arrow

(O'Neil, Green Lantern #85 - #86) were some of the first ones to tackle this issue in a fully serious way. The 1970s as well as the Bronze Age as a whole were the time where superhero comic books started exploring deeper and darker themes.

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3.1 Drugs, Death and Demons

With the loosening of rules that the CCA established, comic book writers were allowed to enter a darker territory with the storylines that they were writing. Thanks to this, the Bronze Age of comics can be described as an age filled with dark and tragic deaths, anti- heroes started to take the spotlight and previously established superheroes became much darker than their Silver Age counterparts. One such character was Spider-Man. During the

Bronze age, this character underwent some major changes, related to multiple tragedies that occurred in his life. Issues 96 up to 98 of The Amazing Spider-man, dealt with the topic of drug abuse. These issues are widely renowned as the first mainstream comic published that dealt with the topic and condemned drug abuse. The storyline was written by Stan Lee who was actually approached by the U.S. government and was asked to write a story which condemned drug abuse. It is believed that it was the creation of this story which led to the revision of the CCA (Gabilliet 101).

The storyline that would change this character forever was published in issues 121 and

122 of The Amazing Spider-Man, in June/July of 1973. The story was written by Gerry

Conway and illustrated by and John Romita Senior. The at first seems to be a standard hero saving a damsel in distress type of story, but this quickly changes when the

Green Goblin, Spider-man’s arch enemy throws his girlfriend Gwen Stacy off a bridge. Peter manages to catch her, but when he pulls her back up, she is already dead. This was a major shock for readers, as of until now main characters of comic book did not die this suddenly and in a brutal way like this. To this day there is ambiguity concerning her death, it is debated if the shock from the fall killed her or the from being caught mid fall broke her neck, making Spider-Man the accidental killer. Stories like these became a natural evolution of in the medium which started in the silver age, character’s actions had

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consequences (Shiach). As stated in the book Super-History: “This kind of gritty realism was new to superhero comic books and reflected the current dark period in American society. The story’s writer, , noted the connection between the U.S.’s social and political ills and the story’s dark subject matter” (Johnson 115).

Another result of the CCA revision was the creation of multiple anti-hero type characters. Generally, these new creations were characterized by having a darker more violent as well as being darker and more violent themselves. This led to the birth of characters such as Rider, , Blade, The , Lobo and others.

Not just heroes would become darker and more violent. Supervillains would also be portrayed in much more gruesome and unnerving ways. The 70s was one of major changing points for the DC comics character the Joker., The Joker had been in comics for over three decades during the 70s. He started out as actually violent and psychotic criminal, but writer would soon change him into more of an annoying prankster type of character. Then, in

September of 1973 Batman #251 was published, and in it, the Joker was once again characterized as a dangerous, murdering psychopath with no mercy, as he slaughters multiple men and brutally beats Batman unconscious (O'Neil, Batman #251, 7-11). The creation of these characters was also a direct result of society going through darker and more tragic times filled with uncertainty and distrust, and while the Vietnam War came to an end during this decade, the Cold War was still going on with no sign of stopping.

Not just Marvel was tackling stories concerning drug abuse in this decade. From

August until September of 1971, DC comics published a two issue mini-story called

Snowbirds Don't Fly. It unfolded in the pages of Green Lantern. It was written by Dennis

O'Neil and illustrated by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano. In the book the two superheroes

Green Lantern and Green Arrow fight a group of muggers only to find out that they are junkies and need the money to buy more drugs. Among the group of Junkies, the two 31

superheroes discover Green Arrow’s sidekick Speedy. At first the heroes believe that the young ward had infiltrated the group. It is soon discovered however, that Speedy himself is a drug addict. After this Speedy rather quickly abandons his drug addiction although for one the junkies it too late and he dies of a drug overdose. This story, just like the death of Gwen Stacy was shocking to comic book readers as before they and never truly been faced with a realistically dark storyline like this and a hero character being revealed to be a substance abuser.

Not just drugs were the center of substance abuse stories. Johnson elaborates further on this by stating: “One important and well-remembered story from the period is the Iron Man tale Demon in a Bottle. This storyline appeared in The Invincible Iron Man #120–128 from

March to November 1979 and spotlighted Tony Stark’s gradual disintegration that symbolically emulated the nation’s plight” (Johnson 122-123). It was written by David

Michelinie and Rob Layton, and illustrated by John Romita Junior, and Carmine

Infantino. The story revolves around Tony Stark gradually losing control of his Iron Man armor and as a direct result he seemingly kills an ambassador. Due to this mishap he is forced to resign as the leader of the Avengers, has to relinquish his armor to the police and subsequently falls into a pit of despair an alcoholism. The rest of the story revolves around

Tony battling his addiction and coming to terms with his failures. In the end he once again regains his armor and status, but with the shadow of his past still sweeping over him. This story symbolized the changes in American society. Tony Stark started out as a patriotic, conservative capitalist, who rarely questioned the intentions of the government. By the end of the 70s, Stark just like the American public, transformed into a cynic who questioned both the government and the society he once so happily protected. Johnson finishes his thoughts on the storyline by saying: “The energetic, self-assured industrialist had become a depressed, self-

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loathing alcoholic just as a once confident nation had become a self-questioning society”

(Johnson 123).

3.2 Miller Time

There is a reason why the Bronze Age is known among comic book readers as the time period where comics were getting much darker and much more serious. As previously mentioned, superheroes were written to face much bigger as well as much more internal issues amongst them. From substance abuse to shocking and unexpected deaths of loved ones.

The world of superhero comic book started to become much more real and gritty. One of the writers who stood at the front and center of this change in atmosphere and themes was Frank

Miller.

Frank Miller’s career started modestly, but as the 70s continued his name became more known to a wider audience of comic book readers. His ascent into start status among comic book writers started with his re-imagining of the Silver Age character Daredevil. Frank

Miller started his run on Daredevil in May of 1979 with issue 158. During his time on the title, Miller successfully transformed the blind lawyer from a more care free and happy character who wore a colorful yellow and black suit, into an angsty, battle-hardened and violent vigilante. His Daredevil run is set in a fictional version of New York City, where the governments numerous failures resolved in the public completely losing trust in the justice system, and instead of depending on the police to dispense justice, with only crime fighting vigilantes like Daredevil being able to return the city to its former . Miller’s run mirrored the sociopolitical situation going on in the U.S. at that time. People were not satisfied with the government and grew only more resentful towards it, for reasons which were mentioned in a previous chapter. By issue 168, became both writer and illustrator of the comic.

During this Miller not only successfully reintroduced Daredevil in a new light - he also

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created new characters who would become a mainstay in Marvel comics. These characters were Bullseye, a psychopathic murderer working as a gun for hire, and , Daredevil’s ex-lover and international assassin. His work on Daredevil started a massive trend in the industry. Suddenly more heroes were getting dark and gritty re-imaginings, some of them even written and illustrated by Frank Miller, who by that point had a signature style and was deploying it in every book he was working on.

In 1982 Frank Miller worked on re-imagining another, at that time semi-popular

Marvel character, . Although this time Miller was not writing the story, he was the illustrator for it, the actual writer for this story-arc was X-Men writer Christopher S.

