More KKK ass kicking... Part 1

[iskander]

The story of Amazing man who retroactively was supposed to be DC's first black super-hero.

Comments

[darkblade]

Is it bad that I laughed at Superklansman's costume?

[iskander]

No, it really is that bad. Sort of a Klu Klux Knievel thing.

[psychopathicus_rex]

For the record, though, if a Klansman were to actually design a superhero outfit, it probably WOULD look something like that. They're not noted for their good taste in outfits.

[jarodrussell]

Das Ubermensch.

[khamelea]

He has winged shoulderpads almost under a cape.

It might be bad if you didn't laugh.

[bradhanon]

I was thinking you couldn't design a costume that says more clearly: "Please kick the living shit out of me."

[joasakura]

and for some reason I just read that as "sparkleklansman's costume"

pffft.

[darkblade]

Damn racist vampires.

[espanolbot]

I thought that he was Citizen Steel (?) for a second there.

[icon_uk]

I think you mean retroactively, rather than radioactively.

[iskander]

LOL.

[jarodrussell]

Second page, first panel...there's a laundry detergent joke in there somewhere.

Also, I hate to wonder this, but do you think the JSA would have gone down there if the KKK hadn't been burning their black guy? It seems like they're aware of Klan activity, but haven't done anything before Amazing-Man was assaulted.

Isn't that kind of a dick move?

[jarodrussell]

Oh, I see, it's not the JSA, it's the ASSquad. I guess when your on a team named ASS, dick moves are par for the course.

[iskander]

Well If i understand you point,I think the answer lies in the problems you have with stories written to take place in the 40's and the duality of the stories that were already in the times themselves. I doubt that anyone could have gotten a story about the JSA heading south to prevent lynchings/ fight the Klan, published back then. Retroactive history is always a problem. In the Young All-Stars they had a Japanese hero who's parents were interred. I also recall a hero called Thule who had amazing powers but chose to cover his face and entire body because he thought a black hero could not be accepted in the 1930's

[goldenbrowngod]

Never heard of Thule. What comic did he appear in?

You're right it's unlikely that a comic with a Black or Japanese hero would have been publish back in the 40's. Superhero going down south fighting the klan seems unlikely (thought I think there was a episode of the superman radio show where did so it may not be that unlikely)

But I don't think that's the problem with retroactively history. In fact that's the good side of it or at least this kind of retroactive change.

If you are doing new stories set in those time periods then I think one should have the freedom to deal with issues that happened at that time yet wouldn't have been touched if those stories actually came out at that time.

[lynxara]

Well, when the Klan aren't burning or injuring people, they're just hanging around wearing funny clothes and being racist. These are perfectly legal activities.

The impression I get from this entire comic (which I read like a bazillion years ago) is that the Squadron, like most people at the time who didn't live in the South, had no idea that the Klan existed or that they were unpleasant people.

[xammax]

I'm sorry but is Commander Steel going to save the man he has been cuckholding?

[iskander]

It is not long after this that Steel flips out and tries to kill his own son in the last pre CoIE JLA/JSA crossover.

[seriousfic]

Okay, hands up, everyone who read that as cockholding?

[icon_uk]

Presumably yes, for the sake of the woman HE loves, who, one would assumes, loves her husband MORE than she loves him.

[kamino_neko]

Am I the only one, BTW, who suspected the Real American would turn out to be Steel?

[arbre_rieur]

When I saw that cover while skimming through the entries, I'd initially assumed that was a mind-controlled Steel. It's the similarities in the costumes.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Y'know, it's admirable that these sorts of issues are addressed in comics and all that, but just ONCE I'd like to read about a black hero who DOESN'T end up fighting the Klan. I mean, yes, of course racial prejudice is still an issue in this country; in some parts of it, a MAJOR issue, but the 'black man goes up against the Klan' thing has been done enough that it's getting to be a bit of a cliche. It's losing its power. Furthermore, if done too early in the character's history, as it frequently is, it can seem like the character was specifically created for that one story, instead of for any positive traits inherent in the character himself (and for some reason, it IS always 'himself'. I've never seen a black woman fight the Klan, only men. I wonder why?).
Incidentally, I do not approve of Liberty Belle with a cape. It makes her costume that little bit too busy.

[halloweenjack]

I know that Roy Thomas generally meant well, but stories like this make me wonder sometimes if he literally wrote some of his stuff with a sledgehammer.

[lynxara]

Most comics you read about "serious" stuff published around this time were written the same way. It wasn't Roy Thomas so much as editors still assuming readers might be really young and unsubtle themselves.