From Ink to Screen
A Study of Comics
and Their Movies
1
From Ink to Screen
A study of comic books and their movies
Part I
A History of Comics
Alien – Superman
Superman: The Movie
Superman II
Superman: Doomsday
Superman Returns
Look Up on the Sky: A History of Superman
Rogue/Vigilante – Batman
Batman: Tim Burton
Batman Begins
Batman: The Dark Night
Police – Green Lantern
Green Lantern: First Flight
Amazon – Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman Animated Film
Fool/Innocent – Spiderman
Spiderman I
Spiderman II
Spiderman III
Cowboy – iron Man
Iron Man I
Iron Man II
Iron Man Cartoons
Amazon – Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman Animated Film
Behemoth/JekyllHyde – Hulk
The Incredible Hulk – Ang Lee
The Hulk
God – Thor
Hulk Vs. Thor
Thor: Tales of Asgaard
Patriot – Captain America
The Avengers Movie - Animated
The Avengers II - Animated
Part II
Graphic Novels: Watchmen, Road to Perdition, V for Vendetta, Sin City, From Hell (PG13-R)
Groups: Justice League Animated, Avengers Animated, Fantastic Four, Xmen, Hellboy, The
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,
Outside work: Daredevil, Constantine, TMNT (live action), Blade, Elektra, Ghost Rider, Jonah
Hex, The Punisher or Punisher War Zone, Spawn, Men in Black
2
Archetype
An original model of a person, an ideal example, or a prototype upon which others are copied,
modeled, patterned, or emulated; or a symbol universally recognized by all.
We start with the archetypal Alien, Rogue, Fool (Innocent), Playboy, Amazon, Behemoth, God,
and Patriot:
Try and define each and then we’ll discuss:
Alien:_________________________________________________________________________
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Rogue:________________________________________________________________________
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Police:________________________________________________________________________
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Amazon:_______________________________________________________________________
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Fool:__________________________________________________________________________
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Cowboy:_______________________________________________________________________
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Behemoth/JekyllandHyde:________________________________________________________
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God:__________________________________________________________________________
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Patriot:________________________________________________________________________
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3
ALIEN
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
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Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
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Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
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Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
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Superman: The Movie, Superman II, Superman Doomsday, Superman Returns, Look Up in the Sky: The Amazing
Story of Superman. Action Comics #1 online: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug02/yeung/actioncomics/cover.html
4
What I Know
What I Want To Know
5
What I Learned
Kill Bill Volume 2
Bill: As you know, I'm quite keen on comic books. Especially the ones about
superheroes. I find the whole mythology surrounding superheroes fascinating. Take my
favorite superhero, Superman. Not a great comic book. Not particularly well drawn. But
the mythology … the mythology is not only great, it's unique.
The Bride: [who still has a dart in her leg] How long does this shit take to go into
effect?!
Bill: About two minutes, just long enough for me to finish my point. Now, a staple of the
superhero mythology is there's the superhero and there's the alter ego. Batman is actually
Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the
morning, he's Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is
in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn't become Superman.
Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he's
Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red "S", that's the blanket
he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What
Kent wears – the glasses, the business suit – that's the costume. That's the costume
Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what
are the characteristics of Clark Kent? He's weak, he's unsure of himself, he's a coward.
Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race
Story Arc
6
Plotting the Superman Story
Following a story arc, see if you can plot out the entire Superman story following the four movies we watched in class.
Superman: The Movie Main Plot Points
Superman II
Superman Doomsday
Superman Returns
7
Friday, Nov. 02, 2007
In Search of Superman's Inner Jew
By Jeffrey T. Iverson/Paris
The debate has raged for decades: is he Jewish, Methodist, Kryptonian Raoist? But
finally, it's been settled: Superman is definitely... a non-Aryan Protestant. The complex
origins of many a comic book character are deconstructed at the engaging and erudite
exhibit, "From Superman to the Rabbi's Cat" — through Jan. 27 at the Museum of
Jewish Art and History in Paris — which explores the impact of the Jewish experience
on the evolution of the comic strip and graphic novel.
Comics are serious culture in France, where they were named "the Ninth Art" in 1964 by
historian Claude Beylie. Today, the country hosts the preeminent annual international
comic book festival in the town of Angoulême. And it is in that committed comic-book
aficionado spirit that "From Superman to the Rabbi's Cat" presents some 230 American
and European works dating back to 1890, including the 1940 strip How Superman
Would End the War. "I'd like to land a strictly non-Aryan sock on your jaw," grumbles
the Man of Steel as he drags Adolf Hitler off to be tried for crimes against humanity. For
the late comic-book artist Will Eisner, the Jewish people, faced with the rise of fascism,
"needed a hero who could protect us against an almost invincible force." Jerry Siegel
and Joe Shuster's Superman in 1938 was only the first and — like Bob Kane's Batman in
1939, Jack Kirby's Captain America in 1940 and many more that followed — he was
created by sons of Jewish immigrants living in New York.
Like their characters, many of these artists took on dual identities, says author and
comic book historian Didier Pasamonik, a consultant on the exhibit: "There was a kind
of diffused anti-Semitism at the time, and it was better to use a good American
commercial name to reach the wider public." Even as Robert Kahn had become Bob
Kane and Jacob Kurtzberg worked as Jack Kirby, their superheroes reflected some of the
identity they were masking, evoking Jewish concepts such as tikkun olam (repairing the
8
world through social action) and legends such as the Golem of Prague, the medieval
superhero of Jewish folklore who was conjured from clay by a rabbi to defend his
community when it was under threat.
Years later, some comic superheroes would actually be identified as Jews, like Auschwitz
survivor Magneto and — the Golem myth incarnate — Ben Grimm (The Thing) of the
Fantastic Four. But despite the rumors, the Man of Steel is no Supermensch, says
Pasamonik. "Superman is not Jewish," he says. "When Superman gets married it's not at
the synagogue!" Pasamonik has not missed the heavy dose of Jewish culture Siegel and
Shuster instilled in their character: baby Superman's passage through space in a cradlelike vessel and subsequent adoption "is the story of Moses," he says, adding that El of
Superman's given name Kal-El is a Hebrew word for God. But with a Methodist
upbringing and extra-terrestrial origins, Superman, says Pasamonik, is best described
simply as a "non-Aryan" hero.
And why not? Non-Aryan describes most of the southern and eastern European and
Asian immigrants that crossed the oceans with the Siegels, Shusters, Kahns and
Kurtzbergs in the late 19th and early 20th century. For the Pulitzer-prize- winning
cartoonist Jules Feiffer, World War II-era superheroes embodied the American dream
shared by the countless foreigners. "It wasn't Krypton that Superman came from; it was
the planet Minsk or Lodz or Vilna or Warsaw," wrote Feiffer in his essay The Minsk
Theory of Krypton. "Superman was the ultimate assimilationist fantasy."
After World War II, the comic book genre became an unlikely vehicle for civic protest
and consolidation of memory. "The hour of immigrant assimilation gave way to the fight
for minorities and civil rights," explains Pasamonik. Harvey Kurtzman used the medium
to tackle racial segregation, the Cold War and McCarthyism in his satirical MAD
magazine. In 1955, when popular awareness of the Holocaust was scant, Bernard
Krigstein and Al Feldstein caused a shock by revisiting the concentration camps with the
seminal graphic story Master Race. During the '60s and '70s the genre opened up to the
banal and biographical, with Pekar and Crumb's darkly humorous American Splendor
and Eisner's landmark graphic novel, A Contract with God.
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"Eisner brought an absolutely revolutionary dimension to the graphic novel, which was
to make it an instrument of memory," says Pasamonik. Finally, with a nod toward
Edmond-Franois Calvo's 1944 La Bte est Morte (The Beast is Dead) — which uses
animals to tell the story of World War II — Art Spiegelman brought the graphic novel
worldwide recognition by winning a Pulitzer prize in 1992 for his Holocaust saga, Maus.
