The Secret Identity of Race: Exploring Ethnic and Racial Portrayals in Superhero Comic Books

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The Secret Identity of Race: Exploring Ethnic and Racial Portrayals The Secret Identity of Race: Exploring Ethnic and Racial Portrayals

in Superhero Comic Books in Superhero Comic Books

Lowery Anderson Woodall III

University of Southern Mississippi

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The University of Southern Mississippi

THE SECRET IDENTITY OF RACE: EXPLORING ETHNIC AND RACIAL

PORTRAYALS

IN SUPERHERO COMIC BOOKS

Lowery Anderson Woodall, III

Abstract of a Dissertation

Submitted to the Graduate School

of the University of Southern Mississippi

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

December 2010

ABSTRACT

THE SECRET IDENTITY OF RACE: EXPLORING ETHNIC AND RACIAL

PORTRAYALS IN SUPERHERO COMIC BOOKS

by Lowery Anderson Woodall, III

December 2010

Does race exist in comics? And if so, what do those characters tell us about how

one of the largest fiction producing industries in the country has explained minority

relationships to its millions of readers? This study took a close look at three of the most

successful comic book characters of all time (Batman, Superman, and The Black Panther)

and examines how each exemplifies a position that the comic book industry has taken on

race over the years. Using a counter-narrative analysis informed by the strategies of

Critical Race Theory and post-modernist thought, the racial messages lying beneath the

surface in the each of these character’s worlds was uncovered. The study took the

provocative position that race is discussed in the most vivid and worthwhile terms by

characters that are not openly ethnic. The dissertation provides three models of racialized

behavior employed by comic book publishers to introduce race and ethnicity into their

storylines. Hopefully, this study will act as a first step in shining a critical light on a

section of the industry that has thus far been woefully ignored by many critics and

scholars.

LOWERY ANDERSON WOODALL, III

2010

The University of Southern Mississippi

THE SECRET IDENTITY OF RACE: EXPLORING ETHNIC AND RACIAL

PORTRAYALS IN SUPERHERO COMIC BOOKS

Lowery Anderson Woodall III

A Dissertation

Submitted to the Graduate School

of The University of Southern Mississippi

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Approved:

___Dr. Christopher Campbell_________

Director

______Dr. Andrew P. Haley__________

________Dr. Fei Xue_______________

____Dr. Kimberly LeDuff___________

____Dr. David R. Davies____________

_____Dr. Susan A. Siltanen____________

Dean of the Graduate School

December 2010

iii

DEDICATION

This work is dedicated to my wife, Dana, for her constant love and support

throughout this process.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to acknowledge the contributions of the following individuals

without whose help this dissertation could not have been possible: Dr. Chris Campbell,

Dr. Andrew Haley, Dr. David R. Davies, Dr. Fei Xue and Dr. Kim LeDuff.I would like to

add a special thanks to my friends and family who have been so supportive throughout

this process.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………ii

DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………………iv

CHAPTER

I. INTRODUCTION: EVERY GOOD HERO NEEDS AN ORIGIN

STORY…………………………………………………………………………………... 1

Introduction

Hypotheses

Theoretical Foundation

Methodology

Dissertation Outline

Comic Book Readership

II. BACK ISSUES: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE COMIC BOOK IN AMERICAN

CULTURE……………………………………………………………………………… 36

Origin Stories: Before There Were Heroes

The Classic View of Race and Ethnicity in Comics

III. LEARNING TO FLY: THE PEDAGOGY OF ETHNICITY IN

SUPERMAN……………………………………………………………………………. 68

Creating Superman

Superman in the 1940s

Superman in the 1950s

Superman in the 1960s

Superman in the 1970s

Superman in the 1980s

Superman in the 1990s

Superman in the New Millennium

IV. DARK IS THE KNIGHT: RACIAL CODING OF THE CAPED

CRUSADER…………………………………………………………………………... 102

Batman’s Split Personality

Developing a Narrative Perspective: Bob Kane’s Early Life

What Makes a Man Become a Bat?: Bruce Wayne’s Narrative Motivation

Batman in the 1940s

Batman in the 1950s

Batman in the 1960s

Batman in the 1970s

Batman in the 1980s

Batman in the 1990s

Batman in the New Millennium

V. PANTHER’S PRIDE: EXAMINING THE DEATH OF THE BLACK SUPERHERO

IN AMERICAN COMIC BOOKS …………………………………………………… 150

Determining Blackness: Early Definitions of Race

The Birth of the Black Panther: Early Publication History

Defining Blackness: What it Meant to be a Black Panther

The Black Panther in the 1960s

The Black Panther in the 1970s

The Black Panther in the 1990s

The Black Panther in the New Millennium

VI. CONCLUSION: UNTIL NEXT TIME…………………………………………... 199

Significance of Research

Limitations

Suggestions for Future Research

BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………… 207

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION: EVERY GOOD HERO NEEDS AN ORIGIN STORY

Introduction

In April of 1970, the creative team of writer Denny O’Neil and artist Neal Adams

helped usher in the dawning of the Golden Age of American comic books with their

collaboration on Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76.

Adams had previously helped

revitalize interest in Marvel superhero series such as the X-Men and a short, but popular

run of Avengers comics. O’Neil is largely credited with lifting the Batman series out of

its campy 1960s quagmire, reacquainting the Dark Knight with his more macabre

sensibilities. But, the Green Lantern/Green Arrow team-up represents the most complete

expression of the comic book creators’ desire to tread into more socially conscious

waters.

Like their previous ventures, DC called O’Neil and Adams in to breathe life back

into a series that was very close to being pulled from shelves for lack of sales. The duo

began their transformation by stripping Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow of his trust fund

wealth. An embittered Queen began to view the world much differently in his poverty

stricken state. Slowly his eyes were opened to the deep-seeded sufferings of the working-

class. He no longer merely saved an old woman from a mugging and considered his

heroly duties complete. He bemoaned his inability to keep that same woman from having

to return home that night to tenement housing. The Green Arrow became O’Neil and

Adams organ by which to call into question the usefulness of a superhero whose powers

The Golden Age of comics in America runs from roughly 1970 to 1980 and is typified by a push towards

more gritty storylines that did not shy away from the social upheavals occurring in the real-world

environments that these superheroes inhabited.

cannot eradicate drug addiction, prejudice, and social inequity as easily as a Soviet

missile or an errant asteroid.

Queen’s ideological antithesis in these often heavy handed debates took the form

of Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern. Unlike Queen, Jordan was forced to split much of his

time defending Earth and a host of other intergalactic arenas beset with threats of war and

famine. Jordan was further removed from his connection to humanity through his

allegiance to The Guardians, the mythical council of immortals who bequeathed him the

powers of the Green Lantern in the first place. These celestial quasi-deities demanded an

un-flapping and unquestioning devotion to their methods of justice. O’Neil and Adams

used this religious deference for the instruction of the Guardians as the springboard for

quarrels between Arrow and Lantern that reshaped the framework within which the

American comic superhero was to be cast, at least temporarily.

Issue #76 introduces this new dynamic when Jordan begins defending the

landlord of a broken-down, inner-city apartment complex who complains that his tenants

have refused to pay their rent and are now considered squatters. Jordan arrives to assist in

shaking the dead-beat residents down for the past due rent or otherwise evict them for

breaking the law. He is flabbergasted, however, when his presence is greeted by a hail of

refuse streaming down from the windows of the occupied apartments. Before Jordan can

retaliate against what he considers the actions of “animals…[and]…anarchists” though,

Queen interjects himself into the fray accusing the Green Lantern of being out of touch

with the concerns of the disenfranchised.

Denny O’Neil and Neil Adams, “No Evil Shall Escape My Sight,” in Green Lantern/Green Arrow, April

1970, DC Comics, New York, NY, 4.

Queen proceeds to guide Jordan along a tour of the housing complex and its

inhabitants. He points out an old woman who had depended on the petty thefts of her

grandson to help make ends meet. Still defensive of his rigid interpretation of justice,

Jordan’s faith is shaken by an encounter with a homeless African American as he exits

the apartments. The unnamed black man hobbles up to the crusader and presents him

with the following moral dilemma: “I been reading about you…How you work for the

blue skins…and how on a planet somewhere you helped out the orange skins…and you

done a considerable [amount of] good for the purple skins! Only there’s skins you never

bothered with…!...The black skins! I want to know how come?!”

Jordan shrinks from this critique stammering “I…can’t.”

This confrontation thus

sets into motion the social responsibility allegory which threads through the remainder of

the series’ run. Arrow and Lantern dedicate themselves to traveling cross-country to

uncover the various maladies that threaten to delimit the American dream for those

operating outside of the privileged classes.

Although the Adams/O’Neil run of the Green Lantern series was well received by

critics netting the pair a Shazam Award for best Individual Story in 1970 and 71, sales of

the comic remained timid. When Adams and O’Neil took over the comic in early 1970

the monthly sales figures for superhero titles totaled roughly 2,167,000. By the time DC

pulled the plug on the series altogether in 1972 sales had dropped to a low of 1,565,000

units.

The experiment in social consciousness was considered a failure at least for the

Green Lantern comic.

Ibid, 6.

Jonathan Hoyle, DC Monthly Sales Figures 1967-1987, reposted on the Comic Book Resource Forums

website by Rob Allen, July 20, 2007. It should be noted when consulting these figures that at this time DC

Critics of the comic book industry would attribute this disappointing return on

investment to a fundamental breach in comic book etiquette: comic book readers are not

interested in hearing stories about Otherness. For years these commentators have cast

blame on a close-minded audience unwilling to hold the hand of the conscientious

publisher ushering them along a path of egalitarianism. These critics, like Marvel’s Roy

Thomas, insist “it [is] hard to get whites to buy comics in which the main character is [a

minority].”

Others insist authors like O’Neil and Adams are at fault for the poor handling of

race and ethnic issues in comics. They argue that these authors find themselves tethered

to a litany of cultural teachings, perhaps the over compensation of social reformist logic,

that drown their (often) good intentions in cumbersome waves of euphemism and

anachronism.

This debate forms the foundation for the discussion presented in the present text.

Why have texts centered on open depictions of racial Otherness so often been met with

defeat on comic book stands? There may well be some truth to the argument presented

above that traditionally white writing staffs come off as ham fisted when attempting to

champion messages of tolerance through openly ethnic characters. And there are

undoubtedly some comic readers who hold racist views, just as there are surely some

golfers who join country clubs because they see them as bastions of segregation in an

evolving world. But proponents of these explanations are oblivious to a basic truth of the

comic book industry: race and ethnicity have always been a defining factor of comic

did not publish sales figures for individual comic tiles. Instead, the numbers reported here reflect what were

referred to as the Red Group of comics which included Green Lantern as well as Superman, Plastic Man

and the remnants of the Jungle Comics series.

Bradford Wright, Comic Book Nation (Baltimore, MD, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), 250.

Ibid, 249.

book storytelling, particularly for the superhero genre. I would suggest that the efforts of

men like Adams and O’Neil failed mostly because they sought too virulently to fill a gap

in comic’s social conscience that had been occupied since at least the 1930s with the birth

of the last son of Krypton.

This dissertation offers up a new view on the evolution of racial and ethnic

imagery in comics. The picture it paints is a comic landscape rife, not just with racially

Other characters, but heroes that have spent their entire commercial lives striving for,

inculcating and accepting Otherness within themselves. The issue has never been one of

the comic audience en masse turning away from titles in droves because they actively

rejected Otherness as a basis for comic content. Rather, too many authors, artists,

publishers, and critics have underestimated the capacity of readers for deciphering latent

messages. Any avid reader of Superman comics will not hesitate to identify him as an

alien. Batman readers could easily recite the tragic origin story of Bruce Wayne that left

him an orphan. But these background tales expose more than simply what possessed the

hero to don a costume and protect humanity. They speak to an isolationist rhetoric; a

sense of anomie which readers have doubtless become aware of (even if not consciously)

over the years has left their ethnic identities almost as malleable as their secret ones. They

cannot only slip out of their street clothes and into capes and spandex suits. They can step

into a phone booth as WASPS and emerge minutes later as any number of racial selves.

Very little scholarly research has been dedicated to a through examination of the

individual costumed heroes that have been idolized by nearly three generations of

Americans. Instead, academic inquiry into the social effects of comic books has tended

towards a more holistic expression of their legitimacy as an art form.

And while these were undoubtedly worthwhile scholarly endeavors, they have

nevertheless left a significant gap in the extant literature on the subject. By instead

focusing my attention on three of the most enduring super hero characters of the 20

century, by following their arcs across the space of several decades, the researcher was

able to create a tapestry of the true face of Otherness in comic books. These character

studies reveal the three models of racial identity summoned up by the modern American

comic book: The Other who desperately wants to be white (as represented by Superman),

the person of privileged white decent who wishes he were an Other (as represented by

Batman) and the Other who has finally become comfortable in his own skin (as

represented by The Black Panther).

In elucidating the racial and ethnic Otherness of these characters that has lain

dormant in the scholarly literature on the subject for so long, this dissertation promotes a

bold revision of academic understanding on the role of comic books in American society.

It is thus worth some effort to re-examine the classic view of comics’ scholars on the

issue of race. Sadly, very little extant literature exists on this subject. Unlike similar

studies in the areas of television, film or print, comic books have been woefully under

researched in matters of Otherness. For too long scholars have painted race relations in

comic books as one of the medium’s most lingering faults. They claim that racial politics

in comics are sophomoric and regressive.

In the following pages the researcher utilized a counter narrative analysis to show

that this view is inaccurate and incurious. By closely examining the extra-textual

meanings and interpretations associated with some of the most popular comic story arcs

of the last sixty years, this dissertation provides a new outlook on the portrayals of race.

For the first time the strategies of Critical Race Theory will be applied to one of the

fastest growing mass media phenomenons in the United States. This study illustrates that

long before television or films were creating meaningful roles for minority characters, the

comic book industry provided a powerful outlet of expression for diverse viewpoints.

That these radical narrative firsts have gone ignored is a byproduct of their implicit

placement in the panels and the lack of critical attention paid to this area of print fiction.

As it turns out, the most successful integrations of race into comics have come from

characters that did not openly appear to be promoting minority values. It is theorized that

such an approach allowed the writers and artists to explore vital racial issues without the

intense scrutiny that came with developing openly ethnic characters. By laying out the

three main ways in which racial otherness was framed by the two most prominent

publishers in the comics industry, a springboard for more detailed and critical analyses of

comics within the academic field is provided.

Hypotheses

Comic books have traditionally not been seen as a friendly milieu for discussion

of racial otherness. This stemmed from the prevailing belief that many of the stereotypes

that have conspired to oppress minorities are a staple of the super hero comic book

formula. While the researcher does not deny that like every mass medium, comics have

racial skeletons in their closet, affixing the racist motivations of a few writers and artists

onto the entire genre is an unacceptable simplification of the industry. The first

hypothesis holds that:

H1: Compelling evidence exists that the super hero genre represents a much more

diverse and malleable appraisal of the racial condition in America than it has previously

been given credit for in scholarly literature.

The underlying theme of hypothesis number one is therefore adaptability. That is,

the institutional structure of the comic book industry has allowed for much more efficient

implementation of ideological shifts designed to more accurately reflect the values of its

readership. This logic leads to the formation of hypothesis number two:

H2: In many cases, super hero comics have augmented their depictions of race

relations much more quickly then competing media (i.e., film and television). As a result,

the comic book industry has often been more progressive than these media in racial

portrayals.

This diversity that is alluded to needs explication to be properly implemented,

however. We must uncover a common vocabulary for how to best define the parameters

that racial otherness can assume in textual form. Looking back to the work of Ellis Cose,

we find the first definition. He described the elements of black culture that has made

elements of blackness (if not the physical form itself) so desirable among white males:

“We set the standard for style and make concrete the meaning of cool. White men in

boardrooms envy [us]…White kids in the suburbs want to talk like us, want to walk like

us, want to dress like us.”

Thus the first condition of racial otherness that could be

expressed in popular media is the White or Dominant who wants to be an “Other.”

The black studies scholar Frantz Fanon develops an equally interesting theory that

supposes many black men would wish to be white. He bases his discussion on the work

Ellis Cose, The Envy of the World: On Being Black in America (New York: Washington Square Press,

2002), 6.

of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and his theory of dialectics. Fanon insists that the goal

of any race is recognition. In this case, recognition is meant to mean full citizenship. As

Fanon explains: “Man is human only to the extent to which he tries to impose himself on

another man in order to be recognized by him.”

A cross-racial envy is then established

between blacks and whites in the black man’s “struggle” to be accepted as a full and

worthwhile human being.

The distinction is an important one, for just as Cose stated

with regard to the previous principle, this is not a case of black men wanting to be white

men. Instead, it is a case of black men wanting to adorn the sociological accouterments of

white men to be welcomed into the larger society. We can state the principle as “Others”

who want to be White.

The final principle is perhaps the oldest as well. As authors Paul M. Sniderman

and Thomas Leonard Piazza explain, “the importance of black racial solidarity has been

recognized since systematic research on the political beliefs of black Americans first got

underway.”

They classify several philosophical arenas that work in concert to establish

the full nature of black pride in an individual (shared fate, desire for autonomy, etc.).

These will be analyzed in more detail in a later chapter. For now, it is enough to say that

the work of these researchers and countless others like them can corroborate the last

principle stating that there are “Others” who are content in their “Otherness.” Taking

each of these three principles into account the final hypothesis is rendered:

Frantz Fanon, Black Skins, White Masks (New York: Grove Press, 1952), 191.

Ibid, 191.

Paul M. Sniderman and Thomas Leonard Piazza, Black Pride and Black Prejudice (Princeton, NJ:

Princeton University Press, 2002), 11.

H3: Super hero comic books explore the full triadic spectrum of racial

relationships, each being highlighted by specific characters in the larger universes the

writers have created. These are

1. The White who wants to be an “Other” – Batman

2. The “Other” who wants to be White – Superman

3. “The Other” who is content in his/her “Otherness” – The Black Panther

Each chapter of this dissertation explores how a single character in either the DC

or Marvel universe represented one of these three ideologies. By examining them

individually we are better able to understand the complexity held within each model. We

are better able to see how and why certain models work remarkably well while others fail

commercially. The conclusion then allows us to draw correlations between the three

possibilities and create a reasonable framework that could be adopted by comic book

publishers in the future to ensure that more racial diversity is accorded to their titles.

Theoretical Foundation

This study incorporates two related strands of research. Most obviously, the

researcher was concerned with representations of Otherness in media. This topic has been

tackled by several prominent black scholars including Bell Hooks and Carol Miller

Swain. More specifically, this text uses Critical Race Theory (Heretofore referred to as

CRT) to explain the “economics, history, context,…[and] unconscious” strategies that

lead to the creation of racially charged messages in comics.

This relatively new disciple

in the world of race studies seems the best approach for studying the topic of “how

Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (New York: New York

University Press, 2001), 3.

society organizes itself along racial lines and hierarchies” in a highly unconventional

medium.

A second and much older tradition has also found its way into my study. The

science of hermeneutics or “‘message analysis’ or ‘things for interpreting’” has existed

since the time of the Greeks although its modern usage has perhaps been perfected by

Jacques Derrida.

The importance of interpretation to this study cannot be overstated. In

many cases I am exposing, or to phrase the process in a more traditionally hemeneutical

fashion, deconstructing the messages woven into these panels. Not unlike theorists who

have applied this method to litigious texts, I find myself “ferret[ing] out” the conscious

and sub-conscious interpretations lent to the racial debate by the many artists, writers and

editors who produced these pop culture snap shots of life in America.

A more modern sister theory to the hermeneutic backbone of this research can be

found in counter narratives. A relatively new practice in the realms of historical and

rhetoric research, this area of scholarship concerns itself with uncovering the “positional”

placement of the “dominant [with the] resistant.”

This strain of scholarship asks many

of the questions that are at the heart of understanding how implicit material might be

received by audiences and developed by producers. Among the questions counter

narration helps to answer are: “how [do] speakers position themselves in the tales they

tell,…What can we reasonably expect an anticipated other to be able to hear and what

claims might we adjust in their presence?”

Ibis, 3.

Nick Szabo, Hermeneutics: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Tradition, accessed on March 3,

2010, lwww.szabo.best.vwh.net/hermeneutics.html.

Ibid.

Michael G. W. Bamberg and Molly Andrews, Considering Counter Narratives: Narrating, Resisting,

Making Sense (Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Co., 2004), x.

Ibid, x.

Interestingly, few of these theories have been used to explore popular culture

content. Some like hermeneutics and CRT have traditionally been the province of

understanding both ancient and modern law respectively. Counter narration is being

applied by academics in various fields when collecting data (as in the case of oral

histories) and in the reportage of that data. But many of these theories openly admit that

they are highly malleable. Counter narrative theorists, for instance, concede that “the vast

potential [for its expansion] is only just being realized.”

Meanwhile, CRT practitioners

can be found in fields as diverse as “education…political [science]…ethnic

studies…[and] American studies.”

Hopefully, this study will provide a new avenue for

furthering the usefulness of such emerging research. What follows will be more detailed

explanations of how each of these disciplines add a layer of theoretical support for the

present study.

There have been a host of valuable scholars who have pointed out the continued

presence of racialized thought especially amongst white males well into the 21

Century.

While these depictions of blackness may not be infused with the naked racism of their

forefathers, they exploit the very real potential for extra-textual readings. Perhaps the

most important aspect of this tradition as it relates to the current study is how diverse the

mediums through which these images may appear can be. Bell Hooks, one of the

preeminent scholars in the field of race and gender studies, discusses this very issue. She

recounts a story of walking into a restaurant with several white colleagues. The restaurant

was prominently featuring “a row of gigantic chocolate breasts complete with nipples.”

While many of her friends saw the dessert as harmless, even absurd in its allusions to

Ibid, x.

Delgado and Stefanic, Critical Race Theory, 3.

Bell Hooks, Black Looks: Race and Representation ( Boston, MA: South End Press, 1992), 61.

sexuality the message was received much differently by Dr. Hooks. She noted in them “a

sign of displaced longing for a racist past when the bodies of black women were

commodity, available to anyone white who could pay the price.”

This interpretation highlights not only the inescapable nature of racial elements to

our cultural products, it introduces the apparatus of counter narration into the everyday

lives of black individuals. There are clearly two messages being sent simultaneously with

these breasts. What Hooks is able to produce in her reading is an intriguing question I

hope to tackle in the world of comics: Was one of these the explicit and the other the

implicit message of the text, or were both equally intentional? If for a moment we

consider the messages as wavelengths – is it possible that these extra layers are always

present but go undetected by whites merely because their cultural radars have not been as

finely attuned to the signals being emitted from the texts?

Nor is such fetishization limited to edible texts. Hooks points to dancer Josephine

Baker as another example of dual messages. Baker’s insistence on emphasizing her butt

in many of her routines made “the erotic gaze of a nation move…downward.”

There is

more than a new wrinkle in the repertoire of dance steps being exploited here. This is the

opening of a new philosophical debate on the worth of the black female form for Hooks.

Tina Turner is yet another example of this type of imagery. Hooks explains that Ike

Turner deliberately developed the on-stage persona of Tina “as wild sexual savage…from

the impact of a white patriarchal controlled media shaping his perceptions of reality.”

Nor is this condition exclusive to black female identities. Hooks explains that the

dominant culture perpetuates a vision of black masculinity that “constructs black men as

Ibid, 62.

Ibid, 63.

Ibid, 67.

‘failures’ who are psychologically ‘fucked up,’ dangerous, violent, sex maniacs whose

insanity is informed by their inability to fulfill their phallocentric masculine destiny.”

Hollywood has certainly assisted in the standardization of this phenomenon. It may well

be that in attempting to paint a more culturally sensitive picture of the historical negro,

many studios accidently created limitations on the kind of man a black male child could

reasonably be expected to grow up to emulate. In Harlem Nights for instance, Hooks

notes that the “black men do not appear as cowards unable to confront racist white males

but are re-inscribed as tough, violent; they talk shit and take none.”

A similar situation

persists in Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues where she charges that the hero is consumed by

a “phallocentrism…[that] has blocked his ability to develop a mature adult identity.”

Once again, white produced images have contained multiple levels of messages. In this

case, they are so intricate that the phallocentric argument may only have been

immediately apparent to most male viewers even within the black race.

Hooks further sees the successes of the African American community as an

opening exploited by white society to indoctrinate a patriarchal, even white supremacist

view of the United States onto black culture. She explains how the change in affordability

of access created a more powerful if not quite so palpable racism: “With the television

on, whites were and are always with us, their voices, values and beliefs echoing in our

brains.”

Essentially, as media has become a more ubiquitous part of the American way

of life, regardless of socio-economic barriers, the value system that it espouses has dulled

the senses of a black populace.

Ibid, 89.

Ibid, 104.

Ibid, 105.

Bell Hooks, Killing Rage: Ending Racism (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1995), 110.

Carol Miller Swain warns that a new and potent set of white nationalists presents

a unique challenge to further growth in the equal representation of minorities in media.

She warns that “when not counterbalanced by a more inclusive moral vision, [this type of

energy] has proven itself to be a thoroughly pernicious force in modern politics.”

disturbing as this vision of renewed white radicalism might be, Albert Memmi fears such

lobbying may not be necessary. After viewing Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, he too

agonized over that controversial trashcan thrown through the pizzeria window. Unlike

Lee, he was not torn over white America’s refusal to see Mookie as a complete and

worthwhile human being. He feared instead that Mookie was the personification of a new

era of “dolorism” among the African American community.

Dolorism is the condition

of “exaggerat[ing] one’s pains and attribut[ing] them to another” which Memmi claims

the black community has been taught to do when they encounter resistance to upward

mobility.

He worries that the “tyrant” of the patriarchal culture in America has

convinced young blacks that there is futility in fighting the system.

He worries that a

flood of television, film and print images have stripped the oppressed of their sense of

hope. He warns that these images are “careful[ly] promote[d] distractions” that minorities

must keep constant vigil against if they are to overcome its numbing effects.

These

authors are not alone. There are numerous others who have devoted their professional

selves to elucidating the negative perceptions of minorities of all kinds through popular

culture iconography. This dissertation extends that conversation in new and controversial

Carol Miller Swain and Russel Neili, Contemporary Voices of White Nationalism in America (

Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2003), viii.

Albert Memmi, Decolonization and the Decolonized (Gallimard ,Paris: The University of Minnesota

Press, 2006), 19.

Ibid, 19.

ways into the realm of comic books which have so far been woefully underappreciated by

critics and scholars of mass media.

Specifically, this study bases its findings in the CRT scholarship of Derrick Bell,

Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic. These researchers helped form the movement after

they became disheartened over the lack of change brought about by civil rights

legislation. In their primer on CRT, they claim that these legal victories “had stalled and

in many respects, were being rolled back.”

In their most controversial assertion, Derrick

Bell wrote an article published in the Harvard Law Review that claimed white elites had

allowed Brown v. Board of Education to be judged in favor of desegregation in an effort

to improve the position of whites in the eyes of international allies. Bell determined that

the Supreme Court had been under considerable pressure to help shift “the loyalties of the

uncommitted Third World, much of which was black, brown, or Asian.”

Although much of what has been written about CRT has been related to the

equality of law, many of its guiding principles revolve around the meticulous, often

alternative interpretation of texts which could easily be applied as theoretical support for

a more representational narrative. Their social construction of race theory, for example

“holds that race and races are products of social thought and relation…categories that

society invents, manipulates, or retires when convenient.”

The larger issue here is

whether or not race and ethnicity are performable. Can someone don a racial identity the

way they don a cape or a mask? Much of what follows in the chapters this study has

dedicated to individual super heroes operates on the premise that multiple racial/ethnic

selves can exist simultaneously in the same person.

Delgado and Stefancic, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, 4.

Ibid, 19.

Ibid, 7.

Closely related to this principle is the tenant of “intersectionality” which states

that “no person has a simple, easily stated, unitary identity.”

Critical Race scholars see

this phenomenon as one of the most vexing dilemmas faced by those who wish to

understand how best to judge a person’s reaction to a given situation (be they judges,

attorneys, or researchers). The problem is incurred by the fact that “these [individuals]

exist at an intersection of recognized sites of oppression.”

Is hate speech hurled at a

black woman walking down the street because she is black or because she is a woman?

This “multiple coconsciousness” illuminates the various social roles we all play from day

to day in our lives. Just like law makers, superheroes are placed in a highly stressed

negotiation of these competing selves on a routine basis. Much of this dissertation is

about uncovering how they deal with some of that intersectionality.

So how do we go about this process of identifying the various parts that make up

this intersectionality? The authors suggest a two-part model. We must first concentrate on

a “revisionist history” of the documents we encounter for as they so correctly point out,

“majoritarian interpretation” has “sometimes suppressed [these voices] in [the] very

record.”

We must encourage the reading of counter narratives attempting to anticipate

for the divergent set of “experiences” brought to bear on the text by both its authors and

its readership.

Critical Race theorists see this process as desirable, even noble. They

contend that “attacking embedded preconceptions that marginalize others or conceal their

humanity is a legitimate function of all fiction” and that counter narration provides one of

Ibid, 9.

Ibid, 51.

Ibid, 20.

Ibid, 41.

the most attractive opportunities to “challenge, displace or mock these pernicious

narrative and beliefs.”

We have previously established that hermeneutics is the science of interpretation

through text. But, we have not tackled one of the fundamental questions surrounding the

field which is, “why hermeneutics has a privileged relation to questions of language.”

Author Paul Ricoeur answers that hermeneutics is especially interested in studying the

“polysemy” of language.

This condition of language postulates that “words have more

than one meaning when considered outside of their use in a determinate context.”

What

hermeneutics is accomplishing is identifying the contexts under which the words were

read and understood in a particular historical moment. It is also adeptly recognizing that

the writer and readers of those words might not be experiencing the same contextual

relationship to those words even when they inhabit the same chometic space. The

intrusion of differing social, economic, or racial characteristics could play deciding

factors in how the information is interpreted. When all four elements (author, reader, text,

and context) are properly aligned a critical reading of their value can be discerned.

A second quandary which has plagued hermeneuticians for several years is the

question: “‘how do we know?’”

In that absence of a universal methodological

construct, how can we as researchers be sure that our interpretations are valid? Some

have attempted to rectify the situation by devoting themselves to establishing a clear

epistemological solution. Others have clung to complex explanations rooted in the

Ibid, 42-43.

Paul Ricoeur, Hermeneutics & the Human Sciences (Cambridge, MA: John B. Thomson [ed., trans.],

Cambridge University Press, 1981), 44.

Ibid, 44.

Ibid, 54.

percieved ontological superiority of their position. I return to CRT for the confrontation

of this polemic. Critical Race Theory holds that within counter narration “the storyteller

[can be] in a better position to understand the issue at hand because of his or her

background.”

This argument is also tied to my selection process in my methodology. As

a researcher who has been engrossed in the fictive realities of comic books for more than

20 years now, I am in a unique position to draw conclusions and associations between the

various “universes” created by both Marvel and DC Comics. The years I have spent

surrounded by these characters is vital to allowing me access to the minds of the readers

of these publications. It also plays a strong role in my ability to evaluate the narrative

pressures placed on comic writers and artists by readers and their parents.

One final point that must be made about hermeneutics is the science’s

fundamental recognition of the effects these interpretations have on readers of the work.

As Ricoeur notes “we understand ourselves only by the long detour of the sings of

humanity deposited in cultural works. What would we know of love and hate, of moral

feelings and in general, of all that we call the self, if these had not been brought to

language and articulated by literature?”

This message brings us back to the discussion

of racial imagery (or the lack thereof) in popular culture productions. Even though the

great thinkers involved in the formation of hermeneutic theory may not have conceived

of a day when television, film, the internet, and yes, comic books would act as governing

facilitators of cultural understanding, they did recognize the crucial role that such

documents play in the formation of our sense of self. They even recognized the

possibility of discovering latent consciousnesses within the text as Ricoeur states

Delgado and Stefancic, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (New York: New York University Press,

2001), 91.

Ricoeur, Hermeneutics & the Human Sciences, 143.

“reading introduces me into the imaginative variations of the ego. The metamorphosis of

the world in lays is also the playful metamorphosis of the ego.”

I would add to this

assessment that in so doing the reader can enact or discover alternative egos within the

characters of the story.

Within the framework of hermeneutics and in keeping with the prescriptions of

CRT, counter narrative or counter storytelling is defined as “the stories which people tell

and live which offer resistance, either implicitly or explicitly, to dominant cultural

narratives.”

Researchers in the area of counter narratives ask a question central to this

study: “How can we make sense of ourselves and our lives, if the shape of our life story

looks deviant compared to…the master narrative?”

These authors further tend to agree

that the need for the creation of these narratives is strongest amongst those groups within

a society who have been told that they represent a minority opinion. Examples of such

groups can be found in a number of surprising contexts that transcend any one academic

field.

Reiko Tachibana, for example, studies counter narratives in the form of individual

memoirs of World War II written by German and Japanese citizens. He concludes that

this is a necessary process that allows them to “liberat[e]…[themselves] from a dogmatic

perspective on…the legacies of [the war].”

It further allows them for the first time in

several years to engage in “an active participation” of memory, reclaiming some

ownership over their historical image.

Here, as is often the case, counter narration has

Ibid, 144.

Bamberg and Andrews, Considering Counter Narratives: Narrating, Resisting, Making Sense, 1.

Ibid, 1.

Reiko Tachibana, Narrative as Counter-Memory: A Half-Century of Postwar Writing in Germany and

Japan (Albany, NY: State University Press of New York, 1998), 2.

Ibid, 2.

been applied less out of choice as a need to fill an otherwise vacuous hole. Such was the

case for ethnographers interested in pursuing research in the deaf community according

to author Paddy Ladd. She says that the general public’s tacit unwillingness to accept the

existence of normal, productive, but deaf collectives has resulted in an appalling lack of

critical insight into the lives of these individuals. She states “in order to even establish the

existence of a Deaf community one has to work one’s way through a series of ideological

strata which attempts to deny its existence.”

The deleterious effects of this paucity on

the Deaf community are self-evident. Medical, to say nothing of social, breakthroughs in

scientific research that could potentially improve the lives of these people have likely

been set years behind by ignorance. Perhaps worse, a measure of citizenship has been

stripped from these people based on their disability.

Janice A. Radway found similar use for counter narration in a study on women’s

perceptions of romance novels. She performed a case study analysis of the reading habits

of women in the small town of Smithton. Although the precise location of Smithton is not

revealed, it is described as a “Midwestern community…[s]urrounded by corn and hay

fields.”

She concerned herself with uncovering the meanings, both explicit and implicit,

that these women took away from the literature. Her answers turned out to be as diverse

as the women consuming the novels. For some, reading was equated with an act of

rebellion (the subject matter of that reading was quite beside the point). For others it

brought on escapist fantasies of the sensitive male figures that they so wished to interact

with.

Paddy Ladd, Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood ( Tonawada, NY: Multilingual Matters

Ltd., 2003), 169.

Janice A. Radway, Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature (Chapel Hill,

NC: The University of North Carolina Press 1991), 46.

The basis for these findings was Radway’s assertion that “culture is both

perceptible and hidden, both articulate and covert.”

To Radway anytime a text was

exposed to more than one reader, it was subject to more than one interpretation. And

while these interpretations might be wildly differentiated from each other, she further

reasoned that when “ethnographies of reading” were formed by members of similar social

groups a culturally specific message could be gleaned from the text.

Stated in her own

words: “similarly located readers learn a similar set of reading strategies.”

True, but it

would further seem that as hermeneutics has taught us, each woman individualized the

books’ messages to her specific needs. The characters became shells into which the

women could pour their own identities. The readers of comics may in fact be even more

likely to invest themselves so heavily in their character of choice as their minds (mostly

children) are still in formative stages of cognition. It is this fluidity of persona that makes

counter narration such an appropriate choice as a foundation for this study.

Methodology

As a lifelong reader of comics, in a sense, every major superhero comic of the

past 60 years deserves a place among the population of this study. Unfortunately, the

logistics of including such a huge group of texts would be impractical. Instead, three

major strands of the superhero narrative have been identified based on the theoretical

foundations of race relations laid out in the previous section. These were also based on

the characters that most clearly represented the categories established in the hypotheses

developed for this study. Collectively, the three superheroes that make up the population

of this study encompass 170 years of comic book writing. In the interest of fairness and

Ibid, 210.

Ibid, 4.

Ibid, 8.

diversity, heroes from both major comic publishers, DC and Marvel, appear in the

following chapters. Without question these are the two companies whose stories have

shaped the socialization of generations of youth through their multi-arched storylines

making them the obvious choices for anyone interested in the social effects of comics on

American readers.

I have chosen Superman and Batman to represent the DC Universe. Not only were

they chosen for their exceptional ability to express the underlying counter narratives

which are the central interest of this research, they also represent the two most

recognizable superheroes of the past 60 years. I would suggest that someone who knows

next to nothing of comics or their history would still be able to tell you that Superman

wears a red cape and flies. Similarly, and thanks in part to the recent popularity of Chris

Nolan’s film trilogy, the basic tenants of the Batman series have entered into the space of

general knowledge. While not as well known as either of these two characters, the Black

Panther is the longest running, openly minority hero in either the DC or Marvel archives.

His presence is necessary to come to an understanding of why more characters displaying

these traits have failed and what it is that made him different. No examination of race in

comics would be complete without a thorough entry on the Black Panther.

The process of detailing the ebbs and flows of each issue for the three characters

would prove both monotonous and repetitive. It might in fact damage the credibility of

the study by making each point offered appear so plodding as to be mundane. It would

certainly make the text far less readable as well which would harm cross-disciplinary

appeal, one of the primary goals of this research.

How then are we to go about the task of choosing sample issues? Speaking from

an empirical position, each comic book character’s arc will be broken down into decades.

I have selected purposively three comics from each decade for detailed analysis. This

provides 18 examples in the Batman and Superman chapters and 15 examples in the

Black Panther chapters. I often expand on these examples with brief asides on similarly

themed issues surrounding the ones being highlighted. This allows for a through analysis

of the topic without treading into redundancy.

I base these figures on the precedent set by authors Bill E. Peterson and Emily D.

Gerstein in their 2005 study. Their content analysis of DC and Marvel comics produced

from 1978 to 1992 required them to tackle many of the same sampling issues I face now.

Realizing that coding every issue of eight separate titles published over 14 years would

total roughly 1,400 comics, the authors compromised. They decided that they could

obtain a representative sample by only coding the issues published in December for each

title. This would mean that when broken down for each title covered, the authors were

examining 14 issues for each hero they were interested in studying.

Which is slightly

exceeded by this dissertation.

Methodological Tools

I have adopted a post-modernist methodological approach for analyzing the

contents of this study. But what is post-modernism? In the spirit of the counter narrative

nature of this dissertation’s argument, let us examine that question by explaining what it

is not. Modern critics would argue that knowledge exists independent of the audience that

it addresses. This stretches back to the Enlightenment and a newfound trust in the

Bill E. Peterson and Emily D. Gerstein, “Fighting and Flying: Archival Analysis of Threat,

Authoritarianism, and The North American Comic Book,” Political Psychology, (2005). 26:6.

truthfulness of science and logic as dictators of action. Post-modernists would instead

argue that truth is perceptional. The audience is made an agent in its own education

because it is “an information processing system that integrates selectively.”

Post-modernists also accept that many of the same environmental factors act as

influencing agents for both producer and consumer. Modernists

“compartmentalize…most symbolic forms from criticism.”

