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Political
Dissent In the Comics of the Silver Age
[Part Two]
With the advent of a new generation of comics scripters in the late '60's (and early '70's)... the previously all-but-insurmountable problem of Old Men attempting to cogently address the concerns of a younger, more politically-oriented comics readership should have been ameliorated, somewhat.
Cary Bates. Chris Claremont. Gerry Conway. Mary Jo Duffy. Scott Edelman. Steve Englehart. Michael Fleisher. Mike Friedrich. Steve Gerber. Archie Goodwin. Tony Isabella. David Kraft. Elliot S. Maggin. Bill Mantlo. Don McGregor. Doug Moench. Dennis O'Neil. Marty Pasko. Steve Skeates. Roger Slifer. Roy Thomas. Len Wein. Marv Wolfman. It seemed as if every time one turned around, there was some new hotshot "young turk" taking a crack at The Justice League of America; The Teen Titans; Captain America; Iron Man; or what-have-
you.
Some of the aforementioned were -- undeniably; inevitably -- more talented than the others. Some (Cary Bates, on Superman; Michael Fleisher, with Jonah Hex) only managed to truly distinguish themselves on one particular and especial comics character. A few others (Englehart; Goodwin; and Thomas being the most notable of these) quickly vaulted to the front of the ranks, talent-wise, and achieved a rarefied sort of "super-star" status within a storytelling medium which (traditionally) has been loathe to accord the term to writers, rather than artists.
Another handful of these made their respective "marks" by becoming especially canny (re-)interpreters of pre-existing characters and/or franchises (O'Neil on Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow is the DC Comics exemplar, here; Claremont on The X-Men, the Marvel Comics standard bearer. And Marv Wolfman trapped lightning in a bottle for both camps, with The Teen Titans AND The Tomb of Dracula)...
...while still others became highly idiocyncratic, sui generis presdigitators (Steve Gerber; Don McGregor; etc.), valued (or else disdained) for their unwillingness to "play" by the established storytelling rules of the medium.
Steve Skeates and Mike Friedrich -- the two scribes at whom we'll be owlishly peering, on this and the next several pages -- didn't fall into any of these camps.
The former (Skeates) was the more talented writer of the two; the latter one (Friedrich), the more successful within the industry, overall. However: neither one is (generally) remembered today, when the roll call of significant comics contributors of the era is sounded.
What they both had in common, however, was this:
They were two of the most overtly politically motivated comics scripters of the period.
This political awareness did not, in and of itself, always translate (as we shall soon see) into particularly good comics, God knows. Frequently, the two would substitute polemic for prose, and agitprop for adventure...
... but: give them this much. They were seldom (if ever)
dull. 
Steve Skeates was the writer of record for both AQUAMAN and THE TEEN TITANS for significant portions of their respective runs. "To Order Is To Destroy!" (TEEN TITANS #31; February, 1971; pencils by George Tuska) is a representative sampling of his work on the latter title.
A young college student by the name of Johnny Adler is seated in the waiting room of the staff psychologist for a small, non- descript university when he overhears the latter counseling a fellow student ("I try to study, but my mind wanders! I keep thinking about the world situation -- the war, the student unresst!") that what the distracted youth really needs is "a minor brain operation."
Startled, the eavesdropping Johnny listens as said psychologist (Dr. Pauling) continues, smoothly: "There's nothing to worry about! It's a very simple operation, with no chance of brain damage! I'll attach a tiny computer circuit to your brain that will strengthen certain thought patterns, making it easier for you to concentrate!"
Faster than you can say "This HMO sucks," the plainly terrified Johnny gets the hell out of Dodge (i.e., the waiting room)... and notices, for the first time, how eerily placid and complacent all of his fellow students seem, just of late...
(In actual point of fact: we never see so much as a single male student
on this campus, throughout this story, whose hair extends even so much as a
single micrometer below their earlobes. In 1971, mind you.
I'm not saying that every single student crossing the quad shoulda oughtta look
like one of the roadies for Steppenwolf, mind you... but: come
on. I've seen shaggier heads atop the chorus for UP WITH PEOPLE!,
f'chrissakes.)
Well. Anyway: Wally (Kid Flash) West is visiting the campus a few weeks later, scoping out the lay of the land and wondering if the place might make for a decent four-year layover, once high school is over and done with. While wandering idly about, he witnesses a group of enraged students attacking a panicky Johnny, and -- one super- speed change into costume later -- manages to effect rescue of the dazed youth.
Johnny pleads with the perplexed Kid Flash to take him "up into the hills! I... I've been hiding out up there!" The (somewhat) dubious Titan does so; and Johnny, in turn, fills his rescuer in on the whole "Teenage College Students From Outer Space" scenario going on locally.
"Maybe the kid is a mental case," Kid Flash
muses. "He certainly exhibits all the characteristics of an absolute
paranoid!" (This, mind you, from a guy wearing a mask.)
