Our Gods Wear Spandex Page 12

  DC acquired the Captain Marvel character from Fawcett and resumed his title (named Shazam, for legal reasons) in the 1970s. C. C. Beck was hired to do the art but soon left in protest over the juvenile scripts he was given to illustrate. After a strong start, the title floundered. In 1974, Shazam premiered as a live-action program on CBS to a new generation of Marvel fans, but the Captain was presented as a typically bland 70s TV hero. This Captain Marvel didn't fight reincarnated Egyptian deities or Nazi robots. He simply showed up when things got too tense with some tedious band of small town toughs. Yet somehow the show lasted for three seasons. As if to signal viewers as to Marvel's true occult nature, a ritual drama of Isis was programmed directly after the show in 1975.110

  CAPTAIN CLONES

  After the runaway success of Captain Marvel, it was inevitable that other mythological and religious characters would follow. Samson was pulled from the Book of Judges and put to work in Fox's Fantastic Comics in 1939; Hercules became a star in Quality's Hit Comics; American icon Uncle Sam helped lick the “Japanazis” in Quality's National Comics, and publishing giant Dell created its first superhero in the explicitly occultic character, Phantasmo.

  Ominously known as “Master of the World,” Phantasmo made his first appearance in Funnies #45 in 1940. He was identical in appearance to Quality's Hercules (and Doctor Occult)—a nearly naked man wearing boots and briefs, and a cape with a folded shirt-collar. Phantasmo spent twenty-five years in Tibet, where Grand High Lamas (read: Blavatsky's Great White Brotherhood) schooled him in the mystic arts. He can grow to enormous size, fly, become invisible, pass through solid matter, and separate his astral form from his physical body. Another clone, Flash Lightning (Sure-Fire Comics #1), received his superpowers “from the Old Man of the Pyramids in Ancient Egypt … in order that he might save the world from destruction by crime.” Flash's chest logo—a pyramid with three lightning bolts bursting from it—signalled readers to his occult origin.

  Another early superhero clone with mythological undertones is Sub-Mariner, created by artist Bill Everett. Sub-Mariner first appeared in Motion Picture Funnies Weekly in 1939 and made an appearance in Marvel Comics #1 in the same year. Sub-Mariner is the half-human, half-merman ruler of an “undersea kingdom” (later Atlantis) who has an ambivalent relationship with surface folk. He doesn't look fully human (Daniels suggests he has the appearance of “an elemental spirit who possesses magical talents.”111), but rather has elfin features—arched brows, pointed ears, and a severe coif that was borrowed by Mr. Spock in Star Trek. Subby hated surface-dwellers, but especially the Nazis. In fact, in 1940, he takes out a Nazi submarine over a year before the U. S. entered the war (Marvel Comics #4). Like Marvel's other Golden Age gods, Subby went into exile after the war, but returned in Fantastic Four #4 in 1962, when a nuclear test destroys Atlantis. He has since been a regular star in the Marvel Universe.

  One Captain Marvel clone was created out of sheer necessity. Marvelman was created by Captain Marvel's U. K. publisher after reprints stopped arriving in 1954. Several alterations were made to effect the change—albeit superficial ones. Billy Batson is replaced by young reporter Micky Moran; the wizard Shazam is replaced by the scientist Guntag Bargholt; the word “Shazam” is replaced with “Kimota!” (“atomic” in reverse, sort of). Although Marvelman didn't set the world ablaze and ended his run ten years later, he was destined for greater things when he was revived in 1982. For Marvelman (Miracleman in the Colonies) was the strip on which comic-book gods Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman cut their teeth.

  THE MIGHTY THOR

  Jack Kirby never got Captain Marvel out of his system. In fact, it's probably a safe bet that using Thor as a superhero in Marvel Comics' own version of Captain Marvel was Kirby's idea. Elements of the Captain are present in the 1962 premiere of The Mighty Thor (“The Stone Men from Saturn,” Journey Into Mystery #83). In this classic tale, crippled doctor Don Blake is vacationing in Norway when an invasion force of rocky aliens appears in the skies. Blake flees to a cave where he discovers a stick that, when struck on the ground, allows its carrier to transform into Thor himself. It is interesting to note here that Thor's cavern of transformation ehoes Captain Marvel's subway tunnel—both of which harken back to the caverns and grottoes of the ancient mystery religions.