This view would complicate

the interpretation of a text because it would invalidate the ability of the reader to draw

conclusions from the text not specifically identified for them. Lacking the capacity to

make shared inferences with the producer, implicit readings would be impossible. By

“dissolving” this separation the opportunity for counter narrative interpretations becomes

a reality.

Furthermore, the modern critic’s dependence on the opinions of experts creates a

finite realm of possible solutions to the world’s problems. Since post-modernism allows

for a more equal footing between experts and laymen “human communication” can take

on “a series of contradictory orientations” without invalidating either viewpoint.

It is

crucial for a study such as this that seemingly oppositional readings be possible from the

same base text within a target social group. Such an assumption is made possible through

post-modern thought.

Finally, the post-modern critic “emphasizes the uniqueness of each situation” or

in this case each character.

Essentially, it is argued that various “communities” when

presented with a message will read into that message the symbols that are most useful to

Bernard L. Brock, Methods of Rhetorical Criticism: A Twentieth Century Perspective, (Detroit, MI:

Wayne State University Press, 1972), 435.

Ibid, 435.

Ibid, 436.

them and their needs regardless of the prescriptions of pre-standing theoretical models for

appropriate reactions.

This would indicate that it is possible for Black, Asian, Hispanic,

and Native American children to see themselves in comics even when their physical

bodies are not directly manifested on the pages laid in front of them. They see themselves

because they need to.

This approach seemed the most logical choice as post-modernist critics have

expressed the foundational principles on which a study such as this is based. They believe

that a newfound emphasis must be placed on not only the cultural productions of our

society but the producers themselves. They recognize the institution as “a decisive

variable in understanding what the rhetorical process is.”

It would be impossible to

approach a study such as this without accounting for the authors, artists and publishers

who helped craft the works before they hit the newsstands.

They also speak commonly of the intrinsic relationship between ideology and

criticism. The emergence in recent years of feminism, Latino-Critical Studies and

GLBTQ research plants post-modernist criticism as a sympathetic methodology for those

looking to make “the ideological dimension of such criticism explicit.”

Finally, the post-modern perspective is one of the few methodologies that creates

a satisfactory balance between producer and consumer. A considerable amount of

attention is paid to the construction of the text-object as I have already discussed. But, the

audience for that message is not painted as passive in their response. The audience is

perceived as an agent in their cultural indoctrination. They are “an information

Ibid, 436.

Bernard L. Brock, Robert L. Scott, and James W. Chessebro, Methods of Rhetorical Criticism: A

Twentieth-Century Perspective (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1989), 431.

Ibid, 432.

processing system that integrates selectively, ultimately creating whatever is percieved as

information.”

It is essential to the applications of this project that I selected a

methodology that allowed the end user this type of freedom. A lesser theory that only

supplied agency to the producer would have prevented the complex interpretations of the

text that are occurring at for readers helping create the full counter narrative.

The implementation of this methodology occurs in a four-stage process for each

character being reviewed. The first step involved identifying “the strategies contained

within an author’s original work.”

This is a somewhat lengthier process for this study

then it might be in more traditional forms of research because the institutional structure of

the narrative requires a number of authors to be examined. For one issue of a Batman

comic there are at least three authors operating at any one time, all of which have a

tremendous impact on the final product – the writer, the artist, and the publisher (usually

represented by the editor). Each of these individuals exerts a unique set of “experiences

and understandings that shaped the original work.”

This step helps me establish the

existence of competing narrative threads at the production level.

Next, the historical and cultural context under which each narrative was

constructed was identified. This involved explicating the “roles, tones and moods as well

as the dichotomies, values, attitudes, and language choices” that exemplify the era of the

text’s creation.

These factors take on considerable importance for comics analysis

because unlike television shows or films they exist in a longitudinal system of ideas.

They must be re-tooled at various stages to more accurately reflect the society they are

Ibid, 435.

Ibid, 438.

supposed to mirror without nullifying the original values that were imbued to the

character in his origin story.

Relatedly, in the third step, the intended audiences for each comic was identified.

Like all mass media products, comics are designed to be sold. By identifying concerns

encountered by writers or editors or controversies stirred by angry parents or advocacy

groups, a more accurate picture of how a particular racial identity was developed, exalted

or undermined for a specific character.

Finally, identification was made of the “political or power relationships [and how,

over time, those] shift…toward a system of mutual sharing, respect, and equal decision

making and action.”

It is here that the expression of counter narratives and counter

storytelling strategies became fully apparent. By continually monitoring the alignment of

the ideological, social and economic needs of the producer and consumer, I mapped the

historical path taken by each character portraying their intended self and their percieved

racial self. Only by closely observing the co-ordination of each of these four steps could

the racial identities of the comics characters be properly appreciated. It should be noted

before moving on that these steps are be repeated several times throughout the course of a

given chapter. As the cultural climate around a character changes, his perception and

identity as a minority is also compromised. The methodology is on of constant evaluation

and re-evaluation which is why experience and prior knowledge play such a key role in

correctly assessing the position of the characters in their comic environments and in the

minds of fans.

Ibid, 438.

Dissertation Outline

Each chapter in this dissertation deals with a different iconic superhero and where

better to start than with the mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet that reinvented

the path comics would take over the next sixty years, Superman. Clark Kent and his

Kryptonian alter-ego represent the most profound example of an Other attempting to

assimilate into an Earth-like routine, which for the publishers and readers of the Man of

Steel meant becoming the consummate white male.

Despite hailing from another planet, indeed another galaxy, Kal-El

has

consistently exhibited a desire to take on the Mid-Western American values of his

adoptive Earth parents. Recognizing Superman’s status as an immigrant is not especially

new ground in academia. Other researchers have noted that the Superman narrative

speaks to an orphaned aesthetic both paternally and geologically. This chapter seeks to

expand on and elucidate this vein of scholarship by addressing a more pertinent question:

at what point during the assimilation process does Superman become the disguise and

Clark Kent the more complete person?

If Superman is truly a tale of an immigrant Other slowly peeling away the layers

of his ethnic self in favor of a more Americanized ideology, then the text can be seen as

the emergence of Clark Kent not the Man of Steel. This reframing of the mythology to

provide a more appropriately significant interpretation of the Kent character invests the

text with a far more powerful commentary on the nature of immigration and cultural

imperialism.

A second issue brought to bear deals with the underlying intentionality of the

character’s ethnic sensibilities. What did Joe Shuester and Jerry Seigal hope to achieve by

Superman’s birth name on his home planet.

fashioning a character engrossed in the immigrant experience? This chapter posits that

Clark Kent and Superman act as pedagogical tools devolved in part to inculcate a set of

American beliefs into the minds of young readers. Seigal and Shuster were themselves

the product of Jewish immigrants and understood all too well the challenges of adapting

to the social norms of a new country. By presenting Kent/Superman as a model they may

well have hoped to save other young immigrants some of the growing pains of

positioning oneself between two cultures.

The second chapter focuses on the incorporation of racial undertones into the

Batman comic series. While Bruce Wayne appears to be the epitome of white wealth and

privilege, I argue that this racial coding does not necessarily extend to his costumed

personae. In fact, it may be his intimate acquaintance with upper-class white society that

propels him towards a radical appropriation of racial Otherness as part of his crime

fighting.

Put more simply, this chapter argues that Batman comprises the first instance of a

mainstream African American superhero. This position is built off of extant literature that

insists Bruce Wayne and Batman occupy separate psychological planes. Since race is

arguably as much a psychological as a physical manifestation, I contend that Batman

amounts to Wayne’s inborn desire to deny his racial heritage.

It would not be enough, however, to merely indicate that Bruce Wayne might be

capable of juggling multiple racial selves. The chapter must ask why a man who

seemingly every conceivable convenience and luxury already available to him would

want to don a second skin. By examining the cultural forces acting upon creator Bob

Kane during his formative years, I attempt to explain how and why latent traces of

African American sensibilities were threaded into the fabric of the character from the

earliest issues.

The final chapter deals with the emergence of The Black Panther as the first truly

successful iteration of a minority superhero. Unlike the men discussed in the preceding

chapters, the Panther cannot recede from his racial self when convenient. More than any

other character discussed he openly has to address and confront issues of racial

Otherness.

While Stan Lee attempted to portray the Panther as a proud black man, there are

interesting questions that need to be addressed before accepting this as the message that

was consumed by young readers, black and white. He was the ruler of a fictitious African

kingdom. Could it be that this geographic distanciation allowed white children to feel less

threatened by the hypermasculinity of a black superhero? Does his refusal to take up

residence as a U.S. citizen create a false impression that black people do not deserve

super powers (or wealth, or social mobility) because unlike their white counterparts they

can not be trusted to use it responsibly (i.e. to protect the interests of white people)? Was

the selection of such a controversial name for this groundbreaking character an attempt to

undermine his position within the Marvel Universe? No critical researcher has ever

addressed any of these questions. If this study achieves nothing else, it will still have shed

the first significant academic light on the Black Panther character in over 50 years.

Comic Book Readership

One of the most stunning and unfortunate facts of comic book research is how

little empirical data has been collected over the years. Comic book publishers seem to

have had a down right adversity to surveys and demographic polling of their audiences. A

careful analysis of Pew Research statistics going back to 1935 shows absolutely no

questions ever asked to respondents that specifically named comics as a topic of

conversation. The closest any poll ever came to doing so was a group of questions from

1946 that were designed to test for opinions on juvenile delinquency. The study named

poor reading materials as one of the influences on such hoodlumistic behavior.

Presumably, one could reason that in an era of Comic Book Codes and congressional

hearings, a rolled up copy of a Superman story might have fallen into the prevue of poor

reading habits.

What can be gleaned from the small number of statistical studies done on the

comic book industry over the past sixty years or so is this: the fan base appears to be

historically diverse. On December 27, 1943 the Market Research Company of America

published findings that indicated “95 percent of all children ages eight to eleven read

comic books regularly.”

Those figures only dropped off slightly when the age range

was raised to 12 – 17 (84%). Even adult readers (18 – 30) admitted to picking up comics

although at a much lower rate (34%).

From these statistics it seems reasonable to at the

very least accept that minority children in the earliest age range must have been heavily

exposed to comics. Based on population statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau there

were 13,454,405 respondents to the 1940 census that identified themselves as a race other

than Caucasian.

If we assume that the population does not grow at all between 1940 and

1946 and then assume conservatively that only 30% of those 13 million people are

children, we come up with a figure that is roughly 4 million minority children in the

Matthew Pustz, Comic Book Culture: Fanboys and True Believers (Jackson, MS: University Press of

Mississippi, 1999), 27.

Ibid, 27.

“United States Census Bureau, United States – Race and Hispanic Origin: 1790 to 1990,” accesed on

April 14, 2010, www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html

United States at the time of this report. Ninety-five percent of 4 million would 3.8 million

minority children who would have been consuming comic books as early as the late

1940s. That number would mean that the amount of minority children reading comics in

the 1940s almost outnumbered the total audience for the Lone Ranger (4.2 million

viewers) which would premiere on ABC only four years later.

But what was drawing these children to comic books over competing media?

Author Matthew J. Pustz notes that audiences made a very “direct identification” with

these masked avengers.

In a culture where many of these minority children were told

didn’t belong in society, it became comforting to “imagine that their…everyday existence

was merely a lie hiding a heroic, powerful interior” just as Clark Kent’s glasses betrayed

his role as Superman.

Cartoonist Jules Fiefer also uses this logic to explain why so

many boy-heroes of comics’ early heyday fell flat with audiences. Much as I argue,

openly racialized heroes failed because a racial line already threaded through many issues

of popular comics. Fiefer insists that comic book producers misunderstood what drove so

many children to voraciously consume their products. Children weren’t interested in

these younger heroes (Robin, Bucky, etc.) because it prevented them from living the

fantasy of the hero. They could dream of growing up to be as strong and powerful as

Batman or Superman but they could look at themselves in the mirror and see that they

lacked the prowess and skills of one of these sidekicks that were usually right around

their age. From this standpoint, the superhero acts as a covenant with the minority reader,

“TV Ratings 1950 – 1951,” accessed on April 14, 2010, www.classictvhits.com.

Pustz, Comic Book Culture: Fanboys and True Believers, 27.

Ibid, 27.

presenting a “version of…[him/herself] in the future.”

It is something to be strived for,

a promise of a better, less racist world ahead.

Many adult African Americans were likely introduced to the world of comics

through their participation in World War II. I will discuss the efforts of comic book

writers and illustrators to encourage enlistment by minorities in the chapter on the history

of the comic book industry. For now it is enough to say that military personnel became

intimately familiar with comics during their tours of duty. Officials liked the books

because they provided “lightweight entertainment.”

By the war’s end, over “two-thirds”

of all soldiers reported reading comic books as a regular leisurely activity. According to

the National Archives “over 2.5 million African-American men registered for the draft,

and black women volunteered in large numbers.”

Many of these soldiers would bring

their new habits home with them creating increased demand in later decades for more

adult fare on newsstand shelves.

Another study done during the formative years of comic books reveals several

traits of the average comic reader that could easily be applied to minority readerships.

Katherine M. Wolf and Marjorie Fisk’s 1949 article, “The Children Talk About Comics”

indicates that reading of comic books is often associated with feelings of social isolation

and alienation. For example, in their study “52 percent of children short for their ages had

become fans.”

Socioeconomic status also played a roll in their findings as “54 percent

of children” with parents in “nonprofessional” positions became comic book fans.

Ibid, 28.

Ibid, 31.

“National Archives, Pictures of African Americans During World War II,” accessed on May 1, 2010,

http://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/ww2-pictures/.

Ibid, 34.

Pairing an economically disadvantaged childhood with a sense of personal distance from

one’s peers would certainly have described children of most minority backgrounds in the

1940s and 50s well.

There is also a considerable amount of anecdotal data that would seem to suggest

comic fandom reaches minorities. In his book, Comic Book Culture, Matthew Pustz

identifies a wide variety of comic book enthusiast categories. There is the fan boy who

obsessively purchases each issue of a comic even if he or she is unsatisfied with the

direction the comic is taking. The weekender who browses through comic book shops

reminiscing over favorite characters. The collectors who horde special edition issues in

the hopes they will one day be worth money. With so many different classifications,

Pustz explains that researches can not help but be struck standing in a comic shop by the

“variety in this popular culture audience…[and the]…diversity among mainstream

readers.”

In the end, like any mass medium comics have come to represent an important

part of the popular culture narrative in the United States. Just as diverse groups of

individuals are drawn to movie theaters and living room television sets, a wide range of

readers have found comfort and enjoyment out of superhero comic adventures over the

years.

Pustz, Comic Book Culture (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1999), 66.

For more information on minority readership of comics I encourage readers to examine the following

resources: The Museum of Black Superheroes at www.blacksuperhero.com, Black Superheroes, Milestone

Comics and Their Fans by Jeffery Brown, Finding Other Heroes: African American Comic Book Creators,

Characters, and Archetypes by John Jennings and Damian Duffy, www.Comicbookresearch.org, Inks:

Cartoon and Comic Art Studies edited by Lucy Shelton Caswell, The International Journal of Comic Art

edited by John Lent, The Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics edited by David Huxley and Joan Ormrod,

SIGNs – Studies in Graphic Narratives edited by Fabio Gadducci, Studies in Comics edited by Julia round

Chris Murray Dean Chan and M. Thomas Inge, Personal correspondence with Dr. Jeffery A. Brown

established via interview that he firmly believed minorities read comics regularly. He was also able to

establish that little to no statistical information had been collected on this subject in any known database.

CHAPTER II

BACK ISSUES: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE COMIC BOOK IN AMERICAN

CULTURE

Origin Stories: Before There Were Superheroes

The comic image captured the public imagination long before costumed heroes

became the staple of the industry. As early as the 1890s newspaper audiences were being

introduced to a colorful cast of, mostly ethnic, characters. Editors of competing

publications were using them to fuel an addiction to the increasingly mass medium.

Newspaper moguls had determined that the key to long-term success was “habit

formation” among readers.

Many audiences as this time lacked the media literacy

forged from hours of television consumption and web page views. These characters

would “achieve celebrity status” by providing a “continuing cast” of characters whose

adventures could be followed week in and week out.

But if the comic strip was born of economic shrewdness, it was nurtured by

adaptability. Author Ian Gordon notes that “polysemic characters” populated many of the

most popular early comic strips.

Dating as far back as the Yellow Kid, audiences

seemed most attracted to characters whose racial or ethnic background could be

manipulated. According to Gordon, audiences often would take these white ethnic

characters and “through a reading other than the author intended” craft a new racial

identity for them.

In the case of the Yellow Kid, he was originally drawn to represent an

Irish immigrant. His author and illustrator, Richard Outcault began receiving letters from

Ian Gordon, Comic Strips and Consumer Culture: 1890-1945 (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution

Press, 1998), 34.

Ibid, 34.

Ibid, 62.

fans identifying him as Chinese. Presumably, this had something to do with his “bald”

head, “jug ears, and buck teeth” which set against a bright yellow nightgown gave some

readers the wrong impression.

Outcault quickly capitalized on the misrepresentation,

however. When Chinese General Li Hung Chang visited New York City in September

1896, The New York World featured a one panel cartoon of him being led in a parade

down the city’s streets by the Yellow Kid. Similarly murky racial coding could be found

in another of Outcault’s creations, the Hogan’s Alley Gang and Rudolph Dirks’

Katzenjammer Kids.

While newspapers around the country had “transformed a particular type of urban

imagery into a national commodity” they were not comfortable affording African

American characters the same polysemic latitudes. Most black characters became

variations on the “single stereotypical image of Sambo.”

Although most comic strips

“represented a negotiation among artists, syndicates, and readers over

commerce…,identities and their construction” there was little doubt where were black

characters fit in this hierarchy – dead last.

This stubborn refusal to incorporate more polysemic imagery into the comic strips

seems to have turned many readers away from even the most historically iconic examples

from the medium. Outcault had one of his first commercial busts with the introduction of

the New Bully in the New York World in February 1898. The knife wielding Bully was

depicted as a cutthroat savage without an ounce of intelligence or leadership to his name.

He maintained his position at the top of the gang’s food chain by brute force alone. The

strip was cancelled after only one month.

Ibid, 29.

Ibid, 60.

Outcault’s second attempt at an African American character was still more

deplorable. Pore Lil’ Mose first published in 1900, was Outcault’s take on the Zip Coon

image. The Zip Coon was an offshoot of the coon stereotype popularized in minstrel

shows. He represented the Post-Reconstruction black who “did not know his

place…[who] thought he was as smart as White people; however his frequent

malapropisms and distorted logic suggested that his attempt to compete intellectually

with Whites was pathetic.”

Worse yet, the strip perpetuated the notion that

Reconstruction had effectively ended all problems faced by the black community.

Outcault was feeding into the perception that “African Americans lived in some version

of Arcadian paradise and wanted for nothing.”

Outcault can not take credit for creating the lasting image of African American

culture in comic strips, however. That dubious honor goes to William Marriner who

designed the Sambo and his Funny Noises strip for the T.C. McClure newspaper chain.

The strip centered around Sambo’s altercations with the Tank Brothers. The white

siblings would constantly dream up schemes to tease, torture or humiliate Sambo by

outsmarting him. Many of the early strips relied on a single gag. They would find

someway of demonstrating how hardheaded Sambo was. He would hide under a bowler

hat that the brothers would encourage people to kick or eggs would be cracked over his

skull. This was of course another attempt to solidify the intellectual inferiority of the

black race through popular culture.

David Pilgrim, The Coon Caricature, The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, Ferris State

University, accessed on June 12, 2010, http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/coon/.

Gordon, Comic Strips and Consumer Culture: 1890-1945 (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution

Press, 1998), 65.

Oddly some scholars have read the Sambo comic as a progressive text. On many

occasions throughout the strip’s history, Sambo would seemingly outsmart the brothers.

These instances of retribution often “reassert…stereotypes…because they result from

either dumb luck or childlike innocence.”

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Sambo’s life did not end on the printed page.

He became one of the first black characters in an animated short feature. Thirteen

episodes of the Sambo cartoon were produced before the character was dropped after his

illustrator Pat Sullivan left the project to pursue a job working with Charlie Chaplin.

Despite his short tenure on screen, Sambo

remains a pivotal character in cinema history.

Not only was he one of the first black animated characters, he is widely believed to have

been the inspiration behind the much more popular Felix the Cat series.

In fact, many of the early cartoon images of race took their cues from newspaper

comics who “by the time animated cartoons made their debut in the second decade of

motion pictures…had already imbued black characters with negative and degrading racial

stereotypes.”

The replication of this imagery seemed almost impossible to avoid since

many of the early animation artists “were recruited from the ranks” of newspaper

cartoonists.

Originally, black characters became popular among animators from a

purely aesthetic point of view. Many early cartoonists found they “made depicting

motion easier.”

Their representation on screen quadrupled in the twenties and thirties as

Ibid, 68.

Who was renamed Sammy Johnsin in the films to avoid a lawsuit.

Henry T. Sampson, That’s Enough Folks: Black Images in Animated Cartoons, 1900 – 1960 (Lanham,

MD: The Scarecrow Press Inc., 1998), 1.

Ibid, 1.

Ibid, 2.

animators became enamored with “exploit[ing] the extraordinary popularity of black

music” following the sound revolution in film.

One of the most iconic black characters to emerge from this era was Bosko the

Talk-Ink Kid. Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising were hired by Warner Brothers to head a

new division in animation called Loony Tunes aimed at competing with Disney. Their

flagship series starred the amorphous Bosko and his girlfriend Honey. Each episode of

the series was intended to highlight new tracks from the “Vitaphone song catalog.”

While the “minstrel show routine and southern accent” employed by the characters

“clearly identified them as black stereotypes” many reviewers failed to even recognize

them as human beings.

100

Critiques of the first two Loony Tunes features named them

alternately as “monkey [and] mutt.”

101

Animation scholars have referred to him as “an

elastic, black golliwog.”

102

Even a fellow animator who worked for Harman and Ising

admits “I never knew what Bosko was.”

103

Be that as it may, a peek inside the recording

studio would have revealed a much more definitive response. Rochelle Hudson and

Carmen Maxwell would often wear blackface makeup while recording their dialog for the

episodes.

Lil’ Eightball picked up where Bosko left off. Only there were no debates over

what Lil’ Eightball was meant to represent. Animator Walter Lantz had created “a

stereotypical black boy” so patently racist that “many historians would prefer to forget”

Ibid, 2.

Ibid, 11.

100

Ibid, 12.

101

Ibid, 12.

102

Charles Soloman, Enchanted Drawings: The History of Animation (New York: Wings Books, 1989,)

100.

103

Ibid, 100.

he ever existed.

104

Even Lantz would go on to publicly apologize for his actions. In a

statement to the Pittsburgh Courier in 1944 he denounced “any…derogatory

treatment…concerning the Negro.”

105

He also became a leading member of the

Hollywood Screen Cartoon Producer’s Association which named as one of its primary

objectives the rectification of “harmful carictatures of minority races of American

citizens.”

106

Another Disney competitor, Hanna-Barberra would also take a stab at black

characters in their early work. The duo first won fame for their Tom and Jerry cartoons

produced for MGM. The caretaker of the home in the Tom and Jerry cartoons was

Mammy Two-Shoes, a dim-witted southern black maid. The show utilized “incorrect

grammar, and mispronouncing and misusing common words” to indicate to the audience

that this woman fit into the dominant white expectations for black success.

107

They

further dehumanized her by refusing to show her entire body throughout the majority of

the cartoon’s run. Only twice, in nineteen appearances do we see the silhouette of

Mammy. The rest of the episodes feature her only from the waist down. Producers feared

the images of Mammy so offensive that in later years the cartoons featuring her “were

edited to substitute the voice of the stereotypical black maid character with the voice of

an Irish woman.”

108

Warner Brothers continued this racist tradition well into the 1940s. As comic

books were presenting increasingly liberalized images of black America in an effort to

104

Sampson, That’s Enough Folks: Black Images in Animated Cartoons, 1900 – 1960, 27.

105

Ibid, 27.

106

Ibid, 27.

107

Ibid, 55.

108

Ibid, 55.

enlist servicemen, cartoons from the studio were flagrant in their disregard for racial

sensitivities. Chief among the authorial voices leading this charge was Bob Clampett Jr.

who famously developed two cartoons that the studio later banned from ever airing on

any medium again. The first of these, Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, was a caustic

reinterpretation of the Snow White mythology from a black perspective. To say the effort

was insulting would be generous. In their zeal to top Disney, the company had allowed

one of its illustrators to “capitalize…on…vulgar…[and] overt sexuality.”

109

Every

character in the tale is abused in ways far more realistic than most cartoons would have

allowed. A hit is taken out on Snow White by the evil queen at one point. The Murder

Inc. team arrives, kidnaps Snow White, and implies some form of rape only to have her

smile and thank them as they leave her stranded in the forest. This is a clear return to the

trope of the happy-go-lucky negro.

The second of Clampett’s films Tin Pan Alley Cats finds a Fats Waller stand-in

spending a wild night at a jazz club. He is accosted by a group of church parisioners

singing outside the club who beg him not to enter. They warn of the evil temptations that

lurk inside. Their warnings come to fruition when the main character is sent into an

alcoholic dream-fantasy in which he encounters a nightmare world. The implication that

it is “better to remain within the orderly calm of religion and polite music” clearly creates

an impression for the viewer that jazz and by association black culture is the gateway to a

life of sadness, regret, and chaos.

The power of these portrayals rests on a foundation of understood cultural capital.

Their representations matter because the audiences they are aimed at put so much – often

109

Terry Lindvall and Ben Fraser, “Darker Shades of Animation: African-American Images in the Warner

Bros. Cartoon,” from Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation ed. Kevin S. Sandler,

(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998), 130.

blind – faith in their messages. As Susan Miller and Greg Rode point out “these

films…make crucial contributions to our most important discourses of the self.”

110

The

most valuable arbiters of these contributions are then surely the ones who capture top of

mind awareness with their adolescent audience. By that logic, the most important cultural

force in animation is unquestionably Walt Disney.

It is striking then to observe the tremendous absence of minority images in Disney

films. Taking a queue from their television cousins, “the African American male”

vanished from Disney screens for 51 years.

111

Even then, the only appearance of a black

male in any Disney film in those years came in the 1946 scandal that was Song of the

South, a “semi-animated” conundrum of celluloid that Disney is now embarrassed to

release in any country outside of Japan.

112

This erasure of blackness as an identity from

practically all Disney animated fare has left a gaping hole in cultural understandings for

the millions of children who worship at the alter of the mouse every day.

The caricatured visage of Uncle Remus from Song of the South has traditionally

been vilified by organizations concerned with diversity. The NAACP “called for a total

boycott of the film” upon its release and have protested upon its various theatrical re-

releases stretching into the late 1980s.

113

And what was it that black advocacy groups

found so distasteful? The neutering of the African American male. The reckless parade of

images that seek to “infantilize and emasculate” the struggle for civil rights in

America.

114

110

Susan Miller and Greg Rode, “The Movie You See, The Movie You Don’t: How Disney Do’s That Old

Time Derision,” in From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture eds. Elisabeth Bell

et. al, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1995), 86.

111

Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan, Deconstructing Disney (London: Pluto Press (ha!), 1999), 94.

112

Ibid, 94.

113

Ibid, 95.

114

Ibid, 94.

Still, some authors have found reason to celebrate the performances of James

Baskett and Hattie McDaniel in recent years. Douglas Brode insists that Walt Disney

“sensed that to utterly abandon the Tom and Mammy icons would disorient a mainstream

audience…[so] he retained the myths’ surfaces to subtly subvert them.”

115

From this

standpoint, Remus becomes a laudable, even groundbreaking character. He is the first

African American to ever act as “the narrative voice” for a Disney feature film.

116

Where

others have identified simplicity, Brode sees Walt’s appreciation of “earthy and

unpretentious blacks.”

117

He even muses that in some respects Uncle Remus may have

been an autobiographical albeit racially confused expression of Disney’s own desire to

support the importance of the oral storytelling tradition. He goes as far as to cite a

statement released by the NAACP that reversed its position on the film stating that it had

“remarkable artistic merit.”

118

Regardless of the verisimilitude of this final claim, the film’s forced obscurity

nullifies much of its impact on modern audiences. A more powerful example of the

Disney racial ideology can be found in films such as Dumbo and Fantasia, which are,

viewed ad nausium by children around the world thanks to home video libraries. The five

black crows that assist Dumbo on his cinematic journey are throwbacks to the minstrel

shows. They not only “conform to white audience expectations,” they only decide to

assist Dumbo when, shunned by white society he takes on the role of the “flying African

ancestor who leaps into the air and so escapes slavery by flying back to Africa.”

119

Byrne

115

Douglas Brode, Multiculturalism and the Mouse: Race and Sex in Disney Entertainment (Austin, TX:

University of Texas Press, 2005), 54.

116

Ibid, 54.

117

Ibid, 55.

118

Ibid, 58.

119

Byrne and McQuillan, Deconstructing Disney, 96.

and McQuillan make their opinion of Fantasia much more blunt. The film becomes a

clear battle between white and black images in which the audience is asked to “indulge in

the infinite codings of race with terror.”

120

The problem to be confronted here is not whether Walt Disney, Tex Avery,

William Hanna or Joseph Barbarra are racist. The cultural contributions of these men and

ones like them in the comic book industry stretch far beyond their personal ideologies.

This is a history instead of the “extracurricular pedagogy” embodied in the timeless texts

that have been poured over endlessly by generation after generation of children.

121

questions the values that were implicitly ascribed into our hearts, our minds, and our

souls as we consumed these formative texts and it concludes that comparatively comic

books created a much more noble picture of race and ethnicity than their newspaper and

animation forefathers ever could.

The Classic View of Race and Ethnicity in Comics

In the long history of comics, scholars have found only one prevailing

representation of race: villainous. Sometimes this villainy presented itself figuratively,

sometimes as we will see it became much more literal. The critical consensus is one note

played long and loud by an industry aimed primarily at children, teaching them that

otherness is wrong, scary, un-ideal. I do not dispute that several bruises, mis-fires and

poor decisions can be found and magnified throughout the comic book industry on this

issue. Portrayals have not always been acceptable or unbiased. I refute, however, that

comics as a medium and superheroes as the fixtures of that medium have been wholly

120

Ibid, 95.

121

Miller and Rode, “The Movie You See, The Movie You Don’t: How Disney Do’s That Old Time

Derision,” 88.

unsuccessful in developing a variety of viewpoints on a cultural concern as deeply

imbedded as the racial debate in America.

In the following pages I have separated the representational codes for Otherness

into distinct units. We will examine how the academic world has framed the comic

depiction of Asians, African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos and Middle

Easterners. The prevailing theme of the critiques in each case is abject failure. Failure on

the part of the editors, artists, and writers to create anything even vaguely approaching

realistic examples of Otherness for readers. Before going on to discuss the many latent

racially charged messages held in these comics, it is vital that we establish firmly the

disappointing attitude held by so many commentators on the state of the comic book

industry. I have included where appropriate, parallels in representation between the

comic world and that of film and television. While these may not be the mediums with

which this dissertation primarily concerns itself, it would be imprudent to remove these

panels of crime, justice and word bubbles from the historical moments they populated.

Indeed, my larger point, that comics provide one of the most nuanced and intricate

appraisals of race and ethnicity to be found in American popular culture, is buoyed by

comparison to the stagnant images that the large and small screen have presented to

viewers.

Among the earliest impressions of African Americans in comics can be found in

the derisively named Jungle Comics. Historian Bradford W. Wright identifies the

hallmarks of this style to have included a group of “child-like non-white people” who

were “above all…stupid” and in need of the council provided by a link to the Western

world to maintain order and the basic tenants of civilized living.

122

Often this emissary of

imperial knowledge with “direct links to the British or French empires” appeared to be

far more in touch with the ways of the savage wilderness that surrounded him in spite of

his lily-white pigmentation.

123

These beneficent messiahs, in the form of Tarzan, Sheena

Queen of the Jungle, or one of their brethren, would scold the witless natives for having

fallen prey to the tricks and false hope offered by charlatans typically from Eastern

Europe or Asia-Minor.

The impact of these comics has been the center of some debate since their

publication. Some scholars, like Commies, Cowboys, and Jungle Queens author William

W. Savage, have maintained that these adventurers offered readers “nothing…[of]…any

real bearing on the problems of the day.”

124

Rather, these were merely fantastical tales of

pure escapism designed to titillate the pliable minds of their teenage audience and sell

advertising space for everything from chewing gum to x-ray glasses.

The miscalculation in Savage’s judgment of the comics emerges from his overly

strict classification schemes. Although he admits that these comics were home to “exotic

locales and…characters…[and]…virtually nonstop action,” he fails to recognize in them

the trappings of the masked detective stories that captured children’s imaginations ten-

fold following the debut of Superman in 1938.

125

This similarity was not lost on Morton

S. Malter whose work, spurred on by the criticisms of Fredric Wertham who accused the

comic book industry of infecting the minds of America’s youth with a perverse brand of

intellectual malaise, found that the jungle comics were “based on a detective-crime

122

Wright, Comic Book Nation, 37.

123

Ibid, 36.

124

William W. Savage, Commies, Cowboys and Jungle Queens: Comic Books and America 1945-1954

(Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1990), 7.

125

Ibid, 4.

theme.”

126

Malter’s content analysis of the major publishers in the late nineteen forties

and early nineteen fifties revealed that even ten years after the arrival of the traditional

superhero narrative to comic book shelves, the jungle comic represented 18.8 % of the

total publisher revenue.

127

The steady appetite of the American consumer for this brand of comic adventure

alluded to in these figures purportedly gives credence to Wright’s fear that male readers

were being exposed to carefully constructed “racist…imperialist…sexual and

sadomasochistic…overtones.”

128

Aside from their obvious allegorical nods to the

paternalistic slave/master relationship exhibited in the scolding tone adopted by the white

jungle conquers to their native charges, this comment points to a subtler and damaging

form of racist propaganda. The cover of a 1946 issue of Jumbo Comics featured in

Wright’s text illustrates an effort to undermine the sexual credibility of black masculinity

and the black female form.

129

By presenting Sheena Queen of the Jungle as a buxom,

blonde avenger, Jumbo Comics has begun the job of planting standards of beauty in the

minds of its readers. What is the young black man to take away from his experience of

watching as a powerful W.A.S.P. model of sexual aggression dominates representations

of African male savages in panel after panel? Surely, he can be left with little other

conclusion than accepting this woman as an archetype for his own future sexual

conquests.

Of course, it is doubtful that the publishers or authors of Jumbo Comics or any of

their peers intended to promote interracial relationships with these images. Rather, the

126

Morton S. Malter, “The Content of Current Comic Magazines,” The Elementary School Journal, 52:9,

(1952), 508.

127

Ibid, 508.

128

Wright, Comic Book Nation, 73.

129

Ibid, 76.

implication is one of inferiority. It is a silent reminder to the black adolescent that no

matter how prominent a position in the world he attains for himself, there will forever be

portions of society, which are closed off to him. Here in a single image lays the artistic

representation of the glass ceiling that demanded there be a civil rights movement.

There is also an appraisal of the African American’s economic standing to be

gleaned from this drawing. The artist has gone to the trouble to paint the Amazonian

beauty’s toenails. Although this might appear an insignificant detail at first glance, it acts

as a reminder of the various luxuries and consumerist impulses that even the most

isolated of white women have at their disposal.

The Jungle films of the 1930s, most notably the Tarzan franchise, became a

repository for black actors. Unfortunately, much like their comic cousins they did little to

advance white mainstream opinion of the place blacks held in society.

We see this same ignominious savage routine played out in King Kong. Skull

Island is populated by African natives that are worshipful of Kong, but Kong himself

represents one of the most famous black characters in pre-war Hollywood cinema. James

A. Snead points out that Kong’s effectiveness as a film relies greatly on the white male

audience member identifying with the gargantuan ape as a second skin that can be

temporarily embodied. As he states: “King Kong [allows] the white male to vent a variety

of repressed sexual fantasies: the hidden desire of seeing himself as an omnipotent,

phallic black male, the desire to abduct the white woman, or the combined fantasy: to

abduct a white woman in the disguise of a phallic black male.”

130

But, Snead argues that

with the fulfillment of this fantasy comes guilt that must be purged. In the case of Kong

130

James A. Snead, “Spectatorship and Capture in King Kong” in ed.Valerie Smith’s Representing

Blackness: Issues in Film and Video (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997), 41.

that guilt is expunged through the fatal plummet of Kong from the Empire State Building.

The lasting impression being that “oppression of the [Other]” results in a cathartic release

and a stifling of social progress.

131

The main characters in these films need not be mythological apes to earn

distinctions as monstrous however. In fact, “the overlap between 1930s jungle and horror

films…[was] assumed by a number of critics” and, one would assume, audience

members.

132

Few statements could so directly sum up how completely the work a decade

earlier of black writers and directors like Oscar Micheaux had been nullified. The black

actors populating these fictitious jungles were the equivelant of Michael Myers, Jason

Voorhees and Freddy Kruger who would terrorize (mostly white) teenagers on-screen 50

years later.

A cursory glance at some of the superhero fare of the World War II years might

give the impression that situations had improved for African Americans in comics. After

all, black soldiers were needed to fill out ranks. As a result some popular characters did

begin to express more tolerant views. The Green Lantern took up the cause in a 1944

issue. While attending a radio performance of Christmas carols being sung by children of

various racial backgrounds, Lantern is shocked at an older woman who accuses the

children of not being truly American due to their racial otherness. He barks at the woman:

“How dare you talk like that in America!...When you hate a man for his race, creed, or

color, you’re just a sucker for those who hate America!”

133

Combining “patriotic

131

Ibid, 41.

132

Rhona J.Berenstein, “White Heroines and Hearts of Darkness: Race, Gender and Disguise in 1930s

Jungle Films,” Film History, 6:3, (Autumn 1994), 314.

133

Wright, Comic Book Nation, 53.

messages with appeals for tolerance” became a common theme for comics publishers.

134

But the illusion of social consciousness is stripped from the pages when one places them

in their proper historical context revealing a far more self-serving motivation.

These equality minded heroes began to spring into action just as African

Americans were being asked to participate in the war effort. The comic book industry, a

notoriously conservative institution, racked with criticism of its social worth utilized any

opportunity to spread government approved propaganda as a means of insulating itself

from censorship. If blacks were to be asked to fight for the principles of democracy, they

would have to be reassured that they would have an equitable place in that democracy

when they returned. Undoubtedly, publishers saw this as a chance to turn their maligned

image to their advantage. Appeals to poverty-stricken citizens could not reasonably be

made through ventures of high art due to the several impasses that would have blocked

access to the material for the intended audience. But, comic books offered an

appropriately low-brow instrument of collective agency that could speak directly to the

impoverished with idealized images of a more tolerant world at war’s end.

This image was literally and figuratively paper thin, however. Although the

occasional storyline would reflect these new interests by and large, DC and Marvel were

still invested in a white society. For all their bluster, “there were no African Americans

anywhere in Metropolis or Gotham City – as heroes, villains, or even passers-by.”

135

Similar efforts were being made by the Office of War Information in Hollywood.

They helped engineer two all black films that were released in 1943 by major studios:

Century Fox’s Stormy Weather and MGM’s Cabin in the Sky. Other major films

134

Ibid, 54.

