Deadpool and Wolverine

I've never cared for Deadpool, but I am enough of a Hugh Jackman fan to see Deadpool & Wolverine, which opened in movie theaters today. Both characters were members of the Secret Defenders at different times, although it would be a stretch to draw many comparisons to that team. Even so, I did like seeing the Human Torch as a supporting character in the film, given his appearances on the DEFENSE Lines letters page as well as the cover of Defenders #62. Of all the surprises in the film, my favorite may have been an "easter egg" referencing illustrator Rob Liefeld.

Lawful Good: Comics Code Authority

I started posting about Dungeons & Dragons alignments almost a decade ago, usually as a lens to discuss various characters or teams. Along the way, I have wondered how the Comics Code Authority would fit within the nine alignments. Introduced in 1954, the lengthy set of rules greatly limited the artwork and text within comic books—to the chagrin of many fans and creators. As contentious as the code may have been, the prohibitions against glorifying crime or depicting criminals in a positive light would most closely match the alignment of Lawful Good. The revised version of the code from 1971 loosened some of these restrictions, allowing more depth and mature themes. The end result was still Lawful Good but certainly a more nuanced version of that alignment.

I plan to continue posting about character alignments intermittently in the coming months.

Lawful Good	Neutral Good	Chaotic Good
Lawful Neutral	True Neutral	Chaotic Neutral
Lawful Evil	Neutral Evil	Chaotic Evil

Reservations about Wertham

I've written several posts over the years about Seduction of the Innocent, Fredric Wertham's scathing attack on the comic book industry. After rereading the book again, I've decided to address a few more of Wertham's arguments, which contributed to the Comics Code of 1954. Wertham held that comic books were anti-educational. Western comics, for example, did not accurately portray the American West. Additionally, placing dialogue in word balloons was just one of many practices that depleted comics of literary merit.

The merits of some of Wertham's claims were themselves suspect, however, such as his contention that superheroes promoted a Fascist ideology. In Chapter II, Wertham remarked that we should be thankful the S on Superman's chest was not an S.S. That comparison was blatantly ahistorical seeing how often comic books had portrayed Superman and other costumed heroes battling Nazis during the Second World War.

Wertham's credibility might be called into question elsewhere as well. In Chapter IV, he recalled a conversation with a boy who suffered from nightmares. The boy said he liked reading Blue Beetle comics, likening the title character to Superman but with the added power of turning into a beetle. Wertham said it was easy to understand why a child would be frightened after reading the adventures of a man who became an insect. The problem with Wertham's analysis, however, was that Blue Beetle did not transform into an insect—exposing Wertham's unfamiliarity with the material he was so prone to condemn.

Right or wrong, Wertham was convinced that comic books interfered with the psychological well-being of children and their ability to identify with positive role models. In Chapter IX, he asked, "Is that the best we can do for children, that we teach them the Green Lantern will help?" Interestingly, though self-reflection was uncommon for characters during the Golden Age of comics, Green Lantern would readily question his impact on society during the Bronze Age.

The original Green Lantern first appearance in All-American Comics #16 (July 1940).

Reversal

Defenders #89 established that the early Patsy Walker comics were actually fictionalized accounts of the heroine's teenage years before she became Hellcat. That metatext was previously referenced in Patsy and Hedy #78.

Tired of being portrayed in a negative light, Hedy Wolfe took a train to New York City to complain to the creative team responsible for Patsy and Hedy Magazine. Unless changes took place, Hedy said, her father would buy the publication and fire them. In response to that threat, the following issue depicted Hedy as kind and understanding while Patsy came across as petty and jealous. The plan backfired, however. Hedy's friends described the new story as an unbelievable satire and laughed at her expense. All the more infuriated, Hedy demanded that the magazine go back to portraying her as they originally had.

This illustration from Patsy and Hedy #78 (Oct. 1961) shows a comic book within the pages of the comic book.

What Worried Wertham?

For the fourth consecutive year, I decided to reread and blog about Seduction of the Innocent, Fredric Wertham's influential tome attacking the comic book industry. One argument that I previously overlooked was Wertham's belief that the abundance of illustrations within comic books stifled the imagination, as evidenced by children reproducing graphic images from comic books in their own drawings.

