Oz Squad #5 --Or why superbeings and World War II don't always mix--

[ozaline]

The American comic book industry, or at the very least the superhero genre, was pretty much shaped and forged through World War II. Youth who felt powerless and afraid by events in Europe could find escape and comforting fantasies in heroes who would sometimes go and beat up members of the German High Command. In DC The fridge logic of having heroes who could easily topple the Third Reich lead lead to a retcon where Hitler's possession of the Spear of Destiny stopped Meta Humans from entering into his territory. Without such a plot justification when you have characters who clearly could stop or kill Hitler, I really think you either need to commit to having them do so (much like how Professor Manhattan single-handedly won Vietnam*) and play your scenario out there or have some other explanation. Otherwise you wind up creating a scenario with some unfortunate implications.

*Note not trying to equate Vietnam to Nazi Europe in any sense... I simply mean the effect a god like being would have on their side in a war.




Way back in 2011 Icon UK posted some pages from the first issue of Oz squad, where the Ozites were still dealing with some of the aftermatch of the Nazi invasion of Oz, including the horribly named Death Camp Ozchwitz, which I'm assuming was used to persecute any non-fully human Ozite though only the Munchkins are named. there's a lot that's not explained over the course of the Oz Squad series, perhaps partially do to a change in publisher and some of the original ideas being dropped half way through; with this issue in fact. I have the annotated Oz Squad coming to me in the mail as we speak so I'm very curious to learn more. Suffice to say somehow Oz was obviously in contact with the outside world during the Second World War and Hitler had his eyes on the Emerald City in addition to Europe.







So... there we have it. In Baum's Oz books the Magic Belt doesn't have very many limits; in the Lost Princess of Oz it was established it could only grant one wish per a day but it could still preform other feats of magic in the mean time and it wasn't quite clear what counted as a wish and what was a normal magical feat. But it certainly was never shown to be limited by range, it was able to teleport people from the outside world to Oz for example, and didn't require their consent to do so (as Ozma teleported Dorothy's Aunt and Uncle to Oz without forewarning). The belt is so powerful that many Oz books need to neutralize it, along with the magic picture and book of records before they can properly put our heroes in peril.

So if Dorothy could erase Goebbels from existence, why didn't she do this Hitler earlier? The Oz Squad version of Dorothy is perfectly willing to kill, though this might have been her first kill since her largely accidental melting of the Witch of the West. I know this is a bit like asking why Superman or Green Lantern don't take-apart Al Qaeda (as Frank Miller had the Goddamn Batman think about in reference to GL), but that problem is simply death with by just giving such real life terrorist threats a wide berth for the most part.

Oz Squad is an interesting if very uneven series, but it very clearly shows the follies of dropping someone with enough power to single handedly topple the Third Reich into the middle of World War 2.

Also: Poor Toto!

Comments

[siliconshaman]

Would have thought the obvious solution would've been the same one as to why Superman didn't take out Soviet Russia during the cold war... the other side has their own super-powered people and doing so could trigger the super-powered equivalent of WW3.

[ozaline]

See that works as well, Spear of Destiny, opposing Supers... All well and good! But if there was any kind of magical arms race going on in Oz Squad I didn't see evidence of it while reading the comic. Maybe the annotations will explain, but they should not be needed.

[arbre_rieur]

OZ SQUAD seemed to treat the Oz books as only semi-canonical, a "the books were based on what *really* happened" situation (which is sort of what Baum himself pretended was the case, I guess, with all that "Royal HIstorian of Oz" business.) Dorothy meets up with Baum at one point in OZ SQUAD, which implies he's a real person in that universe. And there are discrepancies here and there, like the Tin Woodman's lover being named Amy Nimy instead of the novels' Nimee Aimee.

So maybe the Magic Belt isn't as omnipotent in the OZ SQUAD universe

[cainofdreaming]

They could have just had their own problems during that time. Zombie Munchkin apocalypse, or somesuch, that kept them busy.

[ozaline]

I took that to mean that Baum's history was pretty much spot on, since Baum was supposed to be in contact with Dorothy during the writing of the books, so he's a real person in his own universe, but yes there are discrepancies; Oz being another plane of existence being one of them.

