From: [r--el--y] at [carina.unm.edu] (Robert Kelly) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc Subject: Uber-Christ and Super Anti-Christ (Part 4 of 4) Date: 3 Apr 1993 20:17:47 GMT This is part three and conclusion of my thesis. (B) Bobware: I own all the rights and then some. Feel free to use as long as you don't publish without my consent. It is slack-less for you to do so otherwise. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Myth of Mortality "Is this a real death or a Marvel death?" --a comics fan at a comics convention asking whether a superhero was going to actually die. With all of the action going around the modern superhero -- with all of the violence, the bullets, the car chases, the heat-ray vision--something is still lacking: death. Yet, these heroes go out every day and selflesslyrisk their lives for the common good of humanity. Oh, sure, a death occurs when it is convenient for the plot or to make a story particularly interesting and fun, but that only happens to minor characters who "deserve to die" anyway. Aging also is in a static state of affairs. Superman is older than me, yet he has always looked like the same clean cut gentleman. George Reeves, who played Superman on television, is dead -- but that hasn't stopped DC. Simon and Shuster have kicked the bucket too -- and their creation lives on without them. Superheroes do not die. Why? There are two reasons. First is simple to understand: greed. Batman during the sixties was extremely popular due to the television show: extra exposure boosted the print sales. At the release of the Batman movie in 1989, Batman paraphernalia sent previous box-office records through the roof. Time- Warner, who owns Batman's likeness as a trademark, knows that every few years, Batman can be recycled and updated into another blockbuster seller. The other reason is less tenuous: nostalgia and characterization. When a design team comes around and breathes new life into an old superhero -- even campy 40's superheroes like Miracle Man -- the design team's product brings new ideas into being. In the above example, crossing Friedrich Nietzsche's berman with the Superman archetype: what would happen if "Superman" really existed. What would he be like? Would he be a god or a monster--or worse, would it even matter? Another common occurrence is when an old hero is updated--which is exactly what is happening with Superman today--to become more competitive. This has happened to many superheroes over the decades and will continue to happen. One of the most successful of all updates has been the X-Men revival, which is nearly a corporate entity all of its own. The X-Men, published by Marvel, was once a group of (all-white) teenagers who were "Homo Superior"--mutants--each having special powers that made them special in the world. After several years of mediocre sales, the X-Men title was canceled. In 1978, the title was resurrected with a "world-unifying theme" with several strong female characters. Each character came from a different place on the globe and a common enemy--the entire world--was shared by all. You see, mutants--or muties--are considered evil. The persecution of mutants echoes the persecution of people of color, of women, of gays and lesbians and, most strongly, of Jewish people. Their fight for civil rights parallels the fights of every ethnic group in America--and, not surprisingly, the X-Men is consistently the most popular series being produced. Like the nation of Qurac, the parallel between the fantasy world and the real world has flimsy shades. Many of these character icons--because they are fighting for their lives--are the anti-heroes I have discussed previously: they are at war with normal humans who hunt them down and therefore are "justified" in taking lives. Another revamped series is the Sandman. Once a costumed crime- fighter who used sleeping gas on his enemies, the new Sandman is a mystical entity that exists in our dreams. His role is to facilitate humanity. The stories read with many literary allusions to English authors--even involving stories with Shakespeare himself. A mature comic, this book also deals with issues of race, gender and sexuality-- and especially one theme: the changing of the definition of masculinity. Multiculturalism and White Heterosexual Males in Comics As I have mentioned, Superman "died" in October of last year. This month (April, 1993) four new supermen will arise to succeed him. At least one of them is going to be black and another one is going to be a murderer--an anti-hero. Since Superman is the first super-hero, it is poignant to indicate that he was once the icon for millions of American men to emulate. As pointed out by the sales of the Death of Superman issue, either a cultural nerve was hit or a media coup was staged. Sales records were busted all over America. Here in Albuquerque, the comic sold out in just under an hour. National media coverage by the big three broadcasting stations signified the event. I find it ironic that the same week that DC Comics--the owner of Superman--released a mock news magazine "Newstime" the cover of Newsweek reads "WHITE MALE PARANOIA: Are They the Newest Victims--or Just Bad Sports?" and depicts Michael Douglas in his latest movie role: D-FENS, a psychopathic, gun-toting killer, much like the anti-heroes of comics. The super-heroic icons which once signified American Masculinity, the Perfect Soldier and the Justice Savior is falling to the fields of multiculturalism and equal gender relations. Marvel Comics Group, in its own media coup, unveiled a superhero from the closet: Northstar, one of the above mutants, has "publicly" acknowledged that he is gay. In the Baltimore Sun, a story read that a company is "actively trying to represent all Americans by creating books with minority characters created and owned by minority writers." (Baltimore Sun, February 24, 1993.) And, if that wasn't enough, Wonder Woman is now a feminist. Instead of many heroes signifying one ideal, these heroes are signifying many different ideals. We are witnessing the death of