In Wertham's opinion as a psychiatrist, comic books lacked the constructive escapism often found in fairy tales. He cited reports of boys hurting themselves by leaping from high places while pretending to be superheroes. He added that even comic books extolling the dangers of drug addiction invariably taught children how to use heroin and other narcotics. Such hazards, according to Wertham, were compounded because comic books were themselves habit-forming. At the time of his writing in 1954, approximately 90 million comic books sold each month in the United States.

While conceding that other factors might also contribute to juvenile delinquency, Wertham cautioned adults against underestimating the negative impact of comics. The following excerpt from Seduction of the Innocent comes from the closing paragraph of Chapter II:

		Once in the waiting room of the Clinic I saw a little boy crouched over a comic book, oblivious to everything around him. In passing I could see the title of this story he was reading. Big capitals spelled out T A R Z A N. Surely, I thought, the adventures of Tarzan are harmless enough for juveniles of any age. But I was misled, as many parents no doubt are. … Tarzan was not the whole title of the story I had seen the boy in the waiting room reading. There was a subtitle "The Wyoming Killer" and two other headings, "From Police Files" and "A True Crime Story." The story was not about Tarzan, but about a hero who robbed a bank and shot five men to death.

Over the past century, several companies did publish comic books based on the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Marvel's monthly Tarzan series ran 1977-79.

Completing a Collection

A puzzle in Fun and Games Magazine #12 invited readers to search for comic books missing from a dealer's collection. I've read several of the comic books listed in the puzzle and happen to have two of them in my own collection: Defenders #39 and The Cat #4, the character's final appearance before becoming Tigra.

House of Ideas

Defenders: Beyond #5 (Jan. 2023) wrapped up the limited series by taking the heroes to the House of Ideas. Home to a godlike creative force, the surreal dimension included some nostalgic comic book imagery. In drawing attention to the comic book as a storytelling medium, writer Al Ewing and illustrator Javier Rodríguez emphasized the importance of agency and experience within their characters—ending the abstract adventure on an optimistic note.

The House of Ideas is, of course, a longstanding euphemism for Marvel Comics. The cover of Champions #6 (June 1976), for instance, noted that the magazine came from the House of Ideas! In that story, Angel, Iceman, Black Widow and Hercules defeated a costumed villain called Rampage.

The Defender: William Shatner

In New Defenders #128 (Feb. 1984), Beast lamented that his VHS tapes of the 79 episodes of Star Trek were ruined. I wonder if Beast was also a fan of The Defenders television series that ran 1961-1965 on CBS. Before William Shatner became Captain Kirk, the actor appeared five times on the courtroom drama. Far from being typecast, Shatner played a different role in each of those Defenders episodes:

"Killer Instinct" "The Invisible Badge" "The Cruel Hook" "The Uncivil War" "Whipping Boy"

Shatner previously starred as a young defense attorney in a television play titled The Defender, which aired in two parts on CBS in 1957.

The Second Cosmos

Defenders #4 (Vol. 6) announced that the final installment of that five-part series would list the Marvel heroes and villains who were the basis for the archetypal characters in the Fourth Cosmos. Instead, those answers appeared at the end of Defenders: Beyond #2, reinforcing how intersected the two limited series happened to be.

Often reading like a travelogue, Beyond #2 brought the latest group of Defenders to the Second Cosmos, described as a multiverse of possibility and infinite instability. In a fitting touch of continuity, the issue brought back the Omega Council and Concordance Engines, credited in Defenders #11 (Vol. 4) for the impressive number of improbable events that happen on Earth.

This page comes from Defenders: Beyond #2 (Oct. 2022).

Innocent Advertising

Rereading Seduction of the Innocent is becoming something of an annual tradition for me, as I've summarized portions of the 1954 book by Fredric Wertham twice before: first in 2020 and then in 2021. This time around I'm narrowing the topic to Wertham's concerns over advertising—specifically the prominence of bodybuilding ads in comics.

Noting how some boys might look aspirationally at the shirtless he-men pictured in the these ads, Wertham worried that the photos might instill feelings of insecurity in boys unable to achieve the desired results. Wertham raised a further objection, asserting that boys with homosexual tendencies might collect these photos and use them for sexual stimulation.

While many of Wertham's concerns would haunt the comic book industry for decades to come, bodybuilding ads remained a mainstay in comic books when I began reading them in the 1970s. Although I grew up to be gay, I can't say that I paid much attention to these ads during my formative years.