In any event, however: Kid Flash promises the still-shaken Johnny that
he'll check into things on campus, and -- the next day -- he and a quartet of
fellow Titans (Speedy; Wonder Girl; Mal Duncan; and Lilith)
are all traipsing from building to building sub rosa, in their cute li'l
identical group "jumpsuit" civvies. (Oh, yeah; that looks nicely
inconspicuous. Five complete and total strangers, all just... you
know... moseying about in a tight little cluster, asking odd, pointed questions
and whatnot. Shyeah. Right. Yoooouuuuuu betcha.)
"I don't dig, Wally," the (clearly) too-hip-for-words
Speedy observes. "They look like ordinary kids to me! A bit
more clean-cut, maybe..." (Geez... and this kid's
practically sporting a crew cut! And when you stop to consider
how -- just a few years down the road -- he'd be the one to end up a
major brother-can-you-spare-a-dime-bag junkie...!)
"Maybe I can find out if their brains are normal or not," the
telepathic Lilith volunteers. (A few issues later, Little Miss "Normal,"
here, was going to fall heads-over-heels in lust with an honest-to-Michael Crichton
cave man. Maybe Johnny should have held out for the Justice League,
all things being equal.)
Meanwhile: the super-snoopers are being given the ol' hairy eyeball, in turn, by the aforementioned Dr. Pauling and the (unnamed) Dean of the univeristy.
It turns out that mean, nasty ol' Dr. Pauling has re-interpreted the Hippocratic Oath in such a fashion as to allow (quasi-)lobotomizations on an epic scale, so far as those pesky campus teens are concerned. (And darned proud of said procedure he is, too: "And because of that plan, there hasn't been any student unrest around here in over a year! I'm turning those kids into good citizens!")
("But you have no medical license," the Dean points out, which -- one
really must admit -- probably does put something of a damper on the whole
Ethical Medical Experimentation thing. "It's illegal for you to
perform those operations!") (Oh, sure; now we're gettin'
all antsy over transmogrifying the Class of '71 into a bunch of "extras" for
ARMY OF DARKNESS: PART TWO.)
("That's just a technicality!" Pauling scoffs. "No one's complained, have they?")
(There is absolutely no joke I know of with which I might even attempt
to follow that particular howler. I'm just sayin'.)
A wild-eyed Pauling gibbers some orders into a microphone thingie... and the entire student body, en masse, gets all feral and ugly and whatnot with the Titans. [See panel reproduction, below]
"Aw, c'mon, Whitey," a grinning Mal -- who, doubtless, has seen every Pam Grier film ever made, up to that point -- jibes. "You can hit harder than that!"
"Hey!" teammate Speedy responds. "What's the big idea of you telling me what to do? I'm beginning to think you don't know your place!"
This touching hommage to the joint cinematic oeuvres of Tony Curtis and Sidney Poiter aside, the Titans -- with a timely assist from Johnny (you all remember Johnny, right?) -- manage to bludgeon just enough hapless, zombified students into a series of comas and suchlike in order to capture and subdue the crazed Dr. Pauling.
The last third of the book is taken up by a fairly inconsequential tale involving under-utilized semi-Titans The Hawk and the Dove, with pencils onc again provided by Mr. Tuska. And -- whereas the characters are more fully explicated within their own two-page entry, elsewhere on this site -- a quick look-see at the story in question should serve to cap things off nicely, nonetheless.
"From 1 To 20" is a middle-range mini-tale in which Hank (Hawk) Hall stumbles onto a counterfeiting ring after observing a newstand vendor slip a "customer" a twenty dollar bill as "change" for a single. Believing that he has, instead, witnessed a "shakedown" of said vendor on the behalf of some low-rent criminal syndicate, he sets out to collect evidence of same by dint of his usual methods (i.e., Beating the Holy Living Crap Out of People).
It isn't until brother Don, however -- the "Dove" to Hank's "Hawk" -- gets involved in the case that the true motives and method of the counterfeiters are brought to light, with the pacifistic Dove doing what he does bestest: A.) applying deductive reasoning towards the resolution of any given problem... and: b.) Getting the Holy Living Crap Beaten Out of Him.
We'll hold off on passing summary judgment on Mr. Skeate's auctorial efforts, however, until we've had opportunity to glance at his other major series work of that period: AQUAMAN.
Turn to Page Three of our POLITICAL DISSENT IN THE COMICS OF THE SILVER AGE...
and we'll do precisely that.
Political Dissent In the Comics of the Silver Age: PAGE ONE
Political Dissent In the Comics of the Silver Age: PAGE THREE
Political Dissent In the Comics of the Silver Age: PAGE FOUR
Political Dissent In the Comics of the Silver Age: PAGE FIVE
Political Dissent In the Comics of the Silver Age: PAGE SIX
Political Dissent In the Comics of the Silver Age: PAGE SEVEN
Political Dissent In the Comics of the Silver Age: PAGE EIGHT
Political Dissent In the Comics of the Silver Age: PAGE NINE
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