Originally Posted by
hawkeyefan
Well I didn’t mean that their sense of right and wrong wasn’t subjective. Just that they weren’t afraid to portray what they thought was right. The early Superman is quite different in many ways to the one we know today, as Spiegelman mentioned. He went after wife beaters and strike breakers as often as gangsters. There was nothing apolitical about him. Same with most others of the time.
Their creators weren’t afraid to miss out on some sales because the actions of the character might not align with a reader’s politics.
In a lot of ways, what was right and wrong could perhaps be universal....saving a runaway train, for instance. In others, it wasn’t as clear cut.
Captain America punching Hitler, for example. Many people wanted the US to stay out of the war. That was a popular opinion of the day. Having a superhero on the cover of a comic punching Hitler in the face was a decision made without fear of alienating readers who felt that way. Or perhaps made despite that fear.
In that sense, I absolutely understand Spiegelman’s essay and I can understand why it would belong in a volume of Golden Age comics. And Marvel balking at it...man, it just seems like they aren’t paying attention to the lessons they try to convey in their stories, doesn’t it?