Eisner and Spiegelman's heirs now litter the globe, from Frenchman Joann Sfar (The
Rabbi's Cat) to Iranian Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis). "From Superman to the Rabbi's
Cat" pays homage to these artists, inviting the viewer to consider the subtexts at work
even in comic books about men in tights.


Find this article at:
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1679961,00.html
Copyright © 2010 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without
permission is prohibited.
10
ROGUE/VIGILANTE
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
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Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________________________________
Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Batman and Batman Begins to be watched in class.
11
When Batman Was Gay
Filed by: Tyrion Lannister
July 24, 2008 12:00 PM
Everyone is pretty whipped up about the release of The Dark Knight, which shattered Spiderman 3's
record for largest first-weekend box-office draw over the weekend. Unlike Spiderman 3, The Dark
Knight is actually a very entertaining film. Christopher Nolan's Batman franchise is darker, more
serious, and, consequently more frightening. It also captures the psychological complexity of the
titular character in a way that the more stylized vision of Tim Burton - not to mention the dreck
produced by Joel Schumacher - never could.
Nolan's vision is inspired by the Golden Age Batman, who
was a different breed altogether. Batman of the early 1940s, for example, shot people, tossed them
off rooftops, and had few reservations about killing criminals. He menaced murderers, gangsters, and
thugs, not overgrown graffiti artists. Early Gotham was a dark and scary place, the sort of place that
might inspire people to, you know, dress up like a giant bat. So what happened? Why did the dark and
menacing Batman of 1940s become the lame and tame Batman of the 1960s?
Much of it has to do with changing national mores and an evolving economic and social landscape. In
this sense, Batman's story is a microcosm for what happened throughout the entire comic book
industry during that period and, to a lesser extent, some of the changes that swept across the nation.
One of the most important episodes in Batman's metamorphosis centered around the startling
accusation that Batman and Robin were gay and might seed impressionable youths with homosexual
fantasies. Silver Age Batman was indelibly shaped by the gendered expectations of the era and his
failure to adhere to those expectations incited criticism, predictably, that called into question his
sexual identity.
12
I always preferred Batman to Superman, largely because Batman, the central implausibility of his
character aside, was psychologically interesting in a way that the bland Superman never was. Of
course, my introduction to Batman was Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, a crucial revision of
the Batman myth which imagined Batman as a psychologically scarred character inhabiting an
increasingly savage world.
In contrast, most baby-boomers may be more likely to associate Batman with the campy, absurdist
version of the late-1950s and 1960s best captured in the long-running television series. In the pages
of Detective in that era, Batman traveled through time, verbally sparred with "Batmite", and foiled
countless plots to deface many of Gotham City's iconic landmarks. In other words, Silver Age Batman
was a glorified boyscout, patrolling against vandalism - just like Superman without the awesome
powers.
Outing the Caped Crusader
The accusation that Batman was a homo, as strange as it might sound to our own ears, was taken
quite seriously by government and public alike. It wasn't leveled by a marginal nut or crank, but by a
world-renowned psychiatrist, Dr. Frederic Wertham.
Wertham was the Chief Psychiatrist for the New York Department of Hospitals and an important figure
among the New York City liberal intelligentsia. His writings were respected enough to help form part of
the legal strategy for Brown v. Board. In 1954, Wertham published a scathing indictment of comic
books, The Seduction of the Innocent, which argued that comic books were an invidious influence on
American youth, responsible for warped gender attitudes and all manner of delinquency. Wertham's
accusations garnered the attention of Senator Estes Kefauver and his Senate Sub-committee on
Juvenile Delinquency, where Wertham repeated many of his central claims.
Batman and Robin, Wertham charged, inhabited "a wish
dream of two homosexuals living together." They lived in "sumptuous quarters," unencumbered by
wives and girlfriends, with only an aged butler for company. They cared for each other's injuries,
frequently shared quarters, and lounged together in dressing gowns. Worse still, both exhibited
damning psychological characteristics: proclivities for costumes, dressing up, and fantasy play;
secretive behavior and double-lives; little interest in women; and, most damning of all, neurotic
compulsions resulting in their violent vigilantism. Indeed, Wertham argued, depictions of Batman and
Robin were frequently homoerotic, visually emphasizing Batman's rippling physique and Robins
splayed, bare thighs.
13
"Only someone ignorant of the fundamentals of psychiatry and psychopathology of sex can fail to
realize the subtle atmosphere of homoeroticism which pervades the adventures," wrote Wertham.
"The Batman type of story may stimulate children to homosexual fantasies."
Batman's creators and writers were aghast. Batman, they noted, had a series of dalliances with
several Gothamite ladies, even if he'd never settled down. Nor, they argued, had there ever been any
explicit homosexual affection between Batman and Robin, much less a portrayal of anything beneath
their tights. And, in any case, what sense did it make to interrogate the sexual practices of a character
who lived only in the frames of a comic book? Any "sex life" Batman might possess was purely the
imagination of his critics and had nothing to do with Batman himself. Right? Right?! Imagination, as
they say, is a powerful thing.
As literary critic Mark Best notes, "Wertham did correctly identify the possibility of a queer reading of
the superhero, albeit as an example of what was wrong with the comics."
If Bruce Wayne was a paragon of upper-middle class white
masculinity - wealthy, cultivated, and amiable - his secret identity represented the dark liberation
found in the lurid city, cruising strange corners. Even if Batman's genitals were never portrayed
coming into contact with Robin, Batman's crime-fighting lifestyle still embodied a fantasy of freedom
from male familial responsibilities and, in a very real sense, from women altogether. Batman's world
of the 1940s was almost exclusively male.
The few females who appeared in the pages of Detective were usually for show or comic relief (Bruce
Wayne's earliest fiance, Julie Madison, was frequently duped by his double-identity and played for
laughs). Like many closeted men, Bruce Wayne dated women to keep up appearances, so that no one
would suspect that beneath his placid veneer lurked the sort of fellow who wrestled with criminals in
dark alleys.
Batman vs the Nuclear Family
At a time when social norms dictated that men and women alike should form nuclear families and
settle into comfortable domesticity, Batman's homosocial world presented no small challenge to the
"normal" family. Of course, only a decade before the publication of The Seduction of the Innocents the
idea of men living only with other men for the purposes of fighting other men was not only
uncontroversial, but, in the midst of World War II, it was the norm. Under war conditions, soldiers
14
lived and slept together. They depended upon one another for comfort and support, emotional and
physical.
As John Ibson argues in Picturing Men, male-male
physical affection in the wartime context was normal and captured frequently in photography of the
era. As Allan Berube has documented, soldiers frequently also found sexual companionship with other
soldiers, often with the knowledge of and without causing much consternation from their peers and
superiors. In fact, the military did little to aggressively police male-male sexuality until the end of the
war, when the military dishonorably discharged tens-of-thousands of service people on "morals"
charges.
Indeed, the sort of intimacy between men enjoyed by millions of men in the early 1940s was
increasingly suspect by the end of the decade. Society moved quickly to restabilize heterosexuality
and stigmatize many of the types of same-sex intimacy - sexual and nonsexual alike - that had been
common during the war. Margot Canaday notes in Building a Straight State that the architects of the
1944 GI Bill designed it intentionally to make ineligible for benefits those tens of thousands of service
people discharged on morals charges.
The Lavender Scare
In addition, as tensions with the Soviet Union increased, psychologists, politicians, and demagogues
linked communism to homosexuality, arguing that communists and homosexuals alike were secretive
and opposed to the "democratic" heterosexual family unit. Even if homosexuals were not communist
themselves, they could be blackmailed and strong armed into complicity with communist schemes.
Thus, the "lavender scare" - as historian Robert Johnson has called it - preceded the "red scare."
15
In 1950, a subcommittee chaired by Maryland Senator
Millard Tydings convened to investigate Joseph McCarthy's notorious list of "205 known communists."
