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Political Dissent In the Comics of the Silver Age
[Part Six]
A while back, a regular visitor to these environs (hi, Quent!) e-mailed me to the effect that a great many of the stories referenced in this particular entry (if not all of them, in fact) seemed to have "sold their story content (and entertainment value) for a pot of message."
Yes... and No.
That the resolutely "political"
and "relevant" comics of the era in question (late '60's/early '70's), far too
often, sacrificed the niceties of Plot (and , in some instances, Characterization)
in the service of Brute Polemic is -- obviously -- a "given," and most assuredly
not to the credit of their respective authors. (I thought I'd kinda
sorta said as much, actually.)
"Entertainment value," however, is a trickier thing to quantify. It's certainly beyond all rational argument that the comics sold immensely better, back in those days. (The lowest-selling comic book of the period boasted of sales figures easily dwarfing those of the best-selling comics of today.) So, in that respect: the fickle gods of "entertainment value" would seem to have decisively ruled in favor of Then , as opposed to Now.
... and, too: even the
goofiest efforts of that turbulent era still afford us generous dollops
of rollicking, rib-tickling "entertainment value," today... even if only as
(involuntary) "object lessons."
"The Computer That Captured a Town" (WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #205; September, 1971; Steve Skeates, writer; Dick Dillin, penciler) opens up with the following caption:
"Some small towns never seem to change. Such a town is Fairfield. The stores and homes look nearly the same now as they did during the early 1900's... and the thoughts and opinions of the townspeople -- these, too, have hardly changed..."
We see three of the Teen Titans of the period (Kid Flash; Speedy; and Mal Duncan) beating the holy living crap right out of some two-bit grocery store knock-off artist.
"Please!" the terrified crook pleads as a grim-visaged Kid Flash moves in to apply a little super-speed force majure. "I didn't mean to steal! My family's starving, and -- "
"That doesn't change the facts any!" Kid Flash replies, kaPOWing the luckless bandit so hard that the latter is literally lifted off the ground. "-- you've broken the LAW!"
(Little-Known "Fun Fact": that very same week, in DC history, Lex Luthor conquered all of Metropolis, and brainwashed both Superman AND Lois Lane into serving as his mute, helpless "sex slaves"; Gorilla Grodd, meanwhile, ripped the head right off the shoulders of a sleeping Flash, and used it to break all pre-existing records over at the "Gorilla City Bowl-A-Rama"; and the Batman finally went allllll the way wack-a-ding-hoy, cooking and cannibalizing a shrilly shrieking Commissioner James Gordon...
(... but -- by golly! -- every
last loaf of bread over in the Fairfield "Piggly-Wiggly" was bought and
PAID for, that week! Damn betcha -- !)
Well. Anyway. The modern-day Jean Valjean is pummeled into the pavement by all three card-carrying super-heroes, in turn; and -- moments later -- we are treated to aa scene of the Two-Fisted Trio ambling down one of Fairfield's quaint, picturesque little side streets... whereby the following exchange occurs :
SPEEDY: "Me and Flasher are heading over to The Silver Palace for a malt, and to dig the jukebox."
KID FLASH: "We'd like to have you come with us, Mal... but they only serve whites. Besides... you'll have a much better time over on your own side of town... with your own kind." (!!)
Incredibly enough, Mal's response to said statement is not:
a.) deftly snatching a particularly lethal-looking arrow from Speedy's quiver; AND --
b.) jamming the suckah into
Kid Flash's waiting jugular vein, screaming various and sundry epithets concerning
the subjects of ancestry; sexual preference; and Mothers, in general.
No, and no: instead, he replies, good-naturedly: "Tha's sure 'nuff true!"
CUT (mercifully) TO: a tastefully-furnished apartment being cohabited by fellow Titans Wonder Girl and Lilith.
"Gee whiz!" the Amazonian
Princess whines. "I wish Kid Flash, or Speedy... or somebody
would ask me out on a date! I don't want to spend my whole
life pasting up pin-ups of rock groups in my scrap book!"
(Ahh. A career-minded gal, then.)
Bored to distraction, the dual dameiseles turn, in desperation, to the Boob Tube... and are confronted with the phosphor-dot image of Clark Kent, reading the late evening news.
"Sayyy," the auburn-tressed Titan breathes. "This Clark Kent guy is cute! Don't turn him off! He turns me on!"
(I could have gone... oh, such
A Very, Very Long Time without having had to hear that. Really
and truly; you just don't know. Clark Kent and Lilith... nekkid...
writhing...)
Sub-consciously, the enraptured empath transmits a mental S.O.S. in the general direction of Metropolis (which is, I asure you, more than I could have done, sans recourse to a compass; an atlas; and several jumbo economy-sized bottles of Advil)...
... and: Clark Kent reacts thusly. [See panel reproduction, below]
Boy... talk about your slow news
days, huh...?
"Wha --? How does Clark Kent know we're here?" Wonder Girl huffs.
"And what's this nonsense about our being trapped?" Lilith splutters, in turn. "We like Fairfield! That's why we decided to settle down here!"
Meanwhile, an extremely
perplexed Superman ("I said what on the air, tonight...?") is already
winging his way towards the tiny hamlet of Fairfield, intent upon solving The
Mystery of the Impromptu Newscast Dialogue.
Spotting Kid Flash and Mal from above, via his telescopic vision... Superman makes a two-pointer nearby, just in time to hear to overhear the following exchange:
KID FLASH [jabbing a finger at Mal's chest]: "Speedy and I have dates tonight, Mal... that's why we're not going crime-fighting! You understand, BOY?"
MAL [hanging his head in abject shame and misery]: "Yassuh, Mistuh Flasher!"
