The Ages of Superman

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Sample file The Ages of Superman Essays on the Man of Steel in Changing Times

Edited by JOSEPH J. DAROWSKI

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McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA The ages of Superman : essays on the Man of Steel in changing times / edited by Joseph J. Darowski. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7864-6308-4 softcover : acid free paper

1. Superman (Fictitious character) 2. Comic books, strips, etc.—United States. 3. Literature and society—United States. I. Darowski, Joseph J. PN6728.S9A37 2012 741.5'973—dc23Sample file 2011048458

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

© 2012 Joseph J. Darowski. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Front cover design by Rob Russell

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Manufactured in the United States of America

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com Table of Contents

Preface JOSEPH J. DAROWSKI 1

“Superman Says You Can Slap a Jap!”: The Man of Steel and Race Hatred in World War II TODD S. MUNSON 5 Supervillains and Cold War Tensions in the 1950s LORI MAGUIRE 16 Kryptonite, Radiation, and the Birth of the Atomic Age PETER LEE 29 Truth, Justice, and the American Way in Franco’s Spain LOUIE DEAN VALENCIA-GARCÍA 45 The Inflexible Girls of Steel: Subverting Second Wave Feminism in the Extended Superman Franchise THOMAS C. DONALDSON 62 Black Like Lois: ConfrontingSample Racism, Configuring file African American Presence CHRISTOPHER B. ZEICHMANN 78 Red, White and Bruised: The Vietnam War and the Weakening of Superman JASON M. LATOUCHE 91 The Struggle Within: Superman’s Difficult Transition into the Age of Relevance PAUL R. KOHL 103 “It’s Morning Again in America”: John Byrne’s Re-Imaging of the Man of Steel DANIEL J. O’ROURKE and MORGAN B. O’ROURKE 115

v vi Table of Contents

The New “Man of Steel” Is a Quiche-Eating Wimp! Media Reactions to the Reimagining of Superman in the Reagan Era JACK TEIWES 125 More Human than (Super) Human: Clark Kent’s Smallville and Reagan’s America MICHAEL SMITH 143 The “Triangle Era” of Superman: Continuity, Marketing and Grand Narratives in the 1990s MATTHEW J. SMITH 156 Searching for Meaning in “The Death of Superman” JOSEPH J. DAROWSKI 166 Death, Bereavement, and the Superhero Funeral JOSÉ ALANIZ 177 Superman and the Corruption of Power STEFAN BUCHENBERGER 192 This Isn’t Your Grandfather’s Comic Book Universe: The Return of the Golden Age Superman JEFFREY K. JOHNSON 199 In a World Without Superman, What Is the American Way? JOHN DAROWSKI 209 Traveling Hopefully in Search of American National Identity: The “Grounded” SupermanSample as a 2 1filest Century Picaro RANDY DUNCAN 218

About the Contributors 231 Index 235 Preface

JOSEPH J. DAROWSKI

Some may consider Superman quaint or outdated. There are certainly edgier and grimmer characters that have been created. But Superman has had one of the most profound impacts on American popular culture of any fictional character and to this day he remains a profit-generator. First published in the early days of the comic book industry, the Man of Steel gave birth to the superhero genre. This genre, though most closely linked to the comic book medium where it began, has influenced all aspects of the entire entertainment industry. And it all began in 1938 when Superman, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, first appeared on the cover of Action Comics #1 (Jun. 1938). The elements of the superhero genre fully came together for the first time when Superman first appeared, and he was soon followed by Batman, Wonder Woman, and hundreds of others. Costumed superheroes are among of the defining figures of American entertainment, as iconically American as the Western cowboy. Superheroes, though always present in some form in our entertainment, have enjoyed a resurgence in popular culture in the last decade. At the same time that superheroesSample have been file the stars of children’s cartoons and live-action dramas on television, dominated the Hollywood box office, and taken another troubled step onto Broadway stages, the academy has given greater notice to comic book superheroes. Numerous books have been pub- lished looking at individual creators, the history of the industry, or topics such as superheroes and philosophy or superheroes and religion. This book will attempt to do something different. It will explore the evolution of a pop- ular culture icon, Superman, and how he has remained relevant for more than seven decades of uninterrupted narratives. One of the most intriguing aspects of Superman is that new stories have been told featuring the character continually since his creation. While many other franchises of the entertainment industry, such as James Bond or Star Trek, have had new chapters added across a long period of time, there are often years in between the new stories being produced. Superman comics