Tydings worked to discredit McCarthy's claim, but, in the process, the subcommittee at least partially
validated concerns that the State Department was overrun with "sexual perverts." During the
hearings, Nebraska Senator Kenneth Wherry memorably claimed that as many as 3,000 homosexuals
were employed at State. By the end of 1950, 600 people had been dismissed from positions at the
State Department on morals charges.
How deeply this context specifically informed the creative forces at DC is difficult to tell. Regardless,
the charges levied by Wertham against Batman were bad for sales. Parents might steer their children
away from the title toward more "wholesome" comics and some communities might attempt censor
the comic book altogether. In an effort, to combat the perception that their product was morally
suspect, DC made a number of changes.
Butching up Batman
To address the general concern that Batman comics were too violent and encouraged socially reckless
behavior, writers for Batman increasingly penned stories with surreal, fantastical, or absurd story
lines. Plots portrayed Batman traveling through time to ancient Babylon, venturing to alien planets,
and being the victim of magic spells. Rather than depicting Gotham as a den of vice and crime, the
writers portrayed the city as relatively safe and prosperous. Batman's foes became less violent,
plotting capers that often centered exclusively on symbolic crimes or "unmasking" Batman. Batman
himself became less anti-social - frequently cooperating with Gotham police and public safety
committees - and DC began including public service advertisements in the comic.
Other changes were designed to specifically undercut the accusation that Batman and Robin were gay.
Alfred's role in the comic was diminished (Alfred was even killed off for a while in the early 1960s, only
to be, literally, resurrected for a while as a villain). To supplement Alfred, Aunts Agatha and Harriet
were introduced to provide care, nurturing and a woman's touch in Wayne manor. At the same time,
DC began to introduce a series of other female characters to provide romances for Batman and Robin
- Bat-girl in 1956 and Batwoman in 1961.
As Best notes, Bat-girl and Batwoman's complementary crime-fighting acted as a replacement for
regular heterosexual courtship: rather than dinner and a movie, a romantic Batman took his girl out
on rooftops. In this sense, Batman's crime-fighting became a sight for potential heterosexual
productivity, a time when Batman could WOO! and COURT! The cast of female characters provided
Batman with something of a full family, or at least the groundwork for one. Even if the bat-family
16
never achieved full "normalcy," it at least blunted the edges of a lifestyle that was irreconcilable with
the gendered expectations of the decade.
It's something of a cliché today to point out that the rigid expectations of domesticity in 1950s were,
to say the least, unrealistic and stifling for many people, straight and gay alike. Whether Batman
experienced something of a Bat-Mystique is tough to discern, though he seems, at times, to have
chaffed under the care of Aunts Harriet and Agatha. But Batman's hypothetical feelings on the matter
were irrelevant to the suits at DC. The world had changed.
A Batman who continued to live in 1945 was an economic liability in 1955. He was a threat to the
family and to the bottom-line. Batman's "gayness," then, was a flash point for a larger set of social
anxieties. Just as elites worked aggressively to purge society and government of homosexuality, so
too did DC purge Batman of any social deficiency which could be interpreted or construed as "gay."
Was it enough? To satisfy the most vocal critics, yes. But,
ironically, the move to surrealism and fantasy also pushed Batman into the territory of high camp, in
which Batman's ostensibly heterosexual romances were suspiciously unbelievable. Indeed, in the
camp world of the Batman television series, Batman's exaggerated and largely asexual romances
seemed almost like a parody of actual heterosexual romances - a tension best explored by Robert
Smigel's Ace and Gary.
In this sense, Silver Age Batman's partisans miss the central reason why Batman is a compelling and
fascinating figure in the first place. Batman's most important relationships have always been with
criminals. What drives him to pursue them? How does he distinguish himself from his queries? How is
vigilantism anything but criminal? Indeed, Batman's most provocative implications have centered
around the distinction between law and justice - Batman's dedication to the latter, often at the
expense of the former.
Attempts to contrive a heterosexual "history" for Batman have always rang false, precisely because
what rang true about Batman had nothing to do with "normal" heterosexual romance. That hardly
necessitates Batman occupy an all-male world and the next Nolan film would benefit from a
compelling female villain. Nevertheless, this much is certain: a character locked in any banal romance,
either with Dick Grayson or Rachel Dawes, hardly seems believable as someone willing to endure the
deprivations and burdens required of the Batman.
(Tyrion Lannister is a Bilerico-Indiana contributor. This post was bumped up from to the main site by Bil. If you enjoyed
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17
Police
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Green Lantern: First Flight
18
Themes of Racism in Green Lantern and Green Arrow Comics
19
AMAZON
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
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Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
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Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
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Wonder Woman 2009 to be watched in class.
20
The Legacy of Wonder Woman
An enlightening look at the feminist ideals that informed this
American icon
By Philip Charles Crawford -- School Library Journal, 03/01/2007
This year marks the 65th anniversary of one of comics’ oldest and most enduring characters,
Wonder Woman. For over half a century, she has entertained and inspired millions, appearing in
comic books, newspapers, novels, television, and cartoons. Her image is known throughout the
world, licensed on everything from Halloween costumes, Kraft brand macaroni & cheese, and
Underoos, to cookie jars, toothbrushes, and the American Library Association (ALA) poster,
“The World’s Greatest Heroes @ your library.” Along with Batman and Superman, she shares
the distinction of having been continually published in comic book form for more than six
decades. Like Snoopy, James Bond, Superman, and Tarzan, she has entered the collective
consciousness of 20th-century pop culture.
In the early 1970s, she was adopted as a role model by the feminist movement and appeared on
the cover of the inaugural issue of Ms. magazine. Yet few know that Wonder Woman was
created as a distinctly feminist role model whose mission was to bring the Amazon ideals of
love, peace, and sexual equality to “a world torn by the hatred of men.”
While Wonder Woman is one of the most fascinating comic book characters ever created, she is
seldom mentioned in professional books, Web sites, and ALA lists about graphic novels. Perhaps
many see her as too “old school,” no longer relevant in a world among such kick-ass, girl-power
heroines as Buffy, the Birds of Prey, Electra, and Manhunter. Maybe, in a world dominated by
pastel, tartan, and lollipop-colored “chick lit,” Wonder Woman’s overtly feminist message has
no bearing on a readership who seems to prefer (and adore) consumer-driven, self-obsessed
heroines. For whatever reason, our most enduring feminist icon of American popular culture
seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle. A brief exploration of Wonder Woman’s history will, I
hope, demonstrate why this heroine is important and deserving of a wide readership and a
prominent place on the library shelves.
When superheroes first began to appear in comic books of the late 1930s, the genre was
ostensibly an “all-boys club.” In fact, prior to Wonder Woman, there were very few costumed
heroines of any kind. Among the hundreds of comic books published during the 1930s, only a
scant few featured stories about costumed women heroes such as Black Widow, Invisible Scarlet
O’Neil, The Woman in Red, and Miss Fury. More common was the depiction of women as evil
seductresses, as the hero’s girlfriend (Lois Lane), or as his “help mate” (Bulletgirl and
Hawkgirl). In general, superhero comics of this era reflected and reinforced cultural norms about
gender. Images of male superheroes celebrated brute strength, physical perfection, male bonding,
and phallic imagery, while women were typically portrayed as helpless and in need of rescuing,
or as sexy, buxom pin-ups models, often in provocative bondage poses. Moreover, most
superhero comics were also violent and the hero resolved any and all conflict with physical
21
force. For example, in the earliest Batman stories, the caped crusader was a ruthless vigilante
who carried a gun and even murdered a couple of his adversaries.
In the early 1940s, a psychologist and feminist, Dr. William Moulton Marston, sought to change
this paradigm. Writing in The American Scholar, he discussed the negative effects of gender
stereotyping in popular culture: “Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine
archetype lacks force, strength, and power…. Women’s strong qualities have become despised
because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a character with all the strength of
Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.”
