On the newsstands in May 1938, browsers had their choice of Tarzan in Comics on Parade, Popeye in King Comics, daredevil aviator Captain Desmo in New Adventure Comics or some caped guy smashing a sedan in the new Action Comics.
Readers who opened the magazine met Superman in medias res, running through the night with a bound-and-gagged woman under his arm. That’s because the story was rearranged from a long-unsold newspaper strip by Superman’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
The Man of Tomorrow was racing to deliver evidence that would secure the governor’s pardon for an innocent prisoner on death row.
In the hardscrabble Depression era, this giant of a man was looking out for the little people — the battered wives, the victims of lynch mobs, the abused orphans and prisoners, the citizens betrayed by Washington politicians.
“He stood up for the underdog, the little guy/gal, the downtrodden,” recalled comics historian Johnny Williams. “He was the ‘anti-bully.””
As writer Tom De Haven noted, “When Jerry Siegel wrote every story, Superman functioned as a freelance do-gooder with the demeanor and gumption of a laughing caballero, a rabble-rouser devoted to ameliorating social ills...”
“Whatever he does, he does philanthropically, often for just one poor soul in despair (having been swindled, wrongfully jailed or driven by the powerful to the brink of suicide) but always, too, for the common good. He accepts no reward, modestly waves off any applause.”
Clark Kent wasn’t “virtue signaling,” He was virtuous, in an era when the values of decency and honesty were repaid with poverty and anxiety.
As writer Mark Waid observed, Superman was “…as close as contemporary Western culture has yet come to envisioning a champion who is the epitome of unselfishness.”
Bob Doncaster wrote: Too bad this character never took off. Sounds pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteToo rough and tumble, like that awful Mickey Mouse. Seriously, all of these things really impressed me when I first read a reprint of Action #1 as a boy. ;)
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