1 2 Preface have been published continuously since 1938, with a new story, or even four or five or six new stories, appearing on a more-or-less monthly schedule. This long-running narrative allows for a fascinating look at the evolution of Super- man. While Superman from World War II era comic books is easily identified as the same character as the Superman of Cold War era comics, there are clear and obvious distinctions when they are looked at closely. By exploring how this popular culture icon has changed through the years we can track how our entertainment mirrors the changes in American society. Superman began as a crusading social avenger at the end of the Great Depression, became a patri- otic hero during World War II, saw his powers increase in the early years of the Cold War, entered a period of flux during the Vietnam War, was killed and returned at the end of the Cold War, and has looked for his place in the superhero world since the turn of the century. Near the end of 2011 the char- acter experienced yet another reimagining, this one a more serious break from his previous stories. This collection will analyze the character, primarily through his comic book adventures, in chronological order until this most recent reimagining of the Man of Steel. Stories from each decade of his exis- tence will be analyzed in the context of society at that time. Our popular entertainment does not exist in a vacuum, and though it may serve as escapist fare it still reflects the real world. The collection begins with Todd S. Munson examining the Superman comics from the World War II era in “‘Superman Says You Can Slap a Jap!’: The Man of Steel and Race Hatred in World War II.” While the comic book stories themselves rarely touched on the war effort, Superman was an agent of American propaganda. SampleEspecially on comicfile book covers and adaptations into other media, Superman was frequently shown battling America’s ene- mies. Lori Maguire and Peter Lee each look at Superman stories from the 1950s during the Cold War era. In “Supervillains and Cold War Tensions in the 1950s,” Maguire examines the villains Superman faced in relation to the fears that dominated American society at the time. Lee explores the relationship between Kryptonite and the nuclear age in “Kryptonite, Radiation and the Birth of the Atomic Age.” Louie Dean Valencia García provides a different view of this American icon, by analyzing Superman’s influence in Spain during the 1950s and 1960s. “Truth, Justice, and the American Way in Franco’s Spain” looks at translations of Superman comics at a period when Francisco Franco was attempting to control as much of Spain’s popular culture as possible. While Superman may often be seen as an unproblematic symbol of virtue in America, in Spain at this time the American ideals embedded in Superman comic books were con- Preface (Darowski) 3 sidered radical and often censored. This alternative view of Superman allows for an understanding of how the American values Superman embodied could be perceived from different perspectives. Thomas C. Donaldson and Christopher B. Zeichmann each look at Superman’s supporting cast in comic books published in the 1970s. The char- acters experienced significant changes and revisions in apparent reaction to social movements in America. Donaldson’s “The Inflexible Girls of Steel: Lois Lane, Supergirl, and the Subversion of Second Wave Feminism” explores the expanded Superman family in the context of the feminist movement. While in “Black Like Lois: Confronting Racism, Configuring African American Pres- ence” Zeichmann looks at a story in which Lois Lane becomes African Amer- ican for a day in relationship with the Black Power movement. Jason M. LaTouche and Paul R. Kohl examine a story published during a time when DC Comics attempted to make their characters more relevant in relation to real-world events. In “Red, White and Bruised: The Vietnam War and the Weakening of Superman” LaTouche examines a Superman story arc called “The Sandman Saga” and uses the United States’ increasingly unpop- ular involvement in the Vietnam War as a means of interpreting the message. Kohl examines the same story in “The Struggle Within: Superman’s Difficult Transition into the Age of Relevace,” but with a different societal parallel. Kohl uses the changing role of the news media and the counterculture move- ment as societal touchstones that inform the story. Both analyses are equally thorough and insightful. One of the most significant eras for Superman comic books is a reboot of the character following DC Comics universe-altering event Crisis on Infinite Earths. Following this event, theSample character’s origins file were reimagined in a mini- series by writer/artist John Byrne. Daniel J. O’Rourke and Morgan B. O’Rourke analyze that mini-series in light of the Reagan era in “‘It’s Morning Again in America’: John Byrne’s Re-Imaging of the Man of Steel.” Jack Tei- wes’s essay, “The New ‘Man of Steel’ Is a Quiche-Eating Wimp! Media Reac- tions to the Reimagining of Superman in the Reagan Era,” also looks at the mini-series, but more specifically the media’s reaction to it in light of American attitudes towards masculinity in the 1980s. Michael Smith examines the stories that followed this reinterpretation of Superman, but still were firmly entrenched in the American culture of the 1980s in “More Human than (Super) Human: Clark Kent’s Smallville and Reagan’s America.” Entering the 1990s Superman comics became more closely connected and told larger, more inter-connected narratives. Matthew J. Smith discusses this era in general and why America was particularly well-positioned for this type of grander storytelling at that time in “The ‘Triangle Era’ of Superman Comic Books: Continuity, Marketing and Grand Narratives in the 1990s.” 4 Preface

