Introduction
The Golden Age
Romance, crime, horror and the wild wild west
The Silver Age
Marvel comics
Hey there's a war going on out there
Crisis, death, continuity and the mighty dollar
Superhero comics now
Introduction
In the beginning superhero comics were lurid, fast paced, illogically plotted, four colour fantasies printed on cheap paper, They were 64 pages long and only cost a dime. They stayed a dime until 1961 though by then they were no longer 64 pages long. What comics weren't, was art.
With something so cheap the publishers had to keep the overheads down, chief among them was the fees for writers and illustrators. Comics were a form of bond slavery. As such they were low status. The real prestige was the newspaper strip, which was better paid and usually had a lighter workload. Writers of newspaper strips were well known and respected. Think Will Eisner. Comic strip artists weren't.
Sometimes you get what you pay for (quite often in fact). Take a look at a Flash Gordon or Prince Valiant newspaper strip then look at the early Superman, Flash or Batman and you see what I mean in terms of artwork. The low pay often attracted inferior artists and the punishing work loads meant that even a good illustrator had to cut corners and cramp his style just to keep up.
The Golden Age
But what the superhero comics lacked in finesse they made up for in exuberance. The comics had all the advantages of being a form that had not been tried before. Not all of it was good but it is surprising how much of this holds up today.
The trend for superheroes started in 1938 when the publisher that was to become DC comics took a chance on a strip created by a couple of unknowns named Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster. That strip was called "Superman" and it appeared in Action Comics.
It was a hit and it spawned imitators. The first and one of the best was Batman, at that time a playboy Zorro like figure, whose contempt for criminals meant that he didn't stint at using murder himself. In the early strips he kicks one villain off a rooftop and thinks nothing of snapping the neck of another. He even has a girlfriend who falls under the influence of a vampire and disappears from the comic just before Robin turns up.
Then there was Wonder Woman, a powerful Amazon Princess aimed at pleasing both the boys and the girls (and a few GIs) who, unlike the Batman, was compassionate and tried to reform her villains.
In no time DC had a whole roster of superheroes righting wrongs and putting away the bad guys. There was the the elegantly illustrated Hawkman (who could fly) Aquaman (guess what he could do?) and Green Lantern (who recharged a ring of power from a green lantern - go figure) the Sandman (who went around in a gas mask) and the Flash.
Most of these adventures were the "same old same old" in terms of storylines but sometimes the characters and the plots were idiosyncratic enough to stand out. The Flash, for example, was a fun character who could run fast and remain invisible by vibrating himself. His speed was such that whenever he was needed he still had time to dash home and change. A very handy skill for a superhero. No killer he, the Flash often humiliated villains and made them confess by stealing their clothes (after all they couldn't go home and quick change) and leaving them in their underwear.
In one memorable story he stops an entire war by stealing both the weapons and the clothes of the enemy and foils a submarine raid by putting paper bags and elastic bands on the periscopes.
Other comic companies also had their own heroes. Fawcett created Captain Marvel, who rivalled Superman in popularity until DC won a plagiarism case against the character and he ceased publication in the fifties (ironically to resurface under the banner of DC, who bought out the company). Marvel, then known as Timely Comics created The Torch, the Sub Mariner and Captain America.
Captain America actually entered the war before America did. Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, he leaps off the page contorting himself into shapes that give a hint of the force in comics that Kirby would later become.
What lets him down is not the artwork but the storylines. As often as not the good Captain and Bucky his (obligatory) boy sidekick are put to work solving whodunnits rather than fighting the axis forces. Camp Lehigh, where alter ego Steve Rogers is stationed, boasts both the kind of English Moor that appeared in Universal horror movies and the Hound of the Baskervilles as well as a castle that predates Columbus. The whodunnits wouldn't test the intellect of a six year old. Perhaps that was the point.
In one story, the black talon, an artist loses his hand but has a the hand of a black man grafted in its place. This turns him into a psychopathic killer. Not a tale that has held up well.
Romance, crime, horror and the wild wild west
After the war, tastes changed. In 1947 Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the creators of Captain America caught the wind of change when they produced "Young Romance". Over the next few years more romance comics appeared.
