In this brief I have decided to focus my research on, not only how superheroes have been affected by

the world, but also how they themselves have affected the world. To start with this, we need to go
way back to the start of superheroes. Now although you may think the first superhero was from
comics, this can be either true or false, depending on the angle that you look at it from.

Now although the start of the superhero does originate from comics, I do believe that many older
fictional characters could also be deemed as superheroes, as if we look at the general criteria for a
superhero, they fit in perfectly. Characters such as Zorro, the masked swordsman, and The Scarlet
Pimpinella are prime examples of this. They are both vigilantes, that mask their real identity with a
mask and other name. The fight injustice wherever they may see it, and in some specific cases, even
follow heroes’ trademarks of being 'iconic', an example being Zorros iconic Z. They may not have
powers, but many heroes, even in the early days of superheroes, did not have powers, a prime
example being Batman. Now these characters aren’t considered superheroes, but I do believe that
will definitely have been a somewhat inspiration for the genre.

Now if we are going of the first superhero, it isn’t as straight forward as you might think, as to this
day, it is heavily debated on who it is. One popular answer is Mandrake the Magician, another is the
phantom. Although, since the whole point of my research is on cultural impact, I thought I would
start on superheroes first major hit, that being Superman.

Superman as a character is arguably one of the most recognisable characters off all time. When the
average person thinks ‘superhero’, chances are Superman will be pictured. His first appearance was
in 1938, in Action comics 1. He wore a bright outfit, inspired by Russian strongmen, and was shown
lifting a car with ease.

Getting straight to the point, the reasoning for Superman is very much based of the world at this
time. America was still in the great depression at this point, and hope was very sparse. Superman
was made to be a physical embodiment of hope, and represent the dream of a man being able to fix
any problem and make the world a place rid of evil.

This idea of hope was passed onto essentially all superheroes of this era of comics, and it became
essentially prevalent during the war. People needed the idea of hope now more than ever, so that
they could forgot about the death looming over them. This then caused comic sales to skyrocket
across the country, selling millions each month. Around this time, the idea of hero’s fixing a hopeless
world was amplified to a much more realistic extent. Heros were seen helping in much more topical
ways, such as assisting soldiers. We even see that in the first cover for Captain America, were he is
seen punching Hitler right in his jaw.

Speaking about Captain America, he was a key example of one very apparent trait in comics, that
stayed for quite a while, even quite a while after the war, that being the very apparent American
point of view. This wasn’t a necessary bad thing, as it helped strengthen patriotism during the war,
however, after the war, when comics tried to dwell on new topics, it did make some apparent impact.
Practically every superhero’s nationality and their stories were American, and view of America itself
was one of strong patriotism. They were always the heroes of the story, and were seen as the
righteous side of the conflict, which is very reminiscing of how a country will portray itself in any
conflict, so in this sense, comics seemed to reflect only the positives of there home culture, which in
fairness, isn’t uncommon in these types of mediums. However, as previously said, as comics began to
tackle more serious matters, this optimistic view started to fade, and also became as visible as ever. I
think when it became most visible, was when many non-Americans started to get into the
mainstream comic industry. The Watchmen is a perfect example of this, as although it was American
heroes in the location of America, it was written by Alan Moore, an English author. This change
makes an entirely different story. Instead of the hopeful, dreamlike America most characters like
Superman lived in, it was a dark, gritty place, very reminiscing of the likes of film noir. It showed
much more of a real world take on America, displaying some of the many issues of the country. As
previously stated, I believe this issue was apparent in most forms of entertainment and media, and
not just around America, but pretty much everywhere, although since comics were, for the most
part, primarily American, I think it was the most notable. Due to people like Alan Moore, I believe
this trope has become significantly less prevalent in comics as time has gone on.

Getting back on topic, as previously mentioned, after the war comics tried to go into new topics,
most of which dwelled on more mature topics, like horror and romance. This not only caused a
decline in superhero sales, but it also upset quite a lot of people. This is because comics were
targeted towards a younger audience, and they were now showing much more mature themes. This
caused the comics code of authority to come into place, which prohibited these mature themes in
comics. This caused a large change in how comics were going, and ended the wars era of comics,
dubbed the golden age.

This then started a silver age, which is often overlooked for how influential it is. Due to the sharp turn
in story telling due to the comics code, the way of story telling became a lot different for, in my
opinion, quite a good way. Comic writers started to get a lot more creative with how they told their
stories, and began to tell much more impactful tales. A prime example, in my opinion, was the tales
of Jimmy Olsen. He himself wasn’t really special at all, a non-superhero reporter. However, his stories
explored topics that Marvel and DC wouldn’t dare to put into something as mainstream as The Flash
or The Fantastic 4 (at least not to THIS extent). Jimmy’s stories explored many topics that heavily
endorsed topics like LGBTQ and cross dressing, which at the time, were a lot less accepted by the
general public. These tales may have helped to subliminally make the young readers more tolerant
and acceptive of these topics.

The character of Spider-Man was also introduced in this period, which I think was important. He was
a popular character, as his character was a lot more relatable to readers, which then made him a lot
easier to understand and enjoy, as they could see themselves in him. Even now, studies show that he
is the most popular superhero. I believe he was important, as he helped to bring interest into comic
in a time where they needed a bit of a boost, especially for Marvel in particular.
The silver ages end was due to a boost in comics, after going fairly quite since the war. This boost
caused fans to requested a change in the formular of comics, as older fans wanted more mature
themes in comics. This was now actually possible, as the comics code had to now lightened, due to
more mature topics becoming more and more common in media. We started to get more mature
themes in comics, with stories going deeper into series topics, instead of lightly touching on them.
The death of JFK would also have impacted this. Around his time as president, comics had boosted in
popularity, and the government were actually collaborating to help them introduce the ‘new age of
silence’ to the youth. Therefore, his death not only impacted America significantly, but also the
comics world.

Quite frankly, for quite a while comics stayed on this path. They branched to more mature themes,
with each character other time going through there own hells. The styles of this would change as
how you would expect it. As new trends/American culture changed, comics changed in a similar way,
as they have always been a rose-tinted reflection of the real world, in adapting ways. I believe that
the biggest impact that comics have received in recent times was due to 9/11. As was with
everything else in America (and to an extent, the world) comics changed massively with this event.
Patriotism came following in, and comics began to go deep into the political side of superheroes.

This change as lasted more or less until now, as this mature, real-world outlook can be seen in many
of the superhero movies since then. As you can imagine, comics have changed with the times and
have become more progressive, as with the rest of the world, and I’m sure will keep with this trend
for a while.

Bibliography

(Ho, 2022) (Plummer, 2017) (Comics, 2019) (Morrison, 2011) (Risen, 2014)