We are all familiar with Batman whether it is through movies, comic books, television shows, or cartoons. We know the look of the character and the various actors that have portrayed him over the years but the history of the character is not common knowledge. Batman did not start out resembling anything like the costumed hero we all know. Batman was the creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger in 1938 which was published by D.C. Comics. Kane’s original Batman sketches looked more like a Superman type of character with reddish tights, a domino mask, and some stiff wings that resembled those of a bat. Refinements of the character led to giving him a cowl and a cape, removed the red portions, and giving him gloves. The character’s personality was shaped by movies of the day and characters such as Sherlock Holmes, Zorro, and the Shadow. The main difference in costuming is that most other Superheroes have colorful costumes but Batman has a darker more ominous look which was by design. The Bruce Wayne personality was developed by Bill Finger based on a combination of Scottish legend Robert Bruce and U.S. Revolutionary General “Mad Anthony” Wayne.
Kane signed away rights to the character for, among other compensation, a byline on all Batman comic books which eventually had the line “Created by Bob Kane” for all of Batman’s stories. Bill Finger never received credit as a co-creator of Batman and Kane was criticized by some for not sharing the credit, and after Finger’s death in 1974 Kane regretted letting his ego get the best of him and not officially recognizing him as a co-creator of Batman as well as other characters and villains. Finger was credited as the creator of the Riddler by Julius Schwartz in 1965 in an acknowledgement of his work. The character has been recreated of the years as times and audiences change and Frank Miller’s epic 1986 comic series Batman: The Dark Knight Returns redefined the character for a generation and brought the character back into popularity. This is the version of Batman many of us are familiar with and spawned a series of movies which introduced him and many other characters to a new set of fans. Batman has had a long history of ups and downs but the character has had a large resurgence in recent years and shows no signs of slowing down.
Forty years after the decline and fall of a publishing empire that once sold millions of magazines each month for more than three decades, former Popular Publications, Inc. President Henry Steeger reflected:
“Pulps were the principal entertainment vehicle for millions of Americans. They were an un-flickering, uncolored TV screen upon which the reader could spread the most glorious imagination he possessed…on dull, no-gloss paper that was kind to the eyes.”
Counting British “penny dreadful” novels and the popular successes of early 20th century adventure authors like Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jack London and Upton Sinclair as inspiration, the concept of the “pulp fiction magazine” – or “pulps” to the layman – is a uniquely American phenomenon that be accredited directly to one man: Frank A. Munsey. The former telegraph operator from Maine was able to utilize a method of high-speed printing on cheap pulp paper (hence the name) that allowed him to take his magazines to turn-of-the-century newsstands with a price tag of 10 cents, at a time when copies of more highbrow fare, printed on glossy paper, went for a quarter.
By the 1920s, dozens of imitators and competitors had picked up on that highly lucrative business model, creating magazines like Black Mask, Amazing Stories, Marvel Tales (the forbearer of Marvel Comics) and, most importantly, Weird Tales, in the process. Though the content of the pulps covered every genre imaginable - adventure, western, fantasy, crime, mystery, war, aviation and more – the stories featured in Weird Tales introduced pre-Word War II America to literary titans whose work is still admired (and imitated) today: Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan and Solomon Kane), Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 151, The Martian Chronicles), Isaac Asimov (I, Robot), Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) and Robert Bloch (Psycho), to name but a few of their innumerable contributors.
According to Bloch, the fictional worlds produced by that formidable stable of talent was “the work of writers inspired by the opportunity to create stories on a more literate level than was commonly accepted of the period and transcend the taboos and challenge the smugness of a Norman Rockwell view of America.” And, in truth, the secret cults, blood wielding maniacs and far-flung cosmic utopias of the best pulp stories were most definitely some of the most subversive material available during FDR-era (barring the underground pornography pamphlets known as “Tijuana Bibles,” that is).
While such esteemed writers struggled away for pennies a page with aspirations of one day seeing print in the Saturday Evening Post or Cosmopolitan, other publishers, most notably Street and Smith Publications, created solo “hero pulps” that featured the monthly, novel-length exploits of characters like William Gibson’s The Shadow and Lester Dent’s Doc Savage, among many, many others. It was these “super-heroes” that later gave birth to the pulps’ would-be successors: the comic book.
| By the early 1950s, all but a few of the original pulps had been forgotten in lieu of the fully-illustrated – though far less risqué - adventures of the likes of Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel and the rest of their cape-clad ilk. But the influence of those pulp progenitors on some of America’s most valuable intellectual properties can still be felt today. For instance, Doc Savage’s oft-mentioned Arctic retreat, the Fortress of Solitude, was later “borrowed” by DC Comics’ writers to stand in as Superman’s secret citadel. Whether such maneuvers were a loving tribute or outright theft, the thinking behind them was undoubtedly thus: “Who’ll remember those cheap pulps anyway?” |
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Superheroes are a common part of the world’s popular culture from comic books and movies to television shows and all forms of merchandise. There are conventions devoted to the phenomenon and the genre of superheroes shows no signs of slowing down in the foreseeable future. However, a look at the history of superheroes shows that they have been a big part of our culture and consciousness for decades. They have been recreated time and again as society and events shaped the world around us. For example, during World War II heroes such as Captain America, Superman and Captain Marvel were routinely featured triumphing over the evil Axis powers and were an affordable way to keep the spirit of patriotism going even during difficult times.
During the 1950s superhero comics almost ceased to exist due to social backlash after medical doctor and psychiatrist Dr. Frederick Wertham wrote the book ‘Seduction of the Innocent’ in which he blamed comic books for juvenile delinquency and sexual perversion. The book sponsored a senatorial investigation and led to comic books regulating themselves and creating a code that they had to follow to be published. 
The 1960s led to the rebirth of the superhero genre and many of the most popular characters came out of this decade including the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the X-men, and the Justice League of America. The Civil Rights movement had an impact on comics with the creation of African-American heroes such as Blade, the Black Panther, Luke Cage, and the Falcon to name a few.
From the 1980s until the present time, superheroes have gotten darker and grittier with a more real world feel to them. Batman: The Dark Knight, the Watchmen, Daredevil, and Wolverine are examples of this trend. Superhero movies have become extremely popular with characters such as Spider-Man, the X-men, Iron Man, Hulk, Batman, etc. leading the box office charge. Television shows such as Heroes and Smallville demonstrate the mass appeal and influence of the superhero genre on our society.
