Over on the Dixonverse, poster JWD comments on something in Superman #226 that bothers him greatly. I’ll have him tell it. (I’m reposting it here because Dixonverse does not have an archive.)
Posted by jwd on February 10, 2006 at 08:29:11:
The gist of the story is that our current Superman is in the midst of a fight (from apparantly Kal-L Earth 2 Superman) and everytime he’s hit he’s getting visions of Superman Earth 2 history. The majority of the story is the Earth 2 history. Apparently the current Kal-El may actually be able to influence and change things as well. It’s not really made clear.
So anyway at the end of the book – They are focusing on the JSA disbandment. I belive this is shortly after WWII
“These are dangersous times for America. The enemy lives within us.” and there’s more.
They ask the JSA to take off their masks. They refuse.
Superman shows up.“How dare you, sir? How dare you question [the integrity] of the men and women before you? You are poisoning this country with fear and hatred… and I will not see my nation undermined by cowards.
If it will take a name to stop you… you can have mine. I am Clark Kent. I am Superman, and today. I am ashamed to be an American.”
And no I have no idea what’s going to happen next.
Now [his not liking their questioning] the JSA’s [integrity] doesn’t bother me a bit. What I hated was the line “I am ashamed to be an American”. I mean I can understand people not agreeing with the government sometimes but it just feels like a slap in the face to other Americans and especially to people like the troops risking their lives everyday to give us the freedom a lot of us take for granted.
So now my dilemna is – Do I want to read 2 more parts to a Superman story where he’s “ashamed to be an American” ?
My response to JWD was to encourage him to buy part 2 but to write DC a letter on paper and mail it in letting them know why this upsets him. I also expounded on the whole “JSA stands up to HUAC” moment which has become part of comic book history, even though it didn’t happen until a few decades after HUAC. My analysis of it is below.
The HUAC vs. JSA thing has been revisited several times in recent years, so it’s nothing that DC is backing down from. If anything, in this age of “how wonderful dissenting from your government is” you’re going to be seeing a lot more of it, as though it’s the best thing the JSA ever did and not just a ret-con to explain why the JSA became inactive.
The HUAC thing happened around the same time that comic companies were being taken to task by Congress due to Frederick Wertham’s “Seduction of the Innocent” and the result was the Comics Code Authority. Thus, comic books have a big chip on their shoulder about the meddling government oppressing them unfairly. And given that we’re talking about the censoring of an entire industry based on junk science, they’re not wrong to think that. Wertham’s conclusions were pretty much one man’s opinion, with all the bondage stuff on Wonder Woman covers being, er, pretty much accurate while the gay thing about Batman and Robin was unfair and baseless. So having the JSA being ripped apart by the US Government’s unjustified fear of them is a bit of delicious revenge.
DC has never truly explained why the JSA, the stars of parades, wartime troop shows and scrap drives, the trusted defenders of F.D.R would become so suspect and called before HUAC. [CORRECTION: Fanzing contributor Nicolas Juzda points out that in Adventure Comics #466, where this story is first told, the JSA is given financial and technical contributions from a source that becomes suspect. Also, it is not truly HUAC but a non-historical joint congressional committee just so that the writer could get Senator McCarthy in with HUAC.]
In the 1990s Vandal Savage claimed to be the one who engineered their downfall, but this was never elaborated on. I am not saying HUAC is beyond reproach or any such nonsense as that. Heck, it had a paid Soviet Agent as its co-chair in the late 1930s, and he used it to quash anti-communists and fascists. The HUAC, being comprised of Congressmen, is open to manipulation, especially if DC had a made-up Congressman of their own who was serving Savage. If DC wanted to do a story showing the background and manipulations that brought about the downfall of the J.S.A., it could be quite exciting. Of course, given what a fiasco President Luthor turned out to be, I wish DC would just stay away from political intrigue because they rarely if ever do it well.