135

Ibid, 65.

received extensive re-writes to comply with a more war-friendly depiction of black/white

relations. Some of the most well-known pictures to come out of this period were the

result of OWI intervention. The Ox Bow Incident prominently featured a group of white

men refusing to allow a black man to be lynched when there was a paucity of evidence to

support that he had committed the crime of which he was accused. Crash Dive and

Bataan showed black soldiers working arm in arm with whites as equals to defeat

German and Japanese forces. This was a highlight for the OWI as it represented “a

mythical world [where] blacks [had] a better deal than [they] did [in] real life.

136

Joe, one

of the characters stranded in Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat is infused with this

mythologizing power when he is given a chance to vote on the fate of one of the other

survivors. And of course, Sam acts as Humphrey Bogart’s faithful and near equal

assistant in the classic Casablanca.

Still, whatever growth in race relations was intimated by these appearances, it

would be inappropriate to judge them as anything more than transitory. The MGM film

Tennessee Johnson, which relayed a very loose historical account of Andrew Johnson’s

rise to power, is a good example of the limitations placed on OWI officials. The film

made abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens look like “a crippled, demonic figure [who] cajoled

the helpless Johnson into drunkenness and even consorted at cards with John Wilkes

Booth.”

137

Although OWI was successful in getting some of the more offensive passages

removed from the film, they refused to assert too much control over the film’s themes.

Partly this was because the men who ran the OWI were convinced of the film’s historical

accuracy. Their “awareness of black history and culture” led them to take a paternalistic

136

Integrated army units were still not being used at the time of the film’s release. Ibid, 401.

137

Ibid, 394.

view towards slavery

138

. More importantly, OWI’s goal was not ideologically devoted to

racial equality. It was devoted to “divert[ing] black’s concerns into support for the war

effort.”

139

No matter how magnanimous the agency’s efforts might have appeared on the

surface, Koppes and Black remind us that “the war came first” and thus the effects of

their presence in Hollywood were transitory.

140

The post-war years brought a slightly renewed interest in social justice comics.

DC artist Jack Shiff began regularly featuring popular heroes like Superman in what

amounted to PSAs in the backs of issues touting the virtues of tolerance for differences in

race and ethnicity. Theses efforts were quickly shot down by editor Mort Weisinger who

warned that such blatant “liberalism was going to get the company in trouble.”

141

later tried to create a white character that would more regularly speak up for the concerns

of the disenfranchised. Radar the International Policeman busied himself with protecting

America from the evil influence of Communism foreign and domestic. In one issue he

stops Communist spies from distributing pamphlets that promote “race, ethnic, and

religious hatred.”

142

Though well-intentioned, these comics had short shelf lives because

the couldn’t capture the attention and interest of readers.

This touches on another of the mass criticisms wrought on the comic industry,

that their fans are fickle and un-inspired to participate in political debate. Comics, it is

argued are a means of escape and to introduce social commentary into them will only

alienate readership. One of the few companies to sincerely take up the banner of racial

equality in the 1950s was EC, a distant third-place finisher in the war for marketplace

138

Ibid, 395.

139

Ibid, 394.

140

Ibid, 395.

141

Ibid, 64.

142

Ibid, 68.

dominance. Unlike DC and Marvel, they focused not on superhero tales but mystery,

suspense, horror and crime stories. In an issue of Shock SuspenStories they published a

short story about a black man wrongfully accused of murder in a “small American

town.”

143

The man is shot by the town sheriff before the true culprit can confess. A letter

in response to the morality play read: “This story stinks…I’d like the person who wrote it

to sleep, eat, and live with blacks or niggers…I would not care to have a nigger eat at the

same table with me, or anybody else with self-respect that I know.”

144

Perhaps fearing such hate-filled responses, television took on a highly

conservative perspective on race during the Red Scare. From roughly 1954 to 1967 very

few sitcoms or dramas featured black characters in anything more prominent then the

occasional guest spot or extra appearance. As tensions in the civil rights movement

escalated to untold levels, many television producers simply chose exclusion as the path

of least resistance. Like their Hollywood cousins, they could not afford to irritate the

sensibilities of Southern radicals nor did they want to lose ratings from liberal

Northerners. Though perhaps seen as a cowardly solution in retrospect, cautious networks

chose to whitewash their programming and eliminate any presence of blackness from

their programming.

For much of the 1950s and early 1960s, comics publishers found themselves in

much the same condition. In 1954, the Comic Book Code written by the Comics

Magazine Association of America was handed down. The code was the comic industry’s

answer to the Hayes Code being used in Hollywood. They hired an outside party (Charles

F. Murphy) to lay out a strict set of standards that each issue would be forced to abide by

143

Ibid, 137.

144

Ibid, 139.

to avoid government-imposed censorship of the medium. Like the Hayes Code, member

publishers were not required to alter material to match the code’s suggestions, but if a

publisher refused they would not be allowed to include the comic’s code seal on their

cover effectively black balling them from most major retail outlets. The code forbade

among other things “the presentation of crime in any manner that created sympathy for

criminals…[any mention of] the words horror and terror…on the cover of a comic

book…[and] anything that hinted at sex or lust.”

145

EC, the only publisher at the time

with any real interest in exploring racial issues in their comics, was forced into

bankruptcy by the code when they refused to join the CMAA on grounds of moral

outrage.

The code was considerably loosened in the late 1960s by Richard Nixon of all

people who asked for comic book publishers to help reach the youth market in his

crusade against drug abuse. For the first time in years, comics could get away with

discussing relevant social issues openly without reprisal from authorities internally or

externally. The freedoms they were granted did not result in a mass indictment of civil

rights issues, however. In fact, much of the material that came out of publishing houses

took on a highly conservative tone. Comic book titans like Spider-Man “made it clear

that militant black power was not the remedy for racial injustice.”

146

The position taken by the comics industry was very similar to that of early 20

Century black intellectuals such as Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubious who

advocated non-violence and educational enrichment as the weapons to be used against

intolerance. Just as these leaders criticized the actions of youthful, energetic leaders like

145

Ibid, p 172-173.

146

Ibid, 237.

Jack Johnson, so too did Marvel and DC’s costumed heroes take umbrage with vivid

protestation of the present condition. Some of the first black superheroes to ever be in

major publications like The Falcon openly criticized black behavior stating “maybe it’s

important fo us to cool things down-so we can protect the rights we been fightin’ for.”

147

Often cases of black militant behavior were revealed to have detrimental consequences.

In the case of The Falcon, in the issue referenced above, he busts up a militant group that

turns out to be working in league with The Red Skull, one of Marvel’s most notorious

villains and a hold-over member of the Nazi party. These sorts of associations drug down

whatever positive social commentary was being made by the issues. We have already

seen that similar efforts on DC’s part with The Green Lantern and The Green Arrow

didn’t turn out much better.

Besides The Black Panther who will be discussed in detail in a later chapter,

Marvel’s other significant foray into black superheroes came in the form of Luke Cage –

Hero for Hire. Unlike heroes that had come before him, or ones that would come after

him Cage “was a lower class black man from the ghetto…[with] ‘street credibility.’”

148

Like so many other minority hero characters, however, his “morally ambivalent premise”

was quickly shelved in favor of more conservative viewpoints when sales dropped off.

149

In fact, Wright notes that “by the middle of the 1970s readers and creators alike seemed

to have concluded that…super-heroes ought to spend less time proselytizing and more

time punching.”

150

147

Ibid, 238.

148

Ibid, 247.

149

Ibid, 247.

150

Ibid, 245.

By examining the film industry at this time, we see that the criticisms launched at the

comic industry may not have been coming only from white voices. Based on the reaction

to the Blaxploitation movement in Hollywood, many blacks may have also felt that

militarism in comics was a bad message. The movement created a schism in the black

community. While some African American opinion leaders championed the strong, proud

black figures they saw on screen, others feared that “young blacks would model their

behavior after the…sexuality and retaliatory violence” of the films.

151

The most famous Blaxploitation film of all time was no doubt Shaft. But although

the film made a considerable amount of money (thanks in part to an unforgettable score

by Issac Hayes), Reid attacks the film’s ethics. Unlike Sweetback, Shaft was a hero run

through the filter of white Hollywood. He is accused of relaying the message that no one

would possibly want to stay in ethnic neighborhoods. Blacks who are successful are

much more comfortable associating with whites and middle-class blacks. It is this

rejection of urban black culture that leads critics like Reid to renounce the film trilogy as

the work of “doll makers who painted Barbie’s face brown…[who] merely created black-

skinned replicas of the white heroes of action films.”

152

The success of the films is further complicated by a minimal understanding of the

Hollywood production system by black audiences. Having been shut out of the

Hollywood system of so long, audiences unsatisfied with black portrayals in these films

often unwittingly ended up blaming the waiter for the cook’s mistakes. Thus, black

directors like Gordon Parks and Sidney Poitier were often faulted as the directors of

major Blaxploitation features when in fact the white studios producing the pictures might

151

Mark A. Reid, “The Black Action Film: The End of the Patiently Enduring Black Hero,” Film History,

2:1, (1988), 29.

152

Reid, “The Black Action Hero: The End of the Patiently Enduring Black Hero,” 1988, 32.

well have been the cause of the frustration. As Reid points out, these directors suffered

intense criticism for “how Afro-American life was reflected” on screen.

153

The commercial failure of so many black led comics in the 1960s and 70s resulted

in a less prominent focus on race and particularly black issues from the 1980s on.

Distinctly racialized characters were replaced by a new kind of diversity.

As Marc Singer notes while many superheroes have taken to joining ensemble

militias like the Super Friends, Justice League and Avengers, these milieus that appear as

a racial menagerie are “actually obscuring any signs of racial difference.”

154

This

argument holds that the efforts of comic artists and writers to provide an example of

cross-cultural cooperation between heroes merely acts as lip service to a cause many

publishers are too frightened or apathetic to engage in with any real conviction. Singer

maintains that since the ethnographic origins of practically all non-white characters in the

various factions are purely the invention of the writing staff, “the…supposed racial

diversity [is] mitigated – if not virtually negated.”

155

Thus, even if a character such as

Martian Manhunter, a green-skinned native of the planet Mars, were to relate tales of

discrimination suffered on his home planet, their value is muted since the writers are free

to skirt around any details of such practices in the real world that they find to be too

prickly.

Much of the same evasion tactics can be seen in the depiction of the black

superhero. Author Jeffery A. Brown of the African American Review provides a somber

critique of the injection of the first round of black superheroes into comic book lore.

153

Ibid, 34.

154

Marc Singer, “Black Skins” and White Masks: Comic Books and the Secret of Race, African American

Review, 36:1, (2002), 107.

155

Ibid, 110.

Brown contends that African American superheroes have suffered at the cash register

because they represent a form of “hyper masculinity” brought about by a combination of

the predatory sexuality “already…ascribed” to black males by years of Southern folklore

and the glorification of the well-kept male body insisted upon as a genre convention.

156

Fearful of portraying such strong black characters as role models, Brown insists that

many early superheroes remain “embarrassing image[s]…characterized [by

their]…costumes, street language, and anti-establishment attitudes.”

157

This uber-

masculinity is also accused by Brown of resulting in a short series of box office flops

wherein the black hero would be cast as a bumbling huckster to appease any social

anxiety over the disproportionate strength given to an African character. The recent

release of Hancock, a film following the exploits of a drunken superhero played by Will

Smith, would appear to support this rationale.

Part of the blame for this marginalization, however, can be placed on the

shoulders of the all-white fraternities crafting many of these tales. Brown points out that

until 1993 and the rise of Milestone Comics, a subsidiary of DC devoted to African

American superheroes, there had rarely been a black artist or writer allowed in a major

comics company.

Many other minorities found little expression at all in comic book pages. Asians,

Latinos, and Native Americans were rarely featured except for specific moments in

history when their place in public consciousness was raised to such a high level that

publishers felt they had to comment. For Asians, and particularly the Japanese that

moment was Pearl Harbor. As Bradford Wright points out comics leapt at this

156

Jeffrey A. Brown, “Comic Book Masculinity and the New Black Superhero,” African American

Review, Vol. 33, (1999), 34.

157

Ibid, 34.

opportunity to portray the Asian as “a sinister, ugly, subhuman creature who asked for

and deserved no quarter.”

158

Where depictions of African Americans might have been contained to some

degree by a sense of morality in the artists and authors, the Japanese would be afforded

no such luxuries. No degrading image was too vulgar, no horrifying act too depraved to

commit against the “ghastly yellow demons” dreamt up by publishers.

159

Every major superhero worth his spandex devoted himself to the eradication of

Asian invaders. The usual rouges gallery for Superman, Batman, Captain America and

the like temporally took a back seat to Japanese spies and terrorists bent on destroying

America. One interesting problem that faced comic creators at this time was how to

explain the use of super heroes in the war effort. The average reader of Superman would

tell you that it would have taken little more than an hour for him to single handedly

dispose of Hitler, Mussolini and the entire island of Japan. So why didn’t he? The answer

comic writers came up with hinged on the inferiority of the Japanese. They reasoned in

story after story that the Japanese had not developed their own weapons for use against

the U.S., but rather “used spies to steal [our] technology” then used it against us.

160

Cautious superheroes thus stayed on the home front and fought a host of “fifth column”

operatives that threatened the stability of the nation.

161

Almost identical tactics were

employed later during the Korean War when the Chinese became the enemy. It might be

more accurate therefore to view the history of Asian depictions in comics less as an

allegory for political alliances and more as a constant relay race in which one Asian

158

Wright, Comic Book Nation (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), 45.

159

Ibid, 45.

160

Ibid, 47.

161

Ibid, 47.

culture merely handed off the baton of hatred to another with no perceptible changes in

the manner in which the characters would be portrayed.

Some minorities took it upon themselves to create comic spaces of their own

when they saw that the major American publishers had little interest in appealing to them

as an audience. Anne Rubenstein notes that Mexican readers relied on “producing,

distributing, and interpreting words and pictures” to help them come to an understanding

of the shifting political economy of a post revolutionary Mexico.

162

In many respects

these comics are more risqué than their American counterparts. While Marvel and DC

have a history of actively attempting to obfuscate political upheaval, Mexican authorities

have “allowed many…ideological positions to come up for debate in order to draw all

dissenters into its own ranks and keep them there.”

163

Looking at one of the most popular Latino comics of all time – Love and Rockets

– we see that despite such healthy debates the issues still manage to dredge up many of

the stereotypes common in American comics. The Hernandez Brothers (Beto and Jamie)

crafted a potent blend of “sexuality and soap opera…[populated by]…realistic…full-

blooded Latinas” according to an article in Vibe Magazine

164

. And while the characters of

Love and Rockets are undoubtedly more three dimensional than anything that has ever

appeared in American comics, they are not without their flaws. Much of the appeal to the

comics comes from the way they are drawn. Their sexuality is barely contained. As an

article covering their careers notes “their character’s skins give off heat, and both men

162

Anne Rubenstein, Bad Language, Naked Ladies, & Other Threats to the Nation: A Political History of

Comic Books in Mexico (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998), 3.

163

Ibid, 4.

and women are often shown flushed with desire.”

165

This is highly reflective of the

hyper-sexual imagery of other mediums attributed to Hispanics. By the early 1930s, the

Latin Lover stereotype had become quite common in Hollywood. The Latin Lover was a

far cry from his greaser ancestor. He was a womanizer with a penchant for American

women who “dressed well.”

166

Latin women were also paraded as sensual conquests for

white actors.

Several American comics relied on other Hollywood tropes for their depictions.

One of Hollywood’s most enduring traditions adopted by the comic industry was for

Latin characters to embody the low-level villain. Stephanie Greco Larson describes these

so called el banditos as “emotional, irrational, violent and neither very smart nor

ultimately successful.”

167

Another stereotype, the greaser, has also found expression in

state side comics. Authors Clint C. Wilson and Felix Gutierrez point out that this

stereotype originates from much of the Hispanic-related literature circulating in the

United States following the Louisiana Purchase that was designed to engender

disparaging views of the Latino community in Texas.

168

George Wilkins Kendall, the

founder of the New Orleans Times Picayune, wrote that their aversion to productivity was

so rampant that they would surely soon become extinct.

169

Books and short stories like

“The Time of the Gringo”, “The Inroad of the Nabajo,” and “Anthony Adverse”

portrayed Latinos as slovenly and disinterested in their personal hygiene.

170

Fredric

166

Clint C Wilson and Felix Gutierrez, Race, Multiculturalism, and the Media: From Mass to Class

Communication, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications, 1995), 80.

167

Stephanie Greco Larson, Media & Minorities: The Politics of Race in News and Entertainment,

Spectrum series, race and ethnicity in national and global politics (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006),

59.

168

Wilson and Gutierrez, Race, Multiculturalism, and the Media: From Mass to Class Communication.

169

Ibid, 66.

170

Ibid, 67.

Whertham actually used an EC comic called “The Whipping” as an example of the “race

hatred” taught to children by comics when he testified before Congress in 1954.

171

course, EC was one of the few publishers that was actually attempting to protect the

image of Hispanics by showing the uselessness of racial slurs but this point was lost on

the committee and when EC went out of business there were few ready to take its place

as defender of the Hispanic market.

The only significant depiction of a Hispanic superhero did not end well. In 1975

Marvel gave us Hector Ayala a.k.a. The White Tiger. Ayala discovered a set of mystical

amulets that gave him increased strength. Although he fought for several years alongside

the likes of much more popular heroes such as Spider-Man and Daredevil, he only lasted

six years before sales of comics featuring him got so bad that Marvel had him retire. He

turned over his amulets to a police officer and became a civilian in Spectacular Spider-

Man #52 (1981).

172

Easily the most famous Hispanic character ever to appear in an

American comic is Bane, one of Batman’s most vicious villains. The personification of

the el bandito, Bane has a “listed occupation of ‘professional criminal’” and is not even

given a name aside from his alias.

173

While not technically a superhero, Scrooge McDuck deserves special mention in

this section. Chilean writers Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart penned one of the

most searing critiques of any comic book series when they accused the Disney comic of

propagating support for imperialistic profiteering in Latin American countries. The book,

How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic, was so reviled that

171

Wright, Comic Book Nation,166.

172

Marvel Encyclopedia Online, White Tiger(Hector Ayala), 2010, accessed on June 18, 2010.

http://marvel.com/universe/White_Tiger_%28Hector_Ayala%29.

173

E. Paul Zehr, Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins

University Press, 2008), 221.

Disney actually managed to ban the text temporarily from sale in the United States. The

book insists that by having the nephews of Scrooge travel to third world areas to retrieve

artifacts, children are being taught that Latin American natives have no proper claim to

the resources of their lands. The authors state “unaware of the value of their country’s

wealth, [natives] gladly allow the ducks to dispossess them of their riches in return for

trinkets.”

174

The nephews, Huey, Dewy, and Louie, are vastly superior in intelligence

even to their adult counterparts in Duckberg (i.e., America). The comic therefore creates

an empowering narrative of superiority and teaches its readers that the reward for that

superiority should be consumption without effort. Author Tom Andrae explains the

concept in Marxist terminology: “the value of the products is displaced from the labor

that produces them and is thought to emanate from the product itself.”

175

The Latinos

become merely a means to an end that they have neither the power or the right to claim as

their own.

Native Americans did not fare much better in the comic book world. When the

charge for social reform became a mantra of several heroes, it was often lost on Native

American citizens. Wright notes that “a recurring theme…urg[ed] American Indians to

abandon their traditional hostility towards the United States.”

176

They were, tragically,

the ones painted as intolerant and disrespectful of the dominant concerns of white

America.

Much of the rest of comic representations for Native Americans can be summed up in the

noble savage stereotype. Authors Diana George and Susan Sanders refer to this practice

174

Tom Andrae, Carl Barks and The Disney Comic Book: Unmasking the Myth of Modernity (Jackson,

MS: The University Press of Mississippi, 2006), 10.

175

Ibid, 11.

176

Wright, Comic Book Nation, 54.

as “inferential racism” designed to infuse a vision of the Indian onto American society

defined by its savagery.

177

This more subtle form of racism is recognized in the silent

declaration that Indians only existed “in a particular time…and of a particular tribe and

place.”

178

Thus popular culture is accused of hacking away at and reshaping Indian

heritage into an image suitable to be revered and remembered by liberalized White

America. The authors point to an episode of Northern Exposure in which a main Native

American character shows a white, Jewish friend how to construct an ancient flute. The

Indian represents, as is so common in these tales, the last of his kind. He is a dying breed.

But, when the Jewish man asks him if he is distressed by the fact that soon no one will

know how to perform the ritual of making and using the flute, the Indian ponders for a

moment and responds, “It’s not so tragic…Things become extinct.”

179

He is resigned to

not only his death, it is reasoned, but the death of his way of life because it is the natural

order of life that white men should dominate his land and his people.

Attesting the influence of the noble savage on comics, Mark Wald said “I think

sadly, everything we know about Native Americans was defined by Tonto.”

180

A slight

variation on this theme is that of the mystic, the metaphysically gifted shaman. Timothy

Truman states that one reason so many comic book authors have applied this trite

177

Diana George and Susan Sanders, “Reconstructing Tonto: Cultural Formations And American Indians in

1990s Television Fiction.,” Cultural Studies 9, no. 3 (October 1995): 428, accessed on July 2, 2010,

http://navigator-

millersville.passhe.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=15693

009&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

178

Ibid., 433.

179

Ibid., 438.

180

Emmett Furey, “Native Americans in Comics,” Comic Book Resources, 2007, accessed on July 12,

2010, http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=9170.

convention to their work is that “it’s a way of superficially applying Native traits to a

character saving the writer the burden of more thorough research.”

181

Much of the nuance that embodies many of the other ethnographic cultures

explored by comics publishers since the 1930s falls victim to the same scenarios

described in the Jungle Comics examples with minor alterations. When describing the

unsatisfactory and often degrading treatment of Arab images in American comics, Jack

G. Shaheen laments that many “moderate” Arabs are reduced to figurehead aristocrats

forced to place the fate of their crude kingdoms in the able hands of Western warriors.

182

Still, this depiction appears tame when compared to their criminalization during

periods of political unrest. Just as countless comics made ghouls of Germans and Asians

during World War II and the Korean War respectively, the raison d’etre of the Arab

became the fiendish extermination of democratic values following a rise in Middle East

tensions with the United States before the start of the Persian Gulf War.

183

Like their Far

East counterparts before them, Arabs well into the 1990s have become villainous cannon

fodder for righteous indignation of the suddenly patriotic superhero.

The Arab female form shares in much of the demoralizing literature devoted to

denigrating black women. Shaheen identifies only two feasible roles for an Arab woman

to undertake in the comic realm: harlot or asexual spouse. In either case, the woman is

relegated to a narrative position of “insignificance, a total non-entity.”

184

This is the sad, redundant history of the comic book industry’s approach to race

and ethnicity according to most of the critics who have tackled the subject so far. Many

181

Ibid.

182

Jack G. Shaheen, “Arab Images in American Comic Books,” The Journal of Popular Culture, 28:1,

March (2004), 123.

183

Ibid, 123.

184

Ibid, 129.

of the most profound commentators on race in academia today have not addressed the

comic book world at all, apparently not seeing it as worthy of critical attention. This

dissertation helps explain what made the efforts of comic creators who gave us characters

like The Black Panther, White Tiger, and The Falcon fail. It defines strategies that have

been clandestinely used by major publishers to successfully disseminate racial messages.

Most importantly, it is one of the first book-length academic works to critically analyze

the true nature of the racial/ethnic problem in comic books and how it is being solved one

masked avenger at a time.

CHAPTER III

LEARNING TO FLY: THE PEDEGOGY OF ETHNICITY IN SUPERMAN

The end of the 1930s brought with it the first issue in a bold new mythology that

would characterize the American experience in ways rarely matched by any proceeding

pop icon. That initial pressing of Action Comics #1 in 1938 told of a family in crisis.

Alien parents (very much human in appearance) fretted over the fate of their only son,

Kal-El. A technological catastrophe threatened to obliterate their entire planet in a matter

of minutes. With little time to spare, the child was swathed in garments bearing the

emblem of his people and placed inside a small rocket ship. The ship was then

programmed to seek out the nearest planet that could sustain life in the hopes that the

entirety of a civilization would not be lost.

The planet that careening celestial orb finally selected was Earth where it came to

rest rather unceremoniously in a self-made crater just off a dirt-beaten, country road. The

pod and its contents were soon discovered by the Kents. Jonathan was a farmer,

ferociously committed to the ideals of independence and self-sufficiency, and Martha was

his dutiful wife.

185

The pair was immediately taken with the orphaned voyager and

promptly adopted him into their care. Thus, Kal-El of the expired planet of Krypton was

reborn Clark Kent, all-American boy.

But the last son of Krypton’s inter-stellar heritage could not go ignored for long.

While most other young men struggled with acne, social awkwardness, and the similar

trappings of pubescence, Kent found himself forced to come to terms with x-ray vision, a

185

The names of Clark Kent’s parents have changed slightly over the years. This is the version of their

titles I will be using throughout the course of this paper.

seemingly impenetrable epidermis and the power to defy gravity at will. The boy’s

adoptive parents collaborated on a disguise, an invisible veil to shroud his exceptionalism

with mild-mannered affectations and an absent-minded demeanor. Kent’s alternate

identity was not destined to be forever buried beneath a pair of bifocals and a journalist’s

notepad, however. The boy who would grow up to be the Man of Steel simply defined

specific parameters under which he might reveal his Kryptonian self to the public.

It is this decision to obfuscate Kent’s alter ego that has inspired the current study.

Why must Superman hide himself from the world save for those moments of utter peril in

which his civic duty requires such self-expression? Surely it is not for his own safety.

There could conceivably be very little for a man capable of walking away from a nuclear

blast to fear from the citizens of Metropolis. It can therefore be presumed that his

prolonged bouts in the Kent persona are a matter of personal preference (on one level or

another) and not necessity. This paper proposes that Kal-El adopts the Clark Kent identity

because he wants, quite desperately, to be like all those nameless faces that populate

Metropolis. He wishes he were not from some strange planet that he barely remembers.

He wishes he was a normal, God-fearing American just like his adoptive parents.

This logic reorganizes the structure of the Superman mythology. The Man of

Steel is no longer the star of his own comic. He is an inconvenient reminder of a past life

that is constantly having to be subdued, masqueraded, and hidden. The story of Superman

is not just the tale of a super-powered alien saving the world. It is a thoughtful meditation

of the meaning of being an alien in America. It becomes an instructional text for the

countless young immigrants who are absorbed in its stories month after month. It teaches

them how to acculturate themselves into the American lifestyle. It shows them how to

assimilate properly and how to hide their Otherness. It is a dime store classroom with a

professor in blue spandex.

This paper proposes that Superman represents the ideal version of racial

assimilation. I argue that the text is constructed as a pedagogical tool for young

immigrants. It helps teach them the skills they will require to succeed in their new lives

as American citizens. This interpretation is built off of a close examination of the

sociocultural factors that influenced the lives of creators Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel.

The paper also raises the related issue of how this immigrant narrative alters the

central tone of the comic. As Superman strives more and more valiantly to uphold the

Mid-Western values taught to him by his adoptive parents, the Kryptonian son becomes

less and less directly affiliated with his alien culture. I argue that the comic quickly

becomes less about Superman and more about Clark Kent. The “disguise” that Superman

dons everyday for work is not only the star of the comic but the person that Superman

wants desperately to be. This reinterpretation of the comic begs powerful questions about

the impact these stories have on their audiences.

Creating Superman

But why would the writers of Superman be interested in espousing such a

message? The answer to that question in informed by the post-modernist methodology

described in the introduction. The first step in coming to terms with the counter narrative

strategies employed by comic book creators is understanding the influences that played

upon their subconscious’s when developing the ideas that turned into these iconic

characters. As we will see, in the case of Jerry Siegel, one event in particular drives his

need to imbue Superman with pedagogical qualities.

A quick history of Superman’s creation provides powerful insights into the

motivation for his assimilationist ideology. Joe Shuster and Jerry Seigel, two nineteen

year old Jewish, friends had the good fortune to live in Cleveland, Ohio, one of the more

moderate areas of the United States for immigration pre-World War II. Thanks largely to

an “open civil-political climate” and “limited social distance” between Jews and native

whites, Cleveland masked much of the ethnic tension that gripped other parts of the

country (see: New York and San Francisco).

186

The city was actually so progressive that

protests were held in 1920 and 1938 to draw attention to Anti-Semitic comments from

Henry Ford and Adolf Hitler respectively.

187

In the midst of such an idyllic milieu what

could have shaken the confidence of these creators in their ethnic heritage?

In Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman, Marc Tyler Nobleman and Ross

McDonald paint both Joe and Jerry as typical of the qualities many Americans would

have associated with the Jew at the time. Jerry Seigel is described as a

“short…shy…mousy” child whose intellect and imagination did not lend themselves to

sophisticated feats of social interaction.

188

It is quite possible that Jerry sensed his life

would have turned out very differently had his family been more cautious with the

exhibition of their ethnic identity. While still a boy, Jerry’s father, who ran a clothing

store in the Jewish community of Cleveland, Ohio “died of heart failure during an after-

hours robbery.”

189

Lest there be any question as to how deeply this event impacted the

psyche of Jerry Seigel, one only need analyze the first page of Action Comics #1. The

186

Ewa Morawska, “Becoming Ethnic, Becoming American”, in Divergent Jewish Cultures, eds. Deborah

Dash Moore and L. Ilan Toren , (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), 298.

187

Ibid, 300.

188

Marc Nobleman and Ross McDonald, Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman (Knopf Books for

Young Readers. 2008).

189

Ibid.

origin of the last son of Krypton is condensed to a single two-page spread. In it, a

silhouetted Clark Kent is seen in one panel, shoulders slouched, staring down at two

headstones. The caption reads: “The passing away of his foster parents greatly grieved

Clark Kent. But it strengthened a determination that had been growing in his mind. Clark

decided he must turn his titanic strength into channels that would benefit mankind.”

190

Landing upon the idea of concealing, or better yet augmenting, one’s identity for

personal gain may have even been encouraged after this horrific event by the mild stance

most Jews in Cleveland took towards matters of ethnicity. The world that surrounded him

was one of Jewish newspaper editors who often underreported incidences of Jewish crime

or re-spun those stories which could not be avoided out of fear that “the perception of

Jews as criminals would fan the flames of anit-Semitism” already simmering in America

in the 1930s and 40s.

191

Meanwhile, Jewish stars of radio and television relegated

themselves to “only the most occasional, coy references to Jewishness” presumably in the

hopes of “build[ing] a national following.”

192

Everywhere around him, Jerry Seigel found

examples of successful Jews climbing the social ladders of the United States and doing so

by compartmentalizing or casting off their ethnic idiosyncrasies.

It is likely that the brutal death of his father jarred Siegel awake. It torn down the

curtains that insulated Shuster and himself from the volatile opinions swirling around

America in the twenties and thirties about Jewish immigration. After all, if this kind of

hate crime could happen in Cleveland, it could happen anywhere. Author Hasia R. Diner

190

Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster, “Superman,” Action Comics #1, DC Comics, 1.

191

Rachel Rubin and Jeffrey Melnick, Hollywood, 1930: Jewish Gangster Masquerade, Immigration and

American Popular Culture: An Introduction, (New York: New York University Press, 2007), 37.

192

J. Hoberman and Jeffrey Shandler, The Media that “Speak Your Language” American Yiddish Radio

and Film, (New York: Princeton University Press, 2007), 102.

notes that this “era saw the peak years of American anti-Semitism.”

193

Much of this

discursive rhetoric was the product of an uncertain economic climate. Diner explains that

many farmers blamed the failing agricultural system in America on the Jews. These

“Protestant Fundamentalists” were convinced that Jews “conspired to destroy American

rural life.”

194

Still others believed that Hollywood producers, many of whom were

Jewish, were harming the sociopolitical structure by allowing blacks and Jewish

performers to appear on screen together. It was not uncommon to see a Jewish musician

or actor “cross the color line” inciting the ire of many conservative Americans.

195

Even

universities became sites of contestation. Centers of higher education across the country

set caps on incoming freshmen or “devised [other] strategies to limit their Jewish

students.”

196

It is also worth noting that this era in American history saw the passage of the

Immigration Restriction Act. Although Siegel and Shuster were undoubtedly too young

to have been intimately familiar with the law’s details, they would certainly have noticed

its effects on their communities. The legislation stipulated that immigration numbers

would be constrained to only “2 percent of the number of people from that country who

were already living in the United States [as of] 1890.”

197

This meant that by 1933, when

Superman was first being conceived and designed, a scant 4,000 Jews were allowed into

the country each year.

198

I would suggest that the Superman narrative is designed in its

193

Hasia R. Diner, The Jews of the United States (Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 2004), 208.

194

Ibid, p 208 – 209.

195

Ibid, 208.

196

Ibid, 209.

197

Rubin and Melnick, Hollywood, 1930: Jewish Gangster Masquerade, Immigration and American

Popular Culture: An Introduction, 23.

198

Ibid, 23.

own subtle way to make such policies unnecessary by reimagining Jewish identity in

America.

An examination of the current scholarly literature on Superman supports the

notion that Otherness was at the heart of his message. Robert Himmelberg positioned

Superman as “a New Deal liberal” beset with the task of standing up for “the

downtrodden in general.”

199

For Himmelberg, Superman is more the man against steel

(or at least the improper use of it) than the man of steel. His is a justice of inequity fueled

by the perceived moral vacuity of the ruling class. Although plagued by the antiquity of a

historical moment the theory supplies one of the essential elements to understanding the

Superman character: class struggles. Marshall McLuhan reiterates the tenets of this latter-

day Robin Hood mentality (albeit with slightly less approval). Superman is portrayed as

the embodiment of knee-jerk restitution found preferable to the “laborious process of

civilized life” by readers entrenched in a technocratic world.

200

McLuhan envisions

Superman as a Viking vigilante referring to his acts of apparent heroism as “immature

and barbaric” but nevertheless recognizing his mantle as a champion of the people.

201

The work of Umberto Eco provides a second pillar to the foundation of the

Superman mythology. Eco supplies one of the first scholarly voices to detect the

pedagogical possibilities in the comic’s text. He notes that one of the great strengths of

the text is its ability to “self-identify” with “the average reader.”

202

This is not of course

to imply that any statistically significant portion of Superman’s audience could come

199

Robert F. Himmelberg, Art for the Millions: Culture in the Thirties, The Depression and the New Deal,

Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 2001), 140.

200

Marshall McLuhan, “From The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man,” in Arguing Comics:

Literary Masters on a Popular Medium, eds. Jeet Heeer and Kent Worcester (Jackson, MS. University

Press of Mississippi, 2004), 105.

201

Ibid, 105.

202

Umberto Eco, “The Myth of Superman,” Arguing Comics: Literary Masters on a Popular Medium, eds.

Jeet Heeer and Kent Worcester [eds.], (Jackson, MS, University Press of Mississippi, 2004), 147.

close to approaching his extraordinary physical skills, only that many aspired to. What’s

more, Superman symbolized for readers an empathetic visage of their own daily crises.

Through a system Eco refers to as temporality, Superman became simultaneously “aware

[of] the gravity and difficulty of his decisions” and the necessity of coming to a

conclusion for better or worse because no other man held the proper tools with which to

decide.

203

While precious few readers were charged with deflecting an incoming missile

from the coasts of the United States or saving the love of their life from a vat of molten

metal, they could find comfort in a character that dramatized the real-life battle to put

food on an empty table or decide which bills could afford to be put off.

Moreover, by crafting a universe in which time becomes contextual (if not

altogether meaningless), wherein the events of past issues can be violently altered to

accommodate new storylines, Eco argues that the reader is taught that he is “not

responsible for his past, nor master of his future.”

204

This revelation permits the reader to

emancipate himself from existing guilt and live in the present moment as it is all that can

be controlled or planned for. This is essentially giving the reader permission to let go of

the vestiges of their cultural heritage.

Mark Waid, the author of many classic Superman tales provides a slightly less

esoteric evaluation of Krypton’s favorite son. His diagnosis of Kent’s blue, red, and

yellow identity is summed up by the title of one of the sub-sections of his essay: “The

Need to Belong.”

205

Waid defers to the work of Marianne Williamson in his reasoning,

stating that we as sentient beings can only actualize our self-worth when we participate to

203

Ibid, 153.

204

Ibid, 157.

205

Mark Waid, “The Real Truth about Superman: And the Rest of Us, Too,” in Superheroes and

Philosophy, eds. Tom Morris and Matt Morris, (Peru, IL: Open Court Publishing Company, 2005), 7.

the fullest possible extent of our abilities with the civilizations we encounter. From this

perspective, Superman dons his red cape because in “exercising his distinctive powers

[he is] fulfilling his authentic destiny.”

206

With this assessment, Waid has come closer

than any other researcher in defining the most basic quality that underlies Superman’s

appeal, but like the final author to be discussed, he mis-represents Superman’s

“authentic” self.

Danny Fingeroth finally hits upon the great truth behind Superman’s appeal. Like

Himmelberg before him, he realizes that issues of class lie at the heart of the Superman

mythos, but he goes further correctly identifying the specific element of that class

commentary as immigration. Specifically, Fingeroth notes “[f]or…many…readers of

early superhero stories [who] were children…of immigrants, [Superman was a] symbolic

reenactment of their own ambivalent feelings about where their roots lay, and where their

lives in America were taking them.”

207

Superman is unquestionably an alien. No one could possibly read an issue of the

many iterations of the character without assessing that biologically speaking Kal-El is at

best a distant cousin to mankind. But even those who write the stories that continue to

fuel the mythology concede that biology is almost all that the Man of Steel inherited from

his birth parents or his home world. Speaking of the difficulties he encountered re-

imagining the Superman tale for modern audiences, Mark Waid wrote: “it occurred to me

as I began to formulate Superman: Birthright [that Kal-El] would have only some passing

familiarity with his origins.”

208

This leaves one to wonder, if his natural heritage had been

206

Ibid, 10.

207

Danny Fingeroth, “The Dual Identity: Of Pimpernels and Immigrants from the Stars,” Superman on the

Couch, (New York: Continuum, 2004), 55.

208

Mark Waid, “The Real Truth about Superman: And the Rest of Us, Too,” 9.

absconded by some immense chemical combustion, where would an alien orphan turn for

guidance in the principles by which he would live his life? The same place any orphan

would: his adopted parents. The fact that Jonathan and Martha Kent model their behavior

after wholesome Mid-Western American ideals then becomes significant to the

development of the Superman/Clark Kent character. Superman is rarely seen fretting over

disappointing his unknown birth parents with the choices he makes. He does not have the

knowledge of Kryptonian moral parameters upon which to base such an assessment of his

judgments. But he has lived on the Kent farm for the formative years of his life. He is

constantly seen returning there to escape the congestion of Metropolis. If this fact appears

frivolous at first glance consider that his natural gifts allow him to dart through the

cosmos at blazing speeds. He could effortlessly rise above the ionosphere in the space of

time it takes most of us to blink and be rid of any offensive noise, but he chooses as so

many children do to seek refuge at his home, his father’s farm. It is the inculcation of

these vales that permits authors like David Hajdu to claim that Superman represents “the

American way.”

209

But to paint Clark Kent/Kal-El as the personification of a corn-fed, God-fearing,

Mid-Western product of Americana would ignore his associations with immigration. Bob

Oksner who is described by David Hajdu as “a contemporary of [Joel Siegel and Joe

Shuster]” remarked of the creation of Superman “There’s no question in my mind that

Jerry saw Superman as a kind of projection of his own self-image or his own fantasies

about himself.”

210

Buoyed by this appraisal, Hajdu states bluntly and without reservation,

209

David Hajdu, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America (New

York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008), 31.

