From: aw3a+@andrew.cmu.edu (Anatole Wilson)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: re: Help from DC buffs requested
Date: 13 Oct 92 15:09:05 GMT
Organization: Masters student, English, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

To: 
Subject: re: Help from DC buffs requested 
CC: 

>fperry@gandalf.rutgers.edu (Fred Perry):
>I am working on a paper for literary criticism and am wondering if I can get 
>some support from those readers who know a lot more about the history of 
>Superman than I do, especially the early history. 

You are taking on a big subject.  I've posted from my recollection some
answers below, but if you really want definitive answers, you're better
off looking them up in the following resources:

THE SUPERMAN ENCYCLOPEDIA by Michael Fleischer (1978)--This might be the
definitive source for Golden Age and Silver Age information.  Fleischer
covers every Superman adventure through the early 60's, and annotates
everything. Just ignore his attempts to psychoanalyzing Superman.
Pop-psychology at its worst.

THE COMIC BUYER'S GUIDE (Bob Overstreet) Each annual issue has fairly
comprehensive information about key events that occurred in comics, and
what issues they occurred in.  Of particular interest to you would be
the 1988 edition, which celebrated Superman's 50th Anniversary, and the
1991 edition, "The comics go to war."  Superman was battling
"indistinct, but very-German-looking" soldiers in 1939 and 1940, before
the U.S. ever entered the war. 

Jules Feiffer's book on golden age heroes is also worth looking up (I
don't remember the title.)

Finally, "Superman from the '30's to the '70's" is a nice sampler of
stories from each period in the Man of Steel's history.

>The premise of my paper
>is that the three versions of Superman so far (Golden, Silver, Byrne [Bronze])
>reflect the culture from which they arise and in part fill a specific need in
>that period's problems. Example: the Golden Age Superman was the first 
>superhero. All the other popular heroes were merely men in strange costumes
>or in outlandish situations; the Phantom and Buck Rogers come to mind. But 
>Americans felt that something more than human was needed to help them
>overcome the depression in 1938. Mere humans were barely getting by--a hero
>who could overcome all odds was needed. There were no threats to the early 
>Superman, and he laughed at all the foes he had to face.

Dani Zweig is partially right, right, cultural icons can only become
icons if they fill contemporary needs.  Perhaps that's why Superman's
popularity in recent years has faded, giving way to the kick-butt,
vigilante heroes that are so popular now. However, the character of
Superman has changed considerably in the past fifty years, and it's more
than just stylistic changes.

I think your premise makes a lot of sense for the Golden Age Superman.
The Americans of 1938 certainly needed a super-hero in the face of the
Depression and gathering storm clouds in Europe. (The helplessness most
people felt, I think, is what made Clark Kent so popular--he "acted" as
powerless as they felt, but in "reality" was able to do just about
anything.) 

The early Superman battled a number of social problems in his first
stories.  He stops a wife beater and prevents a lynching (vigilaneeism)
in Action #1, and in other early stories ends a war in South America,
tears down some slums to force the government to rebuild adequate
housing, and even starts smashing cars throughout the city because a
crooked tire dealer was selling defective tires.

But as Superman became the idol of millions of children, he had to curb
his activist tendencies and become more respectable. By the Sixties, his
concern with social issues became an occasional talk with President
Kennedy or the U.N.

In the '70's they even had a story explaining why Superman *couldn't*
take on heavy social problems (see Superman #347, I think, The Guardians
are on the cover.) It was pretty much like Star Trek's prime
directive--fear of interfering with human progress.

Now that John Byrne has left Superman, they've covered a few social
issues (homelessness, for example), but always as something happening as
a subplot to the supporting characters, and Superman never actually gets
involved (in fact, he's usually *too busy* to help anybody, even his
closest friends!).  One exception is the recent issues dealing with
spousal abuse. They even "swiped" some panels from Action #1 while doing
the story. The important difference from 50 years ago is that he
realizes that beating up the husband didn't solve the problem. 

>My questions:
>1. What actually happens in Action 1?
A lot.  You really should look up an issue.  However, a brief summary
is: Clark Kent comes to Metropolis, stops a lynching, brings the story
to Daily Star Editor George Taylor, who promises Clark a job if he
brings another scoop.  Acting on a tip, Superman tracks down the true
killer of Jack Kennedy (ironic, huh?), and wins a reprieve from the
governor for the person who was about to be electrocuted for the crime.  

>2. When was Superman's origin fully told for the first time? The early issues
>give a page synopsis of his arrival on Earth but we don't find out about 
>Jor-el until sometime in the late forties. What issue of what mag, and what
>was the date?

Jor-El was first introduced in Superman #1.  Superman himself didn't
learn about Krypton until much later, but the reading public knew about
it from the beginning.  Since the origin was (and is) always undergoing
revision, it would be hard to pull out a specific origin issue.
 
>3. When did the Silver Age Superman come about? I realize that this is an 
>ambiguous question, but at some point there had to be a recognized divergence
>between Gold and Silver. When was that (again, issue and date)? What were the 
>circumstances of his appearance?

The beginning of the Silver Age is really designated by the first
appearance of the Flash in Showcase #4 (1959).  The Silver Age Batman is
also easily distinguished by the yellow circle around his bat insignia
(which happened around 1964, I believe). But there was no sudden,
discernible switch in style or story content for Superman.  

> 
>As a final question, I remember there being some discussion of a way to e-mail
>DC, but I lost that posting. Is it true, and if so, what is the address? (I 
>figure that that may be the best way to get some information on other things
>like sales figures and the like). Thanks very much in advance.

I don't know anything about an email address, but the mailing address of
DC Comics is in the indicia of every DC comic. Sales figures are usually
printed in the September issues of every comic.

Anyway, I hope all this rambling stuff helps you with your paper.
Personally, I miss the Golden Age hero who wasn't afraid to involve
himself with people other than his closest friends, and who wasn't
spending all his time fighting alien invaders in the xenophobic '90's.

By the way, rumors are that Superman undergoes some type of personality
change after his death in the next few weeks.  You might want to keep
that in mind.
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