Posted on 11/16/2018 11:54:31 AM PST by Kaslin
Stan Lee, the reinventor of the comic book, died Monday at the ripe old age of 95.
Comic books get a bad rap, although not nearly as bad as they used to. There was a time when comic books were the cause of an all-out moral panic. After the release of psychiatrist Fred Wertham's book "The Seduction of the Innocent," the Senate held hearings to grapple with the alleged moral rot of comics, which were supposedly fueling juvenile delinquency and moral degeneracy. Batman and Robin, you see, were secretly gay. Superman was an un-American ersatz fascist.
"Superman (with the big S on his uniform -- we should, I suppose, be thankful that it is not an S.S.) needs an endless stream of ever new submen, criminals and 'foreign-looking' people not only to justify his existence but even to make it possible," Wertham wrote.
The Comics Code Authority was established in 1954 to protect children from consuming Satan's apple in cartoon form.
As silly as all that was, at least the anti-comic puritans took comic books seriously. And while Wertham et al. went too far in the wrong direction, comics are an important window into our society.
Prior to Stan Lee and Marvel Comics, superheroes were fairly two-dimensional characters. Superman was, well, just super at everything. He fought for "truth, justice and the American way." He was also a kind of super-moralist, always knowing instantly what was right. Some writers claim he was the first "social justice warrior."
In Superman's first adventure (Action Comics No. 1), long before he ever battled Lex Luther, he saved a woman from being wrongly executed, stopped a senator from being blackmailed and protected a woman from her abusive husband. "Delivering justice, protecting family and stopping corruption, Superman represented the newly expanded New Deal state," observed Benjamin Moore in The Washington Post.
The New Deal was a real-world example of political philosopher Michael Oakeshott called "politics as the crow flies" -- a rationalist approach that tries to use the state as an active participant in life to achieve desirable ends without much concern for the means. It should be no surprise that Superman transitioned from New Deal warrior to World War II warrior. He was fighting Nazis long before American troops were.
Lee grew up professionally in this "Golden Age" of comics, but he also rebelled against it. While a member of the so-called Greatest Generation, Lee better represented the more ironic attitudes of the postwar generation. His superheroes struggled with their powers and their moral responsibilities. Spider-Man, the quintessential Marvel character (at least until the introduction of Wolverine) was a nerdy, angst-ridden teenager who only reluctantly accepted his role and the idea that "with great power comes great responsibility." Lee's heroes quarreled with each other, had romantic setbacks and sometimes even struggled to make the rent.
The baby boomers, Lee's target audience, were plagued with a great unease about living up to the legacy of their parents' generation. "We are people of this generation," begins the Port Huron Statement, the 1962 manifesto that largely launched the '60s protest era, "bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit." They believed they were special but didn't know exactly what to do about it.
This kind of ambiguity suffused Marvel's storylines. The X-Men were mutants, a government-persecuted minority community, bitterly divided between assimilationists and rejectionists. Their powers were a thinly veiled metaphor for the confusion of puberty. The Thing, constantly harassed by a local street gang, hated that he had become a grotesque, but when given the choice of becoming human again, he opted to keep his powers.
Captain America debuted in his own comic by punching Hitler in the face on the cover, but by Vietnam he was emoting, "I'm like a dinosaur -- in the cro-magnon age! An anachronism -- who's out-lived his time! This is the day of the anti-hero -- the age of the rebel -- and the dissenter! It isn't hip -- to defend the establishment! -- only to tear it down! And, in a world rife with injustice, greed, and endless war -- who's to say the rebels are wrong? ... I've spent a lifetime defending the flag -- and the law! Perhaps I should have battled less -- and questioned more!"
Of course, there was plenty of fighting, derring-do and onomatopoetic "pows," "bamfs" and "snikts." But future historians looking to understand the near-century of Lee's lifetime would be well-advised to look at his life's work.
From the way you describe them, I wouldn’t refer to them as “comic books”...
Do they still print any kid’s comics???
“Comic books weren’t any of this sh!t...”
That’s exactly right. These asinine imaginings are typical Goldberg sh!t. I read almost all of Lee’s super-hero comics (if fact, I can’t think of a single one I haven’t read). To insinuate that Lee, or Siegel and Schuster, Superman’s creators, had such deep political or philosophical agendas is just ludicrous.
Goldberg, as always, is trapped in his own bizarro head and he will likely never be able to escape.
Same here. Scrooge McDuck was most influential on me and taught me what to aspire to...success:
Yes. Kid’s comic books are usually sold inside specialty shops that only sell comic books or related merchandise.
OR...You could always order online.
Ol’ Stan was a democrat but he was more of a Scoop Jackson Democrat than a Barack Obama one. Iron Man was a munitions making capitalist, the Hulk’s early battles were against Russian spies and the Fantastic Four got their powers in an attempt to “beat the reds” into space.
And he revived Captain America from relative obscurity. The Marvel of today would never allow that. Why, Cap is a nationalist after all!
LOL...Well, I’m a little old for them now, but I did hope they were still available for little kids...
God Speed to a good man - Excelsior...
Me too. I still love comics if the art and story is there. Comics represent another aspect of American Exceptionalism to me and I do savor the Golden Age and Silver Age art especially.
There’s a photograph in Stan’s office of him and Reagan shaking hands.
There’s nothing wrong with Stan Lee, he was a genius of comics. Lee was merely the Editorial Director and Publisher at Marvel Comics and after Marvel was sold in 1998, all the politically correct characters afterwards had absolutely no connection to Stan Lee and he had no voice in those decisions.........
Emphasis on “were”. Just two cite a few examples, take a look at “Sandman”, “Fables”, or “Watchmen”.
Scrooge McDuck had to be superman tough to dive in those dense gold coins.
Mostly correct, a few did target a slightly higher aged demographic, but safe to say you should be moving on from comics by the time you are a teenager.
When I was a child, it was controversial for children to be allowed to read them. The church I went to condemned them as an evil influence. However, my mother told me I could read anything I wanted. Her only stipulation was that I go to the library every Saturday morning and check out four books. So every Saturday, I would be taken to the library and made to choose four books. Many times, I just grabbed anything at random off the shelf just to placate her but would at least leaf through them. What this did was expand my horizons considerably.
I did read a lot of comics as a child. My parents didn't have a lot of money so I'd borrow them or pick them out of other people's trash. At one point, I had several milk crates crammed with "Archie", "Richie Rich" and just about anything I could get my hands on. When I was 12, I was heavily into MAD magazine and other knockoffs like Cracked and Sick. But by then I was reading at a college level and I soon got bored with comics.
Yeah...I liked “MAD” magazine also...
MAD Magazine had great writing, it was the SNL of its’ day.
Right now reading all the old stuff. Dark Phoenix Saga Xmen one of the best. He was a true genius.
I never read them in the 80s when I grew up - now that in my late 40s I’m going back and reading them. Love them.
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