Claremont. Even though he was this time illustrating instead of writing, his strong influence can be felt throughout the whole run. Once again, a character who primarily wore bright colors got a costume change to fit the darker social climate. Wolverine himself was also transformed from a Canadian, one-liner spewing brawler, into a deeply conflicted character who had almost no qualms about killing his enemies. It was this comic book run that catapulted Wolverine as a character into the ranks of Marvel’s other big sellers like Spider- man, Iron Man and the Fantastic Four (Speelman).

However, Miller’s arguably most famous and acclaimed work was released after he switched publishers in the early 1980s. In 1986 a four-issue mini-series titled The Dark

Knight Returns, written and illustrated by Frank Miller. Although the mini-series passes the cut of date to be recognized as a purely bronze age storyline the influence of Miller’s previous

Bronze Age work is very visible. With this series Miller wanted to return Batman to his 1930 pulp roots, just like the Joker returned to his old status-quo a few years prior. In the mini- series Miller depicts an old and battle-hardened Batman. The world he lives in is a dystopian version of Gotham City, where crime is more rampant than ever before and an aging Batman is trying to inflict justice despite his less than desirable physical condition and slowly

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deteriorating mental stability. This depiction of Batman would become so iconic, that even the main universe characterization of Batman would take inspiration from The Dark Knight

Returns, and would portray Batman in a much darker way than before. This mini-series, while being an alternate universe storyline led to a re-imagined Batman, who is still written in this specific way until today. The sociopolitical background for this story is may be just as interesting as the story itself. In 1981 Ronald Reagan stepped into office as the new President of the U.S. and promised America prosperity and a new way of life which everyone would benefit from, His core ideals revolved around were extremely conservative and seemed to all around favor individualism. The economic and sociopolitical situation in the U.S. did not see any significant improvements in the coming years, only in the last couple years of Reagan’s first term of presidency did the economic situation see some slight improvements. Miller, not being very enthused with the evolving situation, shared his opinions inside the books he was writing, as is also a critique of Reagan era America (Suderman).

Frank Miller’s writing achievements would later put him in the same league as legendary comic book creators like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The end of the Bronze Age is widely considered to be the years 1984/1985. After the Bronze Age of comics, there is only one age left to talk about, the modern age.

4 The Modern Age

This is where the practical part of this thesis starts, since the modern age of comics is the age that superhero comic books find themselves in right now. This part will in the beginning give a quick overview of the developments and advancements that happened during the early stages this age and later will focus on specific stories and characters to demonstrate how superhero comics can and have tackled more sensitive social issues, how they have outgrown their medium and successfully created stories set in multiple different genres of

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fiction. Making the medium on of the most flexible mediums in popular culture. As of right now, movies, video games, television shows and other forms of media based on superhero comics are at the height of their popularity and only time may tell how long this can last.

The modern age starts roughly during the year 1985. Superhero comic books hit a much darker tone during the 1980s and the second half if this decade as well as stories published in the 1990s would continue this trend. The change towards what fans call the modern age can also be attributed to the DC comics event storyline titles Crisis on Infinite

Earths, which was the first hard that DC would subject their comic book universe to.

As mentioned before, the works of Frank Miller had a significant impact on the comic book industry, with writers and publishers left and right trying to recreate the same themes and atmosphere of darkness and dread for which Miller’s comics and Bronze Age comics in general became famous for. Some of the most influential stories published during the second half of the 1980s, aside from Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, were the works of acclaimed comic book writer Alan Moore. In September of 1986, DC comics published Watchmen, a dark and gritty re-imagining of superhero tropes set in the modern day, commenting on the sociopolitical sphere of the 1980s U.S. as well as critiquing the extremely conservative way some superheroes were being portrayed during that time. In 1988 DC comics published the quintessential Batman/Joker story, The Killing Joke. Although previous stories involving the clown prince of crime had him violently and perpetrate disturbing criminal acts. The story has Joker shoot and paralyze Batgirl, only to later torture her father, the police commissioner

James Gordon, while showing him a clip show of his daughter being stripped naked and tortured. As Johnson comments on this: “…superheroes were becoming excessively violent and individualistic super-conservatives, super-villains were also intensifying their traditional core traits. Reagan’s America demanded a society filled with extreme versions of traditional ideals and values” (Johnson 143-144).

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4.1 New Major Players Join the Industry

Although Marvel and DC were far from the only comic book publishing companies on the market, they truly did not have much of a rival during their years of publishing besides being rivals to each other. This changed when in 1986 was founded in

Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson. The publisher made a name for itself thanks to publishing comics based on movie licenses like Aliens, Predator and . Soon however they would add more original, creator owned titles to their roster like Hellboy, The

Mask, and multiple others. On top of being able to publish comics based on licensed franchises and having a strong ensemble of creator owned comic books, Dark Horse was also prosperous on the market thanks to distributing translated . Over the years Dark Horse rose to the same status as Marvel and DC and is viewed by comic book readers as one of the top comic book publishers on the market.

In 1991 another new comic book publisher joined the market. was founded by ex-employees of both Marvel and DC, to create a company that would favor creator owned comics, so writers would keep the rights to the characters they themselves have created, since both Marvel and DC were keeping every character or storyline as their property, not allowing creators to take their creations with them if they decided to switch companies. Image became quickly one of the most popular publishers as they already garnered attention thanks to employing already established and popular comic book writers and artists. Titles like , and would quickly sell large numbers of copies and at the height of their popularity, Image was able to rival both Marvel and DC, although its success would later on diminish due to shipping delays, partnership problems and sub-par writing. Nevertheless, Image would stay on the market and as years went by would evolve and change, to become alongside Marvel, DC and Dark Horse one of the best-selling publishers in the industry (Gabilliet 179).

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4.2 Time for New Blood

Due to fierce competition from multiple comic book publishers, DC comics took drastic yet well thought out measures to keep the readers interest and their profits. Thus, they decided to severely damage their two most popular male superheroes, Batman and Superman.

In November of 1992, Superman #75 was published and it featured the death of comics’ most popular and beloved heroes, Superman. In this issue, Superman fights a battle to the death against the monstrous supervillain Doomsday, who was created for the sole purpose of killing

Superman, after a battle of titanic proportions the man of steel is successful in vanquishing the beast, but loses his own life in the process. The death of this character was so major, that multiple media outlets reported on it with utmost seriousness. Newspapers, magazines, television news channels, all of them were reporting on the death of one fictional character as if it were the death of a major politician or celebrity. DC sold millions of copies of Superman

#75 and the storyline remains to this day as one of the most well-known and beloved

Superman stories (Lopes 116).

Yet DC was still not done with severely injuring their most popular superheroes. After the death of Superman, Batman would follow suit. While DC did not kill Batman off like they did with Superman, they had him lose a fight to a physically and even intellectually superior villain, which resulted in the Dark Knight getting his spine broken and being decommissioned from superhero duty for several months. The storyline in which these events occurred was titled Knightfall and was published in the pages of Batman from April 1993 up until August of 1994 (Johnson 159). After getting his back broken by the new supervillain named Bane,

Batman is physically unable to carry on in dispersing vigilante justice and finds a replacement for himself in the form of Jean Paul Valley, another vigilante that carried out his special brand of justice under the pseudonym Azrael. This character then goes through a transitional phase from being a replacement hero for Batman, turning into a villain, as his acts against criminals

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become progressively more brutal to the point where he almost kills Bane. And then later on he becomes a heroic character again after facing off against the real Batman. The storyline also sold exceptionally well, although nowhere near as well as The Death of Superman did.

Thanks to storylines like these, DC Comics was able to navigate through the murky waters of the 1990s comic book market. The same cannot be said for their rival Marvel though.

