The politics of Superman and is he irrelevant? (SUPERMAY)

What do Superman and the Fantastic Four have in common? Well they both started superhero comics franchises, have endlessly optimistic main characters, white skin and had a steep decline in popularity in the 1980’s that neither have recovered from. But why is that, well I forgot that they both embody “leftist” ideals, and the heroes that replaced them in popularity are more conservative (to varying degrees). A superhero actually can’t be apolitical, a Superhero needs to fight something and what they fight must be bad. When people say “don’t put politics in comics” they mean “put my politics in your comic”, because people have a hard time finding their own politics in things, it’s much easier to rally against the enemy than to say “that is just how I see the world”.

Superman first debuted in 1938 with his first story “The Champion of the oppressed”, (a clearly political title). Being in the first issue of an experimental idea by National Comics his future was not certain, the plug could’ve been pulled at any time. Knowing it may be the only chance for the world to see their Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster put everything they could into the story. The page layouts where radically different to everything else (even the other stories in the magazine), normally comic pages where made in with regular sized panels so the story could be reprinted in newspapers. The layouts in Superman’s first story are different long tall panels to show him leaping into the air and one of Superman smashing a car over his head onto a rock that takes of 2/3 of the page (this is also the iconic image from the front cover that was chosen last minute). The story is also  a laundry list of the baddies Superman would face, corrupt bosses, spousal abusers and gangsters. Despite the all in feel of the first story it sets up the second where Superman forces arms dealers to go to war to see what their weapons do. The early Superman is more heavy-handed than his later incarnations busting through doorways declaring “learn some compassion or I’ll beat it into you”. An often overlooked and under appreciated part of the early Superman books is Lois Lane. A mistake made by onlookers about Lois is that she is just a shrinking violet who is easily caught by Superman’s enemies. That is not true. Lois is a headstrong career gal and the Daily Planet’s best reporter, resourceful and stubborn which gets her into trouble. It’s really debatable if she even needs Superman to save her some of the time, but why bother when he will and with his involvement you’ll get the front-page story. Clark Kent as a reporter lives in her shadow, that is because of his faux-timid demeanour he can’t put himself into the same risks as Lois, if he did the world might find out he’s Superman.     

Clark Kent was a self insert of Jerry Siegel, a timid meagre unathletic man with Superman as his fantasy (girls are ignoring me but thats because they don’t know who I really am). Now this wish fulfilment and power fantasy are common in fiction but Superman was different. Siegel’s wish was to use his amazing power to try and fix the world and be the father he wishes he had. It’s interesting that Mort Weisenger (national comics editor), Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster all grew up without a dad and their creation Superman is, a strong, caring man who stands up for the weak. An authority figure whose goal is to guide mankind to a brighter future. Coming from the destroyed world of Krypton, Superman’s goal was not conquest like his pulp alien precursors, his goal was to warn us about the pitfalls of progress. We must progress in a way that isn’t destructive, to teach us not to be prejudiced or creedist and we must unite to create a better tomorrow. Superman drew influence from mythology, mankind has always told stories of great saviours like King Arthur or beings of great strength like Hercules but Superman was an industrial-era update of these concepts. Superman’s whole costume is designed to tell you who he is at a single glance, a circus strong-man belt and pants to show he’s strong, a cape similar to a rabbis robe to symbolise his wisdom doubling as a way to show if in picture his leap is taking off or landing, no mask to show he’s not hiding, a shield on his chest show he’s a protector and brightly coloured tights with no mask to show how confident he is. He sheds his work clothes of Clark Kent to become Superman to show he isn’t hiding anymore he’s proud of who he is, this has led to Superman being popular with gays and minorities as they’ve often felt they needed to hide who they really are when their true culture is something beautiful in itself.

With the success of Superman stories imitators had to come along it was inevitable, but only two in “The Golden Age” of comics where ever a threat to his title of the most popular superhero and they both did it by appealing more to children. One being the original Captain Marvel, an orphaned newspaper boy who by yelling “SHAZAM!” can become the oedipal wet dream of an amazing super-dad. The other being The Black Terror a pharmacist who takes vitamin x and gains superpowers. The Black Terror also introduced the idea of the kid sidekick which became a staple of comics, so much so Superman even gained one with Jimmy Olsen an orphaned boy (he had to be an orphan so nobody could sue for reckless child endangerment) who became the Daily Planets cub reporter.  

Superman’s leftist stance lessened with Siegel and Shuster being accused of being communists, so when a soft relaunch of Superman into his own book his backstory was fleshed out (Superman still to this day appears in Action Comics). While the Fleischer Superman cartoons explicitly state he was raised in an orphanage after crashing to earth this was now retconned to landing outside Ma and Pa Kent’s farm who raised Clark to be a good American who believed whole heartedly in the inscription of the statue of liberty, the bill of rights and the declaration of independence (which actually reads a lot like the communist manifesto just saying). 

With a popular platform Siegel and Shuster couldn’t keep their political views quiet for too long and with the rise of fascism over Europe why should they. Superman was one of the first to speak up against it, in an out of canon published in Look magazine Superman busts through the Third Reich and Mussolini’s guard to put Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini on trial for crimes against humanity. More superheroes were created to motivate Americans to stop the Axis, like Captain America whose creator Jack Kirby once said “I don’t have any political views I just hate Nazis” (more on him later). Superhero comics where very enthusiastic to join in the war effort, a lot of anti-Nazi comics started before america had even joined World War 2 and with good reason. Comics where one of the few places Jews could get jobs, with them being deemed as low art for kids they weren’t seen as a glamorous form of writing and most used pseudonyms so the publishers didn’t have to deal with anti-semitism. 

In the comics during World War 2 Superman became Americas secret weapon but once it finished we got Action Comics 101 (published one month after the war was declared over) where Superman documents atomic bomb tests and calls the bomb itself the greatest evil in the world. With the war over Superman was not going to be the military’s stooge again. But superhero comics steeply declined in popularity after the war so this story effectively ended the Golden age of superhero comics.

This war with the atomic bomb defined the next era of Superman comics but they called the bomb Kryptonite. The radioactive rock was Superman’s main weakness, often used by mad scientists and their experiments to defeat the man of tomorrow. Green Kryptonite slowly poisoned and drained him of his super strength and Red Kryptonite horribly distorted Superman sometimes physically and sometimes mentally. Like atomic radiation Kryptonite was also useful, it could be used as a fuel source similar to chemotherapy in small doses it could cure earthlings illnesses, but it could always fall into the wrong hands. 

The new wave of Superheroes shared this outlook that science is mankind’s salvation whilst fearing the bomb, starting this wave was the rebooted Flash but this idea would be best embodied by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four. While the Flash was created to teach children scientific ideas, and if young boys learnt about friction from a man in a red suit running around a gorilla, who’s to argue with that, Marvel’s comics were sci-fi horror. The Fantastic Four where mutated by Cosmic radiation after travelling in an unsafe rocket-ship to beat the Russians in the space race. Now with powers that were a mixed blessing, led by Reed Richard manly scientist who is as rugged as he is smart (and did I mention he’s the smartest man in the world) they perform experiments and explore the universe. The Lee Kirby era introduced the majority of the Marvel universe like the Unamerican group of ex-Nazis and their sympathisers known as Hydra. Latveria is a land ruled by a traditionalist, occultist and mad scientist Dr Doom. More progressively their allied nation is Wakanda which is technologically more advanced than the rest of the world and located in Africa. 

