Superman Creates Comics as Business via Activism

How Superman's Conscience May Have Created the Comic Book Industry

Sep 22, 2009

From his first appearance, Superman was a social activist, and this may have been critical to the Man of Steel's ability to turn comics into a billion dollar industry.

The initial print run of Action Comics #1 was a mere 200,000 copies. Newsstand dealers were calling the publisher begging for more copies, yet, according to Les Daniels in DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes, DC kept the print runs low for fear of poor sales.

Despite evidence of the character's commercial success, Superman didn't grace the cover of Action Comics until issue seven. Even then, sales had risen to over 500,000. DC's own marketing surveys were clearly showing that Superman was the primary reason that sales were rising faster than a speeding bullet. Almost overnight, Superman, as Daniels puts it, "Superman turned comic books into big business."(22)

There were a number of reasons for the immediate and fantastic success of Superman. One reason was that the character tapped into the reader's need to escape from mundane reality and feel like a hero. Another reason was simply that as the first superhero, Superman created and filled a need. Another reason for the book’s popularity was that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster used the Superman comic as a platform to address the social issues of the day.

Action Comics #1

The thirteen page premiere story in issue #1 dealt with spouse abuse, a corrupt senator, and unjust imprisonment. All of these themes, in only 13 short pages. Throughout the 1940s, Superman would not only fight for the Allies in World War II stories set overseas, he would keep up the fight on the home front, urging readers to do their part for the war effort. Daniels explains that Siegel and Shuster continued to deal with social issues at home where Superman’s early tales would address such “real” issues as labor relations, lynch mobs, capital punishment, and even driving under the influence. Siegel gave Superman a social conscience and a progressive world view. Perhaps this was a result of Siegel being a child of the Depression.

According to Ron Goulart’s Over 50 Years of American Comic Books, Superman was quickly followed by imitators, such as Batman, Captain Marvel, and the Blue Beetle as National/DC and the other comic publishers knew a good trend when they saw it. These new superheroes also picked up the gauntlet dropped by Superman and became Social Activists, with Blue Beetle exhorting his readers to buy War Bonds and Wonder Woman reminding hers to recycle for the war movement.

The Superhero Derby

This new superhero derby also featured a number of heroes who were merely poorly conceived copies of Superman, such as Victor Fox’s short-lived Wonder Man, whom National/DC quickly killed off with litigation. This explosion of superheroes created what comic book aficionados call “The Golden Age of Comics.”

The explosion also marked the moment when the superhero genre became an accepted part of the popular fiction canon. The literature of masks and capes had become an integral part of the fabric of America. By the turn of the century, literally thousands of characters had been created and possibly millions of tales told, all from the simple mold created by Siegel and Shuster with Superman.

The Man of Steel Leaps Off the Page

Superman was too dynamic to remain a two-dimensional character. By 1940, a Superman balloon flew over the New York Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Supermen of America membership buttons rolled of the assembly line in 1939 and by 1940, the market was glutted with Superman-linked products ranging from puzzles and bubble gum trading cards to Daisy’s official Superman Krypto-Raygun. The Superman radio show also debuted in 1940, adding such catchphrases to the Superman canon as, “Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!”

In 1941, the Max Fleischer studios began production of feature-length Superman animated cartoons which were miniature cinematic masterpieces. All of these, plus the ongoing serial nature of the comic books, helped to create a type of synergy which allowed Superman to become America’s hero and, along the way, to become an icon for “truth, justice, and the American way.”

The copyright of the article Superman Creates Comics as Business via Activism in Classic Comics is owned by Keith Murphy. Permission to republish Superman Creates Comics as Business via Activism in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.