Comic Books in the 1960's

Comic books in the 1960's reflected the changing society they were written in by focusing on youth culture and the new moral issues which were prevalent in 1960's society. Though comic books had been aimed at adolescents for years, the direction they were moving in became more obviously predominant with comics being released such as Stan Lee's 'The Amazing Spiderman'. 'The Amazing Spiderman' was the first comic book in history in which the central character was a teenager. This success was soon followed by hordes of new comics from both Marvel and their new main competitors DC, all featuring children and young adults. One reason for 'Spiderman's' great success (it remains one of the best selling comics to date) was that not only was Peter Parker a teenage bot, he was a fatally flawed human being too. He couldn't get a date, the girl he really liked wouldn't give him the time of day, he was a social outcast at school and he couldn't get the job he wanted as a photographer for the Daily Bugle newspaper.

This all changed when Peter gained his super powers from a bite he received from a radioactive spider. His life became different and he showed his flaws by trying to cash in on his newfound powers to become a pro-wrestler. The fact that Peter received his powers from a 'radioactive' spider says volumes about the mindset of the time. 'The Amazing Spiderman' was released at a time when the Cold War was at it's height and people lived in fear that a nuclear strike would be launched and the earth destroyed. They were scared of nuclear fallout and what the radioactivity would so to human beings. The wild rumors circulating about secret government radioactivity tests mutating subjects did not help to calm the public's fears. 'Spiderman' put a different spin on these rumors and tried to portray them in a positive light, sure Peter could now climb walls, but he was using his power for good.

Writer Stan Lee related Peter to the common man by making him responsible for his actions. In the first story arc, Peter vicariously caused the death of the only man who ever believed in him, his Uncle Ben. As a consequence of this, Peter decided that any crime which he did not try to prevent, he was 'morally implicated' in. This guilt that Peter constantly felt reflected the mindset of the time and set the tone of the text's not to subtle message: 'With great power, comes great responsibility' . This can be seen as a reference to the Cold War with Peter representing everything good about the USA: he was the underdog, but rose to the challenge, he was good, upheld the law and cared deeply for those around him. He was noble, just and tried to find the good in everyone. In reality he represented the USA's ideal of policing the world including but not limited to their communist neighbors Russia. Many of Peter's adversaries represented the countries which had a problem with America's megalomaniacal ideal of world domination. The Black Cat and Mikhail Rasputin (who later appeared as a foe in 'X-men' comics) were obvious representations of communist Russia in the way they spoke, their mannerisms and their willingness to force their ideals of life onto the general public. Mikhail Rasputin, a Russian cosmonaut, in particular alluded to a communist agenda when he spoke of making everyone in the world equal, other than himself of course. Even the Red Skull, the key German Communist villain from the 'Captain America' series made many guest appearances first in 'Spiderman' and then later in 'X-men', 'Fantastic Four', 'Force Works' and many, many, other Marvel titles.

At first glance, the way Marvel so shamelessly pitted one country against the other could easily be taken as bias propaganda tactics to further drill the mentality that communism and it's like were bad, but when a closer look is taken the case becomes much different. In many of the comics, the 'bad guys' were given stories, lives, and families. This was another first for comic books, as the typical bad guy became a human being. One notable occurrence of this comes in the form of a story arc from 'The Uncanny X-men' in which member of 'The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants' Pietro Maximoff desperately tries to save his sister Wanda Maximoff (who was currently serving with his rivals the 'X-men'). It is through these actions that we eventually learn why Pietro had performed the many evil deeds he had: love of his sister and a need to save her from the outside world. Marvel, and 'The Amazing Spiderman' in particular chose not to demonize the 'bad guys' and as such broke the bias of the Cold War propaganda to a wider audience than ever before. Many see this a deliberate attempt by the writers to awaken the new social conscience the 60's were incubating to a wider audience. They contributed to the protesting theme of the 60's by encouraging the youth to rise up against injustice, suggesting that if they didn't try to stop it, they were implicated in the crime: if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
Marvel comics were the first character based comics. While DC, their most prominent rival, focused on the power the character had, Marvel focused on what the power did to the character. This made the characters, and therefore the comics themselves, more accessible to the readers they were aimed at and through this gained a wider youth audience.