Sales of superhero comics began to fall. There were only so many nine page plot scenarios and they had been on the scene quite a while. Other comics appeared to replace them - westerns, crime, horror, jungle tales and of course the ever popular funnies.
Between 1949 and 1951 most of the superhero comics had gone. A few survived with their own titles, notably Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. A few others improbably survived because they existed in other comics titles, such as Green Arrow and Aquaman.
The Silver Age
By 1956 comics were under attack for corrupting the nation's youth. Crime and horror comics were a particular target. The comics code put most of them out of business (Bill Gaines of EC comics went and produced Mad Magazine instead) and everything got just that little bit tamer.
But the remaining superheroes didn't escape scot free. Wonder Woman was accused of lesbianism and as for Batman and the Boy Wonder....
So they were tamed too. Instead of leading her sisters out on strike in the Golden Age Wonder Woman was now in girly tales about the finding of her shoes and her tiara scripted by the cynical hand of Bob Kanigher.
Batman was no longer the murderous vigilante of the forties. He smiled a lot more and was not averse to cooking anniversary cakes for his pal Superman to celebrate his arrival on Earth.
Superman spent the fifties accumulating a whole family - wonder dogs, horses and cousins (Supergirl - who he rather thoughtfully put in an orphanage) and such like. His adventures were no longer exciting, if indeed they ever were.
A typical scenario would have Lois Lane, Superman's girlfriend, trying some stratagem to discover Supe's identity, a stratagem that seems to work but is outwitted on the last page. In other stories he grew old, viewed alternative futures in which Krypton didn't explode and even got himself a lion's head. The cumulative effect of reading these stories was mind numbing except for the youngest reader.
But Julius Schwartz at DC had the idea of bringing back some of the old superheroes . The first one to get this treatment was the Flash in Showcase 4 although it was a different Flash from the old Mercury helmeted character that had such charming adventures in the forties.
This one had a spivvy costume, was elegantly drawn but was still saddled with a bunch of repetitive plotlines. Sadly he never went around stealing clothes and he never went home to change. But Flash proved strangely popular with the kids. Worse, the very first Flash story was responsible for creating continuity problems that were to surface later on.
Other superheroes followed. Green Lantern returned, again different from the Golden Age version. His stories were beautifully illustrated by Gil Kane but the sci-fi plots by John Broome were unconvincing and equally repetitive.
Here we had Hal Jordan, hot shot test pilot, who loved one Carol Ferris, who happened to be his boss at the aircraft company, who stopped loving Hal as soon as Green Lantern arrived on the scene, who was in fact Hal Jordan. Yet another Lois and Superman scenario. Instead of Jimmy Olsen he had "Pieface the Eskimo grease monkey", as patronising and racist as it sounds.
But no matter how boring the plots the superhero format was successfully revived and has never really gone away since.
Marvel comics
Marvel Comics were undergoing a financial crisis and by the late fifties, like many of the other comic companies. It was only allowed to publish a limited number of titles and Stan Lee, the editor kept Marvel going with a series of post comic code (i.e. daft) horror and sci fi titles, illustrated by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko.
The superhero revival at DC encouraged editor Stan Lee, to try the same. The first one was a Challengers of the Unknown clone called the Fantastic Four. It was popular and more titles followed. Pretty soon Marvel was rivalling DC.
It wasn't difficult really. The DC comics were kids stuff. Pick any story up and it seemed like you had always been reading them.
Stan Lee, as the main story teller together with Ditko and Kirby (they weren't the only ones but they were the main) just tinkered with the formula a bit. He created flawed heroes, blind heroes (Daredevil) crippled heroes (Thor) mutated heroes (Hulk and the X men). He tried to repeat the DC formula by bringing back old favourites such as Captain America and the Sub Mariner (the Torch was now in the Fantastic Four). Perhaps most successful of all he created that anguished teen to beat all anguished teens - Peter Parker Spider Man.
The Marvel superheroes had doubts. When they were fighting villains they often fought amongst and within themselves, sometimes at the same time as they were fighting villains. This was a new formula and it caught on. It was cool enough for college kids to read.