a cultural myth--white masculinity--and we are seeing a fracturing of icons. With the rise of the anti-heroes, with their hyper-masculine violence and overt, unforgiving sexism, the white heterosexual male no longer has all of the obvious heroes that he once could identify with. If the Newsweek's article can be believed, white (assumed straight) men are striking out at anything thing that threatens their former sovereignty within this culture. As multiculturalism expands and is realized to be no longer a threat, so shall we see super-heroic icon no longer have a pure, white male, and hopefully violent, image. What are comic books changing into? Looking at Japan, we see that manga are available for nearly everyone in their culture: old people, women, couples; and on a variety of subjects. Thus far, those which have been imported from Japan deal, not surprisingly, with superheroes and extremely masculine men. But even then, and with anime (Japanese animated movies), the acceptance of another culture is being sewn into comics' audience. With DC's new Vertigo line--one which prints the above mentioned Sandman and other mature audiences line--I expect to see more markets tested. As one editor from DC recently put it, "I gave Enigma #1 to some people here in the Warner Bros. offices, and an astonishingly large number of them loved it, despite their unfamiliarity with comics. Of course, they wouldn't have known about it in a million years, and that is my point." DC is encouraging their audience to recruit more readers so that more books can be created to challenge the medium. In a way, you could say that DC is investing in the future. Marvel Comics and its imitators are fighting for the highly competitive "superhero" comics with a disturbing focus on the anti-hero. Another disturbing feature of Marvel, which carries over to the entire field, is the "fanboy" syndrome: if a fan buys one Marvel Comic, he'll have to buy them all. The design teams are editorially forced to create crossovers: where one superhero "guest stars" in a different title. The fanboy--generally, they are all boys [note the effeminate label]-- must buy both books to get the entire story. This is like having Terminator show up in a Rambo movie and then telling the audience they will have to see another movie to see the end of the picture. Crossovers are a marketing technique that used to be for story-telling, but now they are a guaranteed marketing gimmick. John Byrne a writer/artist of some repute in he field states this about crossovers: "Have I noticed that Marvel and DC have been doing a lot of crossovers? Not to be too crude, but that's a bit like asking a woman who's been gang-raped if she's noticed she's been having more sex recently." (John Byrne's Next Men, #12) [Comics, as you can still see, still are definitely the domain of males.] But the analogy is close to the mentality of a corporation: a corporation doesn't care how its meets its desires, just that they are met. Uniquely, other gimmicks are used (even by Byrne) to ensure sales: polybagging (where the comic is enclosed in a plastic bag with other items like posters), trading cards and special gift certificates are available--providing you purchase the entire limited series. Rampant consumerism is hyped causing children who cannot afford all of the crossovers and limited specials to covet that which they cannot have or afford. I do not expect these gimmicks to fade any time soon. In fact, I expect them to increase to ridiculous proportions. The problem is entrepreneurial exploitation: creating fictitious needs and then providing the "solutions." A common phrase used is "Because you demanded it..." as if Marvel Comics Groupcreally ared about what the audience wanted--its more "Because you said you'd buy it..." Meeting the wants of your customers is good business, what bothers me is the masquerading of the desires as if they were doing the audience a favor. I expect the superhero to enter a crisis that parallels the social state of America: where controversial issues are used only as political clout or selling points without discussing the seriousness of the social problem... or providing possible solutions. The rise of the anti-hero is allowing much ugliness to be dredged from our societal subconciousness, but the creating anti-hero addicts is only widening the rift between the genders--even if it does seal the issues of race. Finally, the comics that I am looking forward to are comics like Watchmen, Brat Pack and Maximortal. These comics entertain the audience and craftily criticize the corporations. The design teams make direct analogies to corporate child exploitation and indicating there is more to comics than making money. And that is where a good story begins. Bibliography Books Allen, Robert C., ed. Channels of Discourse. University of North Carolina Press, 1987. Barrier, Michael and Williams, Martin. A Smithsonian Book of Comic- Book Comics. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1981. Hagan, Kay Leigh, ed. Women Respond to the Men's Movement. San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 1992. Inge, M. Thomas. Comics as Culture. University Press of Mississippi, 1990. Olalquiaga, Celeste. Megalopolis: Contemporary Cultural Sensibilities. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minneapolis Press, 1992. Solomon, Jack. The Signs of Our Time. 1988. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1990. Thompson, Don. The Comic-Book Book. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1973. Witek, Joseph, ed. Comic Books as History. University Press of Mississippi, 1989. Comics and Magazines Gates, David. "White Male Paranoia" Newsweek (March 29, 1993): 48- 54. John Byrne's Next Men. Dark Horse Comics. #12, February 1993. Newstime. DC Comics. #0, May 1993. Sandman. DC Comics/Vertigo. #49, May 1993. Robert Kelly [r--el--y] at [triton.unm.edu] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "How does this sound..? `Stop, or I'll stand very, very still for a surprisingly long time!'" the Secret Origin of Legion of Substitute Heroes