Heroism did not Create Heroes

Greece has Zeus and other gods from Olympus. India has the Trimurti. Egypt has Amun, Ra, Horus, Osiris, Isis, and Honubis. The United States of America has Superman, Captain America, Wonder Woman – a pantheon of aliens, superhumans, and gods. The comic book industry developed these mythical characters and brought them into existence in the mid-to-late 1930s. Despite the superheroes being man-made, children, soldiers, lesser educated adults, and even highly-educated adults fell in love with the characters as if they were deities from ancient mythologies themselves. Readers became devoted patrons, worshipping their paper gods with money and attention. The scrappy leaders of the comic book industry did more than just inspire devotion, however. They created icons that citizens aspired to imitate. Superman flew through the skies saving lives – he represented the highest order of what it meant to be an honest, just, and moral American citizen. By the time the United States entered into World War II, superheroes were well-known by all, and absolutely beloved by millions. Children and citizens and soldiers alike aspired to be as patriotic as their gods, doing whatever they could to be heroes. The circumstances of the war combined with the altered reality of comic books allowed citizens to become symbols of their country and part of the United States’ mythos – the culture surrounding fictional icons in the United States, which served, almost religiously, as a mythical guide for citizens. Despite heroism being promoted within the country, not everyone could be a hero even if they imitated their heroes perfectly. The promises of the mythos were in fact lies. The United States’ government used the mythos of the comic books as propaganda to garner support for the war, manufacturing an illusion that any citizen could be a hero, belying the reality of a racially and culturally divided nation.

From their conception in the late 1800s, comic books have mirrored the United States’ political and social realities. In the early 20th century, critics such as Sidney Fairfield, Annie Russell Marble, and Ralph Bergengren opposed comics because, in their opinions, the illustrations degraded the pure quality of words.¹ On the eve of the United States’ entry into World War II, in 1939, Clement Greenberg wrote “Avant-Garde and Kitsch,” labeling comic illustrations and caricatures as a commercialist and trashy – Kitsch – form of art.² Fredric Werthem, in the Seduction of the Innocent written in 1954, scolded comic books’ sexual and violent nature, and their negative effects on children.³ Throughout their history, many forms of illustration have been labeled as detrimental to society. However, the study of comic books has risen substantially over time, as Les Daniels explained in Comix: A History of Comic Books in America.⁴ Scholars such as Umberto Eco and Jill Lepore wrote positive and nuanced accounts of comic books’ impacts on society that furthered the cultural understanding of the medium. Comic books reflect both the progressive and regressive aspects of reality – liberty versus inequality; inclusion versus discrimination – becoming a significant marker of American culture. In “Superhero Comics” Matthew Smith explained how the nuanced nature of “superhero comics [served] an important function to tell us who we [were] as a people and what we [valued], particularly when faced with difficult situations such as the Great Depression or war.”⁵ Hence, not just the content of the comic books but also the surrounding societal factors need to be analyzed to further understand the canon behind the history of comic books and understand comic books’ impacts on society and society’s impacts on comic books. Comic books’ march toward becoming the significant markers of American culture began in the early 1930s, when citizens turned to comic books for entertainment to escape from the reality of the Great Depression.

Comic books and comic strips, even before containing superheroes in their pages, helped American citizens escape from the sufferings of reality following the Great Depression. The first American comic book, Parade on Funnies, released as a compilation of comic strips in 1933, distracted citizens from the terrors of the Great Depression through humor. Other comic books followed, offering further distractions through fantasy, horror, and mystery. As the 1930s progressed, comic book genres were expanded and fleshed out, offering idealistic views of society. In his book Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, Les Daniels explained how Superman was “the ultimate expression of human aspirations to power and pure freedom… [becoming] perhaps the most widely known figure ever created in American fiction.”⁶ In 1938, when Superman was published, the entirely new genre of superhero comic books gained traction by offering people a non-governmentally oriented view of reality that represented powerful and relatable human ideals. In his essay “The Myth of Superman,” Umberto Eco analyzed how prior to World War II “Superman [carried] on his activity on the level of the small community where he lives…” arguing that “he practically ignores… the ‘United States.’”⁷ Superman’s plots focused on domestic issues on the home front, assuaging citizens’ worries of domestic crime and unrest. The hero fought organized crime, completely ignoring foreign and domestic policy, instead fixing local civil issues, saving people, and acting as a hero for the people in his community. This sentiment of heroism spread, further developing the mythos of the United States.