Marston wanted to create a positive role model for girls that would serve as a counter to the high
level of violence and the “blood curdling masculinity” he felt pervaded superhero stories. At the
time, he was already famous as the author of several best-selling books on psychology (and for
inventing the lie detector). As a columnist for Family Circle, he wrote an article extolling the
merits of comic books. In 1941, he was hired by M. C. Gaines to serve on the advisory
committee for DC Comics where he would further develop his ideas and create the first major
and important female superhero–Wonder Woman.
In late 1941, Wonder Woman made her debut in the pages of All-Star Comics and became the
lead feature in Sensation Comics #1 the following month, written under the pseudonym Charles
Moulton and illustrated by H. G. Peters. From the beginning, Marston infused the series with a
feminist ideology. Wonder Woman was an Amazon princess who had been sent by the goddess,
Aphrodite, to aid America in the war effort and to spread the Amazons’ message of love, peace,
and sexual equality. One of the central ideas of the strip was that through hard work and
discipline women could become strong and independent and free themselves from their
economic and psychological dependency on men.
Wonder Woman’s approach to crime fighting was different than male counterparts as well.
Where they used force to defeat the villain, she tried to reason with them and often convinced
them to reform. Only when this failed did she use force, or her magic lasso, which, like
Marston’s own lie detector, forced anyone bound by it to tell the truth.
However, like all superheroes Wonder Woman has her Achilles’ heel; if her bracelets are bound
together by a man, she loses her powers. In countless stories, she is chained and bound by male
villains, only to break free and triumph. The ropes and chains are symbols of patriarchy and the
drama is her ability to break the shackles of male domination they symbolize. Unfortunately,
most comic historians have ignored the feminist elements of the series, and focused on these
elements of bondage, reducing the complexity of Marston’s Wonder Woman mythos to little
more than a thinly disguised sadomasochistic sexual fantasy.
Dr. Marston’s heroine proved to be a tremendous success. At the height of her popularity,
Wonder Woman had a readership of 10 million and appeared in a total of four comics and a daily
newspaper strip. Unfortunately, this success would be short-lived. In 1947, Marston died, leaving
his heroine in the hands of writers who didn’t seem to understand or care about her. In the
postwar era of the 1950s and 1960s, Wonder Woman would lose much of her trademark
22
feminism and become more conventionally feminine with her adventures focusing on two central
topics: marriage anxiety and battling duplicates of herself.
By the late 1960s, DC Comics scrapped Marston’s concept entirely: they killed Steve Trevor, got
rid of Amazons, and stripped Wonder Woman of her superpowers. This “new” Wonder Woman
was Diana Prince, an ordinary woman who ran a mod-clothing boutique and fought crime in her
spare time. For many she was a thinly veiled imitation of Mrs. Emma Peel from the British TV
show The Avengers. Feeling that the character had been stripped of her power, Steinem and
others pressured DC Comics to bring back the original character. With some reluctance, they
agreed. Wonder Woman got back her powers, her costume, and her Amazon sisters, but the
series lacked the complexity and feminist flare of Marston’s original stories.
During the 1970s, Wonder Woman entered America’s living rooms in the Saturday morning
cartoon Superfriends and in her own prime-time show. Meanwhile, the comic book series
suffered from constant changes in direction. Creatively, the Wonder Woman book was dying a
slow and painful death.
With nowhere left to go but down, DC Comics decided to give the character a new start. They
cancelled the original and launched a brand new series with help from Gloria Steinem.
Beautifully written and illustrated by George Perez, this new series splendidly updated the
original while staying true to the concepts established by Marston. This new Wonder Woman
provided readers with the best and most faithful version of the character since Marston’s
original.
For anyone interested in reading the original stories, I would recommend Wonder Woman
Archives series (DC Comics), which collects the first four years worth of strips. These stories are
some of the most unique of the 1940s, featuring a complex blend of feminism, wartime
patriotism, Greek mythology, and bondage imagery in stories that move seamlessly through the
genres of science fiction, fantasy, and mythology. The best stories from Perez’s tenure have been
collected into a four-volume series that begins with Wonder Woman: Gods and Mortals (DC
Comics, 2004). Other volumes such as Paul Dini’s Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth (2001) and
Greg Rucka’s Wonder Woman: Land of the Dead (2006, both DC Comics) provide a thoughtful
analysis of Wonder Woman’s heroism.
The best Wonder Woman stories inspire us to imagine a more equalitarian world and encourage
us to become agents of social change. They have the power to inspire girls (and boys) to become
heroes in their own lives. In this era of books about gossiping, “mean girls,” and YA novels
about distressed young women who starve, mutilate, and kill themselves, doesn’t Wonder
Woman’s feminist message of peace, justice, and sexual equality need to be heard?
Author Information
Philip Charles Crawford is the Library Director for Essex High School (VT). His review of Greg Rucka’s
Wonder Woman: Mission’s End appears on p. 238.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6417196.html
http://girl-wonder.org/papers/robbins.html
23
Suffering Sappho! A Look At The Creator & Creation
of Wonder Woman
by Charles Lyons
Posted: Wed, August 23rd, 2006 at 12:00AM PST
NOTE: The following article deals with adult situations.
She wasn't jettisoned from a doomed planet, she
didn't witness the brutal murder of her parents, and
she was never injected with radioactive venom, but
the true story of Wonder Woman's origin is one of the
strangest and most fascinating of any superhero. The
Amazon princess debuted in the back of "All-Star
Comics" #8 in December 1941, graduated to the cover
story of "Sensation Comics" #1 in January, and
merited her own title by the summer of 1942. Her
powers were similar to those of Superman (who had
Wonder Woman creator William Moulton
not yet learned to fly, see through walls, or fear
Kryptonite), but with a couple of interesting twists: she Marston and his family.
could deflect bullets with the heavy metal bracelets
she wore on her wrists, and she carried a magical golden lasso which compelled
anyone it snared to tell the truth.
Wonder Woman was not the first female superhero - she had been beaten to the punch
by the likes of the Black Widow (no relation to the Marvel character) and Bulletgirl - but
she quickly became the most successful and remains to this day the best known. DC
Comics recently relaunched the "Wonder Woman" title with a new #1 written by Allan
Heinberg, Co-Executive Producer of "The OC," and a feature film is in the works from
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon. Wonder Woman has been popular for
over sixty years - and controversial from the moment she was born.
Pages 7, 8 & 10 from Wonder Woman #21, Jan-Feb 1947, featuring some classic
early artwork.
24
Wonder Woman's creator was William Moulton Marston, a Harvard-educated
psychologist, lawyer and provocateur who invented a precursor of the modern
polygraph (the likely inspiration for Wonder Woman's lie-detecting lasso). In October
1940, the popular women's magazine "Family Circle" published an interview with
Marston entitled "Don't Laugh at the Comics," in which the psychologist discussed the
unfulfilled potential of the medium. Maxwell Charles Gaines, then publisher of AllAmerican Comics, saw the interview and offered Marston a job as an educational
consultant to All-American and sister company DC Comics. Realizing that strong female
role models in comics were virtually nonexistent, Marston sold Gaines on the concept of
a superheroine who would combine "all the strength of a Superman plus all the allure of
a good and beautiful woman" and began writing stories under the pen name Charles
Moulton, combining his and his publisher's middle names.
Subtext is as much a part of comic books as superpowers, from the unconscious
(Superman as the ultimate assimilated immigrant) to the unintentional (Fredric Wertham
saw Batman and Robin's relationship as pedophilia). Wonder Woman's world is one that
practically begs for analysis: coming from a utopian island inhabited only by women,
she wears heavy manacles on her wrists and carries a rope everywhere she goes; she
spent many of her early stories in bondage or restraining others, and even disciplined
villains on Transformation Island, an Amazonian rehabilitation center that trained its allfemale prison population to submit to "loving authority." Even her classic catch-phrase
raises the eyebrow - what's with all that
suffering Sappho is always doing, anyway?
