History of Superheroes Part 2: The Golden and Silver Ages of Comics

1940 saw Batman become the senior partner of the dynamic duo when Robin was introduced in issue 38 of Detective Comics. The Boy Wonder attracted a younger audience that until now had been largely untapped, and sales of the publication doubled. The Green Lantern and The Flash also made their debuts in 1940, and the following year saw Wonder Woman and Aquaman introduced.

While all of the superheroes mentioned were published by National Allied (which would eventually become DC Comics), other publishers also recognised the publics’ fascination with superheroes.

Timely Comics, which would later become Marvel, introduced The Human Torch (no relation to Fantastic Four version), Namor the sub-mariner, and Captain America. Although out of the three only Captain America is well known today, during this ‘golden age of comics’, sales of each issue consistently passed the one million mark.

However, by far the most popular comic book superhero of the time was Captain Marvel, who first appeared in Whiz Comics issue two in 1940, and was published by Fawcett Comics. Captain Marvel was to comics in the forties, as the Monkees were to music in the sixties. He was created solely to sell comic books.

Fawcett Comics circulation director Roscoe Kent Fawcett came up with an ingenious marketing ploy. At the time, Superman was the most popular comic book, but Fawcett (or someone working for him) recognised that the younger market – except for Robin – had no hero they could relate to. So he called in his staff, and demanded of them, “Give me a Superman, only have his other identity be a 10- or 12-year-old boy rather than a man”.

They came up with Captain Marvel. Or at least the third incarnation of the character created by Bill Parker in 1939, who began life as Captain Thunder, before becoming Captain Marvellous, and finally Captain Marvel.

Like Superman, Captain Marvel could fly, had super strength, and speed, and had an alter ego who worked for a newspaper. Unlike Clark Kent though, his secret identity was a 12 year old homeless boy named Billy Batson, who sold newspapers.

Captain Marvel was an instant success, and was soon the highest selling comic book in the United States. He was even outselling Superman, and at the peak of his popularity, approximately 1.4 million copies of each issue of Captain Marvel were sold.

Captain Marvel was the first ‘real’ superhero to appear on screen in 1941

Such was the public’s fascination in Captain Marvel, in 1941, a 12 part film serial was produced. Making him the first ‘real’ Superhero to appear on screen.

Hoping to take full advantage of the massive popularity of superheroes, publishers wanted more of them. Two of the more enduring characters created during this time were the Green Lantern, who made his debut in 1940, and the Green Arrow, who made his first appearance in More Fun Comics in 1941.

Towards the end of the 1940s, sales and interest in superhero comic books began to decline. However three superheroes did make their debuts on the big screen in that decade. Batman (1943), Captain America (1944), and Superman (1949), were all featured in film serials.

Then in 1952, Superman made his television debut in ‘The Adventures of Superman’, starring George Reeves as the Man of Steel. The television series ran for six seasons, the last three of which were filmed in colour.

The success of the series slowly rekindled the public’s interest in superhero comic books. In a bid to capitalise on this, DC’s Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino reimagined the Flash. Although perhaps a risk, it paid off. Sales of superhero comics increased quite dramatically, and this surge was the beginning of the ‘silver age of comics’, which would last throughout the 1960s, and into the early 1970s.

The 1960s began with the formation of the Justice League, who appeared for the first time in ‘The Brave and the Bold’ issue 28, in 1960. The ‘League’ brought together DC’s Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter, to battle the evil alien, ‘Starro’.

Although DC had previously introduced the Justice Society in 1944,  it was predominately a permanent band of minor heroes, which occasionally featured major superheroes such as the Flash and Green Lantern. The name was changed to the Justice League, and the minor heroes were replaced with DC’s major heroes. The concept was a resounding success.

In 1961, Atlas Comics, along with its subsidiaries merged, and formed Marvel Comics. Although Marvel’s first offering was a science fiction comic, the success of the Justice League prompted editor in chief Stan Lee to create the Fantastic Four in 1941. This began a hugely successful era for Marvel when the majority of their most iconic superheroes were created.

The team at Marvel, which included Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko introduced Spiderman and The Hulk in 1961. The following year saw the debuts of both Ironman and the X-men, as well as The Avengers (Marvels version of DC’s Justice League). The Avengers originally included Iron Man, Ant-Man, the Wasp, Thor, and the Hulk, with Captain America joining soon after. This was followed by the introduction of Daredevil in 1964, and the Silver Surfer in 1965.