 

image photoshopped by James Dawson

Marvel attempted at making superheroes for conservatives like Iron Man, Tony Stark was created with the sole purpose of being a hero Marvel’s current counter culture readership would hate and it worked. Iron Man wasn’t popular until his movie (in fact when the MCU started Iron Man and the Avenger’s comics had been cancelled due to low sales). Iron Man stayed in print by being paired with Captain America, Superhero comics having only one story was a new idea at the time and many of Marvel’s heroes shared a book; Strange Tales of Dr Strange and Nick Fury, Tales to Astonish was the Hulk and Namor and Tales of Suspense was for the conservative fans. DC also had conservative superheroes, Green Lantern and Batman are essentially good cop heroes (Batman in the 66 Television series does flirt with being a counter culture hero) and these characters would soon get overhauls by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams. Green Lantern would be paired with Green Arrow to argue ideology and Batman would lose his sidekick to college and become as violent as the Comics Code Authority would allow.

Feeling under appreciated Jack Kirby left Marvel comics and was quickly hired by their biggest competitor who offered him total freedom as long as he wrote and drew one Superman book a month. Not wanting to put anyone out of a job Jack chose as his Superman series Jimmy Olsen which became part of his (retroactively named) Fourth World Saga. This was an exploration of hippie culture with the good parts being embodied by New Genesis, like peace, love and The Beatles. The bad like Charles Manson’s seduction of young girls to join his white supremacist cult was Darkseid and Apokolips. Darkseid was also not so subtly based on Nazi’s complete with Germanic spell of side. Superman’s role in this was as a square Dad who wanted to be part of the good parts but being worried that the good was being steamrolled by the evil. Post-Kirby the Marvel universe suffered from a lack of originality, mostly churning out monthly comics shallowly expanding on concepts he produced with one exception the relaunched X-men. The X-men were a Lee/Kirby series but during their run it felt more like a copy of the Fantastic Four but with a younger cast of characters. With the relaunched series the X-men stopped being a bunch of white teenagers but a diverse group of heroes and continuing through the Claremont era getting more and more diverse so much so nobody looks twice at the fact they have a one-legged vietnamese lesbian. 

John Byrne made a name for himself in the comics industry as an artist on X-men, but due to creative differences with Chris Claremont the two parted ways and Byrne took over the Fantastic Four. With Byrne as writer and artist on Fantastic Four the sales increased to make his run on F4 the second most popular era (behind the original Lee/Kirby). DC wanting to continue a trend they hired Byrne to reboot Superman in 1988. This in a lot of ways was the last hurrah for the Man of Steel, despite an obsession with trying to explain how his powers would work without breaking the laws of physics. The Man of Steel reboot reset the Superman lore, before it Clark Kent was a news anchor not his more recognisable newspaper reporter and his supporting cast where expanded to having 3 single mothers; Maggie Sawyer (a cop in charge of special unit trained to takedown superpowered threats), Cat Grant (The Daily Planets gossip columnist) and Sarah Olsen (the mother of Jimmy proving that single mothers can raise children to be responsible adults). Lex Luthor was also reinvented for this era, his original version was a Nazi cult leader, then he was a gangster and then in the 50’s he became a Mad scientist but his most sinister incarnation came in the late 80’s Donald Trump. Byrne had no idea that after his tenure of Superman his evil industrialist would become the president and then later his real world inspiration would be inspired by this. 

The rise of Comic book shops opened the door to new independent publishers and challenge the duopoly of Marvel and DC. One of the great things about comics is their expensiveness, so with a market of independent writers and artist would be a mixed blessing. One of the biggest success stories of the early self published comics was Dave Sim, his work started off innocuous enough a barbarian parody comic about an aardvark but as time went on Sims work became more and more political. Dave Sim influenced others to make their own comics like Jeff Smith (Bone), Eastman and Laird (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) but Sim’s views on the world are not conventional. Dave Sim believes feminism is destroying the world and the only way to stop the spread is to save young girls from it at a young age by making them do things (basically he’s a paedophile with a cause). Fortunately Sim has never worked on a mainstream comic book series. 

With the rise of outspoken comic book creators the medium itself was determined to be taken more seriously. Unfortunately they forgot the difference between thoughtful and cynical. Deconstructions of the superhero started cropping up like The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. An important thing to remember about deconstruction is you have to actually deconstruct something, he deconstruct a building you have bricks, you deconstruct brick you have gravel. Since the publication of Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen very few honest superhero properties have become popular (exceptions being Alan Moore’s later work Tom Strong and Promethea, Savage Dragon, Invincible and the PJ Masks). Superhero deconstructions have gotten so plentiful that they’re well trodden ground like One Punch Man. One Punch Man has absolutely nothing to say, it’s 2nd rate Venture Brothers and a 3rd rate Tick but it’s popular for some reason (despite awful art and blatant homophobia).

90’s Superhero comics loved using this phrase “Not your Dad’s Comic books”, this is very true because my Dad’s comic books were actually good. The new heroes weren’t heroes they were paramilitary groups. The New Mutants became X-Force and the implied child soldiers aspect became the text, Cable wasn’t training children to be diplomats he was making them weapons. The popularity of Rob Liefeld and the end of the Comics code authority meant that comics were violence for the desensitised. Full of Reagan era patriotism and bigger guns, storytelling was a secondary interest to creating variant covers for chumps to buy. Superman didn’t fit into this era very well so they killed him after character assaignating him first. Lobo was now DC’s best selling series, with a readership not getting he was meant as a parody of the increasing violence in comics, the fans didn’t care he was violent. 

After the speculator boom these new heroes all disappeared but it’s legacy still remains. “Superman is unrelatable” is something I’ve heard for years but this statement is anti-humanist. The reason given is that Superman “saves people for no reward, he has no great tragedy in his back story and he’s too powerful”. This reasoning is awful, it’s that of a psychopath or a libertarian (is there actually a difference). People do acts of altruism all the time why wouldn’t a superpowered person help people without compensation. We’ve had deconstructions like the Incredibles where the heroes are actually punished for altruism but thinking like that only breeds more misanthropy. If we met aliens it’s just as likely that they would be friendly as they would be hostile. In fact people act accordingly to how they are treated so being nice to someone will mean they’re nice to you. So Superman’s lack of tragedy in his back story actually makes him more realistic. As for him being too powerful, part of why we read superhero comics is as a comfort, a piece of escapism where we know the good guy will win and the bad guys loses. Of course we want him to have a challenge but why does it have to be a physical one? why not challenge his moral code or take his super intelligence out for a spin. The meathead Superman of the 90’s is the most boring version of Superman as part of the fun is watching him do creative problem solving, sure he could lift that building or he could fly round the water making a typhoon and then freeze it with his super breath to catch the falling building. 

As for the question do we need white, progressive Superheroes? yes we do. A common suggestion to fix Superman is to have him become black but times haven’t changed enough for Pa Kent not to have lived through the race riots of the 1960’s and this would change his outlook on the world. Not to mention Superman is from Kansas which isn’t as racist as Alabama but I don’t think they would take too kindly to a flying black kid. You could change him from growing up in Kansas to a more black part of the US say the Bronx but then thats Static Shock with different superpowers (and Static is a different character to Superman). 