  Journey Into Mystery also contained a remarkable backup feature called Tales of Asgard. In this strip, Lee and Kirby explore various Norse myths and give them their own unique spin. Kirby's art in Tales is simultaneously at its most charming and its most supernatural. He had obviously tapped into the force that channels those ancient myths, and his art displays the influence of the crypto-pagan children's-book art of early 20th century.

  Kirby later took over the plotting of Thor and turned it into a full-bore cosmic/ psychedelic/mythological freakout. Planets came alive, Hercules and other Olympian gods dropped in and out, and a space-age version of Dr. Moreau called the High Evolutionary set his “New Men” in battle against the Thunder God. Thor's nemesis, Loki, granted human villains godlike powers and Don Blake's lady love, Jane Foster, herself became a goddess. Thor died; Thor was reborn; Thor was ungodded by Odin; Ragnarok came; Ragnarok went.

  Kirby used The Mighty Thor as a vehicle for his unquenchable inner rage and his boundless, nearly supernatural imagination. The series churned with a particularly frenetic violence, softened only by Lee's charming dialogue and Vince Colletta's fairy-tale inks. Kirby left the book in 1971, but writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema worked hard to keep his spirit alive. Osiris, Isis, Horus, and Set even made their way up north for one 1975 storyline (Thor #240–241). In 1983, Kirby apostle Walt Simonson brought the hero back to his mythological roots (Thor #337) and even added some well-researched Nordic design flourishes to the strip.

  OMAC

  In May 1944, Fawcett introduced Radar the International Policeman (Master Comics #50), a strip created in conjunction with the US Office of War Information. Radar worked for what would soon comprise the bulk of the UN Security Council (the US, UK, USSR, and China) and fought lingering Fascist elements on behalf of global harmony. In 1950, Captain Marvel himself promoted this New World Order in “Captain Marvel, Citizen of the Universe” (Capt. Marvel Adventures #111). In 1974, Kirby took this spin on the Captain Marvel ethos one step further with his DC Comics series OMAC.

  OMAC (One Man Army Corps), formerly a factory worker named Buddy Blank, is the creation of a world government agency known as the Global Peace Agency. The GPA is (literally) a faceless troupe of bureaucrats responsible for abolishing war. OMAC is created using the omnipotent power of GPA's sentient satellite, Brother Eye, who is exactly what he sounds like, a giant mechanical eyeball orbiting the planet keeping everyone under constant surveillance.

  If you're thinking that Kirby cooked this whole scenario up from right-wing conspiracy propaganda, you're probably right. Kirby was a voracious reader and a fan of the outré, and it's highly likely that OMAC emerged from Kirby's interest in conspiracist tracts like None Dare Call it Conspiracy. Although OMAC didn't last long, it articulates an important link between occult mythology and modern conspiracy theory. Kirby obviously felt that the connections being drawn between Masonic symbolism and the global governance movement were compelling enough to create a new character around them.

  SUPER-HORUS: HAWKMAN AND THE FALCON

  When it comes to Horus stand-ins in comic books, they don't get any more explicit than DC's Hawkman, who first appeared in Flash Comics #1 in 1940. Hawkman's backstory is as direct a retelling of the ancient Sun god's myth as you're apt to find in a modern genre.

  Hawkman is the alter ego of archaeologist Carter Hall, a typical pulp toff who discovers he is the reincarnation of the Egyptian prince Khufu. Khufu has a running battle with a high priest named Hath-Set, who, in the comic strip, reappears as a mad scientist named Anton Hastor. The ancient struggle between the two resumes in America. Hall discovers a metal that defies gravity, from which he constructs a set of wings to use in his struggle a
gainst the forces of darkness.

  In 1961, Hawkman was reincarnated by writer Gardner Fox and 1940s Hawk-man artist Joe Kubert as Kator Hol, an alien policeman from the planet Thanagar (Brave and the Bold #34), reflecting a shift away from the mythical archetypes of the first wave of superheroes to the more sci-fi-based heroes of the Fifties and Sixties. This alien-messiah version of Hawkman has persisted to the present day—the alien Hawkgirl has been a regular character on the popular Justice League series on the Cartoon Network.

  Hawkman was never an A-list hero, so viable Hawk-clones were few. In 1966, animation giant Hanna-Barbera produced a shameless knockoff named Birdman (Birdman and the Galaxy Trio), who picks up on the Horus symbolism with powers granted by Egyptian solar diety, Ra. Birdman was later resurrected as a comedy character for the Cartoon Network's Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, and as Blue Falcon, who played second fiddle to Dynomutt (an Anubis stand-in) in 1976 on the Scooby Doo/Dynomutt Hour on ABC.