Restraining the protagonist isn't necessarily
sexual - after all, it's one of the few ways the
villain has to incapacitate the hero or heroine
without killing them (and thereby ending the
story) - but in Marston's case much of this
subtext was indeed intentional. As he told
interviewer Olive Richard in the August 14,
1942 "Family Circle," "Tell me anybody's
preference in story strips and I'll tell you his
subconscious desires...Superman and the
"Wonder Woman" #7,
army of male comics characters who resemble Page from "Sensation
Winter, 1943
Comics" #31, July, 1944
him satisfy the simple desire to be stronger
and more powerful than anybody else. Wonder Woman satisfies the subconscious,
elaborately disguised desire of males to be mastered by a woman who loves them."
But Marston was intent on more than merely fulfilling the fantasies of his male readers.
In a letter to comics historian Coulton Waugh, he wrote, "Frankly, Wonder Woman is
psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the
world." Marston believed that submission to "loving authority" was the key to
overcoming mankind's violent urges, and that strong, self-realized women were the
hope for a better future. Wonder Woman was very consciously Marston's means of
spreading these notions to impressionable young minds. As he said to Olive Richard, "I
25
tell you, my inquiring friend, there's great hope for this world. Women will win!" He then
goes on, "When women rule, there won't be any more [war] because the girls won't
want to waste time killing men...I regard that as the greatest - no, even more - as the
only hope for permanent peace."
With this unusual brand of feminism as his stated aim,
Marston filled his stories with bondage (both male and
female), spanking, sorority initiation rituals, crossdressing, infantilism, and playful domination. Armies of
slave girls were everywhere, and hardly an issue went
by without a full-body panel of Wonder Woman bound
from head to toe. In "Sensation Comics" #35
(November 1944) Wonder Woman even lets slip that
rope bondage was a popular pastime back home.
Panel from "Sensation Comics" #35,
Apparently the best way to learn about domination
November, 1944
was to submit to it yourself: while Marston personally
advocated female domination of men, many of
Wonder Woman's adversaries were female themselves, and she often seemed to find
herself at their mercy (perhaps this is what she meant by Sapphic suffering). Just as
Superman eventually developed an allergy to Kryptonite, Wonder Woman had an
Achilles heel of her own, and of course it had to do with bondage. Her bracelets were
reminders of the defeat of the Amazons by Hercules, and if ever welded together by a
man, she would lose her strength. Consequently, many of the villainesses kept a handy
male in their employ for just this service
It was no secret to anyone paying attention that Marston was an enthusiastic advocate
of bondage and domination, and he did not escape controversy. The Child Study
Association of America accused Marston of being a sadist. Another critic characterized
Marston's agenda as leading to "dictator dominance." In 1943, a fan serving in the Army
wrote to Gaines, "I am one of those odd, perhaps unfortunate men who derive an
extreme erotic pleasure from the mere thought of a beautiful girl chained or
bound…Have you the same interest in bonds and fetters that I have?" Editor Sheldon
Mayer tried to tame some of the more extreme elements but later admitted he had
"probably made it worse." For his part, Marston fiercely defended his creation, declaring
in a letter to his publisher:
"Suffering Sappho!"
26
"This, my dear friend, is the one truly great
contribution of my Wonder Woman strip to moral
education of the young. The only hope for peace is
to teach people who are full of pep and unbound
force to enjoy being bound ... Only when the control
of self by others is more pleasant than the unbound
assertion of self in human relationships can we
hope for a stable, peaceful human society ... Giving
to others, being controlled by them, submitting to
other people cannot possibly be enjoyable without a
strong erotic element."
Aphrodite's Law
Despite - or perhaps because of - the controversy, sales of "Wonder Woman" were
strong, so for the most part Gaines set aside any doubts he may have had and let the
psychologist have his way.
Marston's erotic proclivities may have been plain to the general public, but his private
life contained a bigger bombshell. The psychologist's superheroine was at least partly
inspired by his wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, but there were actually two Wonder
Women in the family . Marston wasn't just kinky, he was a polyamorist.
The clues are in Marston's interviews with "Family Circle," conducted by a young
woman named Olive Byrne, who was in fact, the aforementioned interviewer Olive
Richard. Though he refers to Byrne as "my Wonder Woman" and claims her "Arab
'protective' bracelets" were the inspiration for the ones worn by the Wonder Woman
character, Byrne herself never disclosed to readers that she was romantically involved
with her subject. In fact, Byrne was a former student and research assistant who moved
in with Marston and his wife in the late '20s and subsequently bore him two sons. The
exact nature of the women's relationship is not known, but it's clear that they were very
close. Not only did the two know about each other and raise each other's children,
Elizabeth Marston formally adopted Byrne's children as her own and even appears to
have named her daughter after Olive.
A contemplative Wonder Woman
While Olive Byrne may have provided the
physical inspiration for Wonder Woman,
Elizabeth Marston was an Amazon in her own
right, getting degrees in psychology and law,
putting herself through school and working to
support the family for thirty-five years. "Olive
stayed home with the kids, while Mom
continued to work," said Elizabeth's son Pete.
"It was a wonderful situation, a win-win deal for
everyone." Indeed, by all accounts Marston's
unconventional family was a happy one. "It
was an arrangement where they lived together
fairly harmoniously," said Marston's son Byrne
27
to biographer Les Daniels. Sheldon Mayer, who became a family friend, remembered
Marston as "the most remarkable host, with a lovely bunch of kids from different wives
and all living together like one big family - everybody very happy and all good, decent
people."
Unfortunately, Marston was unable to enjoy his happy home life for long, as he first
contracted polio and then succumbed to cancer in 1947, reportedly continuing to write
from his deathbed. After Marston's death, his widows continued to live together for
another four decades until Olive's death in the late eighties. As Byrne Marston
described it, "It's kind of crazy, but it worked out and they got along quite well. They
were just a pair from then on until they died." Elizabeth Marston died in 1993, at the age
of 100.
In modern terms, Wonder Woman might be best
described as a "bi poly switch." But with her creator's
departure, the Amazon lost her enthusiasm for
bondage and much of her proto-feminist message
(within a couple years she had a newfound
appreciation of matrimony, and "Sensation Comics"
had become a romance book). Marston's theme of
submission to loving authority failed to transform
society and caused no apparent increase in sexual
The name of Reform Island was later
deviancy. His "American matriarchy" has failed to
changed to Transformation Island.
materialize, and in spite of tremendous advances in
civil rights, gender relations, and sexual freedom, we
still live in a society where gay marriage is hotly opposed and Marston's unusual
lifestyle remains controversial.
Marston may have been naive and even misguided in some of his aims. But he created
an enduring feminist icon who was adopted by Gloria Steinem as the cover girl for the
first issue of "Ms." magazine and stands with Superman and Batman as one of the
longest-lasting superheroes in comics. She has also become a popular symbol for gays,
lesbians, and others whose sexual identity lies outside of mainstream convention. Allan
Heinberg, new "Wonder Woman" writer, is openly gay, as is Phil Jimenez, who wrote
and drew the characters' stories from 2000-2003. Heinberg told Gay.com:
"You know, as a gay man, you would think I would be principally attracted to characters
like Batman or Superman or Robin, but for some reason I identify most strongly with
[Wonder Woman], because even within the superhero society she's a bit
of an outsider."
Given her origins, Wonder Woman's role as a champion of tolerance
seems entirely fitting. Marston believed that in the future the world would
be ruled by love rather than hatred or fear. Hopefully, someday he'll be
proven right. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=7921
28
INNOCENT/FOOL
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Spiderman 1 and Spiderman 2 to be watched in class.
29
May 7, 2002 12:30 p.m.
New Yorker, American
Spider-Man has perfect timing.