'The X-men' is a classic example of how comic books reflected society and honed in on the culture they were aimed at. Centering around a group of mutant teenagers, this was a comic book anyone who had ever felt out of place or alienated could identify with. They were average kids, they went shopping, had friends and dealt with all the typical troubles teenagers do. Real teens could identify with this and bought the comics in droves. The 'X-men' was, and is, a book that broke down the stereotypes that past comics and general society had placed on characters and people. A prime example of this was the 'X-men's' leader, Charles Xavier he was an old wheelchair bound man and though quite obviously not physically so, he was the strongest of the group by far with psychic powers. Another outside the box character was the Beast. To look at he was a huge animal like bulk of muscle, but Beast was in fact the most intelligent and well spoken of the group, a keen scientist and literature junky. Beast brought sophistication to the 'X-men' that until then had rarely been seen in comic books. This sophistication was countered by 'X-men's' resident ladies man Angel, the younger Iceman, the sensitive good guy Cyclops and the token woman Jean who would soon fall in love with Cyclops. In later issues Jean would become more complex with story lines and character development, she was the first female character to have a full story and a personality. This reflected the growing voice of feminism. Jean represented what most feminists wanted, the best of both worlds. She was stylish, sophisticated, smart, good looking, independent and had a man who would die for her on cue. Jean was the feminism's voice in mainstream comics and as such she reached a much wider audience than the heroines of the much less circulated comix or underground comics. These comix were adult orientated and compared to mainstream had a relatively low circulation rate. An upside of this was that with the advent of technology such as readily available photocopying facilities in the 50's, anyone could make one. These comix were often protesting or affirming something such as abortion, drugs, pornography, Vietnam, homosexuality or war in general.

As they were so easily made and distributed, many emerging groups of cash strapped protesters such as students used them as an easy way to circulate propaganda. In this way they reflected the society they were created in. Making comix as opposed to comics was also a way to avoid the strict censorship early 60's mainstream comics had and therefore print anything the author required such as pornography and controversial topics like religion. This however was short lived when in the early 60's the Comics Code Authority cracked down on unauthorized comics as the old 1950's claims that comic book lead to juvenile delinquency. To avoid harsher legal penalties, the comic industry slapped creators of comix and anyone who was caught selling or supplying them with heavy fines. It even went to far as to re-introduce the ban on whole genres such as horror. This meant that protest groups were unable to print and distribute their messages, so the focus turned back to the mainstream comics where such comments were starting to become subtly more obvious. This was evident in everything from the newer 'X-men' titles to the older titles such as 'Tintin', in which an investigatory journalist traveled on adventures to different countries while chasing different stories. Possibly the most easily recognized reflection of society was found in an issue called 'Tintin and the Picaros' in which young Tintin and his friends are whisked away to San Theodoros to fight by the side of General Alcazar, who is a masterfully created play on Fidel Castro, as he fights to take control of his country. This was almost an exact mirror of events that had just taken place in the late 1950's and early 1960's in Cuba. It was through stories that dealt with issues such as this that public awareness was raised.

Many well respected comic historians subscribe to the theory that 'X-men' was a comic metaphor for the struggle of minorities in American society. Many of these minorities such as African Americans and homosexuals had been socially exiled, as the mutants in 'X-men' were, for hundreds of years and were only just getting on their feet from a social standpoint. This basic human need of acceptance translated to 'X-men' as they struggled to gain respect and coexist with the scared, xenophobic general population. Many events which were happening in the 60's were mirrored in the 'X-men' chronicles. One such example of this was the Ku Klux Klan's racial crucifixions and lynchings. These murders were reflected in 'X-men' titles as members of anti-mutant group the 'Church of Humanity' caught, lynched or crucified any mutants they could find. The intolerance that the wider community showed towards the mutants was a mirror to that of many Americans to African Americans and homosexuals. The 'Church of Humanity' story explained many cults and church's stance on both minorities: that of zero tolerance. In this arc we were also introduced to a political group whose main aim was the compulsory registration or 'outing' of all mutants, and eventually their deaths. Through this arc, the 'church' even manages to brutally crucify a group of teenage mutants who's only crime is that of being born with the genetic structure of Homo Superior, not Homo Sapiens. After all of this, most of the mutant 'X-men' still wanted to help society as Professor Xavier beautifully sums up in the first issue of the 'X-Men':
'Here we stay, unsuspected by normal humans, as we learn to use our powers for the benefit of mankind... to help those who would distrust us if they knew of our existence!'

Before the 60's comic books were about perfect people, perfect heroes. There was no debating over whether to kill the bad guy, no repercussions if they blew up a building, no human struggle. They were the good guys, things like that just didn't happen to them. 'Superman', 'Batman', the 'JLA' and even 'Captain America' represent this perfect image. The 60's were a decade of social change, social justice and a striving to better the world people lived in. part of this change involved recognizing that there was a rising new youth culture. The comic book industry did this by introducing new titles dealing with teenagers, the human condition and real life issues. It reflected what had happened and what was happening in the society around it, art imitated life.