Also Comicsgate we need to stop them, Comicsgate have tried to weaponise fan disapproval of losing their favourite characters to new diverse ones for their own racist agenda. They hate Carol Danvers Captain Marvel even though the only thing progressive about her is that she’s a woman. Everyone deserves a hero they can relate too but Alt-Right heroes like the Punisher are not heroes. We need to have some with a progressive outlook maybe they don’t need to be the star of their own book, maybe part of an ensemble team with diverse ethnicities like the X-men. But Superheroes were meant to fight hatred and intolerance and now fans are trying to spread it and they need reminding that they’re wrong and if that will only be heard if it comes from a white character then so be it. 

5 Creators who fixed bad comics

t’s a simple fact of life, not all comics are created equal. Of course a bad initial run doesn’t doom a series neither does a bad subsequent run. There are many examples of writers taking a good series and destroying it but we’re here today to celebrate when creators do the exact opposite, those who shine a turd only for it to turn out to be coal which they turn into a diamond.

Deadpool

Joe Kelly is the true creator of Deadpool. Yes Rob Liefeld designed the character and Fabian Niceza wrote his earliest stories but Kelly created the Deadpool you recognise. Deadpool was originally a villain for the New Mutants to fight shortly before rebranding themselves in a paramilitary group led by Cable called X-Force. Wade Wilson was an uninspired tribute to DC’s Deathstroke (real name Slade Wilson), and that was it, he made a couple of wisecracks and he had a design meant to be “kewl” but thats all he was, a design. 

Joe Kelly enters with Deadpool’s first ongoing series and within the first few pages the Deadpool we know and love was born. Monologuing in the bushes to himself and getting mad that somebody heard him. This is what people like about Deadpool and this trait can be pin-pointed to that exact moment.   

Gen 13

Gen 13 is trash it really is, I’m ashamed to have so many of their back issues in my longbox. I used to in my teen years think that the self awareness to it basically being a T&A comic was ok. The self awareness usually took the form of Fairchild comment “Why does this keep happening to me” when her shirt gets ripped. 

DC in 2006 relaunched all the Wildstorm series, and knowing it wasn’t the 90’s an age where this low-art would flourish they had Gail Simone take over the book and her 13 issue run are the only issues of Gen 13 I will publicly defend. Under Simone the ritualistic disrobing of the characters ended and they were characters now. This run was more nuanced with a storyline about the fetishisation of adolescents and the demonisation of the same group. It also has one of my favourite lesser known villains in Dr Cross, a scientist with a massive infantilisation fetish and severe germaphobia.  

X-men

This is probably the best known example of a writer doing this (and I haven’t featured every time a writer fixed a series). I mostly included this one to have a nicer balance of Marvel and DC because anyone who knows about Superhero comics knows Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s worst work together was on the X-men. Even a change of creative teams to Roy Thomas and Neal Adams didn’t fix the X-men. Len Wein and Dave Cockrun fixed the X-men by changing almost the entire cast. A baffling trend in the history of X-men is writers wanting to reunite the least loved line up. 

Wein didn’t realise what he had done but Claremont had and Claremont stuck with the series for decades. Claremont actually begged Wein to let him take over the book because he loved the characters to which Wein replied “sure the books doomed anyway”. But under Claremont the X-men went on to be Marvel’s best selling team but why is it that only once have Marvel tried reuniting; Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Shadowcat and Cyclops when they’re the best selling team.

Green Lantern

All hail Geoff Johns king of retcons. I could leave it there but Geoff Johns almost entirely rewrote Green Lantern lore all because he didn’t like Kyle Reiner. in fact does anyone like Kyle Reiner? 

Changes Johns introduced; Green Lantern rings can’t do anything, Arisa was not a child who aged herself up to be with Hal. She was from a planet where you reached adulthood by the time you where 5. Hal wasn’t a serial killer he was possessed by a demonic entity that would also be the cause of the yellow weakness (killing all the jokes about Green Lantern losing to bananas or canaries) and most importantly Hal is a jerk. Before Hal had been a jerk but now the series was aware that he was one and better yet Hal worked on being a better person. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

IDW fixed the TMNT comics. The original series of comics has its earliest stories by it creators (Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird) and then ends up being inconsistent due to constant changing creative teams, so inconsistent which Turtle has which weapon changes story to story and with the book being in black and white you can’t go by bandana colour. After this we have the Image comics era of TMNT which could only have come out during the 90’s with the Turtles as cyborgs now (because another word would fit so nicely into the name). After the cancellation of the Image the series Eastman and Laird parted ways with Laird being sole owner of the Turtles and he was overly protective of them. The Turtles stories from his pre IDW era are safe, they’re not bad but they’re safe. Laird’s never liked the original cartoon series so almost any element unique to that series was not allowed to be referenced. But post Laird both the TMNT comics and cartoon could meld anything from the cartoons or comics together, IDW’s version is an eclectic mix of all things Ninja Turtles and with a consistent creative team its easier to follow and more enjoyable than any other Turtles comic.

Kermit the Frog is the problem

I love the Muppets, I absolutely do. They are almost always guaranteed to improve my mood with their wacky antics, but they don’t always work. Sure I’d take anything Muppet over anything Kardashian but a lot of the newer stuff has fallen flat. Some attribute this solely to them being acquired by Disney and “Disney not understanding the Muppets” which is partially true. The Muppets are meant for anyone to enjoy, while the Disney era has leaned them more to kids with the risqué and cynical being removed. If you don’t believe me about the cynicism listen to the Rainbow connection from the Muppet movie, on the surface it’s a nice song about rainbows but actually look at the words “Rainbows are only illusions”. The more interesting passage is “Who said that every wish, Would be heard and answered, When wished on the morning star, Somebody thought of that, And someone believed it, And look what it's done so far” because who thought of “when you wish upon a star” Disney. The Rainbow connection is the Muppets saying the Disney message is potentially harmful. The Muppets are wide-eyed dreamers but they’re mostly realists (some characters are unaware of their faults like Miss Piggy), the older audience are aware that Fozzie’s jokes are awful, and every time he makes an awful pun Kermit cringes or Waldorf and Statler yell at him from the balcony. The Muppets were not meant for kids, Jim Henson had 2 other shows with puppets meant for kids (Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock) The Muppets were for the whole family.

This lack of cynicism is part of the problem but the real problem is Kermit is not Kermit. Let me explain Kermit the frog is the centre of the Muppets, he was Jim Henson’s favourite puppet, his go-to if he ever needed to do an appearance. Kermit predates the Muppet show or their random appearances to do skits on late night talk shows. The plush amphibian started out on Jim’s early public access show Sam and Friends. Most episodes of Sam and Friends are now lost media, but Jim used Sam and Friends as a way to experiment with films and puppets. Jim Henson always thought of himself as an experimental film maker first and a puppeteer second. Puppets were his chosen medium because he thought they could do more than entertain toddlers, which is why he was so hesitant to make Sesame Street until he found out it was actually educational. Jim Henson with the Muppet Show and Sesame Street played many characters; Ernie, Rowlf the Dog, Dr Teeth, The Swedish chef, but Kermit was his go-to. Kermit being in both shows drew criticism at the time, but it makes perfect sense Jim and Kermit are the same. Kermit in the Muppets is a paternal figure who keeps the groups of misfits and oddballs together but with his role of leadership is stressed. Kermit is passive aggressive but also empathetic and caring like a real person. The best description of Jim Henson I’ve ever heard is “a Doozer pretending to be a Fraggle” and if you don’t know what that means I’ll explain. Fraggle Rock has an ecosystem with Doozers who are workaholics and are obsessed with building massive towers that the Fraggles eat, The Fraggles spend all day making up silly songs and playing games. Jim Henson was always working on the next project whilst trying to emit an air of whimsy.