210

Ibid, 30.

“Superman was...Jewish.”

211

This statement provides evidence that the creators of

Superman made him as a hero especially if not exclusively for Jewish boys of future

generations like themselves. The manner in which themes of Jewish assimilation and

(more rarely) resistance are strung throughout the narrative adds another post-modern

layer to this mythology.

But even this does not go far enough in its operationalization. Superman is more

than just Jewish. He is an amalgamation, a piecemeal facsimile of the whole immigrant

experience. The nature of super heroism demands that those heeding the call represent

something larger than themselves. This is what Joseph Campbell is referring to when he

speaks of the mythical quality ascribed to the various holy figures of the world’s

religions. Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, these men capture in their existence the

“suggestion of more remaining to be experienced than will ever be known or told.”

212

do not study the lives of these figures to understand who they were, but to uncover the

signposts for a reflection of a better version of ourselves through their archetypical

experiences.

Such is Superman…or perhaps I should say Clark Kent. After all, his is the

identity of the über-immigrant. Clark is not some costume to be draped on before

attending the masquerade of monotony that constitutes day-to-day living. If Superman’s

moral compass is so ethically positioned a priori of any Kryptonian influence, then one

must presume that Kal-El is more Clark Kent than Superman. Moreover, given his

immigrant roots (both narratively and institutionally) and the assimilationist tendencies

that spring forth from them, he is becoming more so with each passing issue. In this

211

Ibid, 30.

212

Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces (Princeton, NJ: Bollingen Series XVII Princeton

University Press, 1949), 3.

sense, he is the embodiment of the counter narrative. There is constantly a second layer

of meaningfulness attached to each action he takes. There are in essence two stories

happening in each issue. Superman’s stunts entertain the masses while Clark Kent’s

lessons inform the Jewish reader.

From a CRT perspective, Kent/Superman represents one of the more compelling

cases for the social construction of racial identity. His sense of self is almost completely

defined by his experiences living in America. He has little to no memory of his time on

Krypton. His identity is the product of learned social behaviors. His meek, bumbling

frame forms a quintessential mold for the invisible man motif presented by Ralph Ellison.

In his pioneering work, Ellison insists that a persistent climate of racial inequality has

rendered those in the privileged classes unable or unwilling to recognize the basic

humanity of the ethnic other – effectively excommunicating such persons from civilized

existence. Ellison’s resolution to this crisis was to inspire the acknowledgment of the

ethnic other by those who would deny him by sheer force of affability. “I’d agree them to

death and destruction” he muses.

213

Ellison’s strategy was predicated on a simple

directive, “Responsibility rests upon recognition, and recognition is a form of

agreement.”

214

At its heart, this is a plea for assimilation as much as it is a non-violent

declaration of war. Forcing members of the majority to admit that they share common

space, common interests, and perhaps common values with the underprivileged can

presumably win small measures of social rights clandestinely. From this perspective,

Clark Kent is the conscience of the mythology if not always its focus. Superman gains

213

Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man (Kingsport, TN: Random House, 1947), 384.

214

Ibid, 11.

recognition from all walks of life simply by interjecting himself into a situation. His

presence is not to be denied. That Kal-El takes the time to garner the affections of his co-

workers is more than a mere ploy to maintain some supposed secret identity, it is an

earnest effort at becoming accepted as the man he hopes to be rather then the man he can

so easily become.

Superman in the 1940s

Presumably the 1940s should have been a time of tremendous identification with

ethnic heritage for American Jews. But, due to “fears of provoking domestic anti-

Semitism” the response to the atrocities of the Holocaust by American Jews was often

“lethargic.”

215

Though it might seem callous in retrospect, many Jews were just

recovering from the inflammatory sentiments hurled at them during the Great Depression.

The “self-actualization” experienced by several Jews in the war years resulted in a shift in

values.

216

Many decided they would rather be well taken care of and anonymous than

take a stand. This standpoint seems to agree in principle with Siegel’s plea for a more

assimilated Jewish experience. This communal choice of non-action is the first time

historical events begin to inform the content of the comic book. This second step in the

post-modernist method reinforces Siegel and Shuster’s desire to portray Kent/Superman

as a humble and grateful assimilated alien.

In Lois Lane Loves Clark Kent, the reader is given one of the first lessons in

assimilation. The writers strike at the issue of intermarriage when Lois Lane sees a

psychiatrist after a fainting spell. He advises her that she is suffering from a broken heart

because she loves a man (Superman) that she could never have. He suggests that she aim

215

Rafael Medoff, Jewish Americans and Political Participation: A Reference Handbook (Santa Barbra,

CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc, 2002, 46.

216

Ibid, 46.

her advances towards someone more attainable, like Clark Kent. Superman is not

unobtainable because of personal distance. He has saved Lois several times at this point

in the series. The doctor is referring to the couple’s strong ethnic differences, even if he

doesn’t use the words precisely. As an alien from another world,

217

Superman’s routine is

too foreign to that of Lois Lane for the two of them to ever be able to form a meaningful

and lasting relationship. From this perspective, Jewish men interested in courting a wider

range of women would be well served to leave the artifacts of their heritage at the door.

When the United Sates went to war, like other super heroes Superman had to stay

behind and keep the domestic front under control. In America’s Secret Weapon, the

writers of the Man of Steel found an inventive way to get him involved in the action of

war without betraying this unspoken agreement between comic book publishers. The

comic explains his absence by having him fail an eye exam as part of his physical when

he tries to enter the military. He accidently reads the eye chart in the next room using his

x-ray vision because he is eager to join the army’s ranks. Undeterred, he reasons “I could

be of more use to my country working right here at home battling the saboteurs and fifth

columnists.”

218

Superman visits a U.S.O. camp and participates in a “dress rehearsal” for

the real fight in the form of war games.

219

After Superman’s team loses, he announces

that it is among the proudest moments of his career for it has reassured him that

“American soldiers cannot be defeated by Supermen or anyone else.”

220

He explains that

the real secret weapon alluded to by the issue’s title is the heart of the American solider,

their never say die attitude that will surely lead them to victory. This pandering through

217

William Woolfolk, “Lois Lane Loves Clark Kent,” Superman #58 (New York: DC Comics, 1949).

218

Jerry Siegel, “Superman Daily Comic Strip,” (New York: DC Comics,1942).

219

Don Cameron, “America’s Secret Weapon,” Superman #23 (New York: DC Comics, 1943), 150.

220

Ibid, 157.

patriotic propaganda was in line with the Jewish resistance on the home front to taking a

stance against the Holocaust as a separate injustice.

Superman in the 1950s

Jews had good reason to distance themselves from their racial heritage as the

United States entered the 1950s. The unstable political climate created by the Korean

War had made threats of foreign and domestic Communism a very serious topic of

conversation for many Americans. The close relationship of Jews to “unions, the civil

rights movement, liberalism and civil liberties” accentuated their differences from the

dominant class at a time when scrutiny on political grounds could often turn fatal.

221

Such was the case in 1950 when Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were arrested on

suspicion of committing espionage with the Soviet Union. The debilitating effect their

arrest and subsequent execution had on perceptions of Jewishness in America can

scarcely be overstated. According to Hasia Diner, “the Rosenbergs…and the anti-

Communist crusade…made the Jews exceedingly nervous.”

222

Given the gravity of the

ethnic dilemma of the times it is hardly surprising that the assimilationist message of

Superman would continue unabated in the 1950s. If Siegel and Shuster had been reluctant

to show Superman as audacious in the exhibition of his racial heritage before, this

confirmed their worst suspicions. The world was not ready to openly accept Jews in all

their ethnic regalia. The need for Superman as a tool for conformist rhetoric was higher

than ever.

221

Diner, The Jews of the United States, 277.

222

Ibid, 277.

In an issue titled Superman in the White House, the comic goes to great pains to

show Superman as a loyal American citizen that would never misuse his power to harm

the federal government. Clark Kent’s co-worker and friend Jimmy Olsen has a dream that

Superman has been elected president. As the Commander and Chief Superman

miraculously performs a number of feats with almost no effort. He balances the budget,

for example, by diving to the ocean floor and recovering pirate gold. When Kent

discovers Olsen talking in his sleep he declares “he can never write that story! It’s

impossible for Superman ever to be the chief executive of the U.S.”

223

From a logistical

standpoint Kent is referring to the provision in the Constitution that prohibits foreign-

born citizens from holding the office. This is also a message that would no doubt be

reassuring to conservative Americans.

The idea of allowing an all-powerful foreigner to control the highest office in the

country would have been incredibly insensitive within the Red Scare climate of the

1950s. Not only is Superman declaring that he would never run for office, the comic

demonstrates that if he were in office he (and by extension Jewish Americans) would not

abuse or otherwise misuse that power. This sentiment is incredibly similar in tone to the

public demonstrations held by many Jewish groups during the 1950s to declare

adamantly their anti-Communist stance.

The issue ends with Kent breaking the forth wall to address his readers directly.

With a wink and a nod he explains “yes, Superman could never be president, but Clark

Kent could.”

224

Even though Kent’s joke may be as much a dream as Olsen’s vivid

fantasy, it speaks to the tennents of CRT scholarship. This would amount to a self-

223

Otto Binder, “Superman in the White House,” from Action Comics #241, (New York: DC Comics,

1958), 32.

224

Ibid, 35.

actualization phase of socially constructed ethnic identity. It implies that an alien could so

comepletely assimilate himself into the fabric of American culture that he would not only

cease to threaten the security of its citizens, he could win their respect and loyalty on a

massive scale.

An issue covering Clark Kent’s years matriculating at Metropolis University

provides ample opportunity to show off Kent’s ability to hide his superpowers. On his

first day of school a group of seniors tosses him a piece of luggage far too heavy for the

meek Clark Kent to carry. As the suitcase hurtles towards him Kent decides “it’s a

custom for upper classmen to lord it over us lowly freshmen…I might as well do as I’m

asked without complaining.”

225

The language used here is very instructive. It is not

always enough to simply hide your ethnic identity, there is an act of submission involved

as well. Kent is putting aside his pride for a larger purpose. These actions manifest as an

atonement for his Otherness. Certainly many Jewish readers would have related to such a

message after assisting the House Un-American Activities Committee ferret out potential

Communists.

An even more striking piece of evidence occurs when Kent is hooked up to a lie

detector as part of a class experiment. His professor has become convinced that he is

secretly Superman. Kent tells him he is not even though he knows that he cannot fool the

machine. Miraculously, the lie detector claims he is telling the truth. Dumbfounded Kent

realizes that he has successes because at that moment he’s

“not…Superman…anymore.”

226

When he is “disguised” as Clark Kent the change is so

complete that there is no sub-conscious version of Superman affecting his judgments.

225

Jerry Coleman, “Clark Kent’s College Days,” in Superman #125 (New York: DC Comics, 1958), 160.

226

Ibid, 168.

This further indicates that Kent deserves to be viewed as a character of at least equal

importance to Superman.

Several issues later, when Superman is introduced for the first time to his

Kryptonian cousin Super Girl, the audience is treated to fatherly advice passed down

from one alien to the next. Superman explains to Super Girl that she must not expose her

powers to “the outside world.”

227

Her first lesson in respecting her new home planet is to

mask her ethnic self. When she asks if she can use her powers to help people the way that

Superman does, he again asks her to refrain noting, “you’ll need long practice before you

can use your superpowers properly.”

228

As a diplomat of his race, Superman is acting in

an exceptionally bureaucratic fashion here. He understands that overexposing one’s

Otherness, using that identity carelessly could result in longitudinal consequences. He is

trying to keep Super Girl from becoming another Ethel Rosenberg.

Superman in the 1960s

The 1960s presented a vexing time for the Jewish population in America. They

were caught in a contraction. On one hand, many Jews were professing their faith more

publicly than they had ever done before. On the other, they were finding the traditional

Jewish lifestyle too constricting for their modern tastes and many younger Jews were

leaving the tenants of their faith behind.

Orthodox Judaism became far more common in the 1960s. A special sub-set of

this pious class of Jews calling themselves “ultra-Orthodox” began to insist that those

truly committed to the Jewish faith renounce American values.

229

These ultra-Orthodox

227

Otto Binder, “The Supergirl from Krypton,” in Action Comics #252 (New York: DC Comics,1959),

386.

228

Ibid, 386.

229

Diner, The Jews of the United States, 311.

leaders put pressure on Jewish institutions to conform to strict definitions of Jewish law.

They pressured Jewish universities to ban gay students and tried to prevent upwardly

mobile opportunities for Jewish women.

At the same time, intermarriage rates for Jews rose to untold heights. From 1960

to 1965 studies in national magazines showed that “31.7 percent had chosen a non-Jewish

spouse, amounting to an increase of 500 percent” from the previous decade.

230

These

numbers indicate a substantial growth in Jews assuming a more moderate interpretation

of their faith that would allow them to intermingle with modern society more freely. This

alteration resulted in many Jews casting off the most ornate elements of their heritage in

favor of American customs. This relaxing of tensions between Jewish and non-Jewish

residents clearly finds expression in the Superman comic as the Man of Steel’s true roots

are alluded to much more openly.

These changes in attitude can be viewed in the Superman mythology. In some

issues like 1961’s The Death of Superman the comic’s authors have begun to take a much

more direct approach to addressing the immigrant issue. As the title suggests, the issue

depicts the funeral procession of the Man of Steel. A jury tires Lex Luthor who is

accused of killing Superman. He attempts to bargain for his release but the judge will not

stand for it. He compares Luthor’s crimes to those of Nazi General Adolf Eichmann

231

Eichmann had been one of the architects of the concentration camps. This comparison

marks one of the boldest implications of Superman’s Jewish ties that the comic had

undertaken since the outbreak of World War II. Just as Orthodox Jews were beginning to

230

Ibid, 307.

231

Jerry Siegel, “The Death of Superman,” in Superman #149 (New York: DC Comics, 1961), 198.

gain confidence in expressing their faith, the Superman comic series saw fit to brand his

long-time arch nemesis a Nazi.

Other issues of the era point back to a more subdued version of the character,

however. In The Red Kryptonite Menace Clark Kent discovers a statue of red kryptonite

while investigating a story with Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. Unlike traditional green

kryptonite, the red variety “affect[s]…[Superman]…in many terrible, unpredictable

ways.”

232

As he stares at the statue Clark begins to fret that it will alter his body,

exposing him as Superman. The panel depicting his fantasy shows Superman with long

hair and an unkempt beard with ghoulishly long fingernails. This slovenly image is

typical of the caricatures that depicted Jews in political cartoons. The real fear for Kent in

this scenario is that the kryptonite will undo all of the hard work he has put in to

Americanize himself. The red kryptonite threatens to betray his socially constructed

racial identity by exposing his biological featuers in ways that cannot be suppressed.

Superman’s commitment to his earthly life is reaffirmed in Superman’s Last Day

of Life. When he falsely believes that he is dying from a rare Kryptonian disease he

spends the last bit of his energy soaring to different parts of the world that he wants to see

one last time before he perishes. He visits Smallville, his boyhood home. He visits his

close friends Batman and Robin, and he visits Lana Lang and Lois Lane, his two greatest

loves. Of note for the purposes of this essay is that he never goes back to the Fortress of

Solitude. While he can’t physically visit his home planent of Krypton for it no longer

exists, he has many of the artifacts from that world stored in his Fortress. That they mean

so little to him that he would not even want to glance at them one last time before he died

is telling. All of his memories, all of his joy is built around his experiences as an

232

Unknown, “The Red Kryptonite Menace,” in Action Comics # 283 (New York: DC Comics, 1961), 218.

American. He has so deeply acculturated himself that the meaning of his existence is

bound up in his relationships with the people he has befriended on Earth.

Superman in the 1970s

The 1970s saw Jewish society begin to more directly reflect the leftist ideologies

of the larger American community. Age-old traditions began to face new scrutiny as

oppressed groups within the Jewish sub-culture of Orthodoxy questioned the rationale for

their existence. Jewish women rallied around the larger rhetoric of feminism to challenge

Jewish leaders for the right to worship as equals. The Ezrat Nashim, a liberal women’s

rights coalition, demanded “the elimination of…subordinate treatment of women in

Jewish marriage and divorce laws.”

233

They also fought for leadership positions in the

synagogues. Sally Preisand’s instatement as the first female rabbi in 1972 highlighted this

Reform Movement within the Jewish community.

234

This period of reevaluation is mirrored in some of the classic Superman tales from

the 1970s. In Must There be a Superman the series tackles the issue of social construction

of racial memory in inventive new ways. After he is knocked unconscious while diverting

an asteroid from entering the Milky Way galaxy, the Guardians, a group of immortal

beings that indirectly control much of the universe, nurse Superman back to health.

235

They decide to implant the notion subconsciously in Superman’s brain that he may be

doing more harm than good for the human race by constantly helping them with their

struggles.

233

The Jewish Americans, Change in Jewish Traditions, accessed on July 25, 2010,

www.pbs.org/jewishamericans/jewis_life/modern_america.html.

234

Ibid.

235

For more on the Guardians you can re-read the introduction to this dissertation where they are

mentioned in connection to the Green Lantern.

Superman spends much of the remainder of the issue tormented over whether his

presence on Earth is actually interfering with “human social growth.”

236

This presents a

fascinating commentary on the nature of social construction of identity. By inserting a

single suggestion into Superman’s mind, the Guardians have caused him to question the

value of his very existence. While the cultivation of such ideas in the real world may take

considerably more time to manifest themselves, the logic is similar. It seems fitting that a

character modeled after a minority whose own sense of self was so deeply rooted in the

stereotypes developed about them in America would undergo such a crisis of conscience.

In The Private Life of Clark Kent, the reader is introduced to one of the few men

who knows Kent’s secret identity. A childhood friend from Smallville runs into Kent

when he returns home to visit his parent’s old home. The friend, Pete Ross, assumes that

Kent has returned home because he is worried that some clue to his identity might be left

behind. It is only as he watches how completely Kent lets himself drift away into

memories of good times spent with his foster parents that he realizes the home holds

sentimental value for him. This appears to floor Ross. How could an all-powerful alien be

brought to tears by an old farmhouse? He comes to the same conclusion that this

dissertation has argued all along: “Clark Kent [has] become as genuine a human being as

Superman.”

237

Reiterating the power of socially constructed racial identities, Ross quotes

“a wise man once said, ‘we must be very careful about what we pretend to be because

one day we may wake up to find that’s what we are.”

238

236

Elliott S. Maggin, “Must There be a Superman,” in Superman #247 (New York: DC Comics, 1972),

183.

237

Ibid, 200

238

Ibid, 200.

One final critique of social construction of race comes in the pages of I Am

Curious (Black) Lois Lane wants to do an expose on the experience of African

Americans living in tenement housing in Metropolis. When no one will speak to her as a

white woman, she convinces Superman to fly her to the Fortress of Solitude where he has

a device called a Plastimold. The Plastimold is roughly shaped like a mummy’s coffin.

When someone steps into it they can have their skin color temporarily changed to match

the appearance of any race they want. Superman uses the Plastimold to turn Lois black so

she can infiltrate the black community and get her story. What is more interesting is that

he has had in his possession for years a machine that would allow him to overcome the

limits of his alien biology with the flip of a switch. When choosing a disguise he easily

could have donned the skin of an African American or a Native American which would

have made for a much more convincing costume than a pair of bifocals. That Kal-El

chooses for Clark Kent to be white is an indication of how badly he wants to assimilate

into the mainstream of American culture. It is also perhaps a sad commentary on how the

desire to fit in can effect a person’s choices.

Superman in the 1980s

The 1980s are often thought of as “halcyon days” for Jewish Americans.

239

Reagan’s efforts to end Communist rule in Soviet Russia was seen as a tremendous

victory for Jewry. Much of the credit for freeing Soviet Jews has been given to Reagan

who “made [it] a priority at each meeting between U.S. Soviet officials.”

240

The resulting

flood of new immigrants to the States was extraordinary. In 1967, less than eighty Jews

emigrated from the Soviet Union, by 1989 following the tearing down of the wall, almost

239

Ron Kampeas, “Jews Learned Their Power and Limits During Reagan Years,” J Weekly.com, (2004).

240

Ibid.

thirty-seven-thousand made the trek to America.

241

Many of these Jews had grown up

expressing their faith in vastly different ways from the common practices of American

Jews. As a result, Hasin Diner explains that many “federations and…other social service

agencies, took on the process of ‘judaizing’ the immigrants.”

242

At this point in American

history that judaiation would have largely been synonymous with Americanizing these

Eastern European newcomers. The Superman narratives of the 1980s would spend a

considerable amount of time returning to the original message of the text, inculcating

values to a new generation of first time Americans. The historical moment had once

again called for alterations to the narrative.

In The Secret World of Jonathan Kent, Superman’s own adoptive father makes a

pilgrimage of his own. He travels back from the grave to see what his son has grown up

to become. The writers, playing fast and loose with the Superman canon, inform the

audience that many years ago in Smallville, Jonathan was visited by aliens who give him

a gift of one wish in reward for taking in Kal-El. The elder Kent’s wish was to see his son

one last time after he passed on. In this case, it is Jonathan who is still trying to guide

Clark Kent. He presses him to marry Lois Lane declaring that they will “make a perfect

match.”

243

This call for intermarriage is a return to form for the series as it once again

plants the seeds of assimilationist and universalist rhetoric.

In a tribute issue to Siegel and Shuster, a world is imagined in which Superman

never existed. An alien race threatens to take over the world and only two young boys

who believe in the power of imagination can save it. Those two young boys are clearly

241

Diner, The Jews of the United States, 317.

242

Ibid, 317.

243

Cary Bates, “The Secret World of Jonathan Kent,” in Action Comics #508 (New York: DC Comics,

1980), 42.

meant to represent the creators of Superman. Their names are Joey and Jerry. They live in

Cleveland, Ohio. The story’s strength is its understanding of how much of an effect

characters like Superman have on young readers. As the Siegel and Shuster clones hide in

a cave to escape the aliens’ advance, they begin drawing Superman on a cave wall to take

their mind off their troubles. The drawing distresses the aliens. He represents a return to

the world of the power of mythology. The children argue with one another over what it is

about the drawing that scares the aliens so terribly. Joey claims “They’re scared of him

[Superman].”

244

Jerry more astutely surmises that they fear the “idea” of him.

245

As the boys run triumphantly through the streets in homemade Superman

costumes encouraging their neighbors to help fight off the invading alien horde, the

comic reminds of how valuable the core concepts of Superman developed on a drawing

table in 1935 still are to the character fifty years later. The Superman of 1984 is still a sly

combination of the best traits of Joe and Jerry magnified with super powers sprinkled in.

He is still the embodiment of two young Jewish boys from Cleveland. To imagine that

this Jewish attitude is not still wrapped up in what Superman represents is to

fundamentally misread the message of the Man of Steel.

In Homeward Bound, the issue of Clark’s double identity again rises to the

surface. A grueling battle with one of his foes leaves Superman unable to make it to

Jonathan and Martha Kent’s anniversary party. As he flies to Smallville to make an

appearance, he chastises himself for letting “the Clark side of [himself]” be pushed aside

by the needs of Superman.

246

It would be enough to stop here and note that the fact Kal-

244

Marv Wolfman, “If Superman Didn’t Exist,” in Action Comics # 554 (New York: DC Comics, 1984),

60.

245

Ibid, 60.

246

Marv Wolfman, “Homeward Bound,” in Superman # 430, (New York: DC Comics, 1987), 121.

El puts so much effort into addressing his persona as Clark Kent shows how much the

identity means to him on a personal level. This is not just a name and a face that he holds

onto to keep up appearances. He has deep seated investment in the relationships he has

fostered as Clark Kent. In many cases they mean more to him than the ones he forms as

his alter ego. But Jonathan Kent drives home for readers the value of Clark to the

Superman mythology when he states “that rubbish about you not being Clark and only

being Superman – that’s all it is – rubbish. You’re one man son.”

247

And that one man is

the Jewish approximation of a Mid-Western farming family.

Superman in the 1990s

Alex Ross’ vision of an older Superman, a la Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight

Returns series, provides a slightly different dimension to the immigrant status of the

world’s greatest superhero. Kingdom Come pontificates over what happens when the

immigrant absorption experience goes awry. The tale imagines that Superman’s boy

scout vision of American principles has slowly begun to conflict with the morally

ambiguous stance of the average citizen. A country that has lived through Watergate, the

Vietnam War, and Columbine challenges his utopian conceptions of justice. Citizens

openly accuse Superman of lacking the fortitude to do what must be done when the Joker

strides into town and commences with a killing spree. His last victims totaled ninety-two

men and one woman – the collective staff of the Daily Planet. Superman demands that he

be put through the paces of the traditional judicial system, but before he can make it up

the steps to the courthouse, Magog, a new breed of metahuman,

248

strikes him down with

a blast from his staff. Superman is shocked when a jury refuses to find Magog guilty. The

247

Ibid, 123.

248

The term commonly used in the mini-series to refer to those with superhero-like powers.

public consensus appears to be that he has done the world a long overdue favor. Unable

to process the glamorization of such an act, Superman retreats from the outside world not

to be seen or heard from for ten years.

During that stretch, he redesigns a room in the Fortress of Solitude to act as an

exact replica of his father’s farm. The first images of him in the series are a clear

intimation of the famous cover from Action Comics #1. Only here, instead of lifting a car

filled with gangsters over his head, Kal-El balances a tractor with one outstretched arm

while carrying a piece of timber into the barn with the other. He is dressed in overalls and

perspiring with the sweat of an honest day’s work. It is telling that even in a space that is

meant to be set aside as a reminder of his home planet, he has seen fit to design a room

around his American childhood. The Fortress is a place for holding onto memories, to

keep them from fading or being lost. Placing a replica of the family farm here shows how

much Kent values his American roots.

One of the more powerful critiques of ethnic/white relastions comes in the mini-

series Peace on Earth also by Alex Ross. The story finds Superman distressed by the fact

that so many people around the world will suffer from starvation over the holiday

(Christmas) season. In an effort to right this injustice, he requests an audience with

Congress. Of course, Superman’s powers make it such that he hardly needed the approval

of a government body to carry out his moral obligations, but he professes to be “grateful”

for “the chance to be heard.”

249

Unquestionably there is a message here that even those

with the power to work outside the laws of the United States should adhere to it as a

matter of civic responsibility. Here stretched out across two pages is a single panel

showing a god humbling himself before the feet of the American political system. After

249

Alex Ross and Paul Dini, Peace on Earth, (New York: DC Comics, 1999).

gaining there permission of the U.S. government to fly supplies around the world for one

day, Superman muses regretfully to himself, “I know at best this will provide only a days

relief for people who need so much more. But perhaps that’s what’s needed to start the

rest of the world thinking about a permanent solution.”

250

The writers clearly see the Man

of Steel as an instrument for social change in this passage, not just in the pages of the

fictive realm of Metropolis, but as an agent of reform in the real-world. In the end, even

the mighty Kal-El can not adequately supply the world with the rations it needs. His

efforts in unnamed foreign lands are met with political protest, bullets, and in one

instance biological warfare. He sits back in his apartment that night wondering “Did I

truly think I would be able to succeed? Knowing what I do of human nature.”

251

In spite

of his disappointment, the exclusive interview he gives to Clark Kent for the next day’s

edition of the Daily Planet quotes the man in blue and red as remaking “Many times I’d

considered taking stronger action to help the world, but I realized such measures could be

shortsighted and disastrous.”

252

Once again the huddled masses are heeded to remain at

bay by their stalwart defender assured that with faith in the existing processes of man,

progress and prosperity will come when the time is right.

Superman in the New Millennium

In Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman, the Man of Steel

learns that there are limits to his indestructibility. After flying too close for too long to the

Sun on a mission to prevent a space station from being sabotaged, Superman has for all

intents and purposes developed skin cancer. Unsure how to deal with the possibility of

death, he reconciles to reveal his secret identity to those he most loves in the world. The

250

Ibid,

251

Ibid,

252

Ibid,

culmination of this purging of secrets comes in an invitation for Lois Lane to the Fortress

of Solitude.

253

Once inside, Superman candidly opens up to Lois on the nature of his dual-

identity. But she is incredulous in her assertion that the omnipotent alien she has privately

swooned over for years could possibly be related to the sniffling journalist with whom

she shares an office. Distressed by her dismissal Kal-El implores her: “Lois please, I AM

Clark Kent.”

254

The profundity of this statement cannot be overemphasized. This is not

merely an admission that Superman and Clark Kent share the same body. It is an

epiphany that morally, psychologically, socially and ideologically they are a fused self-

conception, a single soul. By being forced to confront the biological determinants of his

adopted world, he has become more fully assimilated than ever before.

The need for this conversation to take place in such a protected environment

points to the fears commonly associated with immigrants openly identifying with their

mother culture. After being given the news, Lois Lane sits alone in a darkened corridor of

the fortress. In an extreme close up of her teeth gnashing over one another, she mutters to

herself: “What if there really was some part of him that was bumbling, offish Clark Kent?

I just don’t know if I could deal with that.”

255

Not only does this highlight the all-too-real

fear of rejection experienced by many immigrant cultures, it exemplifies the invisible

man dilemma. Because Clark and Superman are seen externally as assimilating at

different rates, their congealing into a single person causes exceptional distress.

253

This was a sanctuary for Superman, where he housed many of his other-worldly possessions. The temple

was constructed from a hollowed out glacier of ice and introduced as a safe haven for Superman to explore

his alien impulses away from the judgmental eye of society.

254

Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, All-Star Superman (New York: DC Comics, 2006), 46.

255

Ibid, 49.

In an ancillary story from the same series, a new form of Kryptonite, a black

version, is unearthed by probing scientists. When exposed to the poisonous rock,

Superman is not drained of his powers as is traditional to the mythology, but rather

stripped of his moral code. Kal-El goes on a violent tear through Metropolis with total

disregard for the safety of the civilians he so dutifully defends. It might be said that this

mineral had exacerbated the negative connotations of the immigrant in Superman.

While affected, he speaks in short, clipped phrases, a possible allusion to the

broken English caricatured in visages of Ethnic life in America. Here Superman is seen

treating America as a temporary location and not like his home. Once Jimmy Olsen, one

of Clark Kent/Superman’s oldest friends manages to reverse the effects of the Kryptonite

on his mentor, he explains to him: “[he] was everything you’re not. A bully, a coward, a

liar.”

256

This is the danger of immigration made manifest when proper inculcation

practices are not put in place.

This fear of potential infection from foreign soil is reiterated in Mark Waid’s

Birthright. The story opens with a twenty-something Clark Kent in the midst of an

African civil war as a free-lance reporter. The two tribes, the Tubaaba and the Ghuri have

entered into a blood-soaked dispute over perceived cultural imperialist tendencies. The

Ghuri accuse the Tuaaba (a far more economically prosperous group) of recasting the

history of their region in textbooks to turn their children against Ghuri causes. Kobe

Asuru, the leader of the Ghuri rebellion tells Kent during an interview, “It is the way of

Africa. Divisions are drawn and battles are fought along tribal lines – man…tends to

find…ways to discriminate.”

257

What is particularly interesting here is the confined

256

Ibid, 103.

257

Mark Waid, Superman: Birthright (New York: DC Comics, 2004).

nature of the language used. The writers of Superman stories have by the 21

Century so

deeply bought into the Americanization aesthetic as a key component in the architecture

of the mythology that Superman/Clark Kent is no longer the only voice extolling such

virtues. Here, the possibility of such violent conflict is situated as a specific cultural

product of the ethnic other. No indication is ever given either by the tribes or Kent’s

response that such a conflict would be even remotely possible in the heartland of

America. That the historical record shows such ideologically based battles have broken

out on U.S. soil is ineffectual and unarticulated because it does not match the schemata of

American exceptionalism portrayed in the Superman universe. To further drive home this

point, during the same conversation, Asuru turns to Kent and asks “So, you’re a product

of the American heartland?” to which Kent responds “Proudly.”

258

In this newly re-conceived tale of Superman’s origin, a cryptic metallic tablet is

placed in his escape pod with him. Contained therein is the collective history and

knowledge of the Kryptonian people. We learn within the first several panels that it has

taken Clark over two decades of his life merely to learn how to turn the device on. In an

e-mail to his mother he writes of the reference tool: “It projects text I couldn’t possibly

decipher integrated with images of a world I can’t at all remember, all barely accessible

by buttons and controls completely counterintuitive to our way of thinking (emphasis

mine).”

259

The choice of personal pronoun here is significant in that it confirms Kent’s

private assumptions about the ethnic lens through which he views himself. Speaking to

his mother, he need not maintain such linguistic conventions unless they reflected his true

sense of identity. Martha Kent would seem to agree with this analysis based on a

258

Ibid, 38.

259

Ibid, 38

conversation she has with Jonathan later in the issue wherein she states: “Maybe he

comes from the stars but…he’s just like you and me.”

260

But while Kent is clearly imbued with the values of a Mid-Western upbringing, he

still recognizes that his alien status requires him to earn his way into being accepted as a

fully-fledged American citizen. A flashback to his days in Smallville

261

recounts his early

friendship with Lex Luthor who would become one of the Man of Steel’s most diabolical

enemies. Attempting as best he can to comfort the lonely youth, Luthor offers this advice:

“The sad truth is people are afraid of what they don’t understand…or at least, can’t

communicate with.”

262

This passage extends the notion of otherness beyond external

signifiers such as skin color. While Kent may exude the spitting image of American

strength, he can still find ways of feeling disconnected from that world.

Conclusion

Determining exactly how effective the narrative devices of immigration reform

put into the Superman mythology were on redirecting the ethnic identities of its readers is

difficult if not impossible to say. There exists a dearth of empirical research on the social

effects of comic book readership and the amount of that attention that has been

specifically focused on ethnicity and race in comics is even more barren. There are

several stories that attest to the power of the Superman text to affect real-world social

change. A popular episode of comic book lore states that Hitler so despised Superman,

260

Ibid, 73.

261

The tiny country town in which Kent grows u As the primary comic became more successful, an

ancillary series titled Superboy told of the adventures of a much younger Superman stationed in the town of

Smallville.

262

Ibid, 179.

100

who he saw as clearly exhibiting the physical features of a Jew that during the reign of

the Third Reich, he banned the magazine from newsstands.

263

Superman also became a famous accomplice for Stetson Kennedy, a

correspondent for the Pittsburgh Courier in the 1940s. Kennedy joined the Klan’s

Atlanta Georgia chapter as an undercover agent hoping to use his experience to

undermine the Klan’s efforts at bigotry and segregation. But once he had secured enough

information to become a threat to the Klan, Kennedy soon found that the organization

was too “entrenched and broad-based” to be burned by any of his usual contacts.

264

Newspaper editors, lawyers, and even the governor of the state seemed patently

uninterested in striking a blow to the Klan. So, Kennedy turned to an unconventional ally.

He phoned the producers of the Adventures of Superman, a popular radio program of the

time. The producers agreed to craft stories based on the information Kennedy had

collected on secret handshakes and linguistic rituals. When Kennedy attended the next

Klan meeting following the initial airing of the Superman radio show, one Klan member

complained that he had come home last night to find his own children playing “Superman

against the Klan…I never felt so ridiculous in all my life!”

265

Within a few weeks of the

shows’ broadcast, the Atlanta chapter was in diary as Kennedy and Superman had

effectively “turn[ed] the Klan’s secrecy against itself.”

266

Some might argue whatever imperatives, moral or otherwise, Jerry Seigel and Joe

Shuster imbued Superman with they were negated when the pair were bought out by DC

263

Nobleman and McDonald, Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman, It should be noted that many

historians have claimed that no official evidence exists to support this story, but its persistence surely says

something for the strength of the Superman legend.

264

Steven D. Levitt and Steven J. Dubner, Freakanomics (New York:, Harper Collins, 2005), 63.

265

Ibid, 65.

266

Ibid, 65.

101

Comics for control of the character. If not then, perhaps when Jerry was fired from the

company following his copyright lawsuit or when Joe’s eyesight became so poor that he

could no longer manage to sketch the muscle-bound figure that had brought him world-

wide fame. What these critics fail to realize is that the work Seigel and Shuster no matter

how short-lived, laid the foundations upon which all other incarnations of the mythology

would follow. Even sixty years later, no writer or artist would remove the proto-

immigrant leanings of the Superman philosophy from the pages of the text anymore than

they would change the name of the planet from which he sailed to Earth or alter the color

scheme of his tights. For evidence of this fact, one need only look at the final pages of the

All-Star Superman series. Morrison and Quietly infuse the last panels of their tale with

Norman Rockwellesque energy as Clark Kent chases his dog Krypto through the corn

fields of his youth with joyous abandon. He stops and pulls an errant tree from its stump

tossing it skyward for the eager pooch. Kent follows close behind and the rambunctious

pair end their journey sitting exhausted on the surface of the moon (site of one of man’s

greatest conquests) staring back at Earth as it from the front porch of their farmland

home. No more American image could possibly be imagined nor any single frame that

more completely signifies the insider/outsider dichotomy of the Superman mythos be

rendered. Here he is not the champion of two planets or the impervious alien that can leap

over tall buildings in a single bound. He is merely a boy taking in the world alongside

man’s best friend.

102

CHAPTER IV

DARK IS THE KNIGHT: RACIAL CODING OF THE CAPED CRUSADER

By the late 1930s, Superman had helped propel comic book sales into new

stratospheres. Titles featuring the Man of Steel were regularly selling upwards of

1,300,000 copies a month, more than double the numbers for any competing magazine of

the time.

267

Anxious to cash-in on the “gold-rush” period of comics, DC quickly began

commissioning their artists and writers to devise the next great star of the crime fighting

era.

268

Editor Vincent Sullivan turned to up-and-coming artist Bob Kane and his assistant,

writer Bill Finger to develop the industry’s next costumed champion.

269

But, Bob Kane

hardly resembled the youthful optimism encapsulated in Superman’s monthly adventures.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had crafted a more perfect embodiment of themselves; the

way they wished they could be seen. Kane was far more interested in creating a character

that would reflect the ills of the larger society.

Our first encounter with the caped avenger of Gotham, for example, comes in the

form of a young, innocent Bruce Wayne walking home from the theatre with his parents.

The boy stares up at his father, his heart and mind as yet unaffected by the angular

shadows that envelop so much of the city he calls home. But, as is so often the case with

these stories, happiness turns out to be a transitory state. A common purse snatcher, a

man of no exceptional consequence save for the impact he is about to have on this boy’s

life

270

corners the family as they attempt to cut through a dark alleyway. He demands the

267

Wright, Comic Book Nation\ 2003, 13.

268

Hajdu, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, 34.

269

Wright, Comic Book Nation, 16.

270

Tim Burton’s first adaptation of the Batman to screen in 1989 posited that the man who killed Bruce

Wayne’s parents would go on to climb the mob ranks of Gotham’s underworld and become the Joker.

Although a compelling notion, this storyline is not supported by the original comic narrative.

103

father’s wallet and the mother’s expensive looking peal necklace. Bruce’s father protests,

stepping in front of his family to try and reason with the interloper, but to no avail. In the

space of only a few short panels the heir to the Wayne fortune watches as his parents are

both gunned down in an act of random violence. We are told he spends much of the

intervening years of his life attempting to find solace by running his family’s empire. A

far cry from the corn fields of a Kansas farm indeed.

But safeguarding his parent’s public image would never be able to satiate the

young man’s zeal for revenge. He needed to exact a more palpable punishment upon the

world than the quiet dignity of his aristocratic position would allow. And so, Kane invites

his audience to watch as a fully grown Bruce Wayne sits alone in his palatial study one

evening mulling over more gruesome options. In order to “strike terror in [criminal’s]

hearts” he reasons, “I must be a creature of the night, black…terrible.”

