Another appeal of comic books is their ability to include contemporary problems that society is dealing with, “comics also made reference to current social issues such as drug use, the counterculture, the different social movements, and racism. The heroes of these comics included Spiderman, the Incredible Hulk, X-Men, and the Fantastic Four,” (Williams).
One must understand that the comic book world is divided into different categories such as graphic novel and manga;
[t]he term graphic novel became popular beginning in the late 1970s. Initially, the term was used to distinguish artistic or novelistic comics from mainstream, superhero comics. Some early examples include Contract with God by Will Eisner, First Kingdom by Jack Katz, and Sabre by Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy. Later, the term was used exclusively as a marketing tool and applied to hardback or paperback “drawn novels,” collected superhero story-arcs, longer book-length comics, and anthologized comic strips (for example, The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes).
Importation of European and Japanese comics (manga) saw a marked increase in the 1980s (and the importance of manga in the U.S. market continued through 2006). Finally, the 1989 film release of Tim Burton’s Batman spawned other comics-related films and video and computer games. These trends grew exponentially during the first half-decade into the 2000s. Superhero stories accounted for most of the films’ adaptations, but there were also adaptations of novelistic and slice-of-life comics (e.g., American Splendor, Ghost World, and Road to Perdition). Major book publishers such as Random House began publishing “drawn novels,” and more book-length comics appeared without prior serialization; examples include Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, Craig Thompson’s Blankets, and Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, (Williams).
The problem with comic books is that they are written by predominately white men from the perspective of white men. Captain America is the best example to describe this perspective. “Steve Rogers was a scrawny fine art student specializing in industrialization in the 1940’s before America entered World War II. He attempted to enlist in the army only to be turned away due to his poor constitution,” (Shmidt). This explicitly demonstrates the idea that scrawny, sickly men are not valuable and are not accepted in our society. We as a society consider these men weak and unfit. They are unable to be the hero America craves; they do not satisfy our need to feel safe at night. This idea has been prevalent in our culture for as long as mankind can remember.
The next step in the creation of Captain America was the following: “A U.S. officer offered Rodgers an alternative way to serve his country by being a test subject in project, Operation: Rebirth, a top secret defense research project designed to create a physically superior soldiers,” (Shmidt). From this we see that like every other hero we can imagine, Rodgers had to fit the ideal constitution of what we as a society view as fit. Even though he is smart and able, he has to match a body image that is impossible for a real human to achieve. With imagery like this, we tell our boys and men that to be successful and loved they have to match this ideal. If they cannot, they are viewed as worthless. The fact that Captain America is turned down by the military makes it even more ridiculous, considering that the army accepts everyone who enlists. So boys all over the world who could not live up to the sensational image of Captain America were shown that they are too weak, even for the army.
What does this tell us? We should not be surprised by the anger and frustration that is being exhausted in our society. We are the ones who created these sensational and sometimes obscene images and sold them as the “norm”. Society as a whole is to blame for giving these examples and the dissatisfaction caused when boys realize they will never actualize these goals.
After extreme body alterations, Rodgers turned in to a super soldier, “[t]he process successfully altered his physiology from its frail state to the maximum of human efficiency, including greatly enhanced musculature and reflexes,” (Shmidt). The comic description even declares Rodgers as frail, a word used most often to describe the sickly or feminine. The following are the abilities of Captain America:
Captain America had mastered the martial arts of American-style boxing and judo, and had combined these disciplines with his own unique hand-to-hand style of combat. He had also shown skill and knowledge of a number of other martial arts. He engaged in a daily regimen of rigorous exercise (including aerobics, weight lifting, gymnastics, and simulated combat) to keep himself in peak condition. Captain America was one of the finest human combatants Earth had ever known, (Shmidt).
This description shows us that an average man would have to give up every social obligation and dedicate his life to a gruesome regiment of physical activity to achieve and maintain the perfect American hero body. We expect our youth to follow this extreme method of living because they are given examples like Captain America. However, we also expect our youth to be social animals that get perfect grades and behave as perfect little men and women. Society wants children to stay away from violence. But how can our youth avoid violence if their heroes use it to obtain what they need and want. Of course some will argue that Captain America is a bad example because the age of the comic, however the people who read this comic as adolescents are the ones creating the comics youth read today. They are the ones that write the scripts for our movies and TV shows. They are our politicians and run our world.
The comic book world tried to do justice to women by incorporating some female superheroes. One of them is Wonder Woman who is described as the following:
I have given Wonder Woman this dominant force but have kept her loving, tender, maternal and feminine in every other way. Her bracelet’s, with which she repels bullets and other murderous weapons, represents the Amazon Princess’ submission to Aphrodite, Goddess of love and Beauty. Her magic lasso, which compels anyone bound by it to obey Wonder Woman and which was given to her by Aphrodite herself, represents woman’s love, charm and allure by which she compels men and woman to do her bidding, (23 Daniels and Kidd).
This description of Wonder Woman shows us the ideal image of a woman according to our society. Her entire persona is one that would easily be defeated by Captain America. Children across the world expected women to be like this perfect super woman. Boys want their girlfriends to be like her and girls are convinced to try to be like her. Wonder Woman was not encouraged to be physically fit, nor smart. However, she was always miraculously good looking.
One must consider these comics where created in the 1940’s. This explains why Captain America and Wonder Woman are overtly crass in their male and female persona. However, the problem is that the people who read these comics growing up are the ones that are creating everything that we are watching today. Comic books should be discussed more in American pop culture because they are the source of inspiration for many a director and writer. By not discussing them we allow the biases that where demonstrated in earlier comics to continue into contemporary pop culture.
Comic Books." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ed. William Darity, Jr. Vol. 2. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 23-25. 9 vols. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. Anne Arundel Community College. 11 May. 2009
Daniels, Kidd, Les, Chip. Wonder Woman : the complete history ; the life and times of the amazon princess. San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books, 2004. Print. http://books.google.com/books?id=p4pvTVBmKK8C&pg=PA18&dq=%22wonder+woman%22+DC+comics&as_brr=3&ei=JJ8ISvn1O5jSzATl9NH7BA#PPA82,M1.
Sinthia Shmidt http://www.marvel.com/universe/Captain_America_(Steve_Rogers).
Ryan, Thomas. Personal INTERWIEV. 10 May 2009.