Rather than solely offer an intangible escape like other comic books genres, superhero comic books instilled a strong sense of moral righteousness – of heroism. In “The Myth of Superman,” when Eco argued that “The device of iteration is one on which certain escape mechanisms are founded… it is precisely on this foreseen and awaited reappearance that our… pleasure is based,” he explained that iteration whether in shows or comic books leads to pleasure in the audience.⁸ In Superman, the same repetitive motifs of saving citizens instilled pleasure in the audience just like a repetitive detective story might. The stories offered citizens certainty in the reality of the comic books: citizens knew that the hero would always win and felt comfort in that. Superheroes were invincible, but as Eco explained, also “profoundly kind, moral, faithful to human and natural laws, and… [used their] powers only to the end of good.”⁹ Superheroes were gods that shared the same identities as humans – that were relatable instead of untouchable. Hence, when superheroes were heroic and behaved like the everyday man and woman, comic books introduced heroism as a societal value, which instilled hope in citizens after years of trauma from the Great Depression and World War I. In The Transformation of Youth Culture, Bradford W. Wright discussed how popular radio shows promoted phrases such as “It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!” that children still scream in streets out of excitement, reflecting the impact Superman had on the national mythos.¹⁰ As the war began in Europe, however, comic books began to discuss domestic and foreign policies, reflecting the shifting political stances on whether to join the war.

In the late 1930s, as President Roosevelt pushed for a more internationalist foreign policy agenda, comic books’ content reflected this shift toward the imperative policy. Roosevelt believed strong foreign policies were essential for national security. Hence, when in the late 1930s war loomed in the United States, Roosevelt began plotting internationalist policies to ensure his countries’ safety from potential economic misfortune and fascist threats.¹¹ Reflecting the government’s lack of consolidation, superhero comic books produced various stories that supported the war, more being published as Pearl Harbor approached. Comic book sales increased from ten million per month in 1940 to fifteen million per month in 1941 and comic book content became more internationalist with the creations of Captain America and Wonder Woman during the same years.¹² As the content of comic books became increasingly internationalist and rising in sales, the public’s higher interest in internationalist stories revealed that public sentiment began to lean in favor of Roosevelt’s policies. This correlation revealed that the more unified the country became, the more comic books promoting shared national sentiments sold, and the more the government eyed comic books’ power to directly promote political sentiments.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the government expanded media and propaganda through comic books to cultivate patriotism and maintain unity following the United States’ entrance into the war. Paul Hirsch wrote about how comic books were propaganda in the article ““This Is Our Enemy”: The Writers’ War Board and Representations of Race in Comic Books, 1942–1945.” He heavily discussed the political organizations propagating this messaging: the quasi-governmental Writer’s War Board established in April 1943 and the governmental Office of War Information established in June 1942.¹³ The Writer’s War Board “used comic books to shape popular perceptions of race and ethnicity, as well as build support for the American war effort”¹⁴ and the Office of War Information “oversaw much of the U.S. government’s effort to build public support for the war effort,” though to avoid scrutiny they “downplayed overt propaganda in favor of a ‘strategy of truth.’”¹⁵ Both aimed to instill fear of and anger toward foreign enemies, while embracing previously rejected minorities, to create a sense of belonging and unity. Despite not being part of these propaganda campaigns, the cover of the first Captain America comic book perfectly illustrates how propaganda might take effect. Captain America, essentially donned in the American flag, is seen punching Hitler and stopping Germany in its path.¹⁶ This symbolic messaging emphasized the necessity of the USA in joining the war, so that the most powerful country in the war could help their Allies defeat the enemy. The Captain America comic directly associated United States’ values such as patriotism with the heroism promoted in earlier, non-political superhero comic books, which reinforced citizens’ senses of justice as being aligned with their country. To further garner support, the government attempted to be more equal towards its citizens, passing orders such as Order 8802 that banned discriminatory hiring practices. But despite many societal progressions, there was still racist sentiment toward those who were not pre-determined to be American heroes by the color of their skin.