271

This epiphany

to become the Batman I would suggest is not merely one of donning cape and cowl to

intimidate the underbelly of Gotham, it speaks to Kane’s larger agenda of creating a

character that could subtly comment on the injustices being perpetrated in the real world.

The text could act as a forum for the concerns of a disgruntled youth market whose

opinions where muted in other such trade publications. Bruce Wayne, playboy

millionaire, unsatisfied with the changes wrought to society through philanthropic

channels discovers a way of altering himself so as to confront these societal demons

head-on: by becoming the Batman, by becoming black.

In this case, black refers to more than just the armor worn by Batman on his

nightly outings. It is a reflection of his sociopolitical identity, a physical manifestation of

his emerging psychological values. For all intents and purposes, once Bruce Wayne pulls

271

Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Batman #1, Spring Issue (New York: DC Comics, 1940), 1.

104

on his mask each evening and slips into the driver’s seat of his custom made mobile, he

not only switches occupations but races. The idea of culturally appropriated racial

identities is not unique to the Batman character. As will be shown later in this essay,

white men have been attempting to absorb traits usually associated through the promotion

of stereotypes with African Americans since at least the Civil War through dance, music,

and organized sport. This is also in keeping with CRT notions of how race manifests

itself. Bruce is socially constructing a new racialized identity for himself. Batman

represents the first attempt by the comics industry to apply such a label to a starring

character. Granted, for economic reasons this application was performed latently. It

would have undoubtedly been no less than fiscal suicide to openly acknowledge

Batman’s dual race in the comic’s panels. As noted by Batman historian Will Brooker,

Batman was a marketing success almost instantly for the company yielding ancillary

income sources with the sale of “cut-out Batplanes and stick-on transfers” thus “[o]nce

the initial ‘brand’ was established…it was in the interests of National Periodical

Publications [The original name of DC Comics]…to retain the elements which made

Batman popular.”

272

Phrased another way, those elements of the character that might

drive away business, especially that of conservative-minded white parents, had to be dealt

with delicately. Still, the character stands balanced on a fascinating precipice. Like

Mickey Mouse, Oswald the Rabbit, and Krazy Kat before him, Batman represented an

androgynous undertaking by illustrator and writer alike. If we look closely enough the

thread of racialized allegory is expertly woven through each successive epoch of the dark

knight’s travels. This essay will be devoted to expounding on how these various

272

Will Brooker, Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon (New York: The Continuum International

Publishing Group Inc. 2005), 36.

105

permutations of blackness impart themselves throughout the series run, to understanding

what influences might have possessed a young, white, Jewish kid from the Bronx to craft

such a representation of Otherness, and to investigate from a narrative level what rewards

Bruce Wayne stood to gain from accepting this acculturated version of blackness into his

daily life. But first, it may be helpful to look back at some of the research that has

inspired these conclusions to better define just how fragile the psyche of our child orphan

hero is. Moreover, to remark on the malleability of identity formation in a man who

dresses as a bat.

By critically analyzing the cultural processes that surrounded his creation, I

present strong evidence that Batman is in fact the first black superhero in comic book

history. This interpretation would have him pre-dating the first appearances of The Black

Panther and The Falcon by almost thirty years. Other scholars have already established a

psychological dislocation between Bruce Wayne and Batman. I build on that research by

suggesting that the break also manifests as a difference in racial identification.

I track the caped crusader through many of his most legendary storylines to create

a historical narrative of his presentation that compliments perceptions of black culture.

We see several of the stereotypes played out in other mediums (TV, film) replicated in

the pages of the Batman comic book. He is allowed to be much more ruthless and hyper-

masculine during the 1940s as efforts are made to enlist blacks into the military. During

the height of the Civil Rights movement he is emasculated to prevent the comic from

appearing too threatening. Within each decade there are alterations made to the character

that seem to mirror the shifting ideologies of mainstream America on the question of

racial equality

106

Batman’s Split Personality

A large body of literature already exists corroborating the notion that Batman

operates as a psychologically separate identity from his obviously Caucasian alter-ego.

273

By juxtaposing the exploits of the Batman against the shifting milieu of social unrest

besetting African Americans in America at crucial moments along their simultaneous

chronologies, it should be possible to draw the necessary parallels between the depictions

of the dark knight and the many invisible men for whom his brand of justice spoke in

especially poignant ways.

Previous researchers have postulated on the cathartic possibilities lent to the

reader through superhero fictions. Referring to what he called the “tabla rasa” effect,

Danny Fingeroth notes in Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us

About Ourselves and Our Society that without the omnipresent glare of a parent’s failures

imposing its restrictions on the child’s sense of self, an orphan is free to believe that

he/she is capable of anything.

274

The audience immerses itself into the shoes of Batman

or Robin, constantly empowering their self-image through a belief that put in the same

situation, with the same skills; they would find the inner strength to persevere. Fingeroth

summarizes this projection as “to know that you are not who people think you are.”

275

The intensity of this effect might better be described as knowing that you are more then

what people think you are. And if indeed the reader is permitted to extend past what

Derrida might describe as the naturalized condition of one’s life, then why should the

273

Orr, “The Anoedipal Mythos of Batman and Catwoman.” Journal of Popular Culture. Vol. 27:4,

(1994), p 169. and Terrill, E. R., “Put on a Happy Face: Batman as Schizophrenic Savior.” Quarterly

Journal of Speech. Vol. 79, (1993), 319.

274

Danny Fingeroth, Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes really Tell Us About Ourselves and our

Society (New York: Continuum, 2004), 69.

275

Ibid, 69.

107

characters stimulating that fantasy not possess symbolism above and beyond their

explicitly scripted selves? Moreover, this condition would have been especially enviable

for many young Blacks during Batman’s formative years as sociological conditions

prevented them from receiving fair treatment in their day-to-day lives. As a specialized

audience for this text, they would have been in a unique position to appreciate the

heightened reality embodied by the Batman character and fostered naturally by the

superhero narrative as described in post-modernist thought.

Michael Brody continues this notion of deconstruction, albeit not in expressly

ethnic terms by more closely examining Bruce Wayne’s “death guilt” trauma.

276

explains that often survivors of cataclysmic scenarios will blame themselves for the

deaths of those who perished in the encounter. This guilt slowly begins to suffuse the

“dream-state and waking hours of the survivor’s lives.”

277

For children, a sense of

extreme emotional turmoil can surround the events. The wholesome curtain of a

Rockwellian existence has been forcibly ripped from their mind’s eye. Brody suspects

that Bruce amounts his survival to a matter of consequence. If there had been enough

time to kill all the Waynes, surely the robber would have done so, but Bruce Wayne lives

because of “the time used to murder his parents.”

278

I would suggest that this contributes

to his disillusionment with white justice.

The Batsuit itself is a kind of psychic albatross vigilantly reminding both

character and reader of Bruce’s fractured emotional state. The author postulates that the

famous horned mask of the Batman is specifically designed as a reaction to the young

276

Michael Brody, “Batman: Psychic Trauma and Its Solution,” Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 28(4),

(1993), 173.

277

Ibid, 173.

278

Ibid, 173.

108

boy’s grief. “Bruce may want to cover his eyes,” Brody conjectures, explaining the

vacant, hollow space that fills the eye sockets of the character in the comic book. Black

makeup was even utilized during the filming of the 1989 movie adaptation to obscure

actor Michael Keaton’s eyes while in costume.

Brody elaborates on this split identity theory by examining the film. He notes that

when beautiful socialite Viki Vale approaches Wayne at a party he is throwing at his

mansion, he refuses to reveal himself as the wealthy millionaire. Some might take this as

merely a coy act of self-deprecation or embarrassment. The author instead claims that

Bruce Wayne chooses not to identify himself because he is no longer sure if he is Bruce

Wayne.

279

This essay contends that this can be attributed to Bruce struggling to fully

come to terms with his expressions of racial Otherness.

Robert E. Terrill extends this victimization onto the entire population of Gotham

City. In Jungian terms, Terrill sees Gotham as a city obsessed with the superficiality of its

own consciousness. Tim Burton’s vision of Gotham has reprioritized this image into an

essential construction by which the city and its residents judge their worth. The

ostentatious architecture that pervades their streets speaks to the necessity to be seen as

affluent and urbane. The criminals of the city become nightmarish figures that authorities

have chosen to push to the level of the collective unconscious.

280

Thus, Batman becomes the perfect choice for a defender to the city of Gotham.

He too suffers from the disparity between his semi-conscious personas. He is the only

person fit to save Gotham from itself because he can manifest himself into a formidable

representation of the shadow world without being swallowed by the deviancy of the

279

Ibid, 175.

280

Robert E. Terrill, “Put on a Happy Face: Batman as Schizophrenic Savior,” Quarterly Journal of

Speech, Vol. 79, (1993), 323.

109

collective unconscious. He is “the city’s savior” from itself.

281

Even the insignia on his

chest is a symbol of “extreme psychic unbalance”, a dichotomy of light and dark, a

brilliant yellow cast against the jet black silhouette of a bat.

282

The strength of this

psychological division would seem to suggest that the more vivid separation of self that is

the subject of this essay could be realized within the realm of the Batman. If Superman is

a character defined by his refusal to compromise his specific set of values, then Batman is

notable for his chameleon-like ability to engineer an ethnicity as separate as the man is

from the bat. But, what of the creator of Batman? What possesses a Jewish youth to

unleash such a nuanced, racially challenged character on the world?

Developing a Narrative Perspective: Bob Kane’s Early Life

Reflecting on Bob Kane’s childhood provides a critical opportunity for audiences

to understand the influences that played upon his imagination as he developed not only

the look and personality of the Batman character, but the ideology, the base facts of the

character that later writers would return to time and again as guidance in their own

rehashing of the narrative. From a post-modernist perspective, these are the years in

which Batman develops from another white avenger to the first costumed black hero in

comic history.

Bob Kane had spent much of his early life receiving first hand exposure to the

seedier side of the American dream. In his autobiography, the artist vividly describes his

life and death encounters in the “tough part of the Bronx” he and his family called

home.

283

Fearing his illustrative prowess might not be enough to ensure his safety, Kane

281

Ibid, 325.

282

Ibid, 330.

283

Bob Kane and Tom Andre, Batman and Me (Foretsville, CA: Eclipse Books, 1989), 1.

110

joined a neighborhood gang just to “survive.”

284

Punctuating the severity of his

misadventures, Kane notes how “miraculous” it is he lived through their various

“rumbles” to see his fifteenth birthday.

285

On one particularly alarming occasion, he

found himself ambushed by a rival gang (The Vultures) returning home from violin

lessons. Speaking to the expectations of the “melting pot” atmosphere he found himself

in, Kane states only two kinds of individuals were thought to carry violin cases in those

days: “sissies…[and]…gangsters”.

286

Unfortunately for the man nicknamed “Doodler” by

his neighborhood cohorts, there was no tommy-gun tucked inside his case. Instead, he

found himself with a broken right arm and a mangled hand. Kane claims the beating left

him unable to fully turn his right wrist affecting his drawing abilities for much of his

professional career.

It is within this turbulent environment we begin to see the first visages of

inspiration that will eventually spawn the character of Batman. Here lies the architecture

for a character cloaked as much in racial allegory as darkness of night. The would-be

hoodlums with whom Kane cavorted as a youth christened their band of ner-do-wells the

“Zorros” upon the insistence of the precocious and apparently pugnacious artist. Kane

admits to harboring an obsessive fascination with the character then most famously

portrayed by Douglas Fairbanks in the movie serials of the 1920s. Recounting the

influence of Fairbanks’ antics on his own caped crusader, Kane later wrote that he was

the “greatest swashbuckler of them all” and “my idol.”

287

Zorro’s “acrobatics” became

the inspiration for Batman’s terrestrial rather than cosmological powers and the masked

284

Ibid, 1.

285

Ibid, 4.

286

Ibid, 7

287

Ibid, 1.

111

man’s underground headquarters acts as a precursor to Wayne’s own cavernous

hideaway

288

. But more crucial to this study than such an artificial homage is the early

racial encoding provided by the Zorro narratives on the fertile mind of Batman’s creator.

Above all else, the story of Zorro is based in the results of ethnic unrest. Like

Bruce Wayne, Zorro’s alter-ego is a wealthy fop, Don Diego Vega who could easily live

out his life in splendor as part of the Spanish aristocracy. Yet, as he sees the suffering of

his people from afar, he decides that he must take justice into his own hands by donning

not just a costume but an exoskeleton that befit his shifting personality. If Don Diego

Vega was the acculturation of quasi-American ethics,

289

than Zorro became a tactile

embrace of the Spanish heritage as a vehicle to understanding more acutely their

dilemma. So too could Batman be seen as Wayne’s attempt to perform blackness as a

means of cleaning up the streets of Gotham.

This notion of appropriating a new racial self around which this sort of heroism

(and the thesis for this essay) is built existed long before Fairbanks ever slashed a Z into a

wall or Batman responded to the ominous silhouette that announced the need for his

services, however. Gayle Ward alludes to equally socially constructed, if slightly less

philanthropic, identity formation in the realm of popular music. He contends that white

artists in the early 1920s such as Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow managed to ascertain the

cultural capital associated with an African heritage (in this case, a more authentic

musicality) through his “worshipful and enthusiastic devotion” and immersion in negro

culture essentially resulting in his “physically turn[ing] black.”

290

The story of Mezzrow

288

Ibid, 38.

289

He made his home in California.

290

Gayle Ward, “Mezz Mezzrow and the Voluntary Negro Blues”, in Race and the Subject of

Masculinities, eds. Harry Stecopoulos et. al, (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997), 116.

112

provides evidence for two essential points that are contained at both a production and a

narrativistic level in the Batman mythos: (1) that racial identity transformation may be

“grounded in a cultural, rather than a biological…essentialism”

291

and (2) that there

might exist legitimate cause for a W.A.S.P. to desire to be black; what this study will

hence forth refer to as Intentional Negroism.

292

Critical Race theorists have long supported such interpretations. Mezzrow and

Batman embody the central logic that race can be learned and performed. It would further

agree that it is through the signs exhibited in this performance that society comes to a

consensus in its categorization of race. It is also worth noting that Bob Kane’s creation

also aligns with CRT’s understanding of white interpretations of racial otherness. Critical

Race Theory is designed to “allow… researchers to examine race by acknowledging the

inherent privilege of ‘whiteness’ and analyzing race from a perspective that recognizes

that privilege.”

293

By examining the representational structure of Batman we uncover

how white writers and artists understood blackness. This viewpoint also serves as a

guiding logic in accepting the regressive turn that the comic took in its portrayals in later

years.

Kane’s first exposure to the racial images that would underscore the Batman seem

to have appeared for the first time at age fourteen when he recalls having seen the film

The Bat Whispers. Kane credits the titular character with having inspired the design of

the Batman costume, but I would suggest that the striking, even disturbing imagery

291

Ibid, 118.

292

This phrasing is cribbed from Ward’s own account which he calls “Voluntary Negroism.” I have

adjusted the terminology as “voluntary” carries with it an expectation of failure or at the very least,

undesirability whereas “intentional” more objectively states the nature of the decision making process.

293

Christopher Campbell and Kimberly LeDuff, “Recording New Orleans: News, Race, and Spike Lee’s

When the Levees Broke,” University of Southern Mississippi, 7.

113

captured in this film planted far deeper roots in the dark knight’s ethos. In the film, a

private eye is hired to search the city for the “mysterious Bat” a serial killer stalking

members of the bourgeois.

294

In a cruel twist, it is revealed that the detective and the Bat

are the same person. His fiendish disguise is shown to consist of a dark black robe tied at

the waist by a bit of twine and a ghoulish bat mask that Kane refers to as “very ominous”

and a horrific creation he could “never forget.”

295

But, the bat costume represents more

than a means of concealing one’s identity. The detective is metaphorically transforming

his body by donning the suit. He must become (not imitate but become) this monstrous

bat in order to find the psychological release of murder not available to him in his more

human guise. Here then is one of the first examples presented to Kane of “open rebellion”

through the transmogrification of racial identity.

A more persistent influence entered Kane’s life in the halls of Dewitt Clinton

High School where he first met and competed against Will Eisner, a fellow cartoonist for

the school paper. Eisner had a naturally dark tone to his artistic work and seemed

fascinated with making social pariahs the stars of his various tales. Eisner’s most

important influence on Kane was passing on his churlish and often repulsive vision of

race as a comedic trope. He created Ebony White, a part-time cab driver and unofficial

sidekick to Eisner’s most famous creation the super-heroesque Spirit. Eisner drew White

as a crude attempt to interject humor into the otherwise drab world of his masked

detective. The name and exaggerated facial features and speech patterns spoke to Eisner’s

interpretation of racial imagery at this early stage of his career. Kane’s own Hiram Hick,

an ignorant hill person, drawn for WOW: What a Magazine in the late 1930s includes

294

Kane and Andre, Batman and Me, 38.

295

Ibid, 38-39.

114

similar illusions to late-nineteenth century interpretations of racial humor. In the final

panel from a September 1936 story titled “Hiram Hick in New York,” the hillbilly is

invited to attend a costume ball by some of the wealthier tenants in the hotel where he is

staying. Hick wins the “funniest costume of the evening” award despite having not

dressed up for the affair.

296

As he stands on stage sheepishly accepting his golden trophy,

Eisner’s influence is more readily felt. Just off to the side of the stage stands a man

dressed in traditional black face makeup consistent with what one might expect to find in

a minstrel show.

What Makes a Man Become a Bat?: Bruce Wayne’s Narrative Motivation

But these assertions only serve to partially explain the motivation behind

Batman’s racial roots. While they shed light onto the various forces molding Bob Kane’s

conception of ethnic relationships, one is left to wonder what fulfillment there could be

for Bruce Wayne in rejecting his own whiteness. Gotham’s resident playboy by all

outward appearances has managed to wield his social and financial influence to scale the

ladders of personal achievement. Yet, doubt in one’s self surely plays a key role in the

desire to adopt a new identity. So we are left to surmise that to understand why Bruce

Wayne would want to be black we must first confront the fallacies he found in being

white.

Richard Brookhiser, a prominent scholar in the field of white studies, provides

some clues. Brookhiser identifies several qualities that typify the “basic WASP

character.”

297

The fracturing or diluting of any of these principles within the WASPs

mind could thus threaten that individual’s sense of self and indeed their very racial

296

Ibid, 22.

297

Richard Brookhiser, “The Way of the WASP” in Critical White Studies: Looking Behind the Mirror,

eds. Richard Degado and Jean Stefanicic, (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1997), 16.

115

coding. The injured character of the WASP might then seek solace in the form of a new

personality.

Among the traits ascribed by Brookhiser, “industry” seems most congruous to the

Wayne persona. Indeed, it might be argued that Bruce Wayne’s entire presence in the

comic could be subsumed into two fundamental truths: (1) his exceptional wealth and (2)

his traumatic childhood experiences. Brookhiser contends that Protestants, and

specifically Calvinists created capitalism as a means of retrieving some of the control

over their world lost to them by their theological precepts. The Tayloristic virtues of

efficiency and exactitude permeating their manmade assembly line dreams are painted as

a “nervous ritual, almost a reaction formation” against the indefensibility of

predestination.

298

But when Wayne’s ceaseless fortune fails to grease the wheels of

justice via the channels of philanthropy and science, any imagined control is shaken

irrevocably. His millions cannot prove enough on their own to prevent the Joker, the

Penguin, or any of the other criminal masterminds of Gotham from ransacking the city on

countless occasions. Here then the first blow dealt to Wayne’s racial identity. His

whiteness, even at its apex of strength proves incapable of symbolically providing him

closure for the deaths of his parents.

This industrial failing ties closely to the trait of “civic-mindedness.” Although the

goals of these two virtues intermingle, the focus shifts in civic-minded behavior towards

a redistribution of wealth. Wayne is pragmatic enough to realize that he alone can not

hope to facilitate the wide-spread social changes needed in a city like Gotham. Instead,

his contributions to society must be seen as an example to be followed by other culturally

conscious opinion leaders. It would appear however, that the city’s most brilliant minds

298

Ibid, 17.

116

are skewed towards a more self-serving mentality. Harvey Dent, for example, represents

the next most recognizable face of social reform in Gotham opposite Wayne/Batman.

But, his commitment to re-imagining Gotham as a civic utopia is interrupted by a series

of physiological and psychological attacks on his character by the men he sought to

disarm as a district attorney. It would not be going too far to state that Wayne and Dent

equally personify the “loner – the vigilante…who…takes the law into his own hands” as

a by-product of the inefficiency of the dominant system.

299

Certainly, one must conclude

that as other pillars of the community began to slip into darkness, Wayne became jaded

over a bureaucracy that refused to serve “everybody, not just supermen.”

300

Implicit in failings of these traits is a dislocation from Wayne’s sense of

performative whiteness. Charles A. Gallagher hints at the racelessness of white existence

in modern America with the results of a set of long form interviews conducted at an

unnamed

301

college campus. Herein he spoke at length with white students about the

nature of their racial and cultural conceptions of identity. His findings indicate that white

urbanites suffer from a “lack of ethnic identity” that “has created an emptiness” waiting

to be filled.

302

Like the students in Gallagher’s survey, Wayne likely found himself

incapable of positioning his heritage into a historical epoch. Instead, as is typified by his

extreme isolationism in the comic including an inability to carve out meaningful romantic

relationships; Wayne very likely viewed himself as a racial “mutt or [as] nothing” at all,

one whose “ethnicity was in name only” and even then a “fuzzy” one at best.

303

This may

299

Ibid, 19.

300

Ibid, 19.

301

Referred to in the text as “Urban University”.

302

Charles A. Gallagher, ‘White Racial Formation: Into the Twenty-First Century’ in Critical White

Studies: Looking Behind the Mirror, eds. Richard Degado and Jean Stefanicic, (Philadelphia, PA: Temple

University Press, 1997), 7.

303

Ibid, 8.

117

well be the root of one of Batman’s vigilante qualities: an implied selfishness. He cleans

the streets of the city of crime not merely for the betterment of Gotham, but as a

mechanism to constantly refill the void left by the death of his parents and perhaps the

death of the niave optimism usually bound up in white racial roles. Further still, this deep

“yearning for a usable past”

304

may have aided in pushing Wayne to “violate the rules of

whiteness in ways that can have a social impact.”

305

This apathetic attitude toward racial

connectivity almost certainly played a role in Batman becoming what Noel Ignatiev

would describe as a “white traitor”: an individual so discouraged by the actions of the

dominant class that he effuses a “willingness to go beyond socially acceptable limits of

protest” in response to them.

306

In the case of Batman, that protestation manifested itself

in the form of cape and cowl.

While this elucidates Wayne’s decision making process to adopt a more

recognizable racial identity, it still falls short of defining the nature of that identity. That

is to say, why did Batman have to be black? Wouldn’t it stand to reason that Kane would

have imbued his creation with a more openly Latino personality a la the Douglas

Fairbanks films of his youth? What necessitated an African American identification over

this other, more logical continuation of Kane’s childhood fantasies? The answer very

well may be found in what author Richard Majors refers to as the “cool pose.”

307

Majors defines cool pose as a set of “unique, expressive, and conspicuous styles

of demeanor, speech, gesture, clothing, hairstyle, walk, stance and handshake” utilized by

304

Ibid, 8.

305

Noel Ignatiev, “How to Be a Race Traitor: Six Ways to Fight Being White,” in Critical White Studies:

Looking Behind the Mirror, eds. Richard Degado and Jean Stefanicic, (Philadelphia, PA: Temple

University Press,, 1997), 613.

306

Ibid, 613.

307

Richard Majors, “Cool Pose: Black Masculinity and Sports.” in African Americans in Sport, ed. Gary

A. Sailes, (Transaction Publishers, 1998), 15.

118

black males as an outlet to combat social invisibility.

308

It is argued that black men have

developed cool pose as a subtle rebuking of the patriarchal franchise that would seek to

ignore or diminish them. More importantly, it is an expression of pride in their biological

lot in this world. More specifically for the purposes of this essay, however, cool pose

dares to recast the image of desirability, to “carve out an alternative path to achieve the

goals of dominant masculinity.”

309

Intentional Negroism thus appeals to Wayne as a clearly defined set of defiant,

antithetical solutions to both his personal dilemma of self and his more holistic function

of social reform. Interestingly, because Wayne is fabricating his version of cool pose

through the filter of a colonial imagination, it is possible to view his transformation into

Batman as an act intended to maintain the social hegemony more that to disturb it. That

is, his socially constructed black self offers the opportunity to absorb only those traits of

cool pose that most directly serves his purpose and even then on a temporary basis.

What’s more, as has been stated his goals are not so much revolutionary as they are

reformatory. Whereas he may share certain sympathies with the disenfranchised denizens

of Gotham’s back streets as a consequence of his appropriation of racial identity, he is not

(and most likely would not want to be) bound physiologically in the manner that a true

African American male is to this limited set of social responses.

Majors identifies these acts of protest within the milieu of professional sports. He

points to the raised fists of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics and the

bourgeoisie mannerisms of Muhammad Ali as the personifications of the cool pose

phenomenon in contemporary American society. In an effort to be more relevant to the

308

Ibid, 17.

309

Ibid, 17.

119

historical moment of the comic’s creation, the antics of Joe Louis could easily be

substituted for either of these incidents, but I would suggest that where these men

integrated cool pose techniques to lampoon social commentary, Wayne’s interpretation is

a more savage reading. Wayne’s interest lies in manipulating the theatricality of cool

pose into a mimetic performance of intimidation.

Christopher Lobby provides evidence that such a contradiction between

admiration for and fear of African American qualities existed long before Bob Kane ever

began sketching his first Batman drafts. Lobby recounts the impressions of Thomas

Wentworth Higginson, the white regiment leader for the Fist South Carolina Volunteers

of the Union Army, from diary entries made as he prepared the largely black outfit for

battle. Higginson, like most white men of the era had little occasion to encounter such a

formidable cadre of black males in confined quarters. His reaction, even as an abolitionist

minister, is one of awe and trepidation.

The commanding officer speaks to the intimidating nature of such an assembly

stating that when at attention “I can hardly tell whether the men are stand steadily or not;

black is every hand which moves in ready cadence as I vociferate.”

310

President Lincoln

reiterates Higginson’s fetishism over such an imposing force noting in a letter to Andrew

Johnson, “The bare sight of 50,000 armed and drilled black soldiers upon the banks of the

Mississippi would end the rebellion at once.” Johnson replied, “The very fact of color in

this case would be more terrible than powder and [cannon] balls.”

311

310

Christopher Lobby, “As Thoroughly Black as the Most Faithful Philanthropist Could Desire: Erotics of

Race in Higginson’s Army Life in a Black Regiment,” in Race and the Subject of Masculinities, eds. Harry

Stecopoulos et. al, (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997), 84.

311

Ibid, 74.

120

Wayne embodies this same logic in the creation (rather the adoption) of the

Batman persona. When sitting in his study the night the idea of the Batman finally

crystallizes in his mind, he muses, “criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot.”

312

The

very basis of his success in the form of this new racial identity therefore is predicated on

the ability of an appropriately designed version of black masculinity to stir up those same

emotions felt in the barracks of the Civil War (a pre-cool pose). He is relying on a

magnification of the stereotypical visages of the African American male as predator.

He seeks to use race as his weapon of vengeance, to find retribution by becoming

“fearsomely Other, [indeed] fearsome because Other…[capable of] terroristic force.”

313

is for this reason that the “creature of the night” Wayne is determined to become must be

both “black…[and]…terrible,” because in the eyes of his peers, they are inextricable,

something no other nationality could have claimed with nearly as potent a fervor.

Batman in the 1940s

The preceding pages have been spent establishing Batman’s true racial self, the

Intentional Negro. But, to end the discussion there would only serve to feed into the

ideological stance of the scholars who insist on an oversimplification of race in comics.

As Will Brooker states in Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon, “Batman’s

survival…can be attributed to his ability to adapt and change.”

314

Unlike Superman who

appeared frozen within a philosophical moment, the caped crusader proved his endurance

through an embrace of the political and social tempests that rose up around him. By more

closely inspecting each of the decades through which this dark avenger has survived I

312

Bob Kane. ‘Batman’, in Detective Comics #1, (New York: DC Comics, 1940), 1.

313

Lobby, Race and the Subject of Masculinities, 73.

314

Brooker, Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon, 33.

121

argue it is possible to trace the shifting stances on race in America through the eyes of

one of the twentieth century’s favorite detectives.

Robin, Batman’s teenaged sidekick, was introduced within the first year of the

Batman comic series. According to creator Bob Kane, the boy wonder was inserted into

the narrative to “lighten up…the entire tone of the Batman stories” and a cursory

examination of those initial issues indicates plenty of cause for a redressing of the

character aimed at children.

315

These first capers produced a Batman gleeful in the

abandon of his newly donned identity. His actions were as yet unencumbered by

publishers and editors that would begin a hand-wringing campaign after only a few issues

over the wanton display of violence and the lack of mercy found in the character.

An example of this heightened physicality can be found in a story taken from the

first issue of Batman’s official comic in 1940 titled “Professor Hugo Strange and the

Monsters.” In the tale, the scientist of the issue’s namesake breaks out of prison only to

rob an insane asylum on its wards. He uses them as guinea pigs for an experimental

chemical compound which proves to turn its victims into huge, lumbering giants with

slavish minds. Seeking to end his troubles with Batman once and for all, the professor

traps him intending to inject him with the same formula.

After escaping his capturers, Batman sends Strange hurtling to his apparent death

from a blow to the head. As he watches the body of Strange crash against rocks on the

embankment below his watchtower hideout, Batman muses “I wonder if this really is the

end of Hugo Strange?…Meanwhile, time is flying.”

316

This flippancy over the killing of

individuals, even villainous ones seems to reflect the writers’ presumptions on the nature

315

Kane and Andre, Batman and Me, 46.

316

Bob Kane, “Professor Hugo Strange and the Monsters” from Batman #1 (New York: DC Comics,

1940), 32

122

of the black male. Indeed, it would have been consistent with the perpetuation of

stereotypical imagery envisioned by the so-called jungle comics of the 1930s wherein

African savages were all but feral in their rational and motivations. We see the incident

replayed with yet more gruesome irony on the following page.

Batman secures the Batplane to track down the marauding monster created by the

late Dr. Strange. He finds him being hauled in the back of a moving van by thugs in the

employ of Strange. They have instructions to use the monster as a distraction while they

rob a local bank. Upon his skyward approach Batman comments “Much as I hate to take

human life, I’m afraid this time its necessary” and proceeds to shoot the driver and his

passenger with a machine gun mounted on his plane. The monster stumbles out of the

vehicle only to have a noose dropped from the plane and placed around his neck. Batman

then ascends with the monster’s body in tow watching it struggle to breathe until death

overcomes it. To this he remarks “He’s probably better off this way” as the lifeless body

of the giant hangs against the moonlight. This is precisely the kind of clever dialogue

utilized by comics to envelop race as part of it social agenda. Here, Kane manages to

comment not only on the biological brutality of black machismo, but on the dominant

axioms with regard to the value of the life of the social Other, black or otherwise.

One is left to wonder how such a strapping, visceral image of the innate power

held in black masculinity could survive amid the tumultuous social climate of Jim Crow

and the Ku Klux Klan reaching the zenith of its strength on American soil. Why were

children, their parents, or social critics like Fredric Whertham

317

not more threatened by

the racially violent canvas of an early Gotham City? I would suggest that a confluence of

317

Wertham was not without his criticisms of the dark knight, but these almost exclusively centered around

a proposed homosexual overtone he read into the relationship between Wayne and Dick Grayson the alter-

ego of Robin.

123

factors both social and political in nature had congealed into the pubic consciousness at

the time of Batman’s unveiling so as to inadvertently dampen any racial misgivings.

Chief among these was the seeming inability of black males to form or commit to

a clearly defined political constituency prior to the end of World War II. Black nationalist

leaders such as Marcus Garvey had emerged as early as the 1930s, but had failed to

devise a method that could synergize black concerns or maintain the interests of black

voters long enough to cause stuffiest disquiet among white ranks nationally. In the case

of Garvey, his Universal Negro Improvement Association suffered from an isolationist

rhetoric that split black sympathies by declaring “the blacker a person’s skin, the better

he was; unless he were of unmixed Negro blood, he was not a Negro.”

318

Organizations like the Commission on Interracial Cooperation attempted with

limited success advocacy campaigns geared toward the dissolution of separatist and

supremacist doctrines, but their influence remained regional in scope. Socialists led

mainly in America by A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen could not find an engaging

appeal within their “economic rather than racial” manifesto.

319

Even Communists who

went as far in the 1930s as endorsing the formation of “a separate Negro republic within

the United States” were barely able to excite response from blacks at the polls.

320

muted voice at all levels of government thus left the black male as little more than a

nuisance in the mind’s eye of many white officials making such a seemingly powerful

representation relatively unimposing.

The African American’s place in society was further marginalized by the pseudo-

scientific creed of eugenics and its sister ideology streamlining. While some scholars

318

Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in the Making of America (London: Collier Books, 1969), 196.

319

Ibid, 204.

320

Ibid, 205.

124

would argue that popular opinion for eugenic theory waned following the collapse of the

stock market in 1929,

321

there does exist evidence to suggest that its demise took

considerably longer to ripple through the collective imagination of America. To this

point, Christina Cogdell explores the eugenic principles that informed many of the

exhibits at the 1933 Century of Progress International Exhibition World’s Fair held in

Chicago.

Among the “planners” of the event she lists Vernon Kellogg “a strong supporter

of…eugenics.”

322

Fairgoers were encouraged to submit themselves for genetic cataloging

by the Eugenics Record Office in collaboration with Harvard University at one exhibit.

Elsewhere on the main floor were artifacts from Deutshe Hygiene Museum where the

planning committee had commissioned $25,000 to secure the services of Dr. Bruno

Gebhard one of the facility’s main proponents of “race hygiene” in setting up several

displays.

323

In all, the ERO spearheaded at least six major exhibits at the event including

one “amid displays of biology, physics, and chemistry created by respected American

corporations and universities titled ‘What Eugenics is All About.’

324

Nor did patrons skirt

past these supposedly arcane demonstrations. Harry Laughlin, a representative for the

ERO at the fair wired to the organization’s headquarters informing them of the need for

more pamphlets and flyers to be printed as he was unable to keep enough in stock to

satisfy the “high number of requests” he received for copies.

325

321

For more discussion of this opinion see William H. Tucker, The Science and Politics of Racial Research,

University of Illinois Press, Chicago, IL, 1994, and Donald K. Pickens, Eugenics and the Progressives,

Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville, TN, 1968.

322

Christina Cogdell, Eugenic Design: Streamlining America in the 1930s (Philadelphia, PA: University of

Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 85.

323

Ibid, 87.

324

Ibid, 90.

325

Ibid, 90.

125

The pervasiveness and popularity of these images on such a national stage would

seem to imply that the logic of eugenics remained a potent underling philosophy for the

average American long after the literati had cast it off as invalid or unethical. This is not

terribly surprising when one considers that eugenics is essentially built on a platform of

propaganda and unfounded sensationalism, two of the most fundamental courses in the

American popular culture diet throughout the past century. It stands to reason then that

consumers of the Batman comic in the late 1930s and early 1940s would have dismissed

any racialized trappings to the character no matter how hypermasculinized as

inconsequential based on a silent majority opinion that saw such feats as scientifically

insignificant.

Again Kane’s progressive racial fantasy was sanitized through a consumer filter

outside his immediate sphere of control. In fact, when recounting the knuckle-wrapping

he and artist Bill Finger received for the aforementioned Dr. Strange storyline, Kane

notes that Whit Ellsworth’s [DC’s editor] only objection was, “Never let us have Batman

carry a gun again.”

326

The two remaining murders committed in the issue (the shove out

of a window and the practical lynching by Batplane) were not mentioned at all.

Like most comics characters, Batman was not immune to the call to serve his

country upon the United States entry into World War II. Will Brooker insists that the dark

knight’s contribution to the way effort amounted to little more than lip service: “There

are propaganda messages within Batman comics of the war years, but these are almost

entirely along the lines of war bond appeals rather than militaristic or anti-Japanese

content, and furthermore are in the great majority of cases restricted to cover images.”

327

326

Kane and Andre, Batman and Me, 45.

327

Brooker, Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon, 35.

126

Yet, what Brooker fails to account for are the numerous appearances of the caped

crusader in ancillary tales of daring. By 1943, Batman’s star had risen to such a level that

editors were scrambling to insert him into less popular or start-up comics to give them a

much needed sales boost. It was during this period that Batman was enlisted as a

principle member of the Justice League of America, originally conceived as an anti-Axis

militia to protect American soil from the dastardly plots of Hitler, Mussolini, and the

Japanese. These sideline adventures saw Batman assisting in the saving of President

Roosevelt from an attempted assassination.

328

The patriotic zeal carried over to the theaters where in 1943 Columbia Pictures

purchased the rights to make short fifteen to twenty-minute programs starring the

dynamic duo. Like the side-bar comic series, these serials made no attempt to hide

Batman’s new agenda. The serials claimed Batman and Robin had been held out of the

frontlines by the U.S. government to protect against domestic assaults. This device was

common among other superhero acts at the time, including Superman, as comic writers

had to find a way of explaining the heroes’ refusal to use their super powers to end the

conflict immediately without casting them as traitorous.

The opening salvo of the theatrical adventures states “[Batman and Robin]

represent American youth who love their country and are glad to fight for it…And in this

very hour when the Axis criminals are spreading their evil over the world, even within

our own land, Batman and Robin stand ready to fight them to the death.”

329

The plot to

this particular episode titled “The Electric Brain” in Bob Kane’s own words was “one of

328

David W. Stepp, “JSA Members: Batman,” in Fact File: The Justice League of America 1940-2000,

1996, accessed on July 10, 2010. http://my.execpc.com/~icicle/BATMAN.html.

329

Lambert Hillyer, “The Electric Brain”, produced by Columbia Pictures and Rudolph C. Flothow, screen

play by Victor McLeod, Leslie Swabacker, and Harry Frasier, 1943.

127

those typical propaganda vehicles for bolstering up the war effort and portrayed [Dr.]

Daka as the diabolical leader of a fifth columnist ring who was using his genius to

transform Americans into zombies in order to aid the Axis powers.”

330

This concession of lethal force in the face of national enemies allowed the grim

vigilantism of the early Batman stories to continue practically unchecked. In the 1942

issue, “North Pole Crime,” Batman and Robin follow a group of gangsters all the way to

the North Pole where they have fled to loot prospectors free from the vengeful hand of

the Batman. The duo is called in according to Police Commissioner Gordon because “The

F.B.I. is busy these days running down spies and saboteurs.”

331

Batman calmly responds

“I understand…they can’t be interrupted in their fine work.”

332

In so doing, the Batman has addressed the racial issue on dual fronts. His

acquiescence to be sent to exotic locales, fighting criminals outside his jurisdiction is in

accordance with the large black presence utilized in World War II. As more and more

African Americans signed up for duty, even the most conservative states were forced to

curb their social criticisms. Batman’s tacit approval of the rounding up of foreign

enemies (Others) thus helps reposition the black male archetype into a considerably less

dangerous position in the minds of whites.

This newly apportioned leniency then allows Batman to embrace his dark

masculine nature without fear of reprisal. In this particular issue, Batman watches as a

gangster falls through a crack in the ice, “and grinding death dooms” the fallen

criminal.

