Earth 1985 - what would you like to see?

[Mr.B]

I'm refering about in her own book, when she decided to honor Krypton with the red one.

And when she went to Kandor and wore the black headband with the rest of the women.

[Zaku]

I'm refering about in her own book, when she decided to honor Krypton with the red one.

And when she went to Kandor and wore the black headband with the rest of the women.

I'm referring to the "official" headband, which only the male citizens can wear after they completed their studies (like they explained in Superman No. 352, Oct 1980: "The Mark of a Citizen").

[Mr.B]

I'm referring to the "official" headband, which only the male citizens can wear after they completed their studies (like they explained in Superman No. 352, Oct 1980: "The Mark of a Citizen").

Just their culture.

[SiegePerilous02]

Just their culture.

And then they blew up.

[Zaku]

Just their culture.

Yep. And like I said, a quite male-centric one.

[superduperman]

About Krypton as an "advanced" society, I don't know, it seems to me that its earth-1 version was depicted as a quite male-dominated one. I mean, this is the famous scene where Jor-El talks to the Science Council.



These are the most important people on Krypton. How many woman do you count?

And really, every time we meet a Kryptonian woman is always the mother of, the daughter of, the sister of... I struggle to remember any female Kryptonian character with any kind of agency.

And the only time we meet a strong, independent woman from Krypton?



Yes, Kal, it figures...

And think how Kryptonian surnames for women work: when they are maiden, they use the full father's name as a family name, then when they marry they take the husband's. It is probably only a legacy from when Kryptonian women were considered a man's property, but it is indicative that it survived until the destruction of the planet...

And don't forget the headbands, which symbolized the status of a free citizen. A status that only Kryptonian men could wear...

You seem to have an unusually broad knowledge of the misogynistic ways of Krypton!

[Zaku]

You seem to have an unusually broad knowledge of the misogynistic ways of Krypton!

Why, thank you.

Actually I never thought about it. It occurred to me when you spoke of "advanced society" and I, being a contrarian, couldn't resist ...

[Stick Figure]

I just pop into these threads out of curiosity. I’m not a multiple Earth guy. However, if DC can provide an option to readers who prefer a certain interpretation then that’s cool. Anything that sells more comics is a good thing. As long as it doesn’t impact current characters or prevent them from evolving then go for it. (Come in 5G!). Reading the last few pages, I’m starting to think revisiting these older eras isn’t a great idea. Writers would need to change a lot to make them ok with modern audiences and then the character might not resemble what people are nostalgic about.

There are a few issues with old continuity. Lack of diversity is one problem but that can be changed. Characters can be added to the Justice League to balance things out. The abundance of secret identities is a big problem. The concept is just wrong. Characters lying to people around them just feels creepy. If writers change that then you lose one of the main hallmarks of old comics. Finally, as has been pointed out, too many old stories cant be acknowledged due to behaviors that are no longer acceptable.

Basically , would stories based on old continuity have to be dramatically different from what people remember? I just think it will take some clever writing to make this thing work.

[superduperman]

I'll be honest, even if they never touch this Earth, I'm fine with it just being out there knowing that my pre-Crisis collection isn't just thrown out and it's still "out there" somewhere. I'd love to see something done with it but they would have to ignore a lot of things to make it work. The "no mention" policy seems the best approach here.

[Jon-El]

Geez I loved the Bronze Age Superman comics! Reading this thread, I feel like I was a former Nazi or something.

[Lee Stone]

Comics were a reflection of our social norms at the time.
And as perceptions changed in the real world, they also changed in the comics.

1976:





1977:



The Bronze Age was when comics started becoming more diverse and open.

[Zaku]

Comics at the time were usually more reactionary and conservative than other forms of entertainment. For example in the 1966 Mission Impossible regularly featured a black person as an electronics and mechanical genius. In the 1974 we had Police Woman. Even your average Saturday morning cartoon had more diversity than comics.

This was the cast from Hardy Boys (1969!)


But there is nothing to be surprised about. In that era, comics were the realm of old white dudes writing for young male kids.

The abundance of secret identities is a big problem. The concept is just wrong. Characters lying to people around them just feels creepy.

You are absolutely right. What the concept is based on is obvious: every kid's dream of secretly having the power to fight perceived injustices. The problem is the concept does not survive scrutiny by a more adult audience.

Superman was spending a lot of time and energy protecting his secret identity, time he could have used, I don't know, to help people? And the reasoning behind this was particularly hypocritical: he said he did it to protect his friends, but the problem was that Clark Kent's friends were also Superman's friends. I don't know how many times the Daily Planet staff has been taken hostage by this or that super-villain.

I don't know know how many plainly immoral things he did to maintain his secret identity. For example, in Superman #301, he used super hypnotism on Steve Lombard so that he could replace Clark Kent
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So, he forced people to act against their will just to protect his petty secret. If he met a supervillain who did the same thing, he would have super-punched him to the nearest jail.

Geez I loved the Bronze Age Superman comics! Reading this thread, I feel like I was a former Nazi or something.

I feel your pain: Bronze Age Superman was the version I grew up with. I still have a lot of issues of the Italian edition somewhere in the basement... : (

[docmidnite]

I just pop into these threads out of curiosity. I’m not a multiple Earth guy. However, if DC can provide an option to readers who prefer a certain interpretation then that’s cool. Anything that sells more comics is a good thing. As long as it doesn’t impact current characters or prevent them from evolving then go for it. (Come in 5G!). Reading the last few pages, I’m starting to think revisiting these older eras isn’t a great idea. Writers would need to change a lot to make them ok with modern audiences and then the character might not resemble what people are nostalgic about.

There are a few issues with old continuity. Lack of diversity is one problem but that can be changed. Characters can be added to the Justice League to balance things out. The abundance of secret identities is a big problem. The concept is just wrong. Characters lying to people around them just feels creepy. If writers change that then you lose one of the main hallmarks of old comics. Finally, as has been pointed out, too many old stories cant be acknowledged due to behaviors that are no longer acceptable.

Basically , would stories based on old continuity have to be dramatically different from what people remember? I just think it will take some clever writing to make this thing work.

Not really. The Bronze Age is where 95% of DC’s people of colour were created and quite a bit of the Silver Age was stricken from continuity. Don’t forget that a lot of pre-CoIE stuff made it into the post-CoIE universe as well. The writers just didn’t always mention it after CoIE unless they had or wanted to.

[Zaku]

I'm quite new on this community. Should we move the discussion specifically focused on Superman to the forum dedicated to this character?

[docmidnite]

I'm quite new on this community. Should we move the discussion specifically focused on Superman to the forum dedicated to this character?

That actually could be a cool thread in the Supermen forums