In “Searching for Meaning in ‘The Death of Superman,’ Joseph J. Darowski positions one of the most famous Superman stories of all time in light of America’s identity crisis at the conclusion of the Cold War. José Alaniz writes about the funeral for Superman and the act of mourning in American culture in “Death, Bereavement, and the Superhero Funeral.” Stefan Buchenberger’s “Superman and the Corruption of Power” evalu- ates a series of “Elseworlds” tales, or stories that are not part of the official Superman continuity. In each of these stories, Superman is corrupted or abuses his powers in some way. The manner in which these corruptions take place reveals fears about America’s powers and influence if not used in a responsible manner. Jeffrey K. Johnson considers another DC Comics event, Infinite Crisis, and the manner in which the narrative contrasts the present day Superman with the earliest Golden Age version of the character in “This Isn’t Your Grandfather’s Comic Book Universe: The Return of the Golden Age Super- man.” In recent years there have been multiple storylines published by DC Comics which are driven by the absence of Superman rather than his presence. John Darowski’s “In a World Without Superman, What Is the American Way?” discusses 52, Trinity, and The World of New Krypton and what each one reveals about the Superman’s symbolic meaning. Randy Duncan’s “Travelling Hopefully in Search of American National Identity: The ‘Grounded’ Superman as a 21st Century Picaro” looks at the final story to be published before the 2011 reboot of the Superman franchise. In a story called “Grounded” Superman decides to walk across America to reconnect with his adoptedSample country. Duncan file uses the tradition of the pica- resque journey to analyze this story. While the general public may have a broad, largely shared conception of who Superman is, the character has been far from static. Many different vari- ations of the character have been published. If Superman had failed to adapt to changing times in America he would have become a relic of a bygone era. Instead, in looking at the many changes the character has undergone to remain relevant we can learn as much about America as about the Champion of Truth, Justice, and the American Way. “Superman Says You Can Slap a Jap!” The Man of Steel and Race Hatred in World War II

TODD S. MUNSON

But the unwritten success of the war was the smash comeback of the Oriental villain. He had faded badly for a few years, losing face to mad scientists— but now he was at the height of his glory. Until the war we always assumed he was Chinese. But now we knew what he was! A Jap; a Yellow-Belly Jap; a Japa-a-nazi Rat.... —Jules Feiffer, The Great Comic Book Heroes 1

In War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War, John Dower argues that World War II was in large part a race war, a conflict that “exposed raw prejudices and was fueled by racial pride, arrogance, and rage on many sides.”2 The primary target of Samplethis hatred was filenot the Germans—who in eth- nic makeup were similar to most Americans—but rather the Japanese, who even in friendlier times were seen as a culture and ethnicity diametrically opposed to our own. However, in the same way that our visceral responses to the Japanese in the 1940s have largely faded from the collective American consciousness, so too have our memories of Superman reflecting and perpet- uating such responses. In fact, due to the paucity of such stories in his comic books, Superman is seen as having played virtually no role in the war effort (save perhaps his frequent rejoinders to purchase war bonds).3 Such was not the case. As we survey the various iterations of the character in comic books, newspaper comic strips, radio, and cartoons it will become evident that the “race war” against the Japanese was very much a part of Superman’s adventures, and that the so-called Man of Tomorrow was very much a man of his time.