For more context about the far-reaching scope of Seduction of the Innocent, a list of the book's chapter titles appears below.

"Such Trivia As Comic Books" "You Always Have to Slug 'Em" The Road to the Child The Wrong Twist Retooling for Illiteracy Design for Delinquency I Want to Be a Sex Maniac!" "Bumps and Bulges" The Experts for the Defense The Upas Tree Murder in Dawson Creek The Devil's Allies Homicide at Home The Triumph of Dr. Payn

This particular full-page ad appeared in Defenders #27 & 28. Smaller versions of the ad appeared in other issues of the series.

Fun and Games

Fun and Games Magazine #4 (Dec. 1979) had a lot to offer Defenders fans. The opening page featured Nighthawk above a bird-word puzzle. Among the hidden words were other characters with bird names, including Falcon (of the Defenders for a Day) and Lady Lark (from the Squadron Supreme).

Red Guardian appeared a few pages later with a fill-in puzzle of words beginning with red, plus these similarly named characters: Red Ghost, Red Rajah, Red Raven, and Redwing (Falcon's pet bird).

Another activity used a grid to show readers how to draw Hellcat. A two-page wedding game asked readers to match the first names of various couples, including Buzz and Patsy (Hellcat's alter ego), Jack and Barbara (Norriss), and Glenn and Betty (Talbot).

The wedding image of Patsy Walker and Buzz Baxter shown on the cover of Fun and Games Magazine #4 originally appeared as a flashback in Avengers #144, as the couple had already divorced.

Revisiting Venus

Before Weird Wonder Tales began spotlighting Dr. Druid (#19-22), the cover of #16 (June 1976) promoted a soul-searing chiller starring a Venus, the Living Goddess! Originally published in Venus #19 (April 1952), that story pitted the heroine against a vampire—complete with the ability to turn into a bat and the inability to cast a reflection. Venus ultimately destroyed the creature by driving a stake through its heart. Two years after that original publication, references to vampirism became prohibited under the Comics Code of 1954. Only after the Comics Code Revision of 1971 could the story reappear in print for a new generation of readers.

Working backward, Weird Wonder Tales #17-18 reprinted tales from Venus #18-17 respectively. That earlier tale was particularly prescient in depicting an illustrator of a horror comic book whose monstrous drawings came to life. As if heeding the lesson from this fable, the Comics Code of 1954 would ban the word horror in the title of comic books.

Venus #19 was the final issue of the character's original series. Weird Wonder Tales #16 was the first of three consecutive issues to reprint the heroine's early adventures. In addition to promoting Venus, the cover of #16 compared one of the other reprinted stories in that issue to the popular 1974 novel Jaws!

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Archetypes

Defenders #4 (February 2022) continued the team's pursuit of time-traveling scientist Carlo Zota. The elusive quest brought the heroes to the Fourth Cosmos and then to the Third Cosmos (having skipped over the Fifth Cosmos of pure magic). Stunningly illustrated, the issue brought the Defenders in conflict with an assortment of archetypical beings. Betty Ross (a.k.a. Harpy) was quick to point out that the creature called One-Is-Four looked like the Hulk (but with four heads). An editorial note encouraged readers to try identifying which Marvel characters were the basis for all of Archetypes and then send their best guesses to mheroes@marvel.com!

Ken Nimura illustrated this variant cover. Javier Rodríguez illustrated the interior.

Weird Wonder Tales

While writing a recent blog post about the comic book series Weird Wonder Tales, I spotted something unexpected on the TV show Fame. The episode Teachers, which originally aired in Fall 1982, included a scene with high-school student Danny Amatullo (Carlo Imperato) intently reading issue #15 (April 1976). We can only wonder how many viewers identified the comic book at the time.

Weird Wonder Tales #15 reprinted science-fiction stories originally presented in Chamber of Darkness #4, Strange Tales #95, and Tales to Astonish #25.

Reversal

The first installment in a five-part limited series, the recently released Defenders #1 provided a new take on early concepts of the non-team. The story began with the Masked Raider making the acquaintance of Dr. Strange by threatening the sorcerer with a gun. As the two men sized up one another, Dr. Strange used his oft overlooked skill as a brown belt to defend himself before offering to hear the Masked Raider's concerns over tea.

