Supervillain century

[Ann]

Click to view full size image

Silver age Batman and Superman. Drawing by Curt Swan.

As a kid in the 1960s, I fell in love with Superman. I much preferred Superman over Batman, although Batman was okay, too. The reason why I loved Superman so much was, simply, that he was so powerful and so good. More often than not, he was drawn by Curt Swan, who added a definite gentleness to the mighty superhero.

Superman often paired up with his friend, Batman. When they were together they always fought criminals, but the two heroes were always the main characters in these stories. The villains were merely staffage, necessary but uninteresting dime-a-dozen badguys that had to be there to get the story going. But the whole point of the plot was to give us readers the chance to admire our splendid heroes.

Click to view full size image

Batman by Frank Miller.

As time went by, Batman in particular became darker. When drawn by Frank Miller, Batman's "persona" and appearance became hard to separate from that of a villain. During the era of Curt Swan, the readers had been asked to idolize their comic book superheroes because the heroes were so good. Now, during the age of Frank Miller, the message was rather that the villains were so horrible that the superheroes, particularly Batman, had to become a bit evil themselves in order to prevail over their awful adversaries.

Click to view full size image

The Joker.Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxscan/5576610194/

These days, the villains are often just as important as the heroes. In modern superhero comics and movies, one of the most important goals seems to be to create villains whose sheer evilness is as unspeakable as possible.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

John Lennon sang about being a working class hero: "A working class hero is something to be".

These day the lyrics may be changed slightly: "A supervillain hero is something to be".

James Holmes, who carried out the massacre near Denver, seems to have said he was the Joker.


What is the significance of someone like James Holmes? Perhaps nothing. There is always going to be a few crazy people in the world, that's for sure.

But the world we live in these days sure feels different from the world I grew up in, in the 1960s.

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

But the world we live in these days sure feels different from the world I grew up in, in the 1960s.

It does feel different, but reality can be deceptive. In the U.S., at least, crime rates are currently much lower than they were in the 1960s. People are less likely to be a victim of violence. Children have never been safer. Our perceptions are shaped by the media... and the media has most certainly changed dramatically since the 1960s.

[neufer]

But the world we live in these days sure feels different from the world I grew up in, in the 1960s.

It does feel different, but reality can be deceptive. In the U.S., at least, crime rates are currently much lower than they were in the 1960s. People are less likely to be a victim of violence. Children have never been safer. Our perceptions are shaped by the media... and the media has most certainly changed dramatically since the 1960s.

WOW! An optimistic Chris Peterson. Who woulda thunk!

I agree with Chris. In the 60's:

• 1) Blacks and homosexuals were second class citizens
  
  2) We narrowly avoided nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
  
  3) The Vietnam War was about to tear the country apart.
  
  4) The assassinations of Martin Luther King and John & Robert Kennedy.
  
  5) Thousands of needless traffic fatalities occurred due to lack of air bags & (Swedish) 3-pt seat belts.
  
  6) Smoking cigarettes was the norm.
  
  7) Air & water pollution were rampant (and highway billboards were ubiquitous).

[Chris Peterson]

WOW! An optimistic Chris Peterson. Who woulda thunk!

I think that most things are better today than they were in the 1960s, socially, at least. But I still think that humans are headed for extinction! <g>

1) Blacks and homosexuals were second class citizens

I'm afraid they still are... although much less so than in the 1960s.

3) The Vietnam War was about to tear the country apart.

I'm not sure that the net effect of that war wasn't positive, however.

6) Smoking cigarettes was the norm.

And now supersized Big Macs are the norm... and as many people are suffering damage from their eating and exercise habits as they were from smoking in the 1960s.

7) Air & water pollution were rampant (and highway billboards were ubiquitous).

But light pollution was much less!

[neufer]

6) Smoking cigarettes was the norm.

And now supersized Big Macs are the norm...

and as many people are suffering damage from their eating
and exercise habits as they were from smoking in the 1960s.

[Ann]

2) We narrowly avoided nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

That's one of my earliest memories (I remember little from my earliest childhood). My parents' newspaper ran the following headline: Världen på randen till världskrig.

World on the Brink of World War.

That scared me, I can tell you.

Ann

[rstevenson]

2) We narrowly avoided nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I can clearly recall the Duck And Cover campaign in our schools at the time. We were taught that if we saw a bright flash in the sky from a bomb, that we should duck under our desks and cover our heads. (They didn't add we should kiss our behinds goodbye.)

I recall that so clearly because I was a student in one of those modern schools built for the baby boom generation, the ones with long tall walls of glass down the side of each classroom. I was old enough to understand what an atomic bomb could do, and I would look at that glass and think of it turned to shards, whipping across the room slicing and dicing all of us cowering under our desks.

There was real fear then, fear shared by children who were more aware of what was happening than most adults realized. We knew that the villains in our comic books were no match for the real villains in the world, and that there were no super heroes to fly in and save us in time of need.

Rob

[Ann]

Rob wrote:
I can clearly recall the Duck And Cover campaign in our schools at the time.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Ann