Seen from a distance what is most impressive about Marvel's achievement was that it was achieved under punishing workloads. Initially Lee and Kirby seemed to be writing and drawing almost everything with Ditko taking up the slack. Maybe it was because superhero comics had been around so long. Maybe it was an inferiority complex regarding their rivals at DC but what marks out the Marvel comics is a lack of seriousness. Lee constantly addresses the reader, reminding you that you are just reading a comic, nothing more. It's not Shakespeare, the art's not Titian. The fact that you don't have to get hung up on them is part of the fun. They become a sophisticated version of the 40's pulps.
At the same time the stories were better than those at DC. Often the stories would carry on for several issues forcing the the reader to keep buying them to find out what happens at the end. Initially the art was crude, even in Kirby's case, but as more writers and artists were drafted Kirby had time to work on his panels. The results were often astonishing in terms of composition. And he wasn't the only one doing spectacular layouts. John Romita took over Spider Man from Steve Ditko and made it his own. Gene Colan did the same with Daredevil and Jim Steranko brought pop art and surrealism to Captain America and Nick Fury.
And the Good Lord Lee looked on his empire and saw that it was good.
Hey there's a war going on out there
Marvel upped the stakes and the age group for comics. DC followed suit. They changed their story formats and poached Marvel artists, including Kirby. Wonder Woman gave up her powers and her costume and became a sort of spy who ran a boutique (you could do that in the sixties).
But despite this apparent sophistication (Lee even called Marvel Comics pop art) both companies were slow in responding to the fact that some of the teens who read their comics were getting killed in Vietnam and that America was in a state of upheaval.
In part this was due to the comics code which limited what could be discussed. In part this reflects the age of the comics creators, many of whom began their careers during world war two. But there were now new younger writers (Roy Thomas and Dennis O' Neil) and artists (Neal Adams) and they wanted to do different storylines.
Belatedly and frequently misguidedly the comics caught up with what was going on in the sixties. So what if this was round about 1969 or the early 70's. Lois Lane noticed that black people didn't like a white journalist snooping around the ghetto so she gets Superman to turn her into a black woman. Dennis O' Neil reveals what was obvious from the start, that Green Lantern is boring so he teams him up with Green Arrow.
A few years ago that would have been a bad idea but Green Arrow had been revamped by Neal Adams and he is just the right kind of cynical bleeding heart to counterpoint old snotnose. Add a sexy Black Canary as sometime companion and love interest together with a few "issues" issues and you have an interesting formula that lasted for about ten comics before the (young) public tired of it.
Some of these stories aren't too bad either - the drug storyline in particular. There's also one with black Green Lantern that is over the top but interesting.
Meanwhile Wonder Woman, just prior to reverting back to her usual costume starred in a Dennis O' Neil scripted "women's lib" issue - which it wasn't.
Over at Marvel Peter Parker's buddies (well one of them) was returning from Vietnam a burnt out drug addict and Daredevil was providing comfort to a blind black Viet vet even as Karen Page was beginning her career in movies which was to culminate in a sojourn in the porn industry under the guidance of Frank Miller.
Crisis, death, continuity and the mighty dollar
But by the middle of the seventies the superhero formula was getting a little tired. There were also changes within Marvel which led to defections by Jack Kirby and later writer Roy Thomas, Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan. The arrival of Jack Kirby at DC did not produce the hoped for success. Though the various New Gods related comics are now well thought of they were clumsily written and plotted. None of them made 20 issues. After working on other titles, notably (and laughably) Kamandi he returned to Marvel, where he produced the Eternals, which was also axed after about 19 issues.
Marvel itself was trading on former glories. Some characters such as X men and Daredevil were running out of steam. One of their most successful lines wasn't a superhero at all but a an old pulp magazine character called Conan the Barbarian.
X men was nearly cancelled but was revamped by Christ Claremont and artists Dave Cockrum and John Byrne. A similar job was done on Daredevil by Frank Miller in the eighties.