After the drastic yet extremely successful revamp that DC did to their most popular characters, Marvel tried to take the same approach towards some of their most popular characters. The first character to get the revamp treatment was Spider-Man. The storyline that came out of this revamp, was the infamous and failed Clone (Bricken). This storyline was being published from October 1994 and saw Peter Parker encounter and fight against numerous clones of himself, with whom he already dealt with back in the mid-1970s.

Through convoluted , it is revealed that Peter may not be the real Spider-Man and a clone by the name of is the original Spider-Man. The storyline continued to be published for over two years, with Marvel initially planning to retire Peter completely and let

Ben Reilly take over the reins of the new Spider-Man. This plan however did not pan out as planned, with fan and even writer complaints continuously coming in and Marvel finally dropped the storyline in December of 1996 and brought Peter back to his old status of Spider-

Man.

4.3 A Failing Market

During the mid-1990s, the comic book market experienced a massive increase in interest regarding comics. This can be attributed to the numerous revamps, relaunches and founding of new comic book publishers. In the early 1990s, 1993 to be exact, comic book shops sold massive numbers of units, by the end of the year profits were reaching from around

800 million up to 850 million dollars. This spectator boom was also partially influenced by

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the fact that several old comics were sold at actions for astronomical prices. For example, an original, mint condition issue of Action Comics #1, with the first ever appearance of

Superman was sold in 2014 for over 3.2 million dollars (Whitney). This meant that non-comic book readers would buy issues which were deemed important, whether it be an issue containing the death of a beloved character, or an issue that relaunched an entire series of comics. Publishers would adjust accordingly to this speculator boom and would start to print more and more issues, so more and more people would be able to buy. For a while, this method was responsible for making publishers a lot of money, but sooner rather than later, the spectator boom bubble would burst. People started to realize that since the issues that they either owned or were buying would not grow much in or at all in value, since they were not scarce like the Golden or Silver Age comics. This then led to the spectator bubble bursting and hurting publishers. Publishers adjusted to this spectator boom by prioritizing style over substance when it came to the stories they were publishing. By doing this they managed to alienate longtime fan, who soon turned their backs on the companies, and with the new investors quickly losing interest, several comic book publishers made huge losses and the market for superhero comic books soon plummeted.

The Spider-Man clone saga was not Marvels’ only attempt at revamping and revitalizing old characters. This was the direct result of the comic book market’s collapse during the mid-1990s. In 1996 Marvel even had to file for bankruptcy, coming eerily close to going out of business. In an attempt to regain the interest of comic book and non-comic readers Marvel hired some of the most prolific and beloved comic book artists and writers and had them relaunch some of their most successful titles. Thus, Marvel launched a new wave starring rebooted and revamped heroes to fit the social climate of the 1990s. The relaunch was titled Heroes Reborn and saw some of Marvels’ most beloved characters get updated and modernized redesigns as well as updated origin stories. Characters such as Iron Man, Captain

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America and the Fantastic Four were greatly affected by this revamp. Only a year after the launch of Heroes Reborn, all of the affected characters returned to their previous status as

Heroes Reborn completely failed to catch the attention of neither long time comic book fans nor newcomers. To this day, Heroes Reborn is viewed as one of Marvels’ biggest failures

(Bacon). All of these mishaps and poor decision making then led to Marvel selling the movie rights for some of their most beloved characters to anyone who would pay enough. A few years down the line, these transactions led to the creation of one of the most profitable and influential movie franchises ever put to film, the MCU or as it is known by its full name, the

Marvel Cinematic Universe. These transactions then led to Marvel staying above water for long enough to regain their footing on the market without going out of business.

4.4 A New Decade of Fear

The 1990s was a turbulent decade, filled with ups and downs for the industry, but at the end of it, comic book publishers returned to more stable state. With the coming years, not much changed when it came to comic books. The dark tone that 1990s comic book had started to loosen its grip on the industry. Writers generally experimented more with the stories they were working on, but were careful to not overstep boundaries like it was with Marvel during the 1990s. In 2001 Marvel abandoned the CCA with many other publishers following suit.

The last publisher to abandon the CCA, rending it completely useless, was DC in the year

2011.

One of the negative events which would have a big effect on comic books, and life in the U.S. in general, were the 11.9.2001terror attacks. On September 11th, four airplanes were violently hijacked by members of the terrorist organization called Al-Qaeda, two of which crashed into the twin towers situated in New York city, one would crash into the Pentagon building situated in Arlington County, Virginia with the last plane crash landing in a field in

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Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania, after the passengers successfully thwarted the terrorist attackers . These terror attacks were responsible for the deaths of over 2977 people (CNN). It is safe to say that these attacks shook the U.S. to its core and as a result laws got much stricter as well as popular culture adjusting to a post September 11th world. While the superhero comic book scene was slowly recovering from the 80s and 90s dark phase, the 9/11 attacks brought a new age of darkness to the medium. While heroes were not becoming more violent because of this tragedy, stories in general adopted a more uncertain tone with a feeling of dread, which reflected the times people found themselves in. Comic book fans, just like the rest of the U.S. citizens found themselves in a position of fear, being uncertain as to who could and who could not be trusted anymore.

The rest of the decade would fortunately not see any similar terror attacks committed on U.S. soil, so therefore superheroes and superhero stories were allowed to adapt to this new era in a less sporadic and more calm and progressive manner. There were no real major events, besides 9/11, that transpired during the decade which left a massive impact on the industry. The stories reflected the sociopolitical situation of the world, just like they had since their inception, but heroes would no longer go to war against concrete enemies like they did during the Cold War and World War II. These changes to stories were more subtle and nuanced. For example, Iron Man had his origin story changed to reflect the new social climate. No longer was Tony Stark kidnapped by a malevolent, Vietnamese militia, instead he would be kidnapped by Middle Eastern terrorist. The reason for the kidnapping would remain the same, but this time Stark would not take a strong stance against his kidnappers, like he did in the 60s with communists. Another story which reflects the times of fear and uncertainty of the decade was Marvels’ - in which a large portion of the Marvel superhero community find themselves waging a war against one another after a particularly nasty terrorist attack perpetrated by a supervillain, which a team of superheroes accidentally triggers

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due to their inexperience and youthful arrogance. This then leads to the U.S. government passing a law which required superheroes to their secret identities to the government.

Because of this, the community split into two camps. One side agreed with the passed law, the other rejected it as it could potentially put them and their loved ones in danger. The themes explored in this storyline are profound, though provoking and deep, and this easy will delve deeper into the storyline in a later chapter.

4.5 When the 2010s Came Knocking

In general, the 2010s did not see many changes happen in the industry. The sociopolitical scene was relatively calm, or rather, nothing major happened, which had a big effect on the medium. In 2011 DC Comics decided to once again reboot their entire comic book universe. This happened in the storyline Flashpoint, which saw the speedster superhero Flash travel through time to prevent a personal tragedy from happening, which resulted in a universe wide reset and a new status quo for DC comics (Keller). This hard reboot however was nowhere near as well received as the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline

(Dyce). The would later be named The New 52. This hard reboot however was nowhere near as well received as the one following the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline and

DC comics would return to their old status quo with DC Rebirth.

In 2015 Marvel also rebooted their Comic book Universe with the storyline titled

Secret Wars. This storyline revolved around the Marvel villain, Dr. Doom as he ascended to godhood and created a universe in his own image, by merging preexisting universes into one.