As subtext within comic books displayed, the country was racially and culturally divided. Despite the government attempting to pass progressive laws and make society more accepting, the overwhelming sentiment within the country was still prejudiced against those deemed as others. In “Outside the Panel–Race in America’s Popular Imagination: Comic Strips Before and After WWII,” Lenthall discussed propaganda and race in World War II. Propaganda was used to create values “the whole nation shared in, and was shaped by… the American Creed: ‘ideals of the essential dignity of the individual human being, of the fundamental equality of all men.’ During the war, propaganda hammered home those beliefs, suggesting that even casual, thoughtless remarks about a person’s race, ethnicity, or religion could splinter the war effort and therefore amount to sabotage.”¹⁷ Hirsch wrote about connecting ideas that “comic book narratives… promoted domestic racial harmony and international coopera-tion, in an effort both to bolster the war effort and to portray the United States as an inclusive society, in contrast to its fascist opponents.”¹⁸ On the surface, books attempted to rewrite the United States’ national identity as one that could include minorities, including previously rejected citizens in their pages. However, Lenthall explained that within comic books “almost invariably, blacks and Asians were depicted as loyal aides, sacrificing themselves for the whites they served; they knew their supposed place in the world.”¹⁹ In society, African Americans were hardly awarded for their heroism in the war or their help on the homefront, having to fight for their rights in campaigns, such as the Double V Campaign. In comic books, mirroring society, African Americans remained the sidekicks to white heroes, depicted with harmful racial stereotypes such as a lack of intelligence and a crass nature.²⁰ Being allied with China, the United States’ government repealed restricting laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943, but in comic books Chinese citizens were used for comedic effect – labeled as buffoons rather than capable people – which was reflective of how Chinese citizens were treated in America. An example of this misfortune is in one of Will Eisner’s comic books, Blackhawks, in which a character racistly named Chop-Chop constantly failed to live up to his white allies’ examples, falling short in what was portrayed as a comedic manner.²¹ Comic books facilitated the transition into a pro-war society by explicitly showing superheroes, symbols of American ideals, fighting in war, inspiring patriotism. However, not everyone living within the United States was allowed to be patriotic and follow these ideals – the aforementioned stereotypical nature of the comic book actually combatted against it. It was not just other races, but also religions and genders that were not given the chance to be heroes. In other words, various peoples were given an illusion of hope for a higher role in society, failing to be properly respected as people.

The aforementioned scrappy leaders of the comic book industry were Jewish, yet Jewish citizens Jewish creators could not openly depict their own or their characters’ Jewish identities, otherwise risk losing legitimacy, which reflected widespread discrimination against Jews in American society. A man known as Will Eisner was a renowned leader of the comic book industry who hid his Jewish identity from his readers. Within his comics Eisner supported the war effort, so that he could help save his Jewish brethren. In “Comic Books, Tragic Stories,” Jeremy Dauber explained Eisner’s sentiment, writing how “as the country approached the war, Eisner’s active militation against the Nazis grew greater.”²² Following trends with other Jewish comic book creators, however, Dauber noted that “Eisner seems to have taken care to efface any trace of his own Jewish origins from the character” Spirit, a non-superpowered criminologist who agreed with internationalist draft policies and propaganda such as Uncle Sam.²³ Because of the overwhelming anti-semitism within the United States, if comic book creators openly depicted their characters as Jewish, the characters may have been viewed not as American heroes who fought for glory, but as proponents of societal destruction and war. Various hate groups within the United States, discriminatory immigration policies, and adopted European, antisemetic beliefs added to this negative perception of Jews, which caused Jews to be regarded as lesser in society. Organizations such as the America First Committee created harmful stereotypes concerning Jewish control over the media. If it was known that the creators of Captain America and Superman were Jewish – that Eisner was Jewish – groups like the America First Committee would delegitimize Jewish authors simply because of their ethno-religion, which would have further delegitimized internationalist policy and hindered the authors’ goals. Comic book authors’ responses to discrimination reflected a general Jewish hiding of identity as “Comics and Conflict: Patriotism and Propaganda from WWII through Operation Iraqi Freedom” by Cord A. Scott demonstrated: “[Jews] often Anglicized their names rather than risk alienating anti-semetic readers.”²⁴ Anti-semitism attempted to be combatted during World War II, but Jews still found themselves hiding because the government failed to make them feel safe. African Americans, Chinese Americans, and Jewish Americans all continued to be prejudiced against, but the United States’ government still attempted to correct previous mistakes. However, concerning foreign enemies, the anger and hostility within the United States led citizens to be outwardly and bitterly racist, especially toward Japanese Americans.

