The guys who wrote Superman were incredibly racist. The comic they wrote before Superman, Slam Bradley, featured a non superpowered hero that lived to beat up "chinks" who were drawn as weasely caricatures.
An illegal immigrant, to boot. (I'm not big enough of a superhero nerd to look up whether he ever received proper citizenship in the current canon. Not that it matters that much, surely he committed his first heroics that put him on the map without one.)
> The guys who wrote Superman were incredibly racist.
Siegel and Shuster? They were Jewish, you know.
Check out Michael Chabon's _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay_ http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Adventures-Kavalier-bonus-content/dp/0812983580/ for a taste of the milieu that gave birth to Superman.
> I'm not big enough of a superhero nerd to look up whether he > ever received proper citizenship in the current canon.
I lost touch with the "canon" after the "Silver Age" (the 60s), but presumably the Kents faked enough documentation (a birth certificate, say) for the "secret identity" Clark to be a solid (if technically illegal, if the facts were known) citizen.
As for the Superman persona himself -- he didn't "live" anywhere; his Fortress of Solitude was in the unreachable wilds of the Arctic somewhere -- presumably he could have moved that to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean or to the moon, if necessary. As he only showed up during crises to save people, it would have been rather petty for the immigration authorities (at least in those innocent days) to complain that he didn't have a proper passport; **these** days, of course, it would be a whole different story. ;-> (There'd be no end of trouble about his violating U.S. air-space too -- peculiar, come to think, that issue never came up AFAIK during the era of Dr. Strangelove and NORAD and the rest. Too politically sensitive an issue for a 60s comic book, I guess, and unpopular to spring on an already decades-old hero. Comic books had to tread very lightly in the 50s and 60s anyway -- there were shrinks, and even congresspeople, who were decrying them as corrupters of youth.) I always assumed (and maybe the writers took for granted) that Superman was known to be a "good guy" by anybody who was also a "good guy" -- the mayor of Metropolis, the President of the U.S., whoever. Maybe not the Russians or the Chinese, but they weren't "good guys". ;->
I guess the Christopher Meloni character worries about such things in the new movie? (which I haven't seen).
Perhaps a more "realistic" (!) approach would have the Department of Defense working closely with Lex Luthor to design a green kryptonite doomsday weapon for Superman, "just in case".
I really want to plagiarize you on twitter right now.
ReplyDeleteThe notion didn't originate with me by any means, check out http://wearetheamericanway.tumblr.com/ and definitely RT away.
ReplyDeleteThe guys who wrote Superman were incredibly racist. The comic they wrote before Superman, Slam Bradley, featured a non superpowered hero that lived to beat up "chinks" who were drawn as weasely caricatures.
ReplyDeleteAn illegal immigrant, to boot. (I'm not big enough of a superhero nerd to look up whether he ever received proper citizenship in the current canon. Not that it matters that much, surely he committed his first heroics that put him on the map without one.)
ReplyDelete> The guys who wrote Superman were incredibly racist.
ReplyDeleteSiegel and Shuster? They were Jewish, you know.
Check out Michael Chabon's _The Amazing Adventures of
Kavalier and Clay_
http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Adventures-Kavalier-bonus-content/dp/0812983580/
for a taste of the milieu that gave birth to Superman.
> I'm not big enough of a superhero nerd to look up whether he
> ever received proper citizenship in the current canon.
I lost touch with the "canon" after the "Silver Age" (the 60s),
but presumably the Kents faked enough documentation (a birth
certificate, say) for the "secret identity" Clark to be
a solid (if technically illegal, if the facts were known)
citizen.
As for the Superman persona himself -- he didn't "live" anywhere; his
Fortress of Solitude was in the unreachable wilds of the
Arctic somewhere -- presumably he could have moved that
to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean or to the moon, if
necessary. As he only showed up during crises to save people, it
would have been rather petty for the immigration authorities
(at least in those innocent days) to complain that he didn't have
a proper passport; **these** days, of course, it would be a
whole different story. ;-> (There'd be no end of trouble
about his violating U.S. air-space too -- peculiar, come
to think, that issue never came up AFAIK during the era of
Dr. Strangelove and NORAD and the rest. Too politically sensitive
an issue for a 60s comic book, I guess, and unpopular to spring on an already
decades-old hero. Comic books had to tread very lightly
in the 50s and 60s anyway -- there were shrinks, and even congresspeople,
who were decrying them as corrupters of youth.) I always assumed
(and maybe the writers took for granted) that Superman was known
to be a "good guy" by anybody who was also a "good guy" --
the mayor of Metropolis, the President of the U.S., whoever.
Maybe not the Russians or the Chinese, but they weren't
"good guys". ;->
I guess the Christopher Meloni character worries about such things
in the new movie? (which I haven't seen).
Perhaps a more "realistic" (!) approach would have the Department
of Defense working closely with Lex Luthor to design a green
kryptonite doomsday weapon for Superman, "just in case".
Take a look for yourself, Chabon glossed over this stuff although I loved Kavalier and Klay regardless.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slam_Bradley