Relying on a Tarot deck for guidance, Dr. Strange identified with the Magician card and saw the Masked Raider as the Hierophant card. Oddly, both cards appeared upside down, as did the next three cards that Dr. Strange harnessed to mystically summon a fresh combination of heroes to face a looming threat.

The card of Judgment summoned the Silver Surfer, a former herald to Galactus (who promises to play a role in the limited series).

The High Priestess card summoned Betty Banner (née Ross). Now known as the Red Harpy, this unique identity harks back to her previous transformation into Harpy. I much prefer this take on the heroine over her former alias as Red She-Hulk, which felt derivative on several levels.

The most apropos reveal was the Lovers card for Cloud, a cosmic being metaphysically merged with a young romantic couple.

For those keeping track, this relaunch of the Defenders is officially Volume 6 with regard to publication history. I hope that the limited series adds momentum for the Defenders to continue as an informal group of magical, monstrous, and misanthropic heroes.

Defenders. No. 1. October 2021. "Eighth Cosmos: The Magician." Al Ewing & Javier Rodríguez (storytellers), Álvaro López (letters), VC's Joe Caramagna (inks), Wil Moss & Sarah Brunstad (editors). The issue inclues a MARVEL REMEMBERS page honoring influential Defenders writer David Anthony Kraft (1952-2021).

Revisiting Wertham

I recently reread Seduction of the Innocent, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham's infamous book taking aim at the comic book industry. This time around, I paid particular attention to arguments I didn't cover in my initial post about the 1954 publication. As one example, Wertham criticized Millie the Model and similar comic books for setting unrealistic beauty ideals for girls.

Among his other concerns, Wertham asserted that the visual storytelling of comic books caused children to develop poor reading habits, such as picture reading: reading only the title and maybe the text on those pages with particularly violent or sexually intriguing illustrations. To Wertham, even comic books stating that "crime doesn't pay" were harmful as they showed children how to become criminals.

In writing Seduction of the Innocent, Wertham acknowledged that some psychiatrists regarded his claims as overzealous. Wertham countered that such colleagues made the mistake of seeing juvenile delinquents as fundamentally flawed while ignoring the pernicious influence of comic books. In another generalization, Wertham characterized comic book writers as dissatisfied with their own work.

For clarity, Wertham distinguished comic books from the newspaper comic strips, which he described as intended for adults and subject to tighter publishing standards. Here, Wertham employed a double standard, dismissing Flash Gordon and other comic books derived from newspaper strips as mere caricatures of the originals. In short, even comic books of the highest quality were inherently tainted by virtue of being comic books.

Millie the Model #55 (August 1954) appeared in print the same year as Seduction of the Innocent. Decades later, Millie guest-starred in Defenders #65.

Flash Gordon was one of several Golden Age adventurers reintroduced in the Defenders of the Earth limited series published in 1987 under the Star Comics imprint of Marvel Comics.

Contemplating the Titans

Conceptually, the Teen Titans and the Defenders have little in common. The founding members of the Teen Titans were sidekicks to adult DC heroes, while the founding members of the Defenders were highly powerful and individualistic Marvel heroes. After hearing the podcast Titan Up The Defense, which discusses classic issues of each team on alternating weeks, I decided to look for commonalities between the two super groups. Here are a few examples:

• Aqualad, a founding member of the Teen Titans, has Atlantean parallels to the Sub-Mariner, a founding member of the Defenders.
• Robin (Nightwing), the original leader of the Teen Titans, was the longtime sidekick to Batman; Marvel Comics patterned Nighthawk after Batman.
• Superhuman strength, weaponry, and a mythological background makes Wonder Girl analogous to Valkyrie.
• Daughter of the demonic Trigon, the mystical Raven corresponds to Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan.
• With green skin and the power of transformation, Changeling (Beast Boy) has superficial similarities to the Hulk.
• Three of the New Defenders began fighting crime as teenage members of the X-Men.

The Brave and the Bold #54 (July 1964) marked the beginning of the Teen Titans, when three sidekicks teamed up. The young heroes soon landed their own series, which ran 53 issues, and then found new popularity with the launch of The New Teen Titans #1 (Nov. 1980).

