Word: supermanic
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...DIRTY HARRY is the vilest of the bunch. Unlike the other two, it has no pretensions of art; it is a simply told story of the Nietszchean superman and his sado-masochistic pleasures. The hero is Clint Eastwood, a tough cop who carries a Magnum .44, "the most powerful handgun in the world," and brandishes it at a world which is so cowardly, stupid, and slow as to be beneath contempt. His quarry is a sniggering psychopath, a blank-faced embodiment of evil who personifies all that the American tough mentality despises: long-haired, pacifistic, whiny, effeminate. Harry tracks...
...Clarke's Essay on the changes in comics [Dec. 13] was handled well, considering the large area he was trying to write about. I thought your readers would like to be brought up to date concerning some of the characters Mr. Clarke mentioned. First, Superman has decided to keep his superpowers to aid mankind; Wonder Woman has lost her powers and is now simply Diana Prince ("She's still dynamite in a fight"); Robin is in college, while his partner Batman ("the creature of the night") fights crime alone. Green Lantern, who now has a black substitute...
...Daily Planet to become a newscaster for the Galaxy Broadcasting System, getting in and out of blue tights and red cape during commercial breaks. ("Personally, I still prefer Walter Cronkite," a mini-skirted Lois tells him. She, at least, is unchanged-as obnoxious as ever.) For another, Superman has succumbed to urban jitters; he obviously needs to spend some time on the couch. Just listen to some of his recent complaints: "I'm finished being anybody's Superman! . . . For years I've been dreaming of working and living as a plain man-without the responsibilities, the loneliness...
Superhang-ups for a superhero, but Superman is not the only hero hanging his cape outside Dr. Feelgood's door. Today almost all comicbook characters have problems. As in many fields, the word is relevance. The trend may have begun a decade ago, but in the socially aware '70s it has reached full blossom. The comics' caped crusaders have become as outraged about racial injustice as the congressional Black Caucus and as worried about pollution as the Sierra Club. Archfiends with memorable names like the Hulk and Dr. Doom are still around, but they are often pushed...
...drag seemed somehow tame and tedious. Young readers today, the comic men soon discovered, are more interested in their own problems and the problems they see around them. It is possible, indeed, to see the comics as an art of the people, offering clues to the national unconscious. Superman's enormous popularity might be looked upon as signaling the beginning of the end for the Horatio Alger myth of the self-made man. In the modern world, he seems to say, only the man with superpowers can survive and prosper. Still, though comics are indeed a popular art form...