Jim Henson died in 1990 shortly after selling The Muppets to Disney. Now Disney didn’t start off ruining his legacy, we got the classic Muppets’ Christmas Carol, and part of the reason this worked was it shifted away from Kermit. The centre of the film is Gonzo as Charles Dickens and Rizo as the rat who argues with Charles Dickens. Kermit plays the role of Bob Cratchett which keeps Kermit central to the story, but he doesn’t have that many scenes to hide the fact he isn’t Jim anymore. Replacing Kermit with Gonzo was a smart choice, Gonzo may not have been the most popular Muppet (despite objectively being the best he is called “Gonzo The Great” it’s in his name), but he had a similar relationship with his Muppeteer. Gonzo was created as a form of therapy for Dave Goelz who worked on the show making Muppets, Goelz was painfully shy and he was given any puppet he liked to be his and he picked Gonzo because he was kind of funny looking. Gonzo’s personality like Kermit’s is complicated, lots of the Muppets are simple Animal likes Drums, Piggy is conceited, the Swedish chef makes a mess but Gonzo has depth. Gonzo is a show-off but insecure, he acts out because he’s lonely, he doesn’t have a family he doesn’t even have a species he’s a “Whatever”. Gonzo was the focus of the next two muppet films, Treasure Island where he and Rizo tag along with Jim Hawkins for all the major scenes and Muppets from Space. Frank Oz once said “Muppets from Space wasn’t really a Muppet movie” and well he’s right but that’s not a bad thing (also Oz told George Lucas to have MORE Jar Jar in Star Wars so can we trust him). Muppets From Space is unique among the muppet movies, the meta-element of them is gone from it. All the other movies have a nod and a wink that this is a movie, either because the muppets are adapting a well known story or because of 4th wall breaks. The Muppet Movie is overtly about a fictional version of how the Muppet show started, The great Muppet caper has a recurring deliberately bad joke that nobody can tell Kermit and Fozzie apart despite them being a frog and a bear. Muppets take Manhattan is the only other one that doesn’t have this element to it, except at the end with the broadway wedding of Kermit and Miss Piggy. But Muppets takes Manhattan isn’t about the Muppets as characters, it’s still about them as performers. Muppets from Space is about Gonzo, it’s about how he’s the only one of his kind, how he doesn’t feel like he fits in and at the end him realising it’s ok to be different because all the Muppets are different and they all love him.

Unfortunately Muppets from space bombed and the next Muppets specials were terrible, Muppets Wizard of Oz which had one good joke in the whole thing and then it’s Wonderful Muppet life, which was about Kermit wanting to commit suicide.

After those 2 stinkers we got a yellow life preserver called Walter. Walter was a new character and the centre of the film Muppets. I can only assume Walter was another self-insert character as anyone who trains to be a Muppeteer is probably an even bigger fan of the Muppets than me and that was Walter’s defining trait. Despite Walter being the saving grace, Kermit had to be centre again for the painfully unfunny Muppets Most Wanted. Muppets least wanted (as I have officially dubbed it in my head) is a step backwards with Walter is a small role and then ABC’s The Muppets doesn’t even have Walter in it (his Muppeteer Peter Linz was still involved but without any leading roles). The ABC Sitcom got cancelled and Steven Witmore was fired from the Jim Henson company by both Lisa and Brian Henson citing radically different reasons as to why Witmore’s Kermit was wrong. Lisa believed his Kermit was an “Amoral drunken sociopath” and Brian thought he was a “complete pushover devoid of charm”. Witmore openly complained that the show made him “do things Kermit would never do like lie” but these fell on deaf ears and Kermit was forced to act out of character.

Kermit now isn’t fairing any better. Disney Junior have revived Muppet Babies (something they can only do because they own Marvel who did the animation for the original series) but Kermit is a wimp. Kermit isn’t even the one who comforts the others. That role belongs to Summer Penguin (a new character added for the reboot). And the adult Kermit who is now played by Matt Vogel: he’s so lifeless, everything coming from him seems like “Would Jim do this” or “will this test well”. 

Kermit doesn’t need retiring but he isn’t the leading frog he used to be, now he doesn’t seem like he could lead anything. The Muppets should’ve changed and evolved, Jim Henson never let a setback stop him. He had to make 3 different pilots for the Muppet show and move to another country to make it. But Disney keep going back to what they think worked but it wasn’t Kermit we liked it was Jim, I think what the Muppets need is to be more of an ensemble but Matt Vogel’s Kermit has to change; he shouldn’t be a lifeless parody of his former self. 

Wonder Woman: Feminist Icon or Male Fantasy?

As one of the three characters who have been published by DC continuously since World War 2 (the other 2 being Superman and Batman) and often the sole female member of the Justice League, Wonder woman is easily one of the most recognisable and popular female superheroes. However, one question has lingered over her since her creation, is she a champion smashing through the glass ceiling (or carefully unhinging the roof if it’s her invisible plane) or just fetish fuel for adolescent boys. Wonder Woman’s history is more obscure than her colleagues, with her often feeling like a clear third to the World’s Finest team. Wonder Woman is popular but she tends to be popular with non comic readers, if comics sales where the only factor in whether or not a comic is cancelled Wonder Woman’s publication would be as patchy as Aquaman’s but due to her selling a lot of merch to girlfriends and daughters as well as potential readers scared off by the boys club of chauvinists that haunt comic book stores monthly drooling over the sexy pin-up girl posters. 

The best place to start looking for an answer is to look at her creator and his reason’s for creating the character. Wonder Woman was created by William Moulton Marston a former psychology professor at Harvard University. Marston was notorious for feuding with other professors including one who became the inspiration for the recurring villain Dr Psycho (a small man with an intense hatred of women and desire to see them subjugated at any cost). Marston’s most notable contributions to the sciences are the patent on the lie detector (which the research was mostly done by his wife Elizabeth) and DISC theory which he expanded on in many books like the “emotions of normal people”. DISC theory is all about how humans interact with each other and how they get what they want from one another as people are social creatures we need each other and form groups. A healthy relationship to him is one of equals trusting equals, and the best way to gain trust is to “submit yourself to a loving authority”. A loving authority would never abuse those who they have control over, but within submission you throw yourself upon them hoping they are loving which is why it builds trust. These beliefs are a cornerstone of Wonder Woman and her beliefs within the earlier stories (the ones by Marston). Marston’s was an adamant supporter of women’s rights even believing that emotionally healthy women are naturally more compassionate and caring than any man and would in fact be the better leaders, because men are only good at following orders, lifting things and maths. 

Marston was fired from Harvard University as the educational establishment did not like the polyamorous relationship him and his wife (Elizabeth) had with their student Olive Byrne. With his teaching job gone Elizabeth took a job as a secretary and William looked for a new way to promote his ideas, his first attempt was through pornography but with strict laws prohibiting its sale he looked for a new medium for a shady character like himself could work (and Olive raised their children). The new fad of “Underwear Heroes” in children’s literature was the perfect place for him to write about his ideas, seeing that boys had Superman to look up to he wondered who girls had as a role model? He couldn’t find one so he made one himself. Creating a new woman out of clay with the best parts of Olive and Elizabeth he created “Suprema the Wonder Woman”. He pitched this new character to National comics the biggest publisher of Underwear heroes with such characters as Superman, Batman and Green Lantern. Thinking he had a kindred spirit in the publisher Mort Weisinger, a man who took a massive risk on the sci-fi stories of second generation immigrants Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, he was sure he had a buyer. Mort hated it, he gave Marston some advice “girls don’t buy action stories” and “shorten the name”, Marston complied with the second piece of advice and proceeded to selling “Wonder Woman” to All Star Comics (who would be bought by National Comics and merge to become DC Comics).