Powergirl Parallels

Of all the Rutland Halloween Parade tie-in comics during the Seventies, the most prophetic was Thor #207 (Jan. 1974). The story's splash page depicted a parade float carrying two men dressed as Superman and Batman (illustrating an awareness of DC characters within the world of Marvel Comics). As with some other Rutland stories, Thor #207 featured guest appearances of Marvel staff, including colorist Glenys Wein (née Glynis Oliver). One panel spotlighted Glenys wearing a Superman-inspired Halloween costume with the insignia G. Her husband at the time of the story, Len Wein, mentioned that she was dressed as Powergirl.

This scene becomes historically intriguing when considering that the DC character Power Girl would make her debut two years later in All-Star Comics #58 (Feb. 1976). Introduced as Superman's cousin on Earth 2, Power Girl wore a unique costume absent of any insignia. Gerry Conway, who scripted Thor #207, also wrote All-Star Comics #58, making it all the more noteworthy to see a Powergirl costume that visually resembled Superman before the creation of a Power Girl character with familial ties to the hero.

Glynis Wein (pictured below in Powergirl costume) was the colorist on Thor #207. The panel also shows Len Wein and Gerry Conway. John Buscema illustrated this issue.

Double Disguise

Avengers #119 (Jan. 1974) continued a comic book tradition of acknowledging the real-life Rutland Halloween Parade, where residents of the Vermont town celebrate in superhero attire. For several years in a row, Marvel Comics depicted parade organizer Tom Fagan dressed as Nighthawk, an ironic decision since Nighthawk was still a villain at the time.

Within the comic book, the devious Collector capitalized on this situation during Rutland's Fourteenth Annual Halloween Parade by wearing a Nighthawk costume to disguise himself as Tom Fagan. Anticipating that the Avengers would attend the festivities, as they had in the past, the Collector laid a trap to capture the heroes.

On a serendipitous note, the actual Nighthawk (Kyle Richmond) would soon reform from his criminal ways in Defenders #13 (May 1974) and redesign his costume as a hero.

Avengers. Vol. 1. No. 119. January 1974. "Night of the Collector." Steve Englehart (author), Bob Brown (artist), Don Heck (inker), Artie Simek (letterer), Glynis Wein (colorist), Roy Thomas (editor).

Seduction of the Innocent

Out of historical interest, I recently purchased a copy of Seduction of the Innocent by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham M.D. At approximately 400 pages, the 1954 book led to the development of the Comics Code that year and had a lasting influence on public opinion about comic books.

Amid his sweeping generalizations, Wertham's treatise issued numerous concerns against comic books. He warned that even children who appear to enjoy only animal comics like Donald Duck might secretly read crime comics (including Westerns and superheroes), which Wertham found particularly dangerous.

According to Wertham, the prevalent violence within crime comics directly contributed to juvenile delinquency and disturbed thinking. As an example, Wertham told of a nine-year-old boy who insisted his favorite comic book was called Human Torture rather than Human Torch.

In discussing superheroes, Wertham leveled most of his attacks against a handful of DC characters. Many comic book fans today are well aware of Wertham's homophobic inferences about Wonder Woman, and the partnership between Batman & Robin. Similarly, Wertham criticized the salaciousness of "love comics" as a genre.

As for Superboy/Superman, Wertham argued that the character's unrealistic powers misled children about the laws of science and overshadowed historical figures deserving of true admiration. To Wertham, Superman embodied the dangerous ideal of a super-race. Wertham found fault with other comics, particularly those with Jungle settings, for for their racist depictions of native peoples.

Discrediting the literary merit of comics, Wertham noted their frequent reliance on words like BLAM and KAPOW. Further, their vivid illustrations made comic-book depictions of horror far more pernicious to Wertham than the most unsettling fairy tales.

Wertham felt that comic book adaptions of classic literature, such as Robert Louis Stephenson's Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, corrupted the source material and failed to motivate children to seek out the original text. In contrast to comic books, Wertham saw educational promise in film and children's television, media that are also intrinsically visual.

Wertham's concern about the content of comic books extended to the advertisements within. He deplored ads for (largely ineffective) health products that capitalized on the insecurities of girls and boys. Wertham also condemned ads for B.B. guns and knives, regarding these weapons as inappropriate for children.

Human Torch #38 (Aug. 1954) was published the same year as Seduction of the Innocent. Human Torch was the only superhero from Timely (later Marvel) directly mentioned in the Wertham's 1954 book.

Marvel Classics Comics #1 (Jan. 1976) launched a new series that presented critically acclaimed literature in comic book form, following a tradition other publishers had carried out in the past.