The danger was that many of these characters had been around so long and were so familiar that unless a particularly good scriptwriter and artist were working on a title it became routine and uninteresting. At DC Swamp Thing was popular when it was drawn by Berni Wrightson but then slipped into decline until revived by Alan Moore.
Over at DC they had another problem, but one which they turned into a profit. Originally comics had been seen in generational terms. As long as every few pages you referred to the superpower or weakness of the superhero they were easy to get into. A kid would read them for a few years, grow out of them, grow up and have a kid who would read about the same character for a few years and so on.
Since the attention span of a reader in terms of years was so short only lipservice was paid to continuity. Some writers, such as Robert Kanigher, who scripted Sergeant Rock and Wonder Woman practically held it as an article of faith to ensure that there was as little continuity as possible. Given the number of rubbishy storylines produced this was both understandable and laudable.
The problem occurred when many of the kids who grew up continued to read and collect comics. The problem was compounded by the growing sophistication of storylines that began with the rise of Marvel, which attracted older readers. And the problem was further compounded at DC by the phenomena known as Earth 2.
When the Flash was revived in the fifties he was shown reading the old Flash comics as inspiration. The old Flash from the forties had often been drawn fighting alongside Superman who had continued as a character since the forties.
Rather than brush this detail aside and get on with the next issue the concept of Earth 2 - a parallel world where the forties superheroes lived - arose. This enabled the new Flash and the old Flash to meet and fight together and in no time other superheroes were doing the same thing. Some, such as Black Canary, even crossed over from one Earth to the other and stayed there.
Eventually more parallel Earths were created which created even more continuity difficulties. These were puzzling for new readers. So it was decided to kill all the other Earths off, leaving just ours.
Thus was born "Crisis on Infinite Earths" a 12 issue comic series superbly illustrated by George Perez which had so many characters in it as to render the story incomprehensible. By the end a number of characters were done away with, including at least one Flash, Supergirl and the Huntress. Wonder Woman's comic was also cancelled as she reverted back to clay.
The series was a marketing success and enabled DC to start again with many of its characters. Wonder Woman, for example, was given a slightly new origin and made more touchy feely to suit the eighties.
But mostly this was old hat, no more than new clothes on the same Emperor.
But there were gems around. At roughly the same time Alan Moore was producing "The Watchmen" and Frank Miller was doing wonderful things with the Dark Knight.
Superhero comics now
Comics come and go. They stopped being sold on news stands but survived in specialist shops. There are perhaps less actual comic readers around but the range of comics available (anything from Dan Cowes to Manga) has widened some of the readership (notably to include more women).
But the superhero carries on. Characters live and die and are revived. They die, they return. A comic is killed off, it is revived and reprinted as a "classic". For a while there is a flurry of interest about a new title, then it fades to be replaced by another.
Success sometimes comes to those who wait. Green Arrow was originally a Batman clone who used gimmick arrows. He was created in the 40s but never given his own comic book. Ironically he survived when most superhero comics were cancelled in the late 40's because he was in Superman's own Action comics.
His adventures never varied until in the sixties his costume and look was redesigned and he drove across America with the oh so square and boring Green Lantern.
Then Mike Grell started to write some stories for GL in the 80's. He was given another costume redesign and his gimmick arrows replaced with real ones. He also moved in with his lover, the Black Canary (odd this bit because he appears to have dated both mother and daughter at one time or another). The two of them moved to Seattle and opened a flower shop called the Sherwood Florist.
The art was pretty good and an attempt was made to make the stories more gritty but all the unconvincing showdowns with drug dealers and the parade of prostitute victims and the use of a sub Elektra character called Shado showed GL to be a poor man's Daredevil. Eventually he was killed off.
Wonder Woman has been cancelled once more. She has been "rebooted" in her third series. A little while ago Marvel rebooted some of their own characters to upgrade them for the 21st century. A new start is always a good idea but it doesn't take long to foul things up. After Crisis had got rid of Earth 2 it kept cropping up again in stories.
The fate of the modern Superhero is to constantly revisit his or her past in endless story arcs, some good and some bad. The look may change but the song remains the same.
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