Reign of the Supermen
At first I felt somewhat reluctant to do a third entry, because I am the only person that contributed anything to this. However, I a.) had this idea that I wanted to briefly share, and b.) felt like anything I say or write will ultimately not compare to someone spray painting the UASR flag, so I decided, what the hell?:
Comics became a popular industry after the revolution. They were cheap to produce, and easily marketable. They were also cheap to purchase, so children could easily bought them using spare change at stores or restaurants. Comics, however, soon grew beyond reprints of Annie and Popeye. Original material was quickly made. Science fiction, crime, horror, sex... all was there to behold. A growing genre was the Superhero. Having its origins in pulp literature characters (one could argue pre-revolution creation "The Shadow" was a superhero), superheroes were seen as the pinnacle of mankind, using science and technology to help mankind. And it all began with one man fighting for "Truth, Justice, and Socialism."
The first appearance of Superman was pre-revolution. During the early part of the Civil War, in a small self-published science fiction fanzine, "Reign of the Superman" was written in March, 1933. It starred a bald telepath who uses his power for evil. The story was written by Jerry Siegel, who also edited the fanzine. Joe Shuster drew the art for the story. Both were Cleveland high schoolers at time (though Shuster had initially come from Toronto). Shortly after the story's publication, however, they were briefly forced into hiding, due to the recent attacks on Jewish citizens by the White Army. Whilst in a Red Army camp with their families, they conceived of another model for Superman. Here, he was an alien child sent from a dying planet to Earth. Here, he was adopted by a Kansas family, and became known as Clark Kent. Clark Kent decided to become a "hero for the unfortunate," but decided to adopt an identity. "Superman." He also adopted the guise of a mild-mannered reporter. He would be a biblical hero, inspired by Hercules and Sampson, a man who would be faster and stronger than his enemies, and impervious to bullets. This was particularly personal to Siegel, whose father was killed by the robbers a year or so earlier, and also a reaction to the violence around them. They wrote a brief comic on it, but it was lost in the chaos of the early years of the UASR. They decided to try to market their new creation in the newfound country, and shopped around the Comic strips they had made of Superman. They eventually found Syndicated Features Publications, who published the comic anthology Detective Comics. Whilst impressed by the character, they felt that he needed to be updated for the times. Hence, Siegel and Shuster were forced to change the concept drastically. They decided to shoe-horn in a reference to the planet of Superman being run by a "glorious government and society run by the people," which had fallen into decadence. They also removed the parents Sam and Molly Kent, and had Kent be raised on a Kansas Collective farm by most of the farmers. They also took inspiration from the New Soviet Man concept emerging in the USSR. Superman was the perfect socialist, a man who had full self mastery, and would have all the traits of the perfect American worker. Clark Kent, as a civilian, would now be the exemplar proletariat hero (Siegel admitted that he never really liked the influence of that particular concept on the final version of Superman, and felt it diverged him too much from both his mythical sources and from the original idea of Superman he had. Indeed, the early Superman stories tended to downplay that part of him). Shuster decided to make Superman's costume Black, with a red insignia. Finally, they created a new series of stories that featured Superman, with the help of several innocents, destroy a counter-revolutionary base, as well as bust a corrupt public official. In 1938, National accepted the new proposal, and in June, the first issue of Action Comics, featuring Superman proudly standing with the many workers of America in background, was released, and became an instant hit.
Soon, other heroes emerged. Syndicated wanted another superhero, this time to highlight their Detective Comics. Bob Kane, a young cartoonist associated with Syndicated Features, created a new character, The Bat-Man, as a Superman clone with Bat wings. However, Bill Finger, another cartoonist of the collective, decided to change the concept, substitute the wings for a cape, the domino mask for a cowl, and red for black. Finger and Kane had initially intended the character to be a homage to pre-revolution pulp heroes like The Shadow or Zorro. However, when they realized that wasn't really an option in the First Cultural Revolution, they took a different approach. Inspiration came from recent arrests from SecPubSafe, and films like 1934 "The Bat Whispers," where a man dressed as a Bat terrorizes several townspeople, and "This Side of Midnight," where a group of men and women adopt the guise of a single thief to steal money from the wealthy capitalists. The new Batman was now the guise adopted by several government agents dedicated to public safety. The first story in Detective Comics #27, September of 1939, saw one Batman operative infiltrate and destroy a Ku Klux Klan cell in Alabama. Sales for Detective Comics skyrocketed.
Other heroes from both Syndicated and Max Gaines led Red and Black Publication included Will Eisner's the Spirit, The Green Lantern (no magic lantern, just aliens), The Green Lama (Buddhist Superhero), the Flash, and proletariat hero Green Arrow. However, the largest hero outside of these collectives was Captain America. Created by Jacob Kurtzberg and Joe Simon, and published by Timely Publication collective, the Red and Black Hero was a man advanced by science and technology to form the perfect soldier.He, along with a group of American soldiers would battle Nazi oppressors abroad. The first comic featuring the good Captain punching Hitler. Of course, this was just the tip of the iceberg....