(You know... it just now occurs to me: Wonder Girl and Lilith have already made mention that they don't have "dates" for the evening. You don't suppose that Kid Flash and SPEEDY -- ?!?
(Oh, lordy.)
"Something's terribly wrong around here!" the Man of Steel hazards. (Notice how all of those long, loooonnnnnng years spent in the company of the Batman have finally started to pay off Big, Big Dividends, ratiocination-wise. You go, Kal-El -- !) "Not only was Kid Flash putting Mal down... but Mal was taking it!"
(I have this mental image of
the Silver Age Superman: darting frantically to and fro in the midst of
an apocalyptic soup storm -- it's raining soup, see, in this image -- and the
Batman yelling at him: "Not with the fork, Clark!
Not with the FORK -- !")
Be that as it may, however: Superman wanders his way through the bucolic Fairfield, scoping out the Whos
and the Whats and the Wherefores of the place. Even a cursory once-over
reveals that dang near everything within the town's borders is named
after a mysterious individual by the monicker of "Richard Handley." ("Handley
Park"; "The Richard Handley Memorial Library"; "Handley's Combination Petting
Zoo and House of Ill Repute"; you get the idea, I'm sure.)
Finally, the Big Blue Goombah stumbles across a hidden cavern, near the outskirts of the town... and makes two decidedly important discoveries, one right after the other:
1.) There is a huuuuuge honkin' computer-type thingie -- of obvious alien design and manufacture -- nestled deep within the recesses of said cavern.
2.) There is a huuuuuge honkin' DRAGON- type thingie, guarding the aforementioned alien device...
... and: said beastie
is about as friendly; open; and receptive to the notion of "company" as would
be (say) the hermetic Howard Hughes, in his twilight years.
The two muscle and tussle for
a half-dozen pages or so, with Superman struggling to get to the alien
machine, either by power or guile; and the reactionary reptile matching him
measure for measure, every step of the way. (Were you to point out, at
this juncture, that this makes Superman roughly as smart as a lizard...
well. It's certainly is something to think about, isn't it...?)
Eventually, however: the Man of Steel maneuvers his way over to the mysterious machinery; levels the contraption with one mighty swipe of his uberpaw; the dragon abruptly vanishes --
... AND: the apartment shared by Lilith and Wonder Girl. A sneering Kid Flash strides in, demanding: "Why don't you girls neat things up here? You haven't got anything better to do!"
An outraged Donna promptly introduces
Wally's Face to Her Hand, as she and Lilith respond (respectively) with cries
of "Male chauvinist pig!" and "Right ON, Donna!"
(Look... it was the early '70's, all right? Just
be thankfull they both didn't break out into a quick chorus of Helen Reddy's
"I Am Woman.")
Similarly, elsewhere: Mal responds to a particularly nasty little racist jibe on the part of a contemptuous Speedy by making certain that the latter enjoys a quick, impromptu close-up of the local asphalt. A sheepish and contrite Boy Bowman, in turn, makes amends with his fellow Titaan by offering to shoot up a dime bag with him.
Juuuuuusssssssssssssst
kidding.
(I'm allowed a minimum of one Speedy-the-Boy-Junkie joke per page, for any
entry specifically dealing with the Teen Titans.)
Epilogue: at Superman's
behest, the heroes assemble in the center of town, where we are informed by
one of the Titans that: "... our mentor, Mr. Jupiter, [sent]
us here to find out what small towns are like." (That's right,
folks; the Teen Titans were the only super-hero group of their day to
be sent out on field trips by their [then-]designated "teacher."
I imagine he gave them lunch money, as well, and urged them not to forget to
employ the "buddy system" at busy intersections.)
"But why'd we ever settle
down in an old-fashioned place like this?" Speedy muses aloud, casting
frantic glances this way and that in the vain hope of spotting a friendly "dealer"
loitering within the immediate vicinity. (All right... make that two
"junkie" jokes, then.)
Superman assumes the requistie Expository Duties at this point, explaining: "... an alien thought-control device [...] drifted to Earth, and landed like a guided missle [...] while cave exploring, Richard Handley touched the device... and it sucked in all his thoughts." [sic]
"It projected them out as mesmerizing rays," the Man of Steel continues; "... affecting all the townspeople... including you new arrivals. As for myself, I was immune to the rays because -- "
"... because you're SUPERMAN!"
Mal concludes. (Oh. Well. Just so long as there was a reason,
then.)
"Finally," Superman says -- after ticking off a quick shopping list of the late Mr. Handley's little personal foibles (racist; sexist; fascistic; ego-maniacal) (Geez... this sounds like the old Nazi guy from APT PUPIL.) -- "he really loved his home towwn... and wanted everyone else to love it, too!"
"Handley sure was a lot of things," Speedy offers, in summation; "... but, then: I guess we all are!"
Oh, Roy. You're so deep.
Even by the relentlessly "hip" and "with-it" standards of the relevancy-
in-comics period, this was (obviously) pretty heavy-handed stuff; well in keeping with author Skeates' demonstrable inability to pen any TITANS-
oriented tale without first surveying the storytelling
surroundings from atop the tallest soap box available. (I mean: "Yassuh, Mistuh Flasher"...?!? Gimme a break, here.)
However: there was a TITANS tale published just a little less than a year after this one which was -- if possible -- even less subtle in auctorial intent than was this offering.
Page Seven of our POLITICAL DISSENT IN THE COMICS OF THE SILVER AGE section.
Be there.
Let me hear you all say
it, now: "Yassuh, Mistuh Cheeks!"
Political Dissent In the Comics of the Silver Age: PAGE ONE
Political Dissent In the Comics of the Silver Age: PAGE TWO
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 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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