At the end of this event, the went more or less to its former state with a few minor changes, for example characters that were not part of the mainline Marvel Universe were kept in that universe to avoid being cancelled, as marvel used this event as a means to

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get rid of many of the alternate universes they created since their inception. The rest of the decade went on without any significant changes for the industry.

4.6 Multi-media Marvel

With the constant evolution of superhero comics, an argument can be made that due to the maturing of the medium, their media started to show interest in the source material and in its adaptation. While comic book adaptations were nothing new when the modern age began, it was during the modern age where these adaptations found a massive rise in popularity and spread across multiple different mediums. This in turn awoke more curiosity in people, which would then go on a read the source material to some of their favorite movies. This in turn meant that the demographic which superhero comics were aimed at also got broader and more diverse.

But the multimedia adaptations did not only have an effect on the superhero comics.

These adaptations proved to be powerful enough to even change the way movies or video games are made. To elaborate further on this, one needs to look at the history of these adaptations. In the early days of superhero comics, adaptations were very few. Throughout the mid-1980s and 1990s, superhero related media showed a rise in popularity. Some of the most acclaimed adaptations were created during this time period. The arguably most influential and, to this day, beloved is Batman: The Animated Series.

The show left a massive footprint on the medium of animation, television and even the comics that inspired it (Nerdist). The series is famous for redefining already established characters and creating new ones that would then be featured on the comics. The series is responsible for the creation of one comics’ most popular female character, Harley Quinn. The character would prove so massively popular that she was introduced to the comics and did later star in her own motion pictures (Pollock). Introduced as the Joker’s sidekick, the

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character also shared a strong bond with another Batman villain, Poison Ivy. This relationship was further developed in the mainline DC comics continuity. Her portrayal in the comics demonstrates how inclusive they can be, since she is written to be bisexual (Mey). But the show did not only introduce new characters, it also re-invented old ones. Characters like Mr.

Freeze and Two-Face, which were previously considered to be one dimensional, got a complete overhaul of their origin thanks to the show. Freeze was portrayed as a loving husband, willing to do anything to save his terminally ill wife. Two-Face was shown to have suffered from a severe mental illness even before he became disfigured. The show did delve into dark and deep themes like trauma, death and revenge. For a show aimed primarily and teenagers and children it knew how to capture the attention of many different kinds of people.

When it comes to movies, there are several which had a massive impact in the same way Batman: The Animated Series had. In 2008 The Dark Knight directed by Christopher

Nolan was released. The movie demonstrated that superhero films could and would delve into deep and complex themes (Rawat). Thanks to the movie, films like Logan, a very mature tale of an aging superhero and his daughter, got made (Lesniak). But perhaps the most influential movie series, which had an impact on cinema as well as comics is The Marvel Cinematic

Universe.

It started with the movie Iron Man in 2008, but the impact the franchise had became visible after 2012s The Avengers. The franchise currently features 23 movies, boasting a different cast of diverse characters for every single film. To say that the franchise has been successful would be an understatement. It currently is the highest grossing franchise of all time. Its success is undeniable. It had a massive impact on the film industry and on the way franchise movies, as well as entire movie franchises are being made (Neal). The massive success of the MCU then, once again, led to more people discovering the source material. For example, the MCU enjoys great success in India (Farooqui). Therefore, it can be assumed that

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the MCU helped superhero comics receive new attention from all around the world, is responsible for the medium becoming more inclusive and diverse (Cox, Steinberg). Another fairly recent example of movies having an impact in the diversity of superhero comics is the

MCU film Black Panther. The movie boasts a rather ethnically diverse cast, which is dominated by people of African descent. One of the main characters of the film and sister to the main , Shuri, received her own Marvel comic book run (Okorafor), as a result of her newfound popularity.

Not only did superhero comics have an effect on the silver as well as the small screen.

But there is a medium, that is arguably even more close to people. That medium is video games. One can argue that due to being able to actually experience the story presented instead of only observing it, video games build tighter bonds with people than most other media.

Even the video game medium has been impacted and changed by well made comic book adaptations. Arguably the most famous and beloved video game series based on a comic book is the Batman: Arkham franchise. The first game in the series, Batman: Arkham Asylum came out in 2009 and changed the way superhero videogames are being viewed as well as being made. The game had such a major impact on the industry (Serafino) that a number of other developers copied its best made parts. The franchise became extremely popular and sold very well (Blake), which in turn, as mentioned before, has led to the growing interest in superhero comics.

As much as superhero comics had impact on different types of media, to did the media have impact on superhero comics. Thanks to the exposure, more people started paying attention to the source material, more people started showing interest in comics. This in turn then led to a wider demographic and more inclusivity in the medium.

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5 Fiction in all of its Forms

As superhero comics were getting more mature, writers started to experiment more with the medium. One of the outcomes was that superhero comics broke away from their traditional action adventure roots, and started experimenting with different genres of fiction.

As the previous chapter has demonstrated, the superhero genre is prosperous amongst a wide range of different media, literature included. The adaptation to different genres of fiction meant for comics that more people would possibly enjoy superhero comics as they could potentially fit their favorite genre of fiction. Once again, this would mean an influx of readers from different cultures, which in turn means that the medium would evolve to be more inclusive. This chapter will delve into some of the more popular forms of fiction, Action

Adventure, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller and lastly Romance to be specific, and will demonstrate a title or story that is heavily engulfed in the discussed genre.

5.1 Action and Adventure

The first and arguably most popular genre of fiction applied in superhero comics is

Action Adventure. It would not be a stretch to assume that most if not all superhero comic books are closely associated with this genre, since the characters and a large number of stories told in the medium fit their genre up to a fault. The Action Adventure genres main traits can be described as having a story which contains multiple action sequences and takes the main character/s on a journey from one point to another, be it geographical or more metaphysical

(Malatesta). The story chosen for this segment was published in the pages of a titled : Road to Damnation. Written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Clayton

Crain. This analysis will follow the points made in Kristine Tucker’s article - Characteristics of .

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The story uses a plethora of tropes native to the action adventure genre. Primarily the story features very fast paced and well-drawn action sequences fights between the main characters and demons (Ennis 99-107), high speed car chases (Ennis 54-66) and a featuring a stand off against the main villain (Ennis 109-123). All of these tropes are very well present in this book. The main plotline of the story revolves around an epic journey from one point to another, as the main protagonist is tasked to travel from Hell to the destination where the main villain is hiding (Ennis 35-38). On the topic of characters, the novel features a courageous protagonist who faces life and death situations. The suspense of this element usually comes from the fact that the reader does not know, if the main protagonist survives his adventure (Tucker). On the opposite side of the spectrum, the novel features a detestable villain, who is literally a demon hellbent on conquering the planet (Ennis 87-93). This gives the reader a reason to sympathize with the protagonist. The main protagonist and main villain of the story are clearly defined. When it comes to the side characters however, the line between good and evil is blurred up until the very end, which keeps the reader in suspense.

This also ties into the fact that the novel features a rather dark atmosphere with unpredictable outcomes.

This story showcases how in tune superhero comics are with the action adventure genre. Ghost Rider himself is not a typical superhero character like Superman or Captain

America yet the story works around having a naturally good willed character, and creates a journey for this specific character as well as multiple creative action sequences.

5.2 Horror

As a character born from a demon merging with a human’s soul to create a monstrous being, Ghost Rider’s origin is more horror oriented than the typical comic book superheroes.