Comic books portrayed both Japan as a country and Japanese Americans as inhuman threats to the United States, reflecting and fueling a rise in anti-Japanese sentiment amongst the public, while separating negative views toward Nazis in Germany from German Americans on the homefront. As Hirsch explained in “This Is Our Enemy,” “The WWB ultimately encouraged similarly paradoxical sentiments—hatred and brutality as the solutions to fascist aggression and bigotry—in comic books aimed at America’s enemy in the Pacific, but where the board feared that Americans did not sufficiently loathe Germans, it had little doubt that Americans held a deep hatred for Japanese,” which illustrated how much race played into hatred toward Japanese Americans in World War II.²⁵ Stemming from previous immigration laws and prejudice against Asians, the hate toward Japanese Americans overwhelmed the West Coast after Pearl Harbor. One-hundred and twenty thousand Japanese Americans were interned, and their homes and businesses were destroyed. Hirsch explained that in comic books, “Japanese people… often appeared as incompetent and subhuman. In these titles, they were portrayed as physically small creatures like monkeys or rats that could be easily exterminated by larger, stronger Americans.”²⁶ This explanation sheds light on how it was viewed to be Japanese in the country: Japanese weren’t just despised, they were regarded as subhuman. Also regarded as lesser (by many of their male counterparts) women faced challenges in World War II, struggling to find equality outside of non-permanent military jobs.

Despite the new liberties women had gained, in the comic books they were still portrayed as lesser than men, illustrated by the lack of presence of women in heroic or admirable roles, and the oversexualization of the women who did make it onto the page. Wonder Woman was the most popular comic book that progressed feminism, and its author Marston, a Harvard-educated psychiatrist, still faced “ridicule from much of the comic book industry” for publishing the comic in 1941, as Aiken explained in “Superhero History.”²⁷ In her book on Wonder Woman, Jill Lepore described Marston’s creation process of Wonder Woman: he wanted her to be a strong, independent, superpatriotic woman.²⁸ But Lepore also explained that Marston’s publisher Gaines thought “ideally, she’d also wear very little… To sell magazines.”²⁹ Women were not believed to have a place in superhero comic books within the comic book industry unless they were hypersexualized. Furthermore, at this time men were becoming soldiers, and women were left at home to work in ammunition and other military factories, and take on military responsibilities. Thus, in society it became widely acceptable for women to have jobs outside the home, as media campaigns such as Rosie the Riveter illustrated. But just because there was a progression of the overlapping of gender spheres did not mean that the perception of women progressed. Congruent to general societal norms, women mostly were depicted in support roles, like a girlfriend, secretary or a damsel in distress. In Superman, for example, Lois Lane had to be continuously saved by Superman, both of them being each other’s forbidden love interests, as Bradford W. White explained in Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.³⁰ While the wartime gave women roles in which they had more independence, the majority of the time, women were presented in clingy uniforms and as domestic supporters of men, because that was how comic book publishers thought the comic books would sell and what the time period perceived as best for women. Similar to the lack of strong female presences in comic books, there was a nearly complete lack of LGBTQ+ in comic book pages.

