The Relationship Between Superheroes and American History
During 1929 to 1933, the American Great Depression not only led to the Keynesian economics, the rise of Dictator Adolf Hitler and the outbreak of World War II, but also a huge number of heroes which have extremely strong power. It was a dark age of America, people lost their jobs and starved; they were also under the terror of the war. However, the light of salvation from the comic world shined and gave people hope in the darkness.
Super heroes were always created to reflect the society and people’s dream. On June 1932, a man called Mitchell Siegel was working in his shop. Mr. Siegel was exiled from Lithuania to American as an immigrant. He was discriminated by the people both in Europe and the American because of his Jewish identity. He gave up his dream of being a painter and opened a clothing store in order to support his family. In one day afternoon, three men walked into the store and grabbed a suit without paying: It was the worst time under the Great Depression. Mr. Siegel wanted to stop them, but he died from heart attack because of the excitement and fear. Mr. Siegel’s death shocked his youngest son, Jerry Siegel, and he created the first superhero in the world with his friend Joe Shuster in few years later---------Superman. (DC Comics, 2016)
They created the background for Superman based on their own experience: an infant from a collapsing planet that was sent to the Earth by his parent which died during the collapsing. When Superman grew up, he started to become the representative of Justice and fight with crimes to protect the society. Additionally, they gave superman another identity as a normal reporter of newspaper. (Marvel Comics, 2001) This kind of “Double identity” represented the dream of some geeks which were physically weak but wanted to be powerful and protect the world. In this way, the cartoon itself fitted self-consolation psychology of normal citizens at that time.
Therefore, Superman became extremely popular among the readers and the top star in comic industry. More and more heroes came out. The “Golden Age” of American comics started.
The Batman was created during the Golden Age; he was completely different from Superman: The Batman had no superpower and the ability of flying. He gained his power by practicing and combating outfits. Also, unlike Superman, Batman got injured frequently but he always learnt from it and challenged himself. Batman and Superman represent two different tracks: one by super power, and one by outfits. They reflect two ideas from people of solving problems at that time: To weed out everything with great power or to reinforce the law to punish social injustice as a long ranger. However, such ideal thinking could only exist within comics. After being the president, “Roosevelt announced the implement of the New Deal to promote financial reform, suppress the oligarchy and offer more jobs for Americans in order to stop the Great depression.” (Britannica, 2005) Although Roosevelt succeeded, his plans were fully rejected by lots of people because they thought Roosevelt was too arbitrary which was really similar to the Batman: Having their own justice and cannot be accepted by majors.
“On the other hand, the high unemployment in 1930 and the restriction on children labor in the New Deal made more juveniles available for low cost entertainment, same as the soaring of the movie industry during the Great Depression.”(thecomicbooks, 2010) Therefore, comic companies tailored their products based on the taste of young people. For example Batman got a helper called Robin, where the atmosphere was getting more relaxing from terror. With emerging young assistant in the heroic stories, many juvenile heroes came out. So, the strong, brave, and righteous image of a superhero was then deeply influenced everyone. “Batman was the first character that offered me an unprejudiced perspective toward the world.” (Dennis O’Neil, 1940)
At the rise of the superhero comics, the crisis of World War II was hanging above people. At that time, most of the cartoonists, including Sigel, Schuster, Kane and Stan Lee, were all Jews. They could empathize the suffering of their compatriot in Europe. Although at the beginning of the World War II American did not join in the war, they also made their heroes to attack the war maniacs. At beginning, the authors did not directly refer to Hitler, Hideki Tojo or Mussolini to avoid being caught, yet there were more and more dictators who wanted to rule the world, insidious spies and Japanese kidnapper under their pens. Moreover, Sigel and Shuster were invited by “Look Magazine” for a short story called “How superman ended the war”. They let Superman catch and beat Hitler directly: “I will land a strictly non-Aryan sock on your face!” (Sigel and Shuster, 1941) Then, Superman took him to the League of Nation for justice.