With such a prolific output of iconic superheroes during this short period of time, it is no surprise the sixties are sometimes referred to as the ‘Marvel Age’, by comic historians.

Then in 1965 Lorenzo Semple Jr was approached by then ABC producer William Dozier, to help bring Batman to the small screen. Although television executives expected a gritty drama, Dozier and Semple Jr. gave them an outrageously camped up and comedic adaptation of the caped crusader.

The series premiered in 1966, and ran for three seasons, made up of 120 episodes. Such was its popularity, it aired twice weekly during the first two seasons.

Starring Adam West as Batman, and Burt Ward as Robin, the series also boasted a talented array of guest actors, who lined up to play the various villains on the show. Caesar Romero, Eartha Kitt, Burgess Merideth, Julie Newmar, Frank Gorshin and Vincent Price all starred as adversaries of the dynamic duo at different times.

The popularity of the television show was transferred to comic book sales, and by the end of the sixties, the superhero comic book industry was the healthiest it had been since the late 1930’s and early 1940s.

The Flash: Not as dark as Arrow but shows early promise

As a big fan of super hero movies and television, I was very much looking forward to the first episode of the Flash. Particularly given Arrow is one of my favourite shows, and this new version is a spin off, or at least heavily connected to that series.

As with Arrow, many of the elements and characteristics of the original comic book hero have been kept, although many are also adapted or even ignored to appeal to a more modern and mainstream audience.

As with the original comic book character Barry Allen (Grant Gustin), is a police scientist, or CSI investigator in this case, who is still a highly moral individual despite his history and profession. This was an important aspect of the character that had to be kept as it was central to who he was. In Justice #8 (2006), Batman says, “Barry is the kind of man that I would’ve hoped to become if my parents hadn’t been murdered.”

Like the original character Allen is also always late, however unlike the original Barry Allen this version is much younger, and is not married. He does however still reside in Central City.

Of course viewers of Arrow will already be somewhat familiar with this version of Barry Allen, as he was introduced to audiences in the second half of season two of that show. This was a good move by the producers, as it creates an existing connection between the character and the audience before the new show actually airs.

The series starts with a flashback from Allen’s past when his mother was apparently killed by some strange (electrical?) phenomenon. His father was jailed for the murder and remains in prison, although Barry believes him to be innocent and has been investigating the death on his own for many years. No doubt, this investigation will be a continuing theme throughout the series, or at least the early seasons.

The circumstances that transform Barry Allen into the Flash are again similar to the original comic book in that he is struck by lightning and doused by a mixture of chemicals. Although in this version a particle accelerator built by Star Labs triggered the storm when it blew up after being turned on for the first time. I suspect this too will play a major part further down the track.

Particularly given Allen awakes from a nine month coma in Star Labs (or at least what was left of it after the explosion), and that is where he discovers his new powers, and also how to use and control them. Star Labs and its owner Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh), also supply Allen with his suit. But is Wells helping Allen for purely altruistic reasons, or has he another agenda that will reveal itself it coming episodes?

Jesse L. Martin (Law and Order), plays Detective Joe West who helped raise Barry after his father was sent to prison and works alongside him. His daughter Iris West (Candice Patton), who of course was Allen’s wife in the comic book, is more like a sister in this series, although Allen wishes for more.

While it had its faults I really enjoyed the first episode of the Flash, and look forward to seeing the direction the show will take. The production values were high, which is to be expected as DC and Warner Bros. are behind the series, so the special effects were also of high quality. The acting was solid, and the script while not providing anything really new, did allow for some intriguing possibilities in the future.

If you’re a fan of super hero shows, and in particular Arrow, I highly recommend giving this series a go. While at this early stage I would not wish to compare the two, one thing that is obvious is the Flash will not be as dark as Arrow. Whether that’s a good thing or not, is entirely up to you. 7/10

History of Superheroes Part 1: The Early Years

THE FIRST SUPERHEROES

Although superheroes did not begin to appear in comics, nor the term actually phrased until the early twentieth century, superheroes can be found in literature throughout history. Many of the heroes of antiquity such as Hercules, Samson, Achilles and Perseus were endowed with powers that exceeded those of mortal men.