333

A nonchalant Batman chides him as he drowns “That was one angle [he]

330

Kane and Andre, Batman and Me, 127.

331

Bob Kane, “North Pole Crimes”, in World’s Finest Comics #7 (New York: DC Comics, Fall 1942), 4.

332

Ibid, 4.

333

Ibid, 13.

128

didn’t figure on.”

334

The patriotic vigor of the movie serials is reiterated in the comic

when Batman and Robin agree to pose for a photograph of the two men placing an

American flag atop a mountain in the north pole, a photograph the comic claims

“appear[ed] in every paper of the country.”

335

Batman in the 1950s

As the war drew to a victorious close, however, the pool of German and Japanese

villains that could be mutilated as a matter of national pride dried up. The hyper-

masculine Batman image might have survived this cultural adjustment had the 1950s not

also brought such a hailstorm of criticism surrounding the violence and moral decay of

comics. The turning point came in 1954 when psychologist Dr. Fredric Wertham

published his seven year study of adolescents’ emotional reactions to readings of the pulp

papers. Wertham argued that the magazines were a deadly breeding ground for “juvenile

delinquency.”

336

His specific charge against Batman and Robin stemmed from the

accusation of a homosexual relationship. Wertham contended “At home they lead an

idyllic life…like a wish dream of two homosexuals living together.”

337

Regardless of whether this claim held any validity, it would change the face of the

Batman comic series for nearly two decades. Following Wertham’s testimony in front of

Congress, publishers were advised to self-regulate to avoid government intervention.

Their response was the Comics Code Authority first assembled on October 26, 1954.

334

Ibid, 13.

335

Ibid, 13.

336

Jamie Coville, “The Comic Book Villain, Dr. Fredric Wertham, M.D.,” in Seduction of the Innocents

and the Attack on Comic Books, 2008, accessed on June 11, 2010,

http://www.psu.edu/dept/inart10_110/inart10/cmbk4cca.html.

337

Fredric Wertham. Seduction of the Innocent. , (New York: Amereon Ltd, 1954). 189.

129

This board of scientists, psychologists, and child professionals established a set of

guidelines for decent comic material that closely mirrored the Hayes Code amendments

forced upon Hollywood. To combat this homosexual interpretation of Batman, writers

soon began pairing him up with female love interests. By 1956, the mysterious Kathy

Kane arrived on the scene as a suitor for Bruce Wayne only to be revealed as the

Batwoman “a circus performer and motorcycle stunt rider who decided to follow in

Batman's footsteps as a costumed crime fighter and began to intrude on his territory.”

338

She soon found rivals for Batman’s affections in the form of Selina Kyle (the alter-ego of

the nefarious Catwoman) and socialite Vickie Vale (who appeared in the first Batman

film in 1989).

This attempt to remake the Batman as a cosmopolitan character left huge

repercussions for his racial portrayal. All three of Batman’s major love interests

throughout the 1950s were white, upper-class females. They possessed fragile, Victorian

intellects and social sensibilities. As Cosmo Felton reports in his extensive work on

female representations in comics of the time, “During this period, the idea of a strong,

self-sufficient woman became almost abhorrent, and the term ‘feminism’ was treated like

a dirty word.”

339

It would have therefore been seen as contradictory to the conciliatory

message of WASP male domination to have allowed these women to swoon and jostle for

the romantic attention of a strong, black character. Batman had to be dressed down not

only psychologically, but physically

338

Cosmo Felton, “No Place for a Girl: Batman Comics in the 1950s” in Lonely Gods: Social Minorities in

American Superhero Comic Books, 2006 accessed on August 1, 2010,

http://www.lonelygods.com/w/bat2.html.

339

Ibid.

130

His cape and cowl which were routinely shrouded in shadows making them

appear almost entirely black throughout the 1940s suddenly received a splash of bright

blue. Only a small area around the front of the hood to the bat mask retained its pure

black exterior. This could be read as a reaction to the increasingly hostile ruminations

over appropriation of black culture echoing out of every corner of society. Even in the

relatively innocuous area of popular culture pundits from both sides of the racial divide.

The NAACP with the support of Martin Luther King Jr. declared rock music, coming into

its own in the mid-1950s as “savage, degrading and contributing to delinquency.”

340

White audiences clearly agreed. On April 10, 1956, Nat King Cole was assaulted on stage

when he preformed at the Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama. The pop star

was just beginning his third song of the evening when four Jim Crow advocates shouted

“Let’s get the coon” and “vaulted over the footlights” leaving Cole with a bruised face

and a “wrenched back.”

341

The popularity of Elvis Presely as a cultural signifier of “racial duality” that

challenged the notion of black inferiority placed a much more scrutinizing eye all areas of

pop culture production to effuse a more lily white view of the world. And while Batman’s

voice could not imitate that of Presley, his mannerisms could be construed as sexualized

contortions. His finely honed body mascarading as black could stir the same emotions Ed

Sullivan sought to quell by removing the singer’s swiveling hips from the view of the

camera when he appeared on the variety program in 1956.

This effeminizing of the character is perhaps best represented by the 1957 issue,

The Career of Batman Jones. The tale rewrites Batman mythology slightly, allowing

340

Michael T. Bertrand, Race, Rock, and Elvis (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000), 101.

341

Brian Ward, “Racial Politics, Culture and the Cole Incident of 1956,” in eds. Melvyn Stokes and Rick

Halpern, Race and Class in the American South Since 1890, (Providence, RI: Berg Publishers, 1994), 184.

131

Batman to save a young family near the start of his crime fighting days from a fatal

automobile crash. To honor the man who saved them, the family agrees to name their

newly born son after the dark knight. Where the vigilante of the 1940s might have

rebuked such an offer, this gentler version of Batman is seen in subsequent panels

building a bat-themed bassinet for the child, posing for pictures with the baby for the

press and sending him Batman paraphernalia through the years. The child, Batman Jones

decides to repay Batman for his generosity by accompanying him on escapades at around

the age of ten.

Batman writers used this as an opportunity to moralize their stories and protect

themselves from intervention by the CCA. Batman firmly explains to the youth that

“you’re too young for this sort of thing” and advises that he should “run out and play

with the other boys.”

342

A clear separation is being made between Robin, who could not

be more than fifteen himself, and the presumably younger reading public that Bob Kane

imagined. Jones weasels his way into a field trip to the Bat Cave, however, where many

of the caped crusader’s efforts to impart the danger of a crime fighting lifestyle are

stunted by Jones’ alacrity with the tools of the trade. He successfully disarms many of the

deadly gadgets Batman exposes him to leaving the Gotham defender to exclaim “Robin,

this lad is smarter than I thought!”

343

The mental faculties of Batman are thus being

reduced to a more appropriate level for his racialized self. The intrepid crime fighter of

the 1940s is reduced to a comic foil capable of being outwitted by a child. Further

342

Bob Kane, “The Career of Batman Jones” in Batman the Greatest Stories Ever Told: Volume Two, (New

York: DC Comics, June 1957), 41.

343

Ibid, 45.

132

emasculating his image, Batman is eventually forced to drive to Jones’ home and request

that his mother “restrain little Batman’s enthusiasm.”

344

Batman in the 1960s

If the 1950s retrofitted Batman’s racial identity, then the social upheaval of the

1960s all but buried it underground. Noted historian Benjamin Quarles points out that “in

the 1960s, as never before, the Negro became an object of nationwide attention” whose

freedoms were granted new “scope and urgency” on a global scale.

345

More than ever

organizations sprung up in support of equal rights legislation. C.O.R.E., SNICK, the

S.C.L.C., The Urban League and the N.A.A.C.P. all boasted memberships in the tens of

thousands bankrolling hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in revenue. What’s

more, these groups managed to set aside turf war mentalities over political territory in

sight of larger goals. As Quarles states, “recognizing that their aims were identical and

that their task was urgent, many-sided, and formidable, the groups tended to work

together more and more.”

346

Here was the political cohesiveness that had proven so elusive to black voters and

advocates of change in decades past. That unity owed some measurable debt to the

conflux of charismatic, resourceful, and magnetic leadership that arose in this critical

hour. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. who rose to national fame during the

Alabama bus boycotts became the galvanizing figure of the entire civil rights movement

following his orchestration of the March on Washington in 1963 a moment that served as

“a climax and a beginning.”

347

344

Ibid, 46.

345

Quarles, The Negro in the Making of America, 260.

346

Ibid, 254.

347

Ibid, 265.

133

But this was far from the only nationally recognized protest of the separate but

equal doctrine. Sit-in demonstrations most notably in Greensboro, North Carolina became

a constant source of non-violent heckling of the establishment. High profile cases such as

Gomillion vs. Lightfoot which declared gerrymandering to eliminate black voting power

illegal pushed forward the obdurate stone of racial progress. The culmination of these

efforts was felt in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawing discrimination in public venues

including schools and its successor the Fair Housing Act of 1968 which ended the

process of denying home ownership “by the color of [one’s] skin” which had since the

1920s been a “universal fact of Negro life.”

348

The Batman narrative had already reacted to the pressures of the 1950s climate by

introducing a whiter version of the dark knight. But, with the social unrest of the 1960s

reaching unprecedented levels, with the issue of race bubbling so close to the surface,

even more drastic steps needed to be taken to ensure white readers (or rather their

parents) did not grow indignant over the Otherness of the man under the hood. Now,

Wayne would have to be absolved of his blackness. It needed to become more clearly a

performance instead of a consciousness, something to be discarded at will. The boarders

separating the lives of Batman and Wayne had to lose their opaque character for a more

translucent condition, one in which Wayne’s fears and trepidations were free to assault

the armor of Batman’s blackness. In short, Batman became a comic version of minstrelsy.

This plays on the concept of intersectionality. In this case, there is an active attempt to

suppress the racial voice from the narrative. While Batman very clearly must continue to

live two lives, denying him one simple central identity, the authors efforts to control the

expression of those identities has become far more nuanced.

348

Ibid, 257.

134

In his award winning study on the history of blackface culture in America, Eric

Lott defines the minstrel show as comprised of “knee-slapping musical numbers

punctuated by comic dialogues, bad puns, and petit-bourgeois ribaldry.”

349

While Batman

aficionados may find themselves more comfortable with the term camp than blackface

per say, the comic tone betraying any true sense of danger best exhibited by the hokey

sixties television series staring Adam West as our titular hero is awash in the trappings of

minstrelsy.

Much like his comic book counterpart, West’s costume appears to mimic the

blackface stage paint of nineteenth century white performers. The disguise that had once

acted as a second skin for the crime fighter is reduced to a sloppy “blacking of

greasepaint or burnt cork” clouding the top half of his face.

350

This point is highlighted in

Batman #153, Prisoners of Three Worlds in which the audience is privy for the first

time

351

to Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson standing in the Bat Cave with their costumes

on but their masks removed. In the single cell, we see Batman’s cowl hanging loosely off

his clearly white shoulders, the black empty eye sockets staring back blankly.

352

The

message is clearly sent, Batman has become a disposable personality to the millionaire

whose personality has begun to dominate the decision making.

Lott paints a more compelling picture of minstrelsy than simple abject racism,

however. He ably argues that there exists a juxtaposed critique in the vaudevillian

abandon, one equally as possessed with “racial aversion…[as with] panic, anxiety, terror,

349

Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface, Minstrelsy and the American Working Class (New York: Oxford

University Press, 1995), 5.

350

Ibid, 5.

351

To this author’s knowledge.

352

Bob Kane, “Prisoners of Three Worlds,” in Batman the Greatest Stories Ever Told: Volume Two (New

York: DC Comics, June 1957), 49.

135

and pleasure.”

353

A fascination if not in fact an envy for the portrayed blackness

undercuts each performance then adding a layer of complexity to the utility of such a

tactic. There is as Lott points out a particular “sexual danger” etched into the

performances, a thinly contained eroticism manifested in the appreciation of the

perceived naturally powerful black body and sex drive. These characters manifested

themselves on the blackface stage and I will argue in the Batman comic in the form of

“ridiculous blustering…plantation rustics…[and]…urban dandies…of exaggerated

strength and overwhelming power.”

354

Strangely by this definition it became acceptable for Batman to maintain his

exquisite physique so long as it was not accompanied by the power of a traditionally

scientific brain or to withhold his mental faculties as long as his physical prowess was

removed (i.e., Bruce Wayne wearing a Batman suit as opposed to the true

characterization). In this sense, it was less threatening for Batman to have a black penis

than a black mind. We see this process played out in Robin Dies at Dawn, which

originally appeared on newspaper stands in 1963. Batman is mysteriously transported to

an alien world where although his physical strength remains intact, he wanders aimlessly

amid the cavernous desert admitting to himself “I’ve never felt so alone in all my life.”

355

The white male ego is appeased by a blackface reaction that emulates a fear and

uncertainty that destabilizes the ferociousness of the Other. The imagined strength of the

organized black masses are deflected by the humility of one of their (latent) cultural

symbols.

353

Ibid, 6.

354

Ibid, 23.

355

Bob Kane, “Robin Dies at Dawn,” in The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told (New York: DC Comics,

1988), 132.

136

This message is reiterated throughout the story. Batman is nearly strangled to

death by a sentient form of alien plant life before frantically calling out “If only Robin

were here to help me! Robin! Where are you, Robin?”

356

This is a reversal of the power

dynamic in the series. Robin’s place as a sidekick was well-established by the mid-1960s.

Kane had always envisioned him as a vicarious vehicle through which children

(presumably white) could participate in Batman’s adventures. Unlike the caped crusader,

the boy wonder’s tights only just covered enough of his lanky frame to hide his identity

from criminals and civilians. His racial self was never compromised by his clandestine

occupation. Furthermore, his status in the comics as a child made his rescuing of Batman

an ever greater metaphor on the rebalancing of the racial scales in the DC universe.

Batman in the 1970s

As DC entered into the Bronze Age

357

(1970-1979), white citizens across America

were being inundated with images of new, more militant conceptualization of black

nationalism on their nightly newscasts. To viewers, these men bore little resemblance to

the peaceful pleas of Martin Luther King Jr. As William L. Van DeBurg notes they were

greeted instead with a vociferous “new and insidious criminal element” led by the

orations of men like Stokely Carmichael.

358

One would imagine that this sort of response

from a disenfranchised body politic should have petrified middle-class white America.

356

Ibid, 133.

357

These “Ages” are the classically accepted epochs in comic history. They are usually

bookmarked by the introduction of important new authors or artists. The following is a

list of the eras as they are presently devised: The Platinum Age: 1897 – 1932, The

Golden Age: 1933 – 1945, The Atomic Age: 1946 – 1956, The Silver Age: September,

1956 – 1969, The Bronze Age: 1970 – 1979, The Modern Age: 1980 – Present. This

information was taken from http://www.goldenagebatman.com/gabathistory.html.

358

William L. Van DeBurg, , New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture

1965-1975 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 12.

137

Now, more than ever, black strength should have become an object of ridicule and

suspicion in the eyes of the dominant society. Yet, DeBurg argues that sensationalized

coverage from the mass media, both from black and white press organs did much to

neuter the reorganizing of class consciousness this effort had hoped to engender.

Reporters were only interested in black militancy as far as it could validate

preconceptions of irrationality and stand as evidence for a growing frustration over the

tardiness of progress begot from the civil rights victories of the early 1960s. The press

lampooned the black power movement into a prop to re-fortify the boundaries of racial

separatism. To this end, DeBurg claims reporters not only resorted to “name-calling and

misquotation” but “even staged disruptive events, coaxing black youths to throw rocks

and interrupt traffic for the cameras.”

359

Thusly, an uprising of extreme proportions was

“trivialized,” comodified into a fad, salacious dinner theater.

360

DeBurg accuses this

reportage of exacting two fatal blows to the movement’s long-term power, forcing white

America to “treat [the movement] as part of a violent era’s politics” (in other words, to

make it transitory) and to present it as “an aberrant, directionless expression of

rage…incapable of making lasting contributions to black life.”

361

This sensationalized interpretation of race relations found popular expression in

blaxploitation cinema. Narratives in which black characters had the full thrust of their

Otherness returned to them (often by black writers and directors), but with a new caveat

which implicitly stated the futility of their rampages and eruptions. The black male

archetype was recast as a tiger chasing its own tail, deadly and yet bound in some

undeterminable way to redact the effectiveness of his own actions. Gary Morris writing

359

Ibid, 13.

360

Ibid, 13.

361

Ibid, 15.

138

for the Bright Lights Film Journal identifies the typical black male protagonist of the

blaxploitation era as “the stories of [a charismatic black community leader] at a crisis

point, caught between the needs of his people (black nationalism) and sellout pressure

from The Man.”

362

We see this dichotomy played out in the stories of Batman from the 1970s. A

group of grade school children of various ethnicities are taken on a camping trip by Bruce

Wayne in The Batman Nobody Knows. While there, the youths get into a heated argument

over the aesthetic particulars of the Batman. The white youth relates a story of a demon-

like creature, more animal than man who stalks his prey with superhuman capabilities.

“He’s so big he covers all o’ Gotham…He’s got x-ray eyes…bullets zip right thru

him…[and he has] fists of iron” implores the boy.

363

This might well be said to represent

the then-current understanding of black cultural dissonance as experienced by the white

reader. One could easily envision a white youth overwhelmed with the scowling visage of

a Black Panther, teeth glaring from a protest sign transmuting into a broader image the

black hand holding it aloft.

More interesting still for the purposes of this essay is the first (and perhaps only)

time the audience is treated to a young black character’s vision of the Batman. Our pre-

teen black narrator tosses aside his friend’s argument countering “That ol’ Batman is a

real live dude. Nothin’ spooky ‘bout him…’cept how he comes on.”

364

Like his cultural

contemporaries in Shaft, Dolomite, or Sweet Sweetback, this child can see past the

bombast to the philosophical rhetoric underneath. His mental image is over a black,

362

Gary Morris, “Blaxploitation: A Sketch”, from Bright Lights Film Journal Issue 18, (March 1997),

accessed on June 3, 2010, http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/18/18_blax.html.

363

Frank Robbins, “The Batman Nobody Knows”, in The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told (New York:

DC Comics, 1988), 208.

364

Ibid, 210.

139

afroed Batman who has subverted white technology into tools of retribution. He muses

that “[Batman] is loaded with trick-gadgets! Got shiny plastic wings run by motors --- jet

propelled by tiny rockets!...He…sniffs out trouble…using one o’ them electronic sniffin’

gizmos.”

365

When Bruce Wayne questions him on the subject of whether the boy, Ronnie,

“see[s] the Batman as a super-mod crime fighter” Ronnie calmly responds that Batman is

“one down-to-earth…dude…[he] is Muhammed Ali --- Jim Brown --- Shaft --- an’

Superfly all rolled into one.”

366

This absolutely marks a turning point in the Batman

mythos. Not only has he reunited with his black roots, DC has publicly acknowledged a

racialized cultural tradition into which he fits. The Batman of Ronnie’s dream sequence

might well be thought of as the ideal version of Bruce Wayne’s other self, for he need not

wear a mask to accommodate his blackness. He stands tall knocking down countless

villains with one strike of his hand, his determined black face fully visible to the world at

large.

This reclamation of power for Batman is hampered however by the writer’s

insistence on encapsulating him into a limiting milieu. The tone of the Batman tales had

not yet caught back up to its 1940s roots. To balance the admission of power in the hands

of this black icon, his influence indeed the urgency of his missions were often

disregarded by the end of an issue. Writers in the 1970s seemed to revel in placing

Batman against unbeatable odds, supernatural odds, only to deflate their enigmatic

qualities upon Batman’s perceived success. In the story Man-Bat Over Vegas for

example, the caped crusader is forced to tangle with what he believes to be a gigantic

365

Ibid, 210.

366

Ibid, 210.

140

vampire bat terrorizing the city of Las Vegas. Once he has captured the creature though,

it turns out to be simply a female scientist who by way of “reckless experiments”

managed to undergo a unique form of lycanthropy transforming her into the vampire

bat.

367

Where the vigilante of the forties would have put the woman out of her misery so

as to protect the citizenry, this Batman finds his ruthlessness jeopardized by the

victimization of the female. The confines of his oath to white justice leave him pulled

against his natural inclinations. He settles instead on taking the woman to the hospital to

have a blood transfusion to prevent her from being effected by the moon’s phases. One

senses his recognition of this so-called sell-out mentality commenting “I hope and pray

[I’m doing the right thing].”

368

Like the characters in blaxploitation fiction, he is left at an

uneasy crossroads and must eventually chose the path of least resistance.

Batman in the 1980s

To properly explain the shift in race relations into the 1980s we must observe

critically not the goings-on of political figures or military might, but the weekly

escapades of Dr. Huxtable on the top rated sitcom of the day, The Cosby Show. Writing

about the meaning of blackness in the decade of decadence, Henry Louis Gates Jr.

concluded, “I want my own children to grow up in the home of intellectuals, but with

black middle-class values as common to them as the air they breathe.”

369

William F.

Buckley so firmly believed that pop culture in the eighties had redefined the nature of

race relations, that he pointed to The Cosby Show, Eddie Murphy, and Michael Jackson

367

Frank Robbins, “Man-Bat Over Vegas”, in The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told (New York: DC

Comics, 1988), 194.

368

Ibid, 207.

369

Henery Louis Gates Jr., “Blackness Without Blood”, in Culture in an Age of Money,: The Legacy of the

1980s in America, ed. Nicolaus Mills, (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee Publishers, 1990), 127.

141

and proclaimed “A nation simply does not idolize members of a race which that nation

despises.”

370

Although the outright dismissal of racial prejudice might be affording prime

time television too much cache in this country, Buckley’s statement hints at a more

holistic reevaluation of self in American society occurring during the 1980s. No longer

did voting rights, equal wages, or other social reparations hold the type of value they did

in the sixties and seventies. The Cosbys as well as most depictions of middle-class black

life in America on television at the time redefined success in terms of “attractive homes

and offices.”

371

Their suburban lifestyles speak to the desire to swim in the pools of

comodification. Country club memberships and Lamborghinis became more than simple

objects of wealth. They took on the import of lending access to the owner to the ever

elusive “American dream.”

372

As this money obsessed cultural shift permeated black awareness and operated to

more demonstrably separate middle-class blacks from their ghetto counterparts, pop

culture gained yet more freedom in the representation of blackness. Beyond the picket

fence realms of the Cosbys, writers need not mask black virtues any longer. The world

seemed more prepared for successful, charming, powerful black characters in all facets of

popular culture. For Batman this would mean a full-fledged return to his 1940s self. He

would finally be allowed to bask in his blackness unhindered by the cultural niceties of

the time.

Frank Miller is primarily credited with this reawakening of Batman’s dark spirit.

His 1986 tome The Dark Knight Returns tells of a older Batman, run down by the ravages

370

Herman Gray, “Television, Black Americans and the American Dream”, in Television: The Critical

View, ed. Horace Newcomb, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 176.

371

Ibid, 183.

372

Ibid, 183.

142

of age and a life of crime fighting. He has been retied for several years following the

death of the latest Robin. Miller outlines the vision he has for the character in a short

prologue to the series: “For me, Batman was never funny. Gotham City was cold shafts

of concrete lit by cold moonlight and windswept bottomlessness.”

373

As Miller’s vision

of hate and fatigue rumbles through the city for the first time in ten years he begins to

regain the muscle memory of his true racial self. “This should be agony” he thinks, “I

should be a mss of aching muscle --- broken, spent, unable to move and where I an older

man, I surely would…but I’m a man of thirty…of twenty again. The rain on my chest is a

baptism…I’m born again.”

374

For the first time since 1940, Batman wields a gun with reckless abandon once

more. He snaps the neck of a thug taking his machine gun away in the process and using

to put down a man holding a toddler at gun point. Standing before the leader of the

deadly new Mutant gang overrunning the city of Gotham inside an armor plated tank he

admits “I can’t think of a single reason to let him live.”

375

Batman stops the Mutant

scourge by snapping the neck of their leader in front of his followers sending an

unmistakable message. He tells the leader just as he prepares to finish him off “You don’t

get it boy…this isn’t a mud hole…its an operating table…and I’m the surgeon.”

376

Gotham is reclaimed but not from the Mutants, from the ashes of a misremembered past.

Batman in the 1990s

By the late 1990s, DC executives were still hungry for another tale that would

captivate audiences the way Frank Miller had with The Dark Knight Returns. They still

373

Frank Miller, “Notes by Frank Miller,” in The Complete Frank Miller Batman, (New York: DC Comics,

1988), 99.

374

Ibid, 26.

375

Ibid, 21.

376

Ibid, 45.

143

wanted their caped crusader to be more vigilante than hero. Archie Goodwin suggested

that new scribes Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale use Miller’s work as the inspiration for a new

year-long Batman classic, The Long Halloween. Loeb reiterates the implications of

Miller’s involvement in the Batman mythos when he states that none besides Bob Kane

have managed to leave such an “indelible impression” on the character.

377

Loeb’s work

wasn’t just emulating Miller. It was directly continuing his interpretation of the character.

The DC editors wanted Loeb to bring back “The Roman” a throw-away mobster

character from one of Frank’s Batman tales and turn him into a staring villain.

But to say that Loeb’s Batman was a carbon copy of Miller’s would be unfair.

This Batman is still bathed in the violent tones recaptured by Miller but he does not take

the explicit joy out of the experience that Miller’s Batman did. Police Commissioner Jim

Gordon, District Attorney Harvey Dent and Batman stand on the roof of the Gotham

Police Station in the first issue of the series. They plot the death of “The Roman.” All

three imply that common methods will not be enough to see justice done. “In our zeal to

bring Falcone (The Roman) to justice” Gordon explains he is willing to “let [Batman]

bend the rules” as only he can.

378

The comic nor its publics are pressing Batman to shy

away from his original intentions any longer. They are encouraging it. Gotham has

become so mired in it’s own criminal element, the need for decorum in exacting

punishment has been blurred if not removed altogether. As Gordon and Dent argue over

how far they are willing to go to take down “The Roman” Batman ends the conversation

stating: “We can all talk around it, but – we know what needs to be done.”

379

377

Jeph Loeb, Batman: The Long Halloween (New York: DC Comics,1996), 1.

378

Ibid, , 37.

379

Ibid, 36.

144

Loeb’s text does not make Batman the defacto savior of this city though. In

Miller’s vision, not matter how violent his methods Batman was made virtuous by way of

the insanity that surrounded him. In a perfectly mad world his violent reactions were

logical, reasonable, responsible. This Gotham is more leery of their defender. As Gordon

and Batman walk the halls of Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, Gordon quizzes

him “There are so many here. Nearly double from when you first appeared. Not that

there’s a direct correlation but…do you give it any thought?”

380

The argument is familiar

racially. Conservative white leaders have long argued that African Americans are

responsible for their own difficulties. The system is protected against criticism and

replaced by the tropes that have existed since the newspaper comic strip authors of the

late 1800s. The fault is not to be found in poor performance from the police department.

The noble savage has created a concrete jungle out of what should be an urban utopia.

Here we see the social construction of race reiterated. White athority figures are

convinced of the false logic that urban violence is the fault of racial minorities. Gordon is

insinuating not only that Batman is black but that by being black he is preternaturally

responsible for the villainy that surrounds him.

This arc reiterates the futility of white justice. Bruce Wayne recounts memories of

his father being called away to the hospital to operate at odd hours of the night. On one

occasion, the doorbell rang. A man shoved his way inside Wayne Manor and placed a

dying boy on the dining room table. Bruce remembers his father arguing with the man,

telling him that this child needed to go to the hospital for proper care. The man is

unsatisfied with this arrangement. He demands that the bullets penetrating the boy’s chest

be removed then and there. Dr. Thomas Wayne reluctantly agrees.

380

Ibid, 87.

145

Bruce explains that the boy his father saved would grow up to be The Roman. He

blames his father for the string of deaths draped over the conscience of Batman. He

mutters to himself “for all the good he tried to bring to Gotham City my father’s actions

have resulting in my being here.”

381

Just as city officials have begun to blame Batman for

the crime in their city, Batman has begun to blame the ineptitude of the patriarchal

structure that holds that city together for forcing him to exist.

Months later Batman finds it necessary to go shake down some of the local thugs

in Gotham’s seedier areas for information on a serial killer plaguing the city. He has

become desperate at this point. He knows that with each day that passes, another victim

will be added to the list. He resorts to meeting these criminals in broad daylight. He

walks into their club and demands the information he needs. They are unimpressed.

Before brandishing a baseball bat at the intruder, the bartender remarks “I thought you

only came out at night.”

382

This is more than an idle observation. Batman recognizes all

too clearly that part of his costume; part of his persona is the darkness. His image only

seems complete when bathed in blackness. He relies on it. He requires it. Batman reasons

that this is why they choose to attack him today. Reverberating Kane’s original

conception of the character, Batman mutters, “they may be superstitious. They may be

cowards. But my appearance has more effect at night.”

383

Batman in the New Millennium

Perhaps the most powerful representation of Batman as an Other can be found in

the pages of Grant Morrison’s classic work Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious

Earth. The 2004 extended edition of this release delves deeper into the psychology of

381

Ibid, 231.

382

Ibid, 279.

383

Ibid, 280.

146

Batman’s identity than any other text in his sixty plus year history. This is Batman in his

darkest incarnation. He is consumed by the violence, the savage instinct that reflected

Kane’s original skewed perception of African American identity.

Batman is informed that the Joker has taken over Arkham. He is holding many of

the doctors and staff there hostage. He demands that Batman meet him at the penitentiary

alone. Commissioner Gordon warns Batman that it will almost certainly be a trap. He

asks him to reconsider. Surprisingly, for one of the first times in the series illustrious run,

we are introduced to a more vulnerable side of the Batman character. He admits to

Gordon that he has reservations about taking the case. He tells him he worries that when

he enters Arkham, repository for every mad man in Gotham City “It’ll be just like

coming home.”

384

The dual identity is beginning to strain him. The performative shell he

cast for himself so many years ago is no longer so easily removed. Becoming Bruce

Wayne again is ever more challenging. He appears to understand this internal struggle

stating “Batman’s not afraid of anything. It’s me. I’m afraid.”

385

The “me” in this

sentence is his own whiteness. It is Bruce Wayne peeking from underneath the covers for

a brief moment. The passage is depressing from a racial standpoint. It could even be

called regressive. The implication here is very clearly that no joy can be had in becoming

black. It consumes its adherents. It violates them. It is disappointing that with all of his

malleability, this is the image of Batman that a generation of children grew up with. This

man is not ignorant of his inferiority in the eyes of white society the way the Talk Ink Kid

or Sambo was, but he is ashamed of what his heritage is doing to him.

384

Grant Morrison, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House for a Serious Earth (New York: DC Comics, 2004),

12.

385

Ibid, 12.

147

The reader is given a sense of how detached from Wayne Batman has become

when the Joker orders one of the psychiatrists to stay behind and conduct a psych

evaluation on the caped crusader. They begin to play a word association game. The text

of that conversation follows:

“Doctor: Mother

Batman: Pearl

Doctor: Handle

Batman: Revolver

Doctor: Gun

Batman: Father

Doctor: Father

Batman: Death.”

386

This recitation of the Wayne parents’ murder is Batman’s only real link to the life

of Bruce Wayne. We saw from the Long Halloween arc that Bruce Wayne can remember

moments spent with his parents beyond that faithful night. He can recall exchanges they

had, conversations that stuck with him. Batman has no such luxury. His sole experience

with the Waynes is encapsulated in the moment that gave birth to his necessity. He can

only remember this night, a night when he could have made a difference if only he had

been there. His parental relationship is not complicated. It does not have layers. It is

punctuated by undiluted guilt. That night becomes the moment when Bruce Wayne dies

and Batman begins.

Another insight into the devolving nature of Batman’s double self is given to us

by the Mad Hatter who he encounters as he roams the corridors of the aslylum looking

386

Ibid, 36.

148

for a way out. The Hatter is not oblivious to his own insanity, but this does not prevent

him from establishing a pertinent theory. “Sometimes…I think the asylum is a head” he

muses, “We’re inside a huge head that dreams us all into being. Perhaps it’s your head

Batman. Arkham is a looking glass and we are you.”

387

This goes beyond Gordon’s

earlier accusation that crime has been perpetuated in Gotham by Batman’s presence. This

theory insists that Batman needs the criminals to survive. There is a symbiotic

relationship between them. It is not that one exists because of the other. It is that each

needs the other. They are not separate interpretations of reality. They are nearly identical

strands of the same reality. Both consumed in darkness. Both propelled by their violence.

The regressive trope is echoed here. To be black, to choose blackness is to choose sorrow

or insanity.

The larger narrative of this arc also speaks in powerful ways to the Batman as

African American mythology. The story constantly reverts between the tale of Batman

weaving his way through these halls and the history of Arkham’s construction by its

founder Amadeus Arkham. Amadeus had once been a brilliant scientist. He had, we are

told, been on par with Carl Jung. But when one of his patients escaped Arkham and

brutally murdered his family, it drove Arkham into the darkness, just as Bruce Wayne’s

childhood tragedy required the creation of a Batman. This is the greater message of

Morrison’s text. Darkness prevails. When presented with the right circumstances light

cannot overcome it. As Batman wrestles with one of his lesser known foes Killer Croc in

the towers of Arkham, the founder’s diary entries spill over the page. The parallel

between the two men’s experiences is complete. It is as if Arkham is speaking on behalf

of Batman. The passages from the diary explain the transition ominously “the world

387

Ibid, 62.

149

explodes. There is nothing to hold onto. No anchor…I run blindly through the madhouse.

And I can’t even pray. For I have no god.”

388

It is a dehumanizing vision of blackness.

The equation is absolute. Otherness negates hope. It eradicates the possibility of a whole

or complete existence. The price for denying one’s biological race is devastating. By

choosing to be black Batman has not only denied himself peace in this world but forfeited

whatever rights he had to happiness in the next.

Much of Miller’s influence, his impassioned reinvigoration of the ethereal

Batman mythos can still be seen in the comic’s latest interpretations. The dark cloud of

unadulterated racial Otherness encapsulated in the character has become a hallmark of his

modern popularity. The Christopher Nolan films of the new millennium redesigned the

Batsuit itself to more properly concede Batman’s racial intentionality by stripping the

costume of its gray, blue and yellow vestiges, making it pure black. More a suit of armor

than a disguise. In one scene from Nolan’s 2008 blockbuster The Dark Knight, The Joker

being played by Heath Ledger taunts Batman telling him “to them [the Police] you’re a

freak…like me”

389

. He is not referring here, however, to Batman as a would-be criminal

but as an individual consumed by Otherness, which is just as he was always intended to

be.

388

Ibid, 75.

389

The Dark Knight, DVD, directed by Christopher Nolan (2008, Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video,

2008).

150

CHAPTER V

PANTHER’S PRIDE: EXAMINING THE DEATH OF THE BLACK SUPERHERO IN

AMERICAN COMIC BOOKS

In many respects, The Black Panther has little in common with his masked peers.

Where they are anomalies, often the last or only of their kind, he is the next in a never-

ending line of crusaders.

390

He explains as much in his second appearance, issue #53 of

The Fantastic Four published in August 1966.

The fictitious African nation of Wakanda has long been home to a large deposit of

(the also fictitious) element, vibranium. The element is incredibly valuable to

industrialized countries for its applications in weapons and aeronautical research. The

mineral when properly harnessed “absorbs vibrations – you might even say it swallows

them” allowing for the intricate manipulation of sound wave energy.

391

For as many millennia as there has been such extraordinary wealth under the feet

of the natives of Wakanda, there has been someone there to protect it. Each generation,

one person of royal heritage is selected from the tribe to “undergo rigorous rituals” that

culminate with the ingestion of a rare, heart-shaped herb that locals believe is imbued

with the mystic powers of the Panther God. In the Black Panther’s origin story, Stan Lee

notes that “to the male Wakandan, The Black Panther represents a figurative god image,

and is considered to be a sacred being – as the cow is venerated in India.”

392

If the eater

390

Since T’Challa is only eight years old at the time of his father’s passing, the duties of The Black Panther

are temporarily assumed by his uncle. T’Challa defeats his uncle in hand to hand combat once he is of age

as a part of the proving ritual to take on the moniker himself.

391

Stan Lee, “The Way It Began,” Fantastic Four #53 (New York: Marvel Comics, August 1966), 5.

392

Ibid, 8.

151

of the herb does not die from its poisonous effects then his “senses and physical attributes

[are] enhanced to superhuman levels.”

393

T’Challa, the current Black Panther, underwent this ritual following the death of

his father. The High Chieftain, T’Chaka was gunned down by a band of mercenaries who

stormed the jungle kingdom in search of vibranium. Devastated by the death of his father,

T’Challa swears vengeance: “in that split-second my boyhood ended—as the new

chieftain of all the Wakandas was born.”

394

The Black Panther had an incredibly poor sales record compared with his super

hero peers. Unlike Superman, Batman or even The Fantastic Four with whom he first

appears, The Black Panther’s publication history is spotty to say the least. In the 1980s,

only four issues of The Black Panther were published for the entire decade.

The character’s solo titles have been cancelled at least six times during his run

with Marvel. Even as this dissertation was being written, his latest incarnation has been

pulled from production after only twelve issues. It would be simple to track this failure to

its logical economic conclusion: sales for Black Panther titles have never been

impressive. Many comic analysts would point to low fan interest in the title and consider

their work done. Certainly, these writers have a point. In a recent blog post on The

Comics Forums, a poster provides support for this view noting “I’ve been getting Black

Panther since Civil War [a year long story arc involving the entire Marvel Universe] and

I didn’t even notice that [the comic] hadn’t been solicited the last two months.”

395

393

“Black Panther,” Marvel Online Encyclopedia, 2010, accessed on August 13, 2010,

http://marvel.com/universe/Black_Panther_%28T%27Challa%29.

394

Lee, Fantastic Four #53, 8.

395

DonInAHole, “Black Panther Cancelled?,” The Comics Forum, August 2008, accessed on August 12,

2010, http://www.thecomicforums.com/forum2/index.php?showtopic=139334.

152

This explanation fails to address the larger question, however: why has fan

interest traditionally remained so low for a character that Marvel has re-invented and re-

cast time and time again? Why isn’t one of the worlds most successful comic book

companies able to get readers to connect with The Panther? The same question could be

proposed about a number of other minority characters whose comics have crashed and

burned, but I’ve chosen to focus my attention on The Panther for one very important

reason: he came first. He predates the first appearances of every other black Marvel

superhero including Bishop,

396

Blade,

397

Cloak,

398

Luke Cage,

399

Storm,

400

and even

appeared three years before The Falcon whom the historian Bradford Wright erroneously

names “the first African American superhero.”

401

This chapter proposes that the issue which has stifled sales and reception for the

Black Panther comics is not lack of interest in racial storylines but a lack of authenticity.

This problem is not unique to the Panther comic; all racially explicit depictions in comic

books suffer from this dilemma. Characters in these tales are caught in a precarious

balancing act. They are at once too authentic in their representation of Otherness for

white readers to accept them and not nearly authentic enough for many minority readers

to see themselves spoken for in the panels. The struggle to overcome this hurtle is made

all the more difficult by writing staffs that are almost universally white. This chapter will

show how the Panther’s inability to find an appealing balance of authenticity has been the

deciding factor from decade to decade in his sagging sales figures.

396

First appearance Uncanny X-Men #282 1991.

397

F.A. Tomb of Dracula #10 1973.

398

F.A. Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #64 1982.

399

F.A. Hero for Hire #1 1972.

400

F.A. Giant Size X-Men Annual #1 1975.