The big problem is that the HUAC vs. JSA story was written in the 1970s (I believe) and while the whole “Comics Code” thing partially explained DC’s willingness to cast HUAC as the bad guys, another is the popular opinion of HUAC’s involvement in the Hollywood Blacklist and the Alger Hiss trial, etc. Alger Hiss is now a proven spy. Declassified documents also show that the American Communist Party was tied to/funded/manipulated by the Soviets, though membership in it was never illegal. In other words, whatever their quite debatable excesses, HUAC was concerned with actual, very real threats of communist subversion and the people they questioned were legitimate suspects. Prosecuting the J.S.A., American heroes, on nothing more than a suspicion because they wear masks is more like a political cartoon-y interpretation of what the HUAC did rather than something that could have really happened.
Which is, of course, exactly what it was when it was written in the 1970s! It was a political cartoon, a mere commentary by the writers and editors about HUAC, which they didn’t like. As a throwaway bit to explain why the JSA disbanded, it worked great. But if DC is going to keep using it as a political point and a major event in the JSA’s history, then they should begin treating it as something with some gravity to it.
What I mean is, it’s fun to see comic books about Superman flying to Berlin and kicking Hitler in the butt. If comic books were to forever refer back to it in this day and age where our superheroes are portrayed as real people, well, then we’re forced to treat it as an historical event that changed and shaped the DCU. Do schoolkids read about the day Superman kicked Hitler in the butt? What were the ramifications geo-politically of a superhuman physically assaulting a world leader? How did this affect the end of WWII? Would there really have been a nuclear age if Superman had just captured Hitler and Tojo and taken them back to the Allies?
It’s precisely because this is impractical in the age of continuity that comics about Superman booting Hitler are fun but uncanonical. The JSA giving the rhetorical finger to the HUAC because some comic writer wanted to show solidarity with blacklisted filmmakers really belongs in the same discard pile. If it’s not, then it’s time to start treating the HUAC/JSA event as a real occurrence and explore it with some depth, instead of further posturing.
12 responses to “Superman says he’s ashamed to be an American”
How exactly do you write a section defending the HUAC and fail to even mention Joe McCarthy? To quote: Have you no sense of decency, at long last?
Yes, Alger Hiss was a spy, and the Communist Party wasn’t some fictional bogeyman, but I wouldn’t describe McCarthy’s excesses as “quite debatable,” and I wouldn’t characterize “prosecuting on nothing more than a suspicion” as such a remote possibility.
(To be fair, this is the internet, so I’m not fact-checking.)
A lot of things then and now make me ashamed to be an American as well. A lot of other things make me proud to be an American. It’s my understanding that our troops are fighting to protect all of our freedoms, so being upset when such freedoms are enjoyed is counterproductive.
That, and I’d rather see Superman give Hitler the “Pantha treatment.”
Why did HUAC go after George Marshall in real life?
I don’t know. To go completely off the topic of comics, I think the Hollywood Ten and everybody who got targeted by the HUAC were simply the easiest of easy targets.
Let’s put it into context. We’ve backed off from confronting Red China in Korea. We’re twiddling our thumbs while Soviet tanks roll into Budapest. But if you were some poor screenwriter who attended a couple Popular Front meetings two decades earlier, hey, buddy, you’re not to mess with us!
It’s like when people rant about pedophiles or Islamic terrorists off in Denmark. Sure, they’re morally on the right side but it’s not like they taking some courageous stand or anything…
The provocation stems from the fact that Superman fights for truth, justice, and the American way…for better or worse, people these days have different ideas on the definitions of these three principles. Folks gripe about Superman being a stooge for the government or if he “speaks out”, so it’s not necessarily important.
While the modern take on McCarthy and similar figures of his time is not so much blown out of proportion as it is completely mischaracterized, I can appreciate Superman standing against a perceived injustice on the part of U.S. congressmen and being ashamed of his very tentative tie to it…that of being an American voter. But that doesn’t make it correct, even if it was a Superman expressing it. Moral outrage is understandable, even admirable, except when it’s based on a concoction. That’s the beef these guys have with the statement.
