A Brief History of Superheroes by Robb Brian J

Author:Robb, Brian J.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472110701
Publisher: Constable & Robinson

PART 4: TURMOIL!

9

SUPERHEROES OR ANTI-HEROES?

Two key events marked the end of the Silver Age in 1970: Jack Kirby quit Marvel, sundering the partnership with Stan Lee that had resulted in a whole slew of successful new superheroes, and long-term DC editor Mort Weisinger retired after masterminding many of the original superheroes since starting at the company in 1941.

A new generation of storytellers was ready to take these now-venerable superheroes in new directions, or return them to their roots. This younger generation had grown up as comic book fans, so brought a return to the social awareness of the Thirties and Forties. This ‘Bronze Age’ stretches from 1970 to the mid-Eighties, when superheroes took a turn for the dark and serious. The origins of that revisionism sprang from the socially relevant Seventies.

The move towards modern social relevance had begun in the late-Sixties, as Stan Lee realized that Marvel’s new characters were a big hit on college campuses. Lee determined to reflect recent student activism in his most popular comic. The Amazing Spider-Man #68 (January 1969) depicted the webbed wonder swinging his way through a crowd of multi-cultural placard-brandishing students. ‘Crisis on Campus’ told how the Kingpin’s plot to steal an ancient tablet from Empire State University is thwarted by a sit-in by students. Spider-Man treads a middle ground, neither endorsing nor decrying the students, but the plot came from real demonstrations at Columbia University.

Also following wider real-world political developments was the Falcon, the first genuine mainstream African-American superhero (Black Panther, introduced three years previously, had been African by birth). Created by Lee and drawn by Gene Colan, the Falcon first appeared in Captain America #117 (September 1969). Colan recalled that ‘. . . [with the] Vietnam War and the Civil Rights protests, Stan [Lee] always wanted to be at the forefront of things . . . [He] started bringing these headlines into the comics’. Colan ensured characters he depicted, especially in Captain America, were of mixed ethnicity, and he claimed to have sold Lee on the idea of an African-American lead. A reformed gangster, the Falcon became Captain America’s right hand (although sidekick status brought criticism, he did step into Cap’s shoes for a while).

Within a couple of years, Luke Cage was headlining his own title: Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1 (June 1972). Created by writer Archie Goodwin and artists George Tuska and John Romita, Cage was a black youth jailed for a crime he didn’t commit. Offered early parole, Cage takes part in an experiment to create immunity that instead leaves him with skin hard as steel and impervious to bullets. Escaping prison, Cage becomes a freelance superhero. The suspicion remained that Luke Cage’s creation was less a desire to depict racial equality than to cash in on the then-prevalent ‘blaxploitation’ craze in movies. As kung fu movies became popular, Cage gained a kung fu sidekick named Iron Fist. Cage’s identity was further ‘mainstreamed’ when he adopted the title Power Man (the comic’s title changed in 1978 to Power Man and Iron Fist, giving his martial arts sidekick equal billing).

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