Table Of Content

Titans of an industry: the back cover of Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man (1976); art by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano. Copyright © 2013 by Laurence Maslon and Michael Kantor All Marvel characters: ™ and ©2013 Marvel Entertainment, LLC and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Spawn courtesy of Todd McFarlane Productions and Affiliate Companies. The Shadow copyright and trademark are owned by Condé Nast. Used with Permission. All DC Comics characters and images are ™ and © DC Comics. All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Crown Archetype, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. www.crownpublishing.com Crown Archetype with colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request. eBook ISBN: 978-0-38534859-1 Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-385-34858-4 Book design by Roger Gorman Cover Art: Top row, left to right: Condé Nast, DC Comics, DC Comics Second row, left to right: Marvel, DC Comics, Marvel Third row, left to right: Marvel, DC Comics, Marvel Fourth row, left to right: Todd McFarlane, Marvel, Marvel. v3.1 To Miles, My boy wonder. —LM To Kat, Who has saved me. —MK An interior page illustration from the Doc Savage pulp, Resurrection Day (1936). CONTENTS Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Introduction PART ONE: TRUTH, JUSTICE, AND THE AMERICAN WAY (1938 – 1954) CHAPTER ONE Next Week: Into the Jaws of Death! Evolution of the Superhero CHAPTER TWO 64 Pages of Thrill-Packed Action! Explosion of an Industry CHAPTER THREE Okay, Axis, Here We Come! Comic Books at War PART TWO: GREAT POWER, GREAT RESPONSIBILITY (1955 – 1987) CHAPTER FOUR The Superhero Who Could Be—You! Superheroes Come to Earth CHAPTER FIVE Worlds Will Live, Worlds Will Die! The Expansion of a Universe PART THREE: A HERO CAN BE ANYONE (1988 – 2013) CHAPTER SIX Creatures of the Night Reign of the Dark Superhero CHAPTER SEVEN Heroes We Can Believe in Again Champions of the New Millennium Selected Bibliography Image and Film Credits Acknowledgments Index Holy triple threat, it’s the Candy Man! Sammy Davis, Jr., shares a laugh with Burt Ward (Robin) and Adam West (Batman) on the set of Batman (1967). INTRODUCTION WRITER’S WROSTRUM Hey there, apostles of adventure! Everyone has a favorite superhero, whether you first fell in love with Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker or Steve Ditko’s original version—no matter how you got there, it’s a good bet that your first encounter with a superhero made your heart soar a little higher, your life a little more colorful, your dreams a little bolder. It could be that you were still in your p.j.s one Saturday morning and glimpsed your first superhero on TV, or maybe he burst forth in full Dolby Surround sound in the darkened hush of a multiplex. Or it could be that you’re one of those young upstarts who are digging your superheroes on those new-fangled devices, zooming from panel to panel by swiping your fingers across a screen. But if you’ve picked up a copy of this book, the odds are good that you’ve also picked up a comic book at some point in your life. And you probably remember the first time a four-color superhero comic book caught your eye. Maybe it was on a spinning rack on the counter of your friendly neighborhood candy store; maybe it was lent to you by a pal in the bunk above yours at summer camp. Perhaps your mom bought it for you in the supermarket or perhaps you stumbled into a local comic book shop and gasped at the wide array of do-gooders and crimefighters spread out on shelves against the wall. Still—it’s hard to believe that superheroes have only been a part of the American culture for three-quarters of a century. This companion volume complements our three-hour PBS documentary series, Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle. Most of the