In December 1941 Wonder Woman debuted in the pages of Sensation comics a book she would share with Mr Terrific and the Gay Ghost. Wonder Woman unlike most comic book characters had her first few issues dedicated to her origins and back story (Superman got a single page saying her was from space and fans had to wait 8 months to find out what would possess a man to dress up as a Bat and fight mobsters). With the Wisdom of Athena, the Beauty of Aphrodite, Strength greater the Hercules and more Swiftness than Mercury (note she is equal 2 Goddesses and greater than 2 Gods) Wonder Woman is saving the life of American spy Steve Trevor. Steve Trevor is a self insert of Marston himself, Marston also worked as a spy but Trevor’s role in the series is to be a Damsel in Distress similar to how in Superman comics Lois is really good at finding people to kidnap her, Steve Trevor is the worst spy in the world. Steve has the innate ability to be captured by the enemy when going out to get a pack of cigarettes, but due to his male gender he is promoted for Wonder Woman’s work (similar to how Marston got praise for Elizabeth’s work). Sigmund Freud wrote about how women have “Penis envy” Marston argued that this is not literal, but women are jealous of how current society (or “Man’s World”) has put them in a role of dominance, Steve Trevor embodies how great it is to be a man and be praised for work you didn’t do.

Wonder Woman altruistically gives up her role as a doctor and princess of paradise island to continue to care for her patient who is one part baby bird one part patronising douchebag who calls her “Angel”. After making this decision she finds out about the history of her people, how they where subjugated by Hercules (later tellings add under the orders of Zeus but early Wonder Woman had a smaller pantheon of gods). The tools used by Hercules are now her greatest weakness, if they are welded together Aphrodite and Athena will strip an Amazon of their strength and they will be exactly like a normal woman but with them unbound the bracelets give an Amazon boundless strength and they’re nifty at deflecting bullets (Amazonian children like to play a game called bullets and bracelets and Diana herself is the islands champion at the game).

Now in Man’s World Wonder Woman must blend in and find some form of income, she at first becomes a circus performer where she shows off her skills at Bullets and Bracelets. This would be a temporary arrangement as her manager was a crook and Diana took him to the authorities. Her real lasting alias in man’s world she would gain by identity theft, stealing the identity of a woman who wanted to leave the army so she could be wed (fortunately the 2 look alike and have the same first name). In this role she could help nurse Steve back to health until he gave her the job as his assistant. 

With the series continuing from that point new characters had to be added, every superhero needs a sidekick and Wonder Woman got a whole sorority of them called the Holliday girls. This was inspired by Marston’s intensive research into a sorority at Harvard which Olive was a member of, studying them he got many of his ideas of submission and loving authorities. The most notable member of the Holliday girls is their leader and often head spanker Etta Candy and obese girl obsessed with eating nothing but sweets. The Holliday girls are fiercely loyal to Wonder Woman and often appear at the end of stories summoned by Wondi via her “Mental Radio” to go and beat up Nazi’s. 

As well as run of the mill Nazis Wonder Woman would take on some more colourful criminals: the first would be Dr Poison a woman so consumed with penis envy that she wishes to pretend to be a man and poison everyone. Baroness Paula Von Gunther an Austrian noble woman who kidnaps women and dominates them into becoming her spies, then having them seduce allies officers to find out military secrets which she then sends to the Nazis to help them win the war. Wonder Woman defeats her by taking over her cult because “she is a more loving master” and they (implied) become members of the Holliday girls. Paula Von Gunther would actually go through a redemption arc with her being a puppet of the Nazi’s and the Amazons taking her on with Wonder Woman being her mistress in charge of her rehabilitation. Other enemies of Wonder Woman in the Marston era include Mars the Roman god of War who lives on Mars and with his 3 lieutenants; The Earl of Greed, the Lord of Conquest and the Duke of Deception use their skills to aid the Nazi war machine and hate how an agent of Aphrodite has been aiding the allies. Less focused on the war effort are Dr Psycho and Wonder Woman’s most enduring nemesis The Cheetah. Consumed by Jealousy and Greed Priscilla Rich is transformed into her split personality The Cheetah who wants what other women have, she wishes to be as strong as an Amazon but this is feeling of pure entitlement. She is completely unhinged and will do anything to get either Hypolita’s magic girdle or Wonder Woman’s lasso. When being told she is unworthy of such powerful artefacts she would most likely respond with “But I want them”.

This story is probably apocryphal but it’s too good not to include. One day a friend, a neighbour of the Marston family knocked on the door of their house, there was no response. She waited a few minutes and knocked again, noticing the door was open and as she was friends with Elizabeth and Olive she let herself in. Not finding either of them in the living room or the kitchen she walked into Professor Marston’s office. In his office she was greeted by the sight of Elizabeth dressed in a skin tight leopard print leotard and cat ears and the professor and Olive tied to chairs. Olive was in a tiara, knee high boots, a red corset and blue skirt and professor Marston was in an Army uniform with hat and no trousers or underwear. Make of that what you will but the Professor is supposed to have had a massive erection as well.

Marston would write Wonder Woman until his death, and would write most of her stories. Wonder Woman was given the role of Justice Society secretary (a role in tribute to Elizabeth) so she could appear on the covers to promote the book but the writers wouldn’t have to deal with Marston’s constant notes about how to write the character. But not long after Marston’s death came the Comics code Authority, this caused many series to get overhauled. All the feminism and fetishism they could find was washed out the series. Etta Candy was no longer a sorority girl she was now an obese orphan girl who was good at getting kidnapped. Wonder Woman’s rogue’s gallery became more and more women (violence between men and women was prohibited in CCA approved books which all of DC’s where) and with this came the power of Super Empathy, this meant she had a calming aura that would help her get to root of a problem (a handy tool for Paradise Island’s only Ambassador into Man’s World). 

The 1960’s a good decade for Women’s liberation in America but what of the Wonder Woman comic series? With low sales DC gave the book to Dennis O’Neil who was gaining a reputation as the reinventor of classic characters. Harry G Peter’s eagle crested girdle and starry pants where deemed too 1940’s for their new younger audience of girls. Wonder Woman was to lose her whole history, and not just lose it give it up for Steve Trevor, who was promptly killed. This is what’s known as the Mod-Era Wonder Woman where she runs a fashion boutique and learns Kung Fu from a blind master. This era is best known as the worst era of Wonder Woman comics, her lore was almost entirely rewritten and her archenemy during this time is The Catwoman (yes Selina Kyle the Batman badguy) and has more than a passing resemblance to the Frank Miller era of Daredevil (theres actually a storyline where she has to climb a mountain to revive somebody and features her fighting Ninjas). 

With Dennis O’Neils departure from the book the Wonder Woman series returned to something closer to it’s status quo, but DC thought with the success of the Adam West Batman maybe the producers could have a go at Wonder Woman and a pitch pilot was made. The pitch pilot revolves around one joke, Diana Prince transforms into Wonder Woman and becomes uglier, her enemies scream at the site of her but she’s convinced she’s beautiful… unsurprisingly this series did not get green lit.