5 6 The Ages of Superman

Superman Comic Books Cover the War

The Japanese began to appear on American comic book covers in early 1942, approximately the same time that the Imperial Army and Navy were enjoying a string of victories in Southeast Asia—and that Japanese Americans were being herded into interment camps on the West Coast. In contrast to the negligible role the character played in the interior pages of Action Comics, Superman, and World’s Finest, “cover Superman” was fighting on the front lines of the war from the very beginning. In fact, between 1942 and 1945 approximately fifty percent of the covers of the Superman titles feature World War II in a prominent fashion, though the stories inside the covers rarely addressed the war. Before he was drafted in May 1942, artist Fred Ray drew a series of Japan-related Superman covers. The first of these, Action Comics #48 (May 1942),4 was obviously inspired by the events of December 7, 1941. Superman lands a dramatic mid-flight punch to the propeller of a Japanese biplane, while the aircraft carrier that launched the jet is seen below. The Japanese pilot, at far left, appears to have sustained the blow himself—his grimace reveals a set of sharpened buck-teeth, though his slanted eyes betray no outward emotion. In illustrations such as these Ray drew on the many stereotypic images of Japan popular at the time: Japanese as de-personalized, diminutive, sub-human creatures with fangs and yellow skin—without the airplane, a foe scarcely worth Superman’s time. A second Ray illustration, from the cover of Superman #17 (July 1942),5 shows Superman standing astride the earth, holding Hitler and Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo by the scruffs of their necks, as though they were errant children. The image harksSample back to a short file comic story that ran in Look mag- azine in 1940, in which Hitler and Stalin are roughly escorted by Superman to stand trial for war crimes at the League of Nations’ World Court in Geneva.6 Here, Tojo dresses the familiar part of the military officer, with knee-high leather boots and sword in scabbard, and bears the typical Japanese open- mouthed expression of anguish—revealing his buckteeth, slanted eyes, and signature round eyeglasses. In Superman #18 (Sep. 1942),7 the title character rides a bomb plummet- ing through cloud and sky, accompanied by four dive-bombers streaking downward at a similar trajectory. The geographical setting is indeterminate, save for the caption at right: “WAR SAVINGS BONDS AND STAMPS DO THE JOB ON THE JAPANAZIS!” The caption—considered along with the early 1942 publication date—suggests that the Doolittle raid may have been an inspiration for Ray, as he imagined how the Man of Steel might have retal- iated for the Pearl Harbor attacks of the previous year. The other cover artist who set Superman against the Japanese enemy was The Man of Steel and Race Hatred in the War (Munson) 7