(WARNING: The following column on the new Spider-Man movie contains what might be considered
SPOILERS. It discusses a number of themes, scenes, and dialogue. As such, if you haven't seen it yet — a small
minority, based on last weekend's box-office figures — you might want to skip the column until you have. Don't
worry, we're not going anywhere.)
t's no surprise that war produces heroes. However, what seems to have gone unnoticed is that
the shadows of war seem to be the breeding ground for the artistic inspiration that gives rise
to the stories of fictional legend.
How else to explain that the greatest archetypal superheroes of the 20th century all emerged
during times of geopolitical tension? In 1938, as Europe was becoming embroiled in an
emerging threat arising from Nazi Germany two young kids from Cleveland, Ohio created
their own "Username" legend. The story owed as much to the Bible as it did science fiction: A
scientist and his wife, confronted with the fact that their planet is dying, launch their only child
into space so he may escape their fate. It is, in its own fashion, a reworking of the Moses tale.
The baby lands in the United States Midwest and is adopted by an elderly couple. The rest, as
they say, is history.
It is the origin of Superman. Out of a sense of traditional American values, mixed perhaps with
an inherited sense of noblesse oblige, he recognizes that he has an obligation to use his powers
to protect his adopted home.
One year later — as the European situation grew even tenser, another American artist, Bob
Kane produced a darker vision. A boy sees his parents murdered in the middle of a robbery and
vows vengeance. The orphan becomes Batman, a hero driven by vengeance.
Three years later — mere months before the United States is attacked at Pearl Harbor — the
team of Jack Kirby and Joe Simon introduce the ultimate patriotic archetype — Captain
America. He's a regular, but skinny Army Joe — too weak to be on the frontlines — called
Steve Rogers. He volunteers for an experiment that would make him a "super-soldier."
Perhaps not by coincidence, the creators of all of these heroes were all Jewish Americans, in
their teens or early twenties. Perhaps that ethnic heritage explains the common themes of
abandonment, loss of home, and the existential need to bond oneself to a greater good.
30
Flashing forward four decades, a metaphorical Iron Curtain is draped across Europe. In 1961, a
physical partition separates East and West Berlin. It's the same year that a young American
president takes office. Another year passes, and a different type of hero hits the newsstands.
Like Superman and Batman, he is in orphan, though like the former he is taken in and
"adopted" into a nurturing environment. Unlike Captain America, he is not in the military. He's
just a high-school kid who gets bitten (in the original story) by a radioactive spider. Then,
through an act of adolescent selfishness, tragedy strikes. Thus, the fourth great superhero
archetype is born — driven by a guilt-induced responsibility and painfully aware of what can
occur when that responsibility is ignored. His name is, of course, Spider-Man.
(Interestingly, just as the nation feared the atomic bomb in the '50s and early-60s, radioactivity
of some sort figures into the creation of many of the early "Marvel" comic book heroes.
Cosmic rays create the Fantastic Four; gamma rays produce the Incredible Hulk; a radioactive
canister gives the blind Daredevil extra senses; radiation at the cellular level produces the
mutant X-Men, etc.)
Like his World War II era counterparts, Spider-Man would also have Jewish lineage in writer
Stan Lee. The background of Spidey's co-creator, Steve Ditko, is somewhat shrouded in
mystery though the Pennsylvania-born artist is said to have eastern European parents.
This back-story is particularly notable because, as the Spider-Man movie emerges, war and
rumors of war fill the American psyche to a degree not seen in decades. At the end of the film,
the wall crawler lands upon a flagpole bearing a huge American flag. The feeling conveyed is
obvious. Comic books — especially the superhero trope — are a unique part of Americana and
the blue-red-webbed hero is part of that tradition. The scene is reminiscent of the end of the
first Superman movie as the Man of Steel flies off holding a flagpole with Old Glory unfurled.
But, more than that, Spider-Man is an American hero — a human being — born of a particular
American moment. In this movie, the newly gifted teenage Peter Parker, after having beaten up
the school bully something proper, is told by his uncle that he is now at the age when "a man
changes into the man he'll become for the rest of his life." Ben Parker — though unaware of
his nephew's super-talents — nonetheless tries to impress upon him that can't just go around
beating up bullies. Whatever gifts he has must be put it to a worthy purpose.
But, remember, this is a Kennedy-era creation. The words "with great power comes great
responsibility" were originally written barely a year after the nation's brand-new commanderin-chief vowed in his inaugural address to "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship,
support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
Months after those words were spoken, America began its full involvement in Vietnam.
How the phrase "with great power comes great responsibility" takes on brand new context in
these uncertain early moments of the 21st century.
Spider-Man always has been the quintessential New Yorker. In fact, it is an eerie feeling,
watching Spider-Man swing through a fairly accurate on-screen depiction of the Big Apple. It's
not just Manhattan. Queens houses look like Queens houses. Soho diners look like Soho
31
diners. Yet, it is that faithfulness that reality makes it difficult to watch. As much as one is
drawn into the amazing fantasy taking place on the screen, the post-9/11 consciousness forces
inevitable questions to perk up. How can those celluloid New Yorkers — having been caught
in the middle of two super beings tearing up Times Square — stop to applaud Spider-Man's
coming to the "rescue"? There are buildings falling down around them!
However, in the movie's most satisfying scene, the hero finds himself high above the
Queensboro Bridge. The Goblin challenges Spider-Man to decide whom to save — his
girlfriend or innocent kids in a cable car. "We are who we choose to be," mocks the Goblin as
he drops his would be victims off the bridge. The words seem be an almost intentional contrast
to Ben Parker's observation to Peter Parker. The Goblin has made his choice. He has chosen
power — without responsibility.
The hero, of course, rejects the false "choice" thrust upon him and goes to save all of the
Goblin's victims — just as the villain zeroes in for the kill. But then, the tables are turned! In a
perfect inversion of the paradigm, Spider-Man himself is saved as a crowd starts throwing
things at the Goblin, distracting him just long enough. "You mess with one of us, you mess
with all of us," screams one New Yorker; it's the "Let's roll" moment — unexpected, yet
perfectly exhilarating. Consider too that the vituperative Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah
Jameson has decided that he can sell more newspapers pushing the idea that Spider-Man is a
criminal in league with the Green Goblin. In siding with Spider-Man, the crowd implicitly
rejects the media manipulation.
They know who their hero is; they know who the good guy is. But in helping to save him, the
average New Yorker manages to become a hero too. It is fitting, as the hero happens, powers
aside, to be an average guy. After saving the innocents, he then goes to extinguish the evil that
is the Goblin. How can any great power do less?
The message of that scene is that we can't just depend on our "heroes" to be perfect and save
our society. All Americans — not just the "heroes" — have to recognize that there are such
things as sacrifice involved as great power is wielded. Humility is a virtue that must be
mastered and arrogance a vice that must be tempered. America, as a great nation with great
power must exercise great responsibility. But, even those without "great power" manage to do
something great — or even merely "good" — just through basic human decency.
These are the lessons from Spider-Man. The character is celebrating its 40th anniversary, but
like any true archetypal hero, he always shows up at just the right time with just the right
message. The superhero reminds us what being American is all about.
— Mr. George is an editorial writer for the New York Post.
http://old.nationalreview.com/george/george050702.asp
32
COWBOY
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
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Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
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Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
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Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
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Iron Man 1 to be watched in class.
33
Behemoth/Jekyll and Hyde
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
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Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
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Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
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34
The God
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
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Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
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Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
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Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
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35
PATRIOT
Powers:_______________________________________________________________________
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Strengths:_____________________________________________________________________
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Weaknesses:___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
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Home:________________________________________________________________________
Residence:_____________________________________________________________________
Friends:_______________________________________________________________________
Enemies:______________________________________________________________________
Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
36
Sniper dispatches Captain America, a superhero since '41, in latest edition
updated 3/8/2007 10:35:13 AM ET
NEW YORK — Captain America has undertaken his last mission — at least for now.
