The Golden Age and the Super Hero

In the year 1929, a can of spinach helped to give a gruffly middle-aged sailor the strength that he needed in order to defeat his brutish arch enemy in a never-ending quest to win over the heart of his beloved love interest named Olive Oyl.

Not quite a superhero in the classic sense of the word, Popeye the Sailor created by Elzie Crisler Segar helped audiences to negotiate depression era economics with a laugh or a grin at his constant battle against muscle-bound Bruto.

Meanwhile, American audiences were being serenaded by radio show hosts who created narratives with characters that actually foreshadowed an emphasis upon the spectacular that was become the driving force of the comic book creations to come.

That same year Street and Smith publishers of Detective Story Magazine created The Shadow, a mysterious crime fighter who fought Bernie Maddoff type criminals on Wall Street, at a time when Wall Street had left a sour taste in most people's mouths.

Eventually, Street and Smith turned to radio in order to popularize the Shadow character, and at one time a 22 year old Orson Wells became the voice of the mysterious crime fighter with the menacing laugh. On radio, the show actually lasted for another 25 years. Walter B. Gibson was the author of more than 300 of the stories in this popular multi-media series.

However, The Shadow and then The Phantom who came to life in 1936 and was the first superhero to actually wear a costume, were the pre-cursors to the kind of characters who had abilities far beyond those of mortal human beings.

In 1934, two young men barely beyond high school age named Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster published the story of a bald-headed telepathic super-villain bent upon controlling the world in an obscure science fiction magazine. The character did poorly. Unable to sleep at night, Siegel revamped the character into an alien human figure that wore a dare-devil-circus-performer-like costume and had super-human strength. For four years they pitched Superman to various publishers. But, to no avail. Then in 1938, Vin Sullivan made Superman the cover feature for his Action Comic # 1 published by DC Comics.

Did Superman Signal The Start Of The Golden Age

Superman was an instant success and his debut is largely touted as signaling the beginning of the American comic book Golden Age. His superhuman strength, his ability to fly, his costume, his alien heritage and hidden identity became a part of the prototypical characteristics of most if not all subsequent superheroes to come. In time, Superman would be joined by a host of other heroes each with various super powers of their own. From 1938 to 1941, All-American and DC Comic published

The Wonder Woman series, Batman and Robin, The Flash, The Green Lantern, The Hawkman, Aquaman and Atom. Marvel Comics published Captain America, The Sub Mariner and The Human Torch.

Super Heros Brought Comics Into The Mainstream

The genre of the superhero brought comic books into the mainstream of popular culture. It was a time when the nation was sorely in need of a hero and sales of comic books soared until well after the end of World War Two. Comic book characters were duly employed in the propaganda of the war effort. It was not uncommon during the war for superhero characters to be featured fighting fascist Italian soldiers, single-handedly taking on Kamikaze pilots, or punching out none other than Hitler himself. The superhero did not completely define the Golden Age. Nonetheless, it provided comic books with the strength to continue to compete as a popular art form for yet another day.