Today, Political cartoons are quick of wit but more a " in your face" moment of satire. They creatively and quickly reduce one timely newstory into a pictorial editorial with personal political undertones. The DC comics of Batman and Superman were an onset to a more "Unbiased" approach to the News.. offering a choice of ideologies.
PING
On helluva assumption. I guess that omits:
- Abraham Lincoln
- Dwight Eisenhower
- Ronald Reagan
Now wait a second. I saw that show and at no time was there any wit apparent or in use.
In "The Hero with a Thousand Faces," Joseph Campbell :"Superman was both a reaction against the Nazi ideal of a genetic super human, and the reassuring fantasy of second-generation immigrants for assimilation into American society.." "Batman is more symptomatic of the later 20th Century America reflecting a workaholic’s delusion rather than an immigrant’s fear."
Really? Please see my profile page. Pay attention to my own drawing near the bottom, them pay real close attention to the artwork at the very bottom on the right.
And I've been a Dark Knight fan for I don't know how long. Who wudda thunk it?
No mercy.
Coming soon: Tha SYNDICATE.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.
I thought the dems wanted to downsize the military ???
Superman did not/does not have ice vision. He uses super breath to freeze things.
He was born, however, on the planet Krypton. Superman's race was a group with great powers: incredible strength, X-ray vision, heat vision, ice vision, the ability to fly, super-sensitive hearing and super speed.
Superman's powers are a result of his being on the planet earth. His powers come from our yellow sun and the much lighter gravity of a much smaller earth. Kryptonians have no special powers on Krypton.
The location where Superman spent his childhood statistically fosters a Democratic spirit. As a man from a small farming community in a rural state, Superman is a Democrat. His place of employment encourages a Democratic political philosophy.
This is clearly wrong. Fly-over country votes Republican.
The villains Superman often combated were rich and powerful. For example, the criminal Lex Luthor was a wealthy businessman, likely utilized by the writers of Superman as a symbol of massive, corporate, unregulated American business practices.
Lex Luthor was Clark Kent's boyhood friend who became rich through his criminal activities. Kind of like Bill Clinton.
By ERIC MARTH
MyLINE
wrote this article..the author's name was not present on the article when I posted the story.
If Superman is a Democrat, then he is illegally voting as he never did become a legal immigrant.
At least this author admits to the liberal bias of big city papers but it is wrong to assume that all staffers at such papers hold liberal positions. Clark is a reporter but it would at least appear that he covers the crime beat, not the business world, foreign affairs, social interest pieces, etc. Not the best place to be situated in the newsroom if you are going to be an liberal activist.
Lex Luthor was a bully (but not rich) in Smallville. Lex Luthor's wealth was from outright theft. It wasn't until the 1980s that some authors began to write Lex Luthor as being a supergenius who contracted his smarts out to those who would pay enormous amounts to have him think out a problem. As Reagan's era was portrayed as "the decade of greed" by the left, this notion held. Blame Alan Moore and Frank Miller.
Odd thing is that Frank Miller positioned Superman as the ultra-right-wing defender of Ronnie Reagan in his Dark Knight story. Pitted Superman against Batman (which would position Bruce Wayne someplace else politically; libetarian? liberal-socialist (ala Bill Gates and Ted Turner)?).
Wayne highly valued the status quo. He expressed his resistance to change at home. He had the same butler, Alfred, for his entire life and lived in the same, early 20th century mansion for just as long.
Good help is hard to find. When you trust your family secrets to your butler, there are only 2 ways to keep the secret. Keep him employed (with no outside help) or Arkancide.
While Batman used intelligence, Superman often resorted to violence, the political equivalent to war. Superman would sooner melt an opponent with his heat vision than he would extend a negotiation or use intellect. He was a supporter of the use of force. This use of force is clearly a parallel to the Democratic Party ideal of a large, mobilized army.
I'm unaware of Superman killing his opponents (with sheer force or heat vision). Batman doesn't kill them either (they are typically sent to an insane asylum where they eventually are released or escape to torment Batman again). Dick Tracy on the other hand did kill off many of the gangster villians that he encountered.
The author talks about DC comics and how both characters came from the same parent company. This is like saying Alfred E. Neuman and Scooby Doo and Batman all come from the same parent company. Corporate mergers. DC stands for Detective Comics (as in the Detective Comics #27 that introduced the Batman character). National Periodicals printed Action Comics #1 which introduced Superman. The "What me worry?" kid was introduced in the 1890s, adopted as a mascot by Entertaining Comics (EC) Mad Magazine in the mid-1950s, and then Mad was sold to Warner Brothers. Turner's merger with WB added the Hanna Barbera stockade to their possesions.
The parent company of both heroes was DC Comics, a company founded in 1935. During this period of American history, the economy was at its all-time worst. It was an outright poor and foolish time to found a business.The creative heads at DC were clever, however. In order to garner mass appeal, they created two generally likable characters with starkly different political alignments. Selling their stories at 10 cents a pop, they made their source of entertainment affordable to the Roosevelt supporters suffering from the pain of the Great Depression.
Cheap pulp comics (as opposed to hardcover comic strip collections) roughly began in 1932. The earliest comics were just comic strip collections (to maximize the use of some color printing presses, offer them as a premium). When they slapped a 10cent price sticker on them, the things sold.
King Kong came out during this era and generated millions (this when tickets were a dime). People were poor but they still spent money on trivial pursuits and escapism. A number of publishers entered the exploding comic market. DC had no "creative heads", some struggling cartoonists shopped their wares around (for years, Superman dates back to the 1920s) until they were able to bring them to market (as work for hire, no less). DC innovated nothing and took all. There was no decision by the powers that be to create different political positions for the characters. National Periodicals-DC did have a habit of positioning the characters in vaguely disguised towns (Superman in Metropolis, Batman in Gotham, the Flash in Central City (Chicago)).
Bruce Wayne was a savvy businessman--surely not a victim of the Crash of '29.
Sounds like he could be Old Joe Kennedy (head of the Kennedy Klan) himself.
Superman fought for Truth-Justice-and the American Way. Doesn't sound like a Democrat to me!