The venerable superhero is killed in the issue of his namesake comic that hit stands
Wednesday, the New York Daily News reported.
On the new edition's pages, a sniper shoots down the shield-wielding hero as he leaves
a courthouse, according to the newspaper.
It ends a long run for the stars-and-stripes-wearing character, created in 1941 to
incarnate patriotic feeling during World War II. Over the years, an estimated 210 million
copies of "Captain America" comic books, published by New York-based Marvel
Entertainment Inc., have been sold in a total of 75 countries.
But resurrections are not unknown in the world of comics, and Marvel Entertainment
editor in chief Joe Quesada said a Captain America comeback wasn't impossible.
Still, the character's death came as a blow to co-creator Joe Simon.
"We really need him now," said Simon, 93, who worked with artist Jack Kirby to devise
Captain America as a foe for Adolf Hitler.
According to the comic, the superhero was spawned when a scrawny arts student
named Steve Rogers, ineligible for the army because of his poor health but eager to
serve his country, agreed to a "Super Soldier Serum" injection. The substance made
him a paragon of physical perfection, armed only with his shield, his strength, his smarts
and a command of martial arts.
In the comic-book universe, death is not always final. But even if Captain America turns
out to have met his end in print, he may not disappear entirely: Marvel has said it is
developing a Captain America movie.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
37
Captain America, thought dead, comes
back to life

Story Highlights

Captain America being resurrected; superhero was killed off over two years ago


Recent issues of Marvel comics shed light on plot behind superhero's death
"It just feels like the right time," says Marvel Comics editor
By Chris Kokenes
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Perhaps he should be called Captain Phoenix?
Rising from the dead after being killed off over two years ago, Captain America is being resurrected by Marvel
Comics.
Though the circumstances of his return are being closely shielded, the star-spangled superhero returns July 1 in a
five-comic-book series, "Captain America Reborn."
A big-budget movie in development by Marvel is also expected in 2011.
After close to 60 years in print, Marvel Comics killed off Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, in 2007, one of its most
famous and beloved superheroes, amid a controversial story line.
He fought and triumphed over Hitler, Tojo, international Communism and a host of super-villains, but a sniper's bullet
cut Captain America down in 2007, a move that shocked many of his fans.
"The reaction was amazing," says Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort. "It certainly was like the world went crazy
for three days. Everybody had a point of view about it, including fans who hadn't read the comic for 30 years."
In the comic series, Rogers was to stand trial for defying a superhero registration law passed after a hero's tragic
mistake causes a 9/11-like event. Marvel said the comic story line was intentionally written as an allegory to current
real-life issues like the Patriot Act, the war on terror and September 11.
Rogers eventually surrenders to police. He is later mortally wounded as he climbs the courthouse steps. It was a
violent and strange end for an American hero and icon.
The primary shooter, Crossbones -- working under the orders of Captain America's longtime nemesis, the Red Skull -
38
- was caught. The identity of a second shooter is revealed in issue 600, which goes on sale Monday.
Many felt Captain America's death in 2007 was symbolic of the time. And his return now?
"The tenor of the world now is when we're at a point where we want to believe in heroes. Someone who can lead the
way," said Brevoort. "It just feels like the right time."
Captain America first appeared in 1941, just as the United States entered World War II. He was a symbol of
American strength and resolve in fighting the Axis powers.
As originally conceived by creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Rogers was born before the Great Depression in a
very different America. He disappeared after the war and only reappeared recently in the Marvel timeline.
Keeping superheroes dead and buried does not come easy. Even Superman, who was killed off by DC Comics in
1993, came back to life a year later.
And what of Captain America's sidekick, Bucky Barnes? After taking up the shield and mission of Captain America for
the past year, it'll be time to relinquish the mantle. Is there room for two sentinels of liberty? Stay tuned.
Glenn Perreia contributed to this report.
39
THE FOUR VIRTUES: Morrell Talks
"Captain America: The Chosen"
by Dave Richards, Staff Writer |
Mon, August 13th, 2007 at 12:00AM (PDT)
In February of this year, one of the Marvel Comics' greatest
heroes, Captain America was slain, but that doesn't mean there
aren't more tales left to be told of the Sentinel of Liberty.
Beginning this September, writer David Morrell and artist Mitch
Breitweiser will give readers a brand new Captain America story
with the six-issue "Captain America: The Chosen" miniseries.
Morrell, the author of 24 novels including the 1972 thriller "First
Blood," which introduced the world to the iconic action hero
John Rambo, has been a comic fan at various points in his life.
"When I was a kid I used to go on roller skates to a store that
was five blocks away. They sold new comics but most of their
trade was in used ones," Morrell told CBR News. "I'm of an age
that I was around when the EC Comics were coming out, like
'Tales From the Crypt.' I just loved those. After what happened
with the government and comic books, things were all so tepid;
so I sort of lost my interest.
First Look at "Captain America: The
"Time moved on, I think my interest got rekindled when
Chosen" #4
'Batman: The Dark Knight Returns' came out and I saw how you
could have that realistic look and go for deep psychological
themes. I can't say that I've been a constant reader because the nature of my life is that I always
have deadlines so I can't keep up with everything."
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Morrell has, however, kept up with the comic book work of some his
friends and fellow novelists. "One of my friends is Max Allan Collins,"
Morrell said. "I've watched his career of course, with 'Dick Tracy' and
particularly what he did with 'Road to Perdition.' I also know Joe
Lansdale ["Jonah Hex: Two Gun Mojo"], who's worked in comics. So,
a lot of my friends have worked in comics and I always thought it
would be nice to be in that world but I didn't know how to make it
happen. Also given that comics are illustrated stories, it seemed like a
secret society in the sense of 'How the heck did these things get
written?'"
"Captain America: The Chosen" #1" on
sale in September
Morrell's entrance to the world of comics came when former
Marvel Editor Andy Schmidt contacted him. "I believe he found
my website and e-mailed me through the site. I answer all the emails I get there," Morrell explained. "He said, 'Can we talk? I
have a project you might be interested in.' So we got on the
phone and he said he had been thinking about ways to add some
new vitality to Captain America. One of the things that he
thought was that it would be fun for the creator of Rambo to
write a Captain America story."
Schmidt's offer intrigued Morrell, so he told the editor he was interested -- but
they just had one big hurdle to clear first. "I needed to find out if I could write for
comics. It's a different train track from novels," Morrell explained. "I like to do
research so I immediately read books of theory about how comic books are
created and written also Andy had sent me an awful lot of material about Captain
America and some other heroes. I looked at some comic scripts and was sort of
reminded of storyboards for films. I've written for films.
"I immediately thought this could kind of cool because, Will Eisner talks
about this, the space between the panels is a main force in a comic book,"
Morrell continued. "You sort of only hit the highlights and as a consequence
a close up of just a face staring has tremendous power. I went out and read
most of what Will Eisner had to say about writing for comics."
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"Captain America: The
Chosen" #1, page 1
Morrell was also intrigued by the unique way in which comic books can surprise
the reader. "I've not seen this written down but I assume every comic writer
understands this, and it was something I grasped a little slowly, is if say you're
looking at page two of a comic you're also looking at page three. Your peripheral
vision sort of does a gestalt of those two pages but whenever you turn the page
the opportunity for surprise is very great. I tried to have some of the really big
images of my story occur in that fashion. Like in one particular issue you turn the
page and all these fighter jets are screaming at you almost in 3-D. When Mitch
showed me those images I gasped and thought how exciting things can get when
you turn the page like that."
"Captain America: The
Chosen" #1, page 7
Once Morrell felt comfortable with his ability to pen a great comic script he
began discussing the details of his story with Marvel. "I told them what I
wanted to do was a big story that would be set in Afghanistan and it would have the feel of a
mini-novel," Morrell stated. It would deal with the very big theme of being a superhero in today's
world, especially a superhero named after the United States."