Horror stories in superhero comics are nothing new, although the way they have been written

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and illustrated changed quite significantly since their introduction to the medium. Horror stories are by definition, stories that are set in an unsettling situation, with the purpose of evoking a sense of dread, terror or genuine fear in the reader (Literary Terms, Horror). While there have been many horror-oriented stories written in the medium, the arguably one of the most famous horror oriented comic book series is Hellboy. Written and created by Mike

Mignola, the series focuses on the titular character Hellboy as he battles paranormal threads and evolves as a person. The series lasted for over 20 years and never abandoned its more horror-oriented roots.

The novel Hellboy: Seed of Destruction features multiple different subgenres of

Horror. Firstly, it uses the haunted house , as the story takes place mainly in an old, almost rundown building overrun with monsters and ghosts. Another horror trope the novel uses is body horror. The monsters that are running amok inside the building are former humans, who then transform into hideous looking frog monsters. Their limbs pop out of their sockets, their mouths stretch and elongate and their bodies grow into massive sizes. Another horror subgenre utilized in the novel is cosmic horror. The previously described transformation of normal people into monsters happens after the people are exposed to a God- like creature called Sadu-Hem. The creature strongly resembles H.P. Lovecraft’s creations from novels like The Nameless City. Another tie to cosmic horror is the fact the monstrous creature is being worshipped by regular humans, once again, like in The Nameless city

(Hatala). The entire book also makes strong use of color. It includes artwork that uses dark, black shadows. The color of the environment is mostly composed of shades of brown, green and blue, with the only brightly colored characters being the main characters of the story. This then creates an atmosphere of dread as the main cast navigates through the dark, color deprived halls of the house, Also, because the house is overrun by monsters, who can attack the main cast at any given time, there is never a feeling of ease up until the very end.

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Thanks to a clever use of color, pacing, different horror tropes and horror sub-genres,

Hellboy: Seed of Destruction stands out amongst many other horror comics. It truly does incorporate many of the popular tropes that are found amongst a wide range of quality horror literature and puts them in graphic novel form, Seed of Destruction is a story that any horror fan can truly enjoy and appreciate.

5.3 Science Fiction and Fantasy

The comic book chosen for this next segment actually covers two genres in one. The comic in question is ’s : God of Thunder and the storyline which will be covered is called The God Butcher. Since Thor’s introduction into the Marvel universe, his stories have always had a blend of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Thor himself is based on his counterpart from Norse mythology, as well as most of the elements present in his stories, like his home , the gods and inhabitants of Asgard, even his foes are mostly based on Norse mythology. All of these easily cater to the Fantasy genre. But not everything in the early as well as the modern-day Thor comics is purely magical. The character is often be tested by advanced technology, he would visit different planets and fight against alien foes of all kind.

Even his home world of Asgard does not purely rely on magic, but rather a combination of both advanced science and magical artifacts or spells. The story chosen for this segment represents the genre duality of the Thor comics perfectly.

This part will analyze the fantasy tropes used in the comic, based on the Masterclass article- 6 Common Fantasy Tropes: How to Use Fantasy Tropes Effectively. It will also analyze the science fiction elements used in the novel, based on another Masterclass article -

What Is Science ? Definition and Characteristics of Science Fiction

Literature.

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The main character of the story, Thor, can be described as a kind of chosen one or savior as he is the one who in the end saves the entire universe from a dark force. This dark force can be described as a type of dark lord. The character in question is named Gorr. While he is written in a sympathetic way, he still remains the villain as his acts are often cruel and sadistic. He even commands a vast army of black creatures he himself created, not unlike

Sauron from Lord of the Rings. The main character sets out on a quest to stop the villain from enacting his plans, which is another common trope used in fantasy literature. The of the story is also partially fantasy based. It displays a medieval earth as well as the kingdom of

Asgard, a place where magic and science meet to create something new. The story even has a unique take on the mentor and damsel in distress tropes. It features three version of Thor. One from the past, one from the present and one from the future. The Thor from the past gets captured at one point in the story and has to be rescued, not unlike a typical damsel in distress.

The future Thor in contrast works as a sort of mentor figure towards his younger counterparts.

The uniqueness stems from the fact that while three tropes are used, they are demonstrated by what essentially is the same character.

When it comes to science fiction tropes, the story also incorporates a fair amount.

Time travel is used a lot in the story, by both the villain and the main . The villain himself is not a magical being, but rather a member of some alien race that happenes to stumble upon unimaginable power. Time is not the only thing that is traveled through, as Thor crosses galaxies and visits multiple different planets in search of the villain. Since the story features multiple galaxies and planets, it also incorporates multiple different alien lifeforms, like the previously mentioned main villain. The main villain also possesses powers commonly found in science fiction like teleportation and even mind control.

The comic combines both science fiction and fantasy tropes to create something quite unique and memorable. The tropes used are even subverted by changing one or two minor

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details, for example having the damsel in distress not be a fragile woman but a rather a young version of the main protagonist

5.4 Crime Thriller

Crime is part of almost every single superhero story ever told. The stories usually contain one or multiple heroes trying to either prevent a crime from happening or trying to catch a person who already committed a crime. This does not make a thriller out of the story however. The simple inclusion of a criminal element can be found strewn across multiple genres. What however makes a thriller a thriller, is a story which evokes feelings of suspense, tension, excitement and or anxiety (Literary Terms, Thriller). Some of the finest thrillers ever crafted in the superhero genre include one of the most famous and beloved comic book characters of all time, Batman. The story featured in this segment is The Killing Joke. The

Killing Joke was published in 1988 by DC Comics and was written by Alan Moore of

Watchmen fame. The comic features what many comic book fans believe to be the quintessential Joker origin, one of his most disturbing and violent acts, and a final confrontation with Batman that ends in complete ambiguity. The analysis of this story is based on Masterclasses article: Writing 101: What Is the Thriller Genre? Definitions and

Examples of Thriller in Literature.

The story features multiple elements usually featured in thriller literature. The suspense and intrigue are building due to the multiple intermissions, the lack of information given on the Joker’s plan and the constant threat of violence towards established and beloved characters. All of the intrigue and suspense are paid off and resolved by the end.

The next thing is that the graphic novel includes a strong yet believable villain in the form of the Joker (Moore 10). His motivations and actions become understandable as the story progresses, but the villain himself still remains detestable. To oppose the villain the novel

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incorporates a hero to fight him. In this instance it is Batman (Moore 5). His goal in the story is to stop the villain from causing any further harm. There are several characters in this story that could be described as sidekicks. First there is Alfred (Moore 15), Batman’s trusted butler and father figure. Then there is (Moore 16), who used to be Batgirl. Last but not least there is James Gordon (Moore 5), whom is the person Batman needs to rescue from the Joker, whom also acts as a mentor towards Batman.

The of the story comes from the fact that while the Joker is on the run, he actually ends up paying a visit to the police commissioner, James Gordon, and kidnaps him while also paralyzing his daughter (Moore 16-17). The plot features also a couple of red herrings, as it seems that the story is heading towards a conclusion where the Joker either puts the commissioner in mortal danger or uses him as some kind of bargaining chip. This then proves to be false, as it is revealed that his plan all along was to drive the commissioner insane (Moore 23-25). The story then also builds towards the commissioner actually losing his sanity, only to fool the reader once again and reveal that the character survived his torture while keeping his sanity (Moore 41).