Comic books also reflected the nature of being LGBTQ+ in the US during World War II: gay citizens hid their identity from mainstream society and were isolated within society. In “LGBTQ Representation in Comics,” Mance explained that “when early comics by mainstream U.S. publishers such as DC and Marvel first addressed queer sexualities and genders, they did so as subtext.”³¹ Essentially, there was a lack of queer voices in comic books, which reflected gay experience in World War II, such as in the military. As Allan Berube explained in “Coming Out Under Fire: the history of gay men and women in World War Two,” LGBTQ citizens hid their identities to be patriotic.³² Frank Kameny, a gay soldier in World War II, hid his sexuality during wartime. Still, he fought for his countries’ values, trying to achieve the heroism the government promoted. Despite being a war veteran, Kameny was fired from a job in 1957 just for being gay – his identity made it so that even though he was heroic, he was not seen as a hero. The nature of superheroes was that superheroes hid their personal identities to save their country, found in comics such as Superman and Batman. Gay citizens did the same thing, hiding who they were to help their country, even though they would never be recognized as heroes if they were “out.” Berube further explained how gay people “were likely to lead isolated lives, not knowing anyone else like themselves, with no one to talk to about their feelings and often unsure of who or what they were.”³³ Comic books, lacking representation, reflected a lack of representation throughout society during World War II, which caused gay citizens to become isolated and dejected. This experience was universal for all but straight, white, religiously-acceptable men.

In World War II, only white, straight, religiously-acceptable men were allowed to be appreciated as heroes. Blacks, Chinese, Jews, Japanese, women, gays were all dejected. Kameny was an extreme example of how many citizens within the United States did not respect minorities as heroes, even if they were heroic. For those minorities who could not hide their skin color or gender, they didn’t even have many chances to participate fairly. The United States’ mythos was a mythos of white glory, making it so that heroism did not make one a hero, but instead the color of their skin or their religion or their sexual preferences or their gender. And so the mythos was biased in favor of these white, straight, religiously-acceptable men, meaning the values the mythos promoted were false promises, as not everyone could be a hero.

Currently, in 2026, superheroes are still widely renowned in society, but there is a rejection of the mythos created in World War II reflected by widespread anger at the government. In the early 2000s, literature began to critique superheroes in comic books such as Invincible and The Boys. Invincible and The Boys became widely popular, becoming hit television shows in the 2020s. These comic books and shows used characters like Omni Man and Homelander to critique fascism, colonialism, and the white, straight, religiously-acceptable men who did not stop abusing their power. In The Boys television show, Homelander by the fifth and final season ends up believing he is a god, because he is the strongest superhero alive. He created the “Democratic Church of America,” because he desired people’s worship. Unlike Jesus, however, Homelander’s power wasn’t morality and humility, but self-preservation and media presence, which he used to control the country and kill anyone who didn’t love him. Government officials, corporate moguls, and people in authority have more rights and powers than the average citizen because of their money, which leads figures like Donald Trump and Elon Musk to narcissistically believe they are above others, just like Homelander. But no matter how powerful and influential these people are, a significant margin of the public disagrees with their actions and the almost authoritative government. Yet, despite knowing the injustices, we are not doing anything to stop these tyrants. If dejected citizens find the strength to rise up against authority and the people authority deems powerful, the self-created mythos of the American elite would be shattered.

The mythos created in World War II overwhelmingly favored white, straight, religiously-acceptable men. Today, the mythos still largely rewards those people. People with different skin tones, pronouns and sexualities, no matter their heroism, were hardly recognized as heroes. Ultimately, our country needs to honor our true heroes: citizens who aspire to be Democratic, virtuous, and moral, and who treat all beings with dignity, regardless of their race and culture. If we do so, maybe we can create a new mythos of living heroes. And when children and adults aspire to be like the heroes in this mythos, none of them will be rejected.