  Marvel did not hesitate to inject plenty of occult symbolism into their Hawkclone's origin story, however. Making his first appearance in Captain America #117, the Falcon is the alter ego of a black hoodlum named Sam Wilson. After crash-landing on a desert island, Wilson encounters Captain America's arch-foe, the Red Skull. Using Marvel's version of the alchemical Philosopher's Stone (called “the Cosmic Cube”), Red Skull magically transforms Wilson into a superhero. The Falcon's origin is more precise than his predecessor's, since Horus is symbolized by a peregrine falcon, not just an ordinary hawk. Yet for some inexplicable reason, Falcon originally had no wings. It wasn't until issue #171 that he is given his Hawkman-esque wings, which he has kept ever since.

  In many ways, it may be surprising that Hawkman and Falcon are not more popular. Like Captain Marvel and Thor, they represent the ultimate fantasy—to be endowed with incredible powers that fall, literally, from the sky. Perhaps this is why they aren't considered worthy gods. They didn't suffer as we all must. Billy Batson is an orphan; Don Blake is a cripple: they suffer for their godhood. Carter Hall, on the other hand, is a fop and Sam Wilson is a thug. They don't deserve the power they are given.

  CAPTAIN AMERICA

  With Captain America came a new kind of messiah—the science hero—summoned into action to fight fascism. On the cover of the first issue of Captain America in 1941, creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby show their hero slugging Adolf Hitler—nine months before the U. S. declared war on Germany. Captain America's publisher, Martin Goodman, resolved as early as 1938 that he would use his pulp empire as an anti-Hitler propaganda vehicle.112

  Captain America is the alter ego of Steve Rogers, a scrawny and sickly boy who, alarmed by the spread of fascism, volunteers for the U. S. Army but is rejected for poor health. His zeal is noted by army brass, however, who enlist him instead for the Super-Soldier program, headed by the brilliant scientist Emil Erskine and committed to transforming unlikely recruits into Nietzschean übermenchen through science.113 Just as Rogers is thus transformed, Erskine is assassinated by a Nazi mole before he got around to documenting his formulas. Rogers is, therefore, the alpha and omega of the program. His first act as Captain America is to avenge Erskine. Next, he acquires a costume that is a pastiche of mythic elements: Musketeer boots and gauntlets, head gear decorated with Mercury's wings, King Arthur's chain mail, Superman's jockey shorts, and a Praetorian shield. His primary nemesis, the Red Skull, was unceremoniously lifted from an old Doc Savage story.114

  Like Superman, Captain America spawned an army of dreary patriotic imitations. DC quickly hired Simon and Kirby away from Timely and put them to work revising Sandman and creating two new characters—Manhunter and the shield-bearing Guardian.115 Captain America was handed over to green-horn Stan Lee, and sales sagged. The Cap acquired a glamorous female companion named Golden Girl in 1948 (Captain America #66), but after the war, slid into obscurity, until he was resurrected in the 1950s as “Captain America, Commie Smasher.” Despite Lee's best efforts to cash in on the Red Scare, however, Cap was eventually defeated by the ultimate nemesis of all funnybook messiahs—low sales. His last issue, in 1950 (Captain America's Weird Tales #74), didn't even feature him on the cover.

  This dying-resurrecting messiah was not so easily dismissed, however. In 1964, when the revitalized Marvel needed new heroes to fuel its Sixties revolution, Captain America is found once again in the icy seas of the Arctic by another revived 40s hero, Sub-Mariner, in The Avengers #4. In a fit of pique, Subby throws his old partner back into the drink, but the thawing Cap is found by the superteam and soon becomes their leader. After a long run in Tales of Suspense, the Captain was granted his own title in the late Sixties.

  Captain America enjoyed another strange incarnation as a counterculture icon. Peter Fonda's drug-dealing biker character in the 1969 film Easy Rider adopted his name and elements of his costume. And in the 1970s, he was recast as a loner anti-hero. Instead of fighting foreign threats like Nazism or Communism, he declares a one-man war on homegrown corruption, tapping into then-popular iconoclastic films like Walking Tall and Billy Jack. Reflecting the sour, post- Watergate mood of the country, and perhaps seeking to recapture some of the hip patina of Easy Rider, the producers of an unwatchable 1979 TV movie offered a ludicrous revised Captain America who cruised around on a chopper and fought crime in a baby-blue leotard and motorcycle helmet. The film went nowhere.