The novel then ends on a . The ending builds up new suspense and intrigue, maybe even more so than the entire story that preceded it. The last few panels feature

Batman and the Joker sharing a laugh as Batman seemingly puts his hand on Joker’s shoulder.

The laughter however abruptly stops and the only visual featured in the remaining panels is a water puddle, so the reader is not shown why their laughter was brought to an abrupt stop

(Moore 50). This then raises the question what was the cause of the laughter suddenly stopping.

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5.5 Romance

The thought of superhero comics being thematically oriented towards a romantic story may seem a bit odd, but in reality, these comics have been covering romantic relationships between characters for decades. The story, which will be looked at and analyzed in this chapter is called : Dracula’s Gauntlet. At first glance, the title of this book does not sound like it would contain even a semblance of a romantic story, which luckily could not be much further from the truth. By definition, Romance is a “narrative genre in literature that involves a mysterious, adventurous, or spiritual story line where the focus is on a quest that involves bravery and strong values, not always a love interest. However, modern definitions of romance also include stories that have a relationship issue as the main focus” (Literary terms). The comic itself fits this description well. The book carries a rather humorous tone, but handles the romance between characters rather well and in a bit more serious manner when contrasted to the rest of the story. The story was published by Marvel Comics in 2014 and was Written by Garry Duggan and Brian Posehn.

The story, even though is not a more traditional romance story, still fits what can be described as the Romance genre. It features a character, Deadpool, who is usually not portrayed as a romantic person or someone who achieves happiness in life. The characters actions lead most of the time to tragic events. This story however, gives him a break and introduces a new character who he shares great chemistry with. The romance between them is also believable and evolves rather naturally, as they do not fall in love suddenly the first time they are in each other’s presence. This basically means that the time the characters are forced to be together in, is also the time their feelings get to evolve. The story even incorporates a love triangle. The basic plot is that the mercenary Deadpool is tasked by Dracula to retrieve his bride, a succubus named Shiklah. Deadpool and Shiklah., after spending some time together, fall in love. Thus a love triangle is created. This also fits the forbidden love trope,

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since the characters are not supposed to have romantic feelings for each other yet end up having them anyway. At the end of the story, as a sign of his love for Shiklah, Deadpool even challenges Dracula, a character that outclasses Deadpool in every way. The story has a happy ending as Dracula is defeated and Deadpool has found a soulmate in Shiklah.

The story carries a rather humorous tone, with jokes being thrown around on every occasion. It is not a very traditional love story as it features a fair amount of blood, gore and violence, all incorporated in multiple action scenes. At the core however, the story still fits the romance genre, as the driving force behind the story is the evolving relationship between the two main characters. The inclusion of multiple tropes actually benefits the book, as it transcends what would be the usual target demographic for a romance story and actually becomes appealing to people with different tastes and preferences.

In summary, Superhero comics have shown multiple times, as demonstrated by the analyses in this entire segment, that they can and have adapted to other genres of fiction.

There seems to be no genre too difficult to tackle, for a medium that is as flexible as superhero comics. Be it a high-octane action adventure story or a subdued and atmospheric horror tale. The fact that superhero comics can adapt to multiple different genres of fiction also helps establish these comics as one of the most inclusive mediums of entertainment. They do not cater to specific demographic, by having stories always be action adventure oriented, as it mostly was back in the early days of the medium, Nowadays, thanks to its flexibility, the superhero comic genre truly captures the interest of many different people.

6 Adapting to the Sociopolitical Climate

Throughout this thesis, it was mentioned multiple times that superhero comics have been affected by the social and political climate in the world, and in turn, by adapting to these

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and constantly evolving, superhero related content has been able to become on of the most beloved media outlets in the world. At the beginning superhero comics, while still inspired by the sociopolitical situation, would tackle overly sensitive themes. Their main selling point was that they were a distraction from the real world. This started to slowly change with World

War II when some superheroes suddenly found themselves on the front lines, fighting oppressive regimes and toppling ruthless dictators. Almost 80 years later, superhero comics reflect the sociopolitical situation in the world more than ever before, as with the total abandonment of the CCA, more and more writers were able to publish their opinions and views through the mouths and actions of some of the world’s most well-known and beloved characters. Thanks to either the total abandonment of the CCA or the loosening of its strict rules during the 1970s, many thought-provoking stories with political themes have been written and published in the superhero genre. One such story is 2006 Civil War.

Civil War was published by Marvel Comics and written by and illustrated by Steve McNiven. The plot of the book revolves around a growing conflict amongst superheroes. This conflict is derived from the Superhero Registration Act. An act which was put in motion, after a superpowered terrorist completely annihilates a small town, in the

United States of America. The blame for this tragedy is then put on the superhero community, for provoking the villain. The act is put up so that superheroes would suffer consequences for their direct and indirect actions. This understandably then splits the superhero community into two camps. One that agrees with the act. One who resents it. Both sides offer actual logical arguments for their decision to whether support or oppose the act. The story itself also works as a massive crossover event which actually had lasting consequences for years to come.

Many characters are featured in this event, but the two which the story arguably focuses on the most were Captain America and Iron Man, as they stand on opposite sides of the argument. The choice of these two characters was a very well realized one, as Captain

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America is most of the times portrayed as a patriot soldier in support of his government, and

Iron Man is a visionary philanthropist from the private sector, who multiple times expressed his strong disagreement with the government. What the story does brilliantly is actually assign these characters to the opposite spectrum of what the reader has come to expect from them, as the Captain stands strongly against the registration act, while Iron Man supports it with all of his wealth. The act itself would require superheroes to relinquish their secret identities to the government. On one hand this would mean that reckless superheroes would get their due more often, which would force them to behave more carefully when fighting someone, but on the other hand, their identities would never again be safe, and hence their family and friends would also be in constant danger. The story features multiple clashes of ideologies and not one side is portrayed as the wrong one, both sides accomplish acts of good as well as acts which would be considered unethical. For example, in an effort to sway more heroes in their favor, Iron Man together with Reed Richards, also known as Mister Fantastic, create a clone of the superhero Thor. This clone then escapes their control and violently murders the superhero Goliath. The story even ends with a massive battle amongst superheroes in the heavily populated streets of New York, which leads Captain America to the realization that what he has done, may not have been the best course of action and now he and his companions are viewed as terrorists, although they all have dedicated their lives to saving the world.

This comic’s plot elements fit the age-old debate of security against freedom. Are people ready to live less secure and safe lives, in favor of gaining the freedom they crave, or should people live in a stricter environment which would limit their choices and they would never feel truly free from any kind of oppression. The story for this book was also directly influenced by the 2001 Patriot Act. This act was passed 45 days after the 9/11 terror attacks and allowed the U.S. government to monitor more closely people’s private communications,

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bank and transaction records and even their internet activity. While this act at first seemed to be a safety measure against terrorists, it soon became clear that the act created suspects out of ordinary citizens. The story reflects this perfectly with its own allegory for the patriot act, with the previously mentioned superhero registration act (Santos). It is almost unsettling how closely the made-up superhero registration act mirrors the real patriot act with all of its consequences.

Another story that delves heavily into sociopolitical issues is Alan Moore’s Watchmen.