A superhero is defined as being a “fictional hero having extraordinary or superhuman powers”. Doesn’t this definition describe the four figures above, as much as it does Superman, Batman, Captain America or Spiderman?

Indeed the conception for many of today’s superheroes can be found in these heroes of the past. The most obvious of course being Thor – the Nordic god of thunder. There is also the Amazonian Wonder Woman, and the Flash, who shares many similarities to Mercury, the fastest of the Roman gods.

Be that as it may, the first superheroes, as we think of them today appeared in the early twentieth century. The Scarlet Pimpernel was perhaps the first, appearing in a 1903 play, then crossing over into literature, and eventually film. He popularised the notion of a masked avenger defending the innocent and powerless. A nobleman by day, the Scarlet Pimpernel would disguise his identity and audaciously rescue unfortunates who were destined for the guillotine.

Then in 1919, Zorro made his first appearance in “The Curse of Capistrano”, a five part serial featured in All Story Weekly, and in 1933 The Lone Ranger made his debut in a radio show broadcast by Detroit station WXYZ.

Listen to radio episodes of the Lone Ranger

However, probably the first superhero to appear in a comic strip was Mandrake the Magician. Created in 1934 by Lee Falk, Mandrake used his extraordinary powers of hypnosis to fight crime by rendering criminals impotent with terrifying illusions. He proved to be so popular, that Falk was asked to create another comic strip for the newspaper.

He initially presented the publishers with a comic strip based on the legendary English King, Arthur, which they quickly rejected. It was this rejection that led him to create The Phantom, who made his debut in February of 1936. Falk originally imagined that the Phantom would be the alter ego of rich playboy Jimmy Wells. However, his love of myths and legends led him to set the character in the fictional African country of Bengalla, where the mantle of the Phantom has been passed down from father to son for twenty generations. Although the Phantom in Falk’s strips is actually the 21st reincarnation of the crime fighter, the outside world believes there has ever been only one, so he is also known as the ‘ghost who walks’, and ‘the man who cannot die’.

It was not until the 1940’s that the Phantom started to appear in his own comic book, and continued to do so until 1995, when DC decided to end his run. However the Phantom still appears in newspaper comic strips around the world, almost 80 years after he made his debut.

SUPERMAN AND BATMAN

In early 1938 National Allied Publications were looking to publish their fourth comic book. They had released the highly successful Detective Comics the previous year, and co-owner Jack Liebowitz wanted to capitalise on that success with another similarly themed comic book.

Due to time restraints editor Vin Sullivan was having difficulty finding a lead feature for the new comic, so he turned to former co-worker Sheldon Mayer for help. Meyer came across a series of strips that had previously been rejected, and Sullivan agreed to use them as long as the creators – Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster – could paste the strips into a 13 page feature.

They were able to do so, and in April of 1938 the first issue of Action Comics was released to the American public. The comic was an anthology of eleven stories, and on its cover featured the title character of Siegel and Shuster’s lead story lifting a car above his head. This character was of course Superman.

National Allied released 200,000 copies of the first issue which were quickly sold out, although they failed at first to recognise that Superman was largely responsible. It was not long before Action Comics was selling in excess of a million copies a month, and in 1939 Superman was given his own stand-alone comic book.

Due to the overwhelming success of Superman, editors at National Allied began searching for new superheroes. In response Bob Kane came up with the idea of the Batman. Although credited for many years as the sole creator of Batman, in reality the character was actually very much a collaboration between Kane and another comic writer – Milton “Bill” Finger. Finger designed the costume, wrote many of the stories, gave Bruce Wayne and Gotham City their names, and created the Batmobile and Batcave.

Batman made his debut in Detective Comics issue 27, and was an instant success. That success has continued to this day. In the first quarter of 2014  Batman was the highest selling comic book in the US, and sales are sure to increase dramatically given the caped crusader celebrated his 75th birthday earlier this year.

With the introduction of Superman and Batman came what historians consider to be the ‘golden age of comics’. Lasting a little over a decade this was when comic books were at their most popular, and when some of the most famous and enduring superheroes were created.

The History of Superheroes continues in part 2: The Golden and Silver ages of comics.

ACTION COMICS #1

Download PDF version Action Comics #1