401

F.A. Captain America #117 1969. Wright, Comic Book Nation, 272.

153

This point deserves some special consideration before moving on. I have

suggested in previous chapters of this dissertation that white writers and artists were

perfectly capable of accessing (even if not consciously) and delivering messages of

Otherness through characters that appeared on the surface to be white but were not. How

then can I suggest that being white would interfere with the ability of these producers to

create quality content for a character that is openly an Other? If anything it would seem

that this would make their jobs easier. No more having to squeeze racial and ethnic

meanings between layers of subtext. So what makes writing and drawing black characters

different than say white characters that act black? The difference is a fear of judgment.

When a white writer creates a comic built around overt racial messages, he knows that

the material will be assessed based on social responsibility criteria. He knows that

potentially prominent voices in ethnic and racial communities will be watching the

portrayal closely, scrutinizing dimensions to ensure that they were fully formed. This

level of examination helps create a character that is too diluted to introduce a lasting

critique of society.

This chapter explores the cultural factors that result in minority led comics

historically performing so poorly at newsstands. The Black Panther has been chosen

because he is the very first black superhero that Marvel ever included in one of their

publications. I track his evolution from his early days as a side kick for the Fantastic

Four, an Avenger and eventually as the star of his own comic book title. The reader

begins to see a pattern of representation from one author of the series to the next.

154

I pin his lackluster sales to issues of authenticity. As a black character he has

constantly been forced to live up to standards of blackness set by minority leaders of each

successive generation. As (mostly white) writers struggle to frame him as a strong,

confident, independent black man, the complexity of his story is smothered by a complex

web of competing racial identities. Essentially, he is forever stretched between two

polarizing positions: on the one hand he is too black for white audiences to accept and he

is never black enough for minority readers. I show through detailed examples of comics

from each decade of his career how these two conditions persist simultaneously. The

chapter ends by arguing that race is most effective in comic books when the character is

white because it allows the reader to draw their own racial coding into the shell created

by the writer and artist. The Black Panther fails because that choice has been stripped

from the reader by the time the issue is published.

Determining Blackness: Early Definitions of Race

The difficulty becomes determining what exactly makes someone authentically

black. A number of definitions have persisted over the years, some of more usefulness

than others. F. James Davis provides one of the earliest definitions used legally in the

United States to identify persons of black ancestry. The so-called one-drop rule was

formulated in agricultural bastions in the Deep South. It postulated that “a single drop of

‘black blood’ makes a person black.”

402

In those cases where the courts were presented

with someone claiming dominant race credentials thanks to a white mother or father the

hypo-decent rule was enforced. This regulation stated, “racially mixed persons are

402

F. Fames Davis, Who is Black? One Nation’s Defintion (University Park: The Pennsylvania State

University Press, 1980), 5.

155

assigned the status of the subordinate class.”

403

Thus, even if a person turned out to be

fifty percent Caucasian they would enjoy zero percent of the benefits. These definitions

were useful to white Americans during the plantation era. As white landowners began to

have sexual or miscegenatious relationships with black slaves, laws that “made it possible

for white males to have interracial sexual contacts but to remain in total control of the

slaves” became preferable.

404

W.E.B. Du Bois presents a more complicated racial definition. He stated in 1940

that a black person is one “who must ride ‘Jim Crow’ in Georgia.”

405

Du Bois

commentary expands the definition of blackness from the biological to the social. He has

insinuated here that the actions one takes along prescribed lines of racial conduct are the

best identifiers of one’s racial heritage. Author Algernon Austin agrees with this

sentiment, classifying race as “a sociohistorical phenomenon.”

406

This further

complicates the methodology of racial profiling. The comment suggests that racial norms

are not absolute. They change based on the factors that comprise a historical moment.

While Austin admits that some of these values are ascribed to individuals based on their

presumed racial lineage, he also claims that one can achieve racial identification through

“proper performance of the normative expectations of the racial category.”

407

What makes this assertion particularly interesting for this study is that whites are

not given exclusive province over determining what these normative qualities should

consist of. Put simply: “Blacks…have norms for black people.”

408

This has created a

403

Ibid, 5.

404

Ibid, 48.

405

Algernon Austin, Achieving Blackness: Race, Black Nationalism and Afrocentrism in the Twentieth

Century (New York: New York University Press, 2006), 47.

406

Ibid, 48.

407

Ibid, 48.

408

Ibid, 49.

156

system in which blacks have been able to formulate “ideas about ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’

blackness.”

409

Traditionally the values that have been lumped under the title of incorrect

blackness are those which give the appearance of assimilation into white culture. Blacks

that have been seen as participating in white activities have alternately been labeled as

Uncle Toms, Negros, and house slaves. That a dramatic shift in the relationship of these

terms to the black community coincides with the historical moment in which the Black

Panther comic is released cannot be taken for granted.

The Birth of the Panther: Early Publication History

This comic book character had the unfortunate distinction of sharing a name with

the leading voice in a new, militant black power movement. There does not appear to

have been any malicious intent on the part of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the creators of the

Panther in christening him with such a volatile namesake. His first appearance as a comic

character pre-dates the formation of the Black Panther Party by four months.

410

In fact,

his original name was even going to be The Coal Tiger according to preliminary sketches

and test artwork done by Jack Kirby. No precise reason is given for the last minute name

change, only a note from Editor Ian Hannin that the sketches provide insight into the

“kind of visual preparations and character attitudes [that] are considered before one of

our scintillating heroes burst full blown into comic book reality.”

411

The Panther’s publication history leads one to question just how full blown his

burst onto the scene was. Nevertheless, in the turbulent years that would follow his initial

appearance the Marvel team had to consider how the black community would respond to

409

Ibid, 49.

410

First appearance of The Black Panther July 1966, First appearance of the Black Panther Party October

1966.

411

Ian Hannin, Marvel Essentials: The Fantastic Four Vol. 3, (New York: Marvel Comics, 2007).

157

this new character. Algernon highlights the extent to which such racial behavior was

scrutinized. During the black power movement one black student who deeply loved

theatre avoided university productions for fear that appearing among mostly white

crowds would be “risking [his] blackness.”

412

Another college student was informed in

his first few weeks of higher education that consorting with white students in any fashion

would result in him becoming a “D.B. [dead brother].”

413

Implications don’t come much

clearer than that. They also show how embracing a comic book that did not rigorously

adhere to social standards of blackness could be not only imprudent but metaphorically

fatal.

Defining Blackness: What it Meant to be a Black Panther

So what does the black power movement consider as authentically black

attributes? Among the largest is the notion of “black machismo.”

414

This trait isn’t simply

about physical prowess. It requires a mental toughness. Black power advocates claim that

they have been “emasculated” by white dominance and must find ways of taking that

power back.

415

The Nation of Islam for example spent much of its energy relegating

black women to the proper place in a black man’s life. Austin argues that this position

reflects the larger gender politics that have been denied black males. Years of being

legally required to defer to the needs of white women has endangered the essential

manliness of their character. They must subjugate their own women in an effort to regain

what has been lost. Under black power doctrine “Abortion and homosexuality were both

412

Ibid, 50.

413

Ibid, 50.

414

Ibid, 51.

415

Ibid, 51.

158

viewed as sins.”

416

For black women not to acquiesce to these demands was tantamount

to their betrayal of their race and a sign that they were “unsympathetic to black men.”

417

Definitions were further complicated by the fractionalization of the movement’s

adherents. Yet within the movement’s many nooks and crannies one could easily find

political, cultural, and even religious ideological strains tethered precariously to the

central concept of black pride. Austin explains that for many blacks who were

disheartened by the seemingly snail-like progress of the civil rights movement, the term

“Afrikan” began to be used in place of Negro or black “to indicate an authentic black

identity.”

418

Cultural nationalists are often lumped into a rather finite area of black

revolutionary thought that centers around the creation and display of pop culture artifacts

(literature, clothing, hair styles, etc.). Austin notes that they held a much larger definition

of culture that embraced ideas concerning economics and politics. They followed the

practices and teachings of Maulana Karenga who saw culture as the first step towards

“being free from European influence.”

419

Karenga defines this core value as “a return to

the past because one cannot deal with the present and refuses to face the future.”

420

Cultural nationalists believed that the mother continent had produced fully formed

socialist civilizations that could be re-claimed if they could purge themselves of

European influence. The clothing and poetry were merely the means by which they

connected back to that tradition.

Pan-Africanists took this mantra and developed a production-oriented approach.

When The Council of Independent Black Institutions formed in the wake of Brown v.

416

Ibid, 51.

417

Ibid, 54.

418

Ibid, 59.

419

Ibid, 89.

420

Ibid, p 90-91.

159

Board of Education, these black leaders helped set up primary schools that would

explicitly focus on presenting an Africanized curriculum. They encouraged a shared fate

ideology in which teachers and students referred to each other in patently familial

terminology. Teachers were required to call students their children; students called

teachers their parents and students called each other brother and sister. They taught

African history and students memorized the Weusi Alfabeti or African alphabet. These

institutions were not free from political rhetoric, however. They hoped to provide

students the tools to continue the militant black resistance to white dominance for

generations to come. Austin states, “for many CIBI educators, education was explicitly

meant to create activists.”

421

Students were taught martial arts and lobbying techniques.

Even the alphabet smacked of revolution. An exert from the text reads “N is for our

Nation, O is for organize and then we nationalize.”

422

Influencing both of these splinter groups was the Nation of Islam. While Malcolm

X certainly gained exposure by arguing against the non-violent resistance tactics

employed by Martin Luther King Jr., the Nation was at its heart a religious affair. Local

headquarters were called “temples” and later “mosques.”

423

The Nation rejected

Christianity and God as “self-hate for blacks.”

424

Their economic model was also eerily

reminiscent of Christian tithing. They encouraged “Black Capitalism” which amounted to

giving money to the Nation to dole out to black business ventures as it saw fit. Austin

421

Ibid, 103.

422

Ibid, 102.

423

Ibid, 63.

424

Ibid, 63.

160

questions the motivation of this aspect of the Nation’s dogma noting “it is not clear

whether these ventures ever benefited anyone other than the Nation’s leadership.”

425

Each of these definitions of race helps us to put into historical perspective the

expectations an authentically black character would have been expected to live up to. But

the Panther is not trapped in a historical vacuum. He is still a regular feature in many

comic titles. When modern readers immerse themselves in the Panther’s adventures they

will not be judging him based on antiquated notions of racial identification. A more

universal set of standards is therefore needed to assess the qualities of blackness

presented in the Panther comic.

Paul M. Sniderman and Thomas Piazza provide us with just such a set of

contemporary definitions. They have created a set of principles that seem to be

consistently tied to measures of black pride across generations. They identify early in

their study what they see as a limitation. The authors claim that many of these factors

work so closely as “companion notions…that it is easy to argue that either one is the

cause of the other.”

426

While this does make empirically testing results difficult, it

supports qualitative examinations such as this one. This sort of statement removes the

need to try and determine which traits the Black Panther does and does not exhibit.

Instead, we can presume that he experiences all of them. The only question becomes

which ones he chooses to act on and how those actions affect the performative nature of

his achieved status as a black icon.

In a questionnaire presented to 676 black men and women in the Chicago area,

Sniderman and Piazza uncovered empirical evidence to support a host of common values

425

Ibid, 66.

426

Sniderman and Piazza, Black Pride and Black Prejudice, 13.

161

that indicate a strong racial identification for black individuals. The first of these traits

was as sense of shared fate. They note that “you should feel that what happens to other

members of the group has a bearing on what happens to you”

427

. Over two thirds of the

respondents indicated that they felt their actions had larger societal consequences beyond

the scope of their individual lives.

Recalling the dictates of black power, the authors claim black autonomy,

particularly economic autonomy as another fact of racial identification. They note “given

the history of American racism,…it would be surprising…if black Americans did not

wish to have a larger say in the directions that their lives will take.”

428

Two important

notes about the desire for economic independence for African Americans: (1) They crave

economic freedom for the entire race, not a single person, (2) They do not desire

“absolute independence, but…a greater measure of it.”

429

Once again we begin to see

how these traits overlap creating more complex visions of black identity.

The authors also tested measures of Afrocentrism in their respondents. While

numbers ran rather low for the extremist views expressed by some on the black

community (i.e., that Greek philosophers had stolen ideas from black thinkers in Egypt)

over 75% agreed that “African wise men who lived hundreds of years ago do not get

enough credit for their contributions to modern science.”

430

Under this defintion of the

Afrocentrism concept, the focus is less concerned with returning to African roots as it is

with exposing lies perpetrated by Europeans who have minimized the significance of

427

Ibid, 15.

428

Ibid, 18.

429

Ibid, 18.

430

Ibid, 23.

162

black intellectuals historically. The authors read this finding as a sign of festering

“intolerance” in the black community for white oppression.

431

But where does this intolerance come from? According to these authors,

conspiratorial thinking. They asked respondents a set of loaded questions that proposed

there were “forces, operating on a vast scale, rooted in the very center of American

society, and proceeding with the explicit authorization of the government itself, that are

bent on the destruction of black people.”

432

Specifically, they asked if respondents

believed that government agencies were keeping inner city crime rates high on purpose

and if white doctors had developed the AIDS virus as a way of killing off the black race.

Over 46% believed them to be either “strongly” true or “somewhat” true.

433

The vivid

and violent nature of these beliefs would appear to indicate that the chasm between white

and black America, even in the 21

Century is remarkably wide. This type of extreme

hatred and fear makes the present study all the more relevant some forty years after the

Black Panther first hit Marvel newsstands.

Black Panther in the 1960s

The 1960s were one of the most disorganized and indecisive periods in the Black

Panther’s publication history. Lee and Kirby clearly had not come to a consensus on how

far they were willing to take their experiment. This reluctance plays out as a series of

confounding and contradictory choices from T’Challa in the early issues featuring the

Black Panther. Readers are introduced to a ruthless, cunning and ferociously independent

black man in his debut issue. By the end of his initial arc, however, the writers’ interest in

pushing such boundaries has weakened considerably. This makes the 1960s version of

431

Ibid, 24.

432

Ibid, 45.

433

Ibid, 47.

163

the character a frustrating one to read from a racial standpoint. On the one hand, his debut

issue presents one of the most comprehensive realizations of the character’s potential.

This must be weighed against the almost immediate emasculation of the character. The

decade is typified for the character by one angry shout for change followed by a long

stream of muttering.

The strained, often confusing relationship to race played out in the pages of the

Black Panther’s very first appearance. His introduction, as noted earlier, comes in a three-

part arc in the Fantastic Four in 1966. The issue finds T’Challa summoning the Fantastic

Four to his hidden African nation to participate in “the greatest hunt of all time.”

434

The

thrust of the story was cribbed heavily from the short story turned 1932 film The Most

Dangerous Game.

435

The Panther lured the super hero team to his island so that he could

use them as prey. He needed a last great test to prove his worth to the Wakandan people

as their rightful king and possessor of the Black Panther powers. On the surface, this is

the personification of the black machismo aesthetic. A single black man plotting to

overwhelm four highly regarded pillars of the white community. Ben Grimm, a member

of the FF even appears to provide ample ammunition to black intellectuals who would

argue that this hyper-masculinity is required to combat unsophisticated notions of

blackness by whites.

Grimm acts as the comic’s voice for white ignorance. When presented with the

technological sophistication of the Wakandan people, he is always the first to dismiss

their achievements. The Panther has sent the FF a magnificent jet built by Wakandans as

a gift to entice them to visit his nation. The vehicle is far beyond the technological

434

Stan Lee, “The Black Panther,” Fantastic Four #52 (New York: Marvel Comics, July 1966), 3.

435

Which was itself an adaptation of a short story by Richard Connell.

164

capabilities of anything the American government have heretofore been capable of

producing. Upon first seeing the vehicle in action, Grimm’s only response is “How does

some refugee from a Tarzan movie lay his hands on this kinda gimo?”

436

This utter

disbelief in the technological prowess of an African nation becomes a theme of the issue.

It is worth noting that none of the FF are similarly shocked when Dr. Doom, a monarch

of the fictional Eastern European nation of Latvaria demonstrates comparable

technological achievements. The confounding variable appears to stem directly from the

Panther’s African roots and Wakanda’s rustic appearance.

Once the FF reach Wakandan territory they are shocked to discover a world

underneath the lush foliage. A vast labyrinth of steel beams and computer hardware sits

just below Wakanda’s surface which Lee describes as “a world of sheer wonder.”

437

Once the hunt begins, the Panther’s dominance is unmistakable. The author once

again toys with conceptions of black power by having the Panther defeat the FF with his

mind not his physique. He traps the Human Torch in a vacuum tube rendering his

spontaneously combustible body mute. He zaps the Thing’s immense strength by tricking

him into injecting “devitalizing water” which allows him to be easily overpowered. He

uses his heightened senses to subdue both Mr. Fantastic and Sue Storm by plunging one

into total darkness and sniffing the other out even in her invisible cloak. No doubt this

must have been difficult for some white readers to sit through. Here were their most

beloved heroes being made to look like fools by a strong, confident, and independent

black man. The Panther embodied the reincarnation of Jack Johnson.

436

Ibid, 1.

437

Ibid, 9.

165

But, the FF soon escape the traps that have been carefully laid out for them and

instead of continuing to battle, the Panther accepts them as equals. One comic book issue

after so viciously pummeling the FF, he throws them a lavish celebration in honor of their

new friendship. Clearly the writers were beginning to question the wisdom of introducing

their fans to such a powerful model of black behavior. He presents them with several gifts

and allows them to rest in his personal mansion. This complete 180-degree turn appears

to almost completely deflate his original goals and it seems as though Marvel is telling its

fans that even the most autonomous and superior of black men can be wowed by the

tenacity of white heroes. Remembering the temperature of race relations exhibited by the

anecdotes of the college students we discussed earlier, it is surprising that the Panther

would forfeit his blackness so completely with so little effort. Nor does this respect

appear mutual. As the Panther tries to explain the origins of his wealth and power to the

FF, Ben Grimm dismisses him almost immediately interrupting the story to interject “Yer

talkin’ to a guy who seen every Tarzan movie at least a dozen times! And I can recite ya

half’a the Bomba the Jungle Boy books by heart. So yer little bedtime story aint

impresin’ me!”

438

This may as well be a lesson presented in a Pan-African classroom:

kindness to whites is futile for it will not be returned. But these abusive comments have

no effect on the Panther’s interest in continuing their new found friendship.

In his final appearance with the Fantastic Four in issue #54, he has allowed for a

new level of assimilation in the Wakandan jungle. The opening panel of this issue finds

the Panther playing baseball on a makeshift field with the FF. He cheerfully yells out

438

Stan Lee, Fantastic Four #53, 6.

166

from behind the pitcher’s mound “This will never replace lion hunting my friends.”

439

The character has fallen far in terms of his authenticity over the course of only a few

issues. He went from the personification of what the black power movement (only

months away from hitting its stride in the U.S.) stood for to becoming a pawn in the FF’s

expanding circle of costumed companions. And as this first chapter in the Panther’s

tumultuous comic book life ends we see the entirety of his later struggles to be accepted

as a regularly published character played out. He exposes us to both extremes of his

personality. We see the proud African heritage from which he derives his powers and his

willingness to accommodate the West. The words of the Panther as the FF prepare to

depart Wakanda, “[I] shall be eternally in your debt,” appear to foreshadow a less

militarized version of the Panther for future incarnations.

440

The emasculating power of

white influence is on display for all black readers to ponder.

The Black Panther would essentially vanish from the pages of Marvel for the next

few years only making rare and often fleeting appearances alongside the Fantastic Four.

By 1968, when the company chose to give their first black superhero another shot at

stardom it came with a high price. Now the writing team had decided to drag T’Challa

out of his jungle home altogether. He would be moved to New York to team with the

crime fighting team of the Avengers. The potential for discussion of many of the issues

plaguing the black community was thus greatly diminished. As an Avenger the Panther

would fade into obscurity, his political agenda obfuscated by a mansion full of white

characters.

439

Stan Lee, “Whosoever Finds The Evil Eye…!,” Fantastic Four #54 (New York: Marvel Comics,

September 1966), 1.

440

Ibid, 8.

167

Certainly, the traits of authentic blackness discussed above apply to this iteration

of the Black Panther, but his induction into the Avengers evoked another historical

struggle being played out in the pages of Marvel’s comics. The battles over social

integration of black and white spaces in America was reaching record highs. Black

activists buoyed on one side by the orations of Martin Luther King and on the other by

the righteous indignation of Malcolm X were demanding equality at ever-greater levels.

Although there are several areas of social reform, which could be applied as evidence in

such a case, it seems most pertinent to invoke the desegregation of the schooling system

as an appropriate parallel to the integration issues faced by our intrepid superhero. After

all, many of his readers would have been either in primary schools or going off to a

university while enjoying his many adventures.

While it is true that Brown v. Board of Education had been decided by the

Supreme Court some fourteen years prior to the Black Panther joining the Avengers, the

issues that it aimed to solve were still a sight of consternation in the late sixties. Many

schools, especially in the southern states still found loopholes that allowed them to skirt

around the regulations imposed by Brown. The same year the Black Panther joined the

Avengers; the Supreme Court issued an amendment ruling to Brown in Green v. New

Kent County School District. Sometimes referred to as the “root and branch” plan after

the decision written by Justice Brennan, this ruling required schools to submit to tests to

verify how effectively they had implemented the dictates of Brown into their system.

441

Both the Brown and Green decisions relied heavily on what scholars called the

harm and benefit thesis. This philosophy states that desegregation is an essential

441

David J. Armor, Forced Justice: School Desegregation and the Law (New York: Oxford University

Press, 1995), 28.

168

foundation of education because “segregation is harmful to the social, psychological, and

educational development of children.”

442

The philosophy breaks down the benefits of the

plan into four areas: “academic achievement, self-concept and aspirations, race relations

and prejudice and long-term educational and vocational attainments.”

443

Although the

Panther’s narrative isn’t affected by educational attainment or academic achievement,

race relations and self-esteem fit well into the previously constructed model of black self-

image that we have been working with.

The harm and benefit thesis would insist that black students matriculating at a

segregated school would have lower self-esteem than those at desegregated schools. It

turns out that the opposite was often true. In a set of meta-analyses of studies conducted

from 1963 – 1981, two researchers found out of a total of 63 studies only six schools

reported higher black self esteem in desegregated environments. Twenty-one schools

reported higher self esteem in segregated classrooms. David J. Armor states that one of

the chief explanations for this seemingly contradictory finding has been racism in

desegregated schools. He explains, “desegregated black students may…experience racial

prejudice or acts of discrimination for the first time.”

444

As exemplified in the Fantastic Four issues, the Black Panther had experienced

discrimination before, but he had never experienced it as a resident of the United States.

Returning for a moment to the traits of black authenticity, T’Challa had risked quite a bit

of his reputation by joining the Avengers. He had potentially sacrificed the livelihoods of

his native people to become a crime fighter for a comic book America in which every

panel is lily white. Black men, women and children may roam freely along the confines

442

Ibid, 59.

443

Ibid, 61.

444

Ibid, 101.

169

of Wakanda, but Marvel’s titles set in Manhattan were devoid of racial diversity. Some

might say he had betrayed the shared fate aspect of his heritage to become something of

an “Uncle Tom.”

This is where the intersecionality struggles faced by the Panther begin to come to

a head. Unlike Superman and Batman he has no secret identity to hide. He uses the

Panther moniker more like a royal title than a second persona. Nevertheless, he is faced

with a dual set of roles to fulfill. Being shipped off to the United States did irreparable

harm to the character. It created at a fetal stage in the mythology a precedent that would

define the character’s actions for years to come. Previous chapters have shown how

Superman and Batman benefited from ambiguous identities. These malleable personas

allowed for identification from a wide range of audience members who could read

themselves into the action. The Panther would have been much better served by a

singular, more focused identity, however. If Marvel’s intention was to facilitate a new

level of social responsibility by introducing more realistic characters, then they needed to

present a much more uncompromising vision of the Panther. As our review of black

authenticity has shown, where Superman and Batman represented (on some level) all

races, the Panther was the spokesperson for one. Introducing uncertainty over where his

commitments lie muddied the ideological position of the character for future incarnations.

It could be said that intersectionality helped kill the Panther as marketable character.

His indoctrination into the Avengers occurs in issue # 52. T’Challa arrives to find

three of the Avengers, The Wasp, Hawkeye, and Goliath, apparently slain in their own

mansion. Before he has time to ascertain whom the culprit behind the murders is, a

S.H.I.E.D. agent bursts in and arrests him for the crime. Although he tries several times

170

to explain his innocence, the all-white police staff will hear nothing of it. The inspector

on the case freely hurls insults at the Panther including asking him to unmask at gunpoint

(a deep sign of disrespect) and dismissively mispronouncing his name as “T’Charlie.”

445

The Panther declares his status as African royalty, but the legal assistance this

would normally grant him is refused. The officer tosses the point aside stating, “we’ve

got just his word on that. I can’t find this Wakanda place on any map!”

446

When the

Panther can stand his false captivity no more, he escapes in search of the real killer. As he

sits perched on a ledge near the police station, a crowd of onlookers gathers and taunts

him. One civilian yells, “while he’s on the loose nobody’s safe.”

447

He is clearly referring

to his status as a murderer but there is also an inescapable racial connotation couched in

this statement. Here we have the first black superhero ever allowed into the all-white club

of the Avengers and the first thing he has apparently done is murder his teammates. It is

hard if not impossible to avoid the comparisons to country clubs and sports teams, which

were in the midst of integration at this time as well.

When T’Challa finally confronts the killer of these three superheroes he provides

him a moment of mercy, as the man appears defeated. The criminal Grim Reaper begs

him “don’t strike me please.”

448

The Panther agrees to settle for taking him into custody

and clearing the name of T’Challa but this hesitation is leapt on by the Reaper who

attempts to land a fatalistic blow. Speaking seemingly to the myriad backlash of racism

he has encountered since landing in America, the Panther bellows, “this, then is the worth

445

Roy Thomas, “Death Calls for the Arch-Heroes.” The Mighty Avengers (New York: Marvel Comics,

1969), 6.

446

Ibid, 12.

447

Ibid, 13.

448

Ibid, 15.

171

of a pledge in the place which men call civilized?”

449

While T’Challa finds the strength to

join the Avengers after all, these character attacks create a first chip in the armor that will

eventually lead to his self-imposed retirement from the team.

Black Panther in the 1970s

The 1970s was a hopeful era for the Black Panther as a comic and a character.

Ironically, as Marvel began to lose faith in the character’s ability to ever draw a

substantial audience, it provided an opportunity for the character to undergo a miniature

rebirth. The Panther was given to author Don McGregor who, far removed from the

scrutiny of a major title, was able to provide one of the most thoughtful approaches to the

character ever attempted. This vision of the character attempted to return him to the

proud black roots of his first appearance. Sadly, the full potential for this version of the

Panther was never realized. The series was canceled after only 13 issues for creating too

much controversy with its storylines. If the Black Panther of the 1960s failed because he

lacked authenticity, the 1970s Panther was too authentic to be allowed to exist.

As we follow the Black Panther into the 1970s, his relationship with the Avengers

becomes increasingly strained. Although many of his colleagues support him

professionally, little effort is made to know T’Challa the man rather than the Black

Panther the crime fighter.

It is in many respects why he ultimately decides to leave their midst. By August of 1974,

the Panther was becoming restless with his role as an Avenger. Most of the team was in

shambles, bickering over petty arguments that threatened to tear the team apart. A love

triangle had developed around The Scarlet Witch and Mantis who both lusted after the

newest Avenger member, the Vision. Captain America had returned to the team but was

449

Ibid, 15.

172

having serious doubts as to whether or not he wished to continue being a superhero at all.

This splintering had left the Panther deeply alone both physically and emotionally.

In the months leading up to his decision he had been faced with several incidents

that had made him question his decision to leave the nation of Wakanda. Poor race

relations have plagued the Panther since he set foot in America. We have already seen the

accusatory treatment he received from the police upon his arrival. But the lack of support

from the black community in New York digs far deeper into the Panther’s psyche. A

reporter for a local paper stirs up a group of black militant protesters that picket outside

the Avengers’ mansion. They demand that the Panther return to Africa because he has

“sold out to the white establishment.”

450

This direct attack on the Panther’s authenticity as a black athority figure shakes

his confidence. As he sits by a windowsill of the Avengers mansion we are let in on

another troubling development. He has been receiving multiple letters from Wakanda.

His generals and councilors are begging for his return. He is torn in his sense of duty

declaring, “my people are lost without their prince.”

451

He reveals that he no longer

believes that his country can remain safe without his presence. The desire to re-establish

a balance of atavism in his life is palpable. He clearly feels disconnected from the

mythological roots of his ancestry. He is losing his Africaness and it can no longer be

ignored.

His discontent with living in America is finally pushed to its breaking point when

a diplomat of the fictitious nation of Rudyarda pays a visit to the mansion. He is in need

450

Marvel Database, Avengers Vol 1 112, Wikia accessed on July 11, 2010,

entertainment,http://marvel.wikia.com/Avengers_Vol_1_112.

451

Steve Englehart , “All the Sounds and Sights of Death,” The Mighty Avengers #126 (New York: Marvel

Comics, August 1974), 5.

173

of the Avengers assistance. His embassy has been receiving death threats. The diplomat,

Mr. Ronald Pershing, is also a stanch white supremacist. When T’Challa answers the

door to the mansion, Pershing refuses to shake his hand for he claims, “the touch of a

black man is distasteful to me.”

452

Before the Avengers can make it to their vehicles to assist the diplomat, they are

all assaulted by Solaar and Klaw, the man who killed T’Challa’s father years earlier.

Klaw traps the heroes and their guest in a force field. He reveals that he will kill one of

the female Avengers within one hour if the Panther does not abdicate his throne and title

to Klaw. Pershing verbally berates T’Challa calling for him to abide by Klaw’s wishes.

He screams “If I face death…it will be on your head!”

453

When T’Challa is unmoved by

his pleas, the diplomat turns to the other trapped Avengers and demands, “you surely

can’t let us die on the whim of a black man.”

454

While the other Avengers rally around T’Challa’s right to defend his throne and

eventually defeat Klaw, the words of Pershing leave a lasting impact on the African

prince. After the battle he announces to the team that he has decided to leave the

Avengers to travel back to his homeland. He cites the appearance of Klaw and Pershing

as “omen(s)” that he is needed back home.

455

Note the difference in how the Panther

reacts to white isolationist rhetoric. There is little difference in tone between the verbal

abuse he suffers here and the chides of Ben Grimm back in Wakanda. Yet, where he

shrugged off the ignorance of Grimm, he takes the current accusations much more

seriously. This could be written off as a story device to transition the Panther out of the

452

Ibid, 6.

453

Ibid, 12.

454

Ibid, p 15.

455

Ibid, 19.

174

Avengers comic, but it could just as well be read as an admission from the writing staff

that this sort of vulgar language has consequences. Although they may still be years away

from presenting a completely realized black character, the writers at least deserve some

credit for using this platform to engender a slightly more tolerant world view.

The conflicting nature of black authenticity is brought to the forefront of the

Black Panther’s journey once again. He cares about his alliance with the Avengers and

admits to himself that he has done some good while a member of their ranks but his

responsibly to his people are too strong to allow him to stay away. This also acts as an

interesting critique of the autonomy of the black race. The argument is being made that

black people are happiest when they are with other black people. Regardless of the

money or power one is able to attain in white society, the modern black male is depicted

as needing some form of geographic connectivity to his people that prevents him from

ever fully establishing himself as an integrated and equal member of white society. The

experiment of integration has failed in the comic landscape. The Panther will never again

return as a full-time resident of the United States. For the next three decades of his

existence, he lives apart from his costumed companions, literally and figuratively and

island to himself.

At this point it might have seemed to the average consumer that Marvel was

finally putting some weight behind the Black Panther storylines. He was being given his

own solo title for the first time. The first black super hero in the company’s history

appeared to be poised for his turn as one of Marvel’s premier heroes. Behind the scenes,

however, the scene was somewhat bleaker.

175

The Panther was made the anchor character of a series called Jungle Action

Comics. This was similar to the method DC had used to promote Batman to his own title

by making him the face of Detective Comics. The writing reigns for the serial were

handed off once again, this time to Don McGregor. According to McGregor who had

been hired in 1972 to be a proofreader for Marvel titles, the company was growing weary

of their foray into racial literature. Simply put he states that he “had been given [the

Black Panther title] to write, because [it was] expected to die.”

456

He points to the fact that the character was being published in a title called Jungle

Action as the first sign of this dismissive sentiment. At the time Marvel, like many other

comic book publishers, were drawing on their immense back catalogs to help offset

sinking sales of other titles. It was 1973 and Marvel was still publishing a comic filled

with reprints of jungle comic characters like Tarzan and Sheena Queen of the Jungle that

had first appeared in the 1930s. Every grossly distorted, antiquated view of racial

otherness was sprawled out on the pages of these issues like a stubborn time capsule

daring young readers to open it. Marvel made no apologies for this transgression. They

did not attempt to contextualize these stories for contemporary readers. They simply

slapped a new cover on the issue and sent it out to the world as another fine product of

the House of Ideas.

What disturbed McGregor was that the Black Panther was expected to survive as

a three-dimensional character beside such one-dimensional tales. It would have cost too

much to have artists come in and draw the extra pages that populated the backs of each

issue so Marvel decided the Panther could have the first 20 or so pages and Sheena or

some other such white savage could occupy the garbage space. After eight issues

456

Dan McGregor, Panther’s Chronicles (New York: Marvel Comics, 2010), 2.

176

McGregor became fed up with the reprints, which he said were “taunting me, stabbing

me.”

457

He called in favors from the art staff. He convinced some of his friends to draw

filler material for free if he would write it. This resulted in five or six pages an issue that

would be littered with “maps, pinups, story recaps” even a diagram of the Wakandan

palace complete with a toilet, anything to keep Tarzan out of work.

458

This begs the question, why did Marvel turn their back on the Panther just as he

appeared to be gaining some support with fans? The answer is slightly less sinister than

McGregor’s memoirs imply. Stan Lee broke into the comic book industry in its formative

years. He lived through the damages wrought upon the industry by the comic book code

and the demoralizing testimonials of men like Fredric Whertham. Although, he is

commonly remembered today by comic fans as a paragon of the business, Lee has seen

the industry nearly submerge more than once. He was a poor Jewish kid who battled for a

spot in comics when they had fallen out of favor with the public and he had a wife and

children to support. Stan Lee learned early that the measure of success in the comic

business was sales figures and he carried that lesson with him the rest of his life.

In their biography of him, Jordan Raphael and Tom Spurgeon note that the men

Lee worked for in the 1940s and 50s were not interested in the “asserted cultural

significance” of a comic title, they only cared about “how many units they moved from

printing press to spinner rack.”

459

When Lee returned from military duty in the late

forties, he was hired by a company called Timely. They were “hell bent on

457

Ibid, 4.

458

Ibid, 5.

459

Jordan Raphael and Tom Spurgeon, Stan Lee: And The Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book

(Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2003), 50.

177

maximizing…sales” and they aimed to do it by sniffing out trends and following them to

their absolute limit.

460

Lee helped propel titles like Patsy Walker, Tessie the Typist,

Millie the Model and Nellie the Nurse onto newsstands as girl-friendly comics became a

temporary rage in the business. The future head of Marvel dove into this profit model and

“grabbed every last bit of market share he could with as many conceptual gymnastics as

the ‘girls comics’ concept would allow.”

461

Looking back at these formative years, it seems likely that Lee did not give up on

the Panther for political reasons. He created the Panther not as social commentary but as

a way of filling in a niche audience that he thought might be willing to spend money on

comics. When sales figures for titles featuring the Panther sagged, his motivation to

continue the comic waned. It is also possible that on some level Lee’s ego may have been

bruised by the Panther’s dismal performance. The character was created in the maelstrom

of Lee’s greatest spurt of creative genius. In the mid-1960s Lee had helped develop such

iconic heroes as Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men and The Hulk all

of whom would go on to be gigantic moneymakers for the company. The Panther stands

out as one of Lee’s unusual misfires in this period.

Whatever Lee’s motivations might have been, McGregor made sure that the

Wakanda that T’Challa returned to was far removed from the one he had left. Upon his

return in Jungle Action #6, he finds a Wakandan citizen being tortured for information on

the activities of the natives. When he rescues the captive, the dying man tells T’Challa

“many of the people said you’d never come back…that the Wakandas had lost their

460

Ibid, 50.

461

Ibid, 51.

178

king…that you would desert us.”

462

The shared fate motif is presented in its most

startling form in this issue. The Panther has come home to find his people in a state of

ruin. Even the gigantic metal fortress that had amazed the Fantastic Four years earlier is

gone, replaced by straw huts and primitive architecture.

There are two commentaries at work here. The first speaks to the transitory nature

of black success. Only a few years ago these men were building some of the most

sophisticated machinery known to man. Their experiments with the vibranium deposits

had yielded startling results. But in the absence of true leadership, we are shown that all

advances in science and education were soon lost. The mystical, deity-like power that one

person held over an entire civilization is both troubling and insulting. Here was one of the

finest examples in media of what an autonomous African community could aspire to and

it was toppled with almost no effort at all.

There is also a much bolder reflection than we have seen before of the individual

responsibility impressed upon children of be black pride movement to be cautions in their

decision making for it can have consequences that stretch far beyond the life of a single

person. When T’Challa returns to his throne room, one of his closest aides tells him that

the Black Panther is to blame for the tribal warfare that now threatens to tear Wakanda

apart. “Perhaps if you had spent more time here” he demands “you would not have to ask

[how things got this bad].”

463

It seems that in his absence, a local warlord named Erik Killmonger has been

terrorizing the nation with his band of outlaws. T’Challa gets to see this destruction for

himself as he and a search party approach a small Wakandan village. McGregor does not

462

Don McGregor, “Panther’s Rage,” Jungle Action Comics #6 (New York: Marvel Comics, 1973), 4.

463

Ibid, 6.

179

mince words in describing the destruction, “it is the scene of a massacre.”

464

As the Black

Panther uses his reflexes to save a woman trapped in one of the burning huts, his chief

military councilor scolds him, “a pity it has taken such drastic events to still your

obsession with those foreign shores.”

465

Like so many other issues centered on the Panther this one also includes images

of black power at work that would be disconcerting for white audiences. T’Challa has

brought a woman he began a romantic relationship with in New York back to the

Wakandan jungles. She is an embarrassing blaxploitation stereotype. She barges into a

meeting between T’Challa and his council asking “You done playing your jungle lord

act?”

466

Unable to accept her insults, T’Challa slaps her squarely across the face then

turns and walks away with no apology or explanation needed. His lover immediately

assumes a submissive role in line with the doctrine preached by the Nation of Islam. She

cowers from the superhero stammering “T’Challa I…I’m sorry.”

467

Though T’Challa’s

authenticity as a black prince might be in question, his position of authority over the

female gender remains solidly intact.

This is another example of the intersectionality that plagues the character coming

to the fore. T’Challa is once again torn between two views of his responsibility. As a

black prince his primary responsibility should be to his nation. As a superhero however,

he feels compelled to share his gifts with the world. Unlike the 1960s examples,

McGregor grants T’Challa the power to exert more control over his condition. McGregor

attempts to provide a more autonomous version of the Black Panther mythology. This

464

Ibid, 7.

465

Ibid, pl 8.

466

Ibid, 6.

467

Ibid, 6.