After William Doziers abysmal attempts at a Wonder Woman TV series, DC tried again with a failed TV movie that has nothing to do with Wonder Woman other than the name. A third attempt had to be made and this one starring American beauty pageant contestant Lynda Carter is possibly the most famous version of Wonder Woman. It’s also easily the most overtly feminist “Fighting for your rights in your satin tights and the old red white and blue” is right there in the theme tune, or what about this quote from the pilot “no society should continue if they don’t recognise the accomplishments of women”. 

The first series is about as faithful to the original comics as it can, the conservative medium wouldn’t have Etta Candy spanking sorority girls on during Tea time, but Etta was still there as another secretary and friend of Diana Prince. Steve Trevor was still there played by Lyle Waggoner (who was second choice to play Batman in 66) and still as capable at getting kidnapped by Nazis as ever. Episodes of the show are almost 1:1 adaptations including the pilot which is mostly Sensation Comics 1 and 4 stapled together. But faithful adaptations of 1940’s comics are expensive so the 2nd season onwards abandoned the WW2 setting in favour of the contemporary 1970’s. Steve Trevor became Steve Trevor Jr played by the same actor, she was a spy, but her rogues gallery rarely appeared opting for cheaper more realistic villains (but Frank Gorshin appears in one episode as the Superman villain the Toyman).

In the 1980’s Wonder Woman comics made strives for gender equality in the boys club of Superhero comics, Dann Thomas in 1983 became the first woman to write Wonder Woman (but with her husband Roy, the first woman to write her solo would be Romantic novelist Jodi Picoult 2006) and Trinna Robbins would do art duties on the mini series “The Legend of Wonder Woman” a recounting of her earliest adventures (and about the only version DC doesn’t reprint). 

The big headline for the main DC Universe in the 80’s would be the Event comic Crisis on Infinite Earths which would completely reshape the DC universe (except for Batman comics). Post Crisis Wonder Woman Art and scribe duties went to George Perez who was top tier talent at the time having just finished his run on New Teen Titans (DC’s best selling series at the time). Perez would add more greek mythology to Wonder Woman, her reason for leaving Themyscira (previously Paradise Island) would be to stop Ares (not Mars this time) from launching a Nuclear warhead. The Amazons would now have been enslaved on the orders of Zeus and Hypolita would free them by tricking their warden Heracles. Hera lead them to the new land where they would be safe but Hypolita would long for motherhood due to her being raped by Heracles. This longing would be so great that Hera had to breathe life into the clay doll she carried around and this would be Diana. Wonder Woman would no longer have an invisible plane but instead would be bestowed with gifts from the gods; The Speed and Flight of Hermes (the only man allowed on Themyscira), The Wisdom of Athena, The Cunning and Strength of Artemis and The Beauty of Aphrodite. This era would also give a greater importance to the occasional Wonder Woman (and Superman) villain Circe. Circe had appeared in earlier stories but with a greater tie to Greek Mythology on the antagonists from Homer’s Odyssey was given pride of place and made a nice counterpoint to Dr Psycho. While Dr Psycho wants to subjugate all women because they make fun of his height, Circe wants to turn all men into manimal slaves that worship her. With these two Wonder Woman fights for equality between the genders and not just saving women from the wickedness of men, equality women can be evil too. 

The relaxing of the Comic’s Code Authority cause the artists post-Perez to make a distinctive choice with Wonder Woman’s already skimpy costume to shrink it. Over the years Wonder Woman’s pants shrunk to the point that they became a thong, but her bracelets have been growing since Harry G Peter left the series so much I want the original Wonder Woman to meet the current  one and say “I see you have the Novice Bracelets, you must work on your skills at Bullets and Bracelets”. If they weren’t shrinking her costume artists where (and this trend continues to now) adding armour, this is an insult. DC does this with Superman and The Flash as well but it makes the characters look weaker, as if Wonder Woman can’t deflect bullets with her bracelets. If anything it would make the villain seem better because now the hero doesn’t trust in their abilities. 

With changing creative teams in the 90’s Wonder Woman’s costume shrank again until one man, John Byrne said no more and drew her wearing more comfortable looking pants. I actually have this theory that she was not in fact wearing smaller and smaller pants but she had been wearing the same batch from the 40’s all this time and they’d been shrinking in the wash. Byrne’s run added many things to the lore, Diana Prince now worked at a fast food chain, her best friend was an archeologist and she had finally gotten competent sidekick (Donna Troy never actually served as her sidekick and was created solely for the Teen Titans). Cassandra Sandsmark was the daughter of Wonder Woman’s best friend and Zeus, Cassie would go on to be in Young Justice and Teen Titans. But how did Byrne treat Wonder Woman herself, well she became a martyr, she took hits and punishment so that nobody else would. While still motivated by empathy and her inner strength, it makes Wonder Woman heroic but also more of a submissive when Wonder Woman had previously been the loving dominatrix. DC editorial during John Byrne’s tenure kept mandating he use specific characters, and a specific one during each arc, Wonder Woman’s solo book had stopped being solo and became a team up book, this trend would continue off and on until 2005.

Greg Rucka would be the next writer to make lasting additions to the Wonder Woman mythos, his addition would be the super villain Veronica Cale. The best way I can describe Veronica Cale is as Wonder Woman’s answer to Lex Luthor. A self made billionaire industrialist and scientist who is motivated by envy, Veronica hates that Wonder Woman is viewed as a feminist icon. She doesn’t think Wonder Woman deserves the accolades as she was given opportunities Cale never had, Cale never got to be raised on a magical island of all women, Cale has no superpowers, everything she has she learnt through work and all she wants is to knock down the demigoddess to her level.

Times where changing in Geek Culture with the success of the Doctor Who revival, Harry Potter and the Twilight books more women where willing to identify as geeks and get into geeky things like Superhero comics. DC capitalised on this by giving Wonder Woman her first female writer who would reintroduce the character after the Infinite Crisis event, Jodi Picoult for a mini series called “Who is Wonder Woman?” after this mini series the main book would be taken over by Gail Simone. Simone’s run was the most popular since the 70’s even though it added relatively little to the lore, it’s most enduring legacy is that it outs Wonder Woman as bisexual. However DC couldn’t let a good thing last, despite the series being the best it had been for a long while (both in writing and sales) they had to abruptly fire Simone from the series and replace her with J Micheal Straczinski fresh from his tenure at Marvel. In the false name of Hera JMS and Jim Lee in Wonder Woman 600 introduced Wonder Woman’s new costume a Biker jacket and leggings. The sales of 600 where strong, 601 weren’t and 602 sales were worse. Fans were outraged, some because of the firing of Simone, some for the new costume and some because Straczinski had just ruined Spider-man over at Marvel and he looked set to work his magic at DC.

Wonder Woman’s first major outing outside of the comics was the Hanna Barbera series Super-Friends, but in that show all the heroes are reduced to different powers the only real personalities are the Wonder Twins who are mind-bogglingly annoying. But DC in the early 2000’s had 2 failed attempts to bring Wonder Woman to a wider non-comic book reading audience. A pilot episode for a new live action TV series was made written by Boston Legal and Ally MacBeal creator David E Kelly, starring Addrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman and Elizabeth Hurley as Veronica Cale. This version has nothing to do with Wonder Woman comics, Diana Prince is the CEO of a major corporation who sells her likeness to toy manufacturers and complains about the expectations of her like “Wonder Woman is supposed to have perfect tits” that is an actual quote from the pilot. The series was not green-lit and to this day fans wonder what they where thinking. The other failed live action project for Wonder Woman was Joss Whedon’s film version. This was often spoken off in hushed tones over the internet as a what if (to go with Whedon’s failed Batman movie) and with the directors success of The Avengers fans became more and more curious as to what it could be. All that was known about it was he intended Cobie Smulders (best known as Robin from How I Met Your Mother) was to play Wonder Woman until the script leaked online. At first some journalists thought this was a fake, but alas this was the real thing. Joss Whedon’s “Feminist” credential has always felt shaky to me but with this script was one of the final nails in that coffin. The script gives intense graphic details of scenes of foot fetishism, Wonder Woman performing stripteases and Steve Trevor as the main character.