But no matter what anyone thinks, there was plenty of hysteria on both sides of the issue during its time…but only one side’s ado has been validated since then. The rest was moral outrage at a perceived injustice…some of which was, in fact, concocted.
Daniel Palacio wrote: “Posthumously, he {McCarthy} has been proven correct by decrypted Soviet cables called the Venona Decrypts (or Venona documents)…”
This is quite a leap: to say that McCarthy’s statements of “widespread” infiltration of both Congress and the Armed Services by “Communist agents,” and his indiscriminate labeling of innocent people as “communists,” “red dupes” and “fellow travelers.” is validated by the Verona Project documents. There’s nothing either in the documents, nor in what we know from history was the use of the intelligence gleaned from the intercepts by the SIS/NSA/FBI, etc., that justifies McCarthy’s calls for Congressional investigations, much less his grandstanding and slander. A simple reading of the documents themselves and a knowledge of history (knowing who was arrested or removed from positions of power when, etc.) shows that the spooks had the situation quite well in hand without any “help” from McCarthy. What the Verona documents show, instead, is that McCarthy exploited what was already known and what was being addressed, advanced unnecessary fear in the populace and destroyed literally thousands of lives for his own benefit.
Read the documents themselves at http://www.nsa.gov/docs/venona/venona_docs.html rather than taking the word of people who may have their own agendas to advance, won’t you?
Hope that helps.
As a former soldier in the cold war, historian and older comic fan (don’t buy too many anymore but If I see one with golden age heroes I am there) I will defend this scene where superman express shame at being an american
The mcarthy era is a black mark on american culture. mccarthy attacked lots of true american heroes and few people had the guts to stand up to him because of the backlash against those who did. he used libel & inuaendo to destroy people. It was an embarrasing time because our fear of communism made us ignore the blood shed to protect freedom. maybe the writer of this comic feels the war on terror is making the same mistake. But as a soldier I defend the authors constitional right to his opinion. if you dislike the storied view don’t buy it
Superman is an american icon and represents all the thing the immigrants to this country strive to do., arrive here adopt our nation and make it a better place for all. My grandfather was an immigrant from Russia who came here in the 20’s. Immigrants value american freedoms more than most because of how hard they had to work to get them. the old addage we born americans take it for granted because we always had it
just my opinion
It’s just a good comic book story, down boy.
SD asked “How exactly do you write a section defending the HUAC and fail to even mention Joe McCarthy?”
For a very simple reason, SD: Joe McCarthy was a Senator and had nothing to do with the HOUSE Un-American Activities Committee.
While certainly some on the HUAC may have been motivated along similar lines, McCarthy was not part of HUAC.
Don’t feel too chastened. Many people make the mistake of generalising the entire era so that McCarthy was involved and responsible for everything related to the “Communist Witch-Hunt.” Bill O’Reilly made the same mistake when questioning Ann Coulter about her McCarthy book. He asked whether she thought it was a shame what happened to screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (one of the Hollywood Ten, later to write Spartacus), but McCarthy had nothing to do with the investigation into Hollywood. That was HUAC.
So you see, I wasn’t saying that McCarthy’s excesses were “quite debatable”, but HUAC’s. And frankly, I didn’t think I was defending them from anything except from being turned into meaningless cartoon bogeymen. In other words, if you’re going to judge them, judge them for what they actually did and not because 30 years later they’re portrayed as cutting open puppies on the House floor for their own amusement.
McCarthy AND HUAC have their devout defenders, but I’m not one of them. I’m willing to listen to the arguments of someone like Coulter, but ultimately I can’t get beyond the argument that McCarthy damaged himself and the very cause he supported, anti-Communism, with his overbearing nature. Had he been of a more even temperament and exercised his power better, he may very well have been far more successful in exposing Communists and yet there wouldn’t be any such thing as “McCarthyism” that still haunts our discourse today. Posthumously, he has been proven correct by decrypted Soviet cables called the Venona Decrypts (or Venona documents) but it’s the difference between having a guilty party and having a legal case. Sometimes you find the murderer but you just don’t have evidence that is going to stand up in court.