180

more confident iteration of T’Challa was clearly becoming troublesome for Marvel,

however. The content being discussed in the comics becoming increasingly

inflammatory. When McGregor turned his attention to racial injustice in the United

States, the comic’s days were numbered.

The Panther vs. The Klan story arc as it is affectionately known by fans of the

series would be one of the most controversial that Marvel would ever publish. The

imagery was stark and unapologetic. The writing pulled no punches. In many ways, it

was one of the most profound pieces of literature any comic publisher had dared to

release to the public at that time. It also turned out to be too much for many of them to

accept. Issue #21 featured a cover that showed T’Challa tied to a burning cross

surrounded by Klansmen calling for his demise. Conservative groups across the country

were outraged. McGregor says that looking back at it, he believes this is the issue that led

to the series cancellation in 1976. He blames the dramatic drop in sales (which even

Marvel could not afford to ignore any longer) on lack of support from “people…so afraid

of the subject matter, so hostile to my doing it…[to] those in charge…[and treatment

from] the outside media.”

468

The storyline revolved around the apparent suicide of Angela Lynne, the sister of

T’Challa’s girlfriend. They immediately return to the United States upon hearing of the

news. The next several issues revolve around the terrorizing effects of the Klan on the

Lynne family in rural Georgia. It seems that Angela had stumbled upon some

incriminating land deals being brokered between the Klan and local officials. Had this

information gone public it would have been politically devastating to those involved. A

local reporter tells the Panther that Angela had agreed to disclose the whole story to him

468

Don McGregor, Panther’s Chronicles, 7.

181

shortly before her mysterious death. Although not solid proof is ever found connecting

the Klan to her, the Lynne family and T’Challa strongly believe that Angela’s death was

the result of foul play.

Unfortunately, fans of the arc would not get to see it through to a proper

conclusion. Marvel became so overwhelmed by the negative press they received when

they ran the story, they abruptly cut the magazine from their roster. Issue #22 of Jungle

Action instead became a kind of epilogue to the Klan storyline. It centered on a tale

recounted by Monica Lynne’s mother, a story of corruption and deceit.

Tensions were particularly high along racial lines in the United States at this time.

Arguments began to erupt over the social construction of race. The exhibition of the

treasures of the King Tut tomb at the Met in New York ignited charges of white

Americans trying to rob Africans of their proper ancestry. Author Mellani McAllister

explains that for these citizens the Tut exhibit became “an extraordinary nexus [where]

the politics of masculinity and racial identity…were combined, contested, and

revised.”

469

Black leaders across the United States were ashamed and offended by the

Europhication of the Egyptian artifacts. They saw the exhibit as an opportunity to reframe

their position in the perpetual battle for cultural acknowledgement. They realized that

Egypt was identified along with Rome and Greece as a cradle of modern civilization.

Thus, they reasoned, “if ancient Egypt was reclaimed as black civilization, then

‘civilization’ could be claimed for blacks.”

470

The assertion would not go uncontested.

White leaders connected to the exhibit modeled it after an art exhibition rather than a

469

Mellani McAllister, Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, & U.S. Interests in the Middle East since 1945

(Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 2001), 127.

470

Ibid, 142.

182

historical documentary. They attempted to craft a “universalist rhetoric” onto the items

on display adopting them as “something too ennobling and too precious…to belong to

any one people…or any one nation.”

471

Black publications accused white authorities of purposefully striping the exhibit

and its media attention of any relationship to African heritage. African American leaders

reacted strongly to the muscling out of any African influence on the Tut treasures. Tom

Bradley, then mayor of Los Angeles, California declared February 12, 1978 King Tut

Day in defiance. He insisted in a public statement that white leaders were conspiring to

rob “black youth” of an important “model of black masculinity.”

472

White Egyptologists

fired back. Herbert Scott-Gibson released a pamphlet in connection with the exhibit titled

Tutankhamen and the African Heritage which argued “scientists generally considered

Egyptians more ‘caucasoid’ than ‘negroid.’”

473

The conflict reached its boiling point

when the New York Amsterdam ran a story “that complained about the breakdown of the

only Harlem Ticketron machine on the day the Tut tickets went on sale.”

474

The

accusation was unmistakable “black people” were actively being kept “out of the Tut

show” because they did not match the Eurocentric mythology laid out by white

presenters.

475

It is into this highly charged conspiratorial landscape that our final 1970s offering

from the Black Panther series emerges. As the matriarch of the Lynne family weaves her

tale of a recently freed slave harassed by the Ku Klux Klan, Monica Lynne fantasizes

about how differently things would have turned out if only T’Challa would have been

471

Ibid, 129.

472

Ibid, 141.

473

Ibid, 142.

474

Ibid, 143.

475

Ibid, 142.

183

there to help him. And by extension if the powerful, confident black men of the 1970s

would have been there to stand by his side. The issue is an attack on this type of re-

appropriation. It turns the tables by allowing Lynne the power to manipulate the image

and memory of white oppression. Lynne’s demonic visions of the Klan illustrate how

valuable control over historical interpretation can be. It’s not simply that by being there

T’Challa would have saved Caleb’s life. It’s that as this story would have been passed

down, black children would have seen this form of white oppression as surmountable.

After being confronted with the spectral images of the Klan accosting his family,

demanding that he revoke many of his newfound privileges, Caleb visits the Freedman’s

Bureau to seek assistance. We watch as the white politicians cajole him with empty

promises; “There’s nothing to fear…it’s obviously some scamps having a sporting time

with you. Get us in office and we’ll straighten them out.”

476

The images of the men we

are given are not provided by Mother Lynne though. They are the product of Monica’s

imagination. McGregor invites us into her subconscious: “She molds them out of silent

movie villains who stroke their moustaches while foreclosing on the mortgage.”

477

are treated to the longstanding, unspoken conspiracy to suppress black advancement felt

by all corners of black society. We are also reminded of the sheer hopelessness faced by

many black families in the wake of such scheming. The story is threatening not because it

shows T’Challa defeating the Klan, but because it proposes that the machinations put in

place by white society to maintain power are flawed. Like the night riders, they will

eventually be defeated.

476

Don McGregor, “Death Riders on the Horizon,” Jungle Action Comics (New York: Marvel, 1976), 295.

477

Ibid, 295.

184

Mother Lynne alludes to this transparency when she explains away the mystical

elements the Klansmen’s appearance quite scientifically, “those men were dressed up in

Civil War uniforms that they’d fired bullets into and smeared the holes with red paint; the

skeletal hand [of the leader] pro’bly carved from hickory wood.”

478

But in Monica’s

mind’s eye we see the repulsive magic of their regalia in full bloom. The Soul Strangler

is little more than the animated figure of a demonic skeleton.

And while the sophistication of the black power movement as expressed through

T’Challa dispenses with the likes of these ignoble savages, it is not without a price. As he

rains down a series of blows with his mighty fists to the Soul Strangler, the Black Panther

lectures him, “You are indeed a demon Soul Strangler. You have nearly transformed me

into as soulless a creature as you. You have made me mirror your images of death.”

479

This is the terror of conspiratorial thinking. It is bred by legitimate fears but if black

society is not careful their fight for equality can quickly drag them inexhaustibly into the

mire of reflexive racism.

Black Panther in 1990s

When Marvel decided to revisit the series in the 1990s, the wounds of past

mistreatments still lingered.

480

Marvel had decided to trot the African Avenger out for

one more run at stardom and on the surface, they were making the right moves to position

the character for a better shelf life than he had previously experienced. They brought on

Christopher Priest to helm the writing duties. Priest was the most preeminent black comic

478

Ibid, 298.

479

Ibid, 303.

480

Only 4 issues of the Black Panther comic were published during the 1980s. Sadly, none of them have

been collected into trade paperback or graphic novel form. Due to the disposable nature of comics,

especially those that don’t sell well, these uncollected issues have become extremely difficult to find. I will

continue to search for them to add to this section of the dissertation. For now, however, I respectfully

request that the committee allow a brief deviation from my stated methodology.

185

book author of his time. For the first time in the history of the title, the original black

superhero was going to be written by a black man.

But there was a problem. Priest hated the Black Panther. He looked at writing the

title as a chore not an opportunity. In the introduction to his collection of Panther issues,

Priest very bluntly summarizes his apprehension at taking on the African prince: “I was a

little horrified when the words ‘Black’ and ‘Panther’ came [up in the conversation]. I

mean, Black Panther? Who reads Black Panther? The guy with no powers? The guy in

the back of the Avengers class photo…[whose] supporting cast were a bunch of soul

brothers in diapers with bones through their noses…Panther was, by most objective

standards, dull.”

481

That ringing endorsement of the brand landed Priest the job. He would be the next

writer to guide readers through the Wakandan jungles. But Priest had a plan and a rather

novel one at that. He would keep the Black Panther from being “dull” by removing him

from his own comic book. In the five part mini-series that Priest oversaw, it was not

uncommon for T’Challa to have “only a handful of lines per issue.”

482

The star of the

new Black Panther comic would instead be a white diplomatic agent for the U.S.

government modeled after Chandler Bing from Friends. Priest thought this would a

relatable “everyman” that might help “deal with reader apathy and resistance to the return

of one of Marvel’s least appreciated and dullest characters.”

483

More than simply a Frankenstein methodology for breathing new life into a

comatose character though, Priest’s plan above all made the Panther safe. This new

481

Christopher Priest, “The Story Thus Far,” Black Panther: The Client (New York: Marvel Comics,

2001), 1.

482

Ibid, 2.

483

Ibid, 2.

186

Panther had to carve out an existence for himself in a post O.J. world. The site of

contestation that Michael Eric Dyson so brilliantly referred to as a “racequake” had

reopened many of the racial crevices that threatened the series in the 1970s.

484

The “black

antiheroism” embodied by the black power movement was once again a loathsome

quality in many white Americans’ eyes.

485

What’s worse, Simpson’s atrocious acts

implicated even the most affable black characterizations. Simpson’s crime it seemed was

less the beating and murder of his ex-wife than the betrayal of legions of whites who had

accepted him as one of their own. For a character like T’Challa whose entire identity had

been built on his stewardship of a faraway African nation, his Otherness appeared sure to

bury sales.

So Priest turned to a black adage, “it’s alright to look black, just don’t act your

color” and refined it to its breaking point.

486

The Black Panther could no longer be trusted

to tell his own narrative. The racial divide had shifted so dramatically that his authorial

voice had to be stripped from him. He would need to become a signifier without a

signified, a word whose defintion could be left in the more capable hands of a white

male.

That white male’s name was Everett K. Ross, whose name, Priest, identifies as an

homage to Alex P. Keaton.

487

The Office of the Chief of Protocol agent is charged with

escorting T’Challa and his colleagues around New York City for the duration of their

stay. He is to make sure they are comfortable, well-taken care of. The narrative is framed

484

Michael Eric Dyson, “O.J. Simpson and Our Trial by Fire,” in The Michael Eric Dyson Reader (New

York: Basic Civitas Books, 2004), 57.

485

Ibid, 49.

486

Ibid, 50.

487

For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the series, Alex Keaton was the main character in a 1980s

sitcom called Family Ties. The character was a die hard republican whose humor was mostly derived from

extraordinarily rigid conservative belief system.

187

against his recounting of the story to his commanding officer. As a result, we are given

no thought bubbles, no inward glimpses into the mind of the African king. We have only

the interpretations of his actions by Ross, which we are implicitly asked to accept as

truth.

Many of the authentic racial traits expressed in past volumes still manifest

themselves here, only now they take on the visage of “racial mystification.”

488

The racial

definitions “mutate, grow, transform…in complex ways” that seem somehow more

spectral since their motivations are left to second-hand accounts.

489

The Panther is still the embodiment of black machismo. He is flanked in the

opening issue by two busty female aides that Ross describes as “the king’s

concomitants…kind of wives in training.”

490

The limits of his control over them is

immediately clear. They will do anything to please him. Their devotion would make

Malcolm X proud. They pleasure him. They fight for him. All of the sexist imagery

extolled in black power literature is brought to bear in their exquisite bodies and utterly

submissive nature. Although Ross acknowledges that T’Challa’s civilized nature prevents

him from fully investing himself in the spoils of his entourage, a snarky comment implies

his restraint is aberration not law: “The girls were six feet tall and not quite legal

age…Bill Clinton. Bill…?”

491

This first issue gives us a glimpse into the oft-mined territory of T’Challa’s

questionable commitment to his native people. Ross calls into question his leadership

skills declaring him “an idealist…a noble guy…in other words, he wasn’t much of a

488

Ibid, 60.

489

Ibid, 60.

490

Priest, The Client, 9.

491

Ibid, p 8 – 9.

188

politician.”

492

The Wakandan government was presently attempting to marry two warring

factions of natives into a harmonious relationship. Skirmishes were becoming more

pronounced. The plan was not working and it was all a super-powered dictator could do

to try and maintain some semblance of peace. Even T’Challa’s stepmother chides him

upon his departure for America stating that her advice however well received by him is

“not enough to keep you here” in his people’s time of need.

493

The second issue exposes another level to this flaw in the blackness of T’Challa’s

character. It is what Dyson would call “White Man’s Negro” syndrome.

494

T’Challa

enjoys luxuries that separate him inexorably not only from his fellow tribesmen but his

race in general. By buying into the excesses offered by upper-crest white society, he has

spurred his racial heritage. He goes out of his way to make whites feel comfortable. He

insists on riding in the car Ross has brought to the airport even though he brought along

three passengers and the car only seats two because it “would be an insult not to accept

your kindness.”

495

He also takes advantage of his diplomatic status bending the law to his

will in ways only blacks who have come to be accepted into the highest echelons of white

culture could ever dream. When the Panther and his friends are arrested for their

involvement in a fight at a local bar, Ross calmly explains “I diplomatic immunitied the

assistant district attorney. Got us sprung.”

496

As Dyson said of O.J., the version of

T’Challa that Priest presents could easily be read by black audiences as someone who has

made it “painfully clear that black fold are his fallback, not his first choice.”

497

492

Ibid, 17.

493

Ibid, 18.

494

Dyson, The Michael Eric Dyson Reader, 51.

495

Christopher Priest, The Client, 12.

496

Ibid, 20.

497

Dyson, The Michael Eric Dyson Reader, 52.

189

Issue #3 returns to the trope of the untrustworthy black man. The comic subtly

reinforces the perception that when given power and autonomy blacks cannot be trusted.

While his father was still in power, the late King of Wakanda had set up a series of

operatives to dispense primitive justice on his behalf. The group known as the Dogs of

War were relieved of duty by T’Challa when he took office. Ross notes that “the way

[T’Challa] explained it to me, the closest analogy would be Wakandan Secret Police. Of

course, Wakanda has no secret police. Well, so far as OCP knows anyway. Though I

guess, they could be secret.”

498

Would the word of Captain America or Iron Man or Thor

be rebuked so quickly? This is a man who served for years as a faithful member of the

Avengers while sacrificing his service to the people of Wakanda. Yet, when he assures

his American friends that the guerrilla mercenaries that have attacked him are no longer a

part of Wakandan national policy, his credibility hangs precariously aloft.

The leader of this faction is a man named Hunter. He confronts T’Challa pledging

his assistance in the business that has brought him to New York in exchange for

reinstatement as Wakandan nationals. He begs him “let me come home.”

499

Here are

poised two polarized views of black heritage. Hunter has been cast out by T’Challa for

engaging in actions he found barbaric. He longs to reconnect with his people, to breathe

the air of his native land. T’Challa banishes himself from Wakanda on a fairly frequent

basis. The Fantastic Four or the Avengers need do little more than supply him a message

that he is needed in America for him to run to their aide. Hunter is in fact, what T’Challa

might have looked like by the 1990s had Lee and Kirby been more careful with the

manner in which they developed his mythology. He is the strong, proud black vision of

498

Ibid, p 3.

499

Ibid, 7.

190

autonomy that Wakandans have begged T’Challa to be. While likely not an intentional

commentary by Priest, this exposes how deeply wounded the character has been by his

murky intersecionality.

Black Panther in the New Millennium

When the Panther reappears in the New Millennium, his sales are artificially

boosted. Stripped of his position as a stand-alone comic book hero, he is relegated to

guest appearances and one-offs in larger arching storylines. In short, he has come full

circle from his days as an ally to the Fantastic Four. The first major resurfacing of the

character occurs as an aside to the Civil War storyline. Marvel was in need of a new

gimmick, something to ignite interest in their brand after several of their prime properties

had tanked at the box-office. Their solution was to have the American government pass a

law stating that all superheroes had to reveal their identities to federal agencies. They

were to act as arms of the government, officially contracted as law enforcement

representatives. Understandably, some heroes were unwilling to reveal their personal

data. Under the dictates of the law, they were now fugitives from justice. Lines were

drawn quickly. Many top heroes chose to be ousted by the law, others steadfastly refused.

The stage was set for an epic battle that would take one full year to finish.

T’Challa had little interest in the battle itself. He had never hidden his true

identity from anyone. The panther suit was symbolic not functional. It was public

knowledge that he was King of the Wakandan jungles. He was also not a legal U.S.

resident at the time of the bill passing into law. Therefore, he was not compelled to enter

into the conflict. Marvel writers realized they needed a neutral ground for the heroes to

meet though. They also felt that by the middle of the Civil War arc, fans could use a

191

break from the dense political rhetoric of the storyline. The answer was a wedding, a

Wakandan wedding. King T’Challa would take a queen for the first time in his 50-year

reign, Storm of the X-Men.

As the invitations were sent out, the stage was set for another classic example of

the conflicting racial identities demanding attention in Black Panther comics. Storm,

whose real name was Ororo Munroe, was the daughter of an African priestess and the

white American G.I. she fell in love with. Although by any account she would be

considered black by most comic fans, she possessed several mulato characteristics

inherited from her father. The Marvel Online Encyclopedia highlights her “white hair

[and] blue eyes” as distinctive physical features.

500

The Panther’s marriage therefore

challenges white reader’s impressions of miscegenation, which has remained a hot button

topic especially in Southern states.

Miscegenation is one of the oldest and most controversial tropes of all black/white

fiction. Some of the earliest examples of this issue can be found in Hollywood’s early

output. Passages in the Production Code forbade any attempts at miscegenation. The

problem was the language used in the code was so sweeping that one hardly had to show

scenes of interracial sex to draw the ire of the board. Mulatto actors suffered the most for

the code interpreted their very presence on screen as an intimation of sexual perversion.

As author Linda Williams explains “such characters automatically opened up the vexed

question of with whom this…person should mate” and just how was he or she produced

in the first place.

501

These definitional problems became so wide spread that even

showing mixed race dancing and singing was impermissible. Bill “Bojangles” Robinson,

500

Marvel Online Encyclopedia, Storm, accessed on August 20, 2010, http://marvel.com/universe/Storm.

501

Linda Williams, Playing the Race Card: Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to O.J.

Simpson (Princeton,NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001), 181.

192

widely believed to be among the most talented dancers in the world was relegated to

servant roles as a result. One of the few times many white audiences likely ever saw him

perform was in a few choreographed routines with Shirley Temple. Benshoff and Griffin

point out that this sort of partnering was ““safe’… [since it] did not suggest a romantic

relationship between the two.”

502

A closer examination of the Hays Code policies in action provides a much more

devastating critique of the racist ideology at work. The 1936 film Showboat for example,

depicted a mulatto woman named Julie that is unmistakably identified as the product of a

black/white sexual union. Yet, the Production Code allowed this film into theaters with

no alteration to the sexual themes. What made Show Boat any different than the

numerous other movies being shot down for their miscegenation themes?

Linda Williams observes that the distinction is fiction and reality. She argues that

Show Boat made it through the censor boards unscathed because the actress playing the

mulatto character was in fact white. Thus, audiences would not be led to believe that any

actual transgression had occurred. The passing of judgments like this by film censors

sends the clear message that “performing as black” is acceptable while being black is

not.

503

While conditions had certainly improved by the time the Civil War storyline was

being unfolded, the issue still weighed heavy on the minds of many Americans. A year

after the Panther made his comic book debut, “sixteen states still prohibited interracial

502

Harry M. Benshoff and Sean Griffin, America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and

Sexuality at the Movies (Carlton, Victoria: Blackwell Publishing, 2004), 81.

503

Williams, Playing the Race Card: Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to O. J. Simpson,

182.

193

marriage.”

504

In Southern states like Alabama and South Carolina “moribund

antimiscegenation laws” were not removed “until 1998 and 2000.”

505

Even with these

laws off the books “the United States has the lowest black-white intermarriage rate

among Western nations.”

506

The wedding is covered by BET. Every memorable superhero of the past 50 years

(at least in the Marvel cannon) shows up as honored guests. The BET hosts claim that it

is the “wedding of the century” due to the couple’s extraordinary levels of wealth, their

status as superheroes (who often do not wed one another), and their amazing list of

friends that includes “Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Prince Namor, and Captain America”

(all white).

507

What is suspiciously not mentioned is that this marks the first time two black

characters of such overwhelming power have ever married one another. Both Storm and

T’Challa are literally seen as god figures to their respective African nations.

508

Yet, it

seems that the entirety of BET’s interest in the affair is connected to the couple’s position

with white superheroes. They have shown up not to document a historic moment in

comic book history but in the hopes that the reception will turn into a bar room brawl

worthy of the ten o’clock news.

T’Challa appears to sense the potential for mutiny from his people. He is aware

that Ororo may not be fit to act as the wife to the physical manifestation of the Panther

God. He may not be using the exact words, but his point is clear, there is a chance that in

504

Suzanne W. Jones, Race Mixing: Southern Fiction Since the Sixties (Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins

University Press, 2004), 148.

505

Ibid, 148.

506

Ibid, 148.

507

Hudlin, “Civil War Ceasefire,” The Black Panther (New York: Marvel Comics, 2006), 1.

508

Although born in Harlem, Storm grew up in Egypt.

194

spite of their love for one another, Ororo may not be black enough for him. He warns her

before the ceremony begins that she will have to face the judgment of the Panther God

himself. She stammers “are you telling me that we could not get married… if the Panther

God looks unfavorably on me?”

509

His answer is yes.

As the couple lies splayed on their bed opening gifts, they come across a letter

written to them from Dr. Doom. He is one of the oldest of Marvel’s villains and one of

the most dangerous. He presents them with the following argument:

“I am here to give you my hearty congratulations and some humble advice. Today

everything changes for you…and for Wakanda. Your blessed union represents and

unprecedented step whose currents will be felt by the world community. Traditional

geopolitical alliances are shifting radically. Old friendships are crumbling. The world is

rapidly becoming a much more…unpredictable place to live. I am here to salute your

union and urge that you consider one simple question as you look to the future: If friends

aren’t who they used to be…perhaps enemies aren’t either.”

510

The implication is clear. This union could turn those honored white guests

against the Panther. He might soon find himself again fighting against the Fantastic Four,

only not under his own terms. He confronts Tony Stark and Captain America just before

the wedding ceremony is set to begin and warns both of them that this union will mean,

“this cancer that is eating away at the soul of your country…has no home here.”

511

What

he may not have realized is that he no longer has a home in America either.

The Black Panther comics of the New Millennium also manage to be soothing to

white audiences. In the wake of continued discussion of affirmative action, the Panther

509

Ibid, 6.

510

Ibid, 39.

511

Ibid, 17.

195

stands in stark contrast to the ideology that fuels black outrage over the issue. As author

John McWhorter notes affirmative action has for many whites created a “cult of

victimology” among black students.

512

They are troubled by the implication that black

students apparently as a product of their racial heritage rather than their zip code are

automatically deemed disadvantaged if they grew up in “anything short of…a

mansion.”

513

They silently detest the “cultural meme” that surrounds differentiated

standards of admittance championed by the affirmative action system

514

. And they find

the “anti-intellectual strain” that floats through most discussion of affirmative action

planning disconcerting.

515

T’Challa makes no such concessions. He asks for no such assistance. And it’s not

just him. The entire nation of Wakanda is propped up in almost every iteration of the

comic as being totally self-sufficient. In Reginald Hudlin’s min-series “Who is the Black

Panther” we are treated to a number of historical examples of the Panther’s

independence. A flashback to a 19

Century invasion by British noblemen finds the

Wakandan’s striking back with technological force. A large mechanized weapon rises

from behind the Panther as he stands alone ready to defend his homeland against a throng

of invaders. He informs them that if they “leave now…I will let you live.”

516

As the

noblemen fire their rifles, each one bursts into flames in their hands.

A meeting at the White House is held to discuss formulating diplomatic relations

with the Wakandans. Everett Ross returns from Christopher Priest’s work. Besides their

vibraniam reserves Ross confirms, “geologists estimate that they have large oil deposits

512

John McWhorter, Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America (New York: Perennial, 2000), 166.

513

Ibid, 168.

514

Ibid, 173.

515

Ibid, 179.

516

Reginald Hudlin, Who is the Black Panther (New York: Marvel Comics, 2005), 15.

196

[but] they don’t even pump it.”

517

They have developed methods of handling every

conceivable resource required for day to day living without the need for export or trade

relationships of any kind. Even Captain America is revealed to have failed in his attempts

to infiltrate Wakandan territory during World War II when he tracked Nazi spies there.

As Ross recounts, “he had an extended hand-to-hand battle with the Black Panther…he

lost.”

518

In answer to the question posed by the military adviser in attendance, “where do

those jungle bunnies get off telling us they’ve got a ‘no fly’ zone over their thatched

huts?”

519

The answer appears to be because they want and expect nothing from anyone

but themselves.

We see this self-sufficiency on display once again in two issues of the Black

Panther’s run with writer Jason Aaron. The Panther is brought in once more as a side

story to a larger conflict. Marvel was having what they deemed a Secret Invasion wherein

aliens called Skrulls had planted sleeper agents among humans many years ago and were

now activating them as a means of taking over Earth. As issue one opens a Skrull ship is

preparing to land in Wakanda. It is worth noting that all of these issues utilize the same

strategy employed by Priest. The Panther is not the star here. We experience the tale from

the perspective of the Skrull commanding officer. We hear his inner monologue not that

of T’Challa.

The Skrull reveal that they have sent several sleeper agents to Wakanda, which

will make taking over the country a simple matter. So simple that one Skrull asks his

leader, “why did command see fit to assign so many of us here to the backwoods.”

520

517

Ibid, 20.

518

Ibid, p 21 – 22.

519

Ibid, 18.

520

Jason Aaron, Secret Invasion Issue #1 (NewYork: Marvel Comics, 2008), 1.

197

replies, “you should’ve studied your mission report more thoroughly…throughout their

entire history these Wakandans have never been conquered…they will not be enslaved

without a bit of a fight.”

521

Apparently, the strength of the Wakandas is known in

multiple galaxies.

After the Panther and his wife Storm have been captured by the Skrull, they are

tortured for information. The Skrull leader tires of watching the savagery unfold and

retires to the bridge of his ship. He sits down to write a letter to his wife. This was to be

his last mission. He promised her as much. But as he struggles to find the words to put in

his letter he shows his admiration for the Wakandan spirit. “How do I tell my wife the

truth?,” he ponders, “These Wakandan will never give in, no matter what we do to them.

We’ll have to take this land village by village street by bloody street.”

522

In a world

where so much debate was had over how best to accommodate African Americans

through affirmative action, Ebonics, and reparations, here was a powerful example of a

black narrative that requested no such assistance. It is almost libertarian in its observation

of individual accountability.

The Secret Invasion series sold well for Marvel. They tried extending the Black

Panther series once more in 2009 following their success with this arc. Sales dropped

precipitously though once it became clear that the Panther’s comic would no longer tie

directly into the goings-on of the lager Marvel Universe. So why does the Panther fail?

Why do readers turn away in droves from his adventures? They don’t lack for quality of

writing. He has been drawn by one of the most iconic pens in the history of the business.

Is it as simple as Priest suggests? Is the Panther dull?

521

Ibid, 1.

522

Jason Aaron, Secret Invasion #3 (New York: Marvel Comics, 2008), 10.

198

No. The shackles holding the Panther down are much more profound than this.

His adventures, no matter how breath taking, are stuck in a cycle of perpetual betrayal.

He betrays black audiences who look to him as a role model by consistently deflecting

racial concerns. He betrays white audiences by wallowing in guilt because he cannot

bring himself to rise to the challenge of these issues of authenticity. But these dilemmas

are not unique to the Panther. Any minority character would go through the same seasons

doubt and recrimination for they have been robbed of an opportunity to connect with

audiences before the ink to their origin stories had even dried on the page. Their color

stifled them. It prevented the reader from being able to paint themselves into costumes

they wore. For all the technological sophistication of the Wakandas, they lacked the one

weapon every comic that aspires to serious discussions of race requires; a tabularasa.

199

CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSION: UNTIL NEXT TIME…

On January 14, 2009 issue # 583 of Amazing Spiderman made headline news.

Marvel had put President Barak Obama on the cover next to the web-slinging hero.

Apparently, the President was long-time Spiderman fan. Obama revealed his love of

comics in an interview with Entertainment Weekly: “"I was always into the Spider-

Man/Batman model. The guys who have too many powers--like Superman -- that always

made me think they weren't really earning their superhero status.”

523

One of Spiderman’s oldest villains, The Chameleon, disguises himself as the

president elect on inauguration day and attempts to sneak onto the podium to be sworn in.

Spiderman arrives just in time to block his route to the stage and prevent him from

ruining the festivities. Before Spiderman can leave, Obama pulls him to the side and

explains “I’ve been a big fan of yours for a long time and before you go I just want to say

thanks partner.”

524

Undoubtedly this goes a long way towards establishing that minorities read comic

books. But other scholars would say it means much more. Many researchers would claim

it represents one of the few substantial and positive portrayals of a black character in

comics. Given the less-than-egalitarian viewpoint many commentators attribute to the

comic book, some questioned the value of including Obama in the issue at all. A reporter

for Hot Air a right wing blog affiliated with Town Hall Magazine, dredged up the ugly

history of comic’s minority portrayals following the release of the issue: “This from an

outfit whose top writers are known for penning alternate realities where Superman is a

523

Robert K. Elder, “Spidey Swings into Obama’s World,” Chicago Tribune, January 8, 2009.

524

Zeb Wells, Amazing Spiderman #583 (New York: Marvel Comics, 2009).

200

communist, and which preferred to have Captain America fight the Patriot Act instead of

Al Qaeda before summarily offing him.”

525

This antagonistic viewpoint on the history of racial representation in comics

speaks to a fundamental misunderstanding of the complicated role racial identity has

played in the superhero mythology. Each chapter of this dissertation has highlighted a

specific struggle encountered in the area of identity formation and maintenance by one of

the most iconic superheroes of the past sixty years. These chapters work together to

confirm my third hypothesis.

Superman acts out the immigrant assimilation fantasy in the pages of Action

Comics. Although he is clearly an alien from a far-flung galaxy, he finds comfort and

stability in living as a white American. He allows the values of his adoptive Smallville

parents to overshadow the lessons left for him by his Kryptonian father Jor-El. Experts in

the comic industry tell us that Superman was intended to be a personification of Jerry

Siegel and Joe Shuster. In that capacity, he takes on many of the values they ascribed to

the comic from their Jewish upbringing. He becomes an ideal immigrant, a model to be

followed by young second or third generation Jews looking for ways to fit into

mainstream society. He is the Other who wants desperately to be white.

Bruce Wayne is compelled to search for an outlet for his frustrations following

the death of his parents. He finds that outlet by assuming a second identity – a black

identity. He chooses Otherness as an escape from his pain. Examinations of Bob Kane’s

formative years show a strong racial component threading through his work. Hiram Hick,

Zorro, and the 1926 horror film The Bat, all contributed an essential element into the

525

Allahpundit, “Good News: Spider-Man teaming up with Obama,” accessed on September 11, 2010,

Hotair.com,

201

melting pot of ideas that formed the Batman persona. Crucial to this argument is the

realization that Batman and Bruce Wayne are entirely separate people. They have

separate (though related) memories. They carry on separate love lives. They use a

different set of ethnical codes to rationalize their actions. Throughout the series Bruce

Wayne remains the foppish billionaire, but Batman becomes the comic book expression

of the Black experience in America.

T’Challa is in the most difficult position representing Others who are content in

their Otherness. He is the comic book version of the crusading efforts of black activists in

the 1960s and 70s. Like those activists, his efforts are well-intentioned but often

blockaded. Of there three characters, T’Challa is the hardest one to label with a distinct

personality. Even his own writers have called him bland and boring. This monotonous

behavior is not T’Challa’s fault, however. It is the result of writers who have never been

completely comfortable handling an openly Black character.

Let us compare T’Challa to Batman. Both men act as representations of black

characters. Both men appear dark and brooding, isolated even from those whom they are

closest to in their respective comic worlds. Yet, Batman is one of the most successful

comic book characters of all time and The Black Panther is an also-ran whose comic was

so mediocre that when it was last cancelled most fans didn’t even recognize it had

disappeared from their store shelves. So what’s the difference between the two?

Batman’s latent racial identity gives the writers enough freedom to constantly alter his

mythology so that it will appeal to new generations of fans. He is allowed to grow with

his audience. T’Challa has been stuck as a snapshot of a bygone era for thirty years

202

because White writers are afraid of offending audiences with drastically different

interpretations of the character.

Given the startlingly complex nature of these depictions it seems clear that my

first hypothesis is also supported. There is clearly a more nuanced conversation

happening in the world of comics on issues of race than the industry has gotten credit for.

Perhaps the industry is to blame for this. By indirectly approaching the question of race,

no matter how ingeniously, they may have prevented those not especially literate in the

comics’ vernacular from recognizing the presence of these debates.

The final hypothesis is much more difficult to assess. There have been instances

where comic book publishers have shown themselves capable of altering racial texts from

issue to issue. Returning to the Batman chapter, DC Comics removed handguns from his

arsenal of weapons within the space of a single issue. This appears to be the aberration

not the rule, however. While other character traits certainly evolve over the course of the

comic’s lifespan, these changes seem to be much more organic in nature. With the

exception of one off issues like Lois Lane encountering black nationalists in the ghettos

of Metropolis or wartime propagandizing like Superman throwing a right cross to Hitler’s

jaw, the comics industry has been much more tentative with their handling of race.

Still, they deserve some credit for outpacing the film and television industries.

Batman was alluding to a much more three-dimensional version of Blackness while

African American actors in Hollywood were still being relegated to servile roles.

Television screens had been under a decade’s long drought for Black actors when the

Black Panther made his comic debut. Although far from a perfect conception of racial

identity, he stood out against the lily-white background of competing representations.

203

These insights lead to a partial confirmation of the second hypothesis. Comics did beat

film and television to the punch with the complexity of their characters, but this initial

sprint almost always turned into lumbering, plodding steps so quickly that it forestalled

decades of potential progress.

Significance of Research

The first wave of superheroes in comic books pre-dates the first appearance of

Bugs Bunny by five years. They have an almost thirty year head start on the gang from

Sesame Street. And they are nearly as old as the mouse that built Walt Disney’s empire.

Characters like Superman have been thrilling generations of children for over sixty years,

yet very little research has been done to understand the messages these texts have had on

their readers. Comics represent one of the first mass media experiences that many

children will encounter.

There are several studies that have shown primary schools around the country are

beginning to introduce comics as a method of promoting reading in children at an early

age.

526

Yet, too few researchers are asking what sorts of lessons are being taught about

the social issues covered in these texts. Comic books may very well be one of the first

sources outside of family and friends that they turn to for information on how to react to

difference and Otherness in their daily lives. For some children, this may represent one of

the few opportunities they have to engage with Otherness in their private lives. Continued

526

For more information on this topic I encourage readers to start with these texts: Rachel Marie-Crane

Williams, Image, Text, and Story: Comics and Graphic Novels in the Classroom, Art Education, 61:6,

2008. Katherine G. Aliken, Superhero History: Using Comic Books to Teach U.S. History, OAH Magazine

of History, 24:2, 2010, Linda Smetana, Darah Odelson, Heidi Burns, Dana L. Grisham, Using Graphic

Novels in the High School Classroom: Engaging Deaf Students With a New Genre, Journal of Adolescent

& Adult Literacy, 53:3, 2009, Allen Ellis, About Face: Comic Books in Library Literature, Serials Review,

26:2, 2000., David Seelow, Voice from the Field: The Graphic Novel as Advanced Literacy Tool, Journal

of Media Literacy Education, 2:1, 2010., Wilona M. Sloan, No Laughing Matter: Comic Books Have

Serious Educational Value, Education Update, 51:10, 2009.

204

research and analysis in this area should be of interest to anyone who studies the effects

of mass media on children.

This dissertation also raises several interesting questions for publishers, creators,

writers, and artists of comics. From our discussion of the three characters featured in this

study, a pattern is clearly emerging. Race is best integrated into comics when it represents

one of several traits that define the values and personality of that character. When race

becomes the defining feature of a character, such as was the case with the Black Panther,

audiences quickly turn away from the thin storylines and narrowly defined characters.

This is not a call for an end to Black, Hispanic, Asian or Native American

superheroes in the pages of comics. It is a wake up call for artists and writers who have

relied for too long on lazy interpretations and rehashing of stereotypes when developing

openly minority characters. The only way for an openly Black superhero to become as

iconic as a Superman or Spider-Man is for creators to stop fixating on the fact tha the

character is Black. His skin must become a coincidence not a costume.

Limitations

Like all studies, this one is not without its limitations. The strongest of these is

related to the methodology. Although examining each superhero in depth provides a new

level of insight into the marketing and consumption of comics, there is simply not enough

time to review each classic hero or villain that might be of interest to this thread of

research. Certainly, there are countless superheroes that exhibit one of the racial identities

discussed in this text. I have tried to choose those heroes that most deeply personify these

personas. I leave it to others to combat, debate and expound on these foundations.

205

Suggestions for Future Research

This dissertation is the first step in a long journey. One that needs to be taken by

every scholar who claims a serious interest in comics as critical literature. There are

thousands of comic book characters who have never been viewed under the microscope

of racial identity. Many of the names that are most synonymous with the medium don’t

have a single word written about their stance on matters of race and ethnicity in any

scholarly journal. This hole has to be filled. It is too vital an issue to be left alone or

ignored any longer.

Many researchers in the area of feminist studies have done some fantastic work

on issues of gender in comics.

527

That same level of energy and commitment must now

be refocused onto the topic of race and ethnicity. Emerging theoretical principles like

Critical Race Theory must be adopted as part of a larger arsenal of academic approaches

to understanding and interpreting the myriad of representations of race and ethnicity

bound up in trade paperbacks and graphic novels.

This dissertation has presented a model, a map to guide future research efforts in

this area. But if more interest in this topic can not be generated then we run the risk of

seeing one of the most important topics in the medium go un-mined. The old African

American begger is no longer staring up at the Green Lantern challenging his morality.

He is staring at the field of acedmia and continuing to ask “There are skins you never

527

For more information on this topic I encourage readers to begin here: Mitra C. Emad, Reading Wonder

Woman’s Body: Mythologies of Gender and Nation, The Journal of Popular Culture, 39:6, 2006., Fusami

Ogi, Beyond Shoujo, Blending Gender, A Comic’s Studies Reader, Jeet Heer and Kent Worchester [eds.],

University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, MS, 2009., Carol A. Stablle, “Sweetheart, This Ain’t Gender

Studies”: Sexism and Superheroes, Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies, 6:1, 2009.

206

bothered with…! The black skins! I want to know how come?!”

528

The real question now

is, who among us will answer him?

528

Denny O’Neil and Neil Adams, “No Evil Shall Escape My Sight”, in Green Lantern/Green Arrow (New

York: DC Comics, April 1970), 4.

207

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