DC Animation had greater success bringing the character off the comics page with an animated movie and her inclusion into the Justice League animated series. The animated film starring Keri Russell and Nathan Filion as Steve Trevor, is a mostly faithful adaptation George Perez’s run on Wonder Woman. The biggest change is that Ares is the one who tried to enslave the Amazons not Hercules, which is done to streamline the story. Without a doubt my favourite part of the film is where Wonder Woman punches Steve Trevor and tells him to show that he needs to show more respect to women. Unfortunately that strong feminist message cannot be found in DC Animations other version of Wonder Woman, there she is reduced to what I call the “Jean Grey Role”. In the Justice League animated series, Diana is a lovesick teenager pining over Batman (because the DCAU is made by Batman fanboys for Batman fanboys). Producers justified this decision with “we didn’t want to explore a romantic relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman” which is just insulting to the character that “she needs a love interest”. But in reality giving Batman the arm-candy strengthens him, makes him the coolest one, something the DCAU is obsessed with doing so much so that every other member of the Justice League is weaker than their comics counterpoint except him. 

Wonder Woman would also appear in The Dark Knight Strikes Again and All Star Batman and Robin written by Frank Miller. The version of Wonder Woman in these stories would be a straw feminist, an excuse for Frank Miller to give his criticisms of modern feminism which as he’s a racist, misogamist as well as a talentless hack he had a lot of them. Miller’s idea of feminism is hating all men, at that what Wonder Woman monologues about semi-coherently (did I mention Frank Miller is not a good writer) yet paradoxically is in love with Superman whom she has sex with in the sky causing a snow-storm. How that works I have no idea my only guess is its not snow but instead Super-sperm. These stories would not warrant mentioning but they actually went on to inform the next era of Wonder Woman’s history (and not as a reaction against). 

DC rebooted all of its comics in 2011 with the New 52, whole back stories would be rewritten and Wonder Woman got Brian Azzarello as her writer. To those who don’t know Brian Azzarello is to Frank Miller what Robin is to Batman, he’s his biggest fanboy and also a misogamistic piece of shit. Wonder Woman was no longer a champion of Peace and Love but a 2nd rate Xena and later the Goddess of War. She was no longer brought to life by a goddess but the daughter of Zeus. She wouldn’t use her lasso of truth to find the solution to a problem she would now use her Godslayer sword to stab things. The Amazons where no longer subjugated unfairly but would now sail the seas in rape gangs, looking for men to impregnate them and then kill them. Over on Justice League New 52 Wonder Woman would be in a relationship with Superman once again reduced to his arm-candy. Wonder Woman had sold out all of her values and she was about to get a movie out of it. 

The Wonder Woman movie produced a story-credited by Zack Snyder, a man whose only original movie is Sucker-punch which encourages rape “because it allows women to grow stronger” would not make a good Wonder Woman movie. Produced by Brett Ratner who actually raped someone on the set of the movie (would not want to uphold the feminist ideas of Wonder Woman). Gal Gadot who when the story of his rape broke to the media campaigned for his removal from the sequel suddenly went quiet when the victim, her childhood friend accused her of helping him do it. The Movie itself removes any relevance of the Goddesses from the story, opting for Zeus to rule the Amazons, this is not an all female society but a male fantasy for one man to have a whole harem of warrior women. The film also chooses to have Steve Trevor be a competent spy (also not having Wonder Woman nurse him back to health, thus changing her motives from altruism to a desire to kill Ares) and not once despite his constant patronising does Wonder Woman stands up to him. The film also ends with her giving up her role as Wonder Woman to run a fashion boutique (just like the Dennis O’Neil era). The only reason this film got any praise as a feminist moment had to come from how overdue a female lead superhero movie that was watchable was. 

With her history covered which is Wonder Woman? Well, the answer is both. Wonder Woman’s history is problematic and not just because she fought a villain called Egg Fu (a giant egg with a Fu Manchu moustache who speaks in “engrish”). Wonder Woman doesn’t actually belong to DC Comics, no fictional character actually belongs to their publisher, she belongs to the reader. She lives in out collective imagination and there is certainly evidence for both sides of the debate. But we as readers can choose which stories inform “Our Wonder Woman”, we can select the most uplifting and feminist, we can pick the silliest or we can be slimy creeps that DC are more than happy to cater to and pick the worst. The choice is up to you and sure Marston her creator was a complicated man but he had good ideas as well as bad, to remove him wholesale like DC has tried to do is wrong. Thankfully they’ve published Grant Morrison’s Wonder Woman Earth One which is an exploration of his ideas, criticising the ones that don’t work and praising the good ones. The future of the character is not decided yet, hopefully more and more creators will reject Azzarello’s run and draw inspiration from the better ones, currently Greg Rucka has returned to the book and her characterisation as a compassionate diplomat have returned with him. 

DC’s Trinity have different roles in their universe; Batman is there to punish the wicked, Superman to protect the world and Wonder Woman is a healer. Her main goal is to have the Amazons make peace with men, so they can have a better future, to heal the mistakes of the past. She wasn’t meant to do this with violence, classic Wonder Woman doesn’t carry any weapons, she stands openly and offers emotional support. She helps in a way that is different from the very male Batman of punching criminals. DC have tried to move Wonder Woman away from that, to just the woman who ties people up, taking away Marston’s greatest idea that understanding and compassion are greater than violence.

Why it took so long to get a show like Primal?

Cartoons are for kids” is a stigma that animation has spent many years trying to over come, and in some ways still is. We may now live in a world with “Adult Animation” but this labelling is still strange, most mediums you put “Adult” in front of it means pornographic but animation while it can mean that it can include the Simpsons. Western animation is limited in what Adult animation can mean, it generally means Sitcom, but Genndy Tartarkovski’s new series Primal may look like Zack Snyder’s reboot of the Flintstones it is nothing like the never ending barrage of edgier and edgier Family Guy clones that dominate the genre. 