Whereas Senator McCarthy was going after Communist subversives, spies and saboteurs in the American military/defense industries and such (which, let’s face it, IS a very huge concern for the legislature to be investigating), HUAC’s pursuit of Hollywood writers is a bit more questionable just because membership in the American Communist Party was not illegal. However, HUAC wasn’t as concerned about prosecuting writers for Communist leanings; they wanted to track down their involvement to the source and find out what active Soviet manipulation of Hollywood was going on. (Again, something proven out belatedly…) The Hollywood Ten refused to cooperate and pled the Fifth. Afterwards, the studios cracked down on people with Communist ties, leading to a much more broad Blacklist.
What is wrong with that guy, Hutch? It’s just a story. To take one line and blow it to the degree that they’re questioning whether they should buy the next issue of a comic book is stupid.
My hope is people will take it for what it is: fiction, but instead they’ll probably get on petitiononline.com and seek to ban the First Amendment.
Well, David, lots of things are just one line. Every “your momma’s…” insult is just one line. Is there really nothing just one line long that could be so offensive to you that you wouldn’t want to buy the next issue of a comic?
Having Superman speak such a line is intended to be a provocative moment, so why be surprised when it has provoked someone?
Hutch,
You extensively commented on something you hadn’t read? That just doesn’t sound legit to me.
Seriously, reducing the whole history of HUAC to “[it] was concerned with actual, very real threats of communist subversion” strikes me as apologetic at best; those politicians were also in it for publicity and big spotlight, for power and influence. A seat in HUAC was once the most coveted assignment not for no reason.
About this biz of “I am ashamed …” well I would be ashamed of being American if I were living in the fifties when there were segregation and disfranchisement; if you were true American, you would fight to change it.
I must say, I had a different idea of what some of these events were actually like before i read some of the above comments, but the subject at hand now remains this;
some guy questioning Superman’s judgement on what it is to be an American, and whether he will continue reading the comic because of it.
When it was/is said that Superman fights for the “American Way”, I take that to mean he fights for the ideals, the absolute highest standards that America as a nation (ostensibly) holds itself to: those of freedom, equality, and justice for all who live under its banner.
I myself live in Australia, and I think this is an exceptionally admirable pursuit.
When people try to tell me what a horrible, war-mongering demon the USA is, I’d argue that just because those who happen to be in power (and maybe the majority whom appraisedly voted them into this position) may be called into suspicion of abusing said power; of twisting certain events and popular emotions to their own adgenda, this very fact makes *those people* the “un-Americans”.
(and i am not bringing any of this up as fact, only as what many people around me believe).
If one were to look at some of these things that are being contested today- regarding motives for going to war, so called “stolen” elections- for the purpose of this argument- as a kind of more current and vital analogue to what (many people believe) came out of the ‘McCarthy Era’- which I’m not really an authority on, then consider:
If the people in control of America’s destiny are not fit to run a democracy (again, just supposing), and thusly influence the majority of people who believe they should be able to trust in their leaders (and they should be able), then this majority becomes the status quo for the nation.
In this case, a character saying that on [this] day he’s “ashamed to be an American”, and in obvious reference to a similarly Orwellian situation- “cartoony” and simplified though it may be (it is a comic book)- can actually be seen as taking a stand for your country, and against what you percieve as the forces that seek to pervert its purity.
Superman fights for his “American Way”, something I think can be applicable to any nation, and should be aspired to at all times.
I think that such a statement is, rather than being disrespectful to “the troops”, something being spoken in their name; in the name of the people who believe passionately that they are fighting for the freedom of oppressed people everywhere.
I wasn’t trying to write a Modern History essay here, and I know it’s not so clear at times, but i thought I should speak in Superman’s defence, especially as a non-American.
Superman’s a good guy- the best- and he (ideally) only does and says what he thinks is the right thing for not only his country, but the world.