  In the 1980s, Captain America reverted back to a generic superhero, perhaps mirroring the uncertain relationship modern Americans—particularly the intellectual misfits attracted to comic books—have with patriotism. Sophisticated readers need more from their messiahs than mere flag-waving. The Captain was a great propaganda tool during World War II, but has since lost his relevance. Sensing this, and perhaps sensing the souring attitudes towards jingoism in the wake of the disastrous Iraq War, Marvel killed off the Captain in a highly publicized 2007 storyline. Whether or not he will rise again is anyone's guess.

  102 Quoted in Jay Schwartz, “Jews and the Invention of the American Comic Book,” Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, Oct. 21, 2005. Similarly, “Kal-El” has a distinctly Hebraic sound. Like Moses, young Kal-El is put into a small craft and found by kindly Gentiles. His escape to Earth from Krypton is an eerie foreshadowing of the coming Holocaust, when parents sent their children out of Europe to save them.

  103 Daniels, DC Comics, p. 81.

  104 Bradford W. Wright, Comic Book Nation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), p. 60.

  105 Many believe that Reeves was murdered and this controversy became the theme of the 2006 film Hollywoodland with Ben Affleck. Superman Christopher Reeve was severely injured in a horse-riding accident. His wife Dana died of lung cancer in 2006, though she was not a smoker. Margot Kidder (Lois Lane) suffered severe mental illness and Richard Pryor succumbed to multiple sclerosis. Hollywood gossip was such that some prominent actors reportedly refused roles in the 2006 film Superman Returns.

  106 Les Daniels, Comix: A History of Comic Books in America (New York: Outerbridge, 1971), p. 11.

  107 Solomon, a Biblical figure revered by occultists and Freemasons, who grants his wisdom; Hercules, who grants his strength; Atlas, who grants his stamina; Zeus, who lends his power; Achilles, who adds his Courage; Mercury, who shares his speed.

  108 “Black” is a rough translation of the ancient name for Egypt, Kemet; Adam means “man.” In Black Adam's case, SHAZAM stood for the patron deities Shu (Sky God), Heru (Horus), Amon (Amen, king of the gods), Zehuti (Thoth), Aton (Sun), and Mehen (an Egyptian board game).

  109 Daniels, DC Comics, p. 86. Junior's adventures were drawn by the talented Mac Raboy, who also created the magical character Doctor Voodoo, a knock-off of Doctor Occult. Raboy's elegant art gave Junior's adventures a particularly enchanting mystique. One of Junior's most famous admirers was Elvis Presley, who borrowed his hero's hairstyle and costume for his stage attire.

  110 The Secret of Isis featured Joanna Cameron in the title role as a schoolmarm who finds
a magical amulet that grants her the powers of Isis. Isis, very much a Wonder Woman clone, faltered after a slightly promising debut and soon lapsed into trite storylines.

  111 Les Daniels, Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics, (New York: Abradale, 1991), p. 29.

  112 Daniels, Marvel, p. 36.

  113 Ironically, the real Nazis were experimenting with their own Super-Soldier formula at the time, injecting both prisoners and military personnel with a cocktail of methamphetamines and anabolic steroids.

  114 “The Red Skull,” Doc Savage Magazine, Aug, 1933.

  115 Manhunter was later recast by Kirby as a member of a initiatic/Masonic secret society (First Issue Special # 5, Aug.'75).

  CHAPTER 15

  THE SILVER AGE SCIENCE HEROES

  Comic book superheroes were everywhere in the 1940s. According to surveys, half of the U. S. population read comics. During the war, 90 percent of DC's titles were superhero-based. Comics outsold the Saturday Evening Post and Reader's Digest combined by a factor of ten to one on military newsstands.116 Superheroes propagandized not only for the war effort, but for various governmental and non governmental programs—war bonds, scrap-metal and paper collection, the American Red Cross, the USO, and other patriotic pitch-in efforts. But with their mission accomplished in 1945, superhero sales began to decline, replaced by funny animals, teen humor, and the new romance comics. But none of these could deliver sales like the superheroes once did, and the industry suffered.

  THE PORNOGRAPHY OF VIOLENCE

  As is too often the case, market pressures forced publishers to aim for the gutter, and falling superhero sales encouraged a substantial coarsening of content. Beginning with Lev Gleason's Crime Does Not Pay in 1942, crime comics flooded the market until, by 1948, every fifth comic sold was a crime comic.117 Bradford Wright notes that the crime comics “delved into violence, brutality, and sadism to a graphic degree never before seen in comic books—in some instances, never before seen anywhere in mass entertainment.”118