The story in this a graphic novel revolves around a group of superheroes knows as the

Watchmen, as they are trying to uncover a plot to a terrorist attack which may threaten millions of lives. This brief summary however does not do justice to all the different themes that are processed within this story. The characters in the novel, are not perfect human beings like many superheroes were being portrayed at the time. They are deeply flawed and in places even broken people. Their actions are also not portrayed as strictly heroic, as for example the character Rorschach is portrayed as an extremely violent, unhinged and downright psychotic character, who only deals in absolutes, as he is shown to be torture and murder criminals all in the name of justice. Rorschach seemingly cares most about punishing the guilty, even if it means losing his humanity in the process Adrian Veidt, who at the end is revealed to be the villain, is portrayed as the exact opposite to Rorschach. He wants to protect the innocent even if it means taking the most extreme measures possible. Measures, like killing millions, to save billions. Then there is the Comedian, whose early death is the catalyst that sets in motion the events of the novel. The Comedian is a pseudo stand in for Captain America, only much more violent and lacking basic human morals. One can view the comedian as a critique of the

American Military. As he commits numerous war crimes, is generally portrayed as lacking ethics, and cares only for himself. Last but not least there is Dr. Manhattan. A human who transcended into a higher level of existence, appearing amongst people as a hairless naked

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male with glowing blue skin and blank, white eyes. Manhattan himself also serves as a parallel for the novels main theme, which is the absolute power that man holds over the world. Manhattan is supposed to represent the H bomb. A tool with unlimited destructive capabilities. The story’s main thematic focus seems to be a commentary on a world in which man has absolute destructive power right at his fingertips. The story sees Dr. Manhattan being deployed in Vietnam and utterly annihilating America’s adversaries. This paints a picture of a world where the U.S. has used its strongest weapons, to resolve its conflicts, a world where the enemies of the U.S. are much more numerous and at the brink of war. This in the end all ties into the plot of the main villain, who actually unleashes an unknown alien entity on New

York City, just so he cancreate a new villain for the world to hate and unite against, sacrificing millions of innocent lives in the process (Stokes).

Watchmen, even though completely fictional and often times extremely over the top, puts a mirror in front of the real world and tells it “This can be you, if you do not change”. It is no mystery why this graphic novel has been hailed as one of comics’ best and most influential works. It is unapologetic in its delivery and forces the reader to think deeply about the state of the real world. The fact that the themes and the finale specifically still hold up to this day, says a lot about the legacy and the impact of Watchmen.

7 Everyone is Included

After spending years of constantly adapting to the social climate, superhero comics have become one of the most inclusive literary genres on the market. In the world of superhero comics everyone can be a hero nowadays, no matter the ethnicity, gender, sexuality, physical or mental condition. Since the earliest days of the genre, writers were trying to include people of different backgrounds. One may consider the first major change towards inclusivity to be the creation of Wonder Woman. Although there were already

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established heroic female characters the point of her creation, just like Superman male superhero, Wonder Woman is considered to be the first female superhero, thanks to her actual super powers. She was one of the few characters that stood shoulder to shoulder with her male superhero counterparts, even overshadowing them in some cases. Wonder Woman, ranks to this day amongst the most beloved and famous superheroes of all time.

After the creation of Wonder Woman, the comic book industry started to include more women, as well as more minority characters. In July of 1966, in Fantastic Four #52, the first ever appearance of an African superhero was published. The Black Panther would garner much attention as he is widely renowned to be the first African superhero, and paved the way for the inclusion of many more Africa/African-American Superheroes. He, as a character was not written in an unflattering or stereotypical way. Rather than going down that specific route,

Stan Lee wrote Black Panther to be a noble warrior king from a distant land. In his first outing he actually manages to defeat the Fantastic Four, only to reveal that he has been testing them, because he is searching for competent allies. Even the country of his origin is not portrayed as a kind of poor, third world country. Wakanda, the country Black Panther holds dominion over, is portrayed as a technologically advanced and very cultured country. People there live in a kind of , while the technology that they use is extremely advanced compared to the rest of the world.

It was the creation of Black Panther that led to the inclusion of many more ethnically diverse characters in superhero comics. Some of the most popular nowadays include Miles

Morales, a teenage Spider-man from a different dimension with a mixed Latino and African-

American heritage. He was only introduced in the pages of Ultimate Fallout #4 in August of

2011. From then his popularity grew exponentially, as he was written in a very original and relatable way. His popularity grew actually so big, that in 2018 Sony released the animated movie Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse, a film centered around Spider-men and women

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from different universes with Miles as the main character. The film was applauded for its inclusion of an ethnically diverse cast and an eye-catching visual style. The movie even won multiple animated movie of the year awards, including the Academy Award for best animated feature.

African-American characters are not the only ones who have found popularity in the superhero comic book genre. In July of 2013 Captain Marvel #14 was published and in it,

Kamala Khan saw her debut as the new Ms. Marvel. Kamala became the first Muslim superhero at Marvel to get an ongoing series. This marked another change in an industry that had not long before been shaken by the terror attacks of Muslim terrorist. Her inclusion as a superhero character, one that would carry on the legacy of Ms. Marvel showed more progressive changes happening in the medium.

Characters of different genders or ethnicity are not the only representation of minorities in superhero comic books. For example, the superhero Northstar, who first appeared in the pages of Uncanny X-Men #120 is a member of the Canadian superhero team,

Alpha Flight. The character was steadily featured in the Marvel comic series Alpha Flight, which was at the time of its run well known thanks to its ties to the X-Men comic. In 1992, in issue 106 of Alpha Flight the superhero Northstar openly admits to his homosexuality, making him effectively Marvel’s first openly homosexual superhero. This was back in the

1990’s when most popular media were using homosexuals and homosexuality as a cheap punching bag for laughs, so for a major publisher with millions of fans to reveal that one of their more popular characters was openly homosexual, was a major step forward in terms of inclusivity for comics. Nowadays it is absolutely normal to see LGBTQ characters in comics.

One of the most popular anti-heroes in comics to date, Deadpool, has been confirmed to be pansexual.

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While on the topic of X-Men and characters related to the team, it would be a great shame to not mention one of the most diverse superhero teams ever created. When the X-Men first debuted, they featured a cast that was dominated by Caucasian male characters, with one female member. Although this might seem as not having any variety, the characters themselves were actually extremely varied. The leader of the team, Charles Xavier was handicapped and wheelchair bound, Cyclops could no use his sight without specialized glasses, Beast was inhumanly strong but had a deformed body which made him look more like an ape than a human, which would later become even worse as the character mutated and was now covered in blue fur and had and his face bore feline features. The mutants as a race have been depicted as being shunned by society for simply being different. It is not hard to see the X-Men as an allegory for minorities and oppressed people. They fought as much against actual villains as they fought against an oppressive system and for equal rights. The series was even relaunched in February of 1975 with a new roster of ethnically diverse characters. The new roster featured such characters as Wolverine, a Canadian and supposedly immortal mutant, Storm, an African Goddess of weather, Colossus, a Russian mutant with metal skin but a heart of gold, Nightcrawler, a German mutant who looked like a demon but was actually a devout Christian, Thunderbird, a Native American mutant with super agility,

Sunfire, a mutant from Japan who could conjure up superheated plasma, Banshee, an Irish mutant with the ability to produce “sonic screams” and last but not least Cyclops would be a returning member.