But Baum only being mostly right is a conceit I use in my own *as of yet unpublished* writing, so I guess you have a point there.

[icon_uk]

Perhaps the belt can't kill someone who hasn't made their own way to Oz (as Goebbels presumably did). Plus there might have been a feeling that deposing Hitler might have paved the way for someone who shared his ideals but was better at listening to other people's advice and so might have focussed on Britain rather than the Russian front. etc...

[jaybee3]

I've never understood the need to put in so much darkness into Oz which seems to be the foremost trend in the last several decades. That's very far removed from what Oz intended (i.e. books for all ages but particularly kids). Dorothy has someone willing to destroy/kill is basically taking an extreme case (with the Wicked Witches) and making it a character trait (ala Fables). Ozma in the books was very much the pacifist. I don't mind so much if you want this to an "alternate" Oz (of which there are plenty, one of my favorite books, Paradox in Oz, with illustrations by Eric Shanower is all about this) but to have Dorothy and Ozma and the regular Baum-y Ozites involved pretty much takes away from the original point of the series.

To give another example Piers Anthony's Xanth books which used to be entertaining but just went downhill after it became pun after pun and everybody and their brother being able to walk from "Mundania" (aka the real world) into Xanth with no problems. Oz really should not be able to get into and I think Baum (unlike his successors who used this trope to death) showed that regular people who came to Oz - Dorothy, the Wizard, Betsey Bobbin, Trot, Shaggy Man - generally had something "special" about them that allowed them to adapt. Those who couldn't (like Dorothy's cousin, Zeb and his horse) basically left as fast as they could and never looked back.

[silverzeo]

Personally, I am almost kinda sick and tired of these dark twist contemporary take of stories like Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland. It's kinda over done... I mean, it's almost like 90s take of superheroes.

[ozaline]

Even Thompson, the second royal historian, had Dorothy dumping buckets of water on someone she thought was a Wicked Witch.

Oz Squad happened way before a lot of other Dark Oz adaptations and I kinda like it because most of the darkness comes from the outside world, and Oz being forced to deal with it. I don't mind more mature takes on Oz, there are some that are good if they have a point to them other than being dark.... I myself have several Oz novels and comics living in my head waiting to escape some deal with emotional issues you wouldn't find in Baum, some are a bit dark, and some are light and fun but all, I think, have a point.

But yes when Oz is dark just for the sake of being dark it bothers me very much.

P.S. One thing I do like in this book is Dorothy's reaction to Jack's present... If your a Dorothy/Ozma shipper (and in this they are definitely a couple) that kinda makes Jack Dorothy's step-son.

[ozaline]

It was new when this came out :D most of the books had just entered the public domain.

[silverzeo]

Yeah, but I've just seen modern contemporary take of the Nutcracker online (with the creepy cgi take of "NC" as well the rat-nazi men) as well as starting to watch TinMan on Netflix... I mean, wow! It got pretty old how they're making an Oz movie without trying to use anything that was called in the books.
Dorothy is called D.G.
Oz is called the O.Z. or Outter Zone
Tinman is their word for Sheriff even though they know the word sheriff...
The woman who is to be the villain has screen time to established to be the villain but does almost nothing we've seen Rita done in the first 5 minutes of Power Rangers. (making it rain in a pocket world to hurt someone and saying "The Bitch is off to see the wizard" doesn't work well when you don't know whats going on with her). I was actually surprise to hear them say "munchkin" in the episode... haven't really seen much outside the first episode though... but you get the point: Alot of pretentiousness and reworks that make it seem more like a fanfic of somework rather than alternate out looked like the Wicked series...

[ozaline]

Tin Man is not very good... Though actually using Tin Man as slang for Sheriff was probably it's one good idea, since Sheriff's stars were often made of tin. That conceit is shared by the Legend of Oz: The Wicked West comics, and those are actually pretty interesting (though I don't think they're amazing).

I'll spoil one thing for you: D.G. isn't Dorothy she's Dorothy's descendent, Tin Man is supposed to be a sequel.

Anyway like I said in reply to another comment I don't mind a darker take on Oz if there's some point to it, Tin Man really didn't seem to have the heart needed.