After the story details were ironed out development seemed to stop on Morrell's
Captain America project, so the writer took the initiative. "I wrote the first issue. I
didn't have a contract yet. I just wrote it and sent it in," he explained. "This got
some attention at Marvel because it showed my enthusiasm for the project. I
guess they don't have that happen every day from somebody who is an
established novelist.
"Then it hung fire for a little bit longer," Morrell continued. "I thought, 'I'm
not going to let this stall.' So I wrote the second issue. I eventually got paid
but this was essentially on spec to show them what it is that I wanted to do
and to get the contract so I could write the remaining four issues. This really
drew attention to the project at Marvel, so they said, 'Yes, let's do this.'"
"Captain America: The
Chosen" #1, page 9
There one was one other reason for some of the delay to
"Captain America: The Chosen." "The more I learned, the
more I wanted to rewrite," Morrell said. "I kept tinkering
with it. I wanted to make it as good as I possibly could.
When I got to issue #6 there was so much material that I
got permission to do an extra four pages. In the sixth issue
there are twenty six pages instead of twenty two."
Most of the changes Morrell made to his series were
because he wanted to make the book better, but there
was one change made to "Captain America: The
"Captain America: The Chosen" #1, pages 10 and
Chosen" necessitated by developments in Cap's
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regular series. "Originally, it was called 'Captain
America: The End,'" Morrell confirmed. "I was not informed about Marvel's plans for Steve
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Rogers to be shot on the courthouse steps in February. It came as a big shock to me. I knew I had
to change the title because readers might think that my project was somehow a follow up or an
explanation to something that happened earlier in the year. My story is totally self contained and
could have happened at any time.
"I prefer the new title 'Captain America: The Chosen' anyhow," Morrell continued.
"It just has a real epic ring to it. Apart from that, regardless of what happened in
February, this story remains identical to what it was when we finally sent
everything over to Mitch Breitweiser."
In Morrell's story, one of Captain America's lines of dialogue sums up what
the writer feels are the Sentinel of Liberty's defining personality traits.
"There is a mantra that Captain America keeps repeating to a Marine Corps
corporal, whom he's kind of mentoring. The mantra is the four military
virtues, which are courage, honor, loyalty and sacrifice. If you think about it,
those should not be just military virtues. Those should be the code by which
everyone conducts the way they live. That's why I felt so compatible with
Captain America because courage, honor, loyalty and sacrifice are themes
that I use a lot in my books.
"Captain America: The
Chosen" #1, page 14
"Talking about these matters give you an idea of how high I
wanted to aim here. I wanted to analyze the way people
behave," Morrell continued. "Captain America was frozen for
a time and revived many years after. In this mini-series he
thinks about how the world has changed during the period
when he was frozen and how levels of civility that he was
used to seeing back then are no longer enforced and how the
culture seems to have changed in a bad way. It's a story with
a lot of action but this kind of approach will distinguish the
story."
"Captain America: The Chosen" #1, pages 15
and 16
Another unique element of Morrell's Captain America
story is the story's setting. "My story could have
happened anytime after 9-11 because there are a lot of references to 9-11," Morrell said. "There
are pictures of the Cole after the hole was blown into it and pictures of the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon. There's one of the Madrid train bombings and one of the London bus
bombings so it's very contemporary. This story could have happened any time in the last couple
of years and could be considered to predate what happened in 'Captain America' #25."
"Captain America: The Chosen" takes place in a country tied to those events, Afghanistan.
"There's an initial big battle in a village but the bulk of the story takes place in a cave," Morrell
stated. "The point here is that since this is a dark, psychological examination of Captain America
the cave is very appropriate. We're getting into the darkness and the depths. That's the metaphor I
was trying for."
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Accompanying Captain America and the reader on their journey into
the darkness and the depths is a new character, a corporal in the
United States Marine Corps named James Newman. "He's in
Afghanistan and he's been over there so long and has been in so
much fighting. He has a wife and son who live in San Francisco and
he's at the point now where all he wants to do is go home. You can't
tell the good guys from the bad guys over there and he's just
absolutely overwhelmed with the combat and the conditions. It's
under there circumstances that he and Captain America cross paths."
Morrell couldn't reveal much about the plot of Captain America
and Corporal Newman's adventure together except to reiterate
that his intentions were to write a superhero story that's rooted
firmly in reality. "Again if you go back to 'The Dark Knight
Returns,' you believe Batman in that," Morrell said. "You say,
'Yes I can thoroughly understand and empathize with whatever
is happening to that character.' That was something I really
"Captain America: The Chosen" #2
wanted to do. We take for granted that Captain America is a
superhero. What does it feel like to be a superhero? He's been
doing this since 1940 what goes on in this guy's head after all the stuff he's seen? There's a
section in the story to do with the Nazis and the death camps. That's a really powerful image.
Mitch did a great job on that. So the real world and Captain America coincide in this series."
Since the real world and Captain America coincide in "The Chosen," readers shouldn't expect
appearances from other costumed characters in the mini-series. "There are no super nemeses. It's
all real stuff," Morrell explained. "The kind of hostile forces that are over in Afghanistan is what
they're up against. Except for a few allusions to his history there are no cross-over characters
from other Captain America stories."
"Captain America: The
Chosen" #3
One of the events from Captain America's history that Morrell will reexamine in
"The Chosen" is the circumstances that turned him into a super soldier. "The origin
of Steve Rogers as Captain America is fairly well known but I was seeing things in
the origin that had not been developed before," Morrell said. "For example after
the ray machine and the elixir turned Steve into Captain America and the assassin
killed the professor Steve went a little berserk. He threw the assassin at the ray
machine and destroyed it. What was that about? Of all the places to throw the guy
why did he do that?
"I'm going to have the readers of my novels coming to this project and most
of them don't know Captain America from Batman, so naturally they need
some help in order to understand the myth and the origin," Morrell continued. "At the same time
I'm very aware of the sophisticated readers who would say, 'We already know that. That's old
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news.' So my goal in the section where Captain America explains to a character how he came to
be who he is, was that the origin would remain the same but the interpretation of the events
would be forty five degrees to the side so that everyone would be seeing things from a totally
different perspective. So it was kind of fun to keep the same events but reinterpret them in a new
fashion."
Morrell is aware that a realistic toned Captain America adventure that occurs after 9-11 may
sound familiar to readers of John Ney Rieber's run on "Captain America" from a few years ago.
"I know those stories and that's kind of the tone we're going for," Morrell said. "The one that
really stuck in my mind was kind of a hymn to all the emergency responders and all the pain that
was there and how Captain America was working trying to save people there. I had bought that
issue about the World Trade Center as soon as it came out. I made a bee line to get it. That kind
of realism is what I wanted. The difference is my story is intended to be a self contained plot.
The kinds of arcs that I would use in a novel are what I use here."
Morrell has greatly enjoyed writing the scripts for "The Chosen" and derived even more pleasure
from the way his collaborators Mitch Breitweiser and colorist Brian Reber brought his scripts to
life. "Mitch Breitweiser's art is beyond anything that I hoped for. It has a gritty feel to it almost
like watching a movie," Morrell stated. Brian has done a tremendous job as well. In the script I
stipulated that we'd begin in a muted yellow-brownish pale blue sky as appropriate to
Afghanistan and the first real vibrant color would be the red of blood in a battle sequence.
Captain America's appearance is halfway through the book and after a number of pages of those
muted colors that brilliant costume just blows you away. It's so striking. We were experimenting
a lot with color. What Brian did with that just added to Mitch's art. They both really outdid
themselves."
"Captain America: The Chosen" is Morrell's first comic book project and there's a good chance
that it's not his last. "Marvel and I have talked about doing something else," Morrell said. "It's
just a matter of if we can all make things come together the way we want."
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Batman Vs. Captain America
Superman Vs. Spiderman
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Hulk Vs. Superman
Thor Vs. Wonder Woman
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