While was physically handicapped, there are also plenty of heroes who suffer from mental issues (Gerber). A character, who has been getting a lot more recognition in the past few years, who does suffer from multiple mental disorders is Marvel’s Moon

Knight. The character was first introduced in Werewolf by Night #32. What is intriguing about the character, was that while he was written to resemble Batman, he has the distinct trait of

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suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder, or DID for short. This in turn has made for some rather interesting storytelling, as the character sometimes randomly switches between his 3 distinctive personalities and the reader is caught off guard as to why this is happening.

The storyline featured in the 2016 Moon Knight series, written by explores this side of the character in great detail while switching between a mystical world of Egyptian

Gods and mummies to a mental hospital where most of Moon Knight’s allies appear as simple patients and then to other worlds in which the character inhabits the lives of his other personalities, making it unclear what is reality and what are delusions of a sick mind.

In conclusion, superhero comics are one of the most diverse literary genres. They truly feature characters from all different walks of live. Be it male or female, black or white, straight or gay, healthy or sick. Superhero comics nowadays truly do not discriminate people who are simply different, rather they try to include as many different characters as possible, so anyone and everyone can find a character to sympathize with and grow attached to.

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Conclusion

Ever since the Superman first appeared in the pages of Action Comics, superheroes and superhero related media has been part of modern society. Characters that were created as a personification of the fight against the Great Depression became icons of literary fiction.

Through their fictitious actions they delivered hope to the people who found themselves in a hopeless situation and needed it the most. And as their popularity rose, new characters were created, characters that would deviate from the norm, like Wonder Woman, who would serve as an inspiration during the World War II for women young and old. Captain America brought the fight to enemies of freedom and socked them square in the jaw in name of liberty.

Then, when the superhero fad was starting to lose its steam, comics had to adapt to stay relevant, and so they did. Out of a desperate circumstance, new and different characters and concepts started to emerge. Superheroes who were just young teenagers and had as many personal problems as heroic ones. Nuclear families created some of the greatest superhero teams of all time. Characters would suddenly be much more affected and confronted more real-world issues, like the war in Vietnam. Superhero comics also started to broaden their rosters of ethnically diverse characters, no longer would most superhero characters be

Caucasian males, Characters with different ethnicities would start to appear more frequently in the spotlight. As it was since their inception, superhero comics adapted to the social situation and came out stronger because of it.

Later, when the war on drugs became a more serious issue, superhero comics would not take long to respond to the ongoing situation. Stories started becoming darker and dealing with more heavy subject matters. Characters who were previously depicted as bright and cheerful would suddenly experience some of the darkest times in their lives. Once again comics were adapting to a world where uncertainty and the threat of great violence were not

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completely out of reach. Even in these dark times, with darker themes, superhero comics still kept a positive attitude and tried to express that there is always a light side to .

Out of this fear came forth some of the most prolific and thought-provoking stories the literary medium has experienced.

With their rise in popularity, superhero comics were finding their way into other media. What was once a niche hobby for a certain group, suddenly found itself in the homes of countless people. Even when the 1990s hit, and many big publishers saw a steep decline in reader interest, comic book writers once again adapted. Either creating new and original stories or trying to recapture the magic that was once so electrically shared amongst countless fans.

Nowadays, superheroes and superhero related media is a massive success across multiple different media outlets. Comic book storylines were adapted into multibillion-dollar franchises, they changed the way movie franchises were being made. Some of them even rank amongst the most critically acclaimed films of all time. They have had a profound effect on different types of media. Superhero based videogames created a trend for an entire industry in which multiple other developers were trying to copy the success of one single superhero videogame. The impact the superhero genre had on popular culture is truly undeniable and can compare its legacy to literary epic such as Lord of the Rings. For what more are superhero comics if not the modern incarnation of antique and . Legends oh heroes with unimaginable strength but also deeply rooted flaws. No matter the medium, superhero comics found a way to be adapted into it.

But all of the success the genre has seen would not be there if it did not have the necessary quality. Especially nowadays, superhero comics are one of most varied and inclusive mediums one can experience. They are able to tackle different genres of fiction, bring their distinct flavor to them all the while staying true to the genre’s roots. They can 65

create stories which reflect the state of the world perfectly, all the while adding characters who possess the strength to lift entire school buses while wearing brightly colored spandex.

They create characters appealing to any and every person imaginable and they are sure to include these types of people in different stories, demonstrating that anyone can become a superhero. They create stories that can deal with heavy subject matters in a sophisticated and mature way. The ability to engulf the reader in a fictional world which reflects real world issues and adapts to the ever-changing social climate, is why superhero comics deserve to be viewed as a relevant .

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Résumé

The aim of this thesis is to show superhero comics as a great literary source for inclusivity and social commentary. By progressing through the different ages of comics, this thesis illustrates how much the medium has changed and evolved. The thesis is divided into two parts. A theoretical part and a practical part.

The theoretical part offers a comprehensive history of the first three ages of comics. It is divided into three chapters, each of which focuses significant historical events, as well the changes which occurred in the medium, thanks to an always evolving social climate. The chapters also focus on the creation of some of the most important and well-known superheroes of a specific age.

The practical part focuses strictly on the modern age of superhero comics. The first chapters once again offer a comprehensive history of the medium since the later 1980s until present day. It ends with a quick overview of how much of an impact superhero comic and their adaptations had on various media.

The following chapters are then concerned with analyzing different genres of fiction used by superhero comics. That is followed by an analysis of socio-political themes in superhero comics. And lastly, an analysis of the inclusivity superhero comics have to offer, is given. By analyzing these specific parts, the thesis demonstrates how superhero comics cater to a large and diverse audience. This then leads to the conclusion that the more people, with different genre preferences and different ethnical backgrounds show interest in the medium, the more diverse, inclusive and flexible the medium becomes.

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Resumé

Cieľom tejto práce je vyobraziť superhrdinské komiksy ako skvelý literárny zdroj inkluzívnosti, ako aj sociopolitického komentára. Vďaka postupnému opisu rôznych komiksových dôb, táto práca ilustruje, ako sa médium menilo a vyvíjalo. Práca je rozdelená na dve časti. Teoretická časť a praktická časť.

Teoretická časť ponúka komplexnú históriu prvých troch komiksových dôb. Je rozdelená do troch kapitol, z ktorých sa každá zameriava na významné historické udalosti, ako aj na zmeny, ktoré sa vyskytli v médiu vďaka neustále sa vyvíjajúcej sociálnej klíme.

Kapitoly sa zameriavajú aj na vznik niektorých najdôležitejších a najznámejších superhrdinov preberanej doby.

Praktická časť sa zameriava čisto len na modernú dobu. Prvé kapitoly opäť poskytujú komplexnú históriu média od neskorších osemdesiatych rokov až po súčasnosť. Toto sa potom končí rýchlym prehľadom toho, aký vplyv mali superhrdinské komiksy a ich adaptácie na rôzne média.

Nasledujúce kapitoly sa potom zaoberajú analýzou rôznych žánrov fikcie, ktoré sú využívané v superhrdinských komiksoch. Potom nasleduje analýza sociálno-politických tém v superhrdinských komiksoch. A nakoniec analýza inkluzivity ktorú superhrdinské komiksy ponúkajú. Analýzou týchto konkrétnych častí práca poukazuje na to, ako superhrdinské komiksy uspokojujú široké a rozmanité publikum. To potom vedie k záveru, že čím viac ľudí s rôznymi žánrovými preferenciami a rôznym etnickým pôvodom prejavuje záujem o médium, tým rozmanitejšie, inkluzívnejšie a flexibilnejšie sa médium stáva.

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