Jack Burnley. During World War II he drew over a dozen covers with war- related themes, among them several memorable images featuring the Japanese. For example, Burnley’s cover for World’s Finest #8 (Winter 1942)8 features Batman, Superman, and Robin selling war bonds to children under a sign that reads “SINK THE JAPANAZIS WITH BONDS & STAMPS,” while World’s Finest #9 (Spring 1943),9 boasts a fanciful cover reminiscent of a propaganda poster. Against a bright yellow background, Superman, Batman, and Robin hurl baseballs at the literal heads of the Axis powers, who poke out from behind a sheet reading “Knock Out the Axis With Bonds & Stamps.” Tojo, at far right, is the ugliest of the bunch (Mussolini is a close second), with typ- ically exaggerated features drawn from the stock images of the day—save the hue of his skin, which an unknown colorist mysteriously rendered a Caucasian pink, the same as the others in the scene. The spring and summer of 1943 brought another cluster of war- (and Japan-) related covers to Action Comics, all drawn by Burnley. In Action Comics #58 (March 1943), Superman uses his mighty arm muscles to turn a photo- realistically drawn printing press, which churns out a flier reading “Superman says: YOU can slap a Jap with WAR BONDS and STAMPS.”10 A familiar refrain, to be sure, but this particular iteration boasts a visual of a “Jap”—with banana- yellow skin, x-ed out eyes, and a tongue protruding from buckteeth—being slapped by a giant Caucasian hand. Action Comics #62 (July 1943) boasts a dramatic rendering of Superman swooping downward to save a wounded G.I. from Japanese aircraft fire.11 The bullets bounce off the Man of Steel, while the young soldier, wrapped in bloodied bandages, looks on. The setting of the cover—a tropical jungle in the foreground, and a purplish mountain range in the distance—evokes the islandSample of Guadalcanal, file where a bloody campaign between Japan and the Allies cost thousands of lives in 1942–1943. Superman, who obviously could not have been portrayed as playing an active role in the outcome of this conflict, nonetheless makes his own modest contribution by preventing the strafing of a soldier—and one can imagine him punching out the airplane “off camera” moments later. Indeed, the following month’s cover featured Superman performing just such a feat. On Burnley’s cover to Action Comics #63 (Aug. 1943), we see an enraged Superman straddling the airplane, raising his fist to pummel the pilot directly.12 The Japanese pilot, whose skin color mirrors the bright yellow hue of the comic itself, puts up his hands in an obviously futile gesture to protect himself. In fact, he looks as though he has already been struck: his goggles have flown off behind him, and his head reels back in anguish. Burnley’s last Japan-themed cover, on Action Comics #86 (July 1945), echoes his earlier printing press cover in its use of photo-realistic detail and emphasis on war bond sales.13 A determined looking Superman buries Tojo 8 The Ages of Superman alive in a tremendous heap of bond certificates for the seventh war loan, which was in itself the largest bond drive of the Second World War. Finally, Wayne Boring, who would go on to become the definitive Super- man illustrator of the 1950s, made one very memorable contribution to the canon of Japan-related Superman covers from World War II. The cover of Action Comics #76 (Sep. 1944) nearly leaps off the page: Superman, at left, lands a mighty punch on a speeding Japanese motorcycle.14 As a result, two Japanese soldiers—one who had been driving, another in the sidecar—are violently flung upwards into the title graphic itself. Though this scene presents a physical impossibility (surely the riders would have been thrown forward, rather than upward, if their motorcycle had stopped suddenly) it is nonetheless successful in its striking use of space. In the comic books, Superman was rarely involved in the war outside of the cover images. However, shortly after the comic book adventures of Super- man became popular, adaptations into other media followed. In newspaper comic strips, in cartoons, and on the radio Superman was depicted as much more involved in the war effort.

The Newspaper Comic Strips

From its humble beginning in three newspapers in January 1939 (and only six months after the character’s comic book debut) the Superman daily comic strip eventually appeared in over three hundred daily newspapers across the country, and had an estimated audience of twenty to twenty-five million Americans—a figureSample that thoroughly file dwarfed sales of the monthly comic books. Though a February 1942 strip saw Clark Kent flunk his Army physical (mistakenly reading the eye chart in the next room with his x-ray vision), “comic strip Superman” was ready and able for duty in the Pacific theater. In a remarkable narrative written by Whitney Ellsworth and Al Schwartz15 that ran from June 28 to August 211943, Clark Kent and Lois Lane are sent to investigate conditions at one of the Japanese internment camps established shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. “The public is interested in knowing the full details of what goes on inside a typical Jap relocation camp where alien Japs, as well as American citizens of Japanese ancestry, have been sent after being evacuated from the West coast and elsewhere,” explains Daily Planet editor Perry White long-windedly. Upon arrival at the fictional “Camp Karok,” Lois and Clark are reassured of the democratic freedoms enjoyed by the denizens of the camp. “While armed soldiers guard the camp, the relocation center’s internal affairs are run by civilians and representatives