So where does this idea that Cartoons are for kids actually come from? The original theatrical shorts where played in movie theatres along side any movie, of course the travelling roadshow musicals didn’t have the cartoons but audiences wanting to see Casablanca or The Grapes of Wraith weren’t demanding their money back when after the news reel Woody Woodpecker or Bugs Bunny showed up with their zany antics. Some theatrical cartoons from this time are now banned for being to raunchy like Red Hot Riding Hood or Coal Black and the Sebben Dwarves (that ones also rightly banned for other reasons). But Coal Black actually leads to the answer, Disney. Walt Disney animation as well as making theatrical shorts started to experiment with longer animation the first of which being Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, but feature length animation was very expensive so expensive that even the Oscar win made their profit margins razor thin. So to subsidise their income they had to merchandise everything, but adults in the more conservative 1940’s wouldn’t have Donald Duck on their lunchbox and grown women wouldn’t have a Minnie Mouse pinafore, but kids if they loved the character they’d want them on everything. So animation to become feasible needed to be toyetic so the next theatrical release for Disney’s animation division was Pinnochio which is literally about a toy that comes to life. This might sound like I’m being critical of Disney but I see this as a utilitarian act, and without them there would be no innovation within the medium as the highly experimental Fleischer studios (known for Popeye, Felix the Cat and Betty Boop) crumbled under the costs of animation post-unionisation. While Disney had found a market selling toys to children via animated films they did make attempts to try and appeal to a more high-brow and adult audience with Fantasia and the lesser known Make Mine Music, these failed to make the money the studio hoped for. Fantasia was in the mind of Walt Disney a more grandiose idea, they would own their own Fantasia theatres (Fantasia being more of a genre) and every few weeks a new animated short would be added to the playlist meaning that if you kept coming back to the theatre to see it you would see new content each time. In 1945 Walt Disney even commissioned Salvador Dali to come up with a shorts for a second tour of Fantasia, the short itself was finished in 2003 and was named Destino. After Fantasia failed to live up to it’s creators dreams they tried again with Make Mine Music but this time their would be more styles of music in there, while Fantasia was classical Make Mine Music had Baroque and Jazz pieces for Diversity. 1946’s Make Mine Music did alright at the Box Office, but this could be more to do with the war effort than the quality of the film (also because of the war Disney did not make a full feature length animated film until 1950).

Many attempts by animators where made to break the glass ceiling of it just being a kids medium. Hanna Barbera attempted it first with two animated shows, The Flintstones which started out advertising cigarettes and was about two married couples the Flintstones and the Rubbles. Inspired by the Honeymooners the Flintstones storylines were about Fred jealousy of what his neighbours have and him being a neglectful husband. As the series continued the show became more and more kiddie with the additions of more Dino-pets, babies and an alien. Hanna Barbera’s other attempt to crack a more adult audience was doomed from the start, Jonny Quest was based on the comic book art style of Doug Wildey and was meant to emulate the success of Dr No. The show started out with Race Bannon as the leading hero (working title then was “Amazing Race” not Jonny Quest), but with it being animated and with a time-slot that was just before children’s bedtimes the show got altered to being about Jonny. Further medalling happened and the show had a cartoon dog called “Bandit” added to show, Bandit was also drawn in a completely different style to the rest of show and more and more corners where cut because the show wasn’t that profitable and the shows art deteriorated and started to look more and more like the Flintstones. Hanna Barbera had another attempt to break into prime time television with the animated show “Wait till your father gets home” which is most notable to be the last prime time cartoon series (not one off special) before the Simpsons, Hanna Barbera also had so little faith in selling the show as animated they produced an alternate version of the pilot as a live action sitcom.

An oddity of theatrical success for animated came about in the form of Ralph Bakshi’s Fritz the Cat and it’s success came from leaning into its subversion of a children’s genre. Fritz the cat featured un-family friendly themes like Sex, Drugs, unconventional sex and experimenting with Neo-Nazism. The films success spawned many imitators including; Down and Dirty Duck produced by Roger Corman and directed by one the future creators of Rugrats and Once Upon a Girl a fully animated pornographic cartoon made by disgruntled Hanna Barbera employees in their spare time and far less successful sequel to Fritz (with neither the comics creator Robert Crumb or Ralph Bakshi’s involvement), Bakshi’s next projects were Heavy Traffic and Coonskin which is even more controversial than Fritz. After Coonskin getting banned Bakshi started making fantasy films, the first of these was Wizards but starting with his adaptation of Lord of the Rings he started using a technique called rotorscoping. Bash wasn’t the first to use this technique, it was first used by Fleischer studios for their out of the inkwell series and it was actually quite normal for it to be used in hand-drawn animation. Walt Disney often used it for more realistic movements in their children film most notably Margaret Kerry for Tinkerbell in Peter Pan. Rotarscoping is done by filming someone for reference and then drawing an animated character over them, for Ralph Bakshi’s animated fantasy films he filmed an entire film on a low budget with props and the drawing fantastical elements over them. 

Animation broke into prime time with the Simpsons and while the earlier episodes tackled more taboo subject matters like depression in it’s first season. But by Season 11 when all of the shows creators had left Ian Maxtone-Graham took over and the show changed, it lacked any empathy or investment in the characters. The animation now wasn’t being used to increase the storytelling, it was being used more of gags and so Homer could get away with things no human could, shattering the bounds of reality that the show had previously. Adult animation had found it’s place on TV (while Bill Plympton did make feature animation and Ralph Bakshi continued until his career collapsed around Cool World). MTV created Liquid TV that featured shows like Aeon Flux an Avant Garde cartoon series and The Maxx (an adaptation of Sam Keith’s comic book) neither made a mark but what was successful was more of the same. Every cartoon comedy (even ones intended for children) where told to be more like The Simpsons, so inevitably we got Family Guy. Family Guy became The Simpsons minus any subtlety, but even with that as the show progressed the point got missed by everyone even those who work on the show, Peter is not supposed to be likeable he’s an illiterate slob and a chauvinist whilst Homer in his earlier appearance (pre-“Jerkass Homer”) is flawed and lives in a world where anyone who can help doesn’t care, Peter is irredeemable. Animated shows became a way of presenting unlikeable protagonists getting away with everything, animation does have a tradition of winners and losers look at the Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny, Tweety Pie and The Road Runner always win and Elmer Fudd, Sylvester and Wile E Coyote always lose, but these cartoons are detached from reality as opposed to Archer. Now I actually like Archer but I often wonder does this need to be animated? especially as the art style in the creators own words is “too look as realistic as possible” and yes the characters and sets are very detailed but you know what looks like real people? actual humans. The animation seems to be there to make the characters pain funny, we don’t think “that poor man” we think “ha ha it’s ok he’s just a drawing”. It creates a detachment a lack of empathy, which is the opposite of what Primal achieves with it’s animation.

  

Finally after all that context I’ll explain why I think Primal is finally animation for adults living up to it’s potential. Of course this is entirely from a fan perspective, I have very limited experience with animation, I’ve made the flash animation of a bouncing ball that everyone makes as part of an IT course but everything else I’ve ever tried to make with animation has been limited at best (and nothing like what I hoped it would be). So I’ve been comparing the techniques of one conjurer to another as they use skills I do not possess but this is the internet and anyone who can type can express an opinion. Genndy Tartakovsky is a master of his craft, and with his first series entirely made for Adult Swim (he previously made Samurai Jack which had it’s last series on Adult Swim and increased the violence) he has done something different to everybody else. Primal’s storytelling is done entirely dialogue free. It’s all told in animation whilst other shows will have 2 characters talking, in Primal it’s all in motion and we know what Fang (the Dinosaur) and Spear (The Caveman) are thinking in any scene. Silent characters are nothing new to animation, but they’re mostly reserved for gags like Tom and Jerry, in Primal the stakes are serious. The two characters are fighting for survival and are also working out how to get along, it’s all conflict and resolution. Not to mention it’s violent and you genuinely feel the pain of these characters and hope they survive, Spear is as expressive as an comic panel by Jack Kirby. In fact the whole art-style is quite Kirby-esque, it’s all stylised. Primal isn’t the only piece of animation I’d like to add to the Adult animation renaissance the other candidate would be Netflix’s “Love, Death and Robots” but that as anthology is a mixed bag, with some falling into the trappings of “make it look as realistic as possible” which really adds to the stigma of animation as a lesser art form (these episodes almost always bored me) but some like Zima Blue told an interesting sci-fi story with an animated style of their own proving animation can do